XLIII

Which once he made more lovely: he doth bear

      His part, while the one Spirit's plastic stress

      Sweeps through the dull dense world, compelling there

      All new successions to the forms they wear;

      Torturing th' unwilling dross that checks its flight

      To its own likeness, as each mass may bear;

      And bursting in its beauty and its might

From trees and beasts and men into the Heavens' light.