76
A link the more in the gold unending chain
From Hermes Trismegist thro' Orpheus down
To us late guardians of the mysteries.
(Isias passes up towards the Temple.)
But here is Isias just from Thebes returned.
What learned you of the priests Egyptian,
What wisdom found you in the desert sands,
Under that clear Ætherial canopy
Where most one seems to commune with the Gods?
Isias:
I gazed upon the unregarding Sphynx
Who heeds not Time's insidious injuries,
Or slow-corroding outrage of the years,
But gazes, blind, across the desert sand
The drifted dust her world that overwhelm'd
As long as Nilus lapse to meet the sea
Still subtly smiling thro' her stony sleep!
I sought, I found, I worshipp'd Destiny.
