once terrible and
tender.

But this revealing of the invisible world deepens the discontent of
the princes, and when the sage Vyasa tells them that their prosperity
is near its end, they determine to leave their kingdom to younger
princes, and to set out with their faces towards Mount Meru, where is
Indra's heaven. If, haply, they may reach it, there will be an end of
this world's joys and sorrows, and "union with the Infinite" will be
obtained. My translations from the Sanskrit of the two concluding
parvas of the poem (of which the above is a swift summary) describe
the "Last Journey" of the princes and their "Entry into Heaven;" and
herein occurs one of the noblest religious apologues not only of this
great Epic but of any creed,--a beautiful fable of faithful love
which may be contrasted, to the advantage of the Hindu teaching, with
any Scriptural representations of Death, and of Love, "which stronger
is than Death." There is always something selfish in the anxiety of
Orthodox people to save their own souls, and our best religious
language is not free from that taint of pious egotism. The Parvas of
the Mahabharata which contain Yudhishthira's approach to Indra's
paradise teach, on the contrary, that deeper and better lesson nobly
enjoined by an American poet--

"The gate of heaven opens to none alone,
Save thou one soul, and it shall save thine own."

These prefatory remarks seemed necessary to introduce the subjoined
close paraphrase of the "Book of the Great Journey,"--and the "Book of
the Entry into Heaven;" being the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Parvas of
the noble but, as yet, almost unknown Mahabharata.

THE MAHAPRASTHANIKA PARVA OF THE MAHABHARATA.

"THE GREAT JOURNEY."

_To Narayen, Lord of lords, be glory given,
To sweet Saraswati, the Queen in Heaven,
To great Vyasa, eke, pay reverence due,
So shall this story its high course pursue._

Then Janmejaya prayed: "Thou Singer, say,
What wrought the princes of the Pandavas
On tidings of the battle so ensued,
And Krishna, gone on high?"

Answered the Sage:
"On tidings of the wreck of Vrishni's race,
King Yudhishthira of the Pandavas
Was minded to be done with earthly things,
And to Arjuna spake: 'O noble Prince,
Time endeth all; we linger, noose on neck,
Till the last day tightens the line, and kills.
Let us go forth to die, being yet alive,'