impression of the storied places through which he passed--Jerash, Ammon,
the valley of Hejr, and saw in imagination the mighty stream of the
Tigris, the ruinous cities, and Palmyra with its golden pillars fronting
the sun. The tribes which the caravan encountered were rich in legend and
myth, and their influence, together with the more subtle spell of the
desert vastness, wrought in him that fervour of spirit, a leaping,
troubled flame, which found mortal expression in the poetry of the early
part of the Kuran, where the vision of God's majesty compels the gazer
into speech that sweeps from his mind in a stream of fire:

"By the Sun and his noonday brightness,
By the Moon when she followeth him,
By Day when it revealeth his glory,
By the night when it enshroudeth him,
By the Heaven and Him who built it,
By the Earth and Him who spread it forth,
By the Soul and Him who balanced it,
Breathed into its good, yea, and its evil--
Verily man's lot is cast amid destruction
Save those who believe and deal justly,
And enjoin upon each other steadfastness and truth."




CHAPTER III


STRIFE AND MEDITATION