Asia Volume 23 (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1878 edition. Excerpt: ... Elephanta, the Island. ELEPHANTA. BUT near Salsette a fairer island blooms, Where vassal winds do naught but waft perfumes; Where painted shells adorn the sea-worn cave, And stately palms are mirrored in the wave. So lone the hills, so green the tufted trees, Such health and freshness in the musky breeze, So cool each glade, each grot within the isle, Ocean and sky all withering heat the while, It well might seem the small and bright domain Of Eastern fay, or nymph-queen of the main. Land at the cove, and climb the bowery steep, Where rocks are clothed with moss, and rivulets weep; Then midway rest, to gaze around, below, And watch old ocean's everlasting flow. Nicholas Michell. THE CAVE OF ELEPHANTA.' WHAT know ye of them? Nothing, --there they stand Gloomy as night, inscrutable as fate, Altars no more divine, and shrines which know Nor priests, nor votaries, nor sacrifice; The stranger's wonder all their worship now. And yet coeval as the naked rock Seem they with mother earth, --immutable; Time, tempest, warfare, ordinary decay Is not for these. The memory of man Has lost their rise, although they are his work. Two senses here are present, --one of power, And one of nothingness; doth it not mock The mighty mind to see the meaner part, The task it taught its hands, outlast itself? The temple was a type, a thing of stone Built by laborious days which made up years; The creed which hallowed it was of the soul; And yet the creed hath passed, --the temple stands. Letilia Elizabeth Landon. THE CAVE OF ELEPHANTA. AT length, O longing soul, thy foot hath trod On holy ground; and at the portals dim Of Elephanta's sacred cave, I bow In silent worship of its mysteries Unfathomable I Before thy shrine supreme, O Bhagavat I stand in wondering maze Of...