e mighty Solomon, in
which was never heard the sound of the workman's tool, so rose that
mystic fane. Not until it stood in grand relief against the clear blue
sky; not until its lofty dome pierced the clouds even a mountain-top;
not until its polished walls were fashioned within and without, to
surpassing beauty, did men learn the truth, and behold in the despised
Adonais, the wonder-working Fane-builder. In his wanderings the
dreamer had lighted on the entrance to that exhaustless mine, whence
men of like soul have drawn their riches for all time. The hidden
treasures of poesy had been given to his grasp, and he had built a
temple which should long outlast the sand-heaps which the worshipers
of Mammon had gathered around them.

But even then, when pilgrims came from afar to gaze upon the noble
fane, the men of his own kindred and people stood aloof. They cared
not for this adornment of their birth-place--they valued not the
treasures that had there been gathered together. Only the few who
entered the vestibule, and saw the sparkle of jewels which decked the
inner shrine, or they to whom the pilgrims recounted the priceless
value of these gems in other lands--only they began to look with
something like pride upon the dreamer Adonais.

But not without purpose had the Fane-builder reared this magnificent
structure. Within those costly walls was a veiled and jeweled
sanctuary. There had he enshrined an idol--the image of a bright
divinity which he alone might worship. Willingly and freely did he
admit the pilgrim and the wayfarer to the outer courts of his temple;
gladly did he offer them refreshing draughts from the fountain of
living water which gushed up in its midst; but never did he suffer
them to enter that "Holy of holies;" never did their eyes rest on that
enshrined idol, in whose honor all these treasures were gathered
together.

In progress of time, when Adonais had lavished all his wealth upon his
temple, and when with the toil of gathering and shaping out her
treasures, his strength had well-nigh failed him, there came a troop
of revilers and slanderers--men of evil tongue, who swore that the
Fane-builder was no better than a midnight robber, and had despoiled
other temples of all that adorned his own. The tale was as false and
foul as they who coined it; but when they pointed to many pigmy fanes
which now began to be reared about the city, and when men saw that
they were built of like marbles as those whi