No, not once I 'll tease you, but in silence bear my fate!"

"Gently, good my Genius, Oracle unerring!

Strange now! can you guess on what—as in you peeped—it was I pondered?

You and I are both of one mind in preferring

Power to wealth, but—here 's the point—what sort of power, I ask?

Ruling men is vulgar, easy, and ignoble:

Rid yourself of conscience, quick you have at beck and call the fond herd.

But who wields the crozier, down may fling the crow-bill:

That 's the power I covet now; soul's sway o'er souls—my task!

"'Well but,' you object, 'you have it, who by glamour