ALOFF AND HENNEKA

1·11 MB·English

by  HOWITT, WILLIAM

Ast Aid Bonne,

WE aithionn Howitt

‘arian
Urarpara Joyktistins puntie Library

Govt. of Wor Beoga

ALOFF AND HENNEKA.

4 LEGEND OF THE NORTH
wx WILLIAM Wowrer-

Yon mighbest system of inartal despotiwa that ever
ruse on the world, wat in the wane those iron men of
anent Rose, who had subyected to their invincible
armas the greutyg portions of the three known Yeon
tinents, wore no more: their sons, corrupted and.
enfevbled by the wealth of their fathers’ conquests,
were retiring fiom the extremilies of thoir immense
empire,—from the hot sehds of Africa, from the
popnlous cities of Asia, from tho forous and moranes
of Europe, towards that great centraBheart, which naw’
was diseased to the very enve, and wax ready te sink,
into inapstion, and he buried fot ages with its fallen
children, A hundrod kingdums, rising from the wreck
of this uugust state, were shout to grow, through
centurios‘of butte and strife, inta strength and renown,
But uw mightior power than even flome, was caming
over them From the 8s of Syria, 2 peasant youth
ALOFr axD

had gone forth to the capital of Judes,—the ancient,
the wise, the holy,—stattling the people by his soage
nificent deeds, and confounding the powerful and the
sage by bis wisdom. —‘Thiv youth hofl been Jooked. for
froin the beginning of the world, God anruuneed hina
tu the first pair-—pateiawehs bi
kings founded thei
oming,—prophets, 2 wontlrous

only to. bear the
throues

fomaurs of his

renting,
aapon the ope uf his

and peculiar racy, hud risen in Jong succession, to pare
their hives in lens and desarts, musing on his naine, his
pature, sud his fortunes, and writing the most glorious
poems in hix hunour, ‘The $ery kingdom of his birth
Jad been planted and preseeved fur him;—but his
arrival from the depths of eternity ; from the hopes,
sand expeatatigns, and murvels of w hundied generations,
was the most wonderful of all, He was neither

monarch nor warrivr 5 neither priest nor seribes neither
patrician, nor one.of thuse*splendid adveuturers who
rise from the gloom of the lywest resiuns of Life, to
render more dagglitg that brilliance which soars up
ghove all otbor Thugsies, and puts ot the fainter fights
of legitimate rulers; he was but a simple, country

youth, the repute sonef a carpenter! But what was
birth or station to pim? He possessed powers whieh
made universal nature tremble and bow before him ;
his wisdom was truth itself, freed from all the follies
auc the failings of men: Be spoke such wards of beauty,
of power, of love in the publie streets, that men stood
UnYNTKA. 3

in astonishment ; and the maxims he uttered, fell with
an everlasting frition on their hearts, and ehangud
them from base gndyignoble, to" great, gencroum, snd
diving, "We fived, and did. ‘The wicked and envious
trimmphed for a moment, and sll that he had done aud
shewn, seemed gone like a moming dream: but it was
not so, His supernaturnl powers wevived iit otyor
men; his wisdom and his love inspired thom., They
‘went forth to a hundred uations, doing wonders in his
name, ‘Men fell on Quan, and stew thom; but uthers
aroxe, and proseeuted their wark. They conquered
the prajudives of their countrymen ; they trhumphed
over all the power of the mighty and universal Rome;
they triumphed over the haughtiness of imperial prides
the emperor ofegie world became their disiple!® But
they stopped not here, Into every nation they went w
into the learned cities of Grpecu; into the vast plains of
central Asin; into the mysterious retlms of India they
penetrated, The deserts of Africa, stopperl not their
course: the demicsavage lands aid weods of Europe,
were not too abject, ar tuo rude, thawake their lovers

Everywhere they proceeded, and everywhere they
brought blessings and strength, ‘Phe rocks and snowy.
wastes of the north belield them appfoach; they errived
in the desolate vales af the very Ultima Thule.

It is in this part of the'world that we shall make
& momentary pause, to contemplate the decds of these
‘Christians, these “dark-attired Cultecs.” It way hore