For this heart-wasting lore!—

Yet than all these the thought is sweeter far-
Thou wert ascendant at my birth, bright star!

The Chaldee calls me thine

And in this breast, that I must rend to be
A spirit upon wings of light like thee,

I feel that thou art mine!

Oh, God! that these dull fetters would give way And let me forth to track thy silver ray !”

*

Ben Khorat rose

And silently looked forth upon the East.

The dawn was stealing up into the sky

On its gray feet, the stars grew dim apace,

And faded, till the Morning Star alone,

Soft as a molten diamond's liquid fire,

Burned in the heavens. The morn grew freshlierThe upper clouds were faintly touched with gold, The fan-palms rustled in the early air,

Daylight spread cool and broadly to the hills,

And still the star was visible, and still
The young Bedouin with a straining eye
Drank its departing light into his soul.
It faded-melted-and the fiery rim
Of the clear sun came up, and painfully
The passionate scholar pressed upon his eyes
His dusky fingers, and with limbs as weak
As a sick child's, turned fainting to his couch,
And slept.

II.

It was the morning watch once more.

The clouds were drifting rapidly above,

And dim and fast the glimmering stars flew through,
And as the fitful gust soughed mournfully,

The shutters shook, and on the sloping roof
Plashed heavily large, single drops of rain,

And all was still again. Ben Khorat sat
By the dim lamp, and, while his scholar slept,
Pored on the Chaldee wisdom. At his feet,

Stretched on a pallet, lay the Arab boy,

Muttering fast in his unquiet sleep,

And working his dark fingers in his palms

Convulsively. His sallow lips were pale,

And, as they moved, his teeth showed ghastly through, White as a charnel bone, and closely drawn

Upon his sunken eyes, as if to press

Some frightful image from the bloodshot balls,

His lids a moment quivered, and again
Relaxed, half open, in a calmer sleep.

Ben Khorat gazed upon the dropping sands

Of the departing hour. The last white grain

Fell through, and with the tremulous hand of age
The old astrologer reversed the glass ;

And, as the voiceless monitor went on,

Wasting and wasting with the precious hour,

He looked upon it with a moving lip,

And, starting, turned his gaze upon the heavens,
Cursing the clouds impatiently.

" "Tis time!"

Muttered the dying scholar, and he dashed

The tangled hair from his black eyes away,
And, seizing on Ben Khorat's mantle-folds,
He struggled to his feet, and falling prone
Upon the window-ledge, gazed stedfastly
Into the East:-

"There is a cloud between

She sits this instant on the mountain's brow,
And that dusk veil hides all her glory now-
Yet floats she as serene

Into the heavens !- -Oh, God! that even so
I could o'ermount my spirit-cloud, and go!

The cloud begins to drift!

Aha! Fling open! 'tis the star-the sky!
Touch me, immortal mother! and I fly!

Wider! thou cloudy rift!

Let through!-such glory should have radiant room! Let through!-a star-child on its light goes home!

Speak to me, brethren bright!

Ye who are floating in these living beams!

Ye who have come to me in starry dreams!

Ye who have winged the light

Of our bright mother with its thoughts of flame— -(I knew it passed through spirits as it came)—

Tell me! what power have ye ?

What are the heights ye reach upon your wings?
What know ye of the myriad wondrous things
I perish but to see?

Are ye thought-rapid?-Can ye fly as far-
As instant as a thought, from star to star?

Where has the Pleiad gone?

Where have all missing stars* found light and home?

* Missing stars' are often spoken of in the old books of astronomy. Hipparchus mentions one that appeared and vanished very suddenly; and in the beginning of the sixteenth century Kepler discovered a new star near the heel of the right foot of Serpentarius, so bright and sparkling that it exeeeded any thing he had ever seen before." He took notice that it was every moment changing into some of the colours of