Letters and social aims

by Ralph Waldo Emerson

'A house though a million winters old,

A house of earth comes down at last;

Then quarry thy stones from the crystal All,

And build the dome that shall not fall.'"

"What need," cries the mystic Feisi, "of palaces and tapestry? What need even of a bed?"

"The eternal Watcher, who doth wake

All night in the body's earthen chest,

Will of thine arms a pillow make,

And a bolster of thy breast."

Ferideddin Attar wrote the "Bird Conversations," a mystical tale, in which the birds, coming together to choose their king, resolve on a pilgrimage to Mount Kaf, to pay their homage to the Simorg. From this poem, written five hundred years ago, we cite the following passage, as a proof of the identity of mysticism in all periods. The tone is quite modern. In the fable, the birds were soon weary of the length and difficulties of the way, and at last almost all gave out. Three only persevered, and arrived before the throne of the Simorg.