Spheroid

“ Cease now, my Muse, now cease thy sorrows' source,
O joyful verse!
"Why wail we then? why weary we the gods with plaints,
As if some evil were to her betight?
She reigns a goddess now among the saints,
That whilome was the saint of shepheards light,
And is installed now in heavens' height,
I see thee, blessed soul! I see
Walk in Elysian fields so free.
O happy herse!
Might I once come to thee, (O that I might!)
O joyful verse!
"Unwise and wretched men, to weet what's good or ill,
We deem of death as doom of ill desert ”

“ All the sins, infirmities, temptations, and troubles, of God’s dear people—these are the dust he feeds on. And as it is with the father Serpent, it is with his seed; his offspring a generation of Vipers and Serpents, they have their portion of dust to eat, and they can feed on nothing else—and this every believer has seen to his grief. What in one scripture is called the seed of the Serpent, is in another called the children of the wicked one. First, Because as sinners, they are his offspring. ”

“ Colin Clout, I ween, be his self boy,
(Ah, for Colin! he whilome my joy:)
Shepheards such, God might us many send,
That doen so carefully their flocks tend.
DIG. Thilk same shepheard might I well mark,
He has a dog to bite or to bark;
Never had shepheard so keen a cur,
That waketh and if but a leaf stur.
Whilome there wonned a wicked wolf,
That with many a lamb had gutted his gulf,
And ever at night wont to repair
Unto the flock, when the welkin shone fair,
Yclad in clothing of silly sheep,
When the good old man used to sleep ”

“ Als Colin Clout she would not once disdain;
O careful verse!
"But now such happy cheer is turn'd to heavy chance,
Such pleasance now displac'd by dolor's dint;
All music sleeps, where Death doth lead the dance,
And shepheards' wonted solace is extinct.
The blue in black, the green in gray, is tinct;
The gaudy garlands deck her grave,
The faded flowers her corse embrave.
O heavy herse!
Mourn now, my Muse, now mourn with tears besprint ”

“ So he cursed the Dawn and gave her over to Suyettar’s third offspring, the Three-Headed Serpent.”
“Tell me, granny,” Log said, “where do the three Serpents keep prisoner the Sun and the Moon and the Dawn?”
“Listen, my son, and I will tell you: When they go far out in the Ocean they carry with them the Sun and the Moon and the Dawn. The Three-Headed Serpent stays out there one day and then returns at night. The Six-Headed Serpent stays two days and then returns, and the mighty Nine-Headed Monster does not return until the third night. As each returns a faint glow spreads over the land. ”

“ ARGUMENT. In this first Æglogue Colin Clout, a shepheard’s boy, complaineth himself of his unfortunate love, being but newly (as seemeth) enamoured of a country lass called Rosalind: with which strong affection being very sore travailed, he compareth his careful case to the sad season of the year, to the frosty ground, to the frozen trees, and to his own winter-beaten flock. And lastly, finding himself robbed of all former pleasance and delight, he breaketh his pipe in pieces, and casteth himself to the ground. ”

“ Shepheards they weren of the best,
And lived in lowly leas;
And, sith they souls be now at rest,
Why do we them disease?
Such one he was (as I have heard
Old Algrind often sayn)
That whilome was the first shepheard,
And lived with little gain:
And meek he was, as meek might be,
Simple as simple sheep;
Humble, and like in each degree
The flock which he did keep. ”

“ Colin them gives to Rosalind again.
“I love thilk lass, (alas! why do I love?)
And am forlorn, (alas! why am I lorn?)
She deigns not my good will, but doth reprove,
And of my rural music holdeth scorn.
Shepheard’s device she hateth as the snake,
And laughs the songs that Colin Clout doth make.
“Wherefore, my pipe, albe rude Pan thou please,
Yet for thou pleasest not where most I would;
And thou, unlucky Muse, that wont’st to ease
My musing mind, yet canst not when thou should;
Both Pipe and Muse shall sore the while abye.”
So broke his oaten pipe, and down did lie. ”

“ Feeding the blessed flock of Dan,
Which did himself beget?
THOM. O blessed Sheep! O Shepheard great!
That bought his flock so dear,
And them did save with bloody sweat
From wolves that would them tear.
MOR. Beside, as holy Fathers sayn,
There is a holy place
Where Titan riseth from the main
To run his daily race,
Upon whose top the stars be stay'd,
And all the sky doth lean;
There is the cave where Phœbe laid
The shepheard long to dream.
Whilome there used shepheards all
To feed their flocks at will,
Till by his folly one did fall,
That all the rest did spill. ”

“ So the Serpent dropped the prey from her mouth unenjoyed.
Fable XXV.
THE CROW AND THE SHEEP. Many are in the habit of injuring the weak and cringing to the powerful.
An pestilent Crow had taken her seat upon a Sheep; which after carrying her a long time on her back and much against 450 her inclination, remarked: “If you had done thus to a Dog with his sharp teeth, you would have suffered for it.” To this the rascally Crow replied: “I despise the defenceless, and I yield to the powerful; I know whom to vex, and whom to flatter craftily; by these means I put off my old age for years.” ”

“ Then to a hill his fainting flock he led,
And thus him plain'd, the while his sheep there fed:
"Ye gods of love! that pity lovers' pain,
(If any gods the pain of lovers pity,)
Look from above, where you in joys remain,
And bow your ears unto my doleful ditty.
And, Pan! thou shepheards' god, that once didst love,
Pity the pains that thou thyself didst prove.
"Thou barren ground, whom winter's wrath hath wasted,
Art made a mirror to behold my plight:
Whilome thy fresh spring flower'd, and after hasted
Thy summer proud, with daffodillies dight ”

“ Chrysippus in the second book of his Physics declares it to be in substance identical with vital breath or spirit. This, he thinks, can be seen from the seeds cast into the earth, which, if kept till they are old, do not germinate, plainly because their fertility has evaporated. Sphaerus and his followers also maintain that semen derives its origin from the whole of the body; at all events every part of the body can be reproduced from it. That of the female is according to them sterile, being, as Sphaerus says, without tension, scanty, and watery. ”

“ Their beauty had been Seraphael's only inspiration when, in conversation with me, he had fully seemed himself: the one so light and clear, with eyes as the blue of midnight,—his brow, her eyes; the other soft and roseate, with her angel forehead and his own star-like gaze,—her smile upon them both, and the features both of him. As one who reads of the slaughtered darlings in the days of Herod, as one who pores on chronicles of the cradle plague-smitten, I felt for them ”

“ A Shepherd may be as Easy in a Cottage, as a Prince in a Palace, with a Mind Suited to his Station, but if they will be Launching out into Trade, or Bus'ness that they do not understand, they have nothing left them to trust to when they are once Bewilder'd, but the Hope of some Kind Providence to put them in the Right Way Home again. ”

“ The Serpent has slimed her so to secure him! With slow weary steps he draws her into light: she clings to him; she is human; part of his work, and he loves it. As they mount upward, he looks on her more, while she, it may be, looks above. ”

“ Looks like his Master, lean, and full of scurf,
Not caring for the Pipe or Whistle: this man may
(If he be well wrought) do a deed of wonder,
Forcing me passage to my long desires:
And here he comes, as fitly to my purpose,
As my quick thoughts could wish for.
Enter Shepherd.
Shep. Fresh Beauty, let me not be thought uncivil,
Thus to be Partner of your loneness: 'twas
My Love (that ever working passion) drew
Me to this place to seek some remedy
For my sick Soul: be not unkind and fair,
For such the mighty Cupid in his doom
Hath sworn to be aveng'd on ”

“ How many men have called you Sphinx in your exotic career?”
“All, except one or two. It’s very popular. So is Serpent of the Nile and Cleopatra and little Princess of Egypt. When I am moved to cry ‘Yah, chestnut!’ to these endearments, they offer to strangle me in my own hair.” ”

“ Warriors and braves, give unto me the brand, that the Charming Serpent may light the steps of the boy to the hiding-place of the pale-face. He shall listen to the eloquence of the Charming Serpent when he takes the white man by the hand—he shall learn how to move alike the heart of the pale-face and the red man. ”

“ The Serpent with its tail in its mouth, from a type of Eternity, is become an infant's bauble; even the nobler idea of Hercules pausing between virtue and vice, and the varied imagery of Death leading his patients to the Grave, owe their effect upon us more to technic excellence than allegoric utility. ”

“ The fourth and fifth Sephiroth, i.e., Mercy (‏חסד‎) and Justice (‏פחד‎) , are the two arms of the Lord, the former the right arm and the latter the left, one distributing life and the other death. And the sixth Sephira, Beauty (‏תפארת‎) , which unites these two opposites and produces the second triad, is the chest; whilst the seventh and eighth Sephiroth,—i.e., Firmness (‏נצח‎) and Splendour (‏הוד‎) , of the third triad,—are the two legs; and Foundation (‏יסוד‎) , the ninth Sephira, represents the genital organs, since it denotes the basis and source of all things. ”

“ A CROW, in great want of food, saw a Serpent asleep in a sunny nook, and flying down, greedily seized him. The Serpent turning about, bit the Crow with a mortal wound; the Crow in the agony of death exclaimed: "O unhappy me! who have found in that which I deemed a happy windfall the source of my destruction."
⁠There are many men who will, like the Serpent, endanger their lives, for the sake of finding treasure. ”

“ What shoulden shepheards other things tend,
Than, sith their God his good does them send,
Reapen the fruit thereof, that is pleasure,
The while they here liven at ease and leisure?
For, when they be dead, their good is ygoe,
They sleepen in rest, well as other moe:
Then with them wends what they spent in cost,
But what they left behind them is lost.
Good is no good, but if it be spend;
God giveth good for none other end.
PIERS. Ah! Palinode, thou art a world's child:
Who touches pitch, must needs be defil'd;
But shepheards (as Algrind 7 used to say)
Must not live alike as men of the lay. ”

“ Whilome all these were low and lief,
And loved their flocks to feed;
They never stroven to be chief,
And simple was their weed:
But now (thanked be God therefore!)
The world is well amend,
Their weeds be not so nighly wore;
Such simplesse might them shend!
They be yclad in purple and pall,
So hath their God them blist;
They reign and rulen over all,
And lord it as they list;
Ygirt with belts of glittering gold,
(Might they good shepheards been!) ”

“ Serpents they were, like to their dam, small indeed, but full of venom, and they swarmed over him, twining themselves about his arms and legs, so that he could not strike a blow nor even move. So, in some still eventide, a shepherd, sitting to watch his flock, is suddenly assailed by a cloud of gnats; feeble creatures they are, and slight their sting, but they suffer him not to rest. The Red-Cross Knight was in a strait more dire, for these evil creatures had power to do him a more grievous harm. But he thought to himself, “Shall I be vanquished in this fashion?” ”

“ Flinging down the sheep’s pelt and setting his foot upon it, he breaks his distaff in pieces and, threatening Omphale, drives the Nymphs off the scene, left. [During this excitement, Servus—who has been standing aside—seizes the heap of wool, and exit with it in flight.] Turning then to the image of the Sphinx, Hercules expresses in dumb-show how, lured by the riddle of the Sphinx, he aspires to fight and conquer the world for her sake. Laying his club and lion’s skin devoutly at the foot of the column, he kneels, embraces it, and raises then his arms in supplication to the Sphinx. ”

“ Mr. Deane, who lived before the days of Comparative [Pg 201] Mythology, read into the old fables a meaning which they are hardly capable of bearing. It is clear enough that Serpent-worship had an astronomical origin; but we may agree with him that it was as ancient and universal as the worship of the Sun, with which, indeed, it was closely connected.
We shall now borrow a few illustrations of the character, extent, and significance of Serpent-worship from Mr. Fergusson’s elaborate work, [49] in which he deals particularly with the Topes at Sanchi and Amravati. ”

“ The motive is archaic. There is a legend in Frobenius of how the great 437serpent (appearing from the little serpent in the hollow tree, through the so-called stretching out of the serpent) has finally devoured all men (devouring mother—death) , and only a pregnant woman remains alive; she digs a ditch, covers it with a stone (grave—mother’s womb) , and, living there, she gives birth to twins, the subsequent dragon-killers (the hero in double form, man and phallus, man and woman, man with his libido, the dying and rising sun) . ”

“ And joys enjoys that mortal men do miss.
The honour now of highest gods she is,
That whilome was poor shepheards' pride,
While here on earth she did abide.
O happy herse!
Cease now, my song, my woe now wasted is;
O joyful verse!"
THE. Ay, frank shepheard, how be thy verses meint
With doleful pleasance, so as I ne wot
Whether rejoice or weep for great constraint!
Thine be the cosset, well hast thou it got.
Up, Colin, up, enough thou mourned hast;
Now 'gins to mizzle, his we homeward fast.
COLIN'S EMBLEME.
La mort ny mord.
(Death has lost its sting.) ”