ony!

"What good shall come, forswearing kith and God,
To follow the allurements of the heart?"

asks the distracted maiden, torn between her love for he princely wooer
and her devotion to the people among whom her lot has been cast.

"O God!
How shall I pray for strength to love him less
Than mine own soul!
No more of that,
I am all Israel's now. Till this cloud pass,
I have no thought, no passion, no desire,
Save for my people."

Individuals perish, but great ideas survive,--fortitude and courage,
and that exalted loyalty and devotion to principle which alone are worth
living and dying for.

The Jews pass by in procession--men, women, and children--on their way
to the flames, to the sound of music, and in festal array, carrying the
gold and silver vessels, the roll of the law, the perpetual lamp and the
seven branched silver candle-stick of the synagogue. The crowd hoot and
jeer at them.

"The misers! they will take their gems and gold
Down to the grave!"

"Let us rejoice"

sing the Jewish youths in chorus; and the maidens:--

"Our feet stand within thy gates, O Zion!
Within thy portals, O Jerusalem!"

The flames rise and dart among them; their garments wave, their jewels
flash, as they dance and sing in the crimson blaze. The music ceases, a
sound of crashing boards is heard and a great cry,--"Hallelujah!" What
a glory and consecration of the martyrdom! Where shall we find a more
triumphant vindication and supreme victory of spirit over matter?

"I see, I see,
How Israel's ever-crescent glory makes
These flames that would eclipse it dark as blots
Of candle-light against the blazing sun.
We die a thousand deaths,--drown, bleed, and burn.
Our ashes are dispersed unto the winds.
Yet the wild winds cherish the sacred seed,
The fire refuseth to consume.

. . . . . . . . .

Even as we die in honor, from our death
Shall bloom a myriad heroic lives,
Brave through our bright example, virtuous
Lest our great memory fall in disrepute."

The "Dance to Death" was published, along with other poems and
translations from