by a veil the king alone might lift.
Cephroniel's son, with half-averted face
And faltering hand, that curtain drew, and showed,
Of solid diamond formed, a lucid vase;
And warm within the pure elixir glowed;
Bright red, like flame and blood, (could they so meet,)
Ascending, sparkling, dancing, whirling, ever
In quick perpetual movement; and of heat
So high, the rock was warm beneath their feet,
(Yet heat in its intenseness hurtful never,)
Even to the entrance of the long arcade
Which led to that deep shrine, in the rock's breast
As far as if the half-angel were afraid
To know the secret he himself possessed.
Tahathyam filled a slip of spar, with dread,
As if stood by and frowned some power divine;
Then trembling, as he turned to Zophiel, said,
"But for one service shall thou call it thine:
Bring me a wife; as I have named the way;
(I will not risk destruction save for love!)
Fair-haired and beauteous like my mother; say--
Plight me this pact; so shalt thou bear above,
For thine own purpose, what has here been kept
Since bloomed the second age, to angels dear.
Bursting from earth's dark womb, the fierce wave swept
Off every form that lived and loved, while here,
Deep hidden here, I still lived on and wept."

Great pains have evidently been taken to have every thing throughout
the work in keeping. Most of the names have been selected for their
particular meaning. Tahathyam and his retinue appear to have been
settled in their submarine dominion before the great deluge that
changed the face of the earth, as is intimated in the lines last
quoted; and as the accounts of that judgment, and of the visits and
communications of angels connected with it, are chiefly in Hebrew,
they have names from that language. It would have been better perhaps
not to have called the persons of the third canto "gnomes," as at this
word one is reminded of all the varieties of the Rosicrucian system,
of which Pope has so well availed himself in the Rape of the Lock,
which sprightly production has been said to be derived, though
remotely, from Jewish legends of fallen angels. Tahathyam can be
called gnome only on account of the retreat to which his erring father
has consigned him.

The spirits leave the cavern, and Zophiel exults a moment, as if
restored to perfect happiness. But there is no way of bearing his
priz