EAGLES AND AET. 261 



which characterize the Eagle-man. The sometime-fate of 

 such a being a Jupiter dethroned, or a Napoleon defeated 

 is therefore, most aptly imaged : 



" An Eagle so caught in some bursting cloud 

 On Caucasus, his thunder-baffled wings 

 Extended in the whirlwind, and his eyes 

 Which gazed on the undazzling sun, now blinded 

 By the white lightning, while the ponderous hail 

 Beats on, his struggling, which sinks at length, 

 Prone, and the aerial ice clings o\ 7 er it!" 



We can see, too, that its stately port makes it the fit em- 

 blem of a feudal pride and isolation, which, like the bird, 

 perched its huge eyries in castellated grandeur on the cliff- 

 tops. There are full as many stories of wild and perilous 

 daring growing out of the attempts to reach and rob the 

 strong home of the bird, as of the baron. They were both 

 themselves robbers, who scorned the lowlands which lay be- 

 neath their searching gaze, and as often swooped down upon 

 them in sudden foray. They have loved the bird rather from 

 a feeling of the affinities between them, and have adopted it 

 always as the emblem of rapacity and conquest, not of free- 

 dom. 



It was for this reason Shelley hated the bird. He saw in 

 it the analogue of evil triumphing over good, which crawls 

 among the nations, changed by its immortal foe 



From starry shape beauteous and mild, 



To a dire snake with man and beast unreconciled!" 



But the contest between the two powers " Twin Genii," is 

 renewed again after each defeat, and thus it is that 



" When the last hope of trampled France had failed," 



this prophet child of Art painted one of the most magnifi- 

 cent pictures ever done on air in words, when he saw 



" An Eagle and a Serpent wreathed in fight." 



