future, with splendour and with incense, did they make offering to
him, the highest wonder of the world. In solitude did the heavenly
heart unfold to a flowery chalice of almighty love, bent towards the
holy countenance of the father, and resting on the happily-expectant
bosom of the lovely pensive mother. With divine ardour did the
prophetic eye of the blooming child look forth into the days of the
future, towards his beloved, the offspring of the race of God,
careless for his day's earthly destiny. The most child-like
spirits, wondrously seized with a deep, heart-felt love, collected
soon around him; as flowers, a new and unknown life budded forth
upon his path. Words inexhaustible, the gladdest tidings fell, as
sparks from a heavenly spirit, from his friendly lips. From a
distant coast, born under Hellas' cheerful sky, a minstrel came to
Palestine, and yielded his whole heart to the wondrous child:-


"The youth art thou, who for uncounted time,
Upon our graves hast stood with hidden meaning;
In hours of darkness a consoling sign,
Of higher manhood's joyous, hailed beginning;
That which hath made our soul so long to pine,
Now draws us hence, sweet aspirations winning.
In Death, eternal Life hath been revealed:
And thou art Death, by thee we first are healed."


The minstrel wandered, full of joy, towards Hindostan, the heart
elated with the sweetest love, which, beneath yonder heavens, he
poured forth in fiery songs, so that a thousand hearts inclined
towards him, and with a thousand branches grew towards heaven the