Page:Complete Poetical Works of John Greenleaf Whittier (1895).djvu/123

Rh And each man, at his bidding,
 * Brought gifts for young and old.

Then mothers nursed their children,
 * And daughters fed their sires,

And Health sat down with Plenty
 * Before the next Yule fires.

The Horg-stones stand in Rykdal;
 * The Doom-ring still remains;

But the snows of a thousand winters
 * Have washed away the stains.

Christ ruleth now; the Æsir
 * Have found their twilight dim;

And, wiser than she dreamed, of old
 * The Vala sang of Him!

Rabbi Nathan twoscore years and ten Walked blameless through the evil world, and then, Just as the almond blossomed in his hair, Met a temptation all too strong to bear, And miserably sinned. So, adding not Falsehood to guilt, he left his seat, and taught No more among the elders, but went out From the great congregation girt about With sackcloth, and with ashes on his head, Making his gray locks grayer. Long he prayed, Smiting his breast; then, as the Book he laid Open before him for the Bath-Col’s choice, Pausing to hear that Daughter of a Voice, Behold the royal preacher’s words: “A friend Loveth at all times, yea, unto the end; And for the evil day thy brother lives.” Marvelling, he said: “It is the Lord who gives Counsel in need. At Ecbatana dwells Rabbi Ben Isaac, who all men excels In righteousness and wisdom, as the trees Of Lebanon the small weeds that the bees Bow with their weight. I will arise, and lay My sins before him.”

And he went his way Barefooted, fasting long, with many prayers; But even as one who, followed unawares, Suddenly in the darkness feels a hand Thrill with its touch his own, and his cheek fanned By odors subtly sweet, and whispers near Of words he loathes, yet cannot choose but hear, So, while the Rabbi journeyed, chanting low The wail of David’s penitential woe, Before him still the old temptation came, And mocked him with the motion and the shame Of such desires that, shuddering, he abhorred Himself; and, crying mightily to the Lord To free his soul and cast the demon out, Smote with his staff the blankness round about.

At length, in the low light of a spent day, The towers of Ecbatana far away Rose on the desert’s rim; and Nathan, faint And footsore, pausing where for some dead saint The faith of Islam reared a domed tomb, Saw some one kneeling in the shadow, whom He greeted kindly: “May the Holy One Answer thy prayers, O stranger!” Whereupon The shape stood up with a loud cry, and then, Clasped in each other’s arms, the two gray men Wept, praising Him whose gracious providence Made their paths one. But straightway, as the sense Of his transgression smote him, Nathan tore Himself away: “O friend beloved, no more Worthy am I to touch thee, for I came, Foul from my sins, to tell thee all my shame. Haply thy prayers, since naught availeth mine, May purge my soul, and make it white like thine. Pity me, O Ben Isaac, I have sinned!”

Awestruck Ben Isaac stood. The desert wind Blew his long mantle backward, laying bare The mournful secret of his shirt of hair. “I too, O friend, if not in act,” he said, “In thought have verily sinned. Hast thou not read, ‘Better the eye should see than that desire