Page:Poems of Nature and Life.djvu/253

 THE PHILOSOPHER IN SEARCH OF A RELIGION 243

��THE PHILOSOPHER IN SEARCH OF A RELIGION.

Forbear, O Faith, lest falsely thou direct

The unschooled reverence of a mind which sees

Thy votaries through the v.-orld, with blind respect. Bending the knee but to false deities.

And veneration made a senseless tool

In the misguiding hands of knave and fool.

If to the east I turn, the turbaned sage

Meets me with sword in hand, and bids me place

My trust in selfish doctrines, and with rage Unbrotherly wage war 'gainst half my race.

To gain a heaven, when from this earth I flee,

Whose bliss is brutish sensuality.

The timorous Brahmin, shocked at deeds like these, Points to Surat, where fruit-fed Banians wait

And waste on vermin all life's charities.

Their hope's sole aim with these to change their state,

And claim requital when the rats and mice

Bequeath their holes to be man's paradise.

Another drives me from this patient task

To worship Mumbo Jumbo, or fall down 'Neath car of Juggernaut, or prostrate ask

The favor of rude idols, and to crown The head of bull, or ass, or grinning ape. Whose hideousness transcends all beastly shape.

Another with remorseless hands would stain With human blood my altar, with raised knife

Red homage yield, and pay, like hated Cain, Death-offering to the glorious Source of Life.

Another calls me to a different scene,

Where lewd Priapus holds his court unclean.

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