Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1879-11-12

lrRoM EDWARD ARNoLD's "rHE LIGHT OF ASIA
The King said. " Come

The King said, " Come,
Sweet SON. and see the pleasaunce Of the spring,
And how the fruitful earth is wooed to yield
It's riches to the reaper; how my realm
Which shall be thine when the pile flames for me
Fills all its mouths and keeps the Kings chest
filled.
Fair is the season with new leaves, bright blooms,
Green grass, and cries of plow-tine." 80 they
Into lard of wells and gardens, where,
All up and down the rich red loan, the steers
Strained their strong shoulders to the creaking
yoke
Dragging the plows; the fat soil rose and rolled
drove
Planted both feet upon the leaping share t".
To make the furrow deep; among the palms
The tinkle of ripping water rang,
And where 1t ran the glad earth 'broidered 1t
With balsams and the spears of lemon-grass.
Elsewhere were sewers who went forth to SOW;
And all the jungle laughed with nesting songs,
And all the thickets rustled with small life
OF lizard. bee, beetle and creeping things
Pleased at the spring time In the mango-sprays
The suD-brds flashed; alone at his green forge
Toiled the loud copper-smith; bee eaters hawked
Chasing the purple butterfles; beneath,
Striped squirrels raced, the mynas perked and
picked.
The niue brown sisters chartered in the thorn,
The pied fsh-tiger hung above the pool,
The egrets stalked among the butfalees,
The kites sal ed circles in the golden air.;
About the painted temple peacecks flew,
The village drums beat for some marriage feast;
All things spoke peace and plenty, and the Prince
Saw and reJ0iced. But, looking deep, ne saw =.
The thorns Itch grew upon this rose OF life; ...
How the swart peasant sweated for his wage,
Toiling for leave to live; and how he urged
The great-eyed oxen through the flaming hours,
Goading their velvet TANKS; then, marked he, too,
How lizard fed on ant and snake on him,
And kite on both; and how the fsh-hawk robbed
The fsh-,ger of that which it had seized
The shrike chasing the bulbul. which did chase
The jeweled butterflies; till everywhere ..-..
Each slew a slayer and was in turn slain,
Life living upon death. So the fair show ta
Yelled one vast, savage grim conspiracy
Of mutual murder, from the worm to man,
Who himself kills his fellow; seeing which
The hungry piowman and his laboring kline,
Their dewlaps blistered with the bitter yoke,
The rage to live which makes all living strife
The Prince Saddartha sighed. 6 Is this" he said
tThat happy earth they brought me forth to see 2
How salt with sweat the peasants bread? how hard
The oqen's service in the break how fierce
The war of weak and strong i tn air what plotsl
No refuge cen in water. Go aside
A space, and let me muse on what We show"
So saying, the good Lord Buddha seated him
Under jambu-tree, with ankles crossed
As holy statues sit-and first began
To mediate this deep disease of life,
What its far source and whence its remedy.
So vast pity filed him, such wide love
For living things, such passion to heal pain,
That by their stress his princely spirit passed
To ecstacy, and purged from mortal faint
OF sense and self, the boy attained thereat
Dhyana, first step OF " the path"