The Democratic press. [volume] (Ravenna, O. [Ohio]) 1868-1901, 1883-12-06

1IEDITATIoNs OF A HINDU, PRINCE AND
SkEPTIC.

All the world over, I wonder, in lands that I
hever have trod,
Are the people eternally seeking for the signs
Westward across the ocean, and northward
ayont the snow,
DO they all stand gazing. as ever. and what
do the wisest Know?
Here, in this mystical India, the deities hover
and swarm
Like the wild bees heard in the tree tops, or
the gusts of q gathering storm;
In the air men hear their voices, their feet on
the rocks are seen.
Yet wo all say, ''whence is the message, and.
what may the wonders fnean2'
A million shrines stand open, and ever the
AS they TO mystic symbol, or the figures of
ancient kings:
And the incense rises ever, and rises the end
ut thosewho are heavy laden, and of cow
ards, 10th to die.
Tor the Destiny drives us together like deer
in pass of the hills.
Above is tho sky, and around US. the sound
and the shot that kills;
Pushed by a Power we see not, and struck by
a hand unknown.
We pray to the trees for shelter, and press
our lips to a stone.
The trees wave a shadowy answer, and the
rock frowns hollow and grim,
And the form and the nod of the demon are
caught in the twilight dim;
And we look to the sunlight falling afar on
the mountain crest
1s there never path runs upward to a ref
uge there and rest?
Tho path, ahl who has shown it, and which is
the faithful guide?
The haven, ah! who has known it? for steep
is the mountain side,
For ever the shot strikes surely, and ever the
wasted breath
OF the praying multitude rises, whose answer
is only death.
Here are the tombs of my kinsfolk, the first
of an ancient name,
Chiefs who were slain on the war-held, and
women who died in fame;
They aregods, these kings of the. foretime,
they are spirits who guard our race
LIVER watch and worship; they sit with a
And the myriad idols around me, and the le-
a gion of nuttering priests. ..4
The revels and rites unhoy, the dark un-
speakable feastsl
What have they wrung from the silenoe7
or the secret Whence and Whittier? Alas!
for the gods are dumb.
Shall list to the word of the English. who
come from the uttermost sea?
''The secret hath been told to you and what
is your message to me2'
II is pO1lght but the underworld story how
! the earth and the heavens began,
How the gods are glad and angry, and Deity
once was man.
Ihad thought, 'Perchance in the cities where
the rulers of India dwell,
Whose orders flash from the far land, who
girde the earth with spell,
They have fathomed the depths we float on,
or measured the unknown main-
Sadly they turn from the venture, and say
.l that the quest is vain. .... ,....-.
Is life, then. a dream and delusion, and where
80 shall the dreamer awake?
Is the world seen like shadows on water, and
t what if the mirror break?
Shall It pass, as a camp that is struck, as q
tent that is gathered and gone
From the sands that were lalnp-lit at eve, and
atmorning are level and lone?
Is there nought in the heaven above, whence
the hail and the levin are hurled,
But the wind that is swept around us by the
rush of the rolling world?
The wind that shall scatter my ashes, and
bear me to silence and sleep
with the dirge, and the sounds of lamenting,
and voices of women who weep.
a. c. Lyall.