At change, the new moon’s bent in two, a poor weak thing, But ripens to the full apace, night’s matchless king.[339] Pearls in a mortar pounded are, by chance, sometimes; Still, they’re esteemed a joy to glad eyes in all climes. 15 Then, grains of wheat are cast into the lowly earth; But golden ears thence spring, a source of glee and mirth. These, too, are ground to dust in mill;--vile as to show; Increased in value, thence, bread it becomes, we know. Again ’tis crushed between the teeth; to chyme it turns, And feeds the mind, the thoughts, the soul;--in wisdom burns. The soul, in turn, is subject to the stress of love; New miracles, as seen, “the sowers marvel”[340] prove. But truce to these reflections; let us follow now The words of Joseph’s friend. ’Tis worth while these to know. 20 That conversation closed, said Joseph to his guest: “What gift, my friend, hast brought in token of thy zest?” To go with empty hands and visit friends long missed, Is like a man who goes to mill without his grist. E’en God will ask His creatures in the judgment day: “What offerings have you brought to meet your Maker? Say! ‘Alone, and empty-handed? Is it thus you come? E’en as We first created you? Gifts left at home?’[341] What have you brought as timely offerings in your hands? What are the gifts with which you’d grace your new life’s lands? 25 Or, was it that you’d no belief in this return? Our promise of this day by you was laughed to scorn? If you denied thus the hope to be My guest, Then dust and ashes wait you in My realm, at best. If you did not deny it, whence your empty hands? How come you to a friend’s gate, scorning just demands?” Put by a little from thy daily meat and drink, So shalt thou have a store for offerings’ binding link. “Sleep little” when thou art of those “who lay them down.”[342] “Of mornings,” be of them who “ask for pardon’s crown.”[343] 30 Give signs of life, though slight;--as babes do in the womb; So may God grant thee inward light to cheer thy tomb. And when thou ’scapest from dark and narrow prison there, Then mayst thou soar from earth beyond the realms of air. “The spacious land of God” ’tis named in holy writ,[344] The land to which the prophets all have gladly flit. The heart is never lonesome in that vast abode; Its green trees never wither, frosts no leaves corrode. If now thou load thyself with sensual burden’s weight, Fatigued and jaded, faint thou’lt prove beneath their freight. 35