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OLD Rabbi, what tales dost thou pour in mine ear, | |
What visions of glory, what phantoms of fear, | |
Of a God, all the gods of the Roman above, | |
A mightier than Mars, a more ancient than Jove? | |
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Let me see but His splendors, I then shall believe. | 5 |
Tis the senses alone that can never deceive. | |
But show me your Idol, if earth be His shrine, | |
And your Israelite God shall, old dreamer, be mine! | |
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It was Trajan that spoke, the stoical sneer | |
Still played on his features sublime and severe, | 10 |
For, round the wild world that stooped to his throne, | |
He knew but one god, and himself was that one! | |
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The God of our forefathers, low bowed the Seer, | |
Is unseen by the eye, is unheard by the ear; | |
He is Spirit and knows not the bodys dark chain; | 15 |
Immortal His nature, eternal His reign. | |
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He is seen in His power, when the storm is abroad; | |
In His justice, when guilt by His thunders is awed; | |
In His mercy, when mountain and valley and plain | |
Rejoice in His sunshine, and smile in His rain. | 20 |
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Those are dreams, said the monarch, wild fancies of old; | |
But what God can I worship, when one I behold? | |
Can I kneel to the lightning, or bow to the wind? | |
Can I worship the shape, that but lives in the mind? | |
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I shall show thee the herald He sends from His throne. | 25 |
Through the halls of the palace the Rabbi led on, | |
Till above them was spread but the skys sapphire dome, | |
And, like surges of splendor, beneath them lay Rome. | |
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And towering oer all, in the glow of the hour, | |
The Capitol shone, earths high centre of power; | 30 |
A thousand years glorious, yet still in its prime; | |
A thousand years more, to be conquered of Time. | |
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But the West was now purple, the eve was begun; | |
Like a monarch at rest, on the hills lay the sun; | |
Above him the clouds their rich canopy rolled, | 35 |
With pillars of diamond, and curtains of gold. | |
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The Rabbis proud gesture was turned to the orb: | |
O King! let that glory thy worship absorb! | |
What! worship that sun, and be blind by the gaze? | |
No eye but the eagles could look on that blaze. | 40 |
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Ho! Emperor of earth, if it dazzles thine eye | |
To look on that orb, as it sinks from the sky, | |
Cried the Rabbi, what mortal could dare to see | |
The Sovereign of him, and the Sovereign of thee! | |
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