Like clustering sunlight fell his yellow tresses,
With purple fillet, scarce confining, bound,
Winding their flow around

A snowy throat that thrilled to their caresses,
And trembling on a breast as lucid white.
As sea-foam in the night.

His girdle held his pipes-those pipes that clearly
Through Carian meadows mocked the nightingale
When Hesper lit the vale

And now the youth was faint, though stepping cheerly,
Supported by his shepherd's crook, he strode
Toward his remote abode.

Mount Latmos lay before him.

Gently gleaming,

A roseate halo from the twilight dim

Hung round its crowd. To him

The rough ascent was light; for, far off, beaming,
Orion rose-and Sirius, like a shield,

And from the south-the yellow south, all glowing
With blandest beauty-came a gentle breeze,
Murmuring o'er sleeping seas,

Which, bearing dewy lamps, and lightly flowing
Athwart his brow, cooled his hot brain, and stole
Like nectar to his soul.

Endymion blessed the wind; his bosom swelling
As his parched lips drank in the luscious draught,
His eyes, even while he quaffed,

Brightening; his stagnant blood again upwelling
From his warm heart; and freshened, as with sleep,
He trod the rocky steep.

At last he gained the top, and, crowned with splendor,
The moon, arising from the Latmian sea,

Stepped o'er the heavenly lea,

Flinging her misty glances, meek and tender
As a young virgin's o'er his marbled brow
That glistened with their glow.

Endymion watched her rise, his bosom burning

With princely thoughts, for though a shepherd's son, He felt that Fame is won

Accept the expiation, and forgive

This day's offences.

Ha! the wonted strain, Precursor of his coming! Whence came this? It seems to flow from some unearthly land.

[Enter Hadad.]

Had.-Does beauteous Tamar view in this clear

fount

Herself or heaven?

Tam.-Now, Hadad, tell me whence These sad, mysterious sounds?

Had.-What sounds, dear princess?

Tam.-Surely, thou knowest; and now I almost think Some spiritual creature waits on thee.

Had. I heard no sounds but such as evening sends Up from the city to these quiet shades

A blended murmur, sweetly harmonizing

With flowing fountains, feathered minstrelsy,
And voices from the hills.

Tam.-The sounds I mean

Floated like mournful music round my head
From unseen fingers.

Had.-When?

Tam.-Now, as thou camest.

Had. 'Tis but thy fancy, wrought
To ecstacy; or else thy grandsire's harp
Resounding from his tower at eventide.
I've lingered to enjoy its solemn tones
Till the broad moon that rose o'er Olivet
Stood listening in the zenith; yea, have deemed
Viols and heavenly voices answer him.
Tam.—But these-

Had.-Were we in Syria, I might say

The Naiad of the fount, or some sweet Nymph,
The goddess of these shades rejoiced in thee,

And gave thee salutations; but I fear

Judah would call me infidel to Moses.

Tam.-How like my fancy! When these strains precede

Thy steps, as oft they do, I love to think

Some gentle being who delights in us

Is hovering near, and warns me of thy coming;

But they are dirge-like.

Had.-Youthful fantasy

Attuned by sadness, makes them seem so, lady;
So evening's charming voices, welcomed ever
As signs of rest and peace ;-the watchman's call,
The closing gates, the Levite's mellow trump,
Announcing the returning moon, the pipe

Of swains, the bleat, the bark, the housing bell,
Send melancholy to a drooping soul.

Tam.-But how delicious are the pensive dreams
That steal upon the fancy at their call!

Had.-Delicious to behold the world at rest!

Meek labor wipes his brow, and intermits
The curse, to clasp the younglings of his cot;
Herdsmen and shepherds fold their flocks-and, hark!
What merry strains they send from Olivet!

The jar of life is still; the city speaks

In gentle murmurs; voices chime with lutes,
Waked in the streets and gardens: loving pairs
Eye the red west, in one another's arms;

And nature, breathing dew and fragrance, yields
A glimpse of happiness, which He, who formed
Earth and the stars had power to make eternal.
Tam.-Ah, Hadad, meanest thou to reproach the
Friend

Who gave so much, because he gave not all?

Had.-Perfect benevolence, methinks, had willed
Unceasing happiness, and peace, and joy;
Filled the whole universe of human hearts
With pleasure, like a flowing spring of life.

Tam.-Our Prophet teaches so till man rebelled.
Had.-Mighty rebellion! Had he leaguered heaven

With beings powerful, numberless, and dreadful,
Strong as the enginery that rocks the world
When all its pillars tremble; mixed the fires
Of onset with annihilating bolts

Defensive volleyed from the throne; this, this
Had been rebellion worthy of the name,
Worthy of punishment. But what did man?
Tasted an apple! and the fragile scene,
Eden, and innocence, and human bliss,
The nectar-flowing streams, life-giving fruits,
Celestial shades, and amaranthine flowers,
Vanish; and sorrow, toil, and pain, and death,
Cleave to him by an everlasting curse.

Tam.-Ah! talk not thus.

Had. Is this benevolence?

Nay, loveliest, these things sometimes trouble me;
For I was tutored in a brighter faith.

Our Syrians deem each lucid fount, and stream,
Forest, and mountain, glade and bosky dell,
Peopled with kind divinities, the friends

Of man-a spiritual race, allied

To him by many sympathies, who seek

His happiness, inspire him with gay thoughts,

Cool with their waves, and fan him with their airs.
O'er them the Spirit of the Universe,

Or soul of Nature, circumfuses all

With mild, benevolent, and sunlike radiance;
Pervading, warming, vivifying earth,

As spirit does the body, till green herbs,

And beauteous flowers, and branchy cedars rise;
And shooting stellar influence through her caves,
Whence minerals and gems imbibe their lustre.
Tam-Dreams, Hadad, empty dreams.
Had.-These deities

They invocate with cheerful, gentle rites,
Hang garlands on their altars, heap their shrines.
With Nature's bounties-fruits and fragrant flowers.
Not like yon gory mount that ever reeks.

Tam.-Cast not reproach upon the holy altar.
Had.-Nay, sweet.-Having enjoyed all pleasures
here,

That Nature prompts--but chiefly blissful love-
At death the happy Syrian maiden deems

Her immaterial flies into the fields,

Or circumambient clouds, or crystal brooks,

And dwells, a Deity, with those she worshipped,
Till Time or Fate return her in its course

To quaff once more the cup of human joy.
Tam.-But thou believest not this?

Had. I almost wish

Thou didst; for I have feared, my gentle Tamar,

Thy spirit is too tender for a law

Announced in terror, coupled with the threats

Of an inflexible and dreadful Being.

Tam.-Witness, ye heavens! Eternal Father, witness! Blest God of Jacob! Maker! Preserver !

That with my heart, my undivided soul,
I love, adore, and praise Thy glorious Name,
Confess Thee Lord of all, believe Thy laws
Wise, just, and merciful, as they are true.
O Hadad! Hadad! you misconstrue much
The sadness that usurps me.
'Tis for thee

I grieve for hopes that fade-for your lost soul,
And my lost happiness.

Had.-Oh, say not so,

Beloved princess. Why distrust my faith?

Tam. Thou knowest, alas! my weakness; but re member,

I never, never will be thine, although

The feast, the blessing, and the song were past,
Though Absalom and David called me bride,

Till sure thou ownest, with truth and love sincere,
The Lord Jehovah.

HADAD'S DESCRIPTION OF THE CITY OF ZION.

'Tis so-the hoary harper sings aright;
How beautiful is Zion! Like a queen
Armed with a helm, in virgin loveliness,
Her heaving bosom in a bossy cuirass,
She sits aloft, begirt with battlements,
And bulwarks swelling from the rock, to guard
The sacred courts, pavilions, palaces,

Soft gleaming through the verdure of the woods,
Which tuft her summit, and, like raven tresses,
Wave their dark beauty round the tower of David.
Resplendent with a thousand golden bucklers,
The embrasures of alabaster shine;

Hailed by the pilgrims of the desert, bound
To Judah's mart with orient merchandise.
But not for thou art fair and turret-crowned,
Wet with the choicest dew of heaven, and blest
With golden fruits, and gales of frankincense,
Dwell I beneath thine ample curtains. Here,
Where saints and prophets teach, where the stern law
Still speaks in thunder, where chief angels watch,
And where the Glory hovers, here I war.