XXXVI.

There sunk the greatest, nor the worst of men, Whose Spirit, antithetically mixed, One moment of the mightiest, and again On little objects with like firmness fixed;[ht] Extreme in all things! hadst thou been betwixt, Thy throne had still been thine, or never been; For Daring made thy rise as fall: thou seek'st[hu][298] Even now to re-assume the imperial mien,[299] And shake again the world, the Thunderer of the scene!