The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1879-05-21
BEN sAZIM'S CREED.

n an old city under Eastern skies
There lived Ben Aim, whom men called the
Wise.
fAcd all sweet youths on noble deeds intent
The golden counsel to Ben Azin went
Thus in the silver, silence of the night
The sage beheld Brahmin, strong and bright,
And young as Neptune when his overland
Caught back the waves from the enamored
land,
Standing within the tent MASTER" he said,
"The way is long to seek the wiser dead;
therefore come to thee. Tell me, pray
What best sutt1ceth for life's titful day?
s"What dreams are whitest when the day is
And memory and moonlight fill the tent:'
Then rare Ben Aim, loving wider brow
And broader gaze than puny spirits know,
Made answer: Come, O Prince; the moon is
high;
Beneath its shining thou shalt find reply"
He led him onward where glistening pile
Of marble makes the solemn mOonshine smile,
And willing winds may draw the curtains fold,
And fair and ravishing the scene they hold.
Beneath hundred prisoned moons swung
:; low 49,. .-,',u.l p. .;~,,-.r .... -
In alabaster vases, glow on glow, Al .,.-,.
One lay in silken ease, and smiled to see
The happy dancers in their graceful glee !
And sighed little with a signing Tyre,
Whose lulling seems diviner than desire; 81
And smiled again because his Nourmahal 90
Answered with lifted, lighted eyes his call. &
mo tumult save the viols enters here, -
Where cycamen and musk are atmosphere. =
mo schemes make discord in that charmed
air, '}''
Where to be careless is the only care. -e
"And age shall wither and the dead leaves fall
And still some amorous, fawn,eyed Nourma-
hal t.,.7,r.-.. e.. a. 49,. ,zrel,
"Win feed his heart Roses and lmaidens, die,
But love and bloom and fragrance are for aye,"'
The Brahmin faced the teacher, with surprise
And swift reproaches in his eager eyes.
eff this be life, I comprehend" he said,
THE smile upon the faces of the dead" u
Ben Aims glance grew fond. II do not say
Brahma hath left us no royal. way;
"But they who choose it walk with unshod feet,
As one know walks yonder stricken street,
"Where dying children, feeling his caress,
Take it for their dead mothers tenderness;
"And men the plague had crushed are men
again, ,Y--.
His courage being stronger than their pain.
"Poorer than lean pariahs, none may leave
A gift 'twould make him richer to receive,
Because the treasures of the gods arc theirs
Whose empty hands fall free of selfish cares;
"And he who only prays for other men
Is nearest Him who gives nor asks again;
"A ruler in the world which has no sway
Ut lives so rich they give themselves away.
"The choice is thine, o Prince; this purple
state,
Or that high loneliness: the night grows late
"Yet stay, my MASTER" said the proud young
voice;
Life is too lavish for this narrow choice.
"She gives her poets bay, her conqurers palm
AND power to princes, and to sages calm.
lis there no boon of all he holds more fair%
TWAS sage who heard and answered there.
Pleasure will feed the body, love, the soul,
Nor flesh nor spirit crave a meaner dole
"Cresus has all Of earth, the pure have heaven
Is there midland unto mortals given?"
-Frank r. Robins, IN Ha,per's magazine 70,
Aay.