PART II

MISCELLANEOUS SELECTIONS

TO A MUMMY

HORACE SMITH

And thou hast walked about how strange a story!

In Thebes's streets, three thousand years ago!
When the Memnonium was in all its glory,
And time had not begun to overthrow
Those temples, palaces, and piles stupendous,
Of which the very ruins are tremendous !

Speak!

for thou long enough hast acted dummy, Thou hast a tongue, come - let us hear its tune! Thou'rt standing on thy legs, above ground, mummy! Revisiting the glimpses of the moon, —

Not like thin ghosts or disembodied creatures,

But with thy bones, and flesh, and limbs, and features!

Tell us

- for doubtless thou canst recollect

To whom should we assign the Sphinx's fame?

Was Cheops, or Cephrenes architect

Of either pyramid that bears his name? —

Is Pompey's pillar really a misnomer?

Had Thebes a hundred gates, as sung by Homer?

Perhaps thou wert a mason- and forbidden,
By oath, to tell the mysteries of thy trade:

Then say, what secret melody was hidden

In Memnon's statue, which at sunrise played? Perhaps thou wert a priest; if so, my struggles Are vain,- for priestcraft never owns its juggles!

Perchance that very hand, now pinioned flat,

Hath hob-a-nobbed with Pharoah, glass to glass, Or dropped a halfpenny in Homer's hat,

Or doffed thine own, to let Queen Dido pass,Or held, by Solomon's own invitation,

A torch, at the great temple's dedication!

I need not ask thee if that hand, when armed,
Has any Roman soldier mauled and knuckled?
For thou wert dead, and buried, and embalmed,

Ere Romulus and Remus had been suckled :

Antiquity appears to have begun

Long after thy primeval race was run.

Since first thy form was in this box extended,

We have, above ground, seen some strange mutations: The Roman empire has begun and ended,

New worlds have risen, we have lost old nations, And countless kings have into dust been humbled, While not a fragment of thy flesh has crumbled.

Didst thou not hear the pother o'er thy head,
When the great Persian conqueror, Cambyses,
Marched armies o'er thy tomb, with thundering tread,
O'erthrew Osiris, Orus, Apis, Isis, -

And shook the pyramids with fear and wonder,
When the gigantic Memnon fell asunder?

If the tomb's secrets may not be confessed,

The nature of thy private life unfold!

A heart hath throbbed beneath that leathern breast,
And tears adown that dusty cheek have rolled :-
Have children climbed those knees, and kissed that face?
What was thy name and station, age and race?

Statue of flesh! Immortal of the dead!

Imperishable type of evanescence!

Posthumous man, — who quitt'st thy narrow bed,
And standest undecayed within our presence!
Thou wilt hear nothing till the judgment morning,
When the great trump shall thrill thee with its warning!

Why should this worthless tegument endure,

If its undying guest be lost forever?

Oh, let us keep the soul embalmed and pure
In living virtue, that when both must sever,
Athough corruption may our frame consume,
The immortal spirit in the skies may bloom!

THE VICTORY OF HECTOR

HOMER'S ILIAD, TRANSLATED BY BRYANT

As two men upon a field,

With measuring rods in hand, disputing stand
Over the common boundary, in small space,
Each one contending for the right he claims,
So, kept asunder by the breast work, fought
The warriors over it, and fiercely struck
The orbed bull's-hide shields held up before
The breast, and the light targets. Many a one
Was smitten when he turned and showed the back

Unarmed, and many wounded through the shield.
The towers and battlements were steeped in blood
Of heroes, Greeks and Trojans. Yet were not
The Greeks thus put to flight; but, as the scales
Are held by some just woman, who maintains,
By spinning wool, her household, — carefully
She poises both the wool and weights, to make
The balance even, that she may provide
A pittance for her babes, thus equally
Were matched the warring hosts, till Jupiter
Conferred the eminent glory of the day
On Hector, son of Priam. He it was
Who first leaped down into the space within
The Grecian wall, and, with far-reaching voice,
Thus shouted, calling to the men of Troy :

"Rush on, ye knights of Troy! rush boldly on, And break your passage through the Grecian wall, And hurl consuming flames against their fleet!"

So spake he, cheering on his men. They heard, And rushed in mighty throngs against the wall, And climbed the battlements, to charge the foe With spears. Then Hector stooped, and seized a stone Which lay before the gate, broad at the base And sharp above, which two, the strongest men,As men are now, - could hardly heave from earth Into a wain. With ease he lifted it,

Alone, and brandished it: such strength the son
Of Saturn gave him, that it seemed but light.
As when a shepherd carries home with ease
A wether's fleece, he bears it in one hand,
And little is he cumbered with its weight,
So Hector bore the lifted stone, to break

The beams that strengthened the tall folding gates.

Two bars within, laid crosswise, held them firm,
Both fastened with one bolt. He came and stood
Before them; with wide-parted feet he stood,
And put forth all his strength, that so his arm
Might drive the missile home; and in the midst
He smote the folding gates. The blow tore off
The hinges; heavily the great stone fell

Within: the portals crashed; nor did the bars
Withstand the blow: the shattered beams gave way
Before it; and illustrious Hector sprang

Into the camp.

His look was stern as night;

And terrible the brazen armor gleamed

That swathed him. With two spears in hand he came, And none except the gods when once his foot

Was on the ground-could stand before his might.
His eyes shot fire, and, turning to his men,

He bade them mount the wall; and they obeyed:
Some o'er the wall, some through the sculptured gate,
Poured in. The Achaians to their roomy ships
Fled, and a fearful uproar filled the air.

THE BURIAL OF MOSES

C. F. ALEXANDER

By Nebo's lonely mountain, on this side Jordan's wave,
In a vale in the land of Moab, there lies a lonely grave;
But no man dug that sepulcher, and no man saw it e'er,
For the angels of God upturned the sod, and laid the dead
man there.

That was the grandest funeral that ever passed on earth;
But no man heard the tramping, or saw the train go forth;