STANZAS. 



401 



But behind there lay in the humblest shrine 



A gem of the brightest, purest ray : 

 The gem was the human will divine ; 



The shrine was the homeliest human clay. 

 Self-glory — but hush ! be the tale untold 

 To the pale ear thinned by you plaster mould. 



Shall the diamond gem lose her queenly worth, 

 Though pent in the dungeon of sandy stone ? 



Say, is gold less gold, though in vilest earth 



For long years it has lurked unprized, unknown ? 



And the rose that blooms o'er the buried dead, 



Hath its pinkuess paled, hath its fragrance fled ? 



Thus the poet sang, ' Is the basil ^dle, 



Though the beetle's foot o'er the basil crawl ? ' 



And though Arachne hath webbed her toil, 

 Shall disgrace attach to the princely hall ? 



And the pearl's clear drop from the oyster-shell, 



Comes it not on the royal brow to dwell ? 



On the Guarded Tablet was writ by Eate, 



A double self for each man ere born, 

 Who shall love his love and shall hate his hate. 



Who shall praise his praise and shall scorn his scorn, 

 Enduring, aye to the bitter end, 

 And man's other man shall be called a friend. 



When the Spirits with radiance nude arrayed 

 In the presence stood of the One Supreme, 



Soul looked unto soul, and the glance conveyed 

 A pledge of love which each must redeem ; 



Nor may spirit enfleshed in the dust, forget 



That high trysting-place, ere Time was not yet. 



When the first great Sire, so the Legends say. 



The four-rivered garden in Asia trod. 

 And 'neath perfumed shade, in the di-outh of day, 



Walked and talked with the Hebrew God, 

 VOL. u. 26 



