"THE LIGHT OP THE WORLD."

Bush Advocate, Volume VII, Issue 475, 30 May 1891, Page 6

"THE LIGHT OP THE WORLD."

(DAILY NEWS ) Sir Edwin Arnold's new poem is published by Messrs. Longmans, Green, and Co. It is the complement of his former poem, " The Light of Asia." Tho multitudes of readers who were delighted and instructed by that striking presentation of the religion and philosophy of the East, will turn to the new volume with lively expectation. It iB full of the same power and beauty; but it necessarily lackß that sense of novelty with which, to most English and American readers, " The Light of Asia" was full. Here the poet i 3 on familiar ground. He has to tell again the story that every one of us has known from childhood, and he must tell it in words which are solemnly familiar to ua, and which sometimes hardly bear to be transposed even iuto musical, blank verse. This familiarity of the story, together with the sacred associations that have gathered round it, make the poet's difficulty, and it is not always Sossible to overcome it. The poem opens with iethlehem. The shepherds hear the angels' song, and we are bidden to thfnk that verily Not ia a vision, no way otherwise Tliaii those poor shepherds told, there did arise This portent. This is the spirit iv which the wholo Gospel story is treated. The burden of their song is Peace beginning to be Deep as the Bleep of the sea W.ien the stars their still beams glass Jn its blue tranquility : Hearts of all upon Earth. Trom the First and Second Birth To rest as the wild waters rest With colours of Heaven on their breast. Love which is sunlight of peace A#e by age to increase, Till Angor and Hate aro dead And borrow aud Death shall cease. " 3? eace on Earth aud Goodwill ." Souls that are gentle and still, Hear the ilrst music of this Far-off, iniinifce bliss. Then the star leads the wise men from tha east, not to the manger, but to a cave. They are three Indians, "True followers oftheßuddh thoy seemed to be." They hear the story of tho shepherds ; and in them the religion of the East recognises that The Star's word come to pas. o*.0 *. The Buddh a am Appeareth or some Boddhirat of might Arising from the West who yhall set right And serve and reconcile and maybe teach Knowledge to those who know. The first book is entitled " Mary Magdalene," and opens afc " the little silver happy sea farfamed Under the sunlit steeps- of G-adara." The poet takes us thither, and meditates upon the acene, almost seeming to hear as he doe's so the song of the angels. Here is his picture of the .pot : Now all is chauged— all save the changeless thinfrs — The mountains and fche waters and the sky — These, as He saw them, have thoir glory yet At sunrise and at sunset ; and when noon Burns the blue vault into a cope of gold. And of ttimes in the Syrian Spring, steals back Well-nigh the ancient beauty to those coasts Where Christ's feet trod. That Lily which He loved And praised for splendour passing Solomon's— The scarlet martagon- decks hen*elf still, Mindful of His high words, iv red and gold, To meet the step of summer. Cyclamens Lifttheir pale heads to see if He will pass, And amavyllis and while hyacinths I 1 our from their pearly vusca spikenard forth, Lest He should come unhonoured. In Uis paths Htill, as of old, the lowly crocus spreads A t'olden carpet for Him ; and the birds — Small alraonerS of Heaven, as ouco He said, Who fall not unregarded—trill their hymns Of ilvely love and lhauks *n every thorn. We pass on to tho " third spring after Jesus Christ had passed," and Pilate comes to lodge with Mary Magdalene ; and he and his wife Claudia discuss the bygone events, and at last send for the Mary whom Jesus loved. She tells the story of what befol after Calvary. While they are talking there draws nigh " a swathy stranger in the Eastern garb," who presents a petition to Mary. It was for " speech of the Lady Miriam," by one of the three Who many winters past, came to thy land I Led by a strange wliite Star, burst suddenly | New from tho spangled purplo of the Night. He is admitted o aud:6Vi_e, auu uhks oniy to be told what truths the great teacher had taught beyond the truths the stranger knew of the Lord Buddha. Then for six days 6_o tolls the Master's story, and wo go on with her through the books entitled respectively " The Magus," " Tlie Alabaster Bex," " Tho Parables," and "At Tyre : the Love of God and Man," and " The Great Consummation." The introduction of this Buddhist magus brings in the Buddhist philosophy in contrast with tho Christian faith. In the Proem the poet says that the command given him by the Sovereign will wa3 to "write now a song unstained by any tear," and the whole burden of the poem is to set forth the joyful aspect of the Christian faith as compared with that of Buddha, to whom — Life was long sorrow, ignorantly prized. The story goes on to the triumphant end, and the Indian sage concludes " Truly the Son of God," and the poem closes with the verses already quoted, which conclude with the words " Far-off, Infinite bliss."