Thrice the magician invoked the spirit
of his mother, and thrice he conjured the goblins, the most potent that
ever mix in the mortal scene. He lifted the wand in his hand. It was the
fiery ordeal that summons human character to the severest trial. It was
the _judgment of God_ in which the lots are devoutly committed to
the disposal of heaven, and the enthroned Divinity, guided by his
omniscience of the innocence of the brave, or the guilt of the
presumptuous, points the barbed spear, and gives a triple edge to the
shining steel. If the shepherd had one base and earth-born particle in
his frame, if his soul confessed one sordid and sensual desire, now was
the time in which for his prospects to be annihilated and his reputation
blotted for ever, and the state and empire of his rival to be fixed
beyond the power of human machinations to shake or subvert it.
"Presumptuous swain!" cried the sorcerer, "what folly, what unmeaning
rashness has brought you within the circle of my incantations? Know that
from them no mortal has escaped; that by them every swain, whom
adventurousness, ignorance, or stratagem has introduced within these
limits, has been impelled to assume the savage form, and to herd with
the most detestable of brutes.
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