Angels and Women (1924)

72 ANGELS AND WOMEN
der; "together we will defeat his artifice.
His counselor possesses the antidote for his
deadly narcotic, and can aid you to save
Samoula from the fate of her predecessors.
But I have more to say, Aloma. Unlike
Satanas, Hesperus has no roving desire.
Ambition alone, not pleasure, called him
from the service of the Eternal. I would
have power and reign a great prince. I will
be the peer of Satanas, nay, his dictator. I
would reign in solitary grandeur, and yet-only
the One Supreme is self-contained, and
dwells in awful solitude.
"Sometimes I long for another self to share
my bounteous life, upon whose heart my own
may rest in times of trouble and weariness.
The women of this world have I found weak
and base. I turned from them in disgust
until mine eyes met thine, O thou most regal
maid! Our companions in Heaven we loved
without desire; but thou, warm, palpitating
child of earth, art fair to me as forms that
flit across the plains of Heaven, and as true.