him; his heart was softened; and, as he thought of his wretched life, he burst into tears, weeping over himself. The old Taion wept too, and so did the old father Ivan. Tears flowed from the eyes of the young serving-men, and they wiped them with their wide sleeves.
And the scales trembled, and the wooden scale rose higher and higher!
The Desire of Nations
By Edwin Markham
(See pages 27, 199)
Earth will go back to her lost youth,
And life grow deep and wonderful as truth,
When the wise King out of the nearing Heaven comes
To break the spell of long millenniums—
To build with song again
The broken hope of men—
To hush and heroize the world,
Beneath the flag of brotherhood unfurled.
And He will come some day;
Already is His star upon the way!
He comes, O world, He comes!
But not with bugle-cry nor roll of doubling drums. . . .
And when He comes into the world gone wrong,
He will rebuild her beauty with a song.
To every heart He will its own dream be:
One moon has many phantoms in the sea.
Out of the North the norns will cry to men:
"Baldur the Beautiful has come again!"
The flutes of Greece will whisper from the dead:
