began to write a poem, in which is depicted the incongruous relation in which Prometheus stood to the new gods, inasmuch as he had formed men with his own hand, had animated them, with the aid of Minerva, and had founded a third dynasty. In this strange composition appears, as Monologue, that poem which is become important in German poetry, as having furnished the occasion which led Lessing to declare his opposition to Jacobi on some weighty points of thought and feeling. But though, as it thus appeared, this poem may be made the subject of moral and religious discussion, yet does it properly belong to the province of poetry alone. . Milton's 'Satan' has always the advantage of a subaltern position, inasmuch as his whole efforts are directed towards the destruction of the magnificent creature of a higher being. Prometheus, on the contrary, stands on a vantage-ground, from having the power to create and to model, in defiance of higher beings. It is a beautiful thought, too, and most consonant with poetry, to trace the creation of man, not to the highest rulers of the world, but to an intermediate being, who, however, as descendant of the elder dynasty, is majestic and important enough for such a work. And, indeed, the Greek mythology affords exhaustless riches of divine and human symbols. The Titanic, gigantic, heaven-storming character, however, afforded no material for my vein of poetry. Rather did it suit me to depict that peaceful, plastic, and ever-patient resistance, which owns a superior power, but seeks to equal it."T. M.]

Once and for all, I will not! Their will 'gainst mine!
One against one, methinks, is equal match.

(Turning to his statues, which are distributed up and down throughout the grove.)

Away, I serve not vassals!

A moment squander'd, ne'er to be retrieved!
Torn, and by fools, from your society,

My children!

Whate'er it be that stirs within your breast,

[Turning to the figure of a

girl.]

That breast should bound and leap to meet with mine!

The eye speaks even now!

Oh, speak, dear lips-be voluble to me!

Oh, to inspire you with the conscious sense

[Enter EPIMETHEUS.

And to my soul thou art

MINERVA.

PROMETHEUS.

What he is to himself. Yea, from the first,
Thy words have been celestial light to me!
Still while thou fed'st mine ear with thy discourse,
'Twas as my soul held commune with herself,
As though she found a tongue, and harmonies,
Awaking to the magic of thy voice,

Rang forth response in golden cadences;
Yea, 'twas as though a deity discoursed,

The while I dream'd 'twas only I that spake—
And, dreamed I 'twas a deity that spake,

Lo, 'twas myself discoursed! And thus with thee
And me, so one, so blended soul with soul,

My love for thee burns everlastingly!

MINERVA.

And I am everlastingly with thee.

PROMETHEUS.

As doth the mellow roseate shine
Of the departed sun

Stream up behind yon dusky Caucasus,
Steeping my spirit in delightful calm,

Absent, yet with me everlastingly;

[Exit EPIMETHEUS.

So have my powers gain'd strength with ev'ry breath
That I inhaled of thy celestial air.

And they presume,

These haughty dwellers on Olympus, they,

To school and lord it o'er my powers at will?

No; they are mine, and mine shall be their use.
Not one step will I move, this way or that,
No, though the chief of all the gods command!

[Enter MINERVA.

Hath not my finger stamp'd and moulded them?
And the strong heart within this bosom swells,

To grapple with the dangers that besiege
The children of my hand on every side.
And thou, Pandora,

Sacred receptacle of every gift

That is to be desired

Beneath the spacious heaven,

Upon the boundless earth,

All that of throbbing joy e'er gladden'd me,

Or in cool umbrage e'er

With freshness laved my soul.

Type of all soft and delicate desires,

[Stops before the statue of a

woman.]

Which love for the bright sun, spring's rapturous flush,

The low, soft music of the murmuring sea,

Have fed, and fann'd, and foster'd in my breast,

Reflex of all that ever I have known

Of pure celestial radiance, and the calm

Delighted trances of a soul at peace-
The all-all-my Pandora!