La vie décousue

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1:05, 1.0M
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There is a haunt­ing phantom called Regret,
A shad­owy creature robed some­what like Woe,
But fairer in the face, whom all men know
By her sad mien and eyes forever wet.
No heart would seek her; but once hav­ing met,
All take her by the hand, and to and fro
They wander through those paths of long ago–
Those hal­lowed ways ’twere wiser to forget.

One day she led me to that lost land’s gate
And bade me enter; but I answered “No!
I will pass on with my bold com­rade, Fate;
I have no tears to waste on thee–no time;
My strength I hoard for heights I hope to climb:
No friend art thou for souls that would be great.“

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Methinks oft­times my heart is like some bee
That goes forth through the sum­mer day and sings.
And gath­ers honey from all grow­ing things
In garden plot or on the clover lea.

When the long after­noon grows late, and she
Would seek her hive, she can­not lift her wings.
So heav­ily the too sweet bin den clings,
From which she would not, and yet would, fly free.

So with my full, fond heart; for when it tries
To lift itself to peace crowned heights, above
The com­mon way where count­less feet have trod,
Lo! then, this bur­den of dear human ties,
This grow­ing weight of pre­cious earthly love,
Binds down the spirit that would soar to God.

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7:21, 6.73M
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1 Then Joshua called the Reuben­ites, and the Gadites, and the
half tribe of Manasseh,

2 And said unto them, Ye have kept all that Moses the ser­vant of
the LORD com­manded you, and have obeyed my voice in all that I
com­manded you:

3 Ye have not left your brethren these many days unto this day,
but have kept the charge of the com­mand­ment of the LORD your
God.

4 And now the LORD your God hath given rest unto your brethren,
as he prom­ised them: there­fore now return ye, and get you unto
your tents, and unto the land of your pos­ses­sion, which Moses
the ser­vant of the LORD gave you on the other side Jordan.

5 But take dili­gent heed to do the com­mand­ment and the law,
which Moses the ser­vant of the LORD charged you, to love the
LORD your God, and to walk in all his ways, and to keep his
com­mand­ments, and to cleave unto him, and to serve him with
all your heart and with all your soul.

6 So Joshua blessed them, and sent them away: and they went unto
their tents.

7 Now to the one half of the tribe of Man­as­seh Moses had given
pos­ses­sion in Bashan: but unto the other half thereof gave
Joshua among their brethren on this side Jordan west­ward. And
when Joshua sent them away also unto their tents, then he
blessed them,

8 And he spake unto them, say­ing, Return with much riches unto
your tents, and with very much cattle, with sil­ver, and with
gold, and with brass, and with iron, and with very much
raiment: divide the spoil of your enemies with your brethren.

9 And the chil­dren of Reuben and the chil­dren of Gad and the
half tribe of Man­as­seh returned, and depar­ted from the
chil­dren of Israel out of Shiloh, which is in the land of
Canaan, to go unto the coun­try of Gilead, to the land of their
pos­ses­sion, whereof they were pos­sessed, accord­ing to the word
of the LORD by the hand of Moses.

10 And when they came unto the bor­ders of Jordan, that are in the
land of Canaan, the chil­dren of Reuben and the chil­dren of Gad
and the half tribe of Man­as­seh built there an altar by Jordan,
a great altar to see to.

11 And the chil­dren of Israel heard say, Behold, the chil­dren of
Reuben and the chil­dren of Gad and the half tribe of Man­as­seh
have built an altar over against the land of Canaan, in the
bor­ders of Jordan, at the pas­sage of the chil­dren of Israel.

12 And when the chil­dren of Israel heard of it, the whole
con­greg­a­tion of the chil­dren of Israel gathered them­selves
together at Shiloh, to go up to war against them.

13 And the chil­dren of Israel sent unto the chil­dren of Reuben,
and to the chil­dren of Gad, and to the half tribe of Man­as­seh,
into the land of Gilead, Phine­has the son of Eleazar the
priest,

14 And with him ten princes, of each chief house a prince
through­out all the tribes of Israel; and each one was an head
of the house of their fath­ers among the thou­sands of Israel.

15 And they came unto the chil­dren of Reuben, and to the chil­dren
of Gad, and to the half tribe of Man­as­seh, unto the land of
Gilead, and they spake with them, saying,

16 Thus saith the whole con­greg­a­tion of the LORD, What tres­pass
is this that ye have com­mit­ted against the God of Israel, to
turn away this day from fol­low­ing the LORD, in that ye have
buil­ded you an altar, that ye might rebel this day against the
LORD?

17 Is the iniquity of Peor too little for us, from which we are
not cleansed until this day, although there was a plague in
the con­greg­a­tion of the LORD,

18 But that ye must turn away this day from fol­low­ing the LORD?
and it will be, see­ing ye rebel to day against the LORD, that
to mor­row he will be wroth with the whole con­greg­a­tion of
Israel.

19 Not­with­stand­ing, if the land of your pos­ses­sion be unclean,
then pass ye over unto the land of the pos­ses­sion of the LORD,
wherein the LORD’s tab­er­nacle dwel­l­eth, and take pos­ses­sion
among us: but rebel not against the LORD, nor rebel against
us, in build­ing you an altar beside the altar of the LORD our
God.

20 Did not Achan the son of Zerah com­mit a tres­pass in the
accursed thing, and wrath fell on all the con­greg­a­tion of
Israel? and that man per­ished not alone in his iniquity.

21 Then the chil­dren of Reuben and the chil­dren of Gad and the
half tribe of Man­as­seh answered, and said unto the heads of
the thou­sands of Israel,

22 The LORD God of gods, the LORD God of gods, he knoweth, and
Israel he shall know; if it be in rebel­lion, or if in
trans­gres­sion against the LORD, (save us not this day,)

23 That we have built us an altar to turn from fol­low­ing the
LORD, or if to offer thereon burnt offer­ing or meat offer­ing,
or if to offer peace offer­ings thereon, let the LORD him­self
require it;

24 And if we have not rather done it for fear of this thing,
say­ing, In time to come your chil­dren might speak unto our
chil­dren, say­ing, What have ye to do with the LORD God of
Israel?

25 For the LORD hath made Jordan a bor­der between us and you, ye
chil­dren of Reuben and chil­dren of Gad; ye have no part in the
LORD: so shall your chil­dren make our chil­dren cease from
fear­ing the LORD.

26 There­fore we said, Let us now pre­pare to build us an altar,
not for burnt offer­ing, nor for sacrifice:

27 But that it may be a wit­ness between us, and you, and our
gen­er­a­tions after us, that we might do the ser­vice of the LORD
before him with our burnt offer­ings, and with our sac­ri­fices,
and with our peace offer­ings; that your chil­dren may not say
to our chil­dren in time to come, Ye have no part in the LORD.

28 There­fore said we, that it shall be, when they should so say
to us or to our gen­er­a­tions in time to come, that we may say
again, Behold the pat­tern of the altar of the LORD, which our
fath­ers made, not for burnt offer­ings, nor for sac­ri­fices; but
it is a wit­ness between us and you.

29 God for­bid that we should rebel against the LORD, and turn
this day from fol­low­ing the LORD, to build an altar for burnt
offer­ings, for meat offer­ings, or for sac­ri­fices, beside the
altar of the LORD our God that is before his tabernacle.

30 And when Phine­has the priest, and the princes of the
con­greg­a­tion and heads of the thou­sands of Israel which were
with him, heard the words that the chil­dren of Reuben and the
chil­dren of Gad and the chil­dren of Man­as­seh spake, it pleased
them.

31 And Phine­has the son of Eleazar the priest said unto the
chil­dren of Reuben, and to the chil­dren of Gad, and to the
chil­dren of Man­as­seh, This day we per­ceive that the LORD is
among us, because ye have not com­mit­ted this tres­pass against
the LORD: now ye have delivered the chil­dren of Israel out of
the hand of the LORD.

32 And Phine­has the son of Eleazar the priest, and the princes,
returned from the chil­dren of Reuben, and from the chil­dren of
Gad, out of the land of Gilead, unto the land of Canaan, to
the chil­dren of Israel, and brought them word again.

33 And the thing pleased the chil­dren of Israel; and the chil­dren
of Israel blessed God, and did not intend to go up against
them in battle, to des­troy the land wherein the chil­dren of
Reuben and Gad dwelt.

34 And the chil­dren of Reuben and the chil­dren of Gad called the
altar Ed: for it shall be a wit­ness between us that the LORD
is God.

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1:11, 1.08M
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I may not reach the heights I seek,
My untried strength may fail me,
Or, half-way up the moun­tain peak,
Fierce tem­pests may assail me.
But though that place I never gain,
Herein lies com­fort for my pain–
I will be worthy of it.

I may not tri­umph in suc­cess,
Des­pite my earn­est labor;
I may not grasp res­ults that bless
The efforts of my neigh­bor;
But though my goal I never see,
This thought shall always dwell with me–
I will be worthy of it.

The golden glory of Love’s light
May never fall on my way;
My path may always lead through night,
Like some deser­ted by-way;
But though life’s dearest joy I miss
There lies a name­less strength in this–
I will be worthy of it.

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1:28, 1.34M
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Only a simple rhyme of love and sor­row,
Where “blisses” rhymed with “kisses,” “heart,” with “dart:“
Yet, read­ing it, new strength I seemed to bor­row,
To live on bravely and to do my part.

A little rhyme about a heart that’s bleed­ing–
Of lonely hours and sorrow’s unre­lief:
I smiled at first; but there came with the read­ing
A sense of sweet com­pan­ion­ship in grief.

The selfish­ness of my own woe for­sak­ing,
I thought about the singer of that song.
Some other breast felt this same weary aching;
Another found the sum­mer days too long.

The few sad lines, my sor­row so express­ing,
I read, and on the singer, all unknown,
I breathed a fer­vent though a silent bless­ing,
And seemed to clasp his hand within my own.

And though fame pass him and he never know it,
And though he never sings another strain,
He has per­formed the mis­sion of the poet,
In help­ing some sad heart to bear its pain.

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In the still jungle of the senses lay
A tiger soundly sleep­ing, till one day
A bold young hunter chanced to come that way.

“How calm,” he said, “that splen­did creature lies!
I long to rouse him into swift sur­prise.“
The well aimed arrow shot from amor­ous eyes,

And lo! the tiger rouses up and turns,
A coal of fire his glow­ing eye­ball burns,
His mighty frame with sav­age hun­ger yearns.

He crouches for a spring; his eyes dilate–
Alas! bold hunter, what shall be thy fate?
Thou canst not fly; it is too late, too late.

Once hav­ing tasted human flesh, ah! then,
Woe, woe unto the whole rash world of men.
The wakened tiger will not sleep again.

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6:13, 5.69M
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1 Then came near the heads of the fath­ers of the Levites unto
Eleazar the priest, and unto Joshua the son of Nun, and unto
the heads of the fath­ers of the tribes of the chil­dren of
Israel;

2 And they spake unto them at Shiloh in the land of Canaan,
say­ing, The LORD com­manded by the hand of Moses to give us
cit­ies to dwell in, with the sub­urbs thereof for our cattle.

3 And the chil­dren of Israel gave unto the Levites out of their
inher­it­ance, at the com­mand­ment of the LORD, these cit­ies and
their suburbs.

4 And the lot came out for the fam­il­ies of the Kohath­ites: and
the chil­dren of Aaron the priest, which were of the Levites,
had by lot out of the tribe of Judah, and out of the tribe of
Simeon, and out of the tribe of Ben­jamin, thir­teen cities.

5 And the rest of the chil­dren of Kohath had by lot out of the
fam­il­ies of the tribe of Eph­raim, and out of the tribe of Dan,
and out of the half tribe of Man­as­seh, ten cities.

6 And the chil­dren of Ger­s­hon had by lot out of the fam­il­ies of
the tribe of Issachar, and out of the tribe of Asher, and out
of the tribe of Naphtali, and out of the half tribe of
Man­as­seh in Bashan, thir­teen cities.

7 The chil­dren of Mer­ari by their fam­il­ies had out of the tribe
of Reuben, and out of the tribe of Gad, and out of the tribe
of Zebu­lun, twelve cities.

8 And the chil­dren of Israel gave by lot unto the Levites these
cit­ies with their sub­urbs, as the LORD com­manded by the hand
of Moses.

9 And they gave out of the tribe of the chil­dren of Judah, and
out of the tribe of the chil­dren of Simeon, these cit­ies which
are here men­tioned by name.

10 Which the chil­dren of Aaron, being of the fam­il­ies of the
Kohath­ites, who were of the chil­dren of Levi, had: for theirs
was the first lot.

11 And they gave them the city of Arba the father of Anak, which
city is Hebron, in the hill coun­try of Judah, with the sub­urbs
thereof round about it.

12 But the fields of the city, and the vil­lages thereof, gave
they to Caleb the son of Jephun­neh for his possession.

13 Thus they gave to the chil­dren of Aaron the priest Hebron with
her sub­urbs, to be a city of refuge for the slayer; and Lib­nah
with her suburbs,

14 And Jat­tir with her sub­urbs, and Eshte­moa with her suburbs,

15 And Holon with her sub­urbs, and Debir with her suburbs,

16 And Ain with her sub­urbs, and Jut­tah with her sub­urbs, and
Beth­shemesh with her sub­urbs; nine cit­ies out of those two
tribes.

17 And out of the tribe of Ben­jamin, Gibeon with her sub­urbs,
Geba with her suburbs,

18 Ana­thoth with her sub­urbs, and Almon with her sub­urbs; four
cities.

19 All the cit­ies of the chil­dren of Aaron, the priests, were
thir­teen cit­ies with their suburbs.

20 And the fam­il­ies of the chil­dren of Kohath, the Levites which
remained of the chil­dren of Kohath, even they had the cit­ies
of their lot out of the tribe of Ephraim.

21 For they gave them She­chem with her sub­urbs in mount Eph­raim,
to be a city of refuge for the slayer; and Gezer with her
suburbs,

22 And Kibzaim with her sub­urbs, and Beth­horon with her sub­urbs;
four cities.

23 And out of the tribe of Dan, Eltekeh with her sub­urbs,
Gib­bethon with her suburbs,

24 Aija­lon with her sub­urbs, Gath­rimmon with her sub­urbs; four
cities.

25 And out of the half tribe of Man­as­seh, Tanach with her
sub­urbs, and Gath­rimmon with her sub­urbs; two cities.

26 All the cit­ies were ten with their sub­urbs for the fam­il­ies of
the chil­dren of Kohath that remained.

27 And unto the chil­dren of Ger­s­hon, of the fam­il­ies of the
Levites, out of the other half tribe of Man­as­seh they gave
Golan in Bashan with her sub­urbs, to be a city of refuge for
the slayer; and Beeshterah with her sub­urbs; two cities.

28 And out of the tribe of Issachar, Kishon with her sub­urbs,
Dab­areh with her suburbs,

29 Jar­muth with her sub­urbs, Engan­nim with her sub­urbs; four
cities.

30 And out of the tribe of Asher, Mis­hal with her sub­urbs, Abdon
with her suburbs,

31 Helk­ath with her sub­urbs, and Rehob with her sub­urbs; four
cities.

32 And out of the tribe of Naphtali, Kedesh in Galilee with her
sub­urbs, to be a city of refuge for the slayer; and Ham­mothdor
with her sub­urbs, and Kartan with her sub­urbs; three cities.

33 All the cit­ies of the Ger­s­hon­ites accord­ing to their fam­il­ies
were thir­teen cit­ies with their suburbs.

34 And unto the fam­il­ies of the chil­dren of Mer­ari, the rest of
the Levites, out of the tribe of Zebu­lun, Jokneam with her
sub­urbs, and Kar­tah with her suburbs,

35 Dim­nah with her sub­urbs, Nahalal with her sub­urbs; four
cities.

36 And out of the tribe of Reuben, Bezer with her sub­urbs, and
Jahazah with her suburbs,

37 Kedemoth with her sub­urbs, and Meph­aath with her sub­urbs; four
cities.

38 And out of the tribe of Gad, Ramoth in Gilead with her
sub­urbs, to be a city of refuge for the slayer; and Mahanaim
with her suburbs,

39 Hesh­bon with her sub­urbs, Jazer with her sub­urbs; four cit­ies
in all.

40 So all the cit­ies for the chil­dren of Mer­ari by their
fam­il­ies, which were remain­ing of the fam­il­ies of the Levites,
were by their lot twelve cities.

41 All the cit­ies of the Levites within the pos­ses­sion of the
chil­dren of Israel were forty and eight cit­ies with their
suburbs.

42 These cit­ies were every one with their sub­urbs round about
them: thus were all these cities.

43 And the LORD gave unto Israel all the land which he sware to
give unto their fath­ers; and they pos­sessed it, and dwelt
therein.

44 And the LORD gave them rest round about, accord­ing to all that
he sware unto their fath­ers: and there stood not a man of all
their enemies before them; the LORD delivered all their
enemies into their hand.

45 There failed not ought of any good thing which the LORD had
spoken unto the house of Israel; all came to pass.

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1:49, 1.69M
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Come, cuddle your head on my shoulder, dear,
Your head like the golden-rod,
And we will go sail­ing away from here
To the beau­ti­ful Land of Nod.
Away from life’s hurry and flurry and worry,
Away from earth’s shad­ows and gloom,
To a world of fair weather we’ll float off together,
Where roses are always in bloom.

Just shut your eyes and fold your hands,
Your hands like the leaves of a rose,
And we will go sail­ing to those fair lands
That never an atlas shows.
On the North and the West they are bounded by rest,
On the South and the East, by dreams;
’Tis the coun­try ideal, where noth­ing is real,
But everything only seems.

Just drop down the cur­tains of your dear eyes
Those eyes like a bright blue­bell,
And we will sail out under starlit skies,
To the land where the fair­ies dwell.

Down the river of sleep our barque shall sweep,
Till it reaches that mys­tical Isle
Which no man hath seen, but where all have been,
And there we will pause awhile.
I will croon you a song as we float along
To that shore that is blessed of God,
Then, ho! for that fair land, we’re off for that rare land,
That beau­ti­ful Land of Nod.

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1:48, 1.65M
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The year out­grows the spring it thought so sweet,
And clasps the sum­mer with a new delight,
Yet wear­ied, leaves her lan­guors and her heat
When cool-browed autumn dawns upon his sight.

The tree out­grows the bud’s sug­gest­ive grace,
And feels new pride in blos­soms fully blown.
But even this to deeper joy gives place
When bend­ing boughs ‘neath blush­ing bur­dens groan.

Life’s rarest moments are derived from change.
The heart out­grows old hap­pi­ness, old grief,
And suns itself in feel­ings new and strange;
The most endur­ing pleas­ure is but brief.

Our tastes, our needs, are never twice the same.
Noth­ing con­tents us long, how­ever dear.
The spirit in us, like the grosser frame,
Out­grows the gar­ments which it wore last year.

Change is the watch­word of Pro­gres­sion. When
We tire of well-worn ways we seek for new.
This rest­less crav­ing in the souls of men
Spurs them to climb, and seek the moun­tain view.

So let who will erect an altar shrine
To meek-browed Con­stancy, and sing her praise.
Unto enliven­ing Change I shall build mine,
Who lends new zest and interest to my days.

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1:26, 1.31M
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Laugh, and the world laughs with you;
Weep, and you weep alone;
For the sad old earth must bor­row its mirth,
But has trouble enough of its own.
Sing, and the hills will answer;
Sigh, it is lost on the air;
The echoes bound to a joy­ful sound,
But shrink from voicing care.

Rejoice, and men will seek you;
Grieve, and they turn and go;
They want full meas­ure of all your pleas­ure,
But they do not need your woe.
Be glad, and your friends are many;
Be sad, and you lose them all;
There are none to decline your nectar’d wine,
But alone you must drink life’s gall.

Feast, and your halls are crowded;
Fast, and the world goes by.
Suc­ceed and give, and it helps you live,
But no man can help you die.
There is room in the halls of pleas­ure
For a large and lordly train,
But one by one we must all file on
Through the nar­row aisles of pain.