Before the Godhead they shall raise Their perfumes pure and sweet, And bloom in silent hymns of praise At Lady Mary’s feet. --J. R. MARRE. From _The Ave Maria_. THE TAXGATHERER “And pray, who are you?” Said the violet blue To the Bee, with surprise At his wonderful size, In her eyeglass of dew. “I, madam,” quoth he, “Am a publican Bee, Collecting the tax Of honey and wax. Have you nothing for me?” --REV. JOHN B. TABB. THE WISDOM OF ALEXANDER Macedon melancholy philosopher countenance cypress messenger perplexity recognize vigor humiliation solitude poverty oracles alleviation company behest The bannered hosts of Macedon stood arrayed in splendid might. Crowning the hills and filling the valleys, far and wide extended the millions in arms who waited on the word of the young Alexander--the most superb array of human power which sceptered ambition ever evoked to do its bidding. That army was to sweep nations off the earth and make a continent its camp, following the voice of one whose sword was the index to glory, whose command was the synonym of triumph. It now stood expectant, for the king yet lingered. While his war horse fretted at the gate, and myriads thus in silence waited his appearance, Alexander took his way to the apartment of his mother. The sole ligament which bound him to virtue and to feeling was the love of that mother, and the tie was as strong as it was tender. In mute dejection they embraced; and Alexander, as he gazed upon that affectionate face, which had never been turned to him but in tenderness and yearning love, seemed to ask, “Shall I ever again behold that sweet smile?” The anxiety of his mother’s countenance denoted the same sad curiosity; and without a word, but with the selfsame feeling in their hearts, they went out together to seek the oracles in the temple of Philip, to learn their fate. Alone, in unuttered sympathy, the two ascended the steps of the sacred temple and approached the shrine. A priest stood behind the altar. The blue smoke of the incense curled upward in front, and the book of oracles was before him. “Where shall my grave be digged?” said the king; and the priest opened the book and read, “Where the soil is of iron, and the sky of gold, there shall the grave of the monarch of men be digged.”