33

MOSES AND THE WORM

The great Moses, man of God, came to his tent one day,

And called his wife, Safurja, and his children from their play.

"O sweetest orphaned children! O dearest widowed wife!

We meet, dear ones, no more on earth, for this day ends my life.

Jehovah sent His angel down, and told me to prepare

"

Then swooned Safurja on the ground; the children in despair

Said, weeping, "Who will care for us, when you, dear father, go?"

And Moses wept and sobbed aloud to see his children's woe.

But then Jehovah spake from Heaven, "And dost thou fear to die?

And dost thou love this world so well that thus I hear thee cry?"

And Moses said: "I fear not death; I leave this world with joy;

Yet cannot but compassionate this orphan girl and boy."

"In whom, then, did thy mother trust, when in thy basket-boat,

An infant on the Nile's broad stream, all helpless thou didst float?

In whom didst thou thyself confide when by the raging sea

The host of Pharaoh came in sight?" Then Moses said, "In Thee!

In Thee, O Lord, I now confide, as I confided then." And God replied, "Go to the shore; lift up thy staff again."

Then Moses lifted up his rod; the sea rolled wide

away,

And in the midst a mighty rock, black and uncovered, lay.

"Smite thou the rock!" said God again. The rock was rent apart,

And then appeared a little worm, close nestled to its

heart.

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The worm cried, Praise to God on high, who hears His creatures' moan,

Nor did forget the little worm concealed within the stone!"

"If I remember," said the Lord, "the worm beneath the sea,

Shall I forget thy children, who love and honor

Me?"

JOHANN GOTTFRIED VON HERDER

34

MOSES

He said unto the Lord: "Shall I never be done? Where wilt Thou still that I my footsteps turn? Am I to live for aye, great, powerful, and alone? Give me, ah, give me leave to sleep the sleep of earth!

What did I to Thee, to be chosen Thy elect?

Let now some other stand 'twixt Thee and Thine!
Some other curb Thy wild steed Israel!

I gladly make him heir to book and brazen rod.
Why needest Thou have dried up all my hopes?
Why not have left me man in all my ignorance?
Alas! Thou mad'st me wise amongst the wise;
My finger showed the wandering race its path;
I called down fire upon the heads of kings,
And future times will kneel before my laws.

I am the Great; my feet tread nations' necks;
My hand holds generations in its will;

Alas! my Lord! I am great-I am alone;

Give me, ah, give me leave to sleep the sleep of

earth!"

ALFRED DE VIGNY

35

THE DEATH OF MOSES

Led by his God, on Pisgah's height,
The pilgrim-prophet stood,
When first fair Canaan blest his sight,
And Jordan's crystal flood.

Behind him lay the desert ground
His weary foot had trod;
While Israel's host encamped around,
Still guarded by their God.

With joy the agèd Moses smiled

On all his wanderings past,

While thus he poured his accents mild
Upon the mountain-blast:

"I see them all before me now— The city and the plain,

From where bright Jordan's waters flow,

To yonder boundless main.

"Oh! there the lovely promised land

With milk and honey flows;

Now, now my weary murmuring band
Shall find their sweet repose.

"There groves of palm and myrtle spread O'er valleys fair and wide;

The lofty cedar rears its head
On every mountain-side.

"For them the rose of Sharon flings
Her fragrance on the gale;
And there the golden lily springs,—
The lily of the vale.

"Amid the olive's fruitful boughs

Is heard the song of love,

For there doth build, and breathe her vows
The gentle turtle-dove.

"For them shall bloom the clustering vine, The fig-tree shed her flowers;

The citron's golden treasures shine

From out her greenest bowers.

For them, for them, but not for me;
Their fruits I may not eat;

Not Jordan's stream nor yon bright sea
Shall lave my pilgrim feet.

""Tis well, 'tis well, my task is done, Since Israel's sons are blest:

Father, receive Thy dying one

To Thine eternal rest!

Alone he bade the world farewell,

To God his spirit fled.

Now to your tents, O Israel,

And mourn your prophet dead!

JESSIE G. M'CARTEE