Unto the ninth: "The camels slowly bring : - And lastly, when the tenth did question make, Crimson with shame the questioners withdrew, true; The mouth of Ali is the golden door Of Wisdom." When his friends to Ali bore These words, he smiled and said: "And should they ask The same until my dying day, the task Were easy; for the stream from Wisdom's well, Which God supplies, is inexhaustible.” AN ORIENTAL IDYL. A SILVER javelin which the hills I hear the never-ending laugh Of jostling waves that come and go, And suck the bubbling pipe, and quaff The sherbet cooled in mountain snow. The flecks of sunshine gleam like stars Beneath the canopy of shade; And in the distant, dim bazaars I scarcely hear the hum of trade. No evil fear, no dream forlorn, My blood is tempered to the morn What Evil is I cannot tell; But half I guess what Joy may be ; And, as a pearl within its shell, The happy spirit sleeps in me. The tides of Passion's ruddy sea, But live the sweet, unconscious life That breathes from yonder jasmine tree. Upon the glittering pageantries Of gay Damascus streets I look As idly as a babe that sees The painted pictures of a book. Forgotten now are name and race; The Past is blotted from my brain ; For Memory sleeps, and will not trace The weary pages o'er again. I only know the morning shines, Deep-sunken in the charmed repose, O, pluck me not from out my dream! THE ANGEL OF PATIENCE. "Patience is the key of Content."-MAHOMET. To cheer, to help us, children of the dust, The best, the brightest exile out of Heaven. Her ways are not the ways of pleasantness; She waits until her stern precursor, Care, |