ill burn your wings; like silly doves,
Calling the cruel kite to seize and kill;
Displaying lights to be the robber's guide;
Enticing men to wrong, who soon despise.
Ah! poor, perverted, cold and cruel world!
Delights of love become the lures of lust,
The joys of heaven changed into fires of hell."

[1]I am aware there are many who think that Buddha did not believe in
prayer, which Arnold puts into his own mouth in these words, which
sound like the clanking of chains in a prison-vault:

"Pray not! the darkness will not brighten! Ask
Nought from Silence, for it cannot speak!"

Buddha did teach that mere prayers without any effort to overcome our
evils is of no more use than for a merchant to pray the farther bank of
a swollen stream to come to him without seeking any means to cross,
which merely differs in words from the declaration of St. James that
faith without works is dead; but if he ever taught that the earnest
yearning of a soul for help, which is the essence of prayer, is no aid
in the struggle for a higher life, then my whole reading has been at
fault, and the whole Buddhist worship has been a departure from the
teachings of its founder.

[2]Mara dispatched three pleasure-girls from the north quarter to come
and tempt him. Their names were Tanha, Rati and Ranga. Fa Hian
(Beal), p. 120.

BOOK V.

Now mighty Mara, spirit of the air,
The prince of darkness, ruling worlds below,
Had watched for Buddha all these weary years,
Seeking to lead his steady steps astray
By many wiles his wicked wit devised,
Lest he at length should find the living light
And rescue millions from his dark domains.
Now, showing him the kingdoms of the world.
He offered him the Chakravartin's crown;
Now, opening seas of knowledge, shoreless, vast,
Knowledge of ages past and yet to come,
Knowledge of nature and the hidden laws
That guide her changes, guide the roiling spheres,
Sakwal on sakwal,[1] boundless, infinite,
Yet ever moving on in harmony,
He thought to puff his spirit up with pride
Till he should quite forget a suffering world,
In sin and sorrow groping blindly on.
But when he saw that lust of power moved not,
And thirst for knowledge turned him not aside
From earnest search after the living light,
From tender love for every living thing,
He sent the tempters Doubt and dark Despair.
And as he watched for final victory
He saw that light fla