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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Epicurean by Thomas Moore
+
+
+
+This ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most
+other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
+whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of
+the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at
+http://www.gutenberg.org/license. If you are not located in the United
+States, you'll have to check the laws of the country where you are located
+before using this ebook.
+
+
+
+Title: The Epicurean
+
+Author: Thomas Moore
+
+Release Date: June 29, 2015 [Ebook #49332]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: US-ASCII
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE EPICUREAN***
+
+
+
+
+
+                                   THE
+
+                               EPICUREAN,
+
+                                A TALE.
+
+                                   BY
+
+                              THOMAS MOORE.
+
+
+*Second Edition.*
+
+LONDON:
+PRINTED FOR
+LONGMAN, REES, ORME, BROWN, AND GREEN,
+PATERNOSTER-ROW.
+1827.
+
+
+
+
+
+The Publishers beg to inform the Composers of Music, and Music Sellers,
+that MR. JAMES POWER, of the Strand, Music Seller, is the only person
+authorized by them to publish the SONGS or VERSES in this Work connected
+with Music.
+
+
+
+
+
+                                   TO
+                            LORD JOHN RUSSELL
+                              _THIS VOLUME_
+                              IS INSCRIBED
+                    BY ONE WHO ADMIRES HIS CHARACTER
+                              AND TALENTS,
+                     AND IS PROUD OF HIS FRIENDSHIP.
+
+
+
+
+
+                                    A
+                        LETTER TO THE TRANSLATOR,
+
+
+                                  FROM
+                                 ----, ESQ.
+_Cairo, June 19. 1800._
+My dear Sir,
+
+In a visit I lately paid to the monastery of St. Macarius,--which is
+situated, as you know, in the Valley of the Lakes of Natron,--I was lucky
+enough to obtain possession of a curious Greek manuscript, which, in the
+hope that you may be induced to translate it, I herewith send you.
+Observing one of the monks very busily occupied in tearing up, into a
+variety of fantastic shapes, some papers which had the appearance of being
+the leaves of old books, I enquired of him the meaning of his task, and
+received the following explanation:--
+
+The Arabs, it seems, who are as fond of pigeons as the ancient Egyptians,
+have a superstitious notion that, if they place in their pigeon-houses
+small scraps of paper, written over with learned characters, the birds are
+always sure to thrive the better for the charm; and the monks, who are
+never slow in profiting by superstition, have, at all times, a supply of
+such amulets for purchasers.
+
+In general, the holy fathers have been in the habit of scribbling these
+mystic fragments, themselves; but a discovery, which they have lately
+made, saves them this trouble. Having dug up (as my informant stated) a
+chest of old manuscripts, which, being chiefly on the subject of alchemy,
+must have been buried in the time of Dioclesian, "we thought we could
+not," added the monk, "employ such rubbish more properly, than in tearing
+it up, as you see, for the pigeon-houses of the Arabs."
+
+On my expressing a wish to rescue some part of these treasures from the
+fate to which his indolent fraternity had consigned them, he produced the
+manuscript which I have now the pleasure of sending you,--the only one, he
+said, remaining entire,--and I very readily paid him the price he demanded
+for it.
+
+You will find the story, I think, not altogether uninteresting; and the
+coincidence, in many respects, of the curious details in Chap. VI. with
+the description of the same ceremonies in the Romance of _Sethos_(1),
+will, I have no doubt, strike you. Hoping that you may be tempted to give
+a translation of this Tale to the world,
+
+                                                       I am, my dear Sir,
+                                                        Very truly yours,
+                                                                        ----
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                              THE EPICUREAN.
+
+
+
+
+
+                                CHAPTER I.
+
+
+It was in the fourth year of the reign of the late Emperor Valerian, that
+the followers of Epicurus, who were at that time numerous in Athens,
+proceeded to the election of a person to fill the vacant chair of their
+sect;--and, by the unanimous voice of the School, I was the individual
+chosen for their Chief. I was just then entering on my twenty-fourth year,
+and no instance had ever before occurred, of a person so young being
+selected for that office. Youth, however, and the personal advantages that
+adorn it, were not, it may be supposed, among the least valid
+recommendations, to a sect that included within its circle all the beauty
+as well as wit of Athens, and which, though dignifying its pursuits with
+the name of philosophy, was little else than a pretext for the more
+refined cultivation of pleasure.
+
+The character of the sect had, indeed, much changed, since the time of its
+wise and virtuous founder, who, while he asserted that Pleasure is the
+only Good, inculcated also that Good is the only source of Pleasure. The
+purer part of this doctrine had long evaporated, and the temperate
+Epicurus would have as little recognised his own sect in the assemblage of
+refined voluptuaries who now usurped its name, as he would have known his
+own quiet Garden in the luxurious groves and bowers among which the
+meetings of the School were now held.
+
+Many causes, besides the attractiveness of its doctrines, concurred, at
+this period, to render our school the most popular of any that still
+survived the glory of Greece. It may generally be observed, that the
+prevalence, in one half of a community, of very rigid notions on the
+subject of religion, produces the opposite extreme of laxity and
+infidelity in the other; and this kind of re-action it was that now mainly
+contributed to render the doctrines of the Garden the most fashionable
+philosophy of the day. The rapid progress of the Christian faith had
+alarmed all those, who, either from piety or worldliness, were interested
+in the continuance of the old established creed--all who believed in the
+Deities of Olympus, and all who lived by them. The consequence was, a
+considerable increase of zeal and activity, throughout the constituted
+authorities and priesthood of the whole Heathen world. What was wanting in
+sincerity of belief was made up in rigour;--the weakest parts of the
+Mythology were those, of course, most angrily defended, and any
+reflections, tending to bring Saturn, or his wife Ops, into contempt, were
+punished with the utmost severity of the law.
+
+In this state of affairs, between the alarmed bigotry of the declining
+Faith, and the simple, sublime austerity of her rival, it was not
+wonderful that those lovers of ease and pleasure, who had no interest,
+reversionary or otherwise, in the old religion, and were too indolent to
+enquire into the sanctions of the new, should take refuge from the
+severities of both under the shelter of a luxurious philosophy, which,
+leaving to others the task of disputing about the future, centered all its
+wisdom in the full enjoyment of the present.
+
+The sectaries of the Garden had, ever since the death of their founder,
+been accustomed to dedicate to his memory the twentieth day of every
+month. To these monthly rites had, for some time, been added a grand
+annual Festival, in commemoration of his birth. The feasts, given on this
+occasion by my predecessors in the Chair, had been invariably
+distinguished for their taste and splendour; and it was my ambition, not
+merely to imitate this example, but even to render the anniversary, now
+celebrated under my auspices, so brilliant, as to efface the recollection
+of all that went before it.
+
+Seldom, indeed, had Athens witnessed such a scene. The grounds that formed
+the original site of the Garden had, from time to time, received
+considerable additions; and the whole extent was laid out with that
+perfect taste, which knows how to wed Nature to Art, without sacrificing
+her simplicity to the alliance. Walks, leading through wildernesses of
+shade and fragrance--glades, opening, as if to afford a play-ground for the
+sunshine--temples, rising on the very spots where imagination herself would
+have called them up, and fountains and lakes, in alternate motion and
+repose, either wantonly courting the verdure, or calmly sleeping in its
+embrace,--such was the variety of feature that diversified these fair
+gardens; and, animated as they were on this occasion, by all the living
+wit and loveliness of Athens, it afforded a scene such as my own youthful
+fancy, rich as it was then in images of luxury and beauty, could hardly
+have anticipated.
+
+The ceremonies of the day began with the very dawn, when, according to the
+form of simpler and better times, those among the disciples who had
+apartments within the Garden, bore the image of our Founder in procession
+from chamber to chamber, chanting verses in praise of--what had long ceased
+to be objects of our imitation--his frugality and temperance.
+
+Round a beautiful lake, in the centre of the garden, stood four white
+Doric temples, in one of which was collected a library containing all the
+flowers of Grecian literature; while, in the remaining three,
+Conversation, the Song, and the Dance, held, uninterrupted by each other,
+their respective rites. In the Library stood busts of all the most
+illustrious Epicureans, both of Rome and Greece--Horace, Atticus, Pliny the
+elder, the poet Lucretius, Lucian, and the biographer of the Philosophers,
+lately lost to us, Diogenes Laertius. There were also the portraits, in
+marble, of all the eminent female votaries of the school--Leontium and her
+fair daughter Danae, Themista, Philaenis, and others.
+
+It was here that, in my capacity of Heresiarch, on the morning of the
+Festival, I received the felicitations of the day from some of the fairest
+lips of Athens; and, in pronouncing the customary oration to the memory of
+our Master (in which it was usual to dwell on the doctrines he inculcated)
+endeavoured to attain that art, so useful before such an audience, of
+diffusing over the gravest subjects a charm, which secures them listeners
+even among the simplest and most volatile.
+
+Though study, as may easily be supposed, engrossed but little of the
+mornings of the Garden, yet the lighter part of learning,--that portion of
+its attic honey, for which the bee is not obliged to go very deep into the
+flower--was zealously cultivated. Even here, however, the student had to
+encounter distractions, which are, of all others, least favourable to
+composure of thought; and, with more than one of my fair disciples, there
+used to occur such scenes as the following, which a poet of the Garden,
+taking his picture from the life, described:--
+
+  "As o'er the lake, in evening's glow,
+    That temple threw its lengthening shade,
+  Upon the marble steps below,
+    There sate a fair Corinthian maid,
+  Gracefully o'er some volume bending;
+    While, by her side, the youthful Sage
+  Held back her ringlets, lest, descending,
+    They should o'er-shadow all the page."
+
+But it was for the evening of that day, that the richest of our luxuries
+were reserved. Every part of the Garden was illuminated, with the most
+skilful variety of lustre; while over the Lake of the Temples were
+scattered wreaths of flowers, through which boats, filled with beautiful
+children, floated, as through a liquid parterre.
+
+Between two of these boats a perpetual combat was maintained;--their
+respective commanders, two blooming youths, being habited to represent
+Eros and Anteros; the former, the Celestial Love of the Platonists, and
+the latter, that more earthly spirit, which usurps the name of Love among
+the Epicureans. Throughout the evening their conflict was carried on with
+various success; the timid distance at which Eros kept from his more
+lively antagonist being his only safeguard against those darts of fire,
+with showers of which the other continually assailed him, but which,
+luckily falling short of their mark upon the lake, only scorched the
+flowers upon which they fell, and were extinguished.
+
+In another part of the gardens, on a wide verdant glade, lighted only by
+the moon, an imitation of the torch-race of the Panathenaea was performed,
+by young boys chosen for their fleetness, and arrayed with wings, like
+Cupids; while, not far off, a group of seven nymphs, with each a star on
+her forehead, represented the movements of the planetary choir, and
+embodied the dream of Pythagoras into real motion and song.
+
+At every turning some new enchantment broke upon the ear or eye.
+Sometimes, from the depth of a grove, from which a fountain at the same
+time issued, there came a strain of music, which, mingling with the murmur
+of the water, seemed like the voice of the spirit that presided over its
+flow;--while sometimes the strain rose breathing from among flowers; and,
+again, would appear to come suddenly from under ground, as if the foot had
+just touched some spring that set it in motion.
+
+It seems strange that I should now dwell upon these minute descriptions;
+but every thing connected with that memorable night--even its long-repented
+follies--must for ever live sacredly in my memory. The festival concluded
+with a banquet, at which I, of course, presided; and, feeling myself to be
+the ascendant spirit of the whole scene, gave life to all around me, and
+saw my own happiness reflected in that of others.
+
+
+
+
+
+                                CHAP. II.
+
+
+The festival was over;--the sounds of the song and dance had ceased, and I
+was now left in those luxurious gardens, alone. Though so ardent and
+active a votary of pleasure, I had, by nature, a disposition full of
+melancholy;--an imagination that presented sad thoughts, even in the midst
+of mirth and happiness, and threw the shadow of the future over the gayest
+illusions of the present. Melancholy was, indeed, twin-born in my soul
+with Passion; and, not even in the fullest fervour of the latter, were
+they separated. From the first moment that I was conscious of thought and
+feeling, the same dark thread had run across the web; and images of death
+and annihilation mingled themselves with the most smiling scenes through
+which my career of enjoyment led me. My very passion for pleasure but
+deepened these gloomy fancies. For, shut out, as I was by my creed, from a
+future life, and having no hope beyond the narrow horizon of this, every
+minute of delight assumed a mournful preciousness in my eyes, and
+pleasure, like the flower of the cemetery, grew but more luxuriant from
+the neighbourhood of death.
+
+This very night my triumph, my happiness had seemed complete. I had been
+the presiding genius of that voluptuous scene. Both my ambition and my
+love of pleasure had drunk deep of the cup for which they thirsted. Looked
+up to by the learned, and loved by the beautiful and the young, I had
+seen, in every eye that met mine, either the acknowledgment of triumphs
+already won, or the promise of others, still brighter, that awaited me.
+Yet, even in the midst of all this, the same dark thoughts had presented
+themselves;--the perishableness of myself and all around me every instant
+recurred to my mind. Those hands I had prest--those eyes, in which I had
+seen sparkling, a spirit of light and life that should never die--those
+voices, that had talked of eternal love--all, all, I felt, were but a
+mockery of the moment, and would leave nothing eternal but the silence of
+their dust!
+
+  Oh, were it not for this sad voice,
+    Stealing amid our mirth to say,
+  That all, in which we most rejoice,
+    Ere night may be the earth-worm's prey;--
+  _But_ for this bitter--only this--
+  Full as the world is brimm'd with bliss,
+  And capable as feels my soul
+  Of draining to its depth the whole,
+  I should turn earth to heaven, and be,
+  If bliss made gods, a deity!
+
+Such was the description I gave of my own feelings, in one of those wild,
+passionate songs, to which this ferment of my spirits, between mirth and
+melancholy, gave birth.
+
+Seldom had my heart more fully abandoned itself to such vague sadness than
+at the present moment, when, as I paced thoughtfully among the fading
+lights and flowers of the banquet, the echo of my own step was all that
+sounded, where so many gay forms had lately been revelling. The moon was
+still up, the morning had not yet glimmered, and the calm glories of night
+still rested on all around. Unconscious whither my pathway led, I wandered
+along, till I, at length, found myself before that fair statue of Venus,
+with which the chisel of Alcamenes had embellished our Garden;--that image
+of deified woman, the only idol to which I had ever bent the knee. Leaning
+against the pedestal, I raised my eyes to heaven, and fixing them sadly
+and intently on the ever-burning stars, as if I sought to read the
+mournful secret in their light, asked, wherefore was it that Man alone
+must perish, while they, less wonderful, less glorious than he, lived on
+in light unchangeable and for ever!--"Oh, that there were some spell, some
+talisman," I exclaimed, "to make the spirit within us deathless as those
+stars, and open to its desires a career like theirs, burning and boundless
+throughout all time!"
+
+While I gave myself up to this train of thought, that lassitude which
+earthly pleasure, however sweet, leaves behind,--as if to show how earthly
+it is,--came drowsily over me, and I sunk at the base of the statue to
+sleep.
+
+Even in sleep, however, my fancy was still busy; and a dream, so vivid as
+to leave behind it the impression of reality, thus passed through my mind.
+I thought myself transported to a wide desert plain, where nothing seemed
+to breathe, or move, or live. The very sky above it looked pale and
+extinct, giving the idea, not of darkness, but of light that had died;
+and, had that region been the remains of some older world, left broken up
+and sunless, it could not have looked more dead and desolate. The only
+thing that bespoke life, in this melancholy waste, was a small moving
+spark, that at first glimmered in the distance, but, at length, slowly
+approached the spot where I stood. As it drew nearer, I could perceive
+that its feeble gleam was from a taper in the hand of a pale venerable
+man, who now stood, like a messenger from the grave, before me. After a
+few moments of awful silence, during which he looked at me with a sadness
+that thrilled my very soul, he said,--"Thou, who seekest eternal life, go
+unto the shores of the dark Nile--go unto the shores of the dark Nile, and
+thou wilt find the eternal life thou seekest!"
+
+No sooner had he said these words than the death-like hue of his cheek
+brightened into a smile of more than human promise. The small torch that
+he held sent forth a radiance, by which suddenly the whole surface of the
+desert was illuminated, even to the far horizon's edge, along whose line
+were now seen gardens, palaces, and spires, all bright and golden, like
+the architecture of the clouds at sunset. Sweet music, too, was heard
+every where, floating around, and, from all sides, such varieties of
+splendour poured, that, with the excess both of harmony and of light, I
+woke.
+
+That infidels should be superstitious is an anomaly neither unusual nor
+strange. A belief in superhuman agency seems natural and necessary to the
+mind; and, if not suffered to flow in the obvious channels, it will find a
+vent in some other. Hence, many who have doubted the existence of a God,
+have yet implicitly placed themselves under the patronage of Fate or the
+stars. Much the same inconsistency I was conscious of in my own feelings.
+Though rejecting all belief in a Divine Providence, I had yet a faith in
+dreams, that all my philosophy could not conquer. Nor was experience
+wanting to confirm me in my delusion; for, by some of those accidental
+coincidences, which make the fortune of soothsayers and prophets, dreams,
+more than once, had been to me
+
+  Oracles, truer far than oak,
+  Or dove, or tripod, ever spoke.
+
+It was not wonderful, therefore, that the vision of that night, touching,
+as it did, a chord so ready to vibrate, should have affected me with more
+than ordinary power, and sunk deeper into my memory with every effort I
+made to forget it. In vain did I mock at my own weakness;--such self-
+derision is seldom sincere. In vain did I pursue my accustomed pleasures.
+Their zest was, as usual, for ever new; but still came the saddening
+consciousness of mortality, and, with it, the recollection of this
+visionary promise, to which my fancy, in defiance of my reason, still
+clung.
+
+Sometimes indulging in reveries, that were little else than a continuation
+of my dream, I even contemplated the possible existence of some secret, by
+which youth might be, if not perpetuated, at least prolonged, and that
+dreadful vicinity of death, within whose circle love pines and pleasure
+sickens, might be for a while averted. "Who knows," I would ask, "but that
+in Egypt, that land of wonders, where Mystery hath yet unfolded but half
+her treasures,--where so many dark secrets of the antediluvian world still
+remain, undeciphered, upon the pillars of Seth--who knows but some charm,
+some amulet, may lie hid, whose discovery, as this phantom hath promised,
+but waits my coming--some compound of the same pure atoms, that scintillate
+in the eternal stars, and whose infusion into the frame of man might make
+him, too, fadeless and immortal!"
+
+Thus did I fondly speculate, in those rambling moods, when the life of
+excitement which I led, acting upon a warm heart and vivid fancy, produced
+an intoxication of spirit, during which I was not wholly myself. This
+bewilderment, too, was not a little increased by the constant struggle
+between my own natural feelings, and the cold, mortal creed of my sect, in
+endeavouring to escape from whose deadening bondage I but broke loose into
+the realms of romance and fantasy.
+
+Even, however, in my calmest and soberest moments, that strange vision
+perpetually haunted me. In vain were all my efforts to chase it from my
+mind; and the deliberate conclusion to which I came at last, was, that
+without, at least, a visit to Egypt, I could not rest, nor, till convinced
+of my folly by disappointment, be reasonable. I, therefore, announced
+without delay to my associates of the Garden, the intention which I had
+formed to pay a visit to the land of Pyramids. To none of them did I dare
+to confess the vague, visionary impulse that actuated me. Knowledge was
+the object that I alleged, while Pleasure was that for which they gave me
+credit. The interests of the School, it was apprehended, would suffer by
+my absence; and there were some tenderer ties, which had still more to
+fear from separation. But for the former inconvenience a temporary remedy
+was provided; while the latter a skilful distribution of vows and sighs
+alleviated. Being furnished with recommendatory letters to all parts of
+Egypt, in the summer of the year 257, A.D. I set sail for Alexandria.
+
+
+
+
+
+                                CHAP. III.
+
+
+To one, who extracted such sweets from every moment on land, a sea-voyage,
+however smooth and favourable, appeared the least agreeable mode of losing
+time that could be devised. Often did my imagination, in passing some isle
+of those seas, people it with fair forms and kind hearts, to whom most
+willingly, if I might, would I have paused to pay homage. But the wind
+blew direct towards the land of Mystery; and, still more, I heard a voice
+within me, whispering for ever "On."
+
+As we approached the coast of Egypt, our course became less prosperous;
+and we had a specimen of the benevolence of the divinities of the Nile, in
+the shape of a storm, or rather whirlwind, which had nearly sunk our
+vessel, and which, the Egyptians on board said, was the work of their God,
+Typhon. After a day and night of danger, during which we were driven out
+of our course to the eastward, some benigner influence prevailed above;
+and, at length, as the morning freshly broke, we saw the beautiful city of
+Alexandria rising from the sea, with its Palace of Kings, its portico of
+four hundred columns, and the fair Pillar of Pillars, towering up to
+heaven in the midst.
+
+After passing in review this splendid vision, we shot rapidly round the
+Rock of Pharos, and, in a few minutes, found ourselves in the harbour of
+Eunostus. The sun had risen, but the light on the Great Tower of the Rock
+was still burning; and there was a languor in the first waking movements
+of that voluptuous city--whose houses and temples lay shining in silence
+round the harbour--that sufficiently attested the festivities of the
+preceding night.
+
+We were soon landed on the quay; and, as I walked, through a line of
+palaces and shrines, up the street which leads from the sea to the Gate of
+Canopus, fresh as I was from the contemplation of my own lovely Athens, I
+felt a glow of admiration at the scene around me, which its novelty, even
+more than its magnificence, inspired. Nor were the luxuries and delights,
+which such a city promised, among the least of the considerations on which
+my fancy, at that moment, dwelt. On the contrary, every thing around
+seemed prophetic of future pleasure. The very forms of the architecture,
+to my Epicurean imagination, appeared to call up images of living grace;
+and even the dim seclusion of the temples and groves spoke only of tender
+mysteries to my mind. As the whole bright scene grew animated around me, I
+felt that though Egypt might not enable me to lengthen life, she could
+teach the next best art,--that of multiplying its enjoyments.
+
+The population of Alexandria, at this period, consisted of the most motley
+miscellany of nations, religions, and sects, that had ever been brought
+together in one city. Beside the school of the Grecian Platonist was seen
+the oratory of the cabalistic Jew; while the church of the Christian
+stood, undisturbed, over the crypts of the Egyptian Hierophant. Here, the
+adorer of Fire, from the east, laughed at the superstition of the
+worshipper of cats, from the west. Here Christianity, too, unluckily, had
+learned to emulate the vagaries of Paganism; and while, on one side, her
+Ophite professor was seen kneeling down gravely before his serpent, on the
+other, a Nicosian was, as gravely, contending that there was no chance of
+salvation out of the pale of the Greek alphabet. Still worse, the
+uncharitableness of Christian schism was already distinguishing itself
+with equal vigour; and I heard of nothing, on my arrival, but the rancour
+and hate, with which the Greek and Latin churchmen persecuted each other,
+because, forsooth, the one fasted on the seventh day of the week, and the
+others fasted upon the fourth and sixth!
+
+To none of those religions or sects, however, except for purposes of
+ridicule, did I pay much attention. I was now in the most luxurious city
+of the universe, and gave way, without reserve, to the seductions that
+surrounded me. My reputation, as a philosopher and a man of pleasure, had
+preceded me; and Alexandria, the second Athens of the world, welcomed me
+as her own. My celebrity, indeed, was as a talisman, that opened hearts
+and doors at my approach. The usual noviciate of acquaintance was
+dispensed with in my favour, and not only intimacies, but loves and
+friendships, ripened in my path, as rapidly as vegetation springs up where
+the Nile has flowed. The dark beauty of the Egyptian women had a novelty
+in my eyes that enhanced its other charms; and that hue of the sun on
+their rounded cheeks was but an earnest of the ardour he had kindled in
+their hearts--
+
+  Th' imbrowning of the fruit, that tells
+  How rich within the soul of sweetness dwells.
+
+Some weeks rolled on in such perpetual and ever-changing pleasures, that
+even the melancholy voice in my heart, though it still spoke, was but
+seldom listened to, and soon died away in the sound of the siren songs
+that surrounded me. At length, however, as the novelty of these scenes
+wore off, the same gloomy bodings began to mingle with all my joys; and an
+incident that occurred, during one of my gayest revels, conduced still
+more to deepen their gloom.
+
+The celebration of the annual festival of Serapis took place during my
+stay, and I was, more than once, induced to mingle with the gay
+multitudes, that crowded to his shrine at Canopus on the occasion. Day and
+night, while this festival lasted, the canal, which led from Alexandria to
+Canopus, was covered with boats full of pilgrims of both sexes, all
+hastening to avail themselves of this pious licence, which lent the zest
+of a religious sanction to pleasure, and gave a holiday to the passions of
+earth, in honour of heaven.
+
+I was returning, one lovely night, to Alexandria. The north wind, that
+welcome visitor, freshened the air, while the banks, on either side, sent
+forth, from groves of orange and henna, the most delicious odours. As I
+had left all the crowd behind me at Canopus, there was not a boat to be
+seen on the canal but my own; and I was just yielding to the thoughts
+which solitude at such an hour inspires, when my reveries were broken by
+the sound of some female voices, coming, mingled with laughter and
+screams, from the garden of a pavilion, that stood, brilliantly
+illuminated, upon the bank of the canal.
+
+On rowing nearer, I perceived that both the mirth and the alarm had been
+caused by the efforts of some playful girls to reach a hedge of jasmin
+which grew near the water, and in bending towards which they had nearly
+fallen into the stream. Hastening to proffer my assistance, I soon
+recognised the voice of one of my fair Alexandrian friends, and, springing
+on the bank, was surrounded by the whole group, who insisted on my joining
+their party in the pavilion, and flinging the tendrils of jasmin, which
+they had just plucked, around me, led me, no unwilling captive, to the
+banquet-room.
+
+I found here an assemblage of the very flower of Alexandrian society. The
+unexpectedness of the meeting gave it an additional zest on both sides;
+and seldom had I felt more enlivened myself, or contributed more
+successfully to circulate life among others.
+
+Among the company were some Greek women, who, according to the fashion of
+their country, wore veils; but, as usual, rather to set off than conceal
+their beauty, some gleams of which were continually escaping from under
+the cloud. There was, however, one female, who particularly attracted my
+attention, on whose head was a chaplet of dark-coloured flowers, and who
+sat veiled and silent during the whole of the banquet. She took no share,
+I observed, in what was passing around: the viands and the wine went by
+her untouched, nor did a word that was spoken seem addressed to her ear.
+This abstraction from a scene so sparkling with gaiety, though apparently
+unnoticed by any one but myself, struck me as mysterious and strange. I
+inquired of my fair neighbour the cause of it, but she looked grave and
+was silent.
+
+In the mean time, the lyre and the cup went round; and a young maid from
+Athens, as if inspired by the presence of her countryman, took her lute,
+and sung to it some of the songs of Greece, with a feeling that bore me
+back to the banks of the Ilissus, and, even in the bosom of present
+pleasure, drew a sigh from my heart for that which had passed away. It was
+daybreak ere our delighted party rose, and unwillingly re-embarked to
+return to the city.
+
+Scarcely were we afloat, when it was discovered that the lute of the young
+Athenian had been left behind; and, with my heart still full of its sweet
+sounds, I most readily sprung on shore to seek it. I hastened to the
+banquet-room, which was now dim and solitary, except that--there, to my
+astonishment, still sat that silent figure, which had awakened my
+curiosity so strongly during the night. A vague feeling of awe came over
+me, as I now slowly approached it. There was no motion, no sound of
+breathing in that form;--not a leaf of the dark chaplet on its brow
+stirred. By the light of a dying lamp which stood before the figure, I
+raised, with a hesitating hand, the veil, and saw--what my fancy had
+already anticipated--that the shape underneath was lifeless, was a
+skeleton! Startled and shocked, I hurried back with the lute to the boat,
+and was almost as silent as that shape for the remainder of the voyage.
+
+This custom among the Egyptians of placing a mummy, or skeleton, at the
+banquet-table, had been for some time disused, except at particular
+ceremonies; and, even on such occasions, it had been the practice of the
+luxurious Alexandrians to disguise this memorial of mortality in the
+manner just described. But to me, who was wholly unprepared for such a
+spectacle, it gave a shock from which my imagination did not speedily
+recover. This silent and ghastly witness of mirth seemed to embody, as it
+were, the shadow in my own heart. The features of the grave were now
+stamped on the idea that haunted me, and this picture of what I _was to
+be_ mingled itself with the sunniest aspect of what I _was_.
+
+The memory of the dream now recurred to me more livelily than ever. The
+bright assuring smile of that venerable Spirit, and his words, "Go to the
+shores of the dark Nile, and thou wilt find the eternal life thou
+seekest," were for ever before my mind. But as yet, alas, I had done
+nothing towards realising this splendid promise. Alexandria was not
+Egypt;--the very soil on which it stood was not in existence, when Thebes
+and Memphis already counted ages of glory.
+
+"It is beneath the Pyramids of Memphis," I exclaimed, "or in the mystic
+Halls of the Labyrinth, that I must seek those holy arcana of science, of
+which the antediluvian world has made Egypt its heir, and among
+which--blest thought!--the key to eternal life may lie."
+
+Having formed my determination, I took leave of my many Alexandrian
+friends, and departed for Memphis.
+
+
+
+
+
+                                CHAP. IV.
+
+
+Egypt was the country, of all others, from that mixture of the melancholy
+and the voluptuous, which marked the character of her people, her
+religion, and her scenery, to affect deeply a temperament and fancy like
+mine, and keep tremblingly alive the sensibilities of both. Wherever I
+turned, I saw the desert and the garden, mingling their bloom and
+desolation together. I saw the love-bower and the tomb standing side by
+side, and pleasure and death keeping hourly watch upon each other. In the
+very luxury of the climate there was the same saddening influence. The
+monotonous splendour of the days, the solemn radiance of the nights--all
+tended to cherish that ardent melancholy, the offspring of passion and of
+thought, which had so long been the inmate of my soul.
+
+When I sailed from Alexandria, the inundation of the Nile was at its full.
+The whole valley of Egypt lay covered by its flood; and, as I saw around
+me, in the light of the setting sun, shrines, palaces, and monuments,
+encircled by the waters, I could almost fancy that I beheld the sinking
+island of Atalantis, on the last evening its temples were visible above
+the wave. Such varieties, too, of animation as presented themselves on
+every side!--
+
+  While, far as sight can reach, beneath as clear
+  And blue a heaven as ever bless'd this sphere,
+  Gardens, and pillar'd streets, and porphyry domes,
+  And high-built temples, fit to be the homes
+  Of mighty gods, and pyramids, whose hour
+  Outlasts all time, above the waters tower!
+
+  Then, too, the scenes of pomp and joy, that make
+  One theatre of this vast, peopled lake,
+  Where all that Love, Religion, Commerce gives
+  Of life and motion, ever moves and lives.
+  Here, up the steps of temples, from the wave
+  Ascending, in procession slow and grave,
+  Priests, in white garments, go, with sacred wands
+  And silver cymbals gleaming in their hands:
+  While, there, rich barks--fresh from those sunny tracts
+  Far off, beyond the sounding cataracts--
+  Glide with their precious lading to the sea,
+  Plumes of bright birds, rhinoceros' ivory,
+  Gems from the isle of Meroee, and those grains
+  Of gold, wash'd down by Abyssinian rains.
+
+  Here, where the waters wind into a bay
+  Shadowy and cool, some pilgrims, on their way
+  To Sais or Bubastus, among beds
+  Of lotus-flowers, that close above their heads,
+  Push their light barks, and hid, as in a bower,
+  Sing, talk, or sleep away the sultry hour;
+  While haply, not far off, beneath a bank
+  Of blossoming acacias, many a prank
+  Is play'd in the cool current by a train
+  Of laughing nymphs, lovely as she, whose chain
+  Around two conquerors of the world was cast,
+  But, for a third too feeble, broke at last!
+
+Enchanted with the whole scene, I lingered on my voyage, visiting all
+those luxurious and venerable places, whose names have been consecrated by
+the wonder of ages. At Sais I was present during her Festival of Lamps,
+and read, by the blaze of innumerable lights, those sublime words on the
+temple of Neitha: "I am all that has been, that is, and that will be, and
+no man hath ever lifted my veil." I wandered among the prostrate obelisks
+of Heliopolis, and saw, not without a sigh, the sun smiling over her
+ruins, as if in mockery of the mass of perishable grandeur, that had once
+called itself, in its pride, "The City of the Sun." But to the Isle of the
+Golden Venus was my fondest pilgrimage;--and as I explored its shades,
+where bowers are the only temples, I felt how far more fit to form the
+shrine of a Deity are the ever-living stems of the garden and the grove,
+than the most precious columns that the inanimate quarry can supply.
+
+Every where new pleasures, new interests awaited me; and though
+Melancholy, as usual, stood always near, her shadow fell but half-way over
+my vagrant path, and left the rest more welcomely brilliant from the
+contrast. To relate my various adventures, during this short voyage, would
+only detain me from events, far, far more worthy of record. Amidst such
+endless variety of attractions, the great object of my journey was
+forgotten;--the mysteries of this land of the sun were, to me, as much
+mysteries as ever, and I had as yet been initiated in nothing but its
+pleasures.
+
+It was not till that evening, when I first stood before the Pyramids of
+Memphis, and saw them towering aloft, like the watch-towers of Time, from
+whose summit, when he expires, he will look his last,--it was not till this
+moment that the great secret, of which I had dreamed, again rose, in all
+its inscrutable darkness, upon my thoughts. There was a solemnity in the
+sunshine that rested upon those monuments--a stillness, as of reverence, in
+the air around them, that stole, like the music of past times, into my
+heart. I thought what myriads of the wise, the beautiful, and the brave,
+had sunk into dust since earth first beheld those wonders; and, in the
+sadness of my soul, I exclaimed,--"Must man alone, then, perish? must minds
+and hearts be annihilated, while pyramids endure? Death, Death, even on
+these everlasting tablets,--the only approach to immortality that kings
+themselves could purchase,--thou hast written our doom, saying, awfully and
+intelligibly, 'There is, for man, no eternal mansion, but the tomb!'"
+
+My heart sunk at the thought; and, for the moment, I yielded to that
+desolate feeling, which overspreads the soul that hath no light from the
+future. But again the buoyancy of my nature prevailed, and again, the
+willing dupe of vain dreams, I deluded myself into the belief of all that
+I most wished, with that happy facility which makes imagination stand in
+place of happiness. "Yes," I cried, "immortality _must_ be within man's
+reach; and, as wisdom alone is worthy of such a blessing, to the wise
+alone must the secret have been revealed. Deep, it is said, under yonder
+pyramid, has for ages lain concealed the Table of Emerald, on which the
+Thrice-Great Hermes engraved, before the flood, the secret of Alchemy,
+that gives gold at will. Why may not the mightier, the more god-like
+secret, that gives life at will, be recorded there also? It was by the
+power of gold, of endless gold, that the kings, who repose in those massy
+structures, scooped earth to the centre, and raised quarries into the air,
+to provide themselves with tombs that might outstand the world. Who can
+tell but that the gift of immortality was also theirs? who knows but that
+they themselves, triumphant over decay, still live--those mansions, which
+we call tombs, being rich and everlasting palaces, within whose depths,
+concealed from this withering world, they still wander, with the few who
+are sharers of their gift, through a sunless, but illuminated, elysium of
+their own? Else, wherefore those structures? wherefore that subterraneous
+realm, by which the whole valley of Egypt is undermined? Why, else, those
+labyrinths, which none of earth hath ever beheld--which none of heaven,
+except that God, with the finger on his hushed lip, hath trodden!"
+
+While I indulged in these dreams, the sun, half sunk beneath the horizon,
+was taking, calmly and gloriously, his leave of the Pyramids,--as he had
+done, evening after evening, for ages, till they had become familiar to
+him as the earth itself. On the side turned to his ray they now presented
+a front of dazzling whiteness, while, on the other, their great shadows,
+lengthening to the eastward, looked like the first steps of Night,
+hastening to envelope the hills of Araby in her shade.
+
+No sooner had the last gleam of the sun disappeared, than, on every house-
+top in Memphis, gay, gilded banners were seen waving aloft, to proclaim
+his setting,--while a full burst of harmony pealed from all the temples
+along the shores.
+
+Startled from my musing by these sounds, I at once recollected, that, on
+that very evening, the great festival of the Moon was to be celebrated. On
+a little island, half-way over between the gardens of Memphis and the
+eastern shore, stood the temple of that goddess,
+
+                 Whose beams
+  Bring the sweet time of night-flowers and dreams.
+  _Not_ the cold Dian of the North, who chains
+  In vestal ice the current of young veins;
+  But she, who haunts the gay, Bubastian grove,
+  And owns she sees, from her bright heav'n above,
+  Nothing on earth, to match that heav'n, but love!
+
+Thus did I exclaim, in the words of one of their own Egyptian poets, as,
+anticipating the various delights of the festival, I cast away from my
+mind all gloomy thoughts, and, hastening to my little bark, in which I now
+lived, like a Nile-bird, on the waters, steered my course to the island-
+temple of the Moon.
+
+
+
+
+
+                                 CHAP. V.
+
+
+The rising of the Moon, slow and majestic, as if conscious of the honours
+that awaited her upon earth, was welcomed with a loud acclaim from every
+eminence, where multitudes stood watching for her first light. And seldom
+had she risen upon a scene more beautiful. Memphis,--still grand, though no
+longer the unrivalled Memphis, that had borne away from Thebes the crown
+of supremacy, and worn it undisputed through so many centuries,--now,
+softened by the moonlight that harmonised with her decline, shone forth
+among her lakes, her pyramids, and her shrines, like a dream of glory that
+was soon to pass away. Ruin, even now, was but too visible around her. The
+sands of the Libyan desert gained upon her like a sea; and, among solitary
+columns and sphinxes, already half sunk from sight, Time seemed to stand
+waiting, till all, that now flourished around, should fall beneath his
+desolating hand, like the rest.
+
+On the waters all was life and gaiety. As far as eye could reach, the
+lights of innumerable boats were seen, studding, like rubies, the surface
+of the stream. Vessels of all kinds,--from the light coracle, built for
+shooting down the cataracts, to the large yacht that glides to the sound
+of flutes,--all were afloat for this sacred festival, filled with crowds of
+the young and the gay, not only from Memphis and Babylon, but from cities
+still farther removed from the scene.
+
+As I approached the island, I could see, glittering through the trees on
+the bank, the lamps of the pilgrims hastening to the ceremony. Landing in
+the direction which those lights pointed out, I soon joined the crowd;
+and, passing through a long alley of sphinxes, whose spangling marble
+shone out from the dark sycamores around them, in a short time reached the
+grand vestibule of the temple, where I found the ceremonies of the evening
+already commenced.
+
+In this vast hall, which was surrounded by a double range of columns, and
+lay open over-head to the stars of heaven, I saw a group of young maidens,
+moving in a sort of measured step, between walk and dance, round a small
+shrine, upon which stood one of those sacred birds, that, on account of
+the variegated colour of their wings, are dedicated to the moon. The
+vestibule was dimly lighted,--there being but one lamp of naptha on each of
+the great pillars that encircled it. But, having taken my station beside
+one of those pillars, I had a distinct view of the young dancers, as in
+succession they passed me.
+
+Their long, graceful drapery was as white as snow; and each wore loosely,
+beneath the rounded bosom, a dark-blue zone, or bandelet, studded, like
+the skies at midnight, with little silver stars. Through their dark locks
+was wreathed the white lily of the Nile,--that flower being accounted as
+welcome to the moon, as the golden blossoms of the bean-flower are to the
+sun. As they passed under the lamp, a gleam of light flashed from their
+bosoms, which, I could perceive, was the reflection of a small mirror,
+that, in the manner of the women of the East, each wore beneath her left
+shoulder.
+
+There was no music to regulate their steps; but, as they gracefully went
+round the bird on the shrine, some, by the beat of the castanet, some, by
+the shrill ring of the sistrum,--which they held uplifted in the attitude
+of their own divine Isis,--harmoniously timed the cadence of their feet;
+while others, at every step, shook a small chain of silver, whose sound,
+mingling with those of the castanets and sistrums, produced a wild, but
+not an unpleasing harmony.
+
+They seemed all lovely; but there was one--whose face the light had not yet
+reached, so downcast she held it,--who attracted, and, at length, riveted
+all my attention. I knew not why, but there was a something in those half-
+seen features,--a charm in the very shadow, that hung over their imagined
+beauty,--which took me more than all the out-shining loveliness of her
+companions. So enchained was my fancy by this coy mystery, that her alone,
+of all the group, could I either see or think of--her alone I watched, as,
+with the same downcast brow, she glided round the altar, gently and
+aerially, as if her presence, like that of a spirit, was something to be
+felt, not seen.
+
+Suddenly, while I gazed, the loud crash of a thousand cymbals was
+heard;--the massy gates of the Temple flew open, as if by magic, and a
+flood of radiance from the illuminated aisle filled the whole vestibule;
+while, at the same instant, as if the light and the sounds were born
+together, a peal of rich harmony came mingling with the radiance.
+
+It was then,--by that light, which shone full upon the young maiden's
+features, as, starting at the blaze, she raised her eyes to the portal,
+and, as suddenly, let fall their lids again,--it was then I beheld, what
+even my own ardent imagination, in its most vivid dreams of beauty, had
+never pictured. Not Psyche herself, when pausing on the threshold of
+heaven, while its first glories fell on her dazzled lids, could have
+looked more beautiful, or blushed with a more innocent shame. Often as I
+had felt the power of looks, none had ever entered into my soul so far. It
+was a new feeling--a new sense--coming as suddenly as that radiance into the
+vestibule, and, at once, filling my whole being;--and had that vision but
+lingered another moment before my eyes, I should have wholly forgotten who
+I was and where, and thrown myself, in prostrate adoration, at her feet.
+
+But scarcely had that gush of harmony been heard, when the sacred bird,
+which had, till now, stood motionless as an image, expanded his wings, and
+flew into the Temple; while his graceful young worshippers, with a
+fleetness like his own, followed,--and she, who had left a dream in my
+heart never to be forgotten, vanished with the rest. As she went rapidly
+past the pillar against which I leaned, the ivy that encircled it caught
+in her drapery, and disengaged some ornament which fell to the ground. It
+was the small mirror which I had seen shining on her bosom. Hastily and
+tremulously I picked it up, and hurried to restore it;--but she was already
+lost to my eyes in the crowd.
+
+In vain I tried to follow;--the aisles were already filled, and numbers of
+eager pilgrims pressed towards the portal. But the servants of the Temple
+prevented all further entrance, and still, as I presented myself, their
+white wands barred the way. Perplexed and irritated amid that crowd of
+faces, regarding all as enemies that impeded my progress, I stood on
+tiptoe, gazing into the busy aisles, and with a heart beating as I caught,
+from time to time, a glimpse of some spangled zone, or lotus wreath, which
+led me to fancy that I had discovered the object of my search. But it was
+all in vain;--in every direction, files of sacred nymphs were moving, but
+nowhere could I see her, whom alone I sought.
+
+In this state of breathless agitation did I stand for some
+time,--bewildered with the confusion of faces and lights, as well as with
+the clouds of incense that rolled around me,--till, fevered and impatient,
+I could endure it no longer. Forcing my way out of the vestibule into the
+cool air, I hurried back through the alley of sphinxes to the shore, and
+flung myself into my boat.
+
+There is, to the north of Memphis, a solitary lake (which, at this season
+of the year, mingles with the rest of the waters,) upon whose shores
+stands the Necropolis, or City of the Dead--a place of melancholy grandeur,
+covered over with shrines and pyramids, where many a kingly head, proud
+even in death, has for ages awaited the resurrection of its glories.
+Through a range of sepulchral grots underneath, the humbler denizens of
+the tomb are deposited,--looking out on each successive generation that
+visits them, with the same face and features they wore centuries ago.
+Every plant and tree, that is consecrated to death, from the asphodel-
+flower to the mystic plantain, lends its sweetness or shadow to this place
+of tombs; and the only noise that disturbs its eternal calm, is the low
+humming sound of the priests at prayer, when a new inhabitant is added to
+the silent city.
+
+It was towards this place of death that, in a mood of mind, as usual, half
+bright, half gloomy, I now, almost unconsciously, directed my bark. The
+form of the young Priestess was continually before me. That one bright
+look of hers, the very memory of which was worth all the actual smiles of
+others, never left my mind. Absorbed in such thoughts, I rowed on, scarce
+knowing whither I went, till, startled by finding myself within the shadow
+of the City of the Dead, I looked up, and saw, rising in succession before
+me, pyramid beyond pyramid, each towering more loftily than the
+other,--while all were out-topped in grandeur by one, upon whose summit the
+moon seemed to rest, as on a pedestal.
+
+Drawing near to the shore, which was sufficiently elevated to raise this
+city of monuments above the level of the inundation, I lifted my oar, and
+let the boat rock idly on the water, while my thoughts, left equally
+without direction, fluctuated as idly. How various and vague were the
+dreams that then passed through my mind--that bright vision of the temple
+mingling itself with all! Sometimes she stood before me, like an aerial
+spirit, as pure as if that element of music and light, into which I had
+seen her vanish, was her only dwelling. Sometimes, animated with passion,
+and kindling into a creature of earth, she seemed to lean towards me with
+looks of tenderness, which it were worth worlds, but for one instant, to
+inspire; and again--as the dark fancies, that ever haunted me, recurred--I
+saw her cold, parched, and blackening, amid the gloom of those eternal
+sepulchres before me!
+
+Turning away, with a shudder, from the cemetery at this thought, I heard
+the sound of an oar plying swiftly through the water, and, in a few
+moments, saw, shooting past me towards the shore, a small boat in which
+sat two female figures, muffled up and veiled. Having landed them not far
+from the spot where I lay,--concealed by the shadow of a monument on the
+bank,--the boat again departed, with the same fleetness, over the flood.
+
+Never had the prospect of an adventure come more welcome than at this
+moment, when my fancy was weaving such chains for my heart, as threatened
+a bondage, of all others, the most difficult to break. To become enamoured
+thus of a creature of my own imagination, was the worst, because the most
+lasting, of follies. Reality alone gives a chance of dissolving such
+spells, and the idol I was now creating to myself must for ever remain
+ideal. Any pursuit, therefore, that seemed likely to divert me from such
+thoughts--to bring back my imagination to earth and reality, from the vague
+region in which it was wandering, was a relief too seasonable not to be
+welcomed with eagerness.
+
+I had watched the course which the two figures took, and, having hastily
+fastened my boat to the bank, stepped gently on shore, and, at a little
+distance, followed them. The windings through which they led were
+intricate; but, by the bright light of the moon, I was enabled to keep
+their forms in view, as, with rapid step, they glided among the monuments.
+At length, in the shade of a small pyramid, whose peak barely surmounted
+the plane-trees that grew nigh, they vanished from my sight. I hastened to
+the spot, but there was not a sign of life around; and had my creed
+extended to another world, I might have fancied that these forms were
+spirits, sent from thence to mock me,--so instantaneously they disappeared.
+I searched through the neighbouring grove, but all there was still as
+death. At length, in examining one of the sides of the pyramid, which, for
+a few feet from the ground, was furnished with steps, I found, midway
+between peak and base, a part of the surface, which, though presenting an
+appearance of smoothness to the eye, gave to the touch, I thought,
+indications of a concealed opening.
+
+After a variety of efforts and experiments, I, at last, more by accident
+than skill, pressed the spring that commanded this mysterious aperture. In
+an instant the portal slid aside, and disclosed a narrow stair-way within,
+the two or three first steps of which were discernible by the moonlight,
+while the rest were lost in utter darkness. Though it was difficult to
+conceive that the persons whom I had followed would have ventured to pass
+through this gloomy opening, yet to account for their disappearance
+otherwise was still more difficult. At all events, my curiosity was now
+too eager in the chase to relinquish it;--the spirit of adventure, once
+raised, could not be so easily laid. Accordingly, having sent up a gay
+prayer to that bliss-loving Queen whose eye alone was upon me, I passed
+through the portal and descended into the pyramid.
+
+
+
+
+
+                                CHAP. VI.
+
+
+At the bottom of the stair-way I found myself in a low, narrow passage,
+through which, without stooping almost to earth, it was impossible to
+proceed. Though leading through a multiplicity of dark windings, this way
+seemed but little to advance my progress,--its course, I perceived, being
+chiefly circular, and gathering, at every turn, but a deeper intensity of
+darkness.
+
+"Can this," I thought, "be the sojourn of any thing human?"--and had
+scarcely asked myself the question, when the path opened into a long
+gallery, at the farthest end of which a gleam of light was visible. This
+welcome glimmer appeared to come from some cell or alcove, in which the
+right-hand wall of the gallery terminated, and, breathless with
+expectation, I stole gently towards it.
+
+Arrived at the end of the gallery, a scene presented itself to my eyes,
+for which my fondest expectations of adventure could not have prepared me.
+The place from which the light proceeded was a small chapel, of whose
+interior, from the dark recess in which I stood, I had, unseen myself, a
+full and distinct view. Over the walls of this oratory were painted some
+of those various symbols, by which the mystic wisdom of the Egyptians
+loves to shadow out the History of the Soul--the winged globe with a
+serpent,--the rays descending from above, like a glory, and the Theban
+beetle, as he comes forth, after the waters have passed away, and the
+first sunbeam falls on his regenerated wings.
+
+In the middle of the chapel stood a low altar of granite, on which lay a
+lifeless female form, enshrined within a case of crystal,--as they preserve
+their dead in Ethiopia,--and looking as freshly beautiful as if the soul
+had but a few hours departed. Among the emblems of death, on the front of
+the altar, were a slender lotus-branch, broken in two, and a bird, just
+winging its flight from the spray.
+
+To these memorials of the dead, however, I but little attended; for there
+was a living object there upon which my eyes were most intently fixed.
+
+The lamp, by which the whole of the chapel was illuminated, was placed at
+the head of the pale image in the shrine; and, between its light and me,
+stood a female form, bending over the monument, as if to gaze upon the
+silent features within. The position in which this figure was placed,
+intercepting a strong light, afforded me, at first, but an imperfect and
+shadowy view of it. Yet even at this mere outline my heart beat high,--and
+memory, as it proved, had as much share in this feeling as imagination.
+For, on the head changing its position, so as to let a gleam fall on the
+features, I saw with a transport, which had almost led me to betray my
+lurking-place, that it was she--the young worshipper of Isis--the same, the
+very same, whom I had seen, brightening the holy place where she stood,
+and looking like an inhabitant of some purer world.
+
+The movement, by which she had now given me an opportunity of recognising
+her, was made in raising from the shrine a small cross(2) of silver, which
+lay directly over the bosom of the lifeless figure. Bringing it close to
+her lips, she kissed it with a religious fervour; then, turning her eyes
+mournfully upwards, held them fixed with an inspired earnestness, as if,
+at that moment, in direct communion with heaven, they saw neither roof,
+nor any other earthly barrier between them and the skies.
+
+What a power hath innocence, whose very helplessness is its safeguard--in
+whose presence even Passion himself stands abashed, and turns worshipper
+at the altar which he came to despoil. She, who, but a short hour before,
+had presented herself to my imagination, as something I could have risked
+immortality to win--she, whom gladly, from the floor of her own lighted
+temple, in the very face of its proud ministers, I would have borne away
+in triumph, and defied all punishments, both human and sacred, to make her
+mine,--she was now before me, thrown, as if by fate itself, into my
+power--standing there, beautiful and alone, with nothing but her innocence
+for her guard! Yet, no--so touching was the purity of the whole scene, so
+calm and august that protection which the dead seemed to extend over the
+living, that every earthlier feeling was forgotten as I gazed, and love
+itself became exalted into reverence.
+
+Entranced, indeed, as I felt in witnessing such a scene, thus to enjoy it
+by stealth, seemed a wrong, a sacrilege--and, rather than let her eyes meet
+the flash of mine, or disturb, by a whisper, that sacred silence, in which
+Youth and Death held communion through Love, I would have let my heart
+break, without a murmur, where I stood. Gently, as if life depended upon
+every movement, I stole away from that tranquil and holy scene--leaving it
+still tranquil and holy as I found it--and, gliding back through the same
+passages and windings by which I had entered, regained the narrow stair-
+way, and again ascended into light.
+
+The sun had just risen, and, from the summit of the Arabian hills, was
+pouring down his beams into that vast valley of waters,--as if proud of the
+homage that had been paid to his own Isis, now fading away in the superior
+light of her Lord. My first impulse was to fly from this dangerous spot,
+and in new loves and pleasures seek forgetfulness of the scene which I had
+witnessed. "Once out of the circle of this enchantment," I exclaimed, "I
+know my own susceptibility to new impressions too well, to doubt that I
+shall soon break the spell that is around me."
+
+But vain were my efforts and resolves. Even while I swore to fly, my steps
+were still lingering round the pyramid--my eyes still turned towards the
+secret portal, which severed this enchantress from the world of the
+living. Hour after hour did I wander through that City of Silence,--till,
+already, it was noon, and, under the sun's meridian eye, the mighty
+pyramid of pyramids stood, like a great spirit, shadowless.
+
+Again did those wild and passionate feelings, which had, for a moment,
+been subdued into reverence by her presence, return to kindle up my
+imagination and senses. I even reproached myself for the awe, that had
+held me spell-bound before her. "What would my companions of the Garden
+say, did they know that their chief,--he, whose path Love had strewed with
+trophies--was now pining for a simple Egyptian girl, in whose presence he
+had not dared to give utterance to a sigh, and who had vanquished the
+victor, without even knowing her triumph!"
+
+A blush came over my cheek at the humiliating thought, and my
+determination was fixed to await her coming. That she should be an inmate
+of those gloomy caverns seemed inconceivable; nor did there appear to be
+any issue from their depths but by the pyramid. Again, therefore, like a
+sentinel of the dead, did I pace up and down among these tombs,
+contrasting, in many a mournful reflection, the burning fever within my
+own veins with the cold quiet of those who slept around.
+
+At length the fierce glow of the sun over my head, and, still more, that
+ever restless agitation in my heart, were too much for even strength like
+mine to bear. Exhausted, I lay down at the base of the pyramid--placing
+myself directly under the portal, where, even should slumber surprise me,
+my heart, if not my ear, might still be on the watch, and her footstep,
+light as it was, could not fail to awake me.
+
+After many an ineffectual struggle against drowsiness, I at length sunk
+into sleep--but not into forgetfulness. The same image still haunted me, in
+every variety of shape, with which imagination, assisted by memory, could
+invest it. Now, like Neitha, upon her throne at Sais, she seemed to sit,
+with the veil just raised from that brow, which mortal had never, till
+then, beheld,--and now, like the beautiful enchantress Rhodope, I saw her
+rise out of the pyramid in which she had dwelt for ages,--
+
+  "Fair Rhodope, as story tells,
+  The bright, unearthly nymph, who dwells
+  Mid sunless gold and jewels hid,
+  The Lady of the Pyramid!"
+
+So long, amid that unbroken silence, did my sleep continue, that I found
+the moon again shining above the horizon, when I awoke. All around was
+silent and lifeless as before, nor did a print upon the herbage betray
+that any foot had passed it since my own. Refreshed by rest, and with a
+fancy still more excited by the mystic wonders of which I had been
+dreaming, I now resolved to revisit the chapel in the pyramid, and put an
+end, if possible, to this illusion that haunted me.
+
+Having learned from the experience of the preceding night, the
+inconvenience of encountering those labyrinths without a light, I now
+hastened to provide myself with a lamp from my boat. Tracking my way back
+with some difficulty to the shore, I there found, not only my lamp, but
+some dates and dried fruits, with a store of which, for my roving life
+upon the waters, I was always supplied,--and which now, after so many hours
+of abstinence, were a welcome and necessary relief.
+
+Thus prepared, I again ascended the pyramid, and was proceeding to search
+out the secret spring, when a loud, dismal noise was heard at a distance,
+to which all the echoes of the cemetery answered. It came, I knew, from
+the Great Temple on the shore of the Lake, and was the shriek which its
+gates--the Gates of Oblivion, as they were called--sent forth from their
+hinges, in opening at night, to receive within their precincts the newly-
+landed dead.
+
+I had heard that sound before, and always with sadness; but, at this
+moment, it thrilled through me, like a voice of ill omen, and I almost
+doubted whether I should not abandon my enterprise. The hesitation,
+however, was but momentary;--even while it passed through my mind, I had
+touched the spring of the portal. In a few seconds more, I was again in
+the passage beneath the pyramid, and being enabled by my lamp to follow
+the windings of the way more rapidly, soon found myself at the door of the
+small chapel in the gallery.
+
+I entered, still awed, though there was now nothing living within. The
+young Priestess had fled--had vanished, like a spirit, into the darkness.
+All the rest was as I had left it on the preceding night. The lamp still
+stood burning upon the crystal shrine--the cross lay where the hands of the
+young mourner had placed it, and the cold image beneath wore the same
+tranquil look, as if resigned to the solitude of death--of all lone things
+the loneliest. Remembering the lips that I had seen kiss that cross, and
+kindling with the recollection, I raised it passionately to my own;--but,
+at the same moment, I fancied the dead eyes met mine, and, saddened in the
+midst of my ardour, I replaced the cross upon the shrine.
+
+I had now lost all clue to the object of my pursuit, and was preparing
+slowly to retrace my steps to earth, with that gloomy satisfaction which
+certainty, even when unwelcome, brings,--when, as I held forth my lamp, on
+leaving the chapel, I could perceive that the gallery, instead of
+terminating here, took a sudden bend to the left, which had before eluded
+my eye, and which gave a promise of leading still further into those
+recesses. Re-animated by this discovery, which opened a new source of hope
+to my heart, I cast but one hesitating look at my lamp, as if to ask
+whether it would be faithful through the gloom I was about to encounter,
+and, without further thought, rushed eagerly forward.
+
+
+
+
+
+                                CHAP. VII.
+
+
+The path led, for some time, through the same sort of narrow windings as
+those which I had encountered in descending the stair-way; and at length
+opened, in a similar manner, into a straight and steep gallery, along each
+side of which stood, closely ranged and upright, a file of lifeless
+bodies, whose glassy eyes threw a preternatural glare upon me as I passed.
+
+Arrived at the end of this gallery, I found my hopes a second time vanish.
+The path, I perceived, extended no further. The only object that I could
+discern, by the glimmering of my lamp, which now, every minute, burned
+fainter and fainter, was the mouth of a huge well, that lay gaping before
+me--a reservoir of darkness, black and unfathomable. It now crossed my
+memory that I had heard of such wells, as being used occasionally for
+passages by the Priests. Leaning down, therefore, over the edge, I looked
+anxiously within, to discover whether it was possible to descend into the
+chasm; but the sides were hard and smooth as glass, being varnished all
+over with that dark pitch, which the Dead Sea throws out on its slimy
+shore.
+
+After a more attentive scrutiny, however, I observed, at the depth of a
+few feet, a sort of iron step, projecting dimly from the side, and, below
+it, another, which, though hardly perceptible, was just sufficient to
+encourage an adventurous foot to the trial. Though all hope of tracing the
+young Priestess was at an end,--it being impossible that female foot should
+have dared this descent,--yet, as I had so far engaged in the adventure,
+and there was, at least, a mystery to be unravelled, I determined, at all
+hazards, to explore the chasm. Placing my lamp (which was hollowed at the
+bottom, so as to fit like a helmet) firmly on my head, and having thus
+both hands at liberty for exertion, I set my foot cautiously on the iron
+step, and descended into the well.
+
+I found the same footing, at regular intervals, to a considerable depth;
+and had already counted near a hundred of these steps, when the ladder
+altogether ceased, and I could descend no farther. In vain did I stretch
+down my foot in search of support--the hard, slippery sides were all that
+it encountered. At length, stooping my head, so as to let the light fall
+below, I observed an opening or window directly above the step on which I
+stood, and, taking for granted that the way must lie in that direction,
+with some little difficulty clambered through the aperture.
+
+I now found myself on a rude and narrow stair-way, the steps of which were
+cut out of the living rock, and wound spirally downward in the same
+direction as the well. Almost dizzy with the descent, which seemed as if
+it would never end, I, at last, reached the bottom, where a pair of massy
+iron gates closed directly across my path, as if to forbid any further
+progress. Massy, however, and gigantic as they were, I found, to my
+surprise, that the hand of an infant might have opened them with ease--so
+readily did their great folds give way to my touch,
+
+  "Light as a lime-bush, that receives
+  Some wandering bird among its leaves."
+
+No sooner, however, had I passed through, than the din, with which the
+gates clashed together again, was such as might have awakened death
+itself. It seemed as if every echo, throughout that vast, subterranean
+world, from the Catacombs of Alexandria to Thebes's Valley of Kings, had
+caught up and repeated the thundering sound.
+
+Startled, however, as I was, not even this supernatural clangour could
+divert my attention from the light that now broke upon me--soft, warm, and
+welcome as are the stars of his own South to the mariner who has been
+wandering through the seas of the north. Looking for the source of this
+splendour, I saw, through an archway opposite, a long illuminated alley,
+stretching away as far as the eye could reach, and fenced, on one side,
+with thickets of odoriferous shrubs, while, along the other, extended a
+line of lofty arcades, from which the light, that filled the whole area,
+issued. As soon, too, as the din of the deep echoes had subsided, there
+stole gradually on my ear a strain of choral music, which appeared to
+come, mellowed and sweetened in its passage, through many a spacious hall
+within those shining arcades. Among the voices I could distinguish some
+female tones, towering high and clear over all the rest, and forming the
+spire, as it were, into which the harmony tapered, as it rose.
+
+So excited was my fancy by this sudden enchantment, that--though never had
+I caught a sound from the young Egyptian's lips,--I yet persuaded myself
+that the voice I now heard was hers, sounding highest and most heavenly of
+all that choir, and calling to me, like a distant spirit out of its
+sphere. Animated by this thought, I flew forward to the archway, but
+found, to my mortification, that it was guarded by a trellis-work, whose
+bars, though invisible at a distance, resisted all my efforts to force
+them.
+
+While occupied in these ineffectual struggles, I perceived, to the left of
+the archway, a dark, cavernous opening, which seemed to lead in a
+direction parallel to the lighted arcades. Notwithstanding my impatience,
+however, the aspect of this passage, as I looked shudderingly into it,
+chilled my very blood. It was not so much darkness, as a sort of livid and
+ghastly twilight, from which a damp, like that of death-vaults, exhaled,
+and through which, if my eyes did not deceive me, pale, phantom-like
+shapes were, at that very moment, hovering.
+
+Looking anxiously round, to discover some less formidable outlet, I saw,
+over the vast folding-gates through which I had just passed, a blue,
+tremulous flame, which, after playing for a few seconds over the dark
+ground of the pediment, settled gradually into characters of light, and
+formed the following words:--
+
+  You, who would try
+    Yon terrible track,
+  To live, or to die,
+    But ne'er to look back--
+
+  You, who aspire
+    To be purified there,
+  By the terrors of Fire,
+    Of Water, and Air,--
+
+  If danger, and pain,
+    And death you despise,
+  On--for again
+    Into light you shall rise;
+
+  Rise into light
+    With that Secret Divine,
+  Now shrouded from sight
+    By the Veils of the Shrine!
+
+  But if----
+
+Here the letters faded away into a dead blank, more awfully intelligible
+than the most eloquent words.
+
+A new hope now flashed across me. The dream of the Garden, which had been
+for some time almost forgotten, returned to my mind. "Am I then," I
+exclaimed, "in the path to the promised mystery? and shall the great
+secret of Eternal Life _indeed_ be mine?"
+
+"Yes!" seemed to answer, out of the air, that spirit-voice, which still
+was heard crowning the choir with its single sweetness. I hailed the omen
+with transport. Love and Immortality, both beckoning me onward--who could
+give a thought to fear, with two such bright hopes in view? Having invoked
+and blessed that unknown enchantress, whose steps had led me to this abode
+of mystery and knowledge, I plunged into the chasm.
+
+Instead of that vague, spectral twilight which had at first met my eye, I
+now found, as I entered, a thick darkness, which, though far less
+horrible, was, at this moment, still more disconcerting, as my lamp, which
+had been, for some time, almost useless, was fast expiring. Resolved,
+however, to make the most of its last gleam, I hastened, with rapid step,
+through this gloomy region, which seemed wider and more open to the air
+than any that I had yet passed. Nor was it long before the appearance of a
+bright blaze in the distance announced to me that my first great Trial was
+at hand. As I drew nearer, the flames burst high and wide on all
+sides;--and the spectacle that now presented itself was such as might have
+appalled even hearts more habituated to dangers than mine.
+
+There lay before me, extending completely across my path, a thicket, or
+grove of the most combustible trees of Egypt--tamarind, pine, and Arabian
+balm. Around their stems and branches were coiled serpents of fire, which,
+twisting themselves rapidly from bough to bough, spread their own wild-
+fire as they went, and involved tree after tree in one general blaze. It
+was, indeed, rapid as the burning of those reed-beds of Ethiopia, whose
+light brightens, at night, the distant cataracts of the Nile.
+
+Through the middle of this blazing grove, I perceived, my only pathway
+lay. There was not a moment to be lost--the conflagration gained rapidly on
+either side, and already the narrowing path between was strewed with fire.
+Casting away my now useless lamp, and holding my robe as some protection
+over my head, with a tremor, I own, in every limb, I ventured through the
+blaze.
+
+Instantly, as if my presence had given new life to the flames, a fresh
+outbreak of combustion arose on all sides. The trees clustered into a
+bower of fire above my head, while the serpents, that hung hissing from
+the red branches, shot showers of sparkles down upon me, as I passed.
+Never were decision and activity more serviceable;--one minute later, and I
+must have perished. The narrow opening, of which I had so promptly availed
+myself, closed instantly behind me; and, as I looked back, to contemplate
+the ordeal which I had passed, I saw that the whole grove was already one
+mass of fire.
+
+Happy at having escaped this first trial, I plucked from one of the pine-
+trees a bough that was but just kindled, and, with this for my only guide,
+hastened breathlessly forward. I had gone but a few paces, when the path
+turned suddenly off,--leading downwards, as I could see by the glimmer of
+my brand, into a more confined space, through which a chilling air, as if
+from some neighbouring waters, blew over my brow. Nor had I proceeded very
+far, when the sound of torrents fell on my ear,--mingled, as I thought,
+from time to time, with shrill wailings, like the cries of persons in
+danger or distress. At every step the noise of the dashing waters
+increased, and I now perceived that I had entered an immense rocky cavern,
+through the middle of which, headlong as a winter-torrent, the flood, to
+whose roar I had been listening, rushed. Upon its surface, too, there
+floated strange, spectre-like shapes, which, as they went by, sent forth
+those dismal shrieks, as if in fear of some precipice to whose brink they
+were hurrying.
+
+I saw too plainly that my course must be across that torrent. It was
+fearful; but in courage lay my only hope. What awaited me on the opposite
+shore, I knew not; for all there was wrapped in impenetrable gloom, nor
+could the weak light I held reach half so far. Dismissing, however, all
+thoughts but that of pressing onward, I sprung from the rock on which I
+stood into the flood,--trusting that, with my right hand, I should be able
+to buffet the current, while, with the other, I might contrive to hold my
+brand aloft, as long as a glimmer of it remained, to guide me to the
+shore.
+
+Long and formidable was the struggle I had to maintain. More than once,
+overpowered by the rush of the waters, I had almost given myself up, as
+destined to follow those apparitions, that still passed me, hurrying, with
+mournful cries, to their doom in some invisible gulf before them.
+
+At length, just as my strength was nearly exhausted, and the last remains
+of the pine-branch were falling from my hand, I saw, outstretching towards
+me into the water, a light double balustrade, with a flight of steps
+between, ascending, almost perpendicularly, from the wave, till they
+seemed lost in a dense mass of clouds above. This glimpse--for it was no
+more, as my light expired in giving it--lent new spring to my courage.
+Having now both hands at liberty, so desperate were my efforts, that after
+a few minutes' struggle, I felt my brow strike against the stairway, and,
+in an instant more, my feet were on the steps.
+
+Rejoiced at my rescue from that perilous flood, though I knew not whither
+the stairway led, I promptly ascended it. But this feeling of confidence
+was of short duration. I had not mounted far, when, to my horror, I
+perceived, that each successive step, as my foot left it, broke away from
+beneath me,--leaving me in midair, with no other alternative than that of
+mounting still by the same momentary footing, and with the dreadful doubt
+whether it would even endure my tread.
+
+And thus did I, for a few seconds, continue to ascend, with nothing
+beneath me but that awful river, in which--so tranquil it had become--I
+could hear the plash of the falling fragments, as every step in succession
+gave way under my feet. It was a trying moment, but still worse remained.
+I now found the balustrade, by which I had held during my ascent, and
+which had hitherto seemed firm, grow tremulous in my hand,--while the step
+to which I was about to trust myself, tottered under my foot. Just then, a
+momentary flash, as if of lightning, broke around, and I saw, hanging out
+of the clouds, within my reach, a huge brazen ring. Instinctively I
+stretched forth my arm to seize it, and, at the same instant, both
+balustrade and steps gave way beneath me, and I was left swinging by my
+hands in the dark void. As if, too, this massy ring, which I grasped, was
+by some magic power linked with all the winds in heaven, no sooner had I
+seized it than, like the touching of a spring, it seemed to give loose to
+every variety of gusts and tempests, that ever strewed the sea-shore with
+wrecks or dead; and, as I swung about, the sport of this elemental strife,
+each new burst of its fury threatened to shiver me, like a storm-sail, to
+atoms!
+
+Nor was even this the worst;--still holding, I know not how, by the ring, I
+felt myself caught up, as if by a thousand whirlwinds, and round and
+round, like a stone-shot in a sling, whirled in the midst of all this
+deafening chaos, till my brain grew dizzy, and my recollection confused,
+and I almost fancied myself on that wheel of the infernal world, whose
+rotations, it is said, Eternity alone can number!
+
+Human strength could no longer sustain such a trial. I was on the point,
+at last, of loosing my hold, when suddenly the violence of the storm
+moderated;--my whirl through the air gradually ceased, and I felt the ring
+slowly descend with me, till--happy as a shipwrecked mariner at the first
+touch of land--I found my feet once more upon firm ground.
+
+At the same moment, a light of the most delicious softness filled the
+whole air. Music, such as is heard in dreams, came floating at a distance;
+and, as my eyes gradually recovered their powers of vision, a scene of
+glory was revealed to them, almost too bright for imagination, and yet
+living and real. As far as the sight could reach, enchanting gardens were
+seen, opening away through long tracts of light and verdure, and sparkling
+every where with fountains, that circulated, like streams of life, among
+the flowers. Not a charm was here wanting, that the imagination of poet or
+prophet, in their pictures of Elysium, ever yet dreamed or promised.
+Vistas, opening into scenes of indistinct grandeur,--streams, shining out
+at intervals, in their shadowy course,--and labyrinths of flowers, leading,
+by mysterious windings, to green, spacious glades, full of splendour and
+repose. Over all this, too, there fell a light, from some unseen source,
+resembling nothing that illumines our upper world--a sort of golden
+moonlight, mingling the warm radiance of day with the calm and melancholy
+lustre of night.
+
+Nor were there wanting inhabitants for this sunless Paradise. Through all
+the bright gardens were wandering, with the serene air and step of happy
+spirits, groups both of young and old, of venerable and of lovely forms,
+bearing, most of them, the Nile's white flowers on their heads, and
+branches of the eternal palm in their hands; while, over the verdant turf,
+fair children and maidens went dancing to aerial music, whose source was,
+like that of the light, invisible, but which filled the whole air with its
+mystic sweetness.
+
+Exhausted as I was by the trials I had undergone, no sooner did I perceive
+those fair groups in the distance, than my weariness, both of frame and
+spirit, was forgotten. A thought crossed me that she, whom I sought, might
+be among them; and, notwithstanding the awe, with which that unearthly
+scene inspired me, I was about to fly, on the instant, to ascertain my
+hope. But in the act of making the effort, I felt my robe gently pulled,
+and turning, beheld an aged man before me, whom, by the sacred hue of his
+garb, I knew to be a Hierophant. Placing a branch of the consecrated palm
+in my hand, he said, in a solemn voice, "Aspirant of the Mysteries,
+welcome!"--then, regarding me for a few seconds with grave attention,
+added, in a tone of courteousness and interest, "The victory over the body
+hath been gained!--Follow me, young Greek, to thy resting place."
+
+I obeyed in silence,--and the Priest, turning away from this scene of
+splendour, into a secluded path, where the light faded away, as we
+advanced, conducted me to a small pavilion, by the side of a whispering
+stream, where the very spirit of slumber seemed to preside, and, pointing
+to a bed of dried poppy-leaves within it, left me to repose.
+
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAP. VIII.
+
+
+Though the sight of that splendid scene which opened upon me, like a
+momentary glimpse into another world, had, for an instant, re-animated my
+strength and spirit, so completely had fatigue overmastered my whole
+frame, that, even had the form of the young Priestess stood before me, my
+limbs would have sunk in the effort to reach her. No sooner had I fallen
+on my leafy couch, than sleep, like a sudden death, came over me; and I
+lay, for hours, in the deep, and motionless rest, which not even a shadow
+of life disturbs.
+
+On awaking I saw, beside me, the same venerable personage, who had
+welcomed me to this subterranean world on the preceding night. At the foot
+of my couch stood a statue, of Grecian workmanship, representing a boy,
+with wings, seated gracefully on a lotus-flower, and having the forefinger
+of his right hand pressed to his lips. This action, together with the
+glory round his brows, denoted, as I already knew, the God of Silence and
+Light.
+
+Impatient to know what further trials awaited me, I was about to speak,
+when the Priest exclaimed, anxiously, "Hush!"--and pointing to this statue
+at the foot of the couch, said--"Let the spell of that Spirit be on thy
+lips, young stranger, till the wisdom of thy instructors shall think fit
+to remove it. Not unaptly doth the same god preside over Silence and
+Light; since it is only out of the depth of contemplative silence, that
+the great light of the soul, Truth, arises!"
+
+Little used to the language of dictation or instruction, I was now
+preparing to rise, when the priest again restrained me; and, at the same
+moment, two boys, beautiful as the young Genii of the stars, entered the
+pavilion. They were habited in long garments of the purest white, and bore
+each a small golden chalice in his hand. Advancing towards me, they
+stopped on opposite sides of the couch, and one of them, presenting to me
+his chalice of gold, said, in a tone between singing and speaking,--
+
+  "Drink of this cup--Osiris sips
+    The same in his halls below;
+  And the same he gives, to cool the lips
+    Of the Dead, who downward go.
+
+  "Drink of this cup--the water within
+    Is fresh from Lethe's stream;
+  'Twill make the past with all its sin,
+    And all its pain and sorrows, seem
+    Like a long-forgotten dream!
+
+  "The pleasure, whose charms
+    Are steep'd in woe;
+  The knowledge, that harms
+    The soul to know;
+
+  "The hope, that, bright
+    As the lake of the waste,
+  Allures the sight,
+    But mocks the taste;
+
+  "The love, that binds
+    Its innocent wreath,
+  Where the serpent winds,
+    In venom, beneath;--
+
+  "All that, of evil or false, by thee
+    Hath ever been known or seen,
+  Shall melt away in this cup, and be
+    Forgot, as it never had been!"
+
+Unwilling to throw a slight on this strange ceremony, I leaned forward,
+with all due gravity, and tasted the cup; which I had no sooner done than
+the young cup-bearer, on the other side, invited my attention, and, in his
+turn, presenting the chalice which he held, sung, with a voice still
+sweeter than that of his companion, the following strain:--
+
+  "Drink of this cup--when Isis led
+    Her boy, of old, to the beaming sky,
+  She mingled a draught divine, and said--
+    'Drink of this cup, thou'lt never die!'
+
+  "Thus do I say and sing to thee,
+    Heir of that boundless heav'n on high,
+  Though frail, and fall'n, and lost thou be,
+    Drink of this cup, thou'lt never die!"
+
+Much as I had endeavoured to keep my philosophy on its guard, against the
+illusions with which, I knew, this region abounded, the young cup-bearer
+had here touched a spring of imagination, over which, as has been seen, my
+philosophy had but little controul. No sooner had the words, "thou shalt
+never die," struck on my ear, than the dream of the Garden came fully to
+my mind, and, starting half-way from the couch, I stretched forth my hands
+to the cup. Recollecting myself, however, and fearful of having betrayed
+to others a weakness only fit for my own secret indulgence, with an
+affected smile of indifference I sunk back again on my couch,--while the
+young minstrel, but little interrupted by my movement, still continued his
+strain, of which I heard but the concluding words:--
+
+  "And Memory, too, with her dreams shall come,
+    Dreams of a former, happier day,
+  When Heaven was still the Spirit's home,
+    And her wings had not yet fallen away;
+
+  "Glimpses of glory, ne'er forgot,
+    That tell, like gleams on a sunset sea,
+  What once hath been, what now is not,
+    But, oh, what again shall brightly be!"
+
+Though the assurances of immortality, contained in these verses, would, at
+any other moment,--vain and visionary as I thought them,--have sent my fancy
+wandering into reveries of the future, the effort of self-control I had
+just made enabled me to hear them with indifference.
+
+Having gone through the form of tasting this second cup, I again looked
+anxiously to the Hierophant, to ascertain whether I might be permitted to
+rise. His assent having been given, the young pages brought to my couch a
+robe and tunic, which, like their own, were of linen of the purest white;
+and having assisted to clothe me in this sacred garb, they then placed
+upon my head a chaplet of myrtle, in which the symbol of Initiation, a
+golden grasshopper, was seen shining out from among the dark leaves.
+
+Though sleep had done much to refresh my frame, something more was still
+wanting to restore its strength; and it was not without a smile at my own
+reveries I reflected, how much more welcome than the young page's cup of
+immortality was the unpretending, but real, repast now set before
+me,--fresh fruits from the Isle of Gardens in the Nile, the delicate flesh
+of the desert antelope, and wine from the Vineyard of the Queens at
+Anthylla, fanned by one of the pages with a palm-leaf, to keep it cool.
+
+Having done justice to these dainties, it was with pleasure I heard the
+proposal of the Priest, that we should now walk forth together, and
+meditate among the scenes without. I had not forgotten the elysium that
+welcomed me last night,--those enchanted gardens, that mysterious music,
+and light, and the fair forms I saw wandering about,--as if, in the very
+midst of happiness, still seeking it. The hope, which had then occurred to
+me, that, perhaps, among those sparkling groups, might be the maiden I
+sought, now returned with increased strength. I had little doubt that my
+guide was about to lead to the same Elysian scene, and that the form, so
+fit to inhabit it, would again appear before my eyes.
+
+But far different was the region to which he conducted me; nor could the
+whole world produce a scene more gloomy, or more strange. It had the
+appearance of a small, solitary valley, inclosed, on every side, by rocks,
+which seemed to rise, almost perpendicularly, to the very sky;--for it was,
+indeed, the blue sky that I saw shining between their summits, and whose
+light, dimmed and half lost, in its descent thus far, formed the
+melancholy daylight of this nether world.(3) Down the side of these rocky
+walls fell a cataract, whose source was upon earth, and on whose waters,
+as they rolled glassily over the edge above, a gleam of radiance rested,
+that showed how brilliant was the sunshine they left. From thence,
+gradually darkening, and broken, in its long descent, by alternate chasms
+and projections, the stream fell, at last, in a pale and thin mist--the
+phantom of what it had been on earth--into a small lake that lay at the
+base of the rock to receive it.
+
+Nothing could be more bleak and saddening than the appearance of this
+lake. The usual ornaments of the waters of Egypt were not wanting: the
+lotus here uplifted her silvery flowers, and the crimson flamingo floated
+over the tide. But they were, neither of them, the same as in the upper
+world;--the flower had exchanged its whiteness for a livid hue, and the
+wings of the bird hung heavy and colourless. Every thing wore the same
+half-living aspect; and the only sounds that disturbed the mournful
+stillness were the wailing cry of a heron among the sedges, and that din
+of the waters, in their midway struggle, above.
+
+There was an unearthly sadness in the whole scene, of which no heart,
+however light, could resist the influence. Perceiving how I was affected
+by it, "Such scenes," said the Priest, "are best suited to that solemn
+complexion of mind, which becomes him who approaches the Great Secret of
+futurity. Behold,"--and, in saying thus, he pointed to the opening over our
+heads, through which I could perceive a star or two twinkling in the
+heavens, though the sun had but a short time passed his meridian,--"as from
+this gloomy depth we can see those stars, which are now invisible to the
+dwellers upon the bright earth, even so, to the sad and self-humbled
+spirit, doth many a mystery of heaven reveal itself, of which they, who
+walk in the light of the proud world, know not!"
+
+He now led me towards a rustic seat or alcove, beside which stood an image
+of that dark Deity, that God without a smile, who presides over the
+kingdom of the Dead.(4) The same livid and lifeless hue was upon his
+features, that hung over every thing in this dim valley; and, with his
+right hand, he pointed directly downwards, to denote that his melancholy
+kingdom lay there. A plantain--that favourite tree of the genii of
+Death--stood behind the statue, and spread its branches over the alcove, in
+which the Priest now, seating himself, signified that I should take my
+place by his side.
+
+After a long pause, as if of thought and preparation,--"Nobly," said he,
+"young Greek, hast thou sustained the first trials of Initiation. What
+remains, though of vital import to the soul, brings with it neither pain
+nor peril to the body. Having now proved and chastened thy mortal frame,
+by the three ordeals of Fire, of Water, and of Air, the next task to which
+we are called is the purification of thy spirit,--the cleansing of that
+inward and immortal part, so as to render it fit for the reception of the
+last luminous revealment, when the Veils of the Sanctuary shall be thrown
+aside, and the Great Secret of Secrets unfolded to thee!--Towards this
+object, the primary and most essential step is, instruction. What the
+three purifying elements, through which thou hast passed, have done for
+thy body, instruction will effect for----"
+
+"But that lovely maiden!" I exclaimed, bursting from my silence, having
+fallen, during his speech, into a deep revery, in which I had forgotten
+him, myself, the Great Secret, every thing--but her.
+
+Startled by this profane interruption, he cast a look of alarm towards the
+statue, as if fearful lest the God should have heard my words. Then,
+turning to me, in a tone of mild solemnity, "It is but too plain," said
+he, "that thoughts of the upper world, and of its vain delights, still
+engross thee too much, to let the lessons of Truth sink profitably into
+thy heart. A few hours of meditation amid this solemn scenery--of that
+wholesome meditation, which purifies, by saddening--may haply dispose thee
+to receive, with reverence, the holy and immortal knowledge that is in
+store for thee. With this hope, I now leave thee to thy own thoughts, and
+to that God, before whose calm and mournful eye the vanities of the world,
+from which thou comest, wither!"
+
+Thus saying, he turned slowly away, and passing behind the statue, towards
+which he had pointed during the last sentence, suddenly, and as if by
+enchantment, disappeared from my sight.
+
+
+
+
+
+                                CHAP. IX.
+
+
+Being left to my own solitary thoughts, I had now leisure to reflect, with
+coolness, on the inconveniences, if not dangers, of the situation into
+which my love of adventure had hurried me. However ready my imagination
+was to kindle, in its own ideal sphere, I have ever found that, when
+brought into contact with reality, it as suddenly cooled;--like those
+meteors, that seem stars in the air, but, the moment they touch earth, are
+extinguished. Such was the disenchantment that now succeeded to the dreams
+in which I had been indulging. As long as Fancy had the field of the
+future to herself, even immortality did not seem too distant a race for
+her. But when human instruments interposed, the illusion vanished. From
+mortal lips the promise of immortality seemed a mockery, and imagination
+herself had no wings that could carry beyond the grave.
+
+Nor was this disappointment the only feeling that occupied me;--the
+imprudence of the step, which I had taken, now appeared in its full extent
+before my eyes. I had thrown myself into the power of the most artful
+priesthood in the world, without a chance of being able to escape from
+their toils, or to resist any machinations with which they might beset me.
+It seemed evident, from the state of preparation in which I had found all
+that wonderful apparatus, by which the terrors and splendours of
+Initiation are produced, that my descent into the pyramid was not
+unexpected. Numerous, indeed, and active as were the spies of the Sacred
+College of Memphis, there could be but little doubt that all my movements,
+since my arrival, had been tracked; and the many hours I had passed in
+watching and wandering round the pyramid, betrayed a curiosity which might
+well inspire these wily priests with the hope of drawing an Epicurean into
+their superstitious toils.
+
+I well knew their hatred to the sect of which I was Chief;--that they
+considered the Epicureans as, next to the Christians, the most formidable
+enemies of their craft and power. "How thoughtless, then," I exclaimed,
+"to have placed myself in a situation, where I am equally helpless against
+their fraud and violence, and must either seem to be the dupe of their
+impostures, or submit to become the victim of their vengeance." Of these
+alternatives, bitter as they were, the latter appeared by far the more
+welcome. I blushed even to think of the mockeries to which I already had
+yielded; and the prospect of being put through still further ceremonials,
+and of being tutored and preached to by hypocrites I despised, appeared to
+me, in my present temper, a trial of patience, to which the flames and the
+whirlwinds I had already encountered were pastime.
+
+Often and impatiently did I look up, between those rocky walls, to the
+bright sky that appeared to rest upon their summits, as, round and round,
+through every part of the valley, I endeavoured to find an outlet from its
+gloomy precincts. But in vain I endeavoured;--that rocky barrier, which
+seemed to end but in heaven, interposed itself every where. Neither did
+the image of the young maiden, though constantly in my mind, now bring
+with it the least consolation or hope. Of what avail was it that she,
+perhaps, was an inhabitant of this region, if I could neither see her
+smile, nor catch the sound of her voice,--if, while among preaching priests
+I wasted away my hours, her presence diffused its enchantment elsewhere.
+
+At length exhausted, I lay down by the brink of the lake, and gave myself
+up to all the melancholy of my fancy. The pale semblance of daylight,
+which had hitherto shone around, grew, every moment, more dim and dismal.
+Even the rich gleam, at the summit of the cascade, had faded; and the
+sunshine, like the water, exhausted in its descent, had now dwindled into
+a ghostly glimmer, far worse than darkness. The birds upon the lake, as if
+about to die with the dying light, sunk down their heads; and, as I looked
+to the statue, the deepening shadows gave an expression to its mournful
+features that chilled my very soul.
+
+The thought of death, ever ready to present itself to my imagination, now
+came, with a disheartening weight, such as I had never before felt. I
+almost fancied myself already in the dark vestibule of the
+grave,--separated, for ever, from the world above, and with nothing but the
+blank of an eternal sleep before me. It had often, I knew, happened that
+the visitants of this mysterious realm were, after their descent from
+earth, never seen or heard of;--being condemned, for some failure in their
+initiatory trials, to pine away their lives in the dark dungeons, with
+which, as well as with altars, this region abounded. Such, I shuddered to
+think, might probably be my destiny; and so appalling was the thought,
+that even the spirit of defiance died within me, and I was already giving
+myself up to helplessness and despair.
+
+At length, after some hours of this gloomy musing, I heard a rustling in
+the sacred grove behind the statue; and, soon after, the sound of the
+Priest's voice--more welcome than I had ever thought such voice could
+be--brought the assurance that I was not yet, at least, wholly abandoned.
+Finding his way to me through the gloom, he now led me to the same spot,
+on which we had parted so many hours before; and, in a voice that retained
+no trace of displeasure, bespoke my attention, while he should reveal to
+me some of those divine truths, by whose infusion, he said, into the soul
+of man, its purification can alone be effected.
+
+The valley had now become so wholly dark, that we could no longer discern
+each other's faces, as we sat. There was a melancholy in the voice of my
+instructor that well accorded with the gloom around us; and, saddened and
+subdued, I now listened with resignation, if not with interest, to those
+sublime, but, alas, I thought, vain tenets, which, with the warmth of a
+believer, this Hierophant expounded to me.
+
+He spoke of the pre-existence of the soul,--of its abode, from all
+eternity, in a place of bliss, of which all that we have most beautiful in
+our conceptions here is but a dim transcript, a clouded remembrance. In
+the blue depths of ether, he said, lay that "Country of the Soul,"--its
+boundary alone visible in the line of milky light, that separates it, as
+by a barrier of stars, from the dark earth. "Oh, realm of purity! Home of
+the yet unfallen Spirit!--where, in the days of her primal innocence, she
+wandered, ere her beauty was soiled by the touch of earth, or her
+resplendent wings had withered away. Methinks," he cried, "I see, at this
+moment, those fields of radiance,--I look back, through the mists of life,
+into that luminous world, where the souls that have never lost their high,
+heavenly rank, still soar, without a stain, above the shadowless stars,
+and dwell together in infinite perfection and bliss!"
+
+As he spoke these words, a burst of pure, brilliant light, like a sudden
+opening of heaven, broke through the valley; and, as soon as my eyes were
+able to endure the splendour, such a vision of loveliness and glory opened
+upon them, as took even my sceptical spirit by surprise, and made it
+yield, at once, to the potency of the spell.
+
+Suspended, as I thought, in air, and occupying the whole of the opposite
+region of the valley, there appeared an immense orb of light, within
+which, through a haze of radiance, I could see distinctly groups of young
+female spirits, who, in silent, but harmonious movement, like that of the
+stars, wound slowly through a variety of fanciful evolutions; and, as they
+linked and unlinked each other's arms, formed a living labyrinth of beauty
+and grace. Though their feet seemed to tread along a field of light, they
+had also wings, of the richest hue, which, like rainbows over waterfalls,
+when played with by the breeze, at every moment reflected a new variety of
+glory.
+
+As I stood, gazing with wonder, the orb, with all its ethereal inmates,
+gradually receded into the dark void, lessening, as it went, and growing
+more bright, as it lessened;--till, at length, distant, apparently, as a
+retiring comet, this little world of Spirits, in one small point of
+intense radiance, shone its last and vanished. "Go," exclaimed the rapt
+Priest, "ye happy souls, of whose dwelling a glimpse is thus given to our
+eyes, go, wander, in your orb, through the boundless heaven, nor ever let
+a thought of this perishable world come to mingle its dross with your
+divine nature, or tempt you to that earthward fall, by which spirits, as
+bright, have been ruined!"
+
+A pause ensued, during which, still under the influence of wonder, I sent
+my fancy wandering after the inhabitants of that orb,--almost wishing
+myself credulous enough to believe in a heaven, of which creatures, so
+like all that I most loved on earth, were inmates.
+
+At length, the Priest, with a sigh at the contrast he was about to draw,
+between the happy spirits we had just seen and the fallen ones of earth,
+resumed his melancholy History of the Soul. Tracing it, from the first
+moment of earthward desire, to its final eclipse in the shadows of this
+world, he dwelt upon every stage of its darkening descent, with a pathos
+that sent sadness into the very depths of the heart. The first downward
+look of the Spirit towards earth--the tremble of her wings on the edge of
+Heaven--the giddy slide, at length, down that fatal descent, and the
+Lethaean cup, midway in the sky, of which when she has once tasted, Heaven
+is forgot,--through all these gradations he mournfully traced her fall, to
+the last stage of darkness, when, wholly immersed in this world, her
+celestial nature is changed, she can no longer rise above earth, nor
+remembers her home, but by glimpses so vague, that, mistaking for hope
+what is only memory, she believes them to be a light from the Future, not
+the Past.
+
+"To retrieve this ruin of the once blessed Soul--to clear away, from around
+her, the clouds of earth, and, restoring her lost wings(5), facilitate
+their return to Heaven--such," said the reverend man, "is the great task of
+our religion, and such the triumph of those divine Mysteries, in which the
+life and essence of our religion lie. However sunk and changed and clouded
+may be the Spirit, as long as a single trace of her original light
+remains, there is yet hope that----"
+
+Here his voice was interrupted by a strain of mournful music, of which the
+low, distant breathings had been, for some minutes, heard, but which now
+gained upon the ear too thrillingly to let it listen to any more earthly
+sound. A faint light, too, at that instant broke through the valley,--and I
+could perceive, not far from the spot where we sat, a female figure,
+veiled, and crouching to earth, as if subdued by sorrow, or under the
+influence of shame.
+
+The light, by which I saw her, was from a pale, moon-like meteor, which
+had formed itself in the air as the music approached, and shed over the
+rocks and the lake a glimmer as cold as that by which the Dead, in their
+own realm, gaze on each other. The music, too, which appeared to rise
+directly out of the lake, and to come full of the breath of its dark
+waters, spoke a despondency in every note which no language could
+express;--and, as I listened to its tones, and looked upon that fallen
+Spirit, (for such, the holy man whispered, was the form before us,) so
+entirely did the illusion of the scene take possession of me, that, with
+breathless anxiety, I waited the result.
+
+Nor had I gazed long before that form rose slowly from its drooping
+position;--the air around it grew bright, and the pale meteor overhead
+assumed a more cheerful and living light. The veil, which had before
+shrouded the face of the figure, became gradually transparent, and the
+features, one by one, disclosed themselves through it. Having tremblingly
+watched the progress of the apparition, I now started from my seat, and
+half exclaimed, "It is she!" In another minute, this veil had, like a thin
+mist, melted away, and the young Priestess of the Moon stood, for the
+third time, revealed before my eyes.
+
+To rush instantly towards her was my first impulse--but the arm of the
+Priest held me firmly back. The fresh light, which had begun to flow in
+from all sides, collected itself in a glory round the spot where she
+stood. Instead of melancholy music, strains of the most exalted rapture
+were heard; and the young maiden, buoyant as the inhabitants of the fairy
+orb, amid a blaze of light like that which fell upon her in the Temple,
+ascended into the air.
+
+"Stay, beautiful vision, stay!" I exclaimed, as, breaking from the hold of
+the Priest, I flung myself prostrate on the ground,--the only mode by which
+I could express the admiration, even to worship, with which I was filled.
+But the vanishing spirit heard me not:--receding into the darkness, like
+that orb, whose track she seemed to follow, her form lessened away, till
+she was seen no more. Gazing, till the last luminous speck had
+disappeared, I suffered myself unconsciously to be led away by my reverend
+guide, who, placing me once more on my bed of poppy-leaves, left me to
+such repose as it was possible, after such a scene, to enjoy.
+
+
+
+
+
+                                 CHAP. X.
+
+
+The apparition with which I had been blessed in that Valley of Visions--as
+the place where I had witnessed these wonders was called--brought back to
+my heart all the hopes and fancies, in which I had indulged during my
+descent from earth. I had now seen once more that matchless creature, who
+had been my guiding star into this mysterious world; and that she was, in
+some way, connected with the further revelations that awaited me, I saw no
+reason to doubt. There was a sublimity, too, in the doctrines of my
+reverend teacher, and even a hope in the promises of immortality held out
+by him, which, in spite of reason, won insensibly both upon my fancy and
+my pride.
+
+The Future, however, was now but of secondary consideration;--the Present,
+and that deity of the Present, woman, were the objects that engrossed my
+whole soul. For the sake, indeed, of such beings alone did I think
+immortality desirable, nor, without them, would eternal life have appeared
+to me worth a prayer. To every further trial of my patience and faith, I
+now made up my mind to submit without a murmur. Some propitious chance, I
+fondly persuaded myself, might yet bring me nearer to the object of my
+adoration, and enable me to address, as mortal woman, her who had hitherto
+been to me but as a vision, a shade.
+
+The period of my probation, however, was nearly at an end. Both frame and
+spirit had now been tried; and, as the crowning test of the purification
+of the latter was that power of seeing into the world of spirits, with
+which, in the Valley of Visions, I had proved myself to be endowed, there
+remained now, to perfect my Initiation, but this one night more, when, in
+the Temple of Isis, and in the presence of her unveiled image, the last
+grand revelation of the Secret of Secrets was to open upon me.
+
+I passed the morning of this day in company with the same venerable
+personage, who had, from the first, presided over the ceremonies of my
+instruction; and who, to inspire me with due reverence for the power and
+magnificence of his religion, now conducted me through the long range of
+illuminated galleries and shrines, that extend under the site upon which
+Memphis and the Pyramids stand, and form a counterpart under ground to
+that mighty city of temples upon earth.
+
+He then descended with me, still lower, into those winding crypts, where
+lay the Seven Tables of stone, found by Hermes in the valley of Hebron.
+"On these tables," said he, "is written all the knowledge of the
+antediluvian race,--the decrees of the stars from the beginning of time,
+the annals of a still earlier world, and all the marvellous secrets, both
+of heaven and earth, which would have been,
+
+          "_but_ for this key,
+  Lost in the Universal Sea."
+
+Returning to the region, from which we had descended, we next visited, in
+succession, a series of small shrines, representing the various objects of
+adoration through Egypt, and thus furnishing to the Priest an occasion for
+explaining the mysterious nature of animal worship, and the refined
+doctrines of theology that lay veiled under its forms. Every shrine was
+consecrated to a particular faith, and contained a living image of the
+deity which it adored. Beside the goat of Mendes, with his refulgent star
+upon his breast, I saw the crocodile, as presented to the eyes of its
+idolaters at Arsinoe, with costly gems in its loathsome ears, and rich
+bracelets of gold encircling its feet. Here, floating through a tank in
+the centre of a temple, the sacred carp of Lepidotum exhibited its silvery
+scales; while, there, the Isiac serpents trailed languidly over the altar,
+with that movement which most inspires the hopes of their votaries. In one
+of the small chapels we found a beautiful child, feeding and watching over
+those golden beetles, which are adored for their brightness, as emblems of
+the sun; while, in another, stood a sacred ibis upon its pedestal, so
+like, in plumage and attitude, to the bird of the young Priestess, that I
+could gladly have knelt down and worshipped it for her sake.
+
+After visiting these various shrines, and listening to the reflections
+which they suggested, I was next led by my guide to the Great Hall of the
+Zodiac, on whose ceiling, in bright and undying colours, was delineated
+the map of the firmament, as it appeared at the first dawn of time. Here,
+in pointing out the track of the sun, among the spheres, he spoke
+eloquently of the analogy that exists between moral and physical
+darkness--of the sympathy with which all spiritual creatures regard the
+sun, so as to sadden and droop when he sinks into his wintry hemisphere,
+and to rejoice when he resumes his own empire of light. Hence, the
+festivals and hymns, with which most of the nations of the earth are wont
+to welcome the resurrection of his orb in spring, as an emblem and pledge
+of the re-ascent of the soul to heaven. Hence, the songs of sorrow, the
+mournful ceremonies,--like those Mysteries of the Night, upon the Lake of
+Sais,--in which they brood over his autumnal descent into the shades, as a
+type of the Spirit's fall into this world of death.
+
+In discourses such as these the hours passed away; and though there was
+nothing in the light of this sunless region to mark to the eye the decline
+of day, my own feelings told me that the night drew near;--nor, in spite of
+my incredulity, could I refrain from a flutter of hope, as that promised
+moment of revelation approached, when the Mystery of Mysteries was to be
+made all my own. This consummation, however, was less near than I
+expected. My patience had still further trials to encounter. It was
+necessary, I now found, that I should keep watch, during the greater part
+of the night, in the Sanctuary of the Temple, alone and in darkness,--and
+thus prepare myself, by meditation, for the awful moment, when the
+irradiation from behind the sacred Veils was to burst upon me.
+
+At the appointed hour, we left the Hall of the Zodiac, and proceeded
+through a line of long marble galleries, where the lamps were more thinly
+scattered as we advanced, till, at length, we found ourselves in total
+darkness. Here the Priest, taking me by the hand, and leading me down a
+flight of steps, into a place where the same deep gloom prevailed, said,
+with a voice trembling, as if from excess of awe,--"Thou art now in the
+Sanctuary of our goddess, Isis, and the dark veils, that hang over her
+image, are before thee!"
+
+After exhorting me earnestly to that train of thought, which best accorded
+with the spirit of the place where I stood, and, above all, to that full
+and unhesitating faith, with which alone, he said, the manifestation of
+such mysteries should be approached, the holy man took leave of me, and
+re-ascended the steps;--while, so spell-bound did I feel by that deep
+darkness, that the last sound of his footsteps died upon my ear, before I
+ventured to stir a limb from the position in which he had left me.
+
+The prospect of the long watch, now before me, was dreadful. Even danger
+itself, in an active form, would have been preferable to this sort of
+safe, but dull, probation, by which patience was the only virtue put to
+the proof. Having ascertained how far the space around me was free from
+obstacles, I endeavoured to beguile the time by pacing up and down within
+those limits, till I became tired of the echoes of my own tread. Finding
+my way, then, to what I felt to be a massive pillar, and, leaning wearily
+against it, I surrendered myself to a train of thoughts and feelings, far
+different from those with which the Hierophant had hoped to inspire me.
+
+"Why," I again asked, "if these priests possess the secret of life, why
+are they themselves the victims of death? why sink into the grave with the
+cup of immortality in their hands? But no, safe boasters, the eternity
+they so lavishly promise is reserved for _another_, a future world--that
+ready resource of all priestly promises--that depository of the airy
+pledges of all creeds. Another world!--alas, where does it lie? or, what
+spirit hath ever come to say that Life is there?"
+
+The conclusion, to which, half sadly, half passionately, I arrived, was
+that, life being but a dream of the moment, never to come again, every
+bliss that is promised for hereafter should be secured by the wise man
+here. And, as no heaven I had ever heard of from these visionary priests
+opened half such certainty of happiness as that smile which I beheld last
+night,--"Let me," I exclaimed, impatiently, striking the massy pillar, till
+it rung, "let me but make that beautiful Priestess my own, and I here
+willingly exchange for her every chance of immortality, that the combined
+wisdom of Egypt's Twelve Temples can offer me!"
+
+No sooner had I uttered these words, than a tremendous peal, like that of
+thunder, rolled over the Sanctuary, and seemed to shake its walls. On
+every side, too, a succession of blue, vivid flashes pierced, like so many
+lances of light, through the gloom, revealing to me, at intervals, the
+mighty dome in which I stood--its ceiling of azure, studded with stars, its
+colossal columns, towering aloft, and those dark, mysterious veils, which
+hung, in massy drapery, from the roof to the floor, and covered the rich
+glories of the Shrine under their folds.
+
+So weary had I grown of my tedious watch, that this stormy and fitful
+illumination, during which the Sanctuary seemed to rock to its base, was
+by no means an unwelcome interruption of the monotony under which my
+impatience suffered. After a short interval, however, the flashes
+ceased;--the sounds died away, like exhausted thunder, through the abyss,
+and darkness and silence, like that of the grave, succeeded.
+
+Resting my back once more against the pillar, and fixing my eyes upon that
+side of the Sanctuary, from which the promised irradiation was to burst, I
+now resolved to await the awful moment in patience. Resigned and
+immovable, I had remained thus, for nearly another hour, when, suddenly,
+along the edges of the mighty Veils, I perceived a thin rim of light, as
+if from some brilliant object under them;--like that border which encircles
+a cloud at sunset, when the radiance, from behind, is escaping at its
+edges.
+
+This indication of concealed glories grew every instant more strong; till,
+at last, vividly marked as it was upon the darkness, the narrow fringe of
+lustre almost pained the eye, giving promise of a splendour too bright to
+be endured. My expectations were now wound to the highest pitch, and all
+the scepticism, into which I had been cooling down my mind, was forgotten.
+The wonders that had been presented to me since my descent from earth--that
+glimpse into Elysium on the first night of my coming--those visitants from
+the Land of Spirits in the mysterious valley,--all led me to expect, in
+this last and brightest revelation, such visions of glory and knowledge as
+might transcend even fancy itself, nor leave a doubt that they belonged
+less to earth than heaven.
+
+While, with an imagination thus excited, I stood waiting the result, an
+increased gush of light still more awakened my attention; and I saw, with
+an intenseness of interest, which made my heart beat aloud, one of the
+corners of the mighty Veil slowly raised up. I now felt that the Great
+Secret--whatever it might be--was at hand. A vague hope even crossed my
+mind--so wholly had imagination resumed her empire--that the splendid
+promise of my dream was on the point of being realised!
+
+With surprise, however, and--for a moment--with disappointment, I perceived,
+that the massy corner of the Veil was but raised sufficiently to allow a
+female figure to emerge from under it,--and then fell again, over its
+mystic splendours, as dark as before. By the strong light, too, that
+issued when the drapery was lifted, and illuminated the profile of the
+emerging figure, I either saw, or fancied that I saw, the same bright
+features, that had already mocked me so often with their momentary charm,
+and seemed destined to haunt my heart as unavailingly as the fond, vain
+dream of Immortality itself.
+
+Dazzled as I had been by that short gush of splendour, and distrusting
+even my senses, when under the influence of a fancy so excited, I had
+hardly time to question myself as to the reality of my impression, when I
+heard the sounds of light footsteps approaching me through the gloom. In a
+second or two more, the figure stopped before me, and, placing the end of
+a riband gently in my hand, said, in a tremulous whisper, "Follow, and be
+silent."
+
+So sudden and strange was the adventure, that, for a moment, I
+hesitated,--fearful lest my eyes should have been deceived as to the object
+they had seen. Casting a look towards the Veil, which seemed bursting with
+its luminous secret, I was almost doubting to which of the two chances I
+should commit myself, when I felt the riband in my hand pulled softly at
+the other extremity. This movement, at once, like a touch of magic,
+decided me. Without further deliberation, I yielded to the silent summons,
+and following my guide, who was already at some distance before me, found
+myself led up the same flight of marble steps, by which the Priest had
+conducted me into the Sanctuary. Arrived at their summit, I felt the pace
+of my conductress quicken, and, giving one more look to the Veiled Shrine,
+whose glories we left burning ineffectually behind us, hastened into the
+gloom, full of confidence in the belief, that she, who now held the other
+end of that clue, was one whom I could follow devotedly through the world.
+
+
+
+
+
+                                CHAP. XI.
+
+
+So rapidly was I hurried along by my unseen conductress, full of wonder at
+the speed with which she ventured through these labyrinths, that I had but
+little time to reflect upon the strangeness of the adventure to which I
+had committed myself. My knowledge of the character of the priests, as
+well as the fearful rumours that had reached me, of the fate that often
+attended unbelievers in their hands, waked a momentary suspicion of
+treachery in my mind. But, when I recalled the face of my guide, as I had
+seen it in the chapel, with that divine look, the very memory of which
+brought purity into the heart, this suspicion all vanished, and I felt
+shame at having harboured it but an instant.
+
+In the mean while, our course continued uninterrupted, through windings
+more capriciously intricate than any that I had yet passed, and whose
+darkness seemed never to have been disturbed by a single glimmer. My
+conductress still continued at some distance before me, and the clue, to
+which I clung as if it were the thread of Destiny herself, was still kept,
+by her speed, at full stretch between us. At length, suddenly stopping,
+she said, in a breathless whisper, "Seat thyself here," and, at the same
+moment, led me by the hand to a sort of low car, in which I lost not a
+moment in placing myself, as desired, while the maiden, as promptly, took
+her seat by my side.
+
+A sudden click, like the touching of a spring, was then heard, and the
+car,--which, as I had felt in entering it, leaned half-way over a steep
+descent,--on being loosed from its station, shot down, almost
+perpendicularly, into the darkness, with a rapidity which, at first,
+nearly deprived me of breath. The wheels slid smoothly and noiselessly in
+grooves, and the impetus, which the car acquired in descending, was
+sufficient, I perceived, to carry it up an eminence that succeeded,--from
+the summit of which it again rushed down another declivity, even still
+more long and precipitous than the former. In this manner we proceeded, by
+alternate falls and rises, till, at length, from the last and steepest
+elevation, the car descended upon a level of deep sand, where, after
+running for a few yards, it by degrees lost its motion and stopped.
+
+Here, the maiden alighting, again placed the riband in my hands,--and again
+I followed her, though with more slowness and difficulty than before, as
+our way led up a flight of damp and time-worn steps, whose ascent seemed
+to the weary and insecure foot interminable. Perceiving with what languor
+my guide now advanced, I was on the point of making an effort to assist
+her progress, when the creak of an opening door above, and a faint gleam
+of light which, at the same moment, shone upon her figure, apprised me
+that we were arrived within reach of sunshine.
+
+Joyfully I followed through this opening, and, by the dim light, could
+discern, that we were now in the sanctuary of a vast, ruined
+temple,--having entered by a passage under the lofty pedestal, upon which
+an image of the idol of the place once stood. The first movement of the
+maiden, after replacing the portal under the pedestal, was, without even a
+look towards me, to cast herself down on her knees, with her hands clasped
+and uplifted, as if for the purpose of thanksgiving or prayer. But she was
+unable to sustain herself in this position;--her strength could hold out no
+longer. Overcome by agitation and fatigue, she sunk senseless upon the
+pavement.
+
+Bewildered as I was, myself, by the events of the night, I stood for some
+minutes looking upon her in a state of helplessness and alarm. But,
+reminded, by my own feverish sensations, of the reviving effects of the
+air, I raised her gently in my arms, and crossing the corridor that
+surrounded the sanctuary, found my way to the outer vestibule of the
+temple. Here, shading her eyes from the sun, I placed her, reclining, upon
+the steps, where the cool wind, then blowing freshly from the north, might
+play, with free draught, between the pillars over her brow.
+
+It was, indeed,--I now saw, with certainty,--the same beautiful and
+mysterious girl, who had been the cause of my descent into that
+subterranean world, and who now, under such strange and unaccountable
+circumstances, was my guide back again to the realms of day. I looked
+round, to discover where we were, and beheld such a scene of grandeur,
+as--could my eyes have wandered to any other object from the pale form
+reclining at my side--might well have won them to dwell on its splendid
+beauties.
+
+I was now standing, I found, on the small island in the centre of Lake
+Moeris; and that sanctuary, where we had emerged from darkness, formed part
+of the ruins of a temple, which (as I have since learned) was, in the
+grander days of Memphis, a place of pilgrimage for worshippers from all
+parts of Egypt. The fair Lake, itself, out of whose waters once rose
+pavilions, palaces, and even lofty pyramids, was still, though divested of
+many of these wonders, a scene of interest and splendour such as the whole
+world could not equal. While the shores still sparkled with mansions and
+temples, that bore testimony to the luxury of a living race, the voice of
+the Past, speaking out of unnumbered ruins, whose summits, here and there,
+rose blackly above the wave, told of times long fled and generations long
+swept away, before whose giant remains all the glory of the present stood
+humbled. Over the southern bank of the Lake hung the dark relics of the
+Labyrinth;--its twelve Royal Palaces, like the mansions of the Zodiac,--its
+thundering portals and constellated halls, having left nothing behind but
+a few frowning ruins, which, contrasted with the soft groves of olive and
+acacia around them, seemed to rebuke the luxuriant smiles of nature, and
+threw a melancholy grandeur over the whole scene.
+
+The effects of the air, in re-animating the young Priestess, were less
+speedy than I had expected;--her eyes were still closed, and she remained
+pale and insensible. Alarmed, I now rested her head (which had been, for
+some time, supported by my arm,) against the base of a column, with my
+cloak for its pillow, while I hastened to procure some water from the
+Lake. The temple stood high, and the descent to the shore was precipitous.
+But, my Epicurean habits having but little impaired my activity, I soon
+descended, with the lightness of a desert deer, to the bottom. Here,
+plucking from a lofty bean-tree, whose flowers stood, shining like gold,
+above the water, one of those large hollowed leaves that serve as cups for
+the Hebes of the Nile, I filled it from the Lake, and hurried back with
+the cool draught to the temple. It was not without some difficulty and
+delay that I succeeded, in bearing my rustic chalice steadily up the
+steep; more than once did an unlucky slip waste its contents, and as often
+did I impatiently return to refill it.
+
+During this time, the young maiden was fast recovering her animation and
+consciousness; and, at the moment when I appeared above the edge of the
+steep, was just rising from the steps, with her hand pressed to her
+forehead, as if confusedly recalling the recollection of what had
+occurred. No sooner did she observe me, than a short cry of alarm broke
+from her lips. Looking anxiously round, as though she sought for
+protection, and half audibly uttering the words, "Where is he?" she made
+an effort, as I approached, to retreat into the temple.
+
+Already, however, I was by her side, and taking her hand gently, as she
+turned away, "Whom dost thou seek, fair Priestess?" I asked,--for the first
+time breaking through the silence she had enjoined, and in a tone that
+might have re-assured the most timid spirit. But my words had no effect in
+calming her apprehension. Trembling, and with her eyes still averted
+towards the Temple, she continued in a voice of suppressed alarm,--"Where
+_can_ he be?--that venerable Athenian, that philosopher, who----"
+
+"Here, here," I exclaimed, anxiously interrupting her,--"behold him still
+by thy side--the same, the very same who saw thee steal from under the
+lighted Veils of the Sanctuary, whom thou hast guided by a clue through
+those labyrinths below, and who now but waits his command from those lips,
+to devote himself through life and death to thy service." As I spoke these
+words, she turned slowly round, and looking timidly in my face, while her
+own burned with blushes, said, in a tone of doubt and wonder, "Thou!" and
+hid her eyes in her hands.
+
+I knew not how to interpret a reception so unexpected. That some mistake
+or disappointment had occurred was evident; but so inexplicable did the
+whole adventure appear, that it was in vain to think of unravelling any
+part of it. Weak and agitated, she now tottered to the steps of the
+temple, and there seating herself, with her forehead against the cold
+marble, seemed for some moments absorbed in the most anxious
+thought,--while silent and watchful I waited her decision, with a prophetic
+feeling, however, that my destiny would be henceforth linked with hers.
+
+The inward struggle by which she was agitated, though violent, was not of
+long continuance. Starting suddenly from her seat, with a look of terror
+towards the temple, as if the fear of immediate pursuit had alone decided
+her, she pointed eagerly towards the East, and exclaimed, "To the Nile,
+without delay!"--clasping her hands, when she had spoken, with the most
+suppliant fervour, as if to soften the abruptness of the mandate she had
+given, and appealing to me with a look that would have taught Stoics
+tenderness.
+
+I lost no time in obeying the welcome command. While a thousand wild hopes
+and wishes crowded upon my fancy, at the prospect which a voyage, under
+such auspices, presented, I descended rapidly to the shore, and hailing
+one of the numerous boats that ply upon the Lake for hire, arranged
+speedily for a passage down the canal to the Nile. Having learned, too,
+from the boatmen, a more easy path up the rock, I hastened back to the
+Temple for my fair charge; and without a word, a look, that could alarm,
+even by its kindness, or disturb that innocent confidence which she now
+placed in me, led her down by the winding path to the boat.
+
+Every thing looked smiling around us as we embarked. The morning was now
+in its first freshness, and the path of the breeze might be traced over
+the Lake, wakening up its waters from their sleep of the night. The gay,
+golden-winged birds that haunt these shores, were, in every direction,
+skimming along the lake; while, with a graver consciousness of beauty, the
+swan and the pelican were seen dressing their white plumage in the mirror
+of its wave. To add to the animation of the scene, a sweet tinkling of
+musical instruments came, at intervals, on the breeze, from boats at a
+distance, employed thus early in pursuing the fish of these waters, that
+suffer themselves to be decoyed into the nets by music.
+
+The vessel which I selected for our voyage was one of those small
+pleasure-boats or yachts,--so much in use among the luxurious navigators of
+the Nile,--in the centre of which rises a pavilion of cedar or cypress
+wood, gilded gorgeously, without, with religious emblems, and fitted up,
+within, for all the purposes of feasting and repose. To the door of this
+pavilion I now led my companion, and, after a few words of
+kindness--tempered with as much respectful reserve as the deep tenderness
+which I felt would admit of--left her in solitude to court that restoring
+rest, which the agitation of her spirits but too much required.
+
+For myself, though repose was hardly less necessary to me, the ferment in
+which my thoughts had been kept seemed to render it hopeless. Throwing
+myself upon the deck, under an awning which the sailors had raised for me,
+I continued, for some hours, in a sort of vague day-dream,--sometimes
+passing in review the scenes of that subterranean drama, and sometimes,
+with my eyes fixed in drowsy vacancy, receiving passively the impressions
+of the bright scenery through which we passed.
+
+The banks of the canal were then luxuriantly wooded. Under the tufts of
+the light and towering palm were seen the orange and the citron,
+interlacing their boughs; while, here and there, huge tamarisks thickened
+the shade, and, at the very edge of the bank, the willow of Babylon stood
+bending its graceful branches into the water. Occasionally, out of the
+depth of these groves, there shone a small temple or pleasure-
+house;--while, now and then, an opening in their line of foliage allowed
+the eye to wander over extensive fields, all covered with beds of those
+pale, sweet roses, for which this district of Egypt is so celebrated.
+
+The activity of the morning hour was visible every where. Flights of doves
+and lapwings were fluttering among the leaves, and the white heron, which
+had roosted all night in some date-tree, now stood sunning its wings upon
+the green bank, or floated, like living silver, over the flood. The
+flowers, too, both of land and water, looked freshly awakened;--and, most
+of all, the superb lotus, which had risen with the sun from the wave, and
+was now holding up her chalice for a full draught of his light.
+
+Such were the scenes that now passed before my eyes, and mingled with the
+reveries that floated through my mind, as our boat, with its high,
+capacious sail, swept over the flood. Though the occurrences of the last
+few days appeared to me one series of wonders, yet by far the most
+miraculous wonder of all was, that she, whose first look had sent wild-
+fire into my heart,--whom I had thought of ever since with a restlessness
+of passion, that would have dared any thing on earth to obtain its
+object,--was now sleeping sacredly in that small pavilion, while guarding
+her, even from myself, I lay calmly at its threshold.
+
+Meanwhile, the sun had reached his meridian. The busy hum of the morning
+had died gradually away, and all around was sleeping in the hot stillness
+of noon. The Nile-goose, folding her splendid wings, was lying motionless
+on the shadow of the sycamores in the water. Even the nimble lizards upon
+the bank seemed to move more languidly, as the light fell upon their gold
+and azure hues. Overcome as I was with watching, and weary with thought,
+it was not long before I yielded to the becalming influence of the hour.
+Looking fixedly at the pavilion,--as if once more to assure my senses, that
+I was not already in a dream, but that the young Egyptian was really
+there,--I felt my eyes close as I looked, and in a few minutes sunk into a
+profound sleep.
+
+
+
+
+
+                                CHAP. XII.
+
+
+It was by the canal through which we now sailed, that, in the more
+prosperous days of Memphis, the commerce of Upper Egypt and Nubia was
+transported to her magnificent Lake, and from thence, having paid tribute
+to the queen of cities, was poured out again, through the Nile, into the
+ocean. The course of this canal to the river was not direct, but ascending
+in a south-easterly direction towards the Said; and in calms, or with
+adverse winds, the passage was tedious. But as the breeze was now blowing
+freshly from the north, there was every prospect of our reaching the river
+before night-fall. Rapidly, too, as our galley swept along the flood, its
+motion was so smooth as to be hardly felt; and the quiet gurgle of the
+waters underneath, and the drowsy song of the boatman at the prow, alone
+disturbed the deep silence that prevailed.
+
+The sun, indeed, had nearly sunk behind the Libyan hills, before the
+sleep, in which these sounds lulled me, was broken; and the first object,
+on which my eyes rested, in waking, was that fair young Priestess,--seated
+under a porch by which the door of the pavilion was shaded, and bending
+intently over a small volume that lay unrolled on her lap.
+
+Her face was but half turned towards me, and as, once or twice, she raised
+her eyes to the warm sky, whose light fell, softened through the trellis,
+over her cheek, I found every feeling of reverence, with which she had
+inspired me in the chapel, return. There was even a purer and holier charm
+around her countenance, thus seen by the natural light of day, than in
+those dim and unhallowed regions below. She could now, too, look direct to
+the glorious sky, and that heaven and her eyes, so worthy of each other,
+met.
+
+After contemplating her for a few moments, with little less than
+adoration, I rose gently from my resting-place, and approached the
+pavilion. But the mere movement had startled her from her devotion, and,
+blushing and confused, she covered the volume with the folds of her robe.
+
+In the art of winning upon female confidence, I had long been schooled;
+and, now that to the lessons of gallantry the inspiration of love was
+added, my ambition to please and to interest could hardly, it may be
+supposed, fail of success. I soon found, however, how much less fluent is
+the heart than the fancy, and how very distinct are the operations of
+making love and feeling it. In the few words of greeting now exchanged
+between us, it was evident that the gay, the enterprising Epicurean was
+little less embarrassed than the secluded Priestess;--and, after one or two
+ineffectual efforts to bring our voices acquainted with each other, the
+eyes of both turned bashfully away, and we relapsed into silence.
+
+From this situation--the result of timidity on one side, and of a feeling
+altogether new, on the other--we were, at length, after an interval of
+estrangement, relieved, by the boatmen announcing that the Nile was in
+sight. The countenance of the young Egyptian brightened at this
+intelligence; and the smile with which I congratulated her on the speed of
+our voyage was answered by another, so full of gratitude, that already an
+instinctive sympathy seemed established between us.
+
+We were now on the point of entering that sacred river, of whose sweet
+waters the exile drinks in his dreams,--for a draught of whose flood the
+daughters of the Ptolemies, when wedded to foreign kings, sighed in the
+midst of their splendour. As our boat, with slackened sail, glided into
+the current, an enquiry from the boatmen, whether they should anchor for
+the night in the Nile, first reminded me of the ignorance, in which I
+still remained, with respect to either the motive or destination of our
+voyage. Embarrassed by their question I directed my eyes towards the
+Priestess, whom I saw waiting for my answer with a look of anxiety, which
+this silent reference to her wishes at once dispelled. Eagerly unfolding
+the volume with which I had seen her occupied, she took from its folds a
+small leaf of papyrus, on which there appeared to be some faint lines of
+drawing, and after thoughtfully looking upon it, herself, for a moment,
+placed it, with an agitated hand, in mine.
+
+In the mean time, the boatmen had taken in their sail, and the yacht drove
+slowly down the river with the current, while, by a light which had been
+kindled at sunset on the deck, I stood examining the leaf that the
+Priestess had given me,--her dark eyes fixed anxiously on my countenance
+all the while. The lines traced upon the papyrus were so faint as to be
+almost invisible, and I was for some time at a loss to divine their
+import. At length, I could perceive that they were the outlines, or
+map--traced slightly and unsteadily with a Memphian reed--of a part of that
+mountainous ridge by which Upper Egypt is bounded to the east, together
+with the names, or rather emblems, of the chief towns in the
+neighbourhood.
+
+It was thither, I could not doubt, that the young Priestess wished to
+pursue her course. Without a moment's delay, therefore, I gave orders to
+the boatmen to set our yacht before the wind and ascend the current. My
+command was promptly obeyed: the white sail again rose into the region of
+the breeze, and the satisfaction that beamed in every feature of the fair
+Egyptian showed that the quickness with which I had obeyed her wishes was
+not unfelt by her. The moon had now risen; and though the current was
+against us, the Etesian wind of the season blew strongly up the river, and
+we were soon floating before it, through the rich plains and groves of the
+Said.
+
+The love, with which this simple girl had inspired me, was--possibly from
+the mystic scenes and situations in which I had seen her--not unmingled
+with a tinge of superstitious awe, under the influence of which I felt the
+buoyancy of my spirit checked. The few words that had passed between us on
+the subject of our route had somewhat loosened this spell; and what I
+wanted of vivacity and confidence was more than made up by the tone of
+deep sensibility which love had awakened in their place.
+
+We had not proceeded far before the glittering of lights at a distance,
+and the shooting up of fireworks, at intervals, into the air, apprised us
+that we were approaching one of those night-fairs, or marts, which it is
+the custom, at this season, to hold upon the Nile. To me the scene was
+familiar; but to my young companion it was evidently a new world; and the
+mixture of alarm and delight with which she gazed, from under her veil,
+upon the busy scene into which we now sailed, gave an air of innocence to
+her beauty, which still more heightened its every charm.
+
+It was one of the widest parts of the river; and the whole surface, from
+one bank to the other, was covered with boats. Along the banks of a green
+island, in the middle of the stream, lay anchored the galleys of the
+principal traders,--large floating bazaars, bearing each the name of its
+owner, emblazoned in letters of flame, upon the stern. Over their decks
+were spread out, in gay confusion, the products of the loom and needle of
+Egypt,--rich carpets of Memphis, and those variegated veils, for which the
+female embroiderers of the Nile are so celebrated, and to which the name
+of Cleopatra lends a traditional value. In each of the other galleys was
+exhibited some branch of Egyptian workmanship,--vases of the fragrant
+porcelain of On,--cups of that frail crystal, whose hues change like those
+of the pigeon's plumage,--enamelled amulets graven with the head of Anubis,
+and necklaces and bracelets of the black beans of Abyssinia.
+
+While Commerce thus displayed her luxuries in one quarter, in every other
+direction Pleasure, multiplied into her thousand shapes, swarmed over the
+waters. Nor was the festivity confined to the river only. All along the
+banks of the island and on the shores, lighted up mansions were seen
+through the trees, from which sounds of music and merriment came. In some
+of the boats were bands of minstrels, who, from time to time, answered
+each other, like echoes, across the wave; and the notes of the lyre, the
+flageolet, and the sweet lotus-wood flute, were heard, in the pauses of
+revelry, dying along the waters.
+
+Meanwhile, from other boats stationed in the least lighted places, the
+workers of fire sent forth their wonders into the air. Bursting out from
+time to time, as if in the very exuberance of joy, these sallies of flame
+seemed to reach the sky, and there breaking into a shower of sparkles,
+shed such a splendour round, as brightened even the white Arabian
+hills,--making them shine like the brow of Mount Atlas at night, when the
+fire from his own bosom is playing around its snows.
+
+The opportunity which this luxurious mart afforded us, of providing
+ourselves with other and less remarkable habiliments than those in which
+we had escaped from that nether world, was too seasonable not to be gladly
+taken advantage of by both. For myself, the strange mystic garb that I
+wore was sufficiently concealed by my Grecian mantle, which I had luckily
+thrown round me on the night of my watch. But the thin veil of my
+companion was a far less efficient disguise. She had, indeed, flung away
+the golden beetles from her hair; but the sacred robe of her order was
+still too visible, and the stars of the bandelet shone brightly through
+her veil.
+
+Most gladly, therefore, did she avail herself of this opportunity of a
+change; and, as she took from a casket--which, with the volume I had seen
+her reading, appeared to be her only treasure--a small jewel, to exchange
+for the simple garments she had chosen, there fell out, at the same time,
+the very cross of silver, which I had seen her kiss, as may be remembered,
+in the monumental chapel, and which was afterwards pressed to my own lips.
+This link (for such it appeared to my imagination) between us, now revived
+in my heart all the burning feelings of that moment;--and, had I not
+abruptly turned away, my agitation would, but too plainly, have betrayed
+itself.
+
+The object, for which we had delayed in this gay scene, being
+accomplished, the sail was again spread, and we proceeded on our course up
+the river. The sounds and the lights we left behind died gradually away,
+and we now floated along in moonlight and silence once more. Sweet dews,
+worthy of being called "the tears of Isis," fell through the air, and
+every plant and flower sent its fragrance to meet them. The wind, just
+strong enough to bear us smoothly against the current, scarcely stirred
+the shadow of the tamarisks on the water. As the inhabitants from all
+quarters were collected at the night-fair, the Nile was more than usually
+still and solitary. Such a silence, indeed, prevailed, that, as we glided
+near the shore, we could hear the rustling of the acacias, as the
+chameleons ran up their stems. It was, altogether, a night such as only
+the clime of Egypt can boast, when every thing lies lulled in that sort of
+bright tranquillity, which, we may imagine, shines over the sleep of those
+happy spirits, who are supposed to rest in the Valley of the Moon, on
+their way to heaven.
+
+By such a light, and at such an hour, seated, side by side, on the deck of
+that bark, did we pursue our course up the lonely Nile--each a mystery to
+the other--our thoughts, our objects, our very names a secret;--separated,
+too, till now, by destinies so different, the one, a gay voluptuary of the
+Garden of Athens, the other, a secluded Priestess of the Temples of
+Memphis;--and the only relation yet established between us being that
+dangerous one of love, passionate love, on one side, and the most feminine
+and confiding dependence on the other.
+
+The passing adventure of the night-fair had not only dispelled still more
+our mutual reserve, but had supplied us with a subject on which we could
+converse without embarrassment. From this topic I took care to lead on,
+without interruption, to others,--fearful lest our former silence should
+return, and the music of her voice again be lost to me. It was, indeed,
+only by thus indirectly unburdening my heart that I was enabled to refrain
+from the full utterance of all I thought and felt; and the restless
+rapidity with which I flew from subject to subject was but an effort to
+escape from the only one in which my heart was interested.
+
+"How bright and happy," said I,--pointing up to Sothis, the fair Star of
+the Waters, which was just then sparkling brilliantly over our heads,--"How
+bright and happy this world ought to be, if--as your Egyptian sages
+assert--yon pure and beautiful luminary was its birth-star!" Then, still
+leaning back, and letting my eyes wander over the firmament, as if seeking
+to disengage them from the fascination which they dreaded--"To the study (I
+said), for ages, of skies like this, may the pensive and mystic character
+of your nation be traced. That mixture of pride and melancholy which
+naturally arises, at the sight of those eternal lights shining out of
+darkness;--that sublime, but saddened, anticipation of a Future, which
+comes over the soul in the silence of such an hour, when, though Death
+seems to reign in the repose of earth, there are those beacons of
+Immortality burning in the sky--"
+
+Pausing, as I uttered the word "immortality," with a sigh to think how
+little my heart echoed to my lips, I looked in the face of the maiden, and
+saw that it had lighted up, as I spoke, into a glow of holy animation,
+such as Faith alone gives--such as Hope herself wears, when she is dreaming
+of heaven. Touched by the contrast, and gazing upon her with mournful
+tenderness, I found my arms half opened, to clasp her to my heart, while
+the words died away inaudibly upon my lips,--"thou, too, beautiful maiden!
+must thou, too, die for ever?"
+
+My self-command, I felt, had nearly deserted me. Rising abruptly from my
+seat, I walked to the middle of the deck, and stood, for some moments,
+unconsciously gazing upon one of those fires, which,--as is the custom of
+all who travel by night upon the Nile,--our boatmen had just kindled, to
+scare away the crocodiles from the vessel. But it was in vain that I
+endeavoured to compose my spirit. Every effort I made but more deeply
+convinced me, that, till the mystery which hung round that maiden should
+be solved--till the secret, with which my own bosom laboured, should be
+disclosed--it was fruitless to attempt even a semblance of tranquillity.
+
+My resolution was therefore taken;--to lay open, at least, my own heart, as
+far as such a revelation might be risked, without startling the timid
+innocence of my companion. Thus resolved, I returned, with more composure,
+to my seat by her side, and taking from my bosom the small mirror which
+she had dropped in the Temple, and which I had ever since worn suspended
+round my neck, with a trembling hand presented it to her view. The boatmen
+had just kindled one of their night-fires near us, and its light, as she
+leaned forward towards the mirror, fell on her face.
+
+The quick blush of surprise with which she recognised it to be hers, and
+her look of bashful, yet eager, inquiry, in raising her eyes to mine, were
+appeals to which I was not, of course, slow in answering. Beginning with
+the first moment when I saw her in the Temple, and passing hastily, but
+with words that burned as they went, over the impression which she had
+then left upon my heart and fancy, I proceeded to describe the particulars
+of my descent into the pyramid--my surprise and adoration at the door of
+the chapel--my encounter with the Trials of Initiation, so mysteriously
+prepared for me, and all the various visionary wonders I had witnessed in
+that region, till the moment when I had seen her stealing from under the
+Veils to approach me.
+
+Though, in detailing these events, I had said but little of the feelings
+they had awakened in me,--though my lips had sent back many a sentence,
+unuttered, there was still enough that could neither be subdued or
+disguised, and which, like that light from under the veils of her own
+Isis, glowed through every word that I spoke. When I told of the scene in
+the chapel,--of the silent interview which I had witnessed between the dead
+and the living,--the maiden leaned down her head and wept, as from a heart
+full of tears. It seemed a pleasure to her, however, to listen; and, when
+she looked at me again, there was an earnest and affectionate cordiality
+in her eyes, as if the knowledge of my having been present at that
+mournful scene had opened a new source of sympathy and intelligence
+between us. So neighbouring are the fountains of Love and of Sorrow, and
+so imperceptibly do they often mingle their streams.
+
+Little, indeed, as I was guided by art or design, in my manner and conduct
+to this innocent girl, not all the most experienced gallantry of the
+Garden could have dictated a policy half so seductive as that which my new
+master, Love, now taught me. The ardour which, shown at once, and without
+reserve, might have startled a heart so little prepared for it, thus
+checked and softened by the timidity of real love, won its way without
+alarm, and, when most diffident of success, most triumphed. Like one whose
+sleep is gradually broken by music, the maiden's heart was awakened
+without being disturbed. She followed the charm, unconscious whither it
+led, nor was aware of the flame she had lighted in another's bosom, till
+she perceived the reflection of it glimmering in her own.
+
+Impatient as I was to appeal to her generosity and sympathy, for a similar
+proof of confidence to that which I had just given, the night was now too
+far advanced for me to impose such a task upon her. After exchanging a few
+words, in which, though little was said, there was a tone and manner that
+spoke far more than language, we took a lingering leave of each other for
+the night, with every prospect of still being together in our dreams.
+
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAP. XIII.
+
+
+It was so near the dawn of day when we parted, that we again found the sun
+sinking westward when we rejoined each other. The smile with which she met
+me,--so frankly cordial,--might have been taken for the greeting of a long
+mellowed friendship, did not the blush and the castdown eyelid, that
+followed, give symptoms of a feeling newer and less calm. For myself,
+lightened as I was, in some degree, by the confession which I had made, I
+was yet too conscious of the new aspect thus given to our intercourse, to
+feel altogether unembarrassed at the prospect of returning to the theme.
+It was, therefore, willingly we both suffered our attention to be
+diverted, by the variety of objects that presented themselves on the way,
+from a subject that both equally trembled to approach.
+
+The river was now full of life and motion. Every moment we met with boats
+descending the current, so independent of aid from sail or oar, that the
+sailors sat idly upon the deck as they shot along, singing or playing upon
+their double-reeded pipes. Of these boats, the greater number came loaded
+with merchandise from Coptos,--some with those large emeralds, from the
+mine in the desert, whose colours, it is said, are brightest at the full
+of the moon, and some laden with frankincense from the acacia-groves near
+the Red Sea. On the decks of others, that had been to the Golden Mountains
+beyond Syene, were heaped blocks and fragments of that sweet-smelling
+wood, which the Green Nile of Nubia washes down in the season of the
+floods.
+
+Our companions up the stream were far less numerous. Occasionally a boat,
+returning lightened from the fair of last night, with those high sails
+that catch every breeze from over the hills, shot past us;--while, now and
+then, we overtook one of those barges full of bees, that at this season of
+the year, are sent to colonise the gardens of the south, and take
+advantage of the first flowers after the inundation has passed away.
+
+By these various objects we were, for a short time, enabled to divert the
+conversation from lighting and settling upon the one subject, round which
+it continually hovered. But the effort, as might be expected, was not long
+successful. As evening advanced, the whole scene became more solitary. We
+less frequently ventured to look upon each other, and our intervals of
+silence grew more long.
+
+It was near sunset, when, in passing a small temple on the shore, whose
+porticoes were now full of the evening light, we saw, issuing from a
+thicket of acanthus near it, a train of young maids linked together in the
+dance by lotus-stems, held at arms' length between them. Their tresses
+were also wreathed with this emblem of the season, and such a profusion of
+the white flowers were twisted round their waists and arms, that they
+might have been taken, as they gracefully bounded along the bank, for
+Nymphs of the Nile, risen freshly from their gardens under the wave.
+
+After looking for a few moments at this sacred dance, the maid turned away
+her eyes, with a look of pain, as if the remembrances it recalled were of
+no welcome nature. This momentary retrospect, this glimpse into the past,
+seemed to offer a sort of clue to the secret for which I panted;--and,
+gradually and delicately as my impatience would allow, I availed myself of
+it. Her frankness, however, saved me the embarrassment of much
+questioning. She even seemed to feel that the confidence I sought was due
+to me, and beyond the natural hesitation of maidenly modesty, not a shade
+of reserve or evasion appeared.
+
+To attempt to repeat, in her own touching words, the simple story which
+she now related to me, would be like endeavouring to note down some strain
+of unpremeditated music, with those fugitive graces, those felicities of
+the moment, which no art can restore, as they first met the ear. From a
+feeling, too, of humility, she had omitted in her narrative some
+particulars relating to herself, which I afterwards learned;--while others,
+not less important, she but slightly passed over, from a fear of wounding
+the prejudices of her heathen hearer.
+
+I shall, therefore, give her story, as the outline which she, herself,
+sketched was afterwards filled up by a pious and venerable hand,--far, far
+more worthy than mine of being associated with the memory of such purity.
+
+
+
+
+
+                             STORY OF ALETHE.
+
+
+"The mother of this maiden was the beautiful Theora of Alexandria, who,
+though a native of that city, was descended from Grecian parents. When
+very young, Theora was one of the seven maidens selected, to note down the
+discourses of the eloquent Origen, who, at that period, presided over the
+School of Alexandria, and was in all the fulness of his fame, both among
+Pagans and Christians. Endowed richly with the learning of both creeds, he
+brought the natural light of philosophy to elucidate the mysteries of
+faith, and was only proud of his knowledge of the wisdom of this world,
+inasmuch as it ministered to the triumph of divine truth.
+
+"Though he had courted in vain the crown of martyrdom, it was held,
+throughout his life, suspended over his head, and in more than one
+persecution, he had evinced his readiness to die for that faith which he
+lived but to testify and adorn. On one of these occasions, his tormentors,
+having habited him like an Egyptian priest, placed him upon the steps of
+the Temple of Serapis, and commanded that he should, in the manner of the
+Pagan ministers, present palm-branches to the multitude who went up to the
+shrine. But the courageous Christian disappointed their views. Holding
+forth the branches with an unshrinking hand, he cried aloud, 'Come hither
+and take the branch, not of an Idol Temple, but of Christ.'
+
+"So indefatigable was this learned Father in his studies, that, while
+composing his Commentary on the Scriptures, he was attended by seven
+scribes or notaries, who relieved each other in taking down the dictates
+of his eloquent tongue; while the same number of young females, selected
+for the beauty of their penmanship, were employed in arranging and
+transcribing the precious leaves.
+
+"Among the scribes so selected, was the fair young Theora, whose parents,
+though attached to the Pagan worship, were not unwilling to profit by the
+accomplishments of their daughter, thus devoted to a task which they
+considered purely mechanical. To the maid herself, however, her task
+brought far other feelings and consequences. She read anxiously as she
+wrote, and the divine truths, so eloquently illustrated, found their way,
+by degrees, from the page to her heart. Deeply, too, as the written words
+affected her, the discourses from the lips of the great teacher himself,
+which she had frequent opportunities of hearing, sunk still more deeply
+into her mind. There was, at once, a sublimity and gentleness in his views
+of religion, which, to the tender hearts and lively imaginations of women,
+never failed to appeal with convincing power. Accordingly, the list of his
+female pupils was numerous; and the names of Barbara, Juliana, Herais, and
+others, bear honourable testimony to his influence over that sex.
+
+"To Theora the feeling, with which his discourses inspired her, was like a
+new soul,--a consciousness of spiritual existence, unfelt before. By the
+eloquence of the comment she was awakened into admiration of the text; and
+when, by the kindness of a Catechumen of the school, who had been struck
+by her innocent zeal, she, for the first time, became possessor of a copy
+of the Scriptures, she could not sleep for thinking of her sacred
+treasure. With a mixture of pleasure and fear she hid it from all eyes,
+and was like one who had received a divine guest under her roof, and felt
+fearful of betraying its divinity to the world.
+
+"A heart so awake would have been easily secured to the faith, had her
+opportunities of hearing the sacred word continued. But circumstances
+arose to deprive her of this advantage. The mild Origen, long harassed and
+thwarted in his labours by the tyranny of the Bishop of Alexandria,
+Demetrius, was obliged to relinquish his school and fly from Egypt. The
+occupation of the fair scribe was, therefore, at an end: her intercourse
+with the followers of the new faith ceased; and the growing enthusiasm of
+her heart gave way to more worldly impressions.
+
+"Love, among the rest, had its share in alienating her thoughts from
+religion. While still very young, she became the wife of a Greek
+adventurer, who had come to Egypt as a purchaser of that rich tapestry, in
+which the needles of Persia are rivalled by the looms of the Nile. Having
+taken his young bride to Memphis, which was still the great mart of this
+merchandise, he there, in the midst of his speculations, died,--leaving his
+widow on the point of becoming a mother, while, as yet, but in her
+nineteenth year.
+
+"For single and unprotected females, it has been, at all times, a
+favourite resource, to seek admission into the service of some of those
+great temples, which absorb so much of the wealth and power of Egypt. In
+most of these institutions there exists an order of Priestesses, which,
+though not hereditary, like that of the Priests, is provided for by ample
+endowments, and confers that rank and station, with which, in a government
+so theocratic, Religion is sure to invest even her humblest handmaids.
+From the general policy of the Sacred College of Memphis, it may be
+concluded, that an accomplished female, like Theora, found but little
+difficulty in being chosen one of the Priestesses of Isis; and it was in
+the service of the subterranean shrines that her ministry chiefly lay.
+
+"Here, a month or two after her admission, she gave birth to Alethe, who
+first opened her eyes among the unholy pomps and specious miracles of this
+mysterious region. Though Theora, as we have seen, had been diverted by
+other feelings from her first enthusiasm for the Christian faith, she had
+never wholly forgot the impression then made upon her. The sacred volume,
+which the pious Catechumen had given her, was still treasured with care;
+and, though she seldom opened its pages, there was an idea of sanctity
+associated with it in her memory, and often would she sit to look upon it
+with reverential pleasure, recalling the happiness she felt when it was
+first made her own.
+
+"The leisure of her new retreat, and the lone melancholy of widowhood, led
+her still more frequently to indulge in such thoughts, and to recur to
+those consoling truths which she had heard in the school of Alexandria.
+She now began to peruse eagerly the sacred book, drinking deep of the
+fountain of which she before but tasted, and feeling--what thousands of
+mourners, since her, have felt--that Christianity is the true religion of
+the sorrowful.
+
+"This study of her secret hours became still more dear to her, from the
+peril with which, at that period, it was attended, and the necessity she
+was under of concealing from those around her the precious light that had
+been kindled in her heart. Too timid to encounter the fierce persecution,
+which awaited all who were suspected of a leaning to Christianity, she
+continued to officiate in the pomps and ceremonies of the Temple;--though,
+often, with such remorse of soul, that she would pause, in the midst of
+the rites, and pray inwardly to God, that he would forgive this
+profanation of his Spirit.
+
+"In the mean time her daughter, the young Alethe, grew up still lovelier
+than herself, and added, every hour, to her happiness and her fears. When
+arrived at a sufficient age, she was taught, like the other children of
+the priestesses, to take a share in the service and ceremonies of the
+shrines. The duty of some of these young servitors was to look after the
+flowers for the altar;--of others, to take care that the sacred vases were
+filled every day with fresh water from the Nile. The task of some was to
+preserve, in perfect polish, those silver images of the moon which the
+priests carried in processions; while others were, as we have seen,
+employed in feeding the consecrated animals, and in keeping their plumes
+and scales bright, for the admiring eyes of their worshippers.
+
+"The office allotted to Alethe--the most honourable of these minor
+ministries--was to wait upon the sacred birds of the Moon, to feed them
+with those eggs from the Nile which they loved, and provide for their use
+that purest water, which alone these delicate birds will touch. This
+employment was the delight of her childish hours; and that ibis, which
+Alciphron (the Epicurean) saw her dance round in the Temple, was her
+favourite, of all the sacred flock, and had been daily fondled and fed by
+her from infancy.
+
+"Music, as being one of the chief spells of this enchanted region, was an
+accomplishment required of all its ministrants; and the harp, the lyre,
+and the sacred flute, sounded nowhere so sweetly as that through these
+subterranean gardens. The chief object, indeed, in the education of the
+youth of the Temple, was to fit them, by every grace of art and nature, to
+give effect to the illusion of those shows and phantasms, in which the
+whole charm and secret of Initiation lay.
+
+"Among the means employed to support the old system of superstition,
+against the infidelity and, still more, the new Faith that menaced it, was
+an increased display of splendour and marvels in those Mysteries for which
+Egypt has so long been celebrated. Of these ceremonies so many imitations
+had, under various names, been multiplied through Europe, that the parent
+superstition ran a risk of being eclipsed by its progeny; and, in order
+still to retain their rank of the first Priesthood in the world, those of
+Egypt found it necessary to continue still the best impostors.
+
+"Accordingly, every contrivance that art could devise, or labour
+execute--every resource that the wonderful knowledge of the Priests, in
+pyrotechny, mechanics, and dioptrics, could command, was brought into
+action to heighten the effect of their Mysteries, and give an air of
+enchantment to every thing connected with them.
+
+"The final scene of beatification--the Elysium, into which the Initiate was
+received,--formed, of course, the leading attraction of these ceremonies;
+and to render it captivating alike to the senses of the man of pleasure,
+and the imagination of the spiritualist, was the object to which the whole
+skill and attention of the Sacred College were devoted. By the influence
+of the Priests of Memphis over those of the other Temples they had
+succeeded in extending their subterranean frontier, both to the north and
+south, so as to include, within their ever-lighted Paradise, some of the
+gardens excavated for the use of the other Twelve Shrines.
+
+"The beauty of the young Alethe, the touching sweetness of her voice, and
+the sensibility that breathed throughout her every look and movement,
+rendered her a powerful auxiliary in such appeals to the imagination. She
+was, accordingly, from her childhood, selected from among her fair
+companions, as the most worthy representative of spiritual loveliness, in
+those pictures of Elysium--those scenes of another world--by which not only
+the fancy, but the reason, of the excited Aspirants was dazzled.
+
+"To the innocent child herself these shows were pastime. But to Theora,
+who knew too well the imposition to which they were subservient, this
+profanation of all that she loved was a perpetual source of horror and
+remorse. Often would she--when Alethe stood smiling before her, arrayed,
+perhaps, as a spirit of the Elysian world,--turn away, with a shudder, from
+the happy child, almost fancying that she already saw the shadows of sin
+descending over that innocent brow, as she gazed on it.
+
+"As the intellect of the young maid became more active and inquiring, the
+apprehensions and difficulties of the mother increased. Afraid to
+communicate her own precious secret, lest she should involve her child in
+the dangers that encompassed it, she yet felt it to be no less a cruelty
+than a crime to leave her wholly immersed in the darkness of Paganism. In
+this dilemma, the only resource that remained to her was to select, and
+disengage from the dross that surrounded them, those pure particles of
+truth which lie at the bottom of all religions;--those feelings, rather
+than doctrines, which God has never left his creatures without, and which,
+in all ages, have furnished, to those who sought it, some clue to his
+glory.
+
+"The unity and perfect goodness of the Creator; the fall of the human soul
+into corruption; its struggles with the darkness of this world, and its
+final redemption and re-ascent to the source of all spirit;--these natural
+solutions of the problem of our existence, these elementary grounds of all
+religion and virtue, which Theora had heard illustrated by her Christian
+teacher, lay also, she knew, veiled under the theology of Egypt; and to
+impress them, in all their abstract purity, upon the mind of her
+susceptible pupil, was, in default of more heavenly lights, her sole
+ambition and care.
+
+"It was their habit, after devoting their mornings to the service of the
+Temple, to pass their evenings and nights in one of those small mansions
+above ground, allotted to some of the most favoured Priestesses, in the
+precincts of the Sacred College. Here, out of the reach of those gross
+superstitions, which pursued them, at every step, below, she endeavoured
+to inform, as far as she might, the mind of her beloved girl; and found it
+lean as naturally and instinctively to truth, as plants that have been
+long shut up in darkness will, when light is let in, incline themselves to
+its ray.
+
+"Frequently, as they sat together on the terrace at night, contemplating
+that assembly of glorious stars, whose beauty first misled mankind into
+idolatry, she would explain to the young listener by what gradations it
+was that the worship, thus transferred from the Creator to the creature,
+sunk lower and lower in the scale of being, till man, at length, presumed
+to deify man, and by the most monstrous of inversions, heaven was made the
+mirror of earth, reflecting all its most earthly features.
+
+"Even in the Temple itself, the anxious mother would endeavour to
+interpose her purer lessons among the idolatrous ceremonies in which they
+were engaged. When the favourite ibis of Alethe took its station on the
+shrine, and the young maiden was seen approaching, with all the gravity of
+worship, the very bird which she had played with but an hour before,--when
+the acacia-bough, which she herself had plucked, seemed to acquire a
+sudden sacredness in her eyes, as soon as the priest had breathed on
+it,--on all such occasions Theora, though with fear and trembling, would
+venture to suggest to the youthful worshipper the distinction that should
+be drawn between the sensible object of adoration, and that spiritual,
+unseen Deity, of which it was but the remembrancer or type.
+
+"With sorrow, however, she soon discovered that, in thus but partially
+enlightening a mind too ardent to be satisfied with such glimmerings, she
+only bewildered the heart that she meant to guide, and cut down the hope
+round which its faith twined, without substituting any other support in
+its place. As the beauty, too, of Alethe began to attract all eyes, new
+fears crowded upon the mother's heart;--fears, in which she was but too
+much justified by the characters of some of those around her.
+
+"In this sacred abode, as may easily be conceived, morality did not always
+go hand in hand with religion. The hypocritical and ambitious Orcus, who
+was, at this period, High Priest of Memphis, was a man, in every respect,
+qualified to preside over a system of such splendid fraud. He had reached
+that effective time of life, when enough of the warmth of youth remains to
+give animation to the counsels of age. But, in his instance, youth had
+only the baser passions to bequeath, while age but contributed a more
+refined maturity of mischief. The advantages of a faith appealing so
+wholly to the senses, were well understood by him; nor was he ignorant
+that the only way of making religion subservient to his own interests was
+by shaping it adroitly to the passions of others.
+
+"The state of misery and remorse in which the mind of Theora was kept by
+the scenes, however veiled by hypocrisy, which she witnessed around her,
+became at length intolerable. No perils that the cause of truth could
+bring with it would be half so dreadful as this endurance of sinfulness
+and deceit. Her child was, as yet, pure and innocent;--but, without that
+sentinel of the soul, Religion, how long might she continue so?
+
+"This thought at once decided her;--all other fears vanished before it. She
+resolved instantly to lay open to Alethe the whole secret of her soul; to
+make her, who was her only hope on earth, the sharer of all her hopes in
+heaven, and then fly with her, as soon as possible, from this unhallowed
+place, to the desert--to the mountains--to any place, however desolate,
+where God and the consciousness of innocence might be with them.
+
+"The promptitude with which her young pupil caught from her the divine
+truths, was even beyond what she expected. It was like the lighting of one
+torch at another,--so prepared was Alethe's mind for the illumination.
+Amply was the mother now repaid for all her misery, by this perfect
+communion of love and faith, and by the delight with which she saw her
+beloved child--like the young antelope, when first led by her dam to the
+well,--drink thirstily by her side, at the source of all life and truth.
+
+"But such happiness was not long to last. The anxieties that Theora had
+suffered preyed upon her health. She felt her strength daily decline; and
+the thoughts of leaving, alone and unguarded in the world, that treasure
+which she had just devoted to heaven, gave her a feeling of despair which
+but hastened the ebb of life. Had she put in practice her resolution of
+flying from this place, her child might have been now beyond the reach of
+all she dreaded, and in the solitude of the wilderness would have found at
+least safety from wrong. But the very happiness she had felt in her new
+task diverted her from this project;--and it was now too late, for she was
+already dying.
+
+"She concealed, however, her state from the tender and sanguine girl, who,
+though she saw the traces of disease on her mother's cheek, little knew
+that they were the hastening footsteps of death, nor thought even of the
+possibility of losing what was so dear to her. Too soon, however, the
+moment of separation arrived; and while the anguish and dismay of Alethe
+were in proportion to the security in which she had indulged, Theora, too,
+felt, with bitter regret, that she had sacrificed to her fond
+consideration much precious time, and that there now remained but a few
+brief and painful moments, for the communication of all those wishes and
+instructions, on which the future destiny of the young orphan depended.
+
+"She had, indeed, time for little more than to place the sacred volume
+solemnly in her hands, to implore that she would, at all risks, fly from
+this unholy place, and, pointing in the direction of the mountains of the
+Said, to name, with her last breath, the holy man, to whom, under heaven,
+she trusted for the protection and salvation of her child.
+
+"The first violence of feeling to which Alethe gave way was succeeded by a
+fixed and tearless grief, which rendered her insensible, for some time, to
+the dangers of her situation. Her only comfort was in visiting that
+monumental chapel, where the beautiful remains of Theora lay. There, night
+after night, in contemplation of those placid features, and in prayers for
+the peace of the departed spirit, did she pass her lonely, and--sad as they
+were--happiest hours. Though the mystic emblems that decorated that chapel
+were but ill suited to the slumber of a Christian saint, there was one
+among them, the Cross, which, by a remarkable coincidence, is an emblem
+common alike to the Gentile and the Christian,--being, to the former, a
+shadowy type of that immortality, of which, to the latter, it is a
+substantial and assuring pledge.
+
+"Nightly, upon this cross, which she had often seen her lost mother kiss,
+did she breathe forth a solemn and heartfelt vow, never to abandon the
+faith which that departed spirit had bequeathed to her. To such
+enthusiasm, indeed, did her heart at such moments rise, that, but for the
+last injunctions from those pallid lips, she would, at once, have avowed
+her perilous secret, and spoken out the words, 'I am a Christian,' among
+those benighted shrines!
+
+"But the will of her, to whom she owed more than life, was to be obeyed.
+To escape from this haunt of superstition must now, she felt, be her first
+object; and, in devising the means of effecting it, her mind, day and
+night, was employed. It was with a loathing not to be concealed she now
+found herself compelled to resume her idolatrous services at the shrine.
+To some of the offices of Theora she succeeded, as is the custom, by
+inheritance; and in the performance of these--sanctified as they were in
+her eyes by the pure spirit she had seen engaged in them--there was a sort
+of melancholy pleasure in which her sorrow found relief. But the part she
+was again forced to take, in the scenic shows of the Mysteries, brought
+with it a sense of wrong and degradation which she could no longer bear.
+
+"She had already formed, in her own mind, a plan of escape, in which her
+knowledge of all the windings of this subterranean realm gave her
+confidence, when the reception of Alciphron, as an Initiate, took place.
+
+"From the first moment of the landing of that philosopher at Alexandria,
+he had become an object of suspicion and watchfulness to the inquisitorial
+Orcus, whom philosophy, in any shape, naturally alarmed, but to whom the
+sect over which the young Athenian presided was particularly obnoxious.
+The accomplishments of Alciphron, his popularity, wherever he went, and
+the freedom with which he indulged his wit at the expense of religion, was
+all faithfully reported to the High Priest by his spies, and stirred up
+within him no kindly feelings towards the stranger. In dealing with an
+infidel, such a personage as Orcus could know no alternative but that of
+either converting or destroying him; and though his spite, as a man, would
+have been more gratified by the latter proceeding, his pride, as a priest,
+led him to prefer the triumph of the former.
+
+"The first descent of the Epicurean into the pyramid was speedily known,
+and the alarm immediately given to the Priests below. As soon as it was
+discovered that the young philosopher of Athens was the intruder, and that
+he still continued to linger round the pyramid, looking often and
+wistfully towards the portal, it was concluded that his curiosity would
+impel him to try a second descent; and Orcus, blessing the good chance
+which had thus brought the wild bird to his net, determined not to allow
+an opportunity so precious to be wasted.
+
+"Instantly, the whole of that wonderful machinery, by which the phantasms
+and illusions of Initiation are produced, were put in active preparation
+throughout that subterranean realm; and the increased stir and
+watchfulness excited among its inmates, by this more than ordinary display
+of all the resources of priestcraft, rendered the accomplishment of
+Alethe's design, at such a moment, peculiarly difficult. Wholly ignorant
+of the share which had fallen to herself in attracting the young
+philosopher down to this region, she but heard of him vaguely, as the
+Chief of a great Grecian sect, who had been led, by either curiosity or
+accident, to expose himself to the first trials of Initiation, and whom
+the priests, she saw, were endeavouring to ensnare in their toils, by
+every art and skill with which their science of darkness had gifted them.
+
+"To her mind, the image of a philosopher, such as Alciphron had been
+represented to her, came associated with ideas of age and reverence; and,
+more than once, the possibility of his being made instrumental to her
+deliverance flashed a hope across her heart in which she could not help
+indulging. Often had she been told by Theora of the many Gentile sages,
+who had laid their wisdom down humbly at the foot of the Cross; and though
+this Initiate, she feared, could hardly be among the number, yet the
+rumours which she had gathered from the servants of the Temple, of his
+undisguised contempt for the errors of heathenism, led her to hope she
+might find tolerance, if not sympathy, in her appeal to him.
+
+"Nor was it solely with a view to her own chance of deliverance that she
+thus connected him in her thoughts with the plan which she meditated. The
+look of proud and self-gratulating malice, with which the High Priest had
+mentioned this 'infidel,' as he styled him, when instructing her in the
+scene she was to enact before the philosopher in the valley, but too
+plainly informed her of the destiny that hung over him. She knew how many
+were the hapless candidates for Initiation, who had been doomed to a
+durance worse than that of the grave, for but a word, a whisper breathed
+against the sacred absurdities which they witnessed; and it was evident to
+her that the venerable Greek (for such her fancy represented Alciphron)
+was no less interested in escaping from this region than herself.
+
+"Her own resolution was, at all events, fixed. That visionary scene, in
+which she had appeared before Alciphron,--little knowing how ardent were
+the heart and imagination, over which her beauty, at that moment, shed its
+whole influence,--was, she solemnly resolved, the very last unholy service,
+that superstition or imposture should ever command of her.
+
+"On the following night the Aspirant was to watch in the Great Temple of
+Isis. Such an opportunity of approaching and addressing him might never
+come again. Should he, from compassion for her situation, or a sense of
+the danger of his own, consent to lend his aid to her flight, most gladly
+would she accept it,--assured that no danger or treachery she might risk
+could be half so dreadful as those she left behind. Should he, on the
+contrary, refuse, her determination was equally fixed--to trust to that
+God, who watches over the innocent, and go forth alone.
+
+"To reach the island in Lake Moeris was her first object, and there
+occurred luckily, at this time, a mode of accomplishing it, by which the
+difficulty and dangers of the attempt would be, in a great degree,
+diminished. The day of the annual visitation of the High Priest to the
+Place of Weeping--as that island in the centre of the lake is called--was
+now fast approaching; and Alethe well knew that the self-moving car, by
+which the High Priest and one of the Hierophants are conveyed to the
+chambers under the lake, stood waiting in readiness. By availing herself
+of this expedient, she would gain the double advantage both of
+facilitating her own flight and retarding the speed of her pursuers.
+
+"Having paid a last visit to the tomb of her beloved mother, and wept
+there, long and passionately, till her heart almost failed in the
+struggle,--having paused, too, to give a kiss to her favourite ibis, which,
+though too much a Christian to worship, she was still child enough to
+love,--with a trembling step she went early to the Sanctuary, and hid
+herself in one of the recesses of the Shrine. Her intention was to steal
+out from thence to Alciphron, while it was yet dark, and before the
+illumination of the great Statue behind the Veils had begun. But her fears
+delayed her till it was almost too late;--already was the image lighted up,
+and still she remained trembling in her hiding place.
+
+"In a few minutes more the mighty Veils would have been withdrawn, and the
+glories of that scene of enchantment laid open,--when, at length, summoning
+up courage, and taking advantage of a momentary absence of those employed
+in the preparations of this splendid mockery, she stole from under the
+Veil and found her way, through the gloom, to the Epicurean. There was
+then no time for explanation;--she had but to trust to the simple words,
+'Follow, and be silent;' and the implicit readiness with which she found
+them obeyed filled her with no less surprise than the philosopher himself
+felt in hearing them.
+
+"In a second or two they were on their way through the subterranean
+windings, leaving the ministers of Isis to waste their splendours on
+vacancy, through a long series of miracles and visions which they now
+exhibited,--unconscious that he, whom they took such pains to dazzle, was
+already, under the guidance of the young Christian, removed beyond the
+reach of their spells."
+
+
+
+
+
+                                CHAP. XIV.
+
+
+Such was the story, of which this innocent girl gave me, in her own
+touching language, the outline.
+
+The sun was just rising as she finished her narrative. Fearful of
+encountering the expression of those feelings with which, she could not
+but observe, I was affected by her recital, scarcely had she concluded the
+last sentence, when, rising abruptly from her seat, she hurried into the
+pavilion, leaving me with the words already crowding for utterance to my
+lips.
+
+Oppressed by the various emotions, thus sent back upon my heart, I lay
+down on the deck in a state of agitation, that defied even the most
+distant approaches of sleep. While every word she had uttered, every
+feeling she expressed, but ministered new fuel to that flame within me, to
+describe which, passion is too weak a word, there was also much of her
+recital that disheartened, that alarmed me. To find a Christian thus under
+the garb of a Memphian Priestess, was a discovery that, had my heart been
+less deeply interested, would but have more powerfully stimulated my
+imagination and pride. But, when I recollected the austerity of the faith
+she had embraced,--the tender and sacred tie, associated with it in her
+memory, and the devotion of woman's heart to objects thus consecrated,--her
+very perfections but widened the distance between us, and all that most
+kindled my passion at the same time chilled my hopes.
+
+Were we left to each other, as on this silent river, in this undisturbed
+communion of thoughts and feelings, I knew too well, I thought, both her
+sex's nature and my own, to feel a doubt that love would ultimately
+triumph. But the severity of the guardianship to which I must resign
+her,--some monk of the desert, some stern Solitary,--the influence such a
+monitor would gain over her mind, and the horror with which, ere long, she
+would be taught to regard the reprobate infidel on whom she now smiled,--in
+all this prospect I saw nothing but despair. After a few short hours, my
+happiness would be at an end, and such a dark chasm open between our
+fates, as must sever them, far as earth is from heaven, asunder.
+
+It was true, she was now wholly in my power. I feared no witnesses but
+those of earth, and the solitude of the desert was at hand. But though I
+acknowledged not a heaven, I worshipped her who was, to me, its type and
+substitute. If, at any moment, a single thought of wrong or deceit,
+towards a creature so sacred, arose in my mind, one look from her innocent
+eyes averted the sacrilege. Even passion itself felt a holy fear in her
+presence,--like the flame trembling in the breeze of the sanctuary,--and
+Love, pure Love, stood in place of Religion.
+
+As long as I knew not her story, I might indulge, at least, in dreams of
+the future. But, now--what hope, what prospect remained? My sole chance of
+happiness lay in the feeble hope of beguiling away her thoughts from the
+plan which she meditated; of weaning her, by persuasion, from that austere
+faith, which I had before hated and now feared, and of--attaching her,
+perhaps, alone and unlinked as she was in the world, to my own fortunes
+for ever!
+
+In the agitation of these thoughts, I had started from my resting-place,
+and continued to pace up and down, under a burning sun, till, exhausted
+both by thought and feeling, I sunk down, amid its blaze, into a sleep,
+which, to my fevered brain, seemed a sleep of fire.
+
+On awaking, I found the veil of Alethe laid carefully over my brow, while
+she, herself, sat near me, under the shadow of the sail, looking anxiously
+at that leaf, which her mother had given her, and apparently employed in
+comparing its outlines with the course of the river and the forms of the
+rocky hills by which we passed. She looked pale and troubled, and rose
+eagerly to meet me, as if she had long and impatiently waited for my
+waking.
+
+Her heart, it was plain, had been disturbed from its security, and was
+beginning to take alarm at its own feelings. But, though vaguely conscious
+of the peril to which she was exposed, her reliance, as is usually the
+case, increased with her danger, and on me, far more than on herself, did
+she depend for saving her from it. To reach, as soon as possible, her
+asylum in the desert, was now the urgent object of her entreaties and
+wishes; and the self-reproach she expressed at having permitted her
+thoughts to be diverted, for a single moment, from this sacred purpose,
+not only revealed the truth, that she had forgotten it, but betrayed even
+a glimmering consciousness of the cause.
+
+Her sleep, she said, had been broken by ill-omened dreams. Every moment
+the shade of her mother had stood before her, rebuking her, with mournful
+looks, for her delay, and pointing, as she had done in death, to the
+eastern hills. Bursting into tears at this accusing recollection, she
+hastily placed the leaf, which she had been examining, in my hands, and
+implored that I would ascertain, without a moment's delay, what portion of
+our voyage was still unperformed, and in what space of time we might hope
+to accomplish it.
+
+I had, still less than herself, taken note of either place or distance;
+and, had we been left to glide on in this dream of happiness, should never
+have thought of pausing to ask where it would end. But such confidence, I
+felt, was too sacred to be deceived. Reluctant as I was, naturally, to
+enter on an inquiry, which might so soon dissipate even my last hope, her
+wish was sufficient to supersede even the selfishness of love, and on the
+instant I proceeded to obey her will.
+
+There is, on the eastern bank of the Nile, to the north of Antinoee, a high
+and steep rock, impending over the flood, which for ages, from a prodigy
+connected with it, has borne the name of the Mountain of the Birds.
+Yearly, it is said, at a certain season and hour, large flocks of birds
+assemble in the ravine, of which this rocky mountain forms one of the
+sides, and are there observed to go through the mysterious ceremony of
+inserting each its beak into a particular cleft of the rock, till the
+cleft closes upon one of their number, when the rest, taking wing, leave
+the selected victim to die.
+
+Through the ravine where this charm--for such the multitude consider it--is
+worked, there ran, in ancient times, a canal from the Nile, to some great
+and forgotten city that now lies buried in the desert. To a short distance
+from the river this canal still exists, but, soon after having passed
+through the defile, its scanty waters disappear altogether, and are lost
+under the sands.
+
+It was in the neighbourhood of this place, as I could collect from the
+delineations on the leaf,--where a flight of birds represented the name of
+the mountain,--that the dwelling of the Solitary, to whom Alethe was
+bequeathed, lay. Imperfect as was my knowledge of the geography of Egypt,
+it at once struck me, that we had long since left this mountain behind;
+and, on inquiring of our boatmen, I found my conjecture confirmed. We had,
+indeed, passed it, as appeared, on the preceding night; and, as the wind
+had, ever since, blown strongly from the north, and the sun was already
+declining towards the horizon, we must now be, at least, an ordinary day's
+sail to the southward of the spot.
+
+At this discovery, I own, my heart felt a joy which I could with
+difficulty conceal. It seemed to me as if fortune was conspiring with
+love, and, by thus delaying the moment of our separation, afforded me at
+least a chance of happiness. Her look, too, and manner, when informed of
+our mistake, rather encouraged than chilled this secret hope. In the first
+moment of astonishment, her eyes opened upon me with a suddenness of
+splendour, under which I felt my own wink, as if lightning had crossed
+them. But she again, as suddenly, let their lids fall, and, after a quiver
+of her lip, which showed the conflict of feeling within, crossed her arms
+upon her bosom, and looked silently down upon the deck;--her whole
+countenance sinking into an expression, sad, but resigned, as if she felt,
+with me, that fate was on the side of wrong, and saw Love already stealing
+between her soul and heaven.
+
+I was not slow in availing myself of what I fancied to be the irresolution
+of her mind. But, fearful of exciting alarm by any appeal to tenderer
+feelings, I but addressed myself to her imagination, and to that love of
+novelty, which is for ever fresh in the youthful breast. We were now
+approaching that region of wonders, Thebes. "In a day or two," said I, "we
+shall see, towering above the waters, the colossal Avenue of Sphinxes, and
+the bright Obelisks of the Sun. We shall visit the plain of Memnon, and
+those mighty statues, that fling their shadows at sunrise over the Libyan
+hills. We shall hear the image of the Son of the Morning answering to the
+first touch of light. From thence, in a few hours, a breeze like this will
+transport us to those sunny islands near the cataracts; there, to wander,
+among the sacred palm-groves of Philae, or sit, at noon-tide hour, in those
+cool alcoves, which the waterfall of Syene shadows under its arch. Oh,
+who, with such scenes of loveliness within reach, would turn coldly away
+to the bleak desert, and leave this fair world, with all its enchantments,
+shining behind them, unseen and unenjoyed? At least,"--I added, tenderly
+taking her by the hand,--"at least, let a few more days be stolen from the
+dreary fate to which thou hast devoted thyself, and then----"
+
+She had heard but the last few words;--the rest had been lost upon her.
+Startled by the tone of tenderness, into which, in spite of all my
+resolves, my voice had softened, she looked for an instant in my face,
+with passionate earnestness;--then, dropping upon her knees with her
+clasped hands upraised, exclaimed--"Tempt me not, in the name of God I
+implore thee, tempt me not to swerve from my sacred duty. Oh, take me
+instantly to that desert mountain, and I will bless thee for ever."
+
+This appeal, I felt, _could not_ be resisted,--though my heart were to
+break for it. Having silently expressed my assent to her prayer, by a
+pressure of her hand as I raised her from the deck, I hastened, as we were
+still in full career for the south, to give orders that our sail should be
+instantly lowered, and not a moment lost in retracing our course.
+
+In proceeding, however, to give these directions, it, for the first time,
+occurred to me, that, as I had hired this yacht in the neighbourhood of
+Memphis, where it was probable that the flight of the young fugitive would
+be most vigilantly tracked, we should act imprudently in betraying to the
+boatmen the place of her retreat;--and the present seemed the most
+favourable opportunity of evading such a danger. Desiring, therefore, that
+we should be landed at a small village on the shore, under pretence of
+paying a visit to some shrine in the neighbourhood, I there dismissed our
+barge, and was relieved from fear of further observation, by seeing it
+again set sail, and resume its course fleetly up the current.
+
+From the boats of all descriptions that lay idle beside the bank, I now
+selected one, which, in every respect, suited my purpose,--being, in its
+shape and accommodations, a miniature of our former vessel, but so small
+and light as to be manageable by myself alone, and, with the advantage of
+the current, requiring little more than a hand to steer it. This boat I
+succeeded, without much difficulty, in purchasing, and, after a short
+delay, we were again afloat down the current;--the sun just then sinking,
+in conscious glory, over his own golden shrines in the Libyan waste.
+
+The evening was more calm and lovely than any that yet had smiled upon our
+voyage; and, as we left the bank, there came soothingly over our ears a
+strain of sweet, rustic melody from the shore. It was the voice of a young
+Nubian girl, whom we saw kneeling on the bank before an acacia, and
+singing, while her companions stood round, the wild song of invocation,
+which, in her country, they address to that enchanted tree:--
+
+    "Oh! Abyssinian tree,
+      We pray, we pray, to thee;
+  By the glow of thy golden fruit,
+    And the violet hue of thy flower,
+      And the greeting mute
+      Of thy bough's salute
+    To the stranger who seeks thy bower.(6)
+
+                II.
+
+    "Oh! Abyssinian tree,
+      How the traveller blesses thee,
+  When the night no moon allows,
+    And the sun-set hour is near,
+      And thou bend'st thy boughs
+      To kiss his brows,
+    Saying, 'Come rest thee here.'
+      Oh! Abyssinian tree,
+      Thus bow thy head to me!"
+
+In the burden of this song the companions of the young Nubian joined; and
+we heard the words, "Oh! Abyssinian tree," dying away on the breeze, long
+after the whole group had been lost to our eyes.
+
+Whether, in this new arrangement which I had made for our voyage, any
+motive, besides those which I professed, had a share, I can scarcely, even
+myself, so bewildered were my feelings, determine. But no sooner had the
+current borne us away from all human dwellings, and we were alone on the
+waters, with not a soul near, than I felt how closely such solitude draws
+hearts together, and how much more we seemed to belong to each other, than
+when there were eyes around.
+
+The same feeling, but without the same sense of its danger, was manifest
+in every look and word of Alethe. The consciousness of the one great
+effort she had made appeared to have satisfied her heart on the score of
+duty,--while the devotedness with which she saw I attended to her every
+wish, was felt with all that gratitude which, in woman, is the day-spring
+of love. She was, therefore, happy, innocently happy; and the confiding,
+and even affectionate, unreserve of her manner, while it rendered my trust
+more sacred, made it also far more difficult.
+
+It was only, however, on subjects unconnected with our situation or fate,
+that she yielded to such interchange of thought, or that her voice
+ventured to answer mine. The moment I alluded to the destiny that awaited
+us, all her cheerfulness fled, and she became saddened and silent. When I
+described to her the beauty of my own native land--its founts of
+inspiration and fields of glory--her eyes sparkled with sympathy, and
+sometimes even softened into fondness. But when I ventured to whisper,
+that, in that glorious country, a life full of love and liberty awaited
+her; when I proceeded to contrast the adoration and bliss she might
+command, with the gloomy austerities of the life to which she was
+hastening,--it was like the coming of a sudden cloud over a summer sky. Her
+head sunk, as she listened;--I waited in vain for an answer; and when, half
+playfully reproaching her for this silence, I stooped to take her hand, I
+could feel the warm tears fast falling over it.
+
+But even this--little hope as it held out--was happiness. Though it
+foreboded that I should lose her, it also whispered that I was loved. Like
+that lake, in the Land of Roses(7), whose waters are half sweet, half
+bitter, I felt my fate to be a compound of bliss and pain,--but the very
+pain well worth all ordinary bliss.
+
+And thus did the hours of that night pass along; while every moment
+shortened our happy dream, and the current seemed to flow with a swifter
+pace than any that ever yet hurried to the sea. Not a feature of the whole
+scene but is, at this moment, freshly in my memory;--the broken star-light
+on the water;--the rippling sound of the boat, as, without oar or sail, it
+went, like a thing of enchantment, down the stream;--the scented fire,
+burning beside us on the deck, and, oh, that face, on which its light
+fell, still revealing, as it turned, some new charm, some blush or look,
+more beautiful than the last.
+
+Often, while I sat gazing, forgetful of all else in this world, our boat,
+left wholly to itself, would drive from its course, and, bearing us to the
+bank, get entangled in the water-flowers, or be caught in some eddy, ere I
+perceived where we were. Once, too, when the rustling of my oar among the
+flowers had startled away from the bank some wild antelopes, that had
+stolen, at that still hour, to drink of the Nile, what an emblem I thought
+it of the young heart beside me,--tasting, for the first time, of hope and
+love, and so soon, alas, to be scared from their sweetness for ever!
+
+
+
+
+
+                                CHAP. XV.
+
+
+The night was now far advanced;--the bend of our course towards the left,
+and the closing in of the eastern hills upon the river, gave warning of
+our approach to the hermit's dwelling. Every minute now seemed like the
+last of existence; and I felt a sinking of despair at my heart, which
+would have been intolerable, had not a resolution that suddenly, and as if
+by inspiration, occurred to me, presented a glimpse of hope which, in some
+degree, calmed my feelings.
+
+Much as I had, all my life, despised hypocrisy,--the very sect I had
+embraced being chiefly recommended to me by the war which they waged on
+the cant of all others,--it was, nevertheless, in hypocrisy that I now
+scrupled not to take refuge from, what I dreaded more than shame or death,
+my separation from Alethe. In my despair, I adopted the humiliating
+plan--deeply humiliating as I felt it to be, even amid the joy with which I
+welcomed it--of offering myself to this hermit, as a convert to his faith,
+and thus becoming the fellow-disciple of Alethe under his care!
+
+From the moment I resolved upon this plan, my spirit felt lightened.
+Though having fully before my eyes the labyrinth of imposture into which
+it would lead me, I thought of nothing but the chance of our being still
+together;--in this hope, all pride, all philosophy was forgotten, and every
+thing seemed tolerable, but the prospect of losing her.
+
+Thus resolved, it was with somewhat less reluctant feelings, that I now
+undertook, at the anxious desire of Alethe, to ascertain the site of that
+well-known mountain, in the neighbourhood of which the dwelling of the
+anchoret lay. We had already passed one or two stupendous rocks, which
+stood, detached, like fortresses, over the river's brink, and which, in
+some degree, corresponded with the description on the leaf. So little was
+there of life now stirring along the shores, that I had begun almost to
+despair of any assistance from inquiry, when, on looking to the western
+bank, I saw a boatman among the sedges, towing his small boat, with some
+difficulty, up the current. Hailing him, as we passed, I asked, "Where
+stands the Mountain of the Birds?"--and he had hardly time to answer,
+pointing above our heads, "There," when we perceived that we were just
+then entering into the shadow, which this mighty rock flings across the
+whole of the flood.
+
+In a few moments we had reached the mouth of the ravine, of which the
+Mountain of the Birds forms one of the sides, and through which the scanty
+canal from the Nile flows. At the sight of this chasm, in some of whose
+gloomy recesses--if we had rightly interpreted the leaf--the dwelling of the
+Solitary lay, our voices, at once, sunk into a low whisper, while Alethe
+looked round upon me with a superstitious fearfulness, as if doubtful
+whether I had not already disappeared from her side. A quick movement,
+however, of her hand towards the ravine, told too plainly that her purpose
+was still unchanged. With my oars, therefore, checking the career of our
+boat, I succeeded, after no small exertion, in turning it out of the
+current of the river, and steering into this bleak and stagnant canal.
+
+Our transition from life and bloom to the very depth of desolation, was
+immediate. While the water and one side of the ravine lay buried in
+shadow, the white, skeleton-like crags of the other stood aloft in the
+pale glare of moonlight. The sluggish stream through which we moved,
+yielded sullenly to the oar, and the shriek of a few water-birds, which we
+had roused from their fastnesses, was succeeded by a silence, so dead and
+awful, that our lips seemed afraid to disturb it by a breath; and half-
+whispered exclamations, "How dreary!"--"How dismal!"--were almost the only
+words exchanged between us.
+
+We had proceeded for some time through this gloomy defile, when, at a
+distance before us, among the rocks on which the moonlight fell, we
+perceived, upon a ledge but little elevated above the canal, a small hut
+or cave, which, from a tree or two planted around it, had some appearance
+of being the abode of a human being. "This, then," thought I, "is the home
+to which Alethe is destined!"--A chill of despair came again over my heart,
+and the oars, as I gazed, lay motionless in my hands.
+
+I found Alethe, too, whose eyes had caught the same object, drawing closer
+to my side than she had yet ventured. Laying her hand agitatedly upon
+mine, "We must here," she said, "part for ever." I turned to her, as she
+spoke: there was a tenderness, a despondency in her countenance, that at
+once saddened and inflamed my soul. "Part!" I exclaimed
+passionately,--"No!--the same God shall receive us both. Thy faith, Alethe,
+shall, from this hour, be mine, and I will live and die in this desert
+with thee!"
+
+Her surprise, her delight, at these words, was like a momentary delirium.
+The wild, anxious smile, with which she looked into my face, as if to
+ascertain whether she had, indeed, heard my words aright, bespoke a
+happiness too much for reason to bear. At length the fulness of her heart
+found relief in tears; and, murmuring forth an incoherent blessing on my
+name, she let her head fall languidly and powerlessly on my arm. The light
+from our boat-fire shone upon her face. I saw her eyes, which she had
+closed for a moment, again opening upon me with the same tenderness,
+and--merciful Providence, how I remember that moment!--was on the point of
+bending down my lips towards hers, when, suddenly, in the air above our
+heads, as if it came from heaven, there burst forth a strain from a choir
+of voices, that with its solemn sweetness filled the whole valley.
+
+Breaking away from my caress at these supernatural sounds, the maiden
+threw herself trembling upon her knees, and, not daring to look up,
+exclaimed wildly, "My mother, oh my mother!"
+
+It was the Christian's morning hymn that we heard;--the same, as I learned
+afterwards, that, on their high terrace at Memphis, Alethe had been often
+taught by her mother to sing to the rising sun.
+
+Scarcely less startled than my companion, I looked up, and, at the very
+summit of the rock above us, saw a light, appearing to come from a small
+opening or window, through which also the sounds, that had appeared so
+supernatural, issued. There could be no doubt, that we had now found--if
+not the dwelling of the anchoret--at least, the haunt of some of the
+Christian brotherhood of these rocks, by whose assistance we could not
+fail to find the place of his retreat.
+
+The agitation, into which Alethe had been thrown by the first burst of
+that psalmody, soon yielded to the softening recollections which it
+brought back; and a calm came over her brow, such as it had never before
+worn, since our meeting. She seemed to feel that she had now reached her
+destined haven, and to hail, as the voice of heaven itself, those sounds
+by which she was welcomed to it.
+
+In her tranquillity, however, I could not now sympathize. Impatient to
+know all that awaited her and myself, I pushed our boat close to the base
+of the rock,--directly under that lighted window on the summit, to find my
+way up to which was my first object. Having hastily received my
+instructions from Alethe, and made her repeat again the name of the
+Christian whom we sought, I sprang upon the bank, and was not long in
+discovering a sort of rude stair-way, cut out of the rock, but leading, I
+found, by easy windings, up the steep.
+
+After ascending for some time, I arrived at a level space or ledge, which
+the hand of labour had succeeded in converting into a garden, and which
+was planted, here and there, with fig-trees and palms. Around it, too, I
+could perceive, through the glimmering light, a number of small caves or
+grottos, into some of which, human beings might find entrance, while
+others appeared no larger than the tombs of the Sacred Birds round Lake
+Moeris.
+
+I was still, I found, but half-way up the ascent to the summit, nor could
+perceive any further means of continuing my course, as the mountain from
+hence rose, almost perpendicularly, like a wall. At length, however, on
+exploring around, I discovered behind the shade of a sycamore a large
+ladder of wood, resting firmly against the rock, and affording an easy and
+secure ascent up the steep.
+
+Having ascertained thus far, I again descended to the boat for
+Alethe,--whom I found trembling already at her short solitude,--and having
+led her up the steps to this quiet garden, left her safely lodged, amid
+its holy silence, while I pursued my way upward to the light on the rock.
+
+At the top of the long ladder I found myself on another ledge or platform,
+somewhat smaller than the first, but planted in the same manner, with
+trees, and, as I could perceive by the mingled light of morning and the
+moon, embellished with flowers. I was now near the summit;--there remained
+but another short ascent, and, as a ladder against the rock, as before,
+supplied the means of scaling it, I was in a few minutes at the opening
+from which the light issued.
+
+I had ascended gently, as well from a feeling of awe at the whole scene,
+as from an unwillingness to disturb too rudely the rites on which I
+intruded. My approach was, therefore, unheard, and an opportunity, during
+some moments, afforded me of observing the group within, before my
+appearance at the window was discovered.
+
+In the middle of the apartment, which seemed once to have been a Pagan
+oratory, there was an assembly of seven or eight persons, some male, some
+female, kneeling in silence round a small altar;--while, among them, as if
+presiding over their ceremony, stood an aged man, who, at the moment of my
+arrival, was presenting to one of the female worshippers an alabaster cup,
+which she applied, with much reverence, to her lips. On the countenance of
+the venerable minister, as he pronounced a short prayer over her head,
+there was an expression of profound feeling that showed how wholly he was
+absorbed in that rite; and when she had drank of the cup,--which I saw had
+engraven on its side the image of a head, with a glory round it,--the holy
+man bent down and kissed her forehead.
+
+After this parting salutation, the whole group rose silently from their
+knees; and it was then, for the first time, that, by a cry of terror from
+one of the women, the appearance of a stranger at the window was
+discovered. The whole assembly seemed startled and alarmed, except him,
+that superior person, who, advancing from the altar, with an unmoved look,
+raised the latch of the door, which was adjoining to the window, and
+admitted me.
+
+There was, in this old man's features, a mixture of elevation and
+sweetness, of simplicity and energy, which commanded at once attachment
+and homage; and half hoping, half fearing to find in him the destined
+guardian of Alethe, I looked anxiously in his face, as I entered, and
+pronounced the name "Melanius!" "Melanius is my name, young stranger," he
+answered; "and whether in friendship or in enmity thou comest, Melanius
+blesses thee." Thus saying, he made a sign with his right hand above my
+head, while, with involuntary respect, I bowed beneath the benediction.
+
+"Let this volume," I replied, "answer for the peacefulness of my
+mission,"--at the same time, placing in his hands the copy of the
+Scriptures, which had been his own gift to the mother of Alethe, and which
+her child now brought as the credential of her claims on his protection.
+At the sight of this sacred pledge, which he recognized instantly, the
+solemnity that had marked his first reception of me softened into
+tenderness. Thoughts of other times seemed to pass through his mind, and
+as, with a sigh of recollection, he took the book from my hands, some
+words on the outer leaf caught his eye. They were few,--but contained,
+perhaps, the last wishes of the dying Theora, for as he eagerly read them
+over, I saw the tears in his aged eyes. "The trust," he said, with a
+faltering voice, "is sacred, and God will, I hope, enable his servant to
+guard it faithfully."
+
+During this short dialogue, the other persons of the assembly had
+departed--being, as I afterwards learned, brethren from the neighbouring
+bank of the Nile, who came thus secretly before day-break, to join in
+worshipping God. Fearful lest their descent down the rock might alarm
+Alethe, I hurried briefly over the few words of explanation that remained,
+and, leaving the venerable Christian to follow at his leisure, hastened
+anxiously down to rejoin the maiden.
+
+
+
+
+
+                                CHAP. XVI.
+
+
+Melanius was among the first of those Christians of Egypt, who, after the
+recent example of the hermit, Paul, renouncing all the comforts of social
+existence, betook themselves to a life of contemplation in the desert.
+Less selfish, however, in his piety, than most of these ascetics, Melanius
+forgot not the world, in leaving it. He knew that man was not born to live
+wholly for himself; that his relation to human kind was that of the link
+to the chain, and that even his solitude should be turned to the advantage
+of others. In flying, therefore, from the din and disturbance of life, he
+sought not to place himself beyond the reach of its sympathies, but
+selected a retreat, where he could combine the advantage of solitude with
+those opportunities of serving his fellow-men, which a neighbourhood to
+their haunts would afford.
+
+That taste for the gloom of subterranean recesses, which the race of
+Misraim inherit from their Ethiopian ancestors, had, by hollowing out all
+Egypt into caverns and crypts, furnished these Christian anchorets with a
+choice of retreats. Accordingly, some found a shelter in the grottos of
+Elethya;--others, among the royal tombs of the Thebaid. In the middle of
+the Seven Valleys, where the sun rarely shines, a few have fixed their dim
+and melancholy retreat, while others have sought the neighbourhood of the
+red Lakes of Nitria, and there,--like those Pagan solitaries of old, who
+dwelt among the palm-trees near the Dead Sea,--muse amid the sterility of
+nature, and seem to find, in her desolation, peace.
+
+It was on one of the mountains of the Said, to the east of the river, that
+Melanius, as we have seen, chose his place of seclusion,--between the life
+and fertility of the Nile on the one side, and the lone, dismal barrenness
+of the desert on the other. Half-way down this mountain, where it impends
+over the ravine, he found a series of caves or grottos dug out of the
+rock, which had, in other times, ministered to some purpose of mystery,
+but whose use had been long forgotten, and their recesses abandoned.
+
+To this place, after the banishment of his great master, Origen, Melanius,
+with a few faithful followers, retired, and, by the example of his
+innocent life, no less than by his fervid eloquence, succeeded in winning
+crowds of converts to his faith. Placed, as he was, in the neighbourhood
+of the rich city, Antinoe, though he mingled not with its multitude, his
+name and his fame were among them, and, to all who sought instruction or
+consolation, the cell of the hermit was ever open.
+
+Notwithstanding the rigid abstinence of his own habits, he was yet careful
+to provide for the comforts of others. Contented with a rude bed of straw,
+himself, for the stranger he had always a less homely resting-place. From
+his grotto, the wayfaring and the indigent never went unrefreshed; and,
+with the assistance of some of his brethren, he had formed gardens along
+the ledges of the mountain, which gave an air of cheerfulness to his rocky
+dwelling, and supplied him with the chief necessaries of such a climate,
+fruit and shade.
+
+Though the acquaintance which he had formed with the mother of Alethe,
+during the short period of her attendance at the school of Origen, was
+soon interrupted, and never afterwards renewed, the interest which he had
+then taken in her fate was too lively to be forgotten. He had seen the
+zeal with which her young heart welcomed instruction; and the thought that
+such a candidate for heaven should have relapsed into idolatry, came
+often, with disquieting apprehension, over his mind.
+
+It was, therefore, with true pleasure, that, but a year or two before her
+death, he had learned, by a private communication from Theora, transmitted
+through a Christian embalmer of Memphis, that "not only her own heart had
+taken root in the faith, but that a new bud had flowered with the same
+divine hope, and that, ere long, he might see them both transplanted to
+the desert."
+
+The coming, therefore, of Alethe was far less a surprise to him, than her
+coming thus alone was a shock and a sorrow; and the silence of their
+meeting showed how deeply each remembered that the tie which had brought
+them together was no longer of this world,--that the hand, which should
+have been joined with theirs, was in the tomb. I now saw that not even
+religion was proof against the sadness of mortality. For, as the old man
+put the ringlets aside from her forehead, and contemplated in that clear
+countenance the reflection of what her mother had been, there was a
+mournfulness mingled with his piety, as he said, "Heaven rest her soul!"
+which showed how little even the certainty of a heaven for those we love
+can subdue our regret for having lost them on earth.
+
+The full light of day had now risen upon the desert, and our host,
+reminded, by the faint looks of Alethe, of the many anxious hours we had
+passed without sleep, proposed that we should seek, in the chambers of the
+rock, such rest as the dwelling of a hermit could offer. Pointing to one
+of the largest openings, as he addressed me,--"Thou wilt find," he said,
+"in that grotto a bed of fresh doum leaves, and may the consciousness of
+having protected the orphan sweeten thy sleep!"
+
+I felt how dearly this praise had been earned, and already almost repented
+of having deserved it. There was a sadness in the countenance of Alethe,
+as I took leave of her, to which the forebodings of my own heart but too
+faithfully responded; nor could I help fearing, as her hand parted
+lingeringly from mine, that I had, by this sacrifice, placed her beyond my
+reach for ever.
+
+Having lighted me a lamp, which, in these recesses, even at noon, is
+necessary, the holy man led me to the entrance of the grotto;--and here, I
+blush to say, my career of hypocrisy began. With the sole view of
+obtaining another glance at Alethe, I turned humbly to solicit the
+benediction of the Christian, and, having conveyed to her, as I bent
+reverently down, as much of the deep feeling of my soul as looks could
+express, with a desponding spirit I hurried into the cavern.
+
+A short passage led me to the chamber within,--the walls of which I found
+covered, like those of the grottos of Lycopolis, with paintings, which,
+though executed long ages ago, looked fresh as if their colours were but
+laid on yesterday. They were, all of them, representations of rural and
+domestic scenes; and, in the greater number, the melancholy imagination of
+the artist had called Death in, as usual, to throw his shadow over the
+picture.
+
+My attention was particularly drawn to one series of subjects, throughout
+the whole of which the same group--a youth, a maiden, and two aged persons,
+who appeared to be the father and mother of the girl,--were represented in
+all the details of their daily life. The looks and attitudes of the young
+people denoted that they were lovers; and, sometimes, they were seen
+sitting under a canopy of flowers, with their eyes fixed on each other's
+faces, as though they could never look away; sometimes, they appeared
+walking along the banks of the Nile,
+
+      ----on one of those sweet nights
+  When Isis, the pure star of lovers, lights
+  Her bridal crescent o'er the holy stream,--
+  When wandering youths and maidens watch her beam,
+  And number o'er the nights she hath to run,
+  Ere she again embrace her bridegroom sun.
+
+Through all these scenes of endearment the two elder persons stood
+by;--their calm countenances touched with a share of that bliss, in whose
+perfect light the young lovers were basking. Thus far, all was
+happiness,--but the sad lesson of mortality was to come. In the last
+picture of the series, one of the figures was missing. It was that of the
+young maiden, who had disappeared from among them. On the brink of a dark
+lake stood the three who remained; while a boat, just departing for the
+City of the Dead, told too plainly the end of their dream of happiness.
+
+This memorial of a sorrow of other times--of a sorrow, ancient as death
+itself,--was not wanting to deepen the melancholy of my mind, or to add to
+the weight of the many bodings that pressed on it.
+
+After a night, as it seemed, of anxious and unsleeping thought, I rose
+from my bed and returned to the garden. I found the Christian
+alone,--seated, under the shade of one of his trees, at a small table, with
+a volume unrolled before him, while a beautiful antelope lay sleeping at
+his feet. Struck forcibly by the contrast which he presented to those
+haughty priests, whom I had seen surrounded by the pomp and gorgeousness
+of temples, "Is this, then," thought I, "the faith, before which the world
+trembles--its temple the desert, its treasury a book, and its High Priest
+the solitary dweller of the rock!"
+
+He had prepared for me a simple, but hospitable, repast, of which fruits
+from his own garden, the white bread of Olyra, and the juice of the honey-
+cane were the most costly luxuries. His manner to me was even more cordial
+than before; but the absence of Alethe, and, still more, the ominous
+reserve, with which he not only, himself, refrained from all mention of
+her name, but eluded the few inquiries, by which I sought to lead to it,
+seemed to confirm all the fears I had felt in parting from her.
+
+She had acquainted him, it was evident, with the whole history of our
+flight. My reputation as a philosopher--my desire to become a Christian--all
+was already known to the zealous Anchoret, and the subject of my
+conversion was the very first on which he entered. O pride of philosophy,
+how wert thou then humbled, and with what shame did I stand, casting down
+my eyes, before that venerable man, as, with ingenuous trust in the
+sincerity of my intention, he welcomed me to a participation of his holy
+hope, and imprinted the Kiss of Charity on my infidel brow!
+
+Embarrassed as I felt by the consciousness of hypocrisy, I was even still
+more perplexed by my total ignorance of the real tenets of the faith to
+which I professed myself a convert. Abashed and confused, and with a heart
+sick at its own deceit, I heard the animated and eloquent gratulations of
+the Christian, as though they were words in a dream, without link or
+meaning; nor could disguise but by the mockery of a reverential bow, at
+every pause, the entire want of self-possession, and even of speech, under
+which I laboured.
+
+A few minutes more of such trial, and I must have avowed my imposture. But
+the holy man saw my embarrassment;--and, whether mistaking it for awe, or
+knowing it to be ignorance, relieved me from my perplexity by, at once,
+changing the theme. Having gently awakened his antelope from its sleep,
+"You have heard," he said, "I doubt not, of my brother-anchoret, Paul,
+who, from his cave in the marble mountains, near the Red Sea, sends hourly
+'the sacrifice of thanksgiving' to heaven. Of _his_ walks, they tell me, a
+lion is the companion; but, for me," he added, with a playful and
+significant smile, "who try my powers of taming but on the gentler
+animals, this feeble child of the desert is a far fitter play-mate." Then,
+taking his staff, and putting the time-worn volume which he had been
+reading into a large goat-skin pouch, that hung by his side, "I will now,"
+said he, "lead thee over my rocky kingdom,--that thou mayst see in what
+drear and barren places, that 'fruit of the spirit,' Peace, may be
+gathered."
+
+To speak of peace to a heart like mine, at that moment, was like talking
+of some distant harbour to the mariner sinking at sea. In vain did I look
+round for some sign of Alethe;--in vain make an effort even to utter her
+name. Consciousness of my own deceit, as well as a fear of awakening in
+Melanius any suspicion that might frustrate my only hope, threw a fetter
+over my spirit and checked my tongue. In silence, therefore, I followed,
+while the cheerful old man, with slow, but firm, step, ascended the rock,
+by the same ladders which I had mounted on the preceding night.
+
+During the time when the Decian Persecution was raging, many Christians of
+this neighbourhood, he informed me, had taken refuge under his protection,
+in these grottos; and the chapel on the summit, where I had found them at
+prayer, was, in those times of danger, their place of retreat, where, by
+drawing up these ladders, they were enabled to secure themselves from
+pursuit.
+
+From the top of the rock, the view, on either side, embraced the two
+extremes of fertility and desolation; nor could the Epicurean and the
+Anchoret, who now gazed from that height, be at any loss to indulge their
+respective tastes, between the living luxuriance of the world on one side,
+and the dead repose of the desert on the other. When we turned to the
+river, what a picture of animation presented itself! Near us, to the
+south, were the graceful colonnades of Antinoe, its proud, populous
+streets, and triumphal monuments. On the opposite shore, rich plains,
+teeming with cultivation to the water's edge, offered up, as from verdant
+altars, their fruits to the sun; while, beneath us, the Nile,
+
+            ----the glorious stream,
+  That late between its banks was seen to glide,--
+  With shrines and marble cities, on each side,
+  Glittering, like jewels strung along a chain,--
+  Had now sent forth its waters, and o'er plain
+  And valley, like a giant from his bed
+  Rising with outstretch'd limbs, superbly spread.
+
+From this scene, on one side of the mountain, we had but to turn round our
+eyes, and it was as if nature herself had become suddenly extinct;--a wide
+waste of sands, bleak and interminable, wearying out the sun with its
+sameness of desolation;--black, burnt-up rocks, that stood as barriers, at
+which life stopped;--while the only signs of animation, past or present,
+were the foot-prints, here and there, of an antelope or ostrich, or the
+bones of dead camels, as they lay whitening at a distance, marking out the
+track of the caravans over the waste.
+
+After listening, while he contrasted, in a few eloquent words, the two
+regions of life and death on whose confines we stood, I again descended
+with my guide to the garden we had left. From thence, turning into a path
+along the mountain-side, he conducted me to another row of grottos, facing
+the desert, which had once, he said, been the abode of those brethren in
+Christ, who had fled with him to this solitude from the crowded world,--but
+which death had, within a few months, rendered tenantless. A cross of red
+stone, and a few faded trees, were the only traces these solitaries had
+left behind.
+
+A silence of some minutes succeeded, while we descended to the edge of the
+canal; and I saw opposite, among the rocks, that solitary cave, which had
+so chilled me with its aspect on the preceding night. By the bank we found
+one of those rustic boats, which the Egyptians construct of planks of wild
+thorn, bound rudely together with bands of papyrus. Placing ourselves in
+this boat, and rather impelling than rowing it across, we made our way
+through the foul and shallow flood, and landed directly under the site of
+the cave.
+
+This dwelling, as I have already mentioned, was situated upon a ledge of
+the rock; and, being provided with a sort of window or aperture to admit
+the light of heaven, was accounted, I found, more cheerful than the
+grottos on the other side of the ravine. But there was a dreariness in the
+whole region around, to which light only lent more horror. The dead
+whiteness of the rocks, as they stood, like ghosts, in the sunshine;--that
+melancholy pool, half lost in the sands;--all gave me the idea of a wasting
+world. To dwell in such a place seemed to me like a living death; and when
+the Christian, as we entered the cave, said, "Here is to be thy home,"
+prepared as I was for the worst, my resolution gave way;--every feeling of
+disappointed passion and humbled pride, which had been gathering round my
+heart for the last few hours, found a vent at once, and I burst into
+tears!
+
+Well accustomed to human weakness, and perhaps guessing at some of the
+sources of mine, the good Hermit, without appearing to notice this
+emotion, expatiated, with a cheerful air, on, what he called, the many
+comforts of my dwelling. Sheltered, he said, from the dry, burning wind of
+the south, my porch would inhale the fresh breeze of the Dog-star. Fruits
+from his own mountain-garden should furnish my repast. The well of the
+neighbouring rock would supply my beverage; and, "here," he
+continued,--lowering his voice into a more solemn tone, as he placed upon
+the table the volume which he had brought,--"here, my son, is that 'well of
+living waters,' in which alone thou wilt find lasting refreshment or
+peace!" Thus saying, he descended the rock to his boat, and after a few
+plashes of his oar had died upon my ear, the solitude and silence around
+me was complete.
+
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAP. XVII.
+
+
+What a fate was mine!--but a few weeks since, presiding over that splendid
+Festival of the Garden, with all the luxuries of existence tributary in my
+train; and now,--self-humbled into a solitary outcast,--the hypocritical
+pupil of a Christian anchoret,--without even the excuse of fanaticism, or
+of any other madness, but that of love, wild love, to extenuate my fall!
+Were there a hope that, by this humiliating waste of existence, I might
+purchase but a glimpse, now and then, of Alethe, even the depths of the
+desert, with such a chance, would be welcome. But to live--and live
+thus--_without_ her, was a misery which I neither foresaw nor could endure.
+
+Hating even to look upon the den to which I was doomed, I hurried out into
+the air, and found my way, along the rocks, to the desert. The sun was
+going down, with that blood-red hue, which he so frequently wears, in this
+clime, at his setting. I saw the sands, stretching out, like a sea, to the
+horizon, as if their waste extended to the very verge of the world,--and,
+in the bitterness of my feelings, rejoiced to see so much of creation
+rescued, even by this barren liberty, from the grasp of man. The thought
+seemed to relieve my wounded pride, and, as I wandered over the dim and
+boundless solitude, to be thus free, even amid blight and desolation,
+appeared a blessing.
+
+The only living thing I saw was a restless swallow, whose wings were of
+the hue of the grey sands over which he fluttered. "Why may not the mind,
+like this bird, take the colour of the desert, and sympathise in its
+austerity, its freedom, and its calm?"--thus, between despondence and
+defiance, did I ask myself, endeavouring to face with fortitude what yet
+my heart sickened to contemplate. But the effort was unavailing. Overcome
+by that vast solitude, whose repose was not the slumber of peace, but the
+sullen and burning silence of hate, I felt my spirit give way, and even
+love itself yield to despair.
+
+Seating myself on a fragment of a rock, and covering my eyes with my
+hands, I made an effort to shut out the overwhelming prospect. But in
+vain--it was still before me, deepened by all that fancy could add; and
+when, again looking up, I saw the last red ray of the sun, shooting across
+that melancholy and lifeless waste, it seemed to me like the light of the
+comet that once desolated this world, shining out luridly over the ruin
+that it had made!
+
+Appalled by my own gloomy imaginations, I turned towards the ravine; and,
+notwithstanding the disgust with which I had left my dwelling, was not ill
+pleased to find my way, over the rocks, to it again. On approaching the
+cave, to my astonishment, I saw a light within. At such a moment, any
+vestige of life was welcome, and I hailed the unexpected appearance with
+pleasure. On entering, however, I found the chamber as lonely as I had
+left it. The light came from a lamp that burned brightly on the table;
+beside it was unfolded the volume which Melanius had brought, and upon the
+leaves--oh, joy and surprise--lay the well-known cross of Alethe!
+
+What hand, but her own, could have prepared this reception for me?--The
+very thought sent a hope into my heart, before which all despondency fled.
+Even the gloom of the desert was forgotten, and my cave at once brightened
+into a bower. She had here reminded me, herself, by this sacred memorial,
+of the vow which I had pledged to her under the Hermit's rock; and I now
+scrupled not to reiterate the same daring promise, though conscious that
+through hypocrisy alone I could fulfil it.
+
+Eager to prepare myself for my task of imposture, I sat down to the
+volume, which I now found to be the Hebrew Scriptures; and the first
+sentence, on which my eyes fell, was--"The Lord hath commanded the
+blessing, even Life for evermore!" Startled by these words, in which the
+Spirit of my dream seemed again to pronounce his assuring prediction, I
+raised my eyes from the page, and repeated the sentence over and over, as
+if to try whether the sounds had any charm or spell, to reawaken that
+faded illusion in my soul. But, no--the rank frauds of the Memphian
+priesthood had dispelled all my trust in the promises of religion. My
+heart had again relapsed into its gloom of scepticism, and, to the word of
+"Life," the only answer it sent back was, "Death!"
+
+Impatient, however, to possess myself of the elements of a faith, on
+which,--whatever it might promise for hereafter,--I felt that my happiness
+here depended, I turned over the pages with an earnestness and avidity,
+such as never even the most favourite of my studies had awakened in me.
+Though, like all, who seek but the surface of learning, I flew desultorily
+over the leaves, lighting only on the more prominent and shining points, I
+yet found myself, even in this undisciplined career, arrested, at every
+page, by the awful, the supernatural sublimity, the alternate melancholy
+and grandeur of the images that crowded upon me.
+
+I had, till now, known the Hebrew theology but through the platonising
+refinements of Philo;--as, in like manner, for my knowledge of the
+Christian doctrine I was indebted to my brother Epicureans, Lucian and
+Celsus. Little, therefore, was I prepared for the simple majesty, the high
+tone of inspiration,--the poetry, in short, of heaven that breathed
+throughout these oracles. Could admiration have kindled faith, I should,
+that night, have been a believer; so elevated, so awed was my imagination
+by that wonderful book,--its warnings of woe, its announcements of glory,
+and its unrivalled strains of adoration and sorrow.
+
+Hour after hour, with the same eager and desultory curiosity, did I turn
+over the leaves;--and when, at length, I lay down to rest, my fancy was
+still haunted by the impressions it had received. I went again through the
+various scenes of which I had read; again called up, in sleep, the bright
+images that had charmed me, and, when wakened at day-break by the Hymn
+from the chapel, fancied myself still listening to the sound of the winds,
+sighing mournfully through the harps of Israel on the willows.
+
+Starting from my bed, I hurried out upon the rock, with a hope that, among
+the tones of that morning choir, I might be able to distinguish the sweet
+voice of Alethe. But the strain had ceased;--I caught only the last notes
+of the Hymn, as, echoing up that lonely valley, they died away into the
+silence of the desert.
+
+With the first glimpse of light I was again at my study, and,
+notwithstanding the distraction both of my thoughts and looks towards the
+half-seen grottos of the Anchoret, pursued it perseveringly through the
+day. Still alive, however, but to the eloquence, the poetry of what I
+read, of its connection or authenticity, as a history, I never paused to
+consider. My fancy being alone interested by it, to fancy I referred all
+it contained; and, passing rapidly from annals to prophecy, from narration
+to song, regarded the whole but as a tissue of splendid allegories, in
+which the melancholy of Egyptian associations was interwoven with the rich
+imagery of the East.
+
+Towards sunset I saw the boat of Melanius on its way, across the canal, to
+my cave. Though he had no other companion than his graceful antelope, that
+stood snuffing the wild air of the desert, as if scenting its home, I felt
+his visit, even thus, to be a most welcome relief. It was the hour, he
+said, of his evening ramble up the mountain,--of his accustomed visit to
+those cisterns of the rock, from which he nightly drew his most precious
+beverage. While he spoke, I observed in his hand one of those earthen
+cups, in which the inhabitants of the wilderness are accustomed to collect
+the fresh dew among the rocks. Having proposed that I should accompany him
+in his walk, he led me, in the direction of the desert, up the side of the
+mountain that rose above my dwelling, and which formed the southern wall
+or screen of the defile.
+
+Near the summit we found a seat, where the old man paused to rest. It
+commanded a full view over the desert, and was by the side of one of those
+hollows in the rock, those natural reservoirs, in which the dews of night
+are treasured up for the refreshment of the dwellers in the wilderness.
+Having learned from me how far I had proceeded in my study, "In that
+light," said he, pointing to a small cloud in the east, which had been
+formed on the horizon by the haze of the desert, and was now faintly
+reflecting the splendours of sunset,--"in that light stands Mount Sinai, of
+whose glory thou hast read; on whose summit was the scene of one of those
+awful revelations, in which the Almighty has, from time to time, renewed
+his communication with Man, and kept alive the remembrance of his own
+Providence in this world."
+
+After a pause, as if absorbed in the immensity of the subject, the holy
+man continued his sublime theme. Looking back to the earliest annals of
+time, he showed how constantly every relapse of the human race into
+idolatry has been followed by some manifestation of divine power,
+chastening the proud by punishment, and winning back the humble by love.
+It was to preserve, he said, unextinguished upon earth, that vital
+truth,--the Creation of the world by one Supreme Being,--that God chose,
+from among the nations, an humble and enslaved race;--that he brought them
+out of their captivity "on eagles' wings," and, surrounding every step of
+their course with miracles, placed them before the eyes of all succeeding
+generations, as the depositaries of his will, and the ever-during
+memorials of his power.
+
+Passing, then, in review the long train of inspired interpreters, whose
+pens and whose tongues were made the echoes of the Divine voice, he
+traced(8), through the events of successive ages, the gradual unfolding of
+the dark scheme of Providence--darkness without, but all light and glory
+within. The glimpses of a coming redemption, visible even through the
+wrath of heaven;--the long series of prophecy, through which this hope
+runs, burning and alive, like a spark through a chain;--the merciful
+preparation of the hearts of mankind for the great trial of their faith
+and obedience that was at hand, not only by miracles that appealed to the
+living, but by predictions launched into futurity to carry conviction to
+the yet unborn;--"through all these glorious and beneficent gradations we
+may track," said he, "the manifest footsteps of a Creator, advancing to
+his grand, ultimate end, the salvation of his creatures."
+
+After some hours devoted to these holy instructions, we returned to the
+ravine, and Melanius left me at my cave; praying, as he parted from
+me,--with a benevolence I but ill, alas! deserved,--that my soul, under
+these lessons, might be "as a watered garden," and, ere long, bear "fruit
+unto life eternal."
+
+Next morning, I was again at my study, and even more eager in the task
+than before. With the commentary of the Hermit freshly in my memory, I
+again read through, with attention, the Book of the Law. But in vain did I
+seek the promise of immortality in its pages. "It tells me," said I, "of a
+God coming down to earth, but of the ascent of Man to heaven it speaks
+not. The rewards, the punishments it announces, lie all on this side of
+the grave; nor did even the Omnipotent offer to his own chosen servants a
+hope beyond the impassable limits of this world. Where, then, is the
+salvation of which the Christian spoke? or, if Death be at the root of the
+faith, can Life spring out of it!"
+
+Again, in the bitterness of disappointment, did I mock at my own willing
+self-delusion,--again rail at the arts of that traitress, Fancy, ever
+ready, like the Delilah of this book, to steal upon the slumbers of
+Reason, and deliver him up, shorn and powerless, to his foes. If
+deception--thought I, with a sigh--be necessary, at least let me not
+practise it on myself;--in the desperate alternative before me, let me
+rather be even hypocrite than dupe.
+
+These self-accusing reflections, cheerless as they rendered my task, did
+not abate, for a single moment, my industry in pursuing it. I read on and
+on, with a sort of sullen apathy, neither charmed by style, nor
+transported by imagery,--that fatal blight in my heart having communicated
+itself to my fancy and taste. The curses and the blessings, the glory and
+the ruin, which the historian recorded and the prophet predicted, seemed
+all of this world,--all, temporal and earthly. That mortality, of which the
+fountain-head had tasted, tinged the whole stream; and when I read the
+words, "all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again," a feeling, like
+the wind of the desert, came witheringly over me. Love, Beauty, Glory,
+every thing most bright upon earth, appeared sinking before my eyes, under
+this dreadful doom, into one general mass of corruption and silence.
+
+Possessed by the image of desolation I had called up, I laid my head on
+the book, in a paroxysm of despair. Death, in all his most ghastly
+varieties, passed before me; and I had continued thus for some time, as
+under the influence of a fearful vision, when the touch of a hand upon my
+shoulder roused me. Looking up, I saw the Anchoret standing by my
+side;--his countenance beaming with that sublime tranquillity, which a
+hope, beyond this earth, alone can bestow. How I envied him!
+
+We again took our way to the seat upon the mountain,--the gloom in my own
+mind making every thing around me more gloomy. Forgetting my hypocrisy in
+my feelings, I, at once, avowed to him all the doubts and fears which my
+study of the morning had awakened.
+
+"Thou art yet, my son," he answered, "but on the threshold of our faith.
+Thou hast seen but the first rudiments of the Divine plan;--its full and
+consummate perfection hath not yet opened upon thee. However glorious that
+manifestation of Divinity on Mount Sinai, it was but the forerunner of
+another, still more glorious, that, in the fulness of time, was to burst
+upon the world; when all, that had seemed dim and incomplete, was to be
+perfected, and the promises, shadowed out by the 'spirit of prophecy,'
+realized;--when the silence, that lay, as a seal, on the future, was to be
+broken, and the glad tidings of life and immortality proclaimed to the
+world!"
+
+Observing my features brighten at these words, the pious man continued.
+Anticipating some of the holy knowledge that was in store for me, he
+traced, through all its wonders and mercies, the great work of Redemption,
+dwelling on every miraculous circumstance connected with it;--the exalted
+nature of the Being, by whose ministry it was accomplished, the noblest
+and first created of the Sons of God, inferior only to the one, self-
+existent Father;--the mysterious incarnation of this heavenly
+messenger;--the miracles that authenticated his divine mission;--the example
+of obedience to God and love to man, which he set, as a shining light,
+before the world for ever;--and, lastly and chiefly, his death and
+resurrection, by which the covenant of mercy was sealed, and "life and
+immortality brought to light."
+
+"Such," continued the Hermit, "was the Mediator, promised through all
+time, to 'make reconciliation for iniquity,' to change death into life,
+and bring 'healing on his wings' to a darkened world. Such was the last
+crowning dispensation of that God of benevolence, in whose hands sin and
+death are but instruments of everlasting good, and who, through apparent
+evil and temporary retribution, bringing all things 'out of darkness into
+his marvellous light,' proceeds watchfully and unchangingly to the great,
+final object of his providence,--the restoration of the whole human race to
+purity and happiness!"
+
+With a mind astonished, if not touched, by these discourses, I returned to
+my cave; and found the lamp, as before, ready lighted to receive me. The
+volume which I had been reading was replaced by another, which lay open
+upon the table, with a branch of fresh palm between its leaves. Though I
+could not have a doubt to whose gentle hand I was indebted for this
+invisible superintendence over my studies, there was yet a something in
+it, so like spiritual interposition, that it awed me;--and never more than
+at this moment, when, on approaching the volume, I saw, as the light
+glistened over its silver letters, that it was the very Book of Life of
+which the Hermit had spoken!
+
+The orison of the Christians had sounded through the valley, before I
+raised my eyes from that sacred volume; and the second hour of the sun
+found me again over its pages.
+
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAP. XVIII.
+
+
+In this mode of existence did I pass some days;--my mornings devoted to
+reading, my nights to listening, under the canopy of heaven, to the holy
+eloquence of Melanius. The perseverance with which I enquired, and the
+quickness with which I learned, soon succeeded in deceiving my benevolent
+instructor, who mistook curiosity for zeal and knowledge for belief. Alas!
+cold, and barren, and earthly was that knowledge,--the word, without the
+spirit, the shape, without the life. Even when, as a relief from
+hypocrisy, I persuaded myself that I believed, it was but a brief
+delusion, a faith, whose hope crumbled at the touch,--like the fruit of the
+desert-shrub, shining and empty!
+
+But, though my soul was still dark, the good Hermit saw not into its
+depths. The very facility of my belief, which might have suggested some
+doubt of its sincerity, was but regarded by his innocent zeal, as a more
+signal triumph of the truth. His own ingenuousness led him to a ready
+trust in others; and the examples of such conversion as that of the
+philosopher, Justin, who received the light into his soul during a walk by
+the sea-shore, had prepared him for illuminations of the spirit, even more
+rapid than mine.
+
+During this time, I neither saw nor heard of Alethe;--nor could my patience
+have endured so long a privation, had not those mute vestiges of her
+presence, that welcomed me every night on my return, made me feel that I
+was still living under her gentle influence, and that her sympathy hung
+round every step of my progress. Once, too, when I ventured to speak her
+name to Melanius, though he answered not my enquiry, there was a smile, I
+thought, of promise upon his countenance, which love, more alive than
+faith, interpreted as it wished.
+
+At length,--it was on the sixth or seventh evening of my solitude, when I
+lay resting at the door of my cave, alter the study of the day,--I was
+startled by hearing my name called loudly from the opposite rocks, and
+looking up, saw, on the cliff near the deserted grottos, Melanius and--oh,
+I could not doubt--my Alethe by his side!
+
+Though I had never ceased, since the first night of my return from the
+desert, to flatter myself with the fancy that I was still living in her
+presence, the actual sight of her again made me feel what an age we had
+been separated. She was clothed all in white, and, as she stood in the
+last remains of the sunshine, appeared to my too prophetic fancy like a
+parting spirit, whose last footsteps on earth that glory encircled.
+
+With a delight only to be imagined, I saw them descend the rocks, and
+placing themselves in the boat, proceed towards my cave. To disguise from
+Melanius the feelings with which we met was impossible;--nor did Alethe
+even attempt to make a secret of her innocent joy. Though blushing at her
+own happiness, she could as little conceal it, as the clear waters of
+Ethiopia can hide their gold. Every look, too, every word, spoke a fulness
+of affection, to which, doubtful as I was of our tenure of happiness, I
+knew not how to answer.
+
+I was not long, however, left ignorant of the bright fate that awaited me;
+but, as we wandered or rested among the rocks, learned every thing that
+had been arranged since our parting. She had made the Hermit, I found,
+acquainted with all that had passed between us; had told him, without
+reserve, every incident of our voyage,--the avowals, the demonstrations of
+affection on one side, and the deep sentiment that gratitude had awakened
+on the other. Too wise to regard feelings, so natural, with
+severity,--knowing that they were of heaven, and but made evil by man,--the
+good Hermit had heard of our attachment with pleasure; and, proved as he
+thought the purity of my views had been, by the fidelity with which I had
+delivered up my trust into his hands, saw, in my affection for the young
+orphan, but a providential resource against that friendless solitude in
+which his death must soon leave her.
+
+As I collected these particulars from their discourse, I could hardly
+trust my ears. It seemed too much happiness to be real; nor can words give
+an idea of the joy--the shame--the wonder with which I listened, while the
+holy man himself declared, that he awaited but the moment, when he should
+find me worthy of becoming a member of the Christian Church, to give me
+also the hand of Alethe in that sacred union, which alone sanctifies love,
+and makes the faith, which it pledges, heavenly. It was but yesterday, he
+added, that his young charge, herself, after a preparation of prayer and
+repentance, such as even her pure spirit required, had been admitted, by
+the sacred ordinance of baptism, into the bosom of the faith;--and the
+white garment she wore, and the ring of gold on her finger, "were
+symbols," he said, "of that New Life into which she had been initiated."
+
+I raised my eyes to her as he spoke, but withdrew them again, dazzled and
+confused. Even her beauty, to my imagination, seemed to have undergone
+some brightening change; and the contrast between that open and happy
+countenance, and the unblest brow of the infidel that stood before her,
+abashed me into a sense of unworthiness, and almost checked my rapture.
+
+To that night, however, I look back, as an epoch in my existence. It
+proved that sorrow is not the only awakener of devotion, but that joy may
+sometimes call the holy spark into life. Returning to my cave, with a
+heart full, even to oppression, of its happiness, I knew no other relief
+to my overcharged feelings than that of throwing myself on my knees, and,
+for the first time in my life, uttering a prayer, that if, indeed, there
+were a Being who watched over mankind, he would send down one ray of his
+truth into my soul, and make it worthy of the blessings, both here and
+hereafter, proffered to me!
+
+My days now rolled on in a perfect dream of happiness. Every hour of the
+morning was welcomed as bringing nearer and nearer the blest time of
+sunset, when the Hermit and Alethe never failed to pay their visit to my
+now charmed cave, where her smile left a light, at each parting, that
+lasted till her return. Then, our rambles, by star-light, over the
+mountain;--our pauses, on the way, to contemplate the bright wonders of
+that heaven above us;--our repose by the cistern of the rock, and our
+silent listening, through hours that seemed minutes, to the holy eloquence
+of our teacher;--all, all was happiness of the most heartfelt kind, and
+such as even the doubts, the cold, lingering doubts, that still hung, like
+a mist, around my heart, could neither cloud nor chill.
+
+When the moonlight nights returned, we used to venture into the desert;
+and those sands, which but lately had appeared to me so desolate, now wore
+even a cheerful and smiling aspect. To the light, innocent heart of Alethe
+every thing was a source of enjoyment. For her, even the desert had its
+jewels and flowers; and, sometimes, her delight was to search among the
+sands for those beautiful pebbles of jasper that abound in
+them;--sometimes, her eyes sparkled on finding, perhaps, a stunted
+marigold, or one of those bitter, scarlet flowers, that lend their mockery
+of ornament to the desert. In all these pursuits and pleasures the good
+Hermit took a share,--mingling with them occasionally the reflections of a
+benevolent piety, that lent its own cheerful hue to all the works of
+creation, and saw the consoling truth "God is Love," written legibly every
+where.
+
+Such was, for a few weeks, my blissful life. Oh mornings of hope, oh
+nights of happiness, with what mournful pleasure do I retrace your flight,
+and how reluctantly pass to the sad events that followed!
+
+During this time, in compliance with the wishes of Melanius, who seemed
+unwilling that I should become wholly estranged from the world, I
+occasionally paid a visit to the neighbouring city, Antinoe, which, as the
+capital of the Thebaid, is the centre of all the luxury of Upper Egypt.
+Here,--so changed was my every feeling by the all-transforming passion that
+possessed me,--I wandered, unamused and uninterested by either the scenes
+or the people that surrounded me, and, sighing for that rocky solitude
+where Alethe breathed, felt _this_ to be the wilderness, and _that_, the
+world.
+
+Even the thoughts of my own native Athens, that were called up, at every
+step, by the light, Grecian architecture of this imperial city, did not
+awaken one single regret in my heart--one wish to exchange even an hour of
+my desert for the best luxuries and honours that awaited me in the Garden.
+I saw the arches of triumph;--I walked under the superb portico, which
+encircles the whole city with its marble shade;--I stood in the Circus of
+the Sun, by whose rose-coloured pillars the mysterious movements of the
+Nile are measured;--all these bright ornaments of glory and art, as well as
+the gay multitude that enlivened them, I saw with an unheeding eye. If
+they awakened in me any thought, it was the mournful idea, that, one day,
+like Thebes and Heliopolis, this pageant would pass away, leaving nothing
+behind but a few mouldering ruins,--like the sea-shells found where the
+ocean has been,--to tell that the great tide of Life was once there!
+
+But, though indifferent thus to all that had formerly attracted me, there
+were subjects, once alien to my heart, on which it was now most
+tremblingly alive; and some rumours which had reached me, in one of my
+visits to the city, of an expected change in the policy of the Emperor
+towards the Christians, filled me with apprehensions as new as they were
+dreadful to me.
+
+The peace and even favour which the Christians enjoyed, during the first
+four years of the reign of Valerian, had removed from them all fear of a
+renewal of those horrors, which they had experienced under the rule of his
+predecessor, Decius. Of late, however, some less friendly dispositions had
+manifested themselves. The bigots of the court, taking alarm at the spread
+of the new faith, had succeeded in filling the mind of the monarch with
+that religious jealousy, which is the ever-ready parent of cruelty and
+injustice. Among these counsellors of evil was Macrianus, the Praetorian
+Prefect, who was, by birth, an Egyptian, and--so akin is superstition to
+intolerance--had long made himself notorious by his addiction to the dark
+practices of demon-worship and magic.
+
+From this minister, who was now high in the favour of Valerian, the
+expected measures of severity against the Christians, it was supposed,
+would emanate. All tongues, in all quarters, were busy with the news. In
+the streets, in the public gardens, on the steps of the temples, I saw,
+every where, groups of enquirers collected, and heard the name of
+Macrianus upon every tongue. It was dreadful, too, to observe, in the
+countenances of those who spoke, the variety of feeling with which the
+rumour was discussed, according as they desired or dreaded its
+truth,--according as they were likely to be among the torturers or the
+victims.
+
+Alarmed, though still ignorant of the whole extent of the danger, I
+hurried back to the ravine, and, going at once to the grotto of Melanius,
+detailed to him every particular of the intelligence I had collected. He
+heard me with a composure, which I mistook, alas, for confidence in his
+security; and, naming the hour for our evening walk, retired into his
+grotto.
+
+At the accustomed time Alethe and he were at my cave. It was evident that
+he had not communicated to her the intelligence which I had brought, for
+never did brow wear such a happiness as that which now played round
+hers;--it was, alas, _not_ of this earth! Melanius, himself, though
+composed, was thoughtful; and the solemnity, almost approaching to
+melancholy, with which he placed the hand of Alethe in mine--in the
+performance, too, of a ceremony that _ought_ to have filled my heart with
+joy--saddened and alarmed me. This ceremony was our betrothment,--the
+plighting of our faith to each other,--which we now solemnized on the rock
+before the door of my cave, in the face of that sunset heaven, with its
+one star standing as witness. After a blessing from the Hermit on our
+spousal pledge, I placed the ring,--the earnest of our future union--on her
+finger, and, in the blush, with which she surrendered her whole heart to
+me at that instant, forgot every thing but my happiness, and felt secure,
+even against fate!
+
+We took our accustomed walk over the rocks and on the desert. The moon was
+so bright,--like the daylight, indeed, of other climes--that we could see
+plainly the tracks of the wild antelopes in the sand; and it was not
+without a slight tremble of feeling in his voice, as if some melancholy
+analogy occurred to him as he spoke, that the good Hermit said, "I have
+observed in my walks, that where-ever the track of that gentle animal is
+seen, there is, almost always, the foot-print of a beast of prey near it."
+He regained, however, his usual cheerfulness before we parted, and fixed
+the following evening for an excursion, on the other side of the ravine,
+to a point, looking, he said, "towards that northern region of the desert,
+where the hosts of the Lord encamped in their departure out of bondage."
+
+Though, in the presence of Alethe, my fears, even for herself, were
+forgotten in that perpetual element of happiness, which encircled her like
+the air that she breathed, no sooner was I alone than vague terrors and
+bodings crowded upon me. In vain did I try to reason myself out of my
+fears by dwelling on the most cheering circumstances,--the reverence with
+which Melanius was regarded, even by the Pagans, and the inviolate
+security with which he had lived through the most perilous periods, not
+only safe himself, but affording sanctuary in his grottos to others. When,
+somewhat calmed by these considerations, I sunk off to sleep, dark,
+horrible dreams took possession of my mind. Scenes of death and of torment
+passed confusedly before me, and, when I awoke, it was with the fearful
+impression that all these horrors were real.
+
+
+
+
+
+                                CHAP. XIX.
+
+
+At length, the day dawned,--that dreadful day. Impatient to be relieved
+from my suspense, I threw myself into my boat,--the same in which we had
+performed our happy voyage,--and, as fast as oars could speed me, hurried
+away to the city. I found the suburbs silent and solitary, but, as I
+approached the Forum, loud yells, like those of barbarians in combat,
+struck on my ear, and, when I entered it,--great God, what a spectacle
+presented itself! The imperial edict against the Christians had arrived
+during the night, and already the wild fury of bigotry was let loose.
+
+Under a canopy, in the middle of the Forum, was the tribunal of the
+Governor. Two statues, one of Apollo, the other of Osiris, stood at the
+bottom of the steps that led up to his judgment-seat. Before these idols
+were shrines, to which the devoted Christians were dragged from all
+quarters by the soldiers and mob, and there compelled to recant, by
+throwing incense into the flame, or, on their refusal, hurried away to
+torture and death. It was an appalling scene;--the consternation, the cries
+of some of the victims,--the pale, silent resolution of others;--the fierce
+shouts of laughter that broke from the multitude, when the frankincense,
+dropped on the altar, proclaimed some denier of Christ; and the fiend-like
+triumph with which the courageous Confessors, who avowed their faith, were
+led away to the flames;--never could I have conceived such an assemblage of
+horrors!
+
+Though I gazed but for a few minutes, in those minutes I felt enough for
+years. Already did the form of Alethe flit before me through that
+tumult;--I heard them shout her name;--her shriek fell on my ear; and the
+very thought so palsied me with terror, that I stood fixed and statue-like
+on the spot.
+
+Recollecting, however, the fearful preciousness of every moment, and
+that--perhaps, at this very instant--some emissaries of blood might be on
+their way to the grottos, I rushed wildly out of the Forum, and made my
+way to the quay.
+
+The streets were now crowded; but I ran headlong through the multitude,
+and was already under the portico leading down to the river,--already saw
+the boat that was to bear me to Alethe,--when a Centurion stood sternly in
+my path, and I was surrounded and arrested by soldiers! It was in vain
+that I implored, that I struggled with them as for life, assuring them
+that I was a stranger,--that I was an Athenian,--that I was--_not_ a
+Christian. The precipitation of my flight was sufficient evidence against
+me, and unrelentingly, and by force, they bore me away to the quarters of
+their Chief.
+
+It was enough to drive me to madness! Two hours, two frightful hours, was
+I kept waiting the arrival of the Tribune of their Legion(9),--my brain
+burning with a thousand fears and imaginations, which every passing minute
+made more likely to be realised. Every thing, too, that I could collect
+from the conversations around me but added to the agonising apprehensions
+with which I was racked. Troops, it was said, had been sent in all
+directions through the neighbourhood, to bring in the rebellious
+Christians, and make them bow before the Gods of the Empire. With horror,
+too, I heard of Orcus,--Orcus, the High Priest of Memphis,--as one of the
+principal instigators of this sanguinary edict, and as here present in
+Antinoe, animating and directing its execution.
+
+In this state of torture I remained till the arrival of the Tribune.
+Absorbed in my own thoughts, I had not perceived his entrance;--till,
+hearing a voice, in a tone of friendly surprise, exclaim, "Alciphron!" I
+looked up, and in this legionary Chief recognised a young Roman of rank,
+who had held a military command, the year before, at Athens, and was one
+of the most distinguished visitors of the Garden. It was no time, however,
+for courtesies;--he was proceeding with cordiality to greet me, but, having
+heard him order my instant release, I could wait for no more.
+Acknowledging his kindness but by a grasp of the hand, I flew off, like
+one frantic, through the streets, and, in a few minutes, was on the river.
+
+My sole hope had been to reach the grottos before any of the detached
+parties should arrive, and, by a timely flight across the desert, rescue,
+at least, Alethe from their fury. The ill-fated delay that had occurred
+rendered this hope almost desperate; but the tranquillity I found every
+where as I proceeded down the river, and the fond confidence I still
+cherished in the sacredness of the Hermit's retreat, kept my heart from
+giving way altogether under its terrors.
+
+Between the current and my oars, the boat flew, like wind, along the
+waters; and I was already near the rocks of the ravine, when I saw,
+turning out of the canal into the river, a barge crowded with people, and
+glittering with arms! How did I ever survive the shock of that sight? The
+oars dropped, as if struck out of my hands, into the water, and I sat,
+helplessly gazing, as that terrific vision approached. In a few minutes,
+the current brought us together;--and I saw, on the deck of the barge,
+Alethe and the Hermit surrounded by soldiers!
+
+We were already passing each other when, with a desperate effort, I sprang
+from my boat and lighted upon the edge of their vessel. I knew not what I
+did, for despair was my only prompter. Snatching at the sword of one of
+the soldiers, as I stood tottering on the edge, I had succeeded in
+wresting it out of his hands, when, at the same moment, I received a
+thrust of a lance from one of his comrades, and fell backward into the
+river. I can just remember rising again and making a grasp at the side of
+the vessel;--but the shock, the faintness from my wound, deprived me of all
+consciousness, and a shriek from Alethe, as I sunk, is all I can recollect
+of what followed.
+
+Would I had then died!--Yet, no, Almighty Being,--I should have died in
+darkness, and I have lived to know Thee!
+
+On returning to my senses, I found myself reclined on a couch, in a
+splendid apartment, the whole appearance of which being Grecian, I, for a
+moment, forgot all that had passed, and imagined myself in my own home at
+Athens. But too soon the whole dreadful certainty flashed upon me; and,
+starting wildly--disabled as I was--from my couch, I called loudly, and with
+the shriek of a maniac, on Alethe.
+
+I was in the house, I found, of my friend and disciple, the young Tribune,
+who had made the Governor acquainted with my name and condition, and had
+received me under his roof, when brought, bleeding and insensible, to
+Antinoe. From him I now learned at once,--for I could not wait for
+details,--the sum of all that had happened in that dreadful interval.
+Melanius was no more,--Alethe, still alive, but in prison!
+
+"Take me to her"--I had but time to say--"take me to her instantly, and let
+me die by her side,"--when, nature again failing under such shocks, I
+relapsed into insensibility. In this state I continued for near an hour,
+and, on recovering, found the Tribune by my side. The horrors, he said, of
+the Forum were, for that day, over,--but what the morrow might bring, he
+shuddered to contemplate. His nature, it was plain, revolted from the
+inhuman duties in which he was engaged. Touched by the agonies he saw me
+suffer, he, in some degree, relieved them, by promising that I should, at
+night-fall, be conveyed to the prison, and, if possible, through his
+influence, gain access to Alethe. She might yet, he added, be saved, could
+I succeed in persuading her to comply with the terms of the edict, and
+make sacrifice to the Gods.--"Otherwise," said he, "there is no hope;--the
+vindictive Orcus, who has resisted even this short respite of mercy, will,
+to-morrow, inexorably demand his prey."
+
+He then related to me, at my own request,--though every word was
+torture,--all the harrowing details of the proceeding before the Tribunal.
+"I have seen courage," said he, "in its noblest forms, in the field; but
+the calm intrepidity with which that aged Hermit endured torments--which it
+was hardly less torment to witness--surpassed all that I could have
+conceived of human fortitude!"
+
+My poor Alethe, too,--in describing to me her conduct, the brave man wept
+like a child. Overwhelmed, he said, at first by her apprehensions for my
+safety, she had given way to a full burst of womanly weakness. But no
+sooner was she brought before the Tribunal, and the declaration of her
+faith was demanded of her, than a spirit almost supernatural seemed to
+animate her whole form. "She raised her eyes," said he, "calmly, but with
+fervour, to heaven, while a blush was the only sign of mortal feeling on
+her features;--and the clear, sweet, and untrembling voice, with which she
+pronounced her dooming words, 'I am a Christian!' sent a thrill of
+admiration and pity throughout the multitude. Her youth, her loveliness,
+affected all hearts, and a cry of 'Save the young maiden!' was heard in
+all directions."
+
+The implacable Orcus, however, would not hear of mercy. Resenting, as it
+appeared, with all his deadliest rancour, not only her own escape from his
+toils, but the aid with which, so fatally to his views, she had assisted
+mine, he demanded loudly, and in the name of the insulted sanctuary of
+Isis, her instant death. It was but by the firm intervention of the
+Governor, who shared the general sympathy in her fate, that the delay of
+another day was accorded, to give a chance to the young maiden of yet
+recalling her confession, and thus affording some pretext for saving her.
+
+Even in yielding reluctantly to this brief respite, the inhuman Priest
+would accompany it with some mark of his vengeance. Whether for the
+pleasure (observed the Tribune) of mingling mockery with his cruelty, or
+as a warning to her of the doom she must ultimately expect, he gave orders
+that there should be tied round her brow one of those chaplets of
+coral(10), with which it is the custom of young Christian maidens to array
+themselves on the day of their martyrdom;--"and, thus fearfully adorned,"
+said he, "she was led away, amid the gaze of the pitying multitude, to
+prison."
+
+With these details the short interval till night-fall,--every minute of
+which seemed an age,--was occupied. As soon as it grew dark, I was placed
+upon a litter,--my wound, though not dangerous, requiring such a
+conveyance,--and conducted, under the guidance of my friend, to the prison.
+Through his interest with the guard, we were without difficulty admitted,
+and I was borne into the chamber where the maiden lay immured. Even the
+veteran guardian of the place seemed touched with compassion for his
+prisoner, and supposing her to be asleep, had the litter placed gently
+near her.
+
+She was half reclining, with her face hid in her hands, upon a couch,--at
+the foot of which stood an idol, over whose hideous features a lamp of
+naptha, hanging from the ceiling, shed a wild and ghastly glare. On a
+table before the image stood a censer, with a small vessel of incense
+beside it,--one grain of which, thrown voluntarily into the flame, would,
+even now, save that precious life. So strange, so fearful was the whole
+scene, that I almost doubted its reality. Alethe! my own, happy Alethe!
+_can_ it, I thought, be thou that I look upon?
+
+She now, slowly and with difficulty, raised her head from the couch; on
+observing which, the kind Tribune withdrew, and we were left alone. There
+was a paleness, as of death, over her features; and those eyes, which when
+last I saw them, were but too bright, too happy for this world, looked dim
+and sunken. In raising herself up, she put her hand, as if from pain, to
+her forehead, whose marble hue but appeared more death-like from those red
+bands that lay so awfully across it.
+
+After wandering vaguely for a minute, her eyes rested upon me,--and, with a
+shriek, half terror, half joy, she sprung from the couch, and sunk upon
+her knees by my side. She had believed me dead; and, even now, scarcely
+trusted her senses. "My husband! my love!" she exclaimed; "oh, if thou
+comest to call me from this world, behold I am ready!" In saying thus, she
+pointed wildly to that ominous wreath, and then dropped her head down upon
+my knee, as if an arrow had pierced it.
+
+"Alethe!"--I cried, terrified to the very soul by that mysterious pang,--and
+the sound of my voice seemed to reanimate her;--she looked up, with a faint
+smile, in my face. Her thoughts, which had evidently been wandering,
+became collected; and in her joy at my safety, her sorrow at my suffering,
+she forgot wholly the fate that impended over herself. Love, innocent
+love, alone occupied all her thoughts; and the tenderness with which she
+spoke,--oh, at any other moment, how I would have listened, have lingered
+upon, have blessed every word!
+
+But the time flew fast--the dreadful morrow was approaching. Already I saw
+her writhing in the hands of the torturer,--the flames, the racks, the
+wheels were before my eyes! Half frantic with the fear that her resolution
+was fixed, I flung myself from the litter, in an agony of weeping, and
+supplicated her, by the love she bore me, by the happiness that awaited
+us, by her own merciful God, who was too good to require such a
+sacrifice,--by all that the most passionate anxiety could dictate, I
+implored that she would avert from us the doom that was coming, and--but
+for once--comply with the vain ceremony demanded of her.
+
+Shrinking from me, as I spoke,--but with a look more of sorrow than
+reproach,--"What, thou, too!" she said mournfully,--"thou, into whose spirit
+I had fondly hoped the same heavenly truth had descended as into my own!
+Oh, be not thou leagued with those who would tempt me to 'make shipwreck
+of my faith!' Thou, who couldst alone bind me to life, use not thy power;
+but let me die, as He I serve hath commanded,--die for the Truth. Remember
+the holy lessons we heard on those nights, those happy nights, when both
+the Present and Future smiled upon us,--when even the gift of eternal life
+came more welcome to my soul, from the blessed conviction that thou wert
+to be a sharer in it;--shall I forfeit now that divine privilege? shall I
+deny the true God, whom we then learned to love?
+
+"No, my own betrothed," she continued,--pointing to the two rings on her
+finger,--"behold these pledges,--they are both sacred. I should have been as
+true to thee as I am now to heaven,--nor in that life to which I am
+hastening shall our love be forgotten. Should the baptism of fire, through
+which I shall pass to-morrow, make me worthy to be heard before the Throne
+of Grace, I will intercede for thy soul--I will pray that it may yet share
+with mine that 'inheritance, immortal and undefiled,' which Mercy offers,
+and that thou,--my dear mother,--and I--"
+
+She here dropped her voice; the momentary animation, with which devotion
+and affection had inspired her, vanished;--and a darkness overspread all
+her features, a livid darkness,--like the coming of death--that made me
+shudder through every limb. Seizing my hand convulsively, and looking at
+me with a fearful eagerness, as if anxious to hear some consoling
+assurance from my own lips,--"Believe me," she continued, "not all the
+torments they are preparing for me,--not even this deep, burning pain in my
+brow, which they will hardly equal,--could be half so dreadful to me, as
+the thought that I leave thee--"
+
+Here, her voice again failed; her head sunk upon my arm, and--merciful God,
+let me forget what I then felt,--I saw that she was dying! Whether I
+uttered any cry, I know not;--but the Tribune came rushing into the
+chamber, and, looking on the maiden, said, with a face full of horror, "It
+is but too true!"
+
+He then told me in a low voice, what he had just learned from the guardian
+of the prison, that the band round the young Christian's brow was--oh
+horrible cruelty!--a compound of the most deadly poison,--the hellish
+invention of Orcus, to satiate his vengeance, and make the fate of his
+poor victim secure. My first movement was to untie that fatal wreath,--but
+it would not come away--it would not come away!
+
+Roused by the pain, she again looked in my face; but, unable to speak,
+took hastily from her bosom the small silver cross which she had brought
+with her from my cave. Having prest it to her own lips, she held it
+anxiously to mine, and seeing me kiss the holy symbol with fervour, looked
+happy, and smiled. The agony of death seemed to have passed away;--there
+came suddenly over her features a heavenly light, some share of which I
+felt descending into my own soul, and, in a few minutes more, she expired
+in my arms.
+
+                  -------------------------------------
+
+_Here ends the Manuscript; but, on the outer cover there is, in the hand-
+writing of a much later period, the following Notice, extracted, as it
+appears, from some Egyptian martyrology:--_
+
+"Alciphron,--an Epicurean philosopher, converted to Christianity A. D. 257,
+by a young Egyptian maiden, who suffered martyrdom in that year.
+Immediately upon her death he betook himself to the desert, and lived a
+life, it is said, of much holiness and penitence. During the persecution
+under Dioclesian, his sufferings for the faith were most exemplary; and,
+being at length, at an advanced age, condemned to hard labour, for
+refusing to comply with an Imperial edict, he died at the brass mines of
+Palestine, A. D. 297.--
+
+"As Alciphron held the opinions maintained since by Arius, his memory has
+not been spared by Athanasian writers, who, among other charges, accuse
+him of having been addicted to the superstitions of Egypt. For this
+calumny, however, there appears to be no better foundation than a
+circumstance, recorded by one of his brother monks, that there was found,
+after his death, a small metal mirror, like those used in the ceremonies
+of Isis, suspended round his neck."
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                                  NOTES.
+
+
+Page 17.--For the importance attached to dreams by the ancients, see
+_Jortin_, Remarks on Ecclesiastical History, vol. 1. p. 90.
+
+
+Page 22.--"_The Pillar of Pillars_"--more properly, perhaps, "the column of
+the pillars." v. _Abdallatif_, Relation de l'Egypte, and the notes of _M.
+de Sacy_. The great portico round this column (formerly designated
+Pompey's, but now known to have been erected in honour of Dioclesian) was
+still standing, M. de Sacy says, in the time of Saladin. v. _Lord
+Valentia's Travels_.
+
+
+Page 23.--Ammianus thus speaks of the state of Alexandria in his time,
+which was, I believe, as late as the end of the fourth century:--"Ne nunc
+quidem in eadem urbe Doctrinae variae silent, non apud nos exaruit Musica
+nec Harmonia conticuit." Lib. 22.
+
+
+Page 25.--From the character of the features of the Sphinx, and a passage
+in Herodotus, describing the Egyptians as _{~GREEK SMALL LETTER MU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER EPSILON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER LAMDA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER GAMMA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER CHI~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER RHO~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER EPSILON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER FINAL SIGMA~} {~GREEK SMALL LETTER KAPPA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA~} {~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER UPSILON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER LAMDA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER TAU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER RHO~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER KAPPA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER EPSILON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER FINAL SIGMA~}_,
+Volney, Bruce, and a few others, have concluded that the ancient
+inhabitants of Egypt were negroes. But this opinion is contradicted by a
+host of authorities. See _Castera_'s notes upon _Browne's Travels_, for
+the result of Blumenbach's dissection of a variety of mummies. Denon,
+speaking of the character of the heads represented in the ancient
+sculpture and painting of Egypt, says, "Celle des femmes ressemble encore
+a la figure des jolies femmes d'aujourd'hui: de la rondeur, de la volupte,
+le nez petit, les yeux longs, peu ouverts," &c. &c. He could judge, too,
+he says, from the female mummies, "que leurs cheveux etoient longs et
+lisses, que le caractere de tete de la plupart tenoit du beau style"--"Je
+raportai," he adds, "une tete de vieille femme qui etoit aussi belle que
+celles de Michel Ange, et leur ressembloit beaucoup."
+
+In a "_Description generale de Thebes_" by _Messrs. Jollois et
+Desvilliers_, they say, "Toutes les sculptures Egyptiennes, depuis les
+plus grands colosses de Thebes jusqu'aux plus petites idoles, ne
+rappellent en aucune maniere les traits de la figure des negres; outre que
+les tetes des momies des catacombs de Thebes presentent des profils
+droits." See also _M. Jomard_'s "Description of Syene and the Cataracts,"
+_Baron Larrey_, on the "conformation physique" of the Egyptians, &c.
+
+De Pauw, the great depreciator of every thing Egyptian, has, on the
+authority of a passage in AElian, presumed to affix to the countrywomen of
+Cleopatra the stigma of complete and unredeemed ugliness. The following
+line of Euripides, however, is an answer to such charges:--
+
+  _{~GREEK CAPITAL LETTER NU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER EPSILON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER LAMDA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER UPSILON~} {~GREEK SMALL LETTER MU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER EPSILON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER NU~} {~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA WITH DASIA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER DELTA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER EPSILON~} {~GREEK SMALL LETTER KAPPA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER LAMDA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER LAMDA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER PI~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER RHO~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER THETA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER EPSILON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER NU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA~} {~GREEK SMALL LETTER RHO~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA~}._
+
+In addition to the celebrated instances of Cleopatra, Rhodope, &c. we are
+told, on the authority of Manetho (as given by Zoega from Georgius
+Syncellus), of a beautiful queen of Memphis, Nitocris, of the sixth
+dynasty, who, in addition to other charms and perfections, was (rather
+inconsistently with the negro hypothesis) _{~GREEK SMALL LETTER XI~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER NU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER THETA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ETA~} {~GREEK SMALL LETTER TAU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ETA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER NU~} {~GREEK SMALL LETTER CHI~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER RHO~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER NU~}_.
+
+See, for a tribute to the beauty of the Egyptian women, Montesquieu's
+Temple de Gnide.
+
+
+Page 35.--"_Among beds of lotus flowers._"--v. _Strabo_.
+
+
+Page 36.--"_Isle of the golden Venus._"--"On trouve une ile appelee Venus-
+Doree, ou le champ d'or, avant de remonter jusqu'a Memphis." _Voyages de
+Pythagore._
+
+
+Page 39.--For an account of the Table of Emerald, v. _Lettres sur l'Origine
+des Dieux d'Egypte_. _De Pauw_ supposes it to be a modern fiction of the
+Arabs. Many writers have fancied that the art of making gold was the great
+secret that lay hid under the forms of Egyptian theology. "La science
+Hermetique," says the Benedictine, Pernetz, "l'art sacerdotal etoit la
+source de toutes les richesses des Rois d'Egypte, et l'objet de ces
+mysteres si caches sous le voile du leur pretendu Religion." _Fables
+Egyptiennes._ The hieroglyphs, that formerly covered the Pyramids, are
+supposed by some of these writers to relate to the same art. See _Mutus
+liber, Rupellae_.
+
+
+Page 40.--"By reflecting the sun's rays," says _Clarke_, speaking of the
+Pyramids, "they appeared white as snow."
+
+
+Page 41.--For Bubastis, the Diana of the Egyptians, v. _Jablonski_, lib. 3.
+c. 4.
+
+
+Page 43.--"_The light coracle_," _&c._--v. _Amuilhon_, "_Histoire de la
+Navigation et du Commerce des Egyptiens sous les Ptolemees_." See also,
+for a description of the various kinds of boats used on the Nile,
+_Maillet_, tom. i. p. 98.
+
+
+Page 44.--v. _Maurice_, Appendix to "Ruins of Babylon." Another reason, he
+says, for their worship of the Ibis, "founded on their love of geometry,
+was (according to Plutarch) that the space between its legs, when parted
+asunder, as it walks, together with its beak, forms a complete equilateral
+triangle." From the examination of the embalmed birds, found in the
+Catacombs of Saccara, there seems to be no doubt that the Ibis was the
+same kind of bird as that described by Bruce, under the Arabian name of
+Abou Hannes.
+
+
+Ib.--"_The sistrum_," _&c._--"Isis est genius," says _Servius_, "AEgypti, qui
+per sistri motum, quod gerit in dextra, Nili accessus recessusque
+significat."
+
+
+Page 48.--"_The ivy encircled it_," _&c._--The ivy was consecrated to
+Osiris. v. _Diodor. Sic._ 1. 10.
+
+
+Ib.--"_The small mirror._"--"Quelques unes," says _Dupuis_, describing the
+processions of Isis, "portoient des miroirs attaches a leurs epaules, afin
+de multiplier et de porter dans tous les sens les images de la Deesse."
+_Origine des Cultes_, tom. 8. p. 847. A mirror, it appears, was also one
+of the emblems in the mysteries of Bacchus.
+
+
+Page 49.--"_There__ is, to the north of Memphis_," _&c._--"Tout prouve que
+la territoire de Sakkarah etoit la Necropolis au sud de Memphis, et le
+faubourg oppose a celui-ci, ou sont les pyramides de Gizeh, une autre
+Ville des Morts, qui terminoit Memphis au nord." _Denon._
+
+There is nothing known with certainty as to the site of Memphis, but it
+will be perceived that the description of its position given by the
+Epicurean corresponds, in almost every particular, with that which M.
+Maillet (the French consul, for many years, at Cairo) has left us. It must
+be always borne in mind, too, that of the distances between the respective
+places here mentioned, we have no longer any accurate means of judging.
+
+
+Page 49.--"_Pyramid beyond pyramid._"--"Multas olim pyramidas fuisse e
+ruinis arguitur." _Zoega._--_Vansleb_, who visited more than ten of the
+small pyramids, is of opinion that there must have originally been a
+hundred in this place.
+
+See, for the lake to the northward of Memphis, _Shaw's Travels_, p. 302.
+
+
+Page 57.--"_The Theban beetle._"--"On voit en Egypte, apres la retraite du
+Nil et la fecondation des terres, le limon couvert d'une multitude de
+scarabees. Un pareil phenomene a du sembler aux Egyptiens le plus propre a
+peindre une nouvelle existence." _M. Jomard._--Partly for the same reason,
+and partly for another, still more fanciful, the early Christians used to
+apply this emblem to Christ. "Bonus ille scarabaeus meus," says St.
+Augustine "non ea tantum de causa quod unigenitus, quod ipsemet sui auctor
+mortalium speciem induerit, sed quod in hac nostra faece sese volutaverit
+et ex hac ipsa nasci voluerit."
+
+
+Ib.--"_Enshrined within a case of crystal._"--"Les Egyptiens ont fait aussi,
+pour conserver leurs morts, des caisses de verre." _De Pauw._--He mentions,
+in another place, a sort of transparent substance, which the Ethiopians
+used for the same purpose, and which was frequently mistaken by the Greeks
+for glass.
+
+
+Page 58.--"_Among the emblems of death._"--"Un pretre, qui brise la tige
+d'une fleur, des oiseaux qui s'envolent sont les emblemes de la morte et
+de l'ame qui se separe du corps." _Denon._
+
+Theseus employs the same image in the Phaedra:--
+
+  _{~GREEK CAPITAL LETTER OMICRON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER RHO~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER NU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER FINAL SIGMA~} {~GREEK SMALL LETTER GAMMA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER RHO~} {~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMEGA WITH DASIA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER FINAL SIGMA~} {~GREEK SMALL LETTER TAU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER FINAL SIGMA~} {~GREEK SMALL LETTER EPSILON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER KAPPA~} {~GREEK SMALL LETTER CHI~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER EPSILON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER RHO~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMEGA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER NU~} {~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER PHI~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER NU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER TAU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER FINAL SIGMA~} {~GREEK SMALL LETTER EPSILON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA~}_
+  _{~GREEK CAPITAL LETTER PI~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ETA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER DELTA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ETA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER MU~}' {~GREEK SMALL LETTER EPSILON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER FINAL SIGMA~} {~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA WITH DASIA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER DELTA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER UPSILON~} {~GREEK SMALL LETTER PI~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER KAPPA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER RHO~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER NU~} {~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON WITH DASIA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER RHO~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER MU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ETA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER SIGMA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER SIGMA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA~} {~GREEK SMALL LETTER MU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA~}._
+
+
+Page 59.--"The singular appearance of a Cross so frequently recurring among
+the hieroglyphics of Egypt, had excited the curiosity of the Christians at
+a very early period of ecclesiastical history; and as some of the Priests,
+who were acquainted with the meaning of the hieroglyphics, became
+converted to Christianity the secret transpired. 'The converted heathens,'
+says Socrates Scholasticus, 'explained the symbol, and declared that it
+signified Life to Come.'" _Clarke._
+
+Lipsius, therefore, erroneously supposes the Cross to have been an emblem
+peculiar to the Christians. See, on this subject, _L'Histoire des Juifs_,
+liv. 9. c. 16.
+
+It is singular enough that while the Cross was held sacred among the
+Egyptians, not only the custom of marking the forehead with the sign of
+the Cross, but Baptism and the consecration of the bread in the Eucharist
+were imitated in the mysterious ceremonies of Mithra. _Tertull. de
+Proscriptione Hereticorum._
+
+Zoega is of opinion that the Cross found (for the first time, it is said)
+on the destruction of the temple of Serapis, by the Christians, could have
+not been the crux ansata; as nothing is more common than this emblem on
+all the Egyptian monuments.
+
+
+Page 62.--"_Stood shadowless._"--It was an idea entertained among the
+ancients that the Pyramids were so constructed ("mecanica constructione,"
+says _Ammianus Marcellinus_) as never to cast any shadow.
+
+
+Page 64.--"_Rhodope._"--From the story of Rhodope, Zoega thinks, "videntur
+Arabes ansam arripuisse ut in una ex pyramidibus, genii loco, habitare
+dicerent mulierem nudam insignis pulchritudinis quae aspectu suo homines
+insanire faciat." _De Usu Obeliscorum._ See also _L'Egypte de Murtadi par
+Vattier_.
+
+
+Page 66.--"_The Gates of Oblivion._"--"Apud Memphim aeneas quasdam portas,
+quae Lethes et Cocyti (hoc est oblivionis et lamentationis) appellenter
+aperiri, gravem asperumque edentes sonum." _Zoega._
+
+
+Page 69.--"_A pile of lifeless bodies._"--See, for the custom of burying the
+dead upright ("post funus stantia busto corpora," as Statius describes
+it), Dr. Clarke's preface to the 2d section of his fifth volume. They used
+to insert precious stones in the place of the eyes. "Les yeux etoient
+formes d'emeraudes, de turquoises," &c.--v. _Masoudy_, quoted by
+_Quatremere_.
+
+
+Page 72.--"_It seemed as if every echo._"--See, for the echoes in the
+pyramids, _Plutarch, de Placitis Philosoph._
+
+
+Page 74.--"_Pale phantom-like shapes._"--"Ce moment heureux (de l'Autopsie)
+etoit prepare par des scenes effrayantes, par des alternatives de crainte
+et de joie, de lumiere et des tenebres, par la lueur des eclairs, par le
+bruit terrible de la foudre, qu'on imitoit, et par des apparitions de
+spectres, des illusions magiques, qui frappoient les yeux et les oreilles
+tout ensemble." _Dupuis._
+
+
+Page 77.--"_Serpents of fire._"--"Ces considerations me portent a penser
+que, dans les mysteres, ces phenomenes etoient beaucoup mieux executees et
+sans comparison plus terribles a l'aide de quelque composition pyrique,
+qui est restee cachee, comme celle du feu Gregeois." _De Pauw._
+
+
+Page 78.--"_The burning of the reed-beds of Ethiopia._"--"Il n'y a point
+d'autre moyen que de porter le feu dans ces forets de roseaux, qui
+repandent alors dans tout le pais une lumiere aussi considerable que celle
+du jour meme." _Maillet_, tom. 1. p. 63.
+
+
+Page 79.--"_The sound of torrents._"--The Nile, _Pliny_ tells us, was
+admitted into the Pyramid.
+
+
+Page 81.--"_I had almost given myself up._"--"On exercoit," says _Dupuis_,
+"les recipiendaires, pendant plusieurs jours, a traverser, a la nage, une
+grande etendue d'eau. On les y jettoit et ce n'etoit que avec peine qu'
+ils s'en retiroient. On appliquoit le fer et le feu sur leurs membres. On
+les faisoit passer a travers les flammes."
+
+The aspirants were often in considerable danger, and Pythagoras, we are
+told, nearly lost his life in the trials. v. _Recherches sur les
+Initiations, par Robin_.
+
+
+Page 90.--For the two cups used in the mysteries, see _L'Histoire des
+Juifs_, liv. 9. c. 16.
+
+
+Ib.--"_Osiris._"--Osiris, under the name of Serapis, was supposed to rule
+over the subterranean world; and performed the office of Pluto, in the
+mythology of the Egyptians. "They believed," says Dr. Pritchard, "that
+Serapis presided over the region of departed souls, during the period of
+their absence, when languishing without bodies, and that the dead were
+deposited in his palace." _Analysis of the Egyptian Mythology._
+
+
+Ib.--"_To cool the lips of the dead._"--"Frigidam illam aquam post mortem,
+tanquam Hebes poculum, expetitam." _Zoega._--The Lethe of the Egyptians was
+called Ameles. See _Dupuis_, tom. 8. p. 651.
+
+
+Page 90.--"_A draught divine._"--_Diodor. Sicul._
+
+
+Page 93.--"_Grasshopper, symbol of initiation._"--_Hor. Apoll._--The
+grasshopper was also consecrated to the sun as being musical.
+
+
+Page 94.--"_Isle of gardens._"--The isle Antirrhodus near Alexandria.
+_Maillet._
+
+
+Ib.--"_Vineyard at Anthylla._"--See _Athen. Deipnos._
+
+
+Page 97.--"_We can see those stars._"--"On voyoit en plein jour par ces
+ouvertures les etoiles, et meme quelques planetes en leur plus grande
+latitude septentrionale; et les pretres avoient bientot profite de ce
+phenomene pour observer a diverses heures la passage des etoiles."
+_Sethos._--_Strabo_ mentions certain caves or pits, constructed for the
+purpose of astronomical observations, which lay in the Zelopolitan
+prefecture, beyond Heliopolis.
+
+
+Page 98.--"_A plantain._"--This tree was dedicated to the Genii of the
+Shades, from its being an emblem of repose and cooling airs. "Cui imminet
+musae folium, quod ab Iside infera geniisque ei addictis manu geri solitum,
+umbram requiemque et auras frigidas subindigitare videtur." _Zoega._
+
+
+Page 107.--"_He spoke of the preexistence of the soul_," _&c._--For a full
+account of the doctrines which are here represented as having been taught
+to the initiated in the Egyptian mysteries, the reader may consult
+_Dupuis_, _Pritchard's Analysis of the Egyptian Mythology_, &c. &c. "L'on
+decouvroit l'origine de l'ame, sa chute sur la terre, a travers les
+spheres et les elemens, et son retour au lieu de sa origine ... c'etoit
+ici la partie la plus metaphysique, et que ne pourroit guere entendre le
+commun des Inities, mais dont on lui donnoit le spectacle par des figures
+et des spectres allegoriques." _Dupuis._
+
+
+Page 108.--"_Those fields of radiance._"--See _Beausobre_, liv. 3. c. 4. for
+the "terre bienheureuse et lumineuse" which the Manicheans supposed God to
+inhabit. Plato, too, speaks (in Phaed.) of a "pure land lying in the pure
+sky (_{~GREEK SMALL LETTER TAU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ETA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER NU~} {~GREEK SMALL LETTER GAMMA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ETA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER NU~} {~GREEK SMALL LETTER KAPPA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER THETA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER RHO~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER NU~} {~GREEK SMALL LETTER EPSILON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER NU~} {~GREEK SMALL LETTER KAPPA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER THETA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER RHO~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMEGA~} {~GREEK SMALL LETTER KAPPA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER EPSILON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER SIGMA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER THETA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA~} {~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER UPSILON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER RHO~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER NU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMEGA~}_), the abode of divinity,
+of innocence, and of life."
+
+
+Page 110.--"_Tracing it from the first moment of earthward desire._"--In the
+original construction of this work, there was an episode introduced here,
+(which I have since published in another form,) illustrating the doctrine
+of the fall of the soul by the Oriental fable of the Loves of the Angels.
+
+
+Page 111.--"_Restoring her lost wings._"--_Damascius_ in his Life of
+Isidorus, says, "Ex antiquissimis Philosophis Pythagoram et Platonem
+Isidorus ut Deos coluit, et _eorum animas alatas esse_ dixit quas in locum
+supercoelestem inque campum veritatis et pratum elevatas, divinis putavit
+ideis pasci." _Apud Phot. Bibliothec._
+
+
+Page 112.--"_A pale, moonlike meteor._"--_Apuleius_, in describing the
+miraculous appearances exhibited in the mysteries, says, "Nocte media vidi
+solem candido coruscantem lumine." _Metamorphos._ lib. 11.
+
+
+Page 113.--"_So entirely did the illusion of the scene_," _&c._--In tracing
+the early connection of spectacles with the ceremonies of religion,
+Voltaire says, "Il y a bien plus; les veritables grandes tragedies, les
+representations imposantes et terribles, etoient les mysteres sacres,
+qu'on celebroit dans les plus vastes temples du monde, en presence des
+seuls Inities; c'etoit la que les habits, les decorations, les machines
+etoient propres au sujet; et le sujet etoit la vie presente et la vie
+future." _Des divers changemens arrives a l'art tragique._
+
+To these scenic representations in the Egyptian mysteries, there is
+evidently an allusion in the vision of Ezekiel, where the spirit shows him
+the abominations which the Israelites learned in Egypt:--"Then said he unto
+me, 'Son of man, hast thou seen what the ancients of the house of Israel
+do in the dark, every man in _the chambers of his imagery_.'" Chap. 8.
+
+
+Page 118.--"_The seven tables of stone._"--"Bernard, Comte de la Marche
+Trevisane, instruit par la lecture des livres anciens, dit qu' Hermes
+trouva sept tables dans la vallee d'Hebron, sur lesquelles etoient graves
+les principes des arts liberaux." _Fables Egyptiennes._ See _Jablonski de
+stelis Herm._
+
+
+Page 119.--"_Beside the goat of Mendes._"--For an account of the animal
+worship of the Egyptians, see _De Pauw_, tom. 2.
+
+
+Ib.--"_The Isiac serpents._"--"On auguroit bien des serpens Isiaques,
+lorsqu'ils goutoient l'offrande et se trainoient lentement autour de
+l'autel." _De Pauw._
+
+
+Page 121.--"_Hence the festivals and hymns_," _&c._--For an account of the
+various festivals at the different periods of the sun's progress, in the
+spring, and in the autumn, see _Dupuis_ and _Pritchard_.
+
+
+Ib.--"_The mysteries of the night._"--v. _Athenag. Leg. pro Christ._ p. 133.
+
+
+Page 125.--"_A peal like that of thunder._"--See, for some curious remarks
+on the mode of imitating thunder and lightning in the ancient mysteries,
+_De Pauw_, tom. 1. p. 323. The machine with which these effects were
+produced on the stage was called a ceraunoscope.
+
+
+Page 131.--"_Windings, capriciously intricate._"--In addition to the
+accounts which the ancients have left us of the prodigious excavations in
+all parts of Egypt,--the fifteen hundred chambers under the Labyrinth--the
+subterranean stables of the Thebaid, containing a thousand horses--the
+crypts of Upper Egypt passing under the bed of the Nile, &c. &c.--the
+stories and traditions current among the Arabs still preserve the memory
+of those wonderful substructions. "Un Arabe," says Paul Lucas, "qui etoit
+avec nous, m'assura qu'etant entre autrefois dans le Labyrinthe, il avoit
+marche dans les chambres souterraines jusqu'en un lieu ou il y avoit une
+grande place environnee de plusieurs niches qui ressembloit a de petites
+boutiques, d'ou l'on entroit dans d'autres allees et dans des chambres,
+sans pouvoir en trouver la fin." In speaking, too, of the arcades along
+the Nile, near Cosseir, "Ils me dirent meme que ces souterrains etoient si
+profondes qu'il y en avoient qui alloient a trois journees de la, et
+qu'ils conduisoient dans un pays ou l'on voyoit de beaux jardins, qu'on y
+trouvoit de belles maisons," &c. &c.
+
+See also in _M. Quatremere's Memoires sur l'Egypte_, tom. 1. p. 142., an
+account of a subterranean reservoir, said to have been discovered at Kais,
+and of the expedition undertaken by a party of persons, in a long narrow
+boat, for the purpose of exploring it. "Leur voyage avoit ete de six
+jours, dont les quatre premiers furent employes a penetrer les bords; les
+deux autres a revenir au lieu d'ou ils etoient partis: Pendant tout cet
+intervalle ils ne purent atteindre l'extremite du bassin. L'emir Ala-
+eddin-Tamboga, gouverneur de Behnesa, ecrivit ces details au sultan, qui
+en fut extremement surpris."
+
+
+Page 136.--"_A small island in the centre of Lake Moeris._"--The position
+here given to Lake Moeris, in making it the immediate boundary of the city
+of Memphis to the south, corresponds exactly with the site assigned to it
+by Maillet:--"Memphis avoit encore a son midi un vaste reservoir, par ou
+tout ce qui peut servir a la commodite et a l'agrement de la vie lui etoit
+voiture abondamment de toutes les parties de l'Egypte. Ce lac qui la
+terminoit de ce cote-la," &c. &c. Tom. 2. p. 7.
+
+
+Ib.--"_Ruins rising blackly above the wave._"--"On voit sur la rive
+orientale des antiquites qui sont presque entierement sous les eaux."
+_Belzoni._
+
+
+Page 137.--"_Its thundering portals._"--"Quorundam autem domorum (in
+Labyrintho) talis est situs, ut adaperientibus foris tonitru intus
+terribile existat." _Pliny._
+
+
+Page 138.--"_Leaves that serve as cups._"--_Strabo._ According to the French
+translator of Strabo, it was the fruit of the _faba AEgyptiaca_, not the
+leaf, that was used for this purpose. "Le _{~GREEK SMALL LETTER KAPPA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER BETA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMEGA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER RHO~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER NU~}_," he says, "devoit
+s'entendre de la capsule ou fruit de cette plante, dont les Egyptiens se
+servoient comme d'un vase, imaginant que l'eau du Nil y devenoit
+delicieuse."
+
+
+Page 142.--"_The fish of these waters_," _&c._--_AElian_, lib. 6. 32.
+
+
+Ib.--"_Pleasure boats or yachts._"--Called Thalamages, from the pavilion on
+the deck. v. _Strabo_.
+
+
+Page 144.--"_Covered with beds of those pale, sweet roses._"--As April is
+the season for gathering these roses (See _Malte-brun's Economical
+Calendar_), the Epicurean could not, of course, mean to say that he saw
+them actually in flower.
+
+
+Page 146.--"_The lizards upon the bank._"--"L'or et l'azur brillent en
+bandes longitudinales sur leur corps entier, et leur queue est du plus
+beau bleu celeste." _Sonnini._
+
+
+Page 147.--"_The canal through which we now sailed._"--"Un canal," says
+_Maillet_, "tres profond et tres large y voituroit les eaux du Nil."
+
+
+Page 150.--"_For a draught of whose flood_," _&c._--"Anciennement on portoit
+les eaux du Nil jusqu'au des contrees fort eloignees, et surtout chez les
+princesses du sang des Ptolomees, mariees dans des families etrangeres."
+_De Pauw._
+
+
+Page 154.--"_Bearing each the name of its owner._"--"Le nom du maitre y
+etoit ecrit, pendant la nuit en lettres de feu." _Maillet._
+
+
+Page 155.--"_Cups of that frail crystal_"--called Alassontes. For their
+brittleness _Martial_ is an authority:--
+
+  Tolle, puer, calices, tepidique toreumata Nili,
+  Et mihi secura pocula trade manu.
+
+
+Ib.--"_Bracelets of the black beans of Abyssinia._"--The bean of the
+Glycyne, which is so beautiful as to be strung into necklaces and
+bracelets, is generally known by the name of the black bean of Abyssinia.
+_Niebhur._
+
+
+Ib.--"_Sweet lotus-wood flute._"--See _M. Villoteau on the musical
+instruments of the Egyptians_.
+
+
+Page 156.--"_Shine like the brow of Mount Atlas at night._"--_Solinus_
+speaks of the snowy summit of Mount Atlas glittering with flames at night.
+In the account of the Periplus of Hanno, as well as in that of Eudoxus, we
+read that as those navigators were coasting this part of Africa, torrents
+of light were seen to fall on the sea.
+
+
+Page 158.--"_The tears of Isis._"--"Per lacrymas, vero, Isidis intelligo
+effluvia quaedam Lunae, quibus tantam vim videntur tribuisse AEgypti."
+_Jablonski._--He is of opinion that the superstition of the _Nucta_, or
+miraculous drop, is of a relic of the veneration paid to the dews, as the
+tears of Isis.
+
+
+Page 158.--"_The rustling of the acacias_," _&c._--_Travels of Captain
+Mangles._
+
+
+Ib.--"_Supposed to rest in the valley of the moon._"--_Plutarch._ _Dupuis_,
+tom. 10. The Manicheans held the same belief. See _Beausobre_, p. 565.
+
+
+Page 160.--"_Sothis, the fair star of the waters._"--_{~GREEK SMALL LETTER UPSILON WITH DASIA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER DELTA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER RHO~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER GAMMA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMEGA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER GAMMA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER NU~}_ is the
+epithet applied to this star by _Plutarch_, _de Isid._
+
+
+Ib.--"_Was its birth-star._"--_{~GREEK CAPITAL LETTER ETA WITH DASIA~} {~GREEK CAPITAL LETTER SIGMA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMEGA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER THETA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER EPSILON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMEGA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER FINAL SIGMA~} {~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER NU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER TAU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER LAMDA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ETA~} {~GREEK SMALL LETTER GAMMA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER EPSILON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER NU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER EPSILON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER SIGMA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER EPSILON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMEGA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER FINAL SIGMA~} {~GREEK SMALL LETTER KAPPA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER TAU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER RHO~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER CHI~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER UPSILON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER SIGMA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA~} {~GREEK SMALL LETTER TAU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ETA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER FINAL SIGMA~} {~GREEK SMALL LETTER EPSILON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER FINAL SIGMA~}
+{~GREEK SMALL LETTER TAU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER NU~} {~GREEK SMALL LETTER KAPPA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER SIGMA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER MU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER NU~}_. _Porphyr. de Antro Nymph._
+
+
+Page 168.--"_Golden Mountains._"--v. _Wilford on Egypt and the Nile_,
+Asiatic Researches.
+
+
+Ib.--"_Sweet-smelling wood._"--"'A l'epoque de la crue le Nil Vert charie
+les planches d'un bois qui a une odeur semblable a celle de l'encens."
+_Quatremere._
+
+
+Page 169.--"_Barges full of bees._"--_Maillet._
+
+
+Page 170.--"_Such a profusion of the white flowers_," _&c._--"On les voit
+comme jadis cueillir dans les champs des tiges du lotus, signes du
+debordement et presages de l'abondance; ils s'enveloppent les bras et le
+corps avec les longues tiges fleuries, et parcourent les rues," &c.
+_Description des Tombeaux des Rois, par M. Costaz._
+
+
+Page 173.--"_While composing his commentary on the scriptures._"--It was
+during the composition of his great critical work, the Hexapla, that
+Origen employed these female scribes.
+
+
+Page 176.--"_That rich tapestry_," _&c._
+
+  Non ego praetulerim Babylonica picta superbe
+  Texta, Semiramia quae variantur acu.
+
+                                                                _Martial._
+
+
+Page 200.--"_The Place of Weeping._"--v. _Wilford_, _Asiatic Researches_,
+vol. 3. p. 340.
+
+
+Page 210.--"_We had long since left this mountain behind._"--The voyages on
+the Nile are, under favourable circumstances, performed with considerable
+rapidity. "En cinq ou six jours," says _Maillet_, "on pourroit aisement
+remonter de l'embouchure du Nil a ses cataractes, ou descendre des
+cataractes jusqu'a la mer." The great uncertainty of the navigation is
+proved by what _Belzoni_ tells us:--"Nous ne mimes cette fois que deux
+jours et demi pour faire le trajet du Caire a Melawi, auquel, dans notre
+second voyage, nous avions employes dix-huit jours."
+
+
+Page 212.--"_Those mighty statues, that fling their shadows._"--"Elles out
+pres de vingt metres (61 pieds) d'elevation; et au lever du soleil, leurs
+ombres immenses s'etendent au loin sur la chaine Libyen." _Description
+generale de Thebes, par Messrs. Jollois et Desvilliers._
+
+
+Ib.--"_Those cool alcoves._"--_Paul Lucas._
+
+
+Page 219.--"_Whose waters are half sweet, half bitter._"--_Paul Lucas._
+
+
+Page 224.--"_The Mountain of the Birds._"--There has been much controversy
+among the Arabian writers, with respect to the site of this mountain, for
+which see _Quatremere_, tom. 1. art. _Amoun_.
+
+
+Page 230.--"_The hand of labour had succeeded_," _&c._--The monks of Mount
+Sinai (_Shaw_ says) have covered over near four acres of the naked rocks
+with fruitful gardens and orchards.
+
+
+Page 233.--"_The image of a head._"--There was usually, Tertullian tells us,
+the image of Christ on the communion-cups.
+
+
+Ib.--"_Kissed her forehead._"--"We are rather disposed to infer," says the
+present Bishop of Lincoln, in his very sensible work on Tertullian, "that,
+at the conclusion of all their meetings for the purpose of devotion, the
+early Christians were accustomed to give the kiss of peace, in token of
+the brotherly love subsisting between them."
+
+
+Page 237.--"_In the middle of the seven valleys._"--See Macrizy's account of
+these valleys, given by Quatremere, tom. 1. p. 450.
+
+
+Ib.--"_Red lakes of Nitria._"--For a striking description of this region,
+see "_Rameses_,"--a work which, though, in general, too technical and
+elaborate, shows, in many passages, to what picturesque effects the
+scenery and mythology of Egypt may be made subservient.
+
+
+Page 238.--"_In the neighbourhood of Antinoe._"--From the position assigned
+to Antinoe in this work, we should conclude that it extended much farther
+to the north, than these few ruins of it that remain would seem to
+indicate; so as to render the distance between the city and the Mountain
+of the Birds considerably less than what it appears to be at present.
+
+
+Page 243.--"_When Isis, the pure star of lovers._"--v. _Plutarch de Isid._
+
+
+Ib.--"_Ere she again embrace her bridegroom sun._"--"Conjunctio solis cum
+luna, quod est veluti utriusque connubium." _Jablonski._
+
+
+Page 247.--"_Of his walks a lion is the companion._"--M. Chateaubriand has
+introduced Paul and his lion into the "_Martyrs_," liv. 11.
+
+
+Page 235.--"_Come thus secretly before day-break._"--It was among the
+accusations of Celsus against the Christians, that they held their
+assemblies privately and contrary to law; and one of the speakers in the
+curious work of Minucius Felix calls the Christians "latebrosa et
+lucifugax natio."
+
+
+Page 256.--"_A swallow_," _&c._--"Je vis dans le desert des hirondelles d'un
+gris clair comme le sable sur lequel elles volent."--_Denon._
+
+
+Page 257.--"_The comet that once desolated this world._"--In alluding to
+Whiston's idea of a comet having caused the deluge, _M. Girard_, having
+remarked that the word Typhon means a deluge, adds, "On ne peut entendre
+par le tems du regne de Typhon que celui pendant lequel le deluge inonda
+la terre, tems pendant lequel on dut observer la comete qui l'occasionna,
+et dont l'apparition fut, non seulement pour les peuples de l'Egypte, et
+de l'Ethiopie, mais encore pour tous les peuples le presage funeste de
+leur destruction presque totale." _Description de la Vallee de
+l'E'garement._
+
+
+Page 259.--"_In which the spirit of my dream_," _&c._--"Many people," said
+_Origen_, "have been brought over to Christianity by the Spirit of God
+giving a sudden turn to their minds, and offering visions to them either
+by day or night." On this _Jortin_ remarks:--"Why should it be thought
+improbable that Pagans of good dispositions, but not free from prejudices,
+should have been called by divine admonitions, by dreams or visions, which
+might be a support to Christianity in those days of distress."
+
+
+Page 263.--"_One of those earthen cups._"--_Palladius_, who lived some time
+in Egypt, describes the monk Ptolemaeus, who inhabited the desert of Scete,
+as collecting in earthen cups the abundant dew from the
+rocks.--_Bibliothec. Pat._ tom. 13.
+
+
+Page 264.--"_It was to preserve, he said_," _&c._--The brief sketch here
+given of the Jewish dispensation agrees very much with the view taken of
+it by Dr. Sumner, the present Bishop of Llandaff, in the first chapters of
+his eloquent and luminous work, the "Records of the Creation."
+
+
+Page 266.--"_In vain did I seek the promise of immortality._"--"It is
+impossible to deny," says the Bishop of Llandaff, "that the sanctions of
+the Mosaic Law are altogether temporal.... It is, indeed, one of the facts
+that can only be explained by acknowledging that he really acted under a
+divine commission, promulgating a temporary law for a peculiar purpose,"--a
+much more candid and sensible way of treating this very difficult point,
+than by either endeavouring, like Warburton, to escape from it into a
+paradox, or still worse, contriving, like Dr. Graves, to increase its
+difficulty by explanation. v. "_On the Pentateuch_." See also _Horne's
+Introduction_, _&c._ vol. I. p. 226.
+
+
+Page 268.--"_All are of the dust_," _&c._--While Voltaire, Volney, &c. refer
+to the Ecclesiastes, as abounding with tenets of materialism and
+Epicurism, Mr. Des Voeux and others find in it strong proofs of belief in
+a future state. The chief difficulty lies in the chapter from which this
+text is quoted; and the mode of construction by which some writers attempt
+to get rid of it,--namely, by putting these texts into the mouth of a
+foolish reasoner,--appears forced and gratuitous. v. _Dr. Hales's
+Analysis_.
+
+
+Page 270.--"_The noblest and first-created_," _&c._--This opinion of the
+Hermit may be supposed to have been derived from his master, Origen; but
+it is not easy to ascertain the exact doctrine of Origen on this subject.
+In the Treatise on Prayer attributed to him, he asserts that God the
+Father alone should be invoked,--which, says Bayle, is "encherir sur les
+Heresies des Sociniens." Notwithstanding this, however, and some other
+indications of, what was afterwards called, Arianism, (such as the opinion
+of the divinity being received by _communication_, which _Milner_ asserts
+to have been held by this Father,) Origen was one of the authorities
+quoted by Athanasius in support of his high doctrines of co-eternity and
+co-essentiality. What Priestley says is, perhaps, the best solution of
+these inconsistencies;--"Origen, as well as Clemens Alexandrinus, has been
+thought to favour the Arian principle; but he did it only in words and not
+in ideas." _Early Opinions_, _&c._ Whatever uncertainty, however, there
+may exist with respect to the opinion of Origen himself on this subject,
+there is no doubt that the doctrines of his immediate followers were, at
+least, Anti-Athanasian. "So many Bishops of Africa," says Priestley,
+"were, at this period (between the years 255 and 258), Unitarians, that
+Athanasius says, 'The Son of God,'--meaning his divinity,--'was scarcely any
+longer preached in the churches.'"
+
+
+Page 271.--"_The restoration of the whole human race to purity and
+happiness._"--This benevolent doctrine,--which not only goes far to solve
+the great problem of moral and physical evil, but which would, if received
+more generally, tend to soften the spirit of uncharitableness, so fatally
+prevalent among Christian sects,--was maintained by that great light of the
+early Church, Origen, and has not wanted supporters among more modern
+Theologians. That Tillotson was inclined to the opinion appears from his
+sermon preached before the queen. Paley is supposed to have held the same
+amiable doctrine; and Newton (the author of the work on the Prophecies) is
+also among the supporters of it. For a full account of the arguments in
+favour of this opinion, derived both from reason and the express language
+of Scripture, see Dr. Southwood Smith's very interesting work, "On the
+Divine Government." See also _Magee on the Atonement_, where the doctrine
+of the advocates of Universal Restoration is thus briefly and fairly
+explained:--"Beginning with the existence of an infinitely powerful, wise,
+and good Being, as the first and fundamental principle of rational
+religion, they pronounce the essence of this Being to be _love_, and from
+this infer, as a demonstrable consequence, that none of the creatures
+formed by such a Being will ever be made eternally miserable.... Since God
+(they say) would act unjustly in inflicting eternal misery for temporary
+crimes, the sufferings of the wicked can be but remedial, and will
+terminate in a complete purification from moral disorder, and in their
+ultimate restoration to virtue and happiness."
+
+
+Page 273.--"_Fruit of the desert shrub._"--v. _Hamilton's AEgyptiaca_.
+
+
+Page 278.--"_The white garment she wore, and the ring of gold on her
+finger._"--See, for the custom among the early Christians of wearing white
+for a few days after baptism, _Ambros. de Myst._--With respect to the ring,
+the Bishop of Lincoln says, in his work on Tertullian, "The natural
+inference from these words (_Tertull. de Pudicitia_) appears to be that a
+ring used to be given in baptism; but I have found no other trace of such
+a custom."
+
+
+Page 280.--"_Pebbles of jasper._"--v. _Clarke_.
+
+
+Ib.--"_Stunted marigold_," _&c._--"Les _Mesembryanthemum nodiflorum_ et
+_Zygophyllum coccineum_, plantes grasses des deserts, rejetees a cause de
+leur acrete par les chameaux, les chevres, et les gazelles." _M. Delile
+upon the plants of Egypt._
+
+
+Page 281.--"_Antinoe._"--v. _Savary_ and _Quatremere_.
+
+
+Page 286.--"_I have observed in my walks._"--"Je remarquai avec une
+reflexion triste, qu'un animal de proie accompagne presque toujours les
+pas de ce joli et frele individu."
+
+
+Page 272.--"_Glistened over its silver letters._"--The Codex Cottonianus of
+the New Testament is written in silver letters on a purple ground. The
+Codex Cottonianus of the Septuagint version of the Old Testament is
+supposed to be the identical copy that belonged to Origen.
+
+
+Page 289.--"_Some denier of Christ._"--Those Christians who sacrificed to
+idols to save themselves were called by various names, _Thurificati_,
+_Sacrificati_, _Mittentes_, _Negatores_, &c. Baronius mentions a bishop of
+this period (253), Marcellinus, who, yielding to the threats of the
+Gentiles, threw incense upon the altar. v. _Arnob. contra Gent._ lib. 7.
+
+
+Page 297.--"_The clear voice with which_," _&c._--The merit of the
+confession "Christianus sum," or "Christiana sum," was considerably
+enhanced by the clearness and distinctness with which it was pronounced.
+_Eusebius_ mentions the martyr Vetius as making it _{~GREEK SMALL LETTER LAMDA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER MU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER PI~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER RHO~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER TAU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER TAU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ETA~} {~GREEK SMALL LETTER PHI~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMEGA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER NU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ETA~}_.
+
+
+Page 304.--"_The band round the young Christian's brow._"--We find poisonous
+crowns mentioned by _Pliny_, under the designation of "coronae ferales."
+_Paschalius_, too, gives the following account of these "deadly garlands,"
+as he calls them:--"Sed mirum est tam salutare inventum humanam nequitiam
+reperisse, quomodo ad nefarios usus traducent. Nempe, repertae sunt nefandae
+coronae harum, quas dixi, tam salubrium per nomen quidem et speciem
+imitatrices, at re et effectu ferales, atque adeo capitis, cui imponuntur,
+interfectrices." _De Coronis._
+
+
+
+
+
+                                 THE END.
+
+
+
+
+
+                                 LONDON:
+                    Printed by A. & R. Spottiswoode,
+                            New-Street-Square.
+
+
+
+
+
+                                FOOTNOTES
+
+
+    1 The description, here alluded to, may also be found, copied
+      _verbatim_ from Sethos, in the "Voyages d'Antenor."--"In that
+      philosophical romance, called 'La Vie de Sethos,'" says Warburton,
+      "we find a much juster account of old Egyptian wisdom, than in all
+      the pretended 'Histoire du Ciel.'" _Div. Leg._ book 4. sect. 14.
+
+    2 A cross was, among the Egyptians, the emblem of a future life.
+
+    3 "On s'etoit meme avise, depuis la premiere construction de ces
+      demeures, de percer en plusieurs endroits jusq'au haut les terres
+      qui les couvroient; non pas, a la verite, pour tirer un jour qui
+      n'auroit jamais ete suffisant, mais pour recevoir un air salutaire,
+      &c."--_Sethos._
+
+    4 Osiris.
+
+    5 In the language of Plato, Hierocles, &c. to "restore to the soul its
+      wings," is the main object both of religion and philosophy.
+
+    6 See an account of this sensitive tree, which bends down its branches
+      to those who approach it, in M. Jomard's Description of Syene and
+      the Cataracts.
+
+    7 The province of Arsinoe, now Fioum.
+
+    8 In the original the discourses of the Hermit are given much more at
+      length.
+
+    9 A rank, resembling that of Colonel.
+
+   10 "Une de ces couronnes de grain de corail, dont les vierges martyres
+      ornoient leurs cheveaux en allant a la mort." _Les Martyrs._
+
+
+
+
+
+                            TRANSCRIBER'S NOTE
+
+
+Variations in hyphenation (e.g. "daybreak", "day-break", "overhead",
+"over-head") have not been changed.
+
+In the notes, some references are to the wrong pages or out of sequence.
+
+Other changes, which have been made to the text:
+
+      page 32, "alrea d" changed to "already"
+      page 81, "stirke" changed to "strike"
+      page 93, "grashopper" changed to "grasshopper"
+      page 188, quote mark added before "The state of misery"
+      page 194, "decome" changed to "become"
+      page 312, quote mark added before "There is, to the north of
+      Memphis"
+
+
+
+
+
+***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE EPICUREAN***
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