XVII.

ear

mere

XVIII,

Have trod far planets where the atmos- And blow the pinch of premise-primphere

ing off (Of nobler temper) steeps the face Long syllogistic batteries, with a with light,

cough. Just as our skins are tanned and freck

led here ; His air was that of a cosmopolite

Each had a theory that the human In the wide universe from sphere to sphere :

A providential tunnel was, which led Perhaps he was (his face had such

To a huge vacuum (and surely here grave beauty)

They showed some knowledge of the An officer of Saturu's guards off duty.

general head),

For cant to be decanted through, a XIV. Both saints began to unfold their tales Auricular canal or mill-race fed at once,

All day and night, in sunshine and in Both wished their tales, like simial

shower,

From their vast heads of milk-and. ones, prehensile, That they might seize his ear; fool!

water-power. knare ! and dunce ! Flew zigzag back and fortlı, like strokes of pencil

The present being a peculiar case, In a child's fingers ; voluble as duns, Each with unwonted zeal the other They jabbered like the stones on that scouted, immense hill

Put his spurred hobby through its In the Arabian Nights ; until the every pace, stranger

Pished, pshawed, poohed, horribleil, Began to think his ear-drums in some bahed, jeered, sneered, fouted, danger.

Sniffed, nonsensed, infideled, fudged,

with his face

Looked scorn too nicely shaded to be In general those who nothing have to shouted, say

And, with each inch of person and of Contrive to spend the longest time in vesture, doing it ;

Contrived to hint some most disdain. They turn and vary it in every way, ful gesture. Hashing it, stewing it, mincing it, ra

youting it ; Sometimes they keep it purposely at At length, when their breath's end bay,

was come about, Then let it slip to be again pursuing it; And both could, now and then, just They drone it, groan it, whisper it

gasp “ impostor !” and shout it,

Holding their heads thrust enaRefute it, flout it, swear to 't, prove eingly out, it, doubt it.

As staggering cocks keep up their fight

ing posture, XVI.

The stranger smiled and said, “ Be. Our saints hal practised for some

yond a doubt thirty years;

'T is fortunate, my friends, that you

have lost your Their talk, beginning with a single stem, Spread like a banyan, sending down

United parts of speech, or it had been live piers,

Impossible for me to get between. Colonies of digression, anıl, in thein, Germs of yet new dispersion ; once by the ears,

“ Produce ! says Nature, - what have They could convey damnation in a heni,

you produced ?

XV.

XIX.

XX.

or curse

XXI.

A new strait-waistcoat for the human Creation's plan, out of their own vile mind;

mud Are you not limbed, nerved, jointed, Pat up a god, and burn, drown, hang,

arteried, juiced, As other men ? yet, faithless to your Whoever worships not; each keeps his kind,

stud Rather like noxious insects you are Of texts which wait with saddle on used

and bridle To puncture life's fair fruit, beneath the To hunt hown atheists to their ugly rind

idol. Laying your creed-eggs whence in

XXIV. time there spring Consumers new to eat and buzz and “This, I perceive, has been your ocsting.

cupation; You should have been more usefully

employed ;

All men are bound to earn their daily “Work! you have no conception

ration, how 't will sweeten Your views of Life and Nature, God Where States make not that primal con

tract void and Man ; Had you been forced to earn what you

By cramps and limits; simple devas

tation have eaten, Your heaven had shown a less dyspep. Is the worm's task, and what he has tic plan;

destroyed At present your whole function is to His monument; creating is man's

work eat ten And talk ten times as rapidly as you

And that, too, something more than

mist and murk." can ; Were your shape true to cosmogonic

laws, You would be nothing but a pair of So having said, the youth was seen no jaws.

more, And straightway our sage Brahmin, the

philosopher, “Of all the useless beings in creation

Cried, “That was aimed at thee, thou The earth could spare most easily you Idle and useless as the growth of moss

endless bore, bakers Of little clay gods, formed in shape and fashion

A rotting tree-trunk !” “I would Precisely in the image of their makers ;

square that score Why, it would almost move a saint Full soon,” replied the Dervise, “could

I cross over to passion, To see these blind and deaf, the hourly

And catch thee by the beard. Thy

nails I'd triin breakers

And make thee work, as was advised Of God's own image in their brother

by him." men, Set themselves up to tell the how, where, when,

“ Work? Am I not at work from

morn till night

Sounding the deeps of oracles umbilical “Of God's existence; one's diges- Which for man's guidance never come tion's worse —

to light, So makes a god of vengeance and of With all their various aptitudes, until blood ;

I call ?" Another, — but no matter, they re- “ And I, do I not twirl from left to

XXV.

XXII.

over

XXVI.

XXIII.

Ххх.

XXVII.

For conscience' sake? Is that no work?

Thou silly gull,
He had thee in his eye; 't was Ga-

At first he pledged a miracle quite briel

boldly, Sent to reward my faith, I know him And, for a day or two, they growled and

waited; well."

But, finding that this kind of manna

coldly “ 'T was Vishnu, thou vile whirli- Sat on their stomachs, they erelong be. gig!” and so

rated The good old quarrel was begun anew ; One would have sworn the sky was

The saint for still persisting in that

old lie, black as sloe,

Till soon the whole machine of saintship Had but the other dared to call it blue ;

grated, Nor were the followers who fed them

Ran slow, creaked, stopped, and, slow To treat each other with their curses,

wishing him in Tophet,

They gathered strength enough to too,

stone the prophet. Each hating t' other (inoves it tears or

laughter!) Because he thought him sure of hell hereafter.

Some stronger ones contrived (by XXVIII.

eating leather, At last some genius built a bridge of Their weaker friends, and one thing or boats

another) Over the stream, and Ahmed's zealots

The winter months of scarcity to filed

weather ; Across, upon a mission to cut throats Among these was the late saint's younger And) spread religion pure and undefiled ;

brother, They sowed the propagandist's wild

Who, in the spring, collecting them est oats,

together, Cutting off alí, down to the smallest Persuaded them that Ahmed's holy child,

pother And came back, giving thanks for

Had wrought in their behalf, and that such fat mercies,

the place To find their harvest gone past prayers

of Saint should be continued to his

XXXI.

or curses.

race.

XXXII.

XXIX. All gone except their saint's religious hops,

Accordingly, 't was settled on the Which he kept up with more than com

spot inon Hourish;

That Allah favored that peculiar breerd ; But these, however satisfying crops

Beside, as all were satisfied, 't would For the inner man, were not enough to

not nourish

Be quite respectable to have the need The body politic, which quickly drops of public spiritual food forgot ; Reserve in such sad junctures, and turns And so the tribe, with proper forms, decurrish;

creed So Ahmed soon got cursed for all the That he, and, failing him, his next of famine

kin, Where'er the popular voice could edge Forever for the people's good should a damn in.

spin,

UNDER THE WILLOWS,

AND

OTHER POEMS.