490 WILD SCENES AND WILD HUNTERS. 



' The shadows of all forms that think and live 

 • Till Death unite them, and they part no more ; 



Dreams and the light imaginings of men, 

 And all that faith creates of love, desires 

 Terrible, strange, sublime and beauteous shapes.' 



Every thing there, Piscator ! Even to that white throne, 

 heaped up like a reflex of the frowning Speclater; and there 

 on the cloudy Olympus I can see particular deities of Lake 

 Pleasant and Round Lake. It must be confessed, that 

 though their 'brows are awful,' their tails look somewhat 

 'fishy!' See! there is a veritable representative of the 

 salmon trout whom you have this day insulted ! He kneels 

 with a graceful bend of his pedestal fin, and with open mouth 

 is complaining to their Godships concerning you. See how 

 they wag their misty heads and scowl the feathery bolts of 

 their ire down at you ! Tremble, presumptuous Piscator !' 



Piscator — laughing dolorously — " Aye ! aye ! my Pithian ! 

 Pass him the flask, George !" 



Ego — with a grandiose wave of the arm — " No, sir ! no 

 more brandy. My inspiration is there— 



All the gods 



Are there, and all the powers of nameless worlds ; 

 Vast sceptred phantoms ; heroes, men and beasts ; 

 And Demogorgon, a tremendous gloom ; 

 And he, the supreme Tyrant on his throne 

 Of burning gold.' 



Blind worm — (I should call you angle-worm, Piscator) — 

 can you not see them ? Look, I say ! — there is the Northern 

 Bear, distinct, upreared upon his mighty hinder parts, and 

 boxing with his frosty paws the small and feathery curled 

 effigy of a French poodle, which assails him from above 

 with snarling jaws !" 



Piscator — " Bah ! you are becoming a political prophet. 

 Do you see John Bull there ?" 



Ego — indignantly — " Where are your eyes ? Do ^ou not 



