Page:Romance of History, Mexico.djvu/90

 stars without and inlaid with precious stones within. On the top of the tower were musical instruments to summon the worshippers to prayers. Before the temple was completed the longed-for son was born, and named by his father Nezahualpilli, which means "the prince for whom one has fasted."

Retiring to his country palace the old king spent his last years in the peaceful study of astrology and in meditations on death and the after-life, which he expressed in sad but beautiful poetry. Did he perhaps foresee the downfall of his race as he sang? "All things on earth have their term, and, in the most joyous career of their vanity and splendour, their strength fails, and they sink into the dust. . . . Rivers, torrents, and streams move onward to their destination. Not one flows back to its pleasant source. They rush onward, hastening to bury themselves in the deep bosom of the ocean. The things of yesterday are no more to-day; and the things of to-day shall cease, perhaps, on the morrow." Yet the plaintive song ends bravely, "Let us take courage, illustrious nobles and chieftains, true friends and loyal subjects, let us aspire to that heaven where all is eternal and corruption cannot come. The horrors of the tomb are but the cradle of the sun, and the dark shadows of death are brilliant lights for the stars." 68