"Poor maiden!" thought the youth, "if thou wert

sent,

"With thy soft lute and beauty's blandishment, "To wake unholy wishes in this heart,

"Or tempt its truth, thou little know'st the art. "For though thy lip should sweetly counsel wrong, "Those vestal eyes would disavow its song. "But thou hast breathed such purity, thy lay "Returns so fondly to youth's virtuous day, "And leads thy soul-if e'er it wandered thence "So gently back to its first innocence, "That I would sooner stop the unchained dove, "When swift returning to its home of love, "And round its snowy wing new fetters twine, "Than turn from virtue one pure wish of thine!"

Scarce had this feeling passed, when, sparkling through

The gently opened curtains of light blue

That veiled the breezy casement, countless eyes,
Peeping like stars through the blue evening skies,
Looked laughing in, as if to mock the pair
That sat so still and melancholy there :-
And now the curtains fly apart, and in
From the cool air, 'mid showers of jessamine
Which those without fling after them in play,
Two lightsome maidens spring,-lightsome as they
Who live in the' air on odors, —and around
The bright saloon, scarce conscious of the ground,
Chase one another, in a varying dance
Of mirth and languor, coyness and advance,
Too eloquently like love's warm pursuit:-
While she, who sung so gently to the lute

Her dream of home, steals timidly away,
Shrinking as violets do in summer's ray,—
But takes with her from AZIM's heart that sigh
We sometimes give to forms that pass us by
In the world's crowd, too lovely to remain,
Creatures of light we never see again!

Around the white necks of the nymphs who danced
Hung carcanets of orient gems, that glanced
More brilliant than the sea-glass glittering o'er
The hills of crystal on the Caspian shore; 1
While from their long, dark tresses, in a fall
Of curls descending, bells as musical

As those that, on the golden-shafted trees
Of EDEN, shake in the eternal breeze, 2

Rung round their steps, at every bound more sweet,
As 'twere the' ecstatic language of their feet.
At length the chase was o'er, and they stood wreathed
Within each other's arms; while soft there breathed
Through the cool casement, mingled with the sighs
Of moonlight flowers, music that seemed to rise
From some still lake, so liquidly it rose;

And, as it swelled again at each faint close,
The ear could track through all that maze of chords
And young sweet voices, these impassioned words:-

A SPIRIT there is, whose fragrant sigh

Is burning now through earth and air;

1 "To the north of us (on the coast of the Caspian, near Badku) was a mountain, which sparkled like diamonds, arising from the sea-glass and crystals with which it abounds."-Journey of the Russian Ambassador to Persia, 1746.

2 "To which will be added the sound of the bells, hanging on the trees,

Where cheeks are blushing, the Spirit is nigh
Where lips are meeting, the Spirit is there!

His breath is the soul of flowers like these,
And his floating eyes-O! they resemble 1
Blue water-lilies, when the breeze

2

Is making the stream around them tremble.

Hail to thee, hail to thee, kindling power!
Spirit of Love, Spirit of Bliss!

Thy holiest time is the moonlight hour,

And there never was moonlight so sweet as this.

which will be put in motion by the wind proceeding from the throne of God, as often as the blessed wish for music."- Sale.

1 "Whose wanton eyes resemble blue water-lilies, agitated by the breeze."-Jayadeva.

2 The blue lotos, which grows in Cashmere and in Persia.

By all that thou hast

To mortals given,

Which-O, could it last,

This earth were heaven!

We call thee hither, entrancing Power!
Spirit of Love! Spirit of Bliss!

Thy holiest time is the moonlight hour,

And there never was moonlight so sweet as this.

Impatient of a scene, whose luxuries stole,
Spite of himself, too deep into his soul,

And where, midst all that the young heart loves most,
Flowers, music, smiles, to yield was to be lost,
The youth had started up, and turned away
From the light. nymphs, and their luxurious lay,
To muse upon the pictures that hung round,1
Bright images, that spoke without a sound,
And views, like vistas into fairy ground.
But here again new spells came o'er his sense : —
All that the pencil's mute omnipotence

Could call up into life, of soft and fair,

Of fond and passionate, was glowing there;
Nor yet too warm, but touched with that fine art
Which paints of pleasure but the purer part;
Which knows ev'n Beauty when half-veiled is best,
Like her own radiant planet of the west,
Whose orb when half retired looks loveliest.2

1 It has been generally supposed that the Mahometans prohibit all pictures of animals; but Toderini shows that, though the practice is forbidden by the Koran, they are not more averse to painted figures and images than other people. From Mr. Murphy's work, too, we find that the Arabs of Spain had no objection to the introduction of figures into painting.

2 This is not quite astronomically true. "Dr. Hadley (says Keil) has

There hung the history of the Genii-King,
Traced through each gay, voluptuous wandering
With her from SABA's bowers, in whose bright eyes
He read that to be blessed is to be wise; 1 1
Here fond ZULEIKA2 Wooes with open arms
The Hebrew boy, who flies from her young charms,
Yet, flying, turns to gaze, and, half undone,
Wishes that heaven and she could both be won;
And here MOHAMMED, born for love and guile,
Forgets the Koran in his MARY'S smile;-
Then beckons some kind angel from above
With a new text to consecrate their love.3

With rapid step, yet pleased and lingering eye, Did the youth pass these pictured stories by, And hastened to a casement, where the light Of the calm moon came in, and freshly bright The fields without were seen, sleeping as still As if no life remained in breeze or rill.

shown that Venus is brightest when she is about forty degrees removed from the sun; and that then but only a fourth part of her lucid disk is to be seen from the earth."

For the loves of King Solomon (who was supposed to preside over the whole race of Genii) with Balkis, the Queen of Sheba, or Saba, see D'Herbelot, and the Notes on the Koran, chap. 2.

"In the palace which Solomon ordered to be built against the arrival of the Queen of Saba, the floor or pavement was of transparent glass, laid over running water, in which fish were swimming." This led the Queen into a very natural mistake, which the Koran has not thought beneath its dignity to commemorate. "It was said unto her, 'Enter the palace.' And when she saw it she imagined it to be a great water; and she discovered her legs by lifting up her robe to pass through it. Whereupon Solomon said to her, 'Verily, this is the place evenly floored with glass.'"- Chap. 27.

2 The wife of Potiphar, thus named by the Orientals.

"The passion which this frail beauty of antiquity conceived for her young Hebrew slave has given rise to a much esteemed poem in the Persian language, entitled Yusef vau Zelikha, by Noureddin Jami; the manuscript copy of which, in the Bodleian Library at Oxford, is supposed to be the finest in the whole world.”- Note upon Nott's Translation of Hafez.

3 The particulars of Mahomet's amour with Mary, the Coptic girl, in justification of which he added a new chapter to the Koran, may be found in Gagnier's Notes upon Abulfeda, p. 151.