Who crowd like curs in the cowardly crush,

Who flock like sheep in the brainless rush

With fear or greed a-shiver.

You are half a beast, O new god Pan!

To laugh (as you laughed by the river)

Making a brute-beast out of a man:

The true gods sigh for the cost and pain

Of Civilisation, which seems but vain

When the prey of your Panic shiver!

Footnote 1: [(return)]

Pan, the Arcadian forest and river-god, was held to startle travellers by his sudden and terror-striking appearances. Hence sudden fright, without any visible cause, was ascribed to Pan, and called a Panic fear.