III. Aurumn

Prophet Say who are ye upon this bank reclining At random laid, Where loaded boughs a diaper intertwining Of fragrant shade, Stretch down their fruits to cheer the heart’s
repining.
430
Dicitenim Vetus melius est.
HENRY CHARLES BEECHING
They hear me not, asleep, or drunken, or (ah ‘) dead.
O Tree of Knowledge, ’tis thou, tree divine
Of good and ill :—trembling, I view thee.
To me, as them, thy golden apples incline,
Able to slake my thirst, or else undo me.
Which shall I pluck, which dread
Of all their goodlihead ?
If roots be twain, from which there flows
To these elixir, poison to those,
How can I track their currents through the stem
Which bears and buries them ?
Nay, but it cannot be the tree of good ;
*Tis utter evil; to nearer view
The fruit dislustres, dull of hue,
All its ripe vermilion vanished,
Dead fruit, not human food ;
And these mistaking souls from life are banished.
But see,—a wonder,—lo, on each branch swells
A new fruit ruddy-rinded, that smells
Freshly, and from their places in decay
The old shrivel and drop away.
The ripeness allures to taste, O what should stay me?
Tll was the old, but the new is goodly and sweet :
A blessing is in it, desire to greet,
Not a curse to slay me;
(O divine the taste !)
Of the blind to open the eyes,
Deaf ears to unstop, make wise
The feeble-hearted, and to-day (O haste !)
For these poor dead the tree of life display !
HENRY CHARLES BEECHING 431
Angel of the Tree of Divine Knowledge
The old fruit which evil bringeth He hath eschewed ; I breathe, and a new fruit springeth ; He saw tt good. My task ts done, and rewarded Uf faithfully ; By others now 1s guarded The mystic tree.