Clear flows Euphrates through these fertile plains,

'Where date trees flourish, fed by gentle rains.

The med'cine thou wouldst travel far to find

Is here, if firm and constant be thy mind.d
If not, of every remedy despair,

'The dream and vision are but shades and air.'

'Oh queen,' Zeynu'l Asnâm sedate replied, • What vision is so vain as reasoning pride? 'What God's irrevocable fates ordain

'The event declares; but we explore in vain.

To man he lends a portion of his might;

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every mind is dark without his light.

'His bidding, in the vision's voice I hear,

And where he bids me go, he will be near.

Then wherefore should I fear? The desert plain

'Th' Arabian robber bars my way in vain.

'I scorn his sabre, for I trust in heav'n :

'I know the promise to the faithful giv❜n.

Quod petis hic est,

Est Ulubris, animus si te non deficit æquus.

HOR.

Ev'n the sulphureous messenger of death,

e

'The dread Simoom's inevitable breath,

'Is mercy, opening to my ravish'd sight

'The groves of paradise, the courts of light,

'And houries in immortal beauty bright.'

Thus spoke th' enthusiast prince, in ardent strain,

His purpose fix'd, and all remonstrance vain.

Then to his royal mother's practis'd hand

He delegates the sceptre of command;

And from Bassora, his imperial throne,

The willing exile wanders forth alone.

The hungry lion, as he roams for prey,
Glares terrible athwart his nightly way;

But, just in act to spring with dreadful roar,
Checks his fierce onset, aw'd by heav'nly pow'r.

• The Smûm, Simoom, or Samiel, a deleterious blast of the desert. When its approach is perceived its deadly effects may be avoided, if the traveller fall prostrate on the ground, but if it is received into the lungs it is fatal. The reader may find an account of it in Niehbur.

The moon shines forth, resplendent queen of night;

Shine forth the stars, the glitt'ring host of light,

Guides of his way along the pathless waste:

The Bedoween, with hospitable haste,

Invites him to his board, and runs to bring

The purest beverage from the gushing spring;

Till full of hope and rapture he descries
Unnumber'd domes and minarets arise,

Where Cairo, first of cities, views with pride

Nile's mighty stream her fertile reign divide.

Within the walls the traveller at last

Reposes, all his toils and dangers past.

Stretch'd upon straw, beneath a lowly shed,

Bassora's monarch lays his weary head.

What time beyond th' Atlantic sinking bright

The sun on Abyla throws ruddy light,

f Abyla is the promontory on the African side of the Straits of Gibraltar.

And scarce the moon, apparent queen, displays

O'er earth, and heav'n's expanse, her silver rays,

When o'er his senses unresisted stole

Soft sleep, and in oblivion bath'd his soul.

Hail, awful night! unfolding to the eye

Of wond'ring man th' eternal majesty,

Beneath whose footstool, spangling all the sphere, Myriads of suns dispense his bounteous year

To worlds, where living souls their voices raise,
Millions of millions, to proclaim his praise;

By him endu'd with mind, and taught to rise
On wings of faith and hope to brighter skies;
By grace made perfect, in his holy place
To view their great Creator face to face;
And by his love ineffable from hell

Redeem'd, in his unclouded joy to dwell.

Oh universal Father! since thy care

Ev'n the most abject of thy creatures share,

Not unaccepted may these lays ascend

Where choirs of angels in thy presence bend!

These lays, where fiction weaves her flow'rs, to draw

Man's wavering heart to thine unchanging law,

And calls thy scepter'd servants to maintain

By virtue only their permitted reign.

VOL. II.