ABOU BEN ADHEM.

ABOU BEN ADHEM, (may his tribe increase!)

Awoke one night from a deep dream

of peace,

And saw within the moonlight in the room,

Making it rich and like a lily in bloom,

An angel writing in a book of gold; Exceeding peace had made Ben Adhem bold,

And to the Presence in the room he said,

"What writest thou?" The vision raised its head,

And with a look made all of sweet accord,

Answered, "The names of those who love the Lord."

"And is mine one?" said Adhem. "Nay, not so,"

Replied the angel. Adhem spoke more low,

But cheerly still, and said, "I pray

And standing on the altar high, "Lo, what a fiend is here!" said he,

"One who sets reason up for judge Of our most holy Mystery."

The weeping child could not be heard;

The weeping parents wept in vain; They stript him to his little shirt, And bound him in an iron chain;

And burned him in a holy place, Where many had been burned before;

The weeping parents wept in vain: Are such things done on Albion's shore?

WILLIAM BLAKE.

THE TOUCHSTONE.

A MAN there came, whence none could tell,

Bearing a Touchstone in his hand, And tested all things in the land By its unerring spell.

A thousand transformations rose From fair to foul, from foul to fair: The golden crown he did not spare, Nor scorn the beggar's clothes.

Of heirloom jewels, prized so much, Were many changed to chips and clods;

And even statues of the Gods
Crumbled beneath its touch.

Then angrily the people cried,
"The loss outweighs the profit far;
Our goods suffice us as they are:
We will not have them tried."

And, since they could not so avail To check his unrelenting quest, They seized him, saying, "Let him

test

How real is our jail!"

But though they slew him with the sword,

And in a fire his Touchstone burned, Its doings could not be o'erturned, Its undoings restored.