The man is apathetic, you

deduce?

Contrariwise he loves both old and young,
Able and weak- affects the very brutes

And birds-how say I? flowers of the field —
As a wise workman recognizes tools

In a master's workshop, loving what they make.
Thus is the man as harmless as a lamb:
Only impatient, let him do his best,
At ignorance and carelessness and sin-
An indignation which is promptly curbed.
As when in certain travels I have feigned
To be an ignoramus in our art

According to some preconceived design,
And happed to hear the land's practitioners
Steeped in conceit sublimed by ignorance,
Prattle fantastically on disease,

Its cause and cure and I must hold my peace!

Thou wilt object — why have I not ere this
Sought out the sage himself, the Nazarene
Who wrought this cure, inquiring at the source.
Conferring with the frankness that befits?
Alas! it grieveth me, the learned leech

Perished in a tumult many years ago,

--

Accused, our learning's fate, of wizardry,
Rebellion, to the setting up a rule

And creed prodigious as described to me.
His death which happened when the earthquake fell
'Prefiguring, as soon appeared, the loss

To occult learning in our lord the sage

That lived there in the pyramid alone)

Was wrought by the mad people

On vain recourse, as I conjecture it,

that's their wont

To his tried virtue, for miraculous help

How could he stop the earthquake? That's their way!

The other imputations must be lies:

But take one-though I loathe to give it thee,

In mere respect to any good man's fame!

(And after all our patient Lazarus

Is stark mad

Perhaps not

should we count on what he says?

though in writing to a leech

'Tis well to keep back nothing of a case.)

This man so cured regards the curer then,
As God forgive me who but God himself,
Creator and Sustainer of the world,

That came and dwelt in flesh on it awhile!

-'Sayeth that such an One was born and lived,

Taught, healed the sick, broke bread at his own house Then died, with Lazarus by, for aught I know,

And yet was ...

what I said nor choose repeat,

And must have so avouched himself, in fact,

In hearing of this very Lazarus

Who saith - but why all this of what he saith?

Why write of trivial matters, things of price
Calling at every moment for remark?
I noticed on the margin of a pool
Blue-flowering borage, the Aleppo sort,
Abonndeth, very nitrous. It is strange!

Thy pardon for this long and tedious case,

Which, now that I review it, needs must seem
Unduly dwelt on, prolixly set forth.

Nor I myself discern in what is writ

Good cause for the peculiar interest

And awe indeed this man has touched me with.
Perhaps the journey's end, the weariness
Had wrought upon me first. I met him thus
I crossed a ridge of short sharp broken hills
Like an old lion's cheek-teeth. Out there came

A moon made like a face with certain spots
Multiform, manifold, and menacing:
Then a wind rose behind me. So we met
In this old sleepy town at unaware,
The man and I. I send thee what is writ.
Regard it as a chance, a matter risked
To this ambiguous Syrian - he may lose,
Or steal, or give it thee with equal good.
Jerusalem's repose shall make amends
For time this letter wastes, thy time and mine,
Till when, once more thy pardon and farewell!

The very God! think, Abib; dost thou think? So, the All-Great, were the All-Loving too So, through the thunder comes a human voice

66

Saying, "O heart I made, a heart beats here!

Face, my hands fashioned, see it in myself.

Thou hast no power nor may'st conceive of mine,
But love I gave thee, with Myself to love,
And thou must love me who have died for thee! ກ
The madman saith He said so it is strange.

And the socket floats and flares, And the house-beams groan, And a foot unknown

Is surmised on the garret-stairs,
And the locks slip unawares

4.

And the spider, to serve his ends,
By a sudden thread,

Arms and legs outspread,

On the table's midst descends,

Comes to find, God knows what friends!

In the vacancy

"Twixt the wall and me,

From the hair-plait's chestnut-gold
To the foot in its muslin fold -

7.

Have and hold, then and there,

Her, from head to foot,

Breathing and mute,