XV

Wherever men are gathered, all the air
Is charged with human feeling, human thought ;
Each shout and cry and laugh, each curse and prayer,
Are into its vibrations surely wTOUght ;
Unspoken passion, wordless meditation,
Are breathed into it wdth our respiration ;
It is with our life fraught and overfrauglit.

So that no man there breathes earth's simple breath.
As if alone on mountains or wdde seas ;
But nourishes warm life or hastens death
With joys and sorrows, health and foul disease.
Wisdom and folly, good and evil labours.
Incessant of his multitudinous neighbours ;
He in his turn affecting all of these.

That City's atmosphere is dark and dense.
Although not many exiles wander there.
With many a potent evil influence.
Each adding poison to the poisoned air ;
Infections of unutterable sadness,
Infections of incalculable madness,
Infections of incurable despair.