Break off from such unwise beginning; Thou'lt get no crop that's worth the winning."

The sower hears; his arm he sinks,
And doubtful he stands still, and thinks;
Then goes he forward, strong and
steady,

For the wise king this answer ready :

"I've nothing else but this one field;

I've watched it, labored it, and tiled. What further use of pausing, guessing? The corn from me,-from God the blessing."

FRIEDRICH RUECKERT (1788-1866). Translated by NATHANIEL LANGDON FROTHINGHAM (1793-1870).

"SOLOMON IN ALL HIS GLORY WAS NOT ARRAYED LIKE ONE OF THESE."

WHEN the great Hebrew king did almost strain

The wondrous treasures of his wealth and brain,

His royal southern guest to entertain;
Though she on silver floors did tread,
With bright Assyrian carpets on them
spread,

To hide the metal's poverty;
Though she looked up to roofs of gold,
And naught around her could behold
But silk and rich embroidery,
And Babylonish tapestry,
And wealthy Hiram's princely dye;
Though Ophir's starry stones

everywhere her eye;

met

Where do we finer strokes and colors

see

Of the Creator's real poetry,
Than when we with attention look
Upon the third day's volume of the
book?

But we despise these His inferior ways, Though no less full of miracle and praise:

Upon the flowers of heaven we gaze; The stars of earth no wonder in us raise.

ABRAHAM COWLEY (1618-1667).

SOLOMON'S SIGNET.

Laud Him who governs governors and kings,

Angels, and Djins, and men, and living things.

WoT ye of Solomon's signet, graved of

a sapphire in gold,

Graved with the great name of God, writ on the blue of the stone? Wisdom and riches and power had he who that treasure did hold; Safe in the strength of the signet he sate on his ivory throne.

Only King Solomon knew how the dread letters did flow,

What was the breathing of Aleph,

where came the whispering Yod; When he spake the ineffable Word, the

sea-winds at bidding would blow; And the hills yield their iron, and jewels, and gold, at the naming of God.

And out of the void of the sky, and up

from the gulfs and the capes, And forth from the caverns of earth. and down from the mountains of flame,

Flocked Demons with wonderful wings, and Ifreet of horrible shape, And Djins, with red eyes, made of fire; Divs, Peris, and Giants, they

came.

They came, at the call of the name, from Kâf, that engirdles the seas; From the gloom of the tombs in the graveyard, from ruins on desolate ground;

"What name, I pray thee, wears yon messenger?"

So asked he of the king; and Solomon Made answer, “It is Azrael, who calls The souls of men." "He seemed,"

whispered the prince,

"To have an errand unto me;-bid now That one among thy demon ministers Waft me, upon the swiftest wing that beats,

To India, for I fear him." Solomon Issued command, and a swift Djin sprang forth

Bearing the prince aloft, so that he came To Coromandel, ere the fruit - which

fell

Out of the fig-had touched the marble floor.

Thereupon Azrael said to Solomon, "I looked thus earnestly upon the man

I thought, were thousand pinions given to thee,

To-day in India thou shouldst never be; Nor guessed how this should be fulfilled, till there

Thy word did waft him, answering to his prayer."

RICHARD CHENEVIX TRENCH (1807-1886).

THE APPLE OF LIFE.

FROM the river Euphrates, the river whose source is in Paradise, far As red Egypt-sole lord of the land and

and the sea, 'twixt the eremite star Of the orient desert's lone dawn, and the porch of the chambers of rest Where the great sea is girded with fire, and Orion returns in the West, And the ships come and go in grand silence-King Solomon reigned. And behold,

In that time there was everywhere silver as common as stones be, and gold That for plenty was 'counted as silver, and cedar as sycamore trees

That are found in the vale for abundance. For God to the King gave all these,

With glory exceeding; moreover all kings of the earth to him came, Because of his wisdom, to hear him. So great was King Solomon's fame.

And for all this the King's soul was sad. And his heart said within him, "Alas,

For man dies! if his glory abideth, himself from his glory shall pass. And that which remaineth behind him, he seeth it not any more: For how shall he know what comes after, who knoweth not what went before?

I have planted me gardens and vineyards, and gotten me silver and gold,

And my hand from whatever my heart hath desired I did not withhold; And what profit have I in the works of my hands which I take not away?

I have searched out wisdom and knowledge; and what do they profit me, they?