The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1891-02-16
EDWIN ARNOLD's NEW POEM.
" The Light Of the World" to BE Pub
1ished Tomorrow.


1ished Tomorrow.
LONDON, Feb. H.-[Special ]-Sir Edwin
Arnold's new poem, THE Light of the
World" will be published on Monday.
The press has been given copies for review
tonight. The poet endeavors to repeat,
with the faith and story of Christianity,
the same achievement which he essayed
with Buddhism in 1.-The Light of Asia
The keynote of the new poem, embodying
the glad acceptance of the gospel of peace,
is found in the following song of angels:
Peace beginning to be,
Deep as the sleep of the sea,
When the stars their faces glass
In its blue tranquility:
Hearts OF men upon earth,
From the first to the second birth
So req the wil0 waters, rest
With the colOrS OF heaven on their breast!
Love which is sunlight OF peace,
Age by age to increase,
Till anger and hate are dead,
And sorrow and death shall cease.
Peace on earth and good will,
Souls that are gentle and still,
Heard the first music OF this
Far off infinite bliss.
So, or in such wise, those rude shepherds heard
The angels singing clear, when not one word
Wiser ones caught, that night solemn and still,
OF their high errand, "Peace, good will, good
will"
Following this song to the shepherds is
another lyric to different measure, in
which the poet laments the weary post
ponement of the promised blessing and
gives voice to the warnings of humanity
for its fruitiOn, when with the repetition
of the angels song we reach the conclusion
of the prologue, and the narrative portion
of the poem begins. Its plot is simple
and may be briefly stated: We know
from Josephus that the Roman governor
himself, made somber by his share in the
death of Christ, fell some few years after
l, liner n l.
perial master, Vitellius. The pro-consul of
Syria having complained to Caesar of certain
excuses committed by Plate in chastis-
ing the Samaritans in revolt, he was sum-
moned to Rome to defend himself against
this charge. On his way thither with his
wife, Claudia Procula, and his train of at
tendants, he halts for the night on the
house of Mary Magdalene. Haunted by
guilty memories of the just man, whom he
had condemned to the vengeance of his
implacable enemies, and whose accusing
shade has been constantly present
to him in bodily shape, amid the scenes of
blood through which he has been lately
passing, Plate seeks speech with the
woman in whose dwelling he is sojourn-
ing. and whom he learns to have been a
follower of Christ. He has heard, more
over, and in his conscience-stricken mood
is almost tempted to believe, the talk that
ran among the disciples of the Crucined
that he had not died at all, or, dying, had
glided back to life again, and he reminds
Claudia with uneasy awe of the mysteri-
ously rapid progress of the new creed,
though the chronology is perhaps little
anticipated when PLATE, speaking barely
three years after the passion, is made to
say of Christianity that it ''toucheth Ath-
ems and hath crept to Rome" An episode
is introduced in the repentance of Pontius
Plate which is one OF the strongest parts
of the poem.
Ea1iForulo RafOirfn~ Ovap