Lilith
wavered in her cave like a mist rising between rocks. Her raiment
was violet, with silvery gleams. Her face was dim, and over her
head rayed a shadowy diadem, like that which a man imagines over
the head of his beloved: and one looking closer at her face would
have seen that this was the crown he reached out to; that the eyes
burnt with his own longing; that the lips were parted to yield
to the secret wishes of his heart.
"Tell me, for I would know, why do you wait so long? I, here in
my cave between the valley and the height, blind the eyes of all
who would pass. Those who by chance go forth to you, come back
to me again, and but one in ten thousand passes on. My illusions
are sweeter to them than truth. I offer every soul its own shadow.
I pay them their own price. I have grown rich, though the simple
shepards of old gave me birth. Men have made me; the mortals
have made me immortal. I rose up like a vapor from their first
dreams, and every sigh since then and every laugh remains with me.
I am made up of hopes and fears. The subtle princes lay out their
plans of conquest in my cave, and there the hero dreams, and there
the lovers of all time write in flame their history.
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