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RETRIBUTION. A DREAM.

[Translated from a Persian Manuscript.]

I was meditating, the other evening, on that manyhandled sceptre, the power of wrong, and on the million possessors and abusers of it; and on that weak rush of right, which sometimes feebly opposes it; when by degrees I became drowsily confused with the most inco, herent and contradictory half-waking and half-dreaming thoughts; and, at last, fell back into the nursing arms of that gentle mother, Sleep, and was no sooner fast folded in her unfelt embraces, than the following dream came upon me.

Methought I wandered through a delicious country, where nature was so prodigal of her bounties, that man had little more to do than sit serenely under the sylvan shade of his own olive-trees, or walk in his vineyards, and take her gifts as he wanted them, and as they fell at The his feet, or hung within the reach of his hand. land literally teemed with the spontaneous simple luxuries of life; and its people seemed happy, innocent, and pleased with the past and the present, and blindly dreadless of any evil that was to come on them in the future. I journeyed on and on; but wherever I went I could no where find want, no where hear discontent, nor any where see oppression either of the simple and mild governors over the simple sylvan people, or of the people over each other. Happy country! thought I, in my dream;-here will I rest, and enjoy the few years of life in this close valley, far from the tyrants of the wider world, and far from its vileness, wickedness, and want. Methought that here I sat me down on a beautiful hill

that overlooked the vineyarded valley, and soon fell asleep; and having slept a time, awoke again, when all that I had seen of the happiness, and content, and plenty of this pleasant valley was changed into the worst and veriest reverse. The vineyards were all razed, and trampled down by the marching feet of the horses and men of an army of invaders, who were traversing that fruitful land; and I saw that its plenty-fed people were flying in all quarters from the slaying swords of their oppressors; and that others were dying or dead, in ineffectually opposing them.

Methought, then, that I saw that haggard monster, Want, rear her pale, emaciated form from among the ruins of that people's harvest, and stalk over their fields; and wherever she appeared, the affrighted people who had escaped the sword, fell at her feet, and died, like victims under the crushing car of the cruel god of the Brahmins. I wept to see so beautiful a land deformed and laid waste by these polished barbarians of rapine and ravage; and in the anger of my grief, cursed those wanton spoilers of what they did not enjoy, and seemed only to have pleasure in destroying, that they might shew this harmless people that they possessed the power of making their fellow-men miserable, and the fatherland of their birth less happy to them than the grave of their death. And now these marauders, having murdered the most of the people, and seized their sole treasures, drove off the cattle from their pastures, and sent them before their retreating forces to their city, which was beyond the hills of the valley.

And now, methought, there suddenly appeared before me, as if she had come out of the angry earth, insulted and outraged by those brutal tramplers of its fruits and fertility, one of those glorious Beings which appear to

men from the heavens; who, after eyeing me with a smile of a divine regard, addressed me in these words:

"Thou weepest the devastation made in this lovely valley; and thou hast seen the wrongs which man will do his brother man, because he has the power to do them, and having that, wants not the will. Thou hast seen in this an example of the lawlessness of all power that comes not from heaven,-thou hast seen it, and I beheld thee weep it; be wise, also, as thou art piteous, and learn from it."

"Gracious Genius," I replied, with deep reverence, “I have already learned to hate the tyrants and the tyranny of unlawful power; and would, if it were mine to do so glorious a deed, revenge it."

Sayest thou truly, oh excellent mortal! and wouldest thou, indeed, do it, if gifted to do it?"

"I would, so hear me, heaven!" I ejaculated with fervency.

"Know then," said the fair vision, "I am the Genius of Retribution; and have a power from the great Good who made even those lawless men of might, and gave them that gift which they have thus abused, to punish and retaliate upon these beyond the full measure of the injuries they have poured upon the heads of their harmless neighbour-men. If thou wilt serve me like a true minister, I will bestow on thee an irresistible power to retribute on them the desolating deed they have done; but it will not be by ravage and rapine that they shall be rewarded according to their deserts, but by a subtler, but as sure and more destroying, influence. Go thou beyond these once pleasant hills and this viny valley, and there thou wilt behold, in the vast plain, a great city, full of those wicked men of might; and where dwell in pomp and prodigal pride the great rulers of the war

riors who have ravaged under thine eyes those harmless dwellers among vines and olive-trees; and who gave them the word, who already had the will, to set upon this defenceless people, and crush their purple plenty under their feet, and drive them from the ancient hearths of their homes to the dungeons of thraldom, or the doors of death. For those, who were the common dogs and blood-hounds of the war, leave them to the punishment they will meet with from one another; and they shall fall by the ears together, for the booty they have taken, and so tear out each other's hearts, till one by one a retributive punishment is done on them. But work thou my will among their wilful rulers: go thou into their pompous palaces, which, by my aid, shall be as open to thee as is the air; and there, unseen of all, with this talisman which I here give thee, strike them with the severest stripe of my wrath, changing their conquest of others into a defeat of themselves; and all the treasures which they have ravished away from those contented dwellers of the vine-valley, into deadly delights and poisoned pleasures. The talisman which I now give thee has the virtue to change every thing which it shall hereafter touch in thy retributive hand, to the gross opposite of the state in which it is when touched by it. Use it wisely and virtuously, and spare not the use of it; but touch not, as thou valuest the love of heaven, any who have not done this wrong, for thou shalt find these. Forbear the virtuous and the innocent of this, and thou shalt do the good I appoint thee to do, and bring thyself a good which hereafter thou shalt enjoy among the angels who never were of earth, and the just men who were of earth, but now are eternally of the heavens."

At these words, methought that the solid earth opened to a slow and solemn strain of music, that arose like a

rich essence into the air; and a radiant and excessive light spread like a curtain around the good Genius, and enveloped her in a glory, which made her as impalpable to sight as if the dunnest clouds of darkness had veiled her disappearing. The music gradually melted into soundless air; the thick concentrated light broke into separate beams, which shot out a thousand ways, like so many suddenly discharged arrows, each particular ray darting off into the indistinct distance, till it was no longer visible, but had melted into the universal light. I looked at the earth where it had opened, but it shewed no line of fracture; and starting to my feet, from the kneeling reverence into which I had bended, from deep awe of her solemn presence and sublime departure, and drawing my regular breath again, which had respired irregularly as if in fear, I looked once again on the dreary and desolate valley, whose cause I was to revenge; and placing the talisman in my breast, which was to give me the power to work it, I set off for the city beyond the hills; and in a few moments, as I thought, in the oblivious indistinctness and hurry of my dream, found myself in the heart of it, without remembering to have passed through its gates.

It was a mighty heart of life, and luxury, and lewdness, and wilful lawlessness. I looked about me for the palace of the great ruler, for there was the court of my mission; and by the aid of the talisman which led me to it as it had been my will, coming up to the golden gates of a lofty house, that seemed by its height as it would look into the heavens, I was impelled through them (though strong as the gates of Gaza, and stout-ribbed with massy thicknesses of iron) as if they were but unsubstantial shadows, or I the subtlest of spirits. There was a noise of wassailing, and rout, and revelry within, as I

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