If loadstone vault there were to hold it freely swung.”
A caviller objected: “How should heaven’s pure vault,
Attracting to itself, this vile black ball exalt?
Say rather it repels with equal force all round.
The earth thus rests amidst air’s tides that hold it bound.”245
Thus is it by repulsion from the souls of saints,
The Pharaohs of each age are fixed in error’s taints.
Repelled, then, they are from this world and the next;
In neither have they portion;[297] shunned are they, and vexed.
From God’s anointed ones dost thou draw back in heart?