280 



Life and Writings of Father Bescht, 



Lo/r ?&)^iTi^(^LpeOtsts)d^iuLD<ssisr£(^rr^<sijOtun-eSji ^rru^ 



H ere pour the wafers from the clouds of heaven^ 



J^iffusing wealth and virtue through the land, 



Whose wide domiyiion, like the ambient sky. 



Spread its protecting inf uence o'er the earth. 



To fragrant fields, where creeps the pregnant conch, 



From flowery lakes the full stream flows ; the while 



The peafowl dances neath the verdant shade 



Of sweetly scented groves. The ripened rice 



Overtops the cane and flowery-fingered girls 



fVith liberal hand to all the poor, who swarm 

 Like bees around, distribute many a sheaf, 

 And, while their hair by odorous wreaths adorned 

 Iloats loosely in the breeze, join in the dance 

 As at a marriage feast, their nimble feet 

 Accordant to their sounding hands. And here 

 The luscious juice flows from the cane compressed p 

 Unnumbered flowerets scent the ambient air ; 

 Unnumbered trees their racy fruits affords 

 The various produce of the plenteous fleld 

 And boundless wealth that satiates the mind, 

 Thus yieldeth Italy, delightful land I 



On Devotees of the Christian Reiigio?t» 



The Hindus, however, among whom it originated, have carried 

 their ideas of the " Divine Philosophy" farther than others, as they 

 require, not merely the relinquishment of every selfish attachment, 

 but the utter annihilution of self: even this is not considered by Vira- 

 mamuni, as inconsistent with doctrines of his own Church, as the fol- 

 lowing extracts, in which occur the every expressions used in the last 

 quotation, will evince. 



iJ (SU (? LD U 1^ ^ ^ y iSOT ^ LJ Z_ ^ ^ (SLf 



