In that vast Oval ran a shudder of sh The Baths, the Forum gabbled death,

And preachers linger'd o'er his words,

Which would not die, but echo'd reach

Honorius, till he heard them, and dem That Rome no more should wallow in old lust

Of Paganism, and make her festal ho Dark with the blood of man whe der'd man.

(For Honorius, who succeeded to the ereignty over Europe, supprest the glacia combats practised of old in Rome, on occasi the following event. There was one Telemac embracing the ascetic mode of life, who s out from the East and arriving at Rome for: very purpose, while that accursed spectacle being performed, entered himself the circus, descending into the arena, attempted to hold to those who wielded deadly weapons against t other. The spectators of the murderous f possest with the drunken glee of the demon (“ delights in such bloodshed, stoned to death preacher of peace. The admirable Emp learning this put a stop to that evil exhibe -Theodoret's Ecclesiastical History.)

AKBAR'S DREAM.*

AN INSCRIPTION BY ABUL FAZL FOR A TEEJ IN KASHMIR (Blochmann xxxii).

O GOD in every temple I see people that s thee, and in every language I hear spoken, pe ple praise thee.

Polytheism and Islám feel after thee.
Each religion says, 'Thou art one, with

equal.'

If it be a mosque people murmur the b prayer, and if it be a Christian Church, pezze ring the bell from love to Thee.

Sometimes I frequent the Christian chi and sometimes the mosque.

But it is thou whom I search from temple temple.

Thy elect have no dealings with either here or orthodoxy; for neither of them stands beha the screen of thy truth.

Heresy to the heretic, and religion to t orthodox,

But the dust of the rose-petal belongs to heart of the perfume seller.

AKBAR and ABUL FAZL before the palace

at Futehpur-Sikri at night.

LIGHT of the nations' ask'd his Chronicler

Of Akbar 'what has darken'd thee tonight?'

Then, after one quick glance upon the stars,

And turning slowly toward him, Akbar

said

The shadow of a dream-an idle one It may be. Still I raised my heart to heaven,

I pray'd against the dream. To pray, to do

To pray, to do according to the prayer, Are, both, to worship Alla, but the prayers, That have no successor in deed, are faint And pale in Alla's eyes, fair mothers they Dying in childbirth of dead sons. I vow'd Whate'er my dreams, I still would do the right

Thro' all the vast dominion which a sword,

That only conquers men to conquer peace, Has won me. Alla be my guide!

But come, My noble friend, my faithful counsellor, Sit by my side. While thou art one with

me,

I seem no longer like a lonely man In the king's garden, gathering here and there

From each fair plant the blossom choicest-grown

To wreathe a crown not only for the king But in due time for every Mussulmân, Brahmin, and Buddhist, Christian, and Parsee,

Thro' all the warring world of Hindustan. Well spake thy brother in his hymn to heaven

Thy glory baffles wisdom. All the tracks Of science making toward Thy Perfect

ness

Are blinding desert sand; we scarce can spell

The Alif of Thine Alphabet of Love." He knows Himself, men nor themselves nor Him,

For every splinter'd fraction of a sect Will clamour "I am on the Perfect Way,

Cry to the lotus "No flower thou"? the palm

Call to the cypress "I alone am fair"? The mango spurn the melon at his foot? "Mine is the one fruit Alla made for man."

Look how the living pulse of Alla beats Thro' all His world. If every single star Should shriek its claim "I only am in heaven"

Why that were such sphere-music as the Greek

Had hardly dream'd of. There is light in all,

And light, with more or less of shade, in all

Man-modes of worship; but our Ulama, Who" sitting on green sofas contemplate The torment of the damn'd" already, these

Are like wild brutes new-caged-the

narrower

The cage, the more their fury. Me they front

With sullen brows. What wonder! I decreed

That even the dog was clean, that men may taste

Swine-flesh, drink wine; they know too that whene'er

In our free Hall, where each philosophy And mood of faith may hold its own, they blurt

Their furious formalisms, I but hear
The clash of tides that meet in narrow

seas,

Not the Great Voice not the true Deep. To drive

A people from their ancient fold of Faith, And wall them up perforce in mineunwise,

Unkinglike;—and the morning of my reign

Was redden'd by that cloud of shame when I . . .

I hate the rancour of their castes and

creeds,

I let men worship as they will, I reap
No revenue from the field of unbelief.
I cull from every faith and race the best
And bravest soul for counsellor and friend.

I loathe the very name of infidel.
I stagger at the Korân and the sword.
I shudder at the Christian and the stake;
Yet "Alla," says their sacred book, "is
Love,"

And when the Goan Padre quoting Him,
Issa Ben Mariam, his own prophet, cried
"Love one another little ones
"and

"bless" Whom? even "your persecutors"! there methought

The cloud was rifted by a purer gleam Than glances from the sun of our Islâm. And thou rememberest what a fury shook

Those pillars of a moulder'd faith, when he,

That other, prophet of their fall, proclaimed

His Master as "the Sun of Righteousness,"

Yea, Alla here on earth, who caught and held

His people by the bridle-rein of Truth. What art thou saying? "And was not Alla call'd

In old Irân the Sun of Love? and Love The net of truth?

A voice from old Irân! Nay, but I know it-his, the hoary Sheik,

On whom the women shrieking "Atheist" flung

Filth from the roof, the mystic melodist Who all but lost himself in Alla, him Abu Said

-a sun but dimly seen Here, till the mortal morning mists of earth

Fade in the noon of heaven, when creed and race

Shall bear false witness, each of each, no more,

But find their limits by that larger light,
And overstep them, moving easily
Thro' after-ages in the love of Truth,
The truth of Love.

The sun, the sun! they rail At me the Zoroastrian. Let the Sun, Who heats our earth to yield us grain and fruit,

And laughs upon thy field as well as mine,

And warms the blood of Shiah an Sunnee,

Symbol the Eternal! Yea and may kings

Express Him also by their warmth

love

For all they rule-by equal law for all? By deeds a light to men?

But no such lig Glanced from our Presence on the fir

of one,

Who breaking in upon us yestermor, With all the Hells a-glare in either eye Yell'd "hast thou brought us down a res Korân

From heaven? art thou the Prophet canst thou work

Miracles?" and the wild horse, ange plunged

To fling me, and fail'd. Miracles! n not I

Nor he, nor any. I can but lift the tore Of Reason in the dusky cave of Life, And gaze on this great miracle, the World,

Adoring That who made, and makes and is,

And is not, what I gaze on-all else For
Ritual, varying with the tribes of men.
Ay but, my friend, thou knowest I hok T
that forms

Are needful: only let the hand that
rules,

With politic care, with utter gentleness,
Mould them for all his people.

And what are forms?
Fair garments, plain or rich, and fitting

close

Or flying looselier, warm'd but by the heart

Within them, moved but by the living limb,

And cast aside, when old, for newer.Forms!

The Spiritual in Nature's market-placeThe silent Alphabet-of-heaven-in-man Made vocal-banners blazoning a Powe That is not seen and rules from far awayA silken cord let down from Paradise, When fine Philosophies would fail, draw

The crowd from wallowing in the mirt of earth,

nd all the more, when these behold their Lord,

Who shaped the forms, obey them, and himself

Here on this bank in some way live the life
Feyond the bridge, and serve that Infinite
Vithin us, as without, that All-in-all,
And over all, the never-changing One
And ever-changing Many, in praise of
Whom

The Christian bell, the cry from off the

mosque,

and vaguer voices of Polytheism Make but one music, harmonising, "Pray." There westward-under yon slow-fall

ing star,

The Christians own a Spiritual Head; and following thy true counsel, by thine aid,

Myself am such in our Islâm, for no
Mirage of glory, but for power to fuse
My myriads into union under one;
To hunt the tiger of oppression out
From office; and to spread the Divine
Faith

Like calming oil on all their stormy creeds,

And fill the hollows between wave and wave;

Co nurse my children on the milk of Truth,

And alchemise old hates into the gold Of Love, and make it current; and beat back

The menacing poison of intolerant priests, Those cobras ever setting up their hoodsOne Alla! one Kalifa!

Still at times Adoubt, a fear,-and yester afternoon dream'd,-thou knowest how deep a well of love

My heart is for my son, Saleem, mine

But loftier, simpler, always open-door'd To every breath from heaven, and Truth and Peace

And Love and Justice came and dwelt therein;

But while we stood rejoicing, I and thou, I heard a mocking laugh "the new Korân!"

And on the sudden, and with a cry "Saleem "

Thou, thou-I saw thee fall before me, and then

Me too the black-wing'd Azrael overcame, But Death had ears and eyes; I watch'd my son,

And those that follow'd, loosen, stone from stone,

All my fair work; and from the ruin

arose

The shriek and curse of trampled millions, even

As in the time before; but while I groan'd,

From out the sunset pour'd an alien

race,

Who fitted stone to stone again, and Truth,

Peace, Love and Justice came and dwelt therein,

Nor in the field without were seen or heard

Fires of Súttee, nor wail of baby-wife, Or Indian widow; and in sleep I said "All praise to Alla by whatever hands My mission be accomplish'd!" but we hear

Music: our palace is awake, and morn Has lifted the dark eyelash of the Night From off the rosy cheek of waking Day. Our hymn to the sun. They sing it. Let us go.'

HYMN.

I.

Once again thou flamest heavenward, once again we see thee rise.

Every morning is thy birthday gladdening human hearts and eyes.

Every morning here we greet it, bowing lowly down before thee, Thee the Godlike, thee the changeless in thine ever-changing skies,

11.

Shadow-maker, shadow-slayer, arrowing light from clime to clime,

Hear thy myriad laureates hail thee monarch in their woodland rhyme.

Warble bird, and open flower, and, men, below the dome of azure Kneel adoring Him the Timeless in the flame that measures Time!

NOTES TO AKBAR'S DREAM.

He

The great Mogul Emperor Akbar was born October 14, 1542, and died 1605. At 13 he succeeded his father Humayun; at 18 he himself assumed the sole charge of government. subdued and ruled over fifteen large provinces; his empire included all India north of the Vindhya Mountains-in the south of India he was not so successful. His tolerance of religions and his abhorrence of religious persecution put our Tudors to shame. He invented a new eclectic religion by which he hoped to unite all creeds, castes and peoples: and his legislation was remarkable for vigour, justice and humanity.

'Thy glory baffles wisdom. The Emperor quotes from a hymn to the Deity by Faizi, brother of Abul Fazl, Akbar's chief friend and minister, who wrote the Ain i Akbari (Annals of Akbar). His influence on his age was immense. It may be that he and his brother Faizi led Akbar's mind away from Islám and the Prophet-this charge is brought against him by every Muhammadan writer; but Abul Fazl also led his sovereign to a true appreciation of his duties, and from the moment that he entered Court, the problem of successfully ruling over mixed races, which Islám in few other countries had to solve, was carefully considered, and the policy of toleration was the result (Blochmann xxix.).

Abul Fazl thus gives an account of himself The advice of my Father with difficulty kept me back from acts of folly; my mind had no rest and my heart felt itself drawn to the sages of Mongolia or to the hermits on Lebanon. I longed for interviews with the Llamás of Tibet or with the padres of Portugal, and I would gladly sit with the priests of the Parsis and the learned of the Zendavesta. I was sick of the learned of my own land.'

He became the intimate friend and adviser of Akbar, and helped him in his tolerant system of government. Professor Blochmann writes Impressed with a favourable idea of the value of his Hindu subjects, he (Akbar) had resolved when pensively sitting in the evenings on the solitary stone at Futehpur-Sikri to rule with an even hand

all men in his dominions; but as the extre views of the learned and the lawyers contin urged him to persecute instead of to bea instituted discussions, because, believing he to be in error, he thought it his duty as ruke. inquire.' 'These discussions took place entr Thursday night in the Ibadat-khana a building Futehpur-Sikri, erected for the purpose' (E leson).

In these discussions Abul Fazl became a c power, and he induced the chief of the disp to draw up a document defining the divine Fas as it was called, and assigning to Akbar the na of a Mujahid, or supreme khalifah, the vicege of the one true God.

Abul Fazl was finally murdered at the in gation of Akbar's son Salim, who in his Meza declares that it was Abul Fazl who had pervers his father's mind so that he denied the dva mission of Mahomet, and turned away his im from his son.

Faizi. When Akbar conquered the Nort West Provinces of India, Faizi, then 20, be his life as a poet, and earned his living as physician. He is reported to have been ver generous and to have treated the poor for nothin His fame reached Akbar's ears who comman him to come to the camp at Chitor. Akbar wa delighted with his varied knowledge and schol ship and made the poet teacher to his sons. Fu at 33 was appointed Chief Poet (1588). He c lected a fine library of 4300 MSS. and died at age of 40 (1595) when Akbar incorporated a collection of rare books in the Imperial Labray

The Warring World of Hindostan. Akbar's, rapid conquests and the good government of is fifteen provinces with their complete military, civil and political systems make him conspicus among the great kings of history.

The Goan Padre. Abul Fazl relates 'one night the Ibadat-khana was brightened the presence of Padre Rodolpho, whe for gence and wisdom was unrivalled among tian doctors. Several carping and bigoted attacked him and this afforded an opportun for the display of the calm judgment and jus of the assembly. These men brought f the old received assertions, and did not atta T to arrive at truth by reasoning. Their stateme were torn to pieces, and they were nearly pure. shame, when they began to attack the contradi tions of the Gospel, but they could not pe their assertions. With perfect calmness, earnest conviction of the truth he replied to arguments.'

Abû Sa'id. 'Love is the net of Truth, Love