SCENE 2.5: 
THE CAR PAUSES WITHIN A CLOUD ON THE TOP OF A SNOWY MOUNTAIN. 
ASIA, PANTHEA, AND THE SPIRIT OF THE HOUR.

SPIRIT: 
On the brink of the night and the morning
My coursers are wont to respire;
But the Earth has just whispered a warning
That their flight must be swifter than fire: 
They shall drink the hot speed of desire! 5

ASIA: 
Thou breathest on their nostrils, but my breath
Would give them swifter speed.

SPIRIT: 
Alas! it could not.

PANTHEA: 
Oh Spirit! pause, and tell whence is the light
Which fills this cloud? the sun is yet unrisen.

NOTE: 
9 this B; the 1820.

SPIRIT: 
The sun will rise not until noon.  Apollo 10
Is held in heaven by wonder; and the light
Which fills this vapour, as the aereal hue
Of fountain-gazing roses fills the water,
Flows from thy mighty sister.

PANTHEA: 
Yes, I feel—­

ASIA: 
What is it with thee, sister?  Thou art pale. 15

PANTHEA: 
How thou art changed!  I dare not look on thee;
I feel but see thee not.  I scarce endure
The radiance of thy beauty.  Some good change
Is working in the elements, which suffer
Thy presence thus unveiled.  The Nereids tell 20
That on the day when the clear hyaline
Was cloven at thine uprise, and thou didst stand
Within a veined shell, which floated on
Over the calm floor of the crystal sea,
Among the Aegean isles, and by the shores 25
Which bear thy name; love, like the atmosphere
Of the sun’s fire filling the living world,
Burst from thee, and illumined earth and heaven
And the deep ocean and the sunless caves
And all that dwells within them; till grief cast 30
Eclipse upon the soul from which it came: 
Such art thou now; nor is it I alone,
Thy sister, thy companion, thine own chosen one,
But the whole world which seeks thy sympathy. 
Hearest thou not sounds i’ the air which speak the love 35
Of all articulate beings?  Feelest thou not
The inanimate winds enamoured of thee?  List!

NOTE: 
22 thine B; thy 1820.

[MUSIC.]

ASIA: 
Thy words are sweeter than aught else but his
Whose echoes they are; yet all love is sweet,
Given or returned.  Common as light is love, 40
And its familiar voice wearies not ever. 
Like the wide heaven, the all-sustaining air,
It makes the reptile equal to the God: 
They who inspire it most are fortunate,
As I am now; but those who feel it most 45
Are happier still, after long sufferings,
As I shall soon become.

PANTHEA: 
List!  Spirits speak.