As if, through the busy silence there, The answering voice of God he heard. Solemn peace was on his brow, Leaning upon his staff in prayer; But he heeded not, Wrapt afar in holy thought. King Solomon stood in the house of the And the Genii silently wrought around, And now the work was done, And fulfilled the desire of his heart. So the body of the king fell down, Idly they had borne his chain, And done his hateful tasks, in dread So around him they stood with eyes of Of mystic penal pain, fire, And King Solomon was dead! Frances Laughton Mace1 ALCYONE I II It is the place where life's long dream On many another swift and radiant star aphs, too, Who hasten forth God's ministries to do: mar The subtler spell which calls the soul from far, Its wasted springs of gladness to renew. The joy whose flitting semblance now we see; Where we shall know, as visible and real, 1 See, also, p. 684. BENEDICITE "ALL Green Things on the earth, bless ye the Lord!" So sang the choir while ice-cased branches beat The frosty window-panes, and at our feet The frozen, tortured sod but mocked the word, And seemed to cry like some poor soul in pain, "Lord, suffering and endurance fill my days; The growing green things will their Maker praise, The happy green things, growing in warm rain! So God lacks praise while all the fields are white! I said; then smiled, remembering southward far How pampas-grass swayed green in summer light. Nay, God hears always from this swinging star, Decani and Cantoris, South and North, Each answering other, praises pouring forth 1 Copyright, 1899, by HARPER & BROTHERS. Charles Frederick Johnson THE MODERN ROMANS UNDER the slanting light of the yellow sun of October, A "gang of Dagos" were working close by the side of the car track. Pausing a moment to catch a note of their liquid Italian, Faintly I heard an echo of Rome's imperial accents, Broken-down forms of Latin words from the Senate and Forum, Now smoothed over by use to the musical lingua Romana. Then came the thought, Why, these are the heirs of the conquering Ro mans; These are the sons of the men who founded the Empire of Cæsar; These are they whose fathers carried the conquering eagles Over all Gaul and across the sea to Ultima Thule. The race-type persists unchanged in their eyes and profiles and figures, Muscular, short, and thick-set, with prominent noses, recalling "Romanos rerum dominos, gentemque togatam." See, Labienus is swinging a pick with rhyth mical motion; And as I loitered, the Celt cried, ""Tind to your worruk, ye Dagos, Full up yer shovel, Paythro, ye haythen, I'll dock yees a quarther." This he said to the one who resembled the great Imperator; Meekly the dignified Roman kept on patiently digging. Such are the changes and chances the centuries bring to the nations. Surely, the ups and downs of this world are past calculation. How the races troop o'er the stage in endless procession! Persian, and Arab, and Greek, and Hun, and Roman, and Vandal, Master the world in turn and then disappear in the darkness, Leaving a remnant as hewers of wood and drawers of water. "Possibly," this I thought to myself, "the yoke of the Irish May in turn be lifted from us in the tenth generation. Now the Celt is on top,- but time may bring his revenges, Turning the Fenian down once more to be bossed by a Dago."" THEN AND NOW To me the earth once seemed to be But kindred of a freer class; I thrilled with keenest joy To find the young quail in the grass: I was a boy. The robin in the apple-tree, The brown thrush in the wood, A sense of union with the whole, Deep chords from man's ancestral soul, |