"

Were living still—when, by a rustic grave

1 patched.” He then proceeded to analyze the poem, Beside the swift Amoo's transparent wave,

in that strain, (so well known to the unfortunate bards An aged man, who had grown aged there

of Delhi, whose censures were an infliction from By that lone grave, morning and night in prayer, which few recovered, and whose very praises were like For the last time knelt down—and, though the shade the honey extracted from the bitter flowers of the Of death hung darkening over him, there play'd aloe. The chief personages of the story were, if he A gleam of rapture on his eye and cheek,

rightly understood them, an ill-favoured gentleman, That brighten'd even Death-like the last streak with a veil over his face ;-a young lady, whose reaOf intense glory on th' horizon's brim,

son went and came according as it suited the poet's When night o'er all the rest hangs chill and dim. convenience to be sensible or otherwise ;—and a His soul had seen a vision, while he slept ; youth in one of those hideous Bucharian bonnets, She, for whose spirit he had pray'd and wept who took the aforesaid gentleman in a veil for a DiSo many years, had come to him, all drest

vinity. “From such materials," said he, “what can In angel's smiles, and told him she was blest!

be expected ?--after rivalling each other in long For this the old man breath'd his thanks, and died, - speeches and absurdities, through some thousands of And there, upon the banks of that lov'd tide, lines, as indigestible as the filberds of Berdaa, our friend He and his ZELICA sleep side by side.

in the veil jumps into a tub of aquafortis ; the young

lady dies in a set speech, whose only recommendation is that it is her last; and the lover lives on to a good old age, for the laudable purpose of seeing her ghost,

which he at last happily accomplishes and expires. The story of the Veiled Prophet. of Khorassan This, you will allow, is a fair summary of the story; being ended, they were now doomed to hear Fadla- and if Nasser, the Arabian merchant, told no better, DEEN's criticisms upon it. A series of disappoint- our Holy Prophet (to whom be all honour and glory!) ments and accidents had occurred to this learned had no need to be jealous of his abilities for story. Chamberlain during the journey. In the first place, telling.' those couriers stationed, as in the reign of Shah With respect to the style, it was worthy of the matJehan, between Delhi and the Western coast of ter ;—it had not even those politic contrivances of India, to secure a constant supply of mangoes for the structure, which make up for the commonness of the royal table, had, by some cruel irregularity, failed thoughts by the peculiarity of the manner, nor that in their duty; and to eat any mangoes but those of stately poetical phraseology by which sentiments, Mazagong was, of course, impossible. In the next mean in themselves, like the blacksmith’sapron place, the elephant, laden with his fine antique porce-converted into a banner, are so easily gilt and em. lain, had, in an unusual fit of liveliness, shattered the broidered into consequence. Then, as to the versifiwhole set to pieces :

:-an irreparable loss, as many of cation, it was, to say no worse of it, execrable: it had the vessels were so exquisitely old as to have been neither the copious flow of Ferdosi, the sweetness of used under the Emperors Yan and Chun, who reigned Hafez, nor the sententious march of Sadi; but apmany ages before the dynasty of Tang. His Koran peared to him, in the uneasy heaviness of its movetoo, supposed to be the identical copy between the ments, to have been modelled upon the gait of a very leaves of which Mahomet's favourite pigeon used to tired dromedary. The licenses too in which it innestle, had been mislaid by his Koran-bearer three dulged were unpardonable;—for instance this line, and whole days; not without much spiritual alarm to the poem abounded with such ;FADLADEEN, who, though professing to hold, with Like the faint, exquisite music of a dream. other loyal and orthodox Mussulmans, that salvation could only be found in the Koran, was strongly sus

“What critic that can count,” said FADLADEÉN, pected of believing in his heart, that it could only be

" and has his full complement of fingers to count found in his own particular copy of it. When to all withal, would tolerate for an instant such syllabic suthese grievances is added the obstinacy of the cooks, perfluities ?”—He here looked round and discovered in putting the pepper of Canara into his dishes in that most of his audience were asleep; while the stead of the cinnamon of Serendib, we may easily glimmering lamps seemed inclined to follow their suppose that he came to the task of criticism with, at example. It became necessary, therefore, however least, a sufficient degree of irritability for the purpose. painful to himself, to put an end to his valuable ani

" In order,” said he, importantly swinging about his madversions for the present, and he accordingly conchaplet of pearls, “to convey with clearness my cluded, with an air of dignified candour, thus : “ Not. opinion of the story this young man has related, it is withstanding the observations which I have thought necessary to take a review of all the stories that have it my duty to make, it is by no means my wish to disever—“My good FadLADEEN !” exclaimed the Prin- courage the young man: so far from it, indeed, that cess, interrupting him, “ we really do not deserve that if he will but totally alter his style of writing and you should give yourself so much trouble. Your opinion of the poem we have just heard, will, I have 1 La lecture de ces Fables plaisait si fort aux Arabes, no doubt, be abundantly edifying, without any further que, quand Mahomet les entretenait de l'Histoire de l'Ao

cien Testament, ils les méprisaient, lui disant que celles waste of your valuable erudition.” “ If that be all,” que Nasser leur racontait étaient beaucoup plus belles. replied the critic,-evidently mortified at not being Cette préférence attira à Nasser la malédiction de Mahomet allowed to show how much he knew about every

et de tous ses disciples.—D'Herbelot.

2 The blacksmith Gao, who successfully resisted the thing but the subject immediately before him—“If tyrant Zohak, and whose apron became the Royal Standard that be all that is required, the matter is easily des- of Persia.

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toinking, I have very little doubt that I shall be vastly Irem. Every precious flower was there to be found, pleased with him."

that poetry, or love, or religion has ever consecrated, Some days elapsed, after this harangue of the Great from the dark hyacinth, to which Hafez compares Chamberlain, before LALLA Rookh could venture to his mistress's hair, to the Camalata, by whose rosy ask for another story. The youth was still a wel- blossoms the heaven of India is scented. As they come guest in the pavilion; to one heart, perhaps too sat in the cool fragrance of this delicious spot, and dangerously welcome—but all mention of poetry was, Lalla Rookh remarked that she could fancy it the as if by common consent, avoided. Though none of abode of that flower-loving Nymph whom they worthe party had much respect for FADLADEEN, yet his ship in the temples of Kathay, or one of those Peris, censures, thus magisterially delivered, evidently made those beautiful creatures of the air, who live upon peran impression on them all. The Poet himself, to fumes, and to whom a place like this might make some whom criticism was quite a new operation, (being amends for the Paradise they have lost,—the young wholly unknown in that Paradise of the Indies, Cash- Poet, in whose eyes she appeared, while she spoke, mere,) felt the shock as it is generally felt at first, till to be one of the bright spiritual creatures she was use has made it more tolerable to the patient ;-the describing, said, hesitatingly, that he remembered a ladies began to suspect that they ought not to be Story of a Peri, which, if the Princess had no objecpleased, and seemed to conclude that there must have tion, he would venture to relate. “It is,” said he, been much good sense in what FADLADEEN said, with an appealing look to FADLADEEN,“in a lighter from its having set them all so soundly to sleep;- and humbler strain than the other;" then, striking a while the self-complacent Chamberlain was left to few careless but melancholy chords on his kitar, he triumph in the idea of having, for the hundred and thus began :fiftieth time in his life, extinguished a Poet. LALLA Rooks alone—and Love knew why-persisted in PARADISE AND THE PERI. being delighted with all she had heard, and in resolving to hear more as speedily as possible. Her manner, however, of first returning to the subject was ONE morn a Peri at the gate unlucky. It was while they rested during the heat Of Eden stood, disconsolate; of noon near a fountain, on which some hand had And as she listen’d to the Springs rudely traced those well-known words from the Of Life within, like music flowing, Garden of Sadi,—“ Many, like me, have viewed this And caught the light upon her wings fountain, but they are gone, and their eyes are closed Through the half-open'd portal glowing, for ever!”—that she took occasion, from the melan- She wept to think her recreant race choly beauty of this passage, to dwell upon the charms

Should e'er have lost that glorious place! of poetry in general. "It is true," she said, “ few “ How happy,” exclaim'd this child of air, poets can imitate that sublime bird, which flies al- " Are the holy Spirits who wander there, ways in the air, and never touches the earth ;'—it is

'Mid flowers that never shall fade or fall: only once in many ages a Genius appears, whose Though mine are the gardens of earth and sea, words, like those on the Written Mountain, last for And the stars themselves have flowers for me, ever:- but still there are some, as delightful perhaps,

One blossom of Heaven out-blooms them all! though not so wonderful, who, if not stars over our head, are at least flowers along our path, and whose“ Though sunny the lake of cool CASHMERE, sweetness of the moment we ought gratefully to in- With its plane-tree Isle reflected clear,' hale, without calling upon them for a brightness and And sweetly the founts of that Valley fall; a durability beyond their nature. In short,” continued Though bright are the waters of Sing-SU-HAY, she, blushing, as if conscious of being caught in an And the golden floods, that thitherward stray, ? oration, “it is quite cruel that a poet cannot wander Yet-oh, 'tis only the Blest can say through his regions of enchantment, without having a

How the waters of Heaven outshine them all! critic for ever, like the old Man of the sea, upon his “Go wing thy flight from star to star, back.''2_FADLADEEN, it was plain, took this last From world to luminous world, as far luckless allusion to himself, and would treasure it up As the universe spreads its flaming wall; in his mind as a whetstone for his next criticism. A Take all the pleasures of all the spheres, sudden silence ensued; and the Princess, glancing a And multiply each through endless years, look at FERAMORZ, saw plainly she must wait for a One minute of Heaven is worth them all!" more courageous moment. But the glories of Nature, and her wild, fragrant

The glorious Angel, who was keeping airs, playing freshly over the current of youthful

The gates of Light, beheld her weeping; spirits, will soon heal even deeper wounds than the

And, as he nearer drew and listen'd dull Fadladeens of this world can inflict. In an even

To her sad song, a tear-drop glisten'd ing or two after, they came to the small Valley of

Within his eyelids, like the spray Gardens, which had been planted by order of the

From Eden's fountain, when it lies Emperor for his favourite sister Rochinara, during their progress to Cashmere, some years before ; and

1 "Numerous small islands emerge from the Lake of never was there a more sparkling assemblage of trees upon it.”— Forster.

Cashmere. One is called Char Chenaur, from the planesweets, since the Gulzar-e-Irem, or Rose-bower of 2 “The Altan Kol, or Golden River of Tibet, which runs

into the Lakes of Sing-su-bay, has abundance of gold in its

sands, which employs the inhabitants all summer in gather1 The Huma.

2 The story of Sinbad. ing it.”-Description of Tibet in Pinkerton G

And sleek’d her plumage at the fountains

And ne'er will feel that sun again!
Of that Egyptian tide,—whose birth

And oh! to see th' unburied heaps
Is hidden from the sons of earth,

On which the lonely moonlight sleeps
Deep in those solitary woods,

The very vultures turn away,
Where oft the Genü of the Floods

And sicken at so foul a prey!
Dance round the cradle of their Nile,

Only the fierce hyæna stalks!
And hail the new-born Giant's sinile !!

Throughout the city's desolate walks
"Thence, over Egypt's palmy groves,

At midnight, and his carnage plies-
Her grots, and sepulchres of kings,

Woe to the half-dead wretch who meets
The exil'd Spirit sighing roves ;

The glaring of those large blue eyes?
And now hangs listening to the doves

Amid the darkness of the streets !
In warm Rosetta's vale3.now loves

"Poor race of Men!" said the pitying Spirit, To watch the moonlight on the wings

“Dearly ye pay for your primal fall-
Of the white pelicans that break

Some flowrets of Eden ye still inherit,
The azure calm of Meris' Lake.

But the trail of the Serpent is over them all !" 'Twas a fair scene—a land more bright

She wept—the air grew pure and clear
Never did mortal eye behold!

Around her, as the bright drops'ran;
Who could have thought, that saw this night

For there's a magic in each tear
Those valleys, and their fruits of gold,

Such kindly Spirits weep for man!
Basking in heav'n's serenest light ;-
"Those groups of lovely date-trees bending

Just then beneath some orange trees,
Languidly their leaf-crown'd heads,

Whose fruit and blossoms in the breeze
Like youthful maids, when sleep, descending, Were wantoning together, free,
Warns them to their silken beds; 5

Like age at play with infancy--
Those virgin lilies, all the night

Beneath that fresh and springing bower,
Bathing their beauties in the lake,

Close by the Lake, she heard the moan "That they may rise more fresh and bright,

Of one who, at this silent hour,
When their beloved Sun's awake;-

Had thither stol'n to die alone.
Those ruin'd shrines and towers that seem

One who in life, where'er he mov'd, "The relics of a splendid dream;

Drew after him the hearts of many;
Amid whose fairy loneliness

Yet now, as though he ne'er were lov'd,
Nought but the lapwing's cry is heard,

Dies here, unseen, unwept by any! Nought seen but (when the shadows, flitting

None to watch near him-none to slake Fast from the moon, unsheath its gleam)

The fire that in his bosom lies,
Some purple-wing'd Sultana® sitting

With e'en a sprinkle from that lake,
Upon a column, motionless

Which shines so cool before his eyes.
And glittering, like an idol bird ! -

No voice, well-known through many a day,
Who could have thought, that there, e'en there, To speak the last, the parting word,
Amid those scenes so still and fair,

Which, when all other sounds decay,
The Demon of the Plague hath cast

Is still like distant music heard :
From his hot wing a deadlier blast,

That tender farewell on the shore
More mortal far than ever came

Of this rude world, when all is o'er, From the red Desert's sands of flame!

Which cheers the spirit, ere its bark So quick, that every living thing

Puts off into the unknown Dark.
Of human shape, touch'd by his wing,

Deserted youth! one thought alone
Like plants, where the Simoon hath past,

Shed joy around his soul in death-
At once falls black and withering!

That she, whom he for years had known
The sun went down on many a brow,

And lov'd, and might have call’d his own,
Which, full of bloom and freshness then,

Was safe from this foul midnight's breath ;Is rankling in the pest-house now,

Safe in her father's princely halls,

Where the cool airs from fountain--falls, 1 “The Nile, which the Abyssinians know by the names Freshly perfum'd by many a brand of Abey and Alawy, or the Giant.”-Asiat. Researches, of the sweet wood from India's land, vol. i. p. 387.

2 See Perry's View of the Levant, for an account of the Were pure as she whose brow they fann'd. sepulchres in Upper Thebes, and the numberless grots covered all over with hieroglyphics, in the mountains of But see,-who yonder comes by stealth, Upper Egypt.

This melancholy bower to seek, 3" The orchards of Rosetta are filled with turtle-doves."

Like a young envoy sent by Health, -Sonnini.

4 Savary mentions the pelicans upon Lake Mæris. With rosy gifts upon her cheek? 5 " The superb date-tree, whose head languidly reclines, 'Tis she-far off, through moonlight dim, like that of a handsome woman overcome with sleep."Dafard el Hadad.

He knew his own betrothed bride, 6 " That beautiful bird, with plumage of the finest shining blue, with purple beak and legs, the natural and living orna- 1 Jackson, speaking of the plague that occurred in West ment of the temples and palaces of the Greeks and Romans, Barbary, when he was there, says, “ The birds of the air fled which, from the stateliness of its port, as well as the bril. away from the abodes of men. The hyænas, on the conliancy of its colours has obtained the title of Sultana.”- trary, visited the cemeteries,” &c. Sonnini.

Ah! once,

She, who would rather die with him,

And shook her sparkling wreath, and shed Than live to gain the world beside !

Such lustre o'er each paly face, Her arms are round her lover now,

That like two lovely saints they seem'd His livid cheek to hers she presses,

Upon the eve of dooms-day taken And dips, to bind his burning brow,

From their dim graves, in odour sleeping ;In the cool lake her loosen'd tresses.

While that benevolent PERI beam'd how little did he think

Like their good angel, calmly keeping
An hour would come, when he should shrink

Watch o'er them, till their souls would waken!
With horror from that dear embrace,
Those gentle arms, that were to him

But morn is blushing in the sky;
Holy as is the cradling place

Again the Peri soars above, Of Eden's infant cherubim !

Bearing to Heav'n that precious sigh And now he yields--now turns away,

Of pure, self-sacrificing love. Shuddering as if the venom lay

High throbb'd her heart, with hope elate, All in those proffer'd lips alone

The Elysian palm she soon shall win, Those lips that, then so fearless grown,

For the bright Spirit at the gate Never until that instant came

Smil'd as she gave that offering in; Near his unask'd, or without shame.

And she already hears the trees “Oh! let me only breathe the air,

Of Eden, with their crystal bells The blessed air that's breath'd by thee,

Ringing in that ambrosial breeze And, whether on its wings it bear

That from the throne of ALLA swells; Healing or death, 'tis sweet to me!

And she can see the starry bowls There, drink my tears, while yet they fall,

That lie around that lucid lake, Would that my bosom's blood were balm, Upon whose banks admitted souls And, well thou know'st, I'd shed it all,

Their first sweet draught of glory take !" To give thy brow one minute's calm.

But ah! e'en Peri's hopes are vain-
Nay, turn not from me that dear face-

Again the Fates forbade ; again
Am I not thine-thy own lov'd bride-
The one, the chosen one, whose place

Th' immortal barrier clos'd—“not yet,"
In life or death is by thy side!

The Angel said as, with regret, Think'st thou that she, whose only light,

He shut from her that glimpse of gloryIn this dim world, from thee hath shone,

“True was the maiden, and her story,

Written Could bear the long, the cheerless night,

light o'er Alla's head, That must be hers when thou art gone ?

By Seraph eyes sha!! long be read. That I can live, and let thee go,

But, PERI, see--the crystal bar

Of Eden moves not-holier far
Who art my life itself ?--No, no-
When the stem dies, the leaf that grew

Than e'en this sight the boon must be
Out of its heart must perish too!

That opes the gates of Heav'n for thee.” Then turn to me, my own love, turn,

Now, upon Syria's land of roses? Before like thee I fade and burn;

Softly the light of eve reposes, Cling to these yet cool lips, and share

And, like a glory, the broad sun The last pure life that lingers there !"

Hangs over sainted LEBANON ; She fails—she sinks-as dies the lamp

Whose head in wintry grandeur towers, In charnel airs or cavern-damp,

And whitens with eternal sleet, So quickly do his baleful sighs

While summer, in a vale of flowers,
Quench all the sweet light of her eyes.

Is sleeping rosy at his feet.
One struggle—and his pain is past--
Her lover is no longer living!

To one, who look'd from upper air
One kiss the maiden gives, one last,

O’er all th’ enchanted regions there, Long kiss, which she expires in giving!

How beauteous must have been the glow,

The life, the sparkling from below! “Sleep,” said the PERI, as softly she stole

Fair gardens, shining streams, with ranks The farewell sigh of' that vanishing soul,

Of golden melons on their banks, As true as e'er warm'd a woman's breast

More golden where the sun-light falls ;" Sleep on; in visions of odour rest,

Gay lizards, glittering on the walls3
In balmier airs than ever yet stirr'd
Th' enchanted pile of that lonely bird,

1“On the shores of a quadrangular lake stand a thou Who sings at the last his own death-lay,'

sand goblets, made of stars, out of which souls predestined And in music and perfume dies away!"

to enjoy felicity, drink the crystal wave."-From Chateau

briand's Description of the Mahometan Paradise, in his Thus saying, from her lips she spread

Beauties Christianity. Unearthly breathings through the place,

2 Richardson thinks that Syria had its name from Suri, a

beautiful and delicate species of rose for which that country 1. "In the East, they suppose the Phænix to have fifty has been always famous ;-hence, Suristan, the Land of orifices in his bill, which are continued to his tal; and thai, Roses. after living one thousand years, he builds himself a funeral

3" The number of lizards I saw one day in the great pile, sings a melodious air of different harmonies through court of the Temple of the Sun at Balbec, amounted to his fifty organ pipes, flaps his wings with a velocity which many thousands; the ground, the walls, and stones of the sets fire to the wood, and consumes himself.- Richardson. I ruined buildings were covered with them.-Bruce.