156

PARADISE AND THE PERI.

ONE morn a Peri at the gate
Of Eden stood, disconsolate;
And as she listen'd 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," exclaim'd this child of air, "Are the holy Spirits who wander there,

"Mid flowers that never shall fade or fall; 66 Though mine are the gardens of earth and sea, "And the stars themselves have flowers for me,

66

"One blossom of Heaven out-blooms them all!

Though sunny the Lake of cool Cashmere, "With its plane-tree Isle reflected clear*,

"Numerous small islands emerge from the Lake of Cash

"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!"

mere.

The glorious Angel, who was keeping
The gates of Light, beheld her weeping;
And, as he nearer drew and listen'd

To her sad song, a tear-drop glisten'd
Within his eyelids, like the spray

From Eden's fountain, when it lies

One is called Char Chenaur, from the plane trees upon it."-Foster.

"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.

On the blue flow'r, which-Bramins say—
Blooms nowhere but in Paradise. *

"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 Pardon'd in."

Rapidly as comets run

To the' embraces of the Sun;

Fleeter than the starry brands

Flung at night from angel hands +

* "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 Su

matra.

"The Mahometans suppose that falling stars are the firebrands wherewith the good angels drive away the bad, when

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 Heav'n? —“I know
"The wealth," she cries, " of every urn,
"In which unnumber'd 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‡;

they approach too near the empyrean or verge of the heavens." -Fryer.

* 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 o Arabia Felix, where there was a temple of Jupiter. This island, or rather cluster of isles, has disappeared, "sunk (says Grandpré) in the abyss made by the fire beneath their foundations."- Voyage to the Indian Ocean.

The Isles of Panchaia.

"I know, too, where the Genii hid

"The jewell'd 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

they be

oh! what would

"In the boundless Deep of Eternity?"

While thus she mus'd, her pinions fann'd
The air of that sweet Indian land,
Whose air is balm; whose ocean spreads
O'er coral rocks, and amber bedst;
Whose mountains, pregnant by the beam
Of the warm sun, with diamonds teem;

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

"It is not like the Sea of India, whose bottom is rich with pearls and ambergris, whose mountains of the coast are stored with gold and precious stones, whose gulfs breed creatures that yield ivory, and among the plants of whose shores are ebony, red wood, and the wood of Hairzan, aloes, camphor, cloves, sandal-wood, and all other spices and aromatics; where parrots and peacocks are birds of the forest, and musk and civet are collected upon the lands." Travels of two Mohammedans.