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219

Did not our God mean mercy in His wrath,
How could the Lord of Mercies thunder forth?
A child may tremble at the lancet's smart;
His mother knows there's healing in the dart.
It may half kill him, but restores sound life;
So God's great mercies far surpass our strife.
Men judge of what they see by what they think.
From judging justice, men of sense will shrink.

II.

The Oilman and the Parrot.

AN oilman there was, who a parrot possessed,
Soft-voiced, and green-coated; could talk with the best.
The oilshop her charge when the man was away;
The customers coaxed she the whole live-long day.
Her speech was quite human, her words full of sense,
In all parrot-tricks she was void of offence.

One day the man popped out, on bus'ness intent;
The parrot, as usual, had charge while he went.
A cat, as it chanced, of a mouse in full chase
Bounced into the shop. This poor Poll could not face.
From perch away flew she; took refuge on shelf;
Some jars she knocked over; the oil spread itself.

The master returning, first sat himself down,
As lord of the manor; the shop was his own.
The oil-pools he spied, and then Polly's wet coat;
A blow on the head made her feathers drop out.

In silence some days Polly brooded, from grief;

The oilman's bereft of his wits, to be brief.

He plucked at his beard; he heaved a deep sigh;

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"Alas!" then, he shrieked out, "day's darkened on high 10

My hand, would it withered had, ere I'd struck Poll;

I've silenced her prattle that always was droll!"

M

His alms now he showers on each passing scamp,
In hopes Poll her chatter 'd get back by some tramp.
Three days and three nights in this guise did he pass,
Despair at his heart, like a lorn lovesick lass;
Incessantly sobbing and sighing, his word

Was: "Pray now, will speech e'er return to my bird?"

A bare-headed mendicant happened to pass ;

15 Whose scalp was close shaved, smooth and shining as glass.

At once our Poll-parrot her silence forswore,

Screamed after the mendicant: "Poor head! Sore! Sore! Old bald-pate! old bald-pate! What is it thou'st done? Upset some one's oil jar? The oil is't all gone? ? " The passers-by smiled all at Polly's mistake, "Tween bald-head and bare-head no diff'rence to make.

So thou, my dear friend, think thyself not a saint;
A quean to a queen bears resemblance, but faint.
Mankind on this point in great error still stands;
20 Th' elect of the Lord are ignored on all hands.
The equals of prophets acknowledged they be;
Of saints they're the brethren, as all men agree.
Fools say: "The elect are but human, you see;
To eat and to sleep they're constrained, just as we."

Through blindness they miss the real point of the strife, The diff'rence between them's immense all through life. The wasp and the bee eat and drink from the fields; The one stings, the other sweet honey still yields. The deer of both sorts browse the same mountain's side; 25 The one gives rich musk; dung the other; go, hide. The canes of two species in one land may grow ; Quite empty that one; from this, sugar will flow. By thousands, examples of pairs thus are known, Which differ as much as does cheese from the moon.

Our bread, in one case, turns to dirt in our meat;
Another produces the mind, God's own seat.
His food the one man swells with envy and greed;
By like means another gains virtue indeed.
One soil is productive; one barren and salt;
One angel's in heaven; the other's at fault.

In form, many pairs may appear as though one,
Clear water is sometimes as hard as a stone.
Excepting the taster by practice, who knows

The wholesome from unwholesome water that flows?

Supposing saints' miracles tricks, magic-wrought,
They fancy them both the result of deep thought.
Magicians, at bidding of Pharaoh, did cast
Their wands down, to Moses' rod as a repast.

From his rod to their wands a chasm there must be ;
From his act to theirs we an interval see.
God's curse on their witchcraft and devilish art!
His blessing on Moses, who chose the best part!

1

To me, like as apes are man's miscreants all;
To speak of them causes me, straight, sick to fall!
Whatever men practise, apes will copy still;
Our actions they mimic; of thought they know nil.
They cunningly do what they've seen that man did;
The reason they seek not; from them that is hid.
A man acts from reason; an ape from mere whim.
Perdition may seize all such actors, and him!
The hypocrite 2 worships 3 as aping the saint,
For form's sake, or worse.

1 In its true sense, the word "miscreant" signifies one who holds an erroneous belief. We corruptly say now: an infidel.

2 "Hypocrites," in Islām, form a faction. They profess the faith

His religion's mere feint.

openly, but inwardly they hate or despise it.

3 The Muslims "worship" God in their appointed devotions. If they 'pray" also, subsequently, this is a voluntary act.

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In pilgrimage, worship, and fasting, and alms,1
Believers and hypocrites vie, as in psalms.
Believers shall win in the last judgment day;
The hypocrites then shall receive their due pay.
The two are contending one great game of deeds,
As factions of Mervites and Rāzites 2 with creeds.
They each shall go there, where their party shall stand;
45 And each shall be classed as their actions demand.3

Just style these "Believers," their hearts fill with glee;
But dub them all "Hypocrites," rage then thou'lt see.
The first one's ashamed of the last one's true self;
This last-named's a plague to the first, like an elf.

No virtue in mere words or letters is found;
"Believer"'s a word in itself but a sound.
If "Hypocrite!" cast in their teeth be at last,
As scorpion's sting to their souls it clings fast.
If "Hypocrite "'s name be not product of hell,
50 So bitter at all times why does its sound tell?
This name's great repulsion is not in its form;
The bitter it smacks of is not from a corm.
The word's but a vase; 'tis its sense is the wine;
The sense of a book in the title may shine.

Sweet lakes and salt seas do we find here on earth;
The barrier between them: "Thus far; go not forth!

1 "Worship, fasting, alms, and ruins. Merv is at present a Turkman pilgrimage" are the four acts by camping-ground, aimed at by Russia which a Muslim outwardly attests his faith. "Worship," five times daily; "fasting," one month yearly; "pilgrimage," at Mekka, once, as a duty, in a lifetime; "alms," whenever property of a certain amount is possessed.

2 "Mervites and Razites," citizens of Merv and Rey (Rhages), two great Persian cities in former days, now in

as a halting place on the road to Herat and India. Rey, the Rhages of the book of Tobit, not far from Tihran, the Shāh's present capital of Persia. The two parties were like Ireland's Orangemen and Ribbonmen of our time.

3 Heaven and Hell; the "sheep" and the "goats."

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