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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,

a

Rung round their steps, at every bound more sweet,
As 'twere th' 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;
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

with which it abounds.”—Journey of the Russian Ambassador to Persia, 1746.

a «To which will be added the sound of the bells, hanging on the trees, which will be put in motion by the wind proceeding from the throne of God, as often as the blessed wish for music."-Sale.

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

Blue water-lilies," when the breeze

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..

By the fair and brave

Who blushing unite,

Like the sun and wave,

When they meet at night;—

By the tear that shows

When passion is nigh,

As the rain-drop flows.

From the heat of the sky;

By the first love-beat

Of the youthful heart,

By the bliss to meet,

And the pain to part ;

By all that thou hast

To mortals given,

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

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,"
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;

a 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.

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.*

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;"

c

Here fond ZULEIKA woos 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;

a 'This is not quite astronomically true. “Dr. Hadley (says Keil) has 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."

b 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.

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c 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.

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.a

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.

Here paused he, while the music, now less near,
Breathed with a holier language on his ear,

As though the distance, and that heavenly ray
Through which the sounds came floating, took away
All that had been too earthly in the lay.

O! could he listen to such sounds unmoved,

And by that light-nor dream of her he loved?
Dream on, unconscious boy! while yet thou may'st;
'Tis the last bliss thy soul shall ever taste.
Clasp yet awhile her image to thy heart

Ere all the light, that made it dear, depart.

a 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.

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