CH. Surely if one break, Lady, The chain is broken and the jewel falls.
DEM. 'Tis so. Now hearken diligently. All life Is as this chain, and Zeus is as the jewel. The universal life dwells first in the Earth, 500 The stones and soil; therefrom the plants and trees Exhale their being; and on them the brutes Feeding elaborate their sentient life, And from these twain mankind; and in mankind A spirit lastly is form'd of subtler sort Whereon the high gods live, sustain'd thereby, And feeding on it, as plants on the soil, Or animals on plants. Now see! I hold, As well ye know, one whole link of this chain: If I should kill the plants, must not man perish? 510 And if he perish, then the gods must die.
CH. If this were so, thou wouldst destroy thyself.
DEM. And therefore Zeus will not believe my word.
CH. Nor we believe thee, Lady: it cannot be That thou shouldst seek to mend a private fortune By universal ruin, and restore Thy daughter by destruction of thyself.
DEM. Ye are not mothers, or ye would not wonder. In me, who hold from great all-mother Rhea Heritage of essential motherhood, 520 Ye would look rather for unbounded passion. Coud I, the tenderness of Nature's heart, Exist, were I unheedful to protect From wrong and ill the being that I gave, The unweeting passions that I fondly nurtured To hopes of glory, the young confidence In growing happiness? Shall I throw by As self-delusion the supreme ambition, Which I encourag'd till parental fondness Bore the prophetic blessing, on whose truth 530 My spirit throve? Oh never! nay, nay, nay! That were the one disaster, and if aid I cannot, I can mightily avenge. On irremediable wrong I shrink not To pile immortal ruin, there to lie As trophies on a carven tomb: nor less For that no memory of my deed survive, Nor any eye to see, nor tongue to tell.
CH. So vast injustice, Lady, were not good.
DEM. To you I seem unjust involving man. 540
CH. Why should man suffer in thy feud with Zeus?
DEM. Let Zeus relent. There is no other way. I will destroy the seeds of plant and tree: Vineyard and orchard, oliveyard and cornland Shall all withhold their fruits, and in their stead Shall flourish the gay blooms that Cora loved. There shall be dearth, and yet so gay the dearth That all the land shall look in holiday With mockery of foison; every field With splendour aflame. For wheat the useless poppy 550 In sheeted scarlet; and for barley and oats The blue and yellow weeds that mock men's toil, Centaury and marigold in chequer'd plots: Where seed is sown, or none, shall dandelions And wretched ragwort vie, orchis and iris And garish daisy, and for every flower That in this vale she pluckt, shall spring a thousand. Where'er she slept anemones shall crowd, And the sweet violet. These things shall ye see. --But I behold him whom I came to meet, 560 Hermes:--he, be he laden howsoe'er, Will heavier-laden to his lord return.