Page:Chapters on Jewish literature (IA chaptersonjewish00abra).pdf/114

110 only gave him a fuller hope in God. As he writes in his greatest poem, he would fly from God to God:

From thee to thee I fly to win

A place of refuge, and within

Thy shadow from thy anger hide,

Until thy wrath be turned aside.

Unto thy mercy I will cling,

Until thou hearken pitying;

Nor will I quit my hold of thee,

Until thy blessing light on me.

These lines occur in Gebirol’s “Royal Crown” (Kether Malchuth), a glorious series of poems on God and the world. In this, the poet pours forth his heart even more unreservedly than in his philosophical treatise, “The Fountain of Life,” or in his ethical work, “The Ennoblement of Character,” or in his compilation from the wisdom of the past, “The Choice of Pearls” (if, indeed, this last book be his). The “Royal Crown” is a diadem of praises of the greatness of God, praises to utter which make man, with all his insignificance, great.