"I'll sweep my darkening, desolating way, "Ye wise, ye learn'd, who grope your dull "By By the dim twinkling gleams of ages gone, way on "Like superstitious thieves, who think the light "From dead men's marrow guides them best at night"Ye shall have honours-wealth, yes, Sages, yes "I know, grave fools, your wisdom's nothingness; "But a gilt stick, a bauble blinds it here. "By these learn'd slaves, the meanest of the throng; "Their wits bought up, their wisdom shrunk so small, "A sceptre's puny point can wield it all! "Ye too, believers of incredible creeds, "Whose faith inshrines the monsters which it breeds; 5 A kind of lantern formerly used by robbers, called the Hand of Glory, the candle for which was made of the fat of a dead malefactor. This, however, was rather a western than an eastern superstition. "Who, bolder ev'n than NEMROD, think to rise "Your preaching zealots, too inspir'd to seek "One grace of meaning for the things they speak; - "Where none but priests are privileg❜d to trade "In that best marble of which Gods are made;" "They shall have mysteries "For knaves to thrive by -aye, precious stuff "Dark, tangled doctrines, dark as fraud can weave, 6 Symes's Ava, vol. ii. p. 376. } "Vain things! as lust or vanity inspires, "The Heav'n of each is but what each desires, "So let him-EBLIS! grant this crowning curse, "But keep him what he is, no Hell were worse." "Oh my lost soul!" exclaim'd the shuddering maid, Whose ears had 'drunk like poison all he said,MOKANNA started not abash'd, afraid, He knew no more of fear than one who dwells But, in those dismal words that reach'd his ear, In which the legend o'er Hell's Gate is read, That, new as 'twas from her, whom nought could dim Or sink till now, it startled even him. "Ha, my fair Priestess !"—thus, with ready wile, Th' impostor turn'd to greet her "Hath inspiration in its rosy beam 66 "thou, whose smile Beyond th' Enthusiast's hope or Prophet's dream! 66 Light of the Faith! who twin'st religion's zeal "So close with love's, men know not which they feel, "Nor which to sigh for, in their trance of heart, "The Heav'n thou preachest or the Heav'n thou art! "What should I be without thee? without thee. "How dull were power, how joyless victory! "Though borne by angels, if that smile of thine "Bless'd not my banner, 'twere but half divine. "But-why so mournful, child? those eyes, that shone "All life last-night-what! is their glory gone? "Come, come-this morn's fatigue hath made them "pale, "They want rekindling suns themselves would fail, "Did not their comets bring, as I to thee, "From Light's own fount supplies of brilliancy! "Thou seest this cup no juice of earth is here, "But the pure waters of that upper sphere, "Whose rills o'er ruby beds and topaz flow, "Catching the gem's bright colour, as they go. "Nightly my Genii come and fill these urns "Nay, drink-in every drop life's essence burns; ""Twill make that soul all fire, those eyes all light"Come, come, I want thy loveliest smiles to-night: "There is a youth-why start?—thou saw'st him then; "Look'd he not nobly? such the god-like men "Thou'lt have to woo thee in the bowers above; "Though he, I fear, hath thoughts too stern for love, "Too rul'd by that cold enemy of bliss Nay, shrink not, pretty sage; 'tis not for thee "To scan the mazes of Heav'n's mystery. The steel must pass through fire, ere it can yield "Fit instruments for mighty hands to wield. "This very night I mean to try the art "Of powerful beauty on that warrior's heart. "All that my Haram boasts of bloom and wit, ❝ Of skill and charms, most rare and exquisite, "Shall tempt the boy;-young MIRZALA's blue eyes, "Whose sleepy lid like snow on violets lies; "AROUYA'S cheeks, warm as a spring-day sun, "And lips that, like the seal of SOLOMON, "Have magic in their pressure; Zeba's lute, "And LILLA's dancing feet, that gleam and shoot 66 Rapid and white as sea-birds o'er the deep!— "All shall combine their witching powers to steep |