"This is Rimmon, Lord of the Earth-
"Fear Him and bow the knee!”
And I watch my comrades hide their mirth
That rode to the wars with me.

For we remember the sun and the sand
And the rocks whereon we trod,

Ere we came to a scorched and a scornful land
That did not know our God;

As we remember the sacrifice

Dead men an hundred laid

Slain while they served His mysteries,
And that He would not aid.

Not though we gashed ourselves and wept,
For the high-priest bade us wait;
Saying He went on a journey or slept,
Or was drunk or had taken a mate.

(Praise ye Rimmon, King of Kings,
Who ruleth Earth and Sky!

And again I bow as the censer swings
And the God Enthroned goes by.)

Ay, we remember His sacred ark

And the virtuous men that knelt
To the dark and the hush behind the dark
Wherein we dreamed He dwelt;

Until we entered to hale Him out,
And found no more than an old

Uncleanly image girded about

The loins with scarlet and gold.

Him we o'erset with the butts of our spears-
Him and his vast designs-

To be the scorn of our muleteers

And the jest of our halted lines.

By the picket-pins that the dogs defile,
In the dung and the dust He lay,
Till the priests ran and chattered awhile
And wiped Him and took Him away.

Hushing the matter before it was known,
They returned to our fathers afar,
And hastily set Him afresh on His throne
Because he had won us the war.

Wherefore with knees that feign to quake—
Bent head and shaded brow-

To this dead dog, for my father's sake,
In Rimmon's House I bow!

"THE CITY OF BRASS"

1909

Here was a people whom after their works thou shalt see wept over for their fost dominion: and in this palace is the last information respecting lords collected in the dust.

The Arabian Nights.

IN A land that the sand overlays-the ways to her gates

are untrod

A multitude ended their days whose fates were made splendid

by God,

Till they grew drunk and were smitten with madness and went to their fall,

And of these is a story written: but Allah Alone knoweth all !

When the wine stirred in their heart their bosoms dilated, They rose to suppose themselves kings over all things

created

To decree a new earth at a birth without labour or sorrowTo declare: "We prepare it to-day and inherit to-morrow. They chose themselves prophets and priests of minute understanding,

Men swift to see done, and outrun, their extremest commanding

Of the tribe which describe with a jibe the perversions of Justice

Panders avowed to the crowd whatsoever its lust is.

Swiftly these pulled down the walls that their fathers had made them—

The impregnable ramparts of old, they razed and relaid them As playgrounds of pleasure and leisure with limitless entries, And havens of rest for the wastrels where once walked the

sentries;

And because there was need of more pay for the shouters and marchers,

They disbanded in face of their foemen their yeomen and

archers.

They replied to their well-wishers' fears-to their enemies' laughter,

Saying: "Peace! We have fashioned a God Which shall save us hereafter.

We ascribe all dominion to man in his factions conferring, And have given to numbers the Name of the Wisdom unerring."

They said: "Who has hate in his soul? Who has envied his

neighbour?

Let him arise and control both that man and his labour." They said: "Who is eaten by sloth? Whose unthrift has destroyed him?

He shall levy a tribute from all because none have employed

him.

They said: "Who hath toiled, who hath striven, and gathered possession?

Let him be spoiled. He hath given full proof of transgres

sion.'

They said: "Who is irked by the Law? Though we may not remove it,

If he lend us his aid in this raid, we will set him above it!" So the robber did judgment again upon such as displeased him,

The slayer, too, boasted his slain, and the judges released him.

As for their kinsmen far off, on the skirts of the nation, They harried all earth to make sure none escaped reprobation, They awakened unrest for a jest in their newly-won borders, And jeered at the blood of their brethren betrayed by their orders.

They instructed the ruled to rebel, their rulers to aid them; And, since such as obeyed them not fell, their Viceroys obeyed

them.

When the riotous set them at naught they said: "Praise the upheaval!

For the show and the word and the thought of Dominion is evil!"

They unwound and flung from them with rage, as a rag that defiled them

The imperial gains of the age which their forefathers piled

them.

They ran panting in haste to lay waste and embitter for ever The wellsprings of Wisdom and Strength which are Faith and Endeavour.

They nosed out and digged up and dragged forth and exposed to derision

All doctrine of purpose and worth and restraint and prevision:

And it ceased, and God granted them all things for which they had striven,

And the heart of a beast in the place of a man's heart was given.

When they were fullest of wine and most flagrant in error,
Out of the sea rose a sign-out of Heaven a terror.
Then they saw, then they heard, then they knew-for none
troubled to hide it,

An host had prepared their destruction, but still they denied it.
They denied what they dared not abide if it came to the trial,
But the Sword that was forged while they lied did not heed
their denial.

It drove home, and no time was allowed to the crowd that was driven.

The preposterous-minded were cowed-they thought time would be given.

There was no need of a steed nor a lance to pursue them;
It was decreed their own deed, and not chance, should undo

them.

The tares they had laughingly sown were ripe to the reaping. The trust they had leagued to disown was removed from their

keeping.

The eaters of other men's bread, the exempted from hardship, The excusers of impotence fled, abdicating their wardship, For the hate they had taught through the State brought the

State no defender,

And it passed from the roll of the Nations in headlong surrender!