-Thou better know'st

The offices of nature, bond of childhood

Wherein I thee endow'd

That the hopes he had conceived of tender ufage from Regan fhould be deceived, heightens his distress to a great degree. Yet it is still aggravated and increased, by the fudden appearance of Gonerill; upon the unexpected fight of whom he exclaims

Who comes here? O heavens! If you do love old men, if your sweet (way Allow obedience, if yourselves are old, Make it your caufe; fend down and take my part!

This addrefs is furely pathetic beyond expreffion; it is fcarce enough to speak of it in the cold terms of criticifm. There follows a queftion to Gonerill, that I have never read without tears:

Ar't not afham'd to look upon this beard?

This fcene abounds with many noble turns of paffion, or rather conflicts of very different paffions. The inhuman daughters urge him in vain, by all the fophitical and unfilial arguments they were miftreffes of, to diminish the humber of his train. He anfwers them by only four poignant words:

I gave you all!

When Regan at laft confents to receive him, but without any attendants, for that he might be ferved by her own domeftics, he can no longer contain his

bly affecting

You fee me here, ye Gods! a poor old man, As full of grief as age, wretched in both: If it be you that fir these daughters hearts Against their father, fool me not fo much To bear it tamely!

Then fuddenly he addresses Gonerill and Regan in the fevereft terms and with the bittereft threats:

No, you unnatural hags!

I will have fuch revenges on you bothThat all the world fhall-I will do fuch things

What they are yet, I know not

Nothing occurs to his mind fevere enough for them to fuffer, or him to inAct. His paffion rifes to a height that deprives him of articulation. He tells them that he will fubdue his forrow, though almoft irresistible; and that they fhall not triumph over his weakness:

The Dervife, after a fhort filence, advanced, and faluting him with the calm dignity which independence confers upon humility, requested that he would reveal his purpose.

Almet, faid the ftranger,

thou feeft before thee a man, whom the hand of profperity has overwhelmed 'with wretchedness. Whatever I once defired as the means of happiness, I now poffefs; but I am not yet happy, and therefore I defpair. I regret the lapfe of time, because it glides away without enjoyment; and as I expect nothing in the future but the vanities of the paft, I do not with that the future should arrive. Yet I tremble left it should be cut off; and my heart finks when I anticipate the moment, in which eternity fhall clofe over the vacuity of my life like the fea upon the path of a fhip, and leave no traces of my existence more durable than the furrow which remains after the waves have united. If in the treasures of thy wildom there is any precept to obtain felicity, vouchfafe it to me: for this purpofe am I come; a purpose which yet I feared to reveal, left, like all the

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whom cuftom has rendered them familiar? or can the power of habit render others infenfible of pain, who live only to traverfe the defart; a fcene of dreadful uniformity, where a barren level is bounded only by the horizon; where no change of profpect, or variety of images, relieves the traveller from a fenfe of toil and danger, of whirlwinds which in a moment may bury him in the fand, and of thirst which the wealthy have given half their poffetlions to allay? Do thofe on whom hereditary diamonds fparkle with unregarded luftre, gain from the poffeffion what is loft by the wretch who feeks them in the mine; who lives excluded from the common bounties of nature; to whom ' even the viciffitude of day and night is not known; who fighs in perpetual darkness, and whofe life is one mourn⚫ful alternative of infenfibility and labour? If thofe are not happy who poffefs, in proportion as thofe are wretched who bestow, how vain a dream is. the life of man! And if there is, indeed, fuch difference in the value of exiftence, how thall we acquit of par

ence has been made?'

Heaven

STRANGER, faid he, the knowledge which I have received from the Prophet, I will communicate to thee. As I was fitting one evening at the porch of the temple penfive and alone, mine eye wandered among the multitude that was scattered before me; and while I remarked the wearinefs and folicitude which was visible in every countenance, I was fuddenly struck with a fenfe of their condition. Wretched mortals, faid I, to what purpose are 'you buy? If to produce happiness, by whom is it enjoyed? Do the linens of Egypt, and the filks of Perfia, bestow felicity on thofe who wear them, equal to the wretchedness of yonder flaves whom I fee leading the camels that bring them? Is the fineness of the texture, or the fplendor of the tints, regarded with delight by thofe to

While my thoughts thus multiplied, and my heart burned within me, I became fenfible of a fudden influence from above. The streets and the crowds of Mecca disappeared; I found myself fitting on the declivity of a mountain, and perceived at my right-hand an angel,. whom I knew to be Azoran the minifter of reproof. When I faw him I was afraid. I caft mine eye upon the ground, and was about to deprecate his anger, when he commanded me to be filent. Almet, faid he, thou haft devoted thy life to meditation, that thy counfel might deliver igno ⚫rance from the mazes of error, and

deter prefumption from the precipice ⚫ of guilt: but the book of nature thou hait read without understanding; it is again open before thee; look up, 'confider it and be wife."

I locked up, and beheld an inclosure, beautiful as the gardens of Paradife, but of a fmall extent. Through the middle, there was a green walk; at the end, a wild defart; and beyond, impenetrable darkness. The walk was fhaded with trees of every kind, that were covered at

002

once

once with bloffoms and fruit; innumerable birds were finging in the branches; the grafs was intermingled with flowers, which impregnated the breeze with fragrance, and painted the path with beauty: on one fide flowed a gentle transparent ftream, which was just heard to murmur over the golden fands that fparkled at the bottom; and on the other were walks and bowers, fountains, grottoes, and cafcades, which diverfified the fcene with endless variety, but did not conceal the bounds.

While I was gazing in a tranfport of delight and wonder on this enchanting fpot, I perceived a man ftealing along the walk with a thoughtful and deliberate pace: his eyes were fixed upon the earth, and his arms croffed on his bofom; he fometimes started, as if a fudden pang had feized him; his countenance expreffed folicitude and terror; he looked round with a figh, and having gazed a moment on the defart that lay before him, he feemed as if he wished to stop, but was impelled forwards by foine invifible power: his features, however, foon fettled again into a calm melancholy; his eye was again fixed on the ground; and he went on, as before, with apparent reluctance, but without emotion. I was ftruck with this appearance; and turning hastily to the Angel,, was about to enquire what could produce fuch infelicity in a being, furrounded with every object that could gratify every fenfe; but he prevented my requeft: The book of nature, faid he, is before thee; look up, confider it, and be wife.' I looked, and beheld a valley between two mountains that were craggy and barren; on the path there was no verdure, and the mountains afforded no fhade; the fin burned in the zenith, and every fpring was dried-up; but the valley terminated in a country that was pleasant and fertile, fhaded with woods, and adorned with buildings. At a fecond view, I difcovered a man in this valley, meagre indeed and naked, but his countenance was chearful, and his deportment active: he kept his eye fixed upon the country before him, and looked as if he would have run, but that he was reftrained, as the other had been impelled, by fome secret influence: fometimes, indeed, I perceived a fudden expreffion of pain, and fometimes he stepped fhort as if his foot was

6

pierced by the afperities of the way; but the fprightlinefs of his countenance inftantly returned, and he preffed forward without appearance of repining or complaint.

I turned again toward the Angel, impatient to enquire from what fecret fource happiness was derived, in a fituation fo different from that in which it might have been expected: but he again prevented my request; Almet, faid he, remember what thou haft feen, and let this memorial be written upon the tablets of thy heart. Remember, Al< met, that the world in which thou art placed, is but the road to another; and that happiness depends not upon the path, but the end: the value of this period of thy existence is fixed by hope and fear. The wretch who wished to linger in the garden, who looked round upon it's limits with terror, was deftitute of enjoyment, because he was deftitute of hope, and was perpetually tormented by the dread of Jofing that which yet he did not enjoy: the foug of the birds had been repeated till it was not heard, and the flowers had fo ' often recurred, that their beauty was not feen; the river glided by unnoticed; and he feared to lift his eye to 'the prospect, lest he should behold the waffe that circumfcribed it. But he that toiled through the valley was happy, because he looked forward with hope. Thus, to the fojourner upon earth, it is of little moment, whether the path he treads be ftrewed with flowers or with thorns, if he perceives himself to approach thofe regions, in comparison of which the thorns and the flowers of this wildernefs lofe their diftinction, and are both alike impotent to give pleasure or pain.

What then has Eternal Wildom unequally diftributed? That which can make every station happy, and without which every station must be wretched, is acquired by Virtue, and Virtue is poffible to all. Remember, Almet, the vifion which thou haft feen; and let my words be written on the tablet of thy heart, that thou mayest • dire&t the wanderer to happiness, and justify GOD to men.'

While the voice of Azoran was yet founding in my ear, the profpect vanithed from before me, and I found myself