"It is," said he, with an appealing look to Fadladeen, “in a lighter and humbler strain than the other: " then, striking a few careless but melancholy chords on his kitar, he thus began: :

PARADISE AND THE PERI.

ONE morn a Peri at the gate
Of Eden stood, disconsolate;
And as she listened to the Springs
Of Life within, like music flowing,
And caught the light upon her wings
Through the half-open portal glowing,
She wept to think her recreant race
Should e'er have lost that glorious place!
"How happy," exclaimed this child of air,
"Are the holy Spirits who wander there,

Mid flowers that never shall fade or fall;
Though mine are the gardens of earth and sea,
And the stars themselves have flowers for me,
One blossom of Heaven outblooms them all!
"Though sunny the Lake of cool Cashmere,
With its plane-tree Isle reflected clear,

And sweetly the founts of that Valley fall;
Though bright are the waters of Sing-su-hay,
And the golden floods that thitherward stray,*
Yet-oh 'tis only the Blest can say

How the waters of Heaven outshine them all!

"Go, wing thy flight from star to star,
From world to luminous world, as far

As the universe spreads its flaming wall:
Take all the pleasures of all the spheres,
And multiply each through endless years,
One minute of Heaven is worth them all!"

The glorious Angel who was keeping
The gates of Light beheld her weeping;
And, as he nearer drew and listened
To her sad song, a tear-drop glistened
Within his eyelids, like the spray

From Eden's fountain, when it lies
On the blue flower, which--Bramins say-
Blooms nowhere but in Paradise.+

"The Altan Kol or Golden River of Tibet, which runs into the Lakes of Sing-su-hay, has abundance of gold in its sands, which employs the inhabitants all the summer in gathering it."-Description of Tibet in Pinkerton.

"The Brahmins of this province insist that the blue campac flowers only in Paradise."-Sir W. Jones. It appears, however, from a curious letter of the Sultan of Menangcabow, given by Marsden, that one place on earth may lay claim to the possession of it. "This is the Sultan, who keeps the flower champaka that is blue, and to be found in no other country but his, being yellow elsewhere."-Marsden's Sumatra.

"Nymph of a fair but erring line!"
Gently he said-" One hope is thine.
'Tis written in the Book of Fate,
The Peri yet may be forgiven
Who brings to this Eternal gate

The Gift that is most dear to Heaven!
Go, seek it, and redeem thy sin—
'Tis sweet to let the pardoned in.”

Rapidly as comets run

To the embraces of the Sun ;-
Fleeter than the starry brands
Flung at night from angel hands*
At those dark and daring sprites
Who would climb the empyreal heights,
Down the blue vault the Peri flies,

And, lighted earthward by a glance
That just then broke from morning's eyes,
Hung hovering o'er our world's expanse.
But whither shall the Spirit go

To find this gift for Heaven?"I know
The wealth," she cries, "of every urn,
In which unnumbered rubies burn,
Beneath the pillars of Chilminar; †
I know where the Isles of Perfume are,+
Many a fathom down in the sea,
To the south of sun-bright Araby ;§
I know, too, where the Genii hid
The jewelled cup of their King Jamshid,||
With Life's elixir sparkling high-

But gifts like these are not for the sky.

Where was there ever a gem that shone

Like the steps of Alla's wonderful Throne?

And the Drops of Life-oh! what would they be

In the boundless Deep of Eternity?"

While thus she mused, her pinions fanned

The air of that sweet Indian land

Whose air is balm; whose ocean spreads
O'er coral rocks, and amber beds;
Whose mountains, pregnant by the beam
Of the warm sun, with diamonds teem:

* "The Mahometans suppose that falling stars are the firebrands wherewith the good, angels drive away the bad, when they approach too near the empyrean or verge of the heavens."-Fryer.

t The Forty Pillars; so the Persians call the ruins of Persepolis. It is imagined by them that this palace and the edifices at Balbec were built by Genii, for the purpose of hiding in their subterraneous caverns, immense treasures, which still remain there.-D'Herbelot, Volney.

Diodorus mentions the Isle of Panchaia, to the south of Arabia Felix, where there was a temple of Jupiter.

§ The Isles of Panchaia.

"The cup of Jamshid, discovered, they say, when digging for the foundations of Persepolis."-Richardson.

Whose rivulets are like rich brides,
Lovely, with gold beneath their tides;
Whose sandal groves and bowers of spice
Might be a Peri's Paradise!

But crimson now her rivers ran

With human blood-the smell of death
Came reeking from those spicy bowers,
And man, the sacrifice of man,

Mingled his taint with every breath
Upwafted from the innocent flowers.
Land of the Sun! what foot invades
Thy Pagods and thy pillared shades-
Thy cavern shrines, and Idol stones,
Thy Monarchs and their thousand Thrones?
'Tis He of Gazna *-fierce in wrath
He comes, and India's diadems
Lie scattered in his ruinous path.—
His bloodhounds he adorns with gems,
Torn from the violated necks

Of many a young and loved Sultana; †
Maidens with their pure Zenana,
Priests in the very fane, he slanghters,
And chokes up with the glittering wrecks
Of golden shrines, the sacred waters!
Downward the Peri turns her gaze,
And, through the war-field's bloody haze
Beholds a youthful warrior stand,

Alone beside his native river,—

The red blade broken in his hand,

live to share

And the last arrow in his quiver.
"Live,” said the Conqueror,
The trophies and the crowns I bear !"
Silent that youthful warrior stood-
Silent he pointed to the flood

All crimson with his country's blood,
Then sent his last remaining dart,
For answer, to the Invader's heart.

False flew the shaft, though pointed well;
The Tyrant lived, the Hero fell!

Yet marked the Peri where he lay,

And, when the rush of war was past,
Swiftly descending on a ray

Of morning light she caught the last-
Last glorious drop his heart had shed,
Before its free-born spirit fled !

* "Mahmood of Gazna, or Ghizni, who conquered India in the beginning of the 11th century."-See his History in Dow and Sir J. Malcolm.

"It is reported that the hunting equipage of the Sultan Mahmood was so magnificent that he kept 400 greyhounds and bloodhounds, each of which wore a collar set with jewels, and a covering edged with gold and pearls.”—Unıversal History, vol. iii.

"Be this," she cried, as she winged her flight,
"My welcome gift at the Gates of Light.
Though foul are the drops that oft distil
On the field of warfare, blood like this,
For Liberty shed, so holy is,

It would not stain the purest rill

That sparkles among the Bowers of Bliss!
Oh if there be, on this earthly sphere,

A boon, an offering Heaven holds dear,

'Tis the last libation Liberty draws

From the heart that bleeds and breaks in her cause !"

"Sweet," said the Angel, as she gave

The gift into his radiant hand,
"Sweet is our welcome of the Brave
Who die thus for their native Land.-
But see-alas!—the crystal bar
Of Eden moves not-holier far
Than even this drop the boon must be
That opes the Gates of Heaven for thee !"

Her first fond hope of Eden blighted,
Now among Afric's Lunar Mountains,
Far to the South, the Peri lighted;

And sleeked her plumage at the fountains
Of that Egyptian tide whose birth
Is hidden from the sons of earth
Deep in those solitary woods,
Where oft the Genii of the Floods
Dance round the cradle of their Nile,
And hail the new-born Giant's smile.*
Thence over Egypt's palmy groves,

Her grots, and sepulchres of Kings,
The exiled Spirit sighing roves;
And now hangs listening to the doves
In warm Rosetta's vale-now loves

To watch the moonlight on the wings
Of the white pelicans that break
The azure calm of Moris' Lake.

'Twas a fair scene-a Land more bright
Never did mortal eye behold!

Who could have thought, that saw this night
Those valleys and their fruits of gold
Basking in Heaven's serenest light ;—
Those groups of lovely date-trees bending
Languidly their leaf-crowned heads,
Like youthful maids, when sleep descending
Warns them to their silken beds ;-
Those virgin lilies, all the night
Bathing their beauties in the lake,

* "The Nile, which the Abyssinians know by the names of Abey and Alawy, or the Giant."-Asiat. Research. vol. i. p. 387..

That they may rise more fresh and bright,
When their beloved Sun's awake;-
Those ruined shrines and towers that seem
The relics of a splendid dream;

Amid whose fairy loneliness

Nought but the lapwing's cry is heard,
Nought seen but (when the shadows, flitting
Fast from the moon, unsheath its gleam,)
Some purple-winged Sultana* sitting

Upon a column, motionless

And glittering like an Idol bird

Who could have thought, that there, even there,
Amid those scenes so still and fair,

The Demon of the Plague hath cast
From his hot wing a deadlier blast,
More mortal far than ever came
From the red Desert's sands of flame!
So quick, that every living thing
Of human shape, touched by his wing,
Like plants where the Simoon hath past,
At once falls black and withering!
The sun went down on many a brow
Which, full of bloom and freshness then,
Is rankling in the pest-house now,
And ne'er will feel that sun again.
And oh ! to see the unburied heaps
On which the lonely moonlight sleeps-
The very vultures turn away,
And sicken at so foul a prey!
Only the fierce hyæna stalks

Throughout the city's desolate walks

At midnight, and his carnage plies :

:

Woe to the half-dead wretch who meets

The glaring of those large blue eyes
Amid the darkness of the streets!

"Poor race of men!" said the pitying Spirit,
"Dearly ye pay for your primal Fall-
Some flowerets of Eden ye still inherit,

But the trail of the Serpent is over them all!"
She wept the air grew pure and clear
Around her, as the bright drops ran;

For there's a magic in each tear

Such kindly Spirits weep for man!

Just then beneath some orange trees,
Whose fruit and blossoms in the breeze
Were wantoning together, free,

"That beautiful bird, with plumage of the finest shining blue, with purple beak and legs, the natural and living ornament of the temples and palaces of the Greeks and Romans, which, from the stateliness of its port, as well as the brilliancy of its colours, has obtained the title of Sultana."-Sonnini.