Page images
PDF
EPUB

My rash pretensions their success deny,
And I grow wise while failing to aspire.
And well I see how false it were to think
That any work, faded and frail, of mine,
Could emulate the perfect grace of thine,
Genius and art and daring backward shrink;
A thousand works from mortals like to me
Can ne'er repay what Heaven has given thee!

When godlike art has, with superior thought,
The limbs and motions in idea conceived,
A simple form, in humble clay achieved,
Is the first offering into being brought:
Then stroke on stroke from out the living rock,
Its promised work the practised chisel brings,
And into life a form so graceful springs,
That none can fear for it time's rudest shock.
Such was my birth: in humble mould I lay
At first; to be by thee, oh, lady high!
Renewed, and to a work more perfect brought;
Thou giv'st what lacking is, and filest away
All roughness: yet what tortures lie,

Ere my wild heart can be restrained and taught!

SONNET ON THE DEATH OF VI

WH

TORIA

WHEN she, the aim of every hope and prayer, Was called by death to yon celestial spheres, Nature, who ne'er had fashioned aught so fair, Stood there ashamed, and all who saw shed tears. O cruel fate, quenching the dreams of love! O empty hopes! O spirit rare and blest!

Where art thou now? On earth thy fair limbs rest: Thy holy thoughts have found their home above. Yet let us think not cruel death could e'er

Have stilled the sound of all thy virtuous ways:
Lethe's oblivion could extinguish nought;

For, robbed of thee, a thousand records fair
Speak of thee yet; and death from heaven conveys
Thy powers divine, and thy immortal thought.

ON DANTE

HERE is no tongue to speak his eulogy;

THE

Too brightly burned his splendor for our eyes Far easier to condemn his injurers,

Than for the tongue to reach his smallest worth.
He to the realms of sinfulness came down,
To teach mankind; ascending then to God,
Heaven unbarred to him her lofty gates,
To whom his country hers refused to ope.
Ungrateful land! to its own injury,

Nurse of his fate! Well, too, does this instruct
That greatest ills fall to the perfectest.

And, midst a thousand proofs, let this suffice,—
That, as his exile had no parallel,

So never was there man more great than he.

[ocr errors][merged small]

THE ARABIAN NIGHTS

THE THOUSAND AND ONE NIGHTS, commonly called "The Arabian Nights," have now delighted the Western World for two hundred years, as they have the East for centuries. The various stories were undoubtedly the work of many authors, combined much in the same way as the Canterbury Tales of Chaucer. All the color, the fascination of Oriental life, is in them, and the reader loses himself in the oases of Arabian deserts or walks the streets of Bagdad in the reign of Caliph Harun-al-Rashid.

THE

THE FORTY THIEVES

HERE once lived in a town of Persia two brothers, one named Cassim and the other Ali Baba. Their father divided a small inheritance equally between them. Cassim married a very rich wife, and became a wealthy merchant. Ali Baba married a woman as poor as himself, and lived by cutting wood, and bringing it upon three asses into the town to sell.

One day, when Ali Baba was in the forest, and had just cut wood enough to load his asses, he saw at a distance a great cloud of dust, which seemed to approach him. He observed it with attention, and distinguished soon after a body of horsemen, whom he suspected might be robbers. He determined to leave his asses to save himself. climbed up a large tree, planted on a high rock, whose branches were thick enough to conceal him,

He

and yet enabled him to see all that passed without being discovered.

The troop, who were to the number of forty, all well mounted and armed, came to the foot of the rock on which the tree stood, and there dismounted. Every man unbridled his horse, tied him to some shrub, and hung about his neck a bag of corn which they brought behind them. Then each of them took off his saddle-bag, which seemed to Ali Baba to be full of gold and silver from its weight. One, whom he took to be their captain, came under the tree in which Ali Baba was concealed, and making his way through some shrubs, pronounced these words: Open, Sesame!"* As soon as the captain of the robbers had thus spoken, a door opened in the rock; and after he had made all his troop enter before him, he followed them, when the door shut again of itself.

66

The robbers stayed some time within the rock, during which Ali Baba, fearful of being caught, remained in the tree.

At last the door opened again, and as the captain went in last, so he came out first, and stood to see them all pass by him; when Ali Baba heard him make the door close by pronouncing these words, “Shut, Sesame!" Every man at once went and bridled his horse, fastened his wallet, and mounted again. When the captain saw them all ready, he put himself at their head, and they returned the way they had come.

Ali Baba followed them with his eyes as far as he could see them; and afterward stayed a considerable time before he descended. Remembering the words the captain of the robbers used to cause the door to open and shut, he had the curiosity to try if his pronouncing them would have the same effect. Accordingly, he went among the shrubs, *"Sesame " is a small grain.

and perceiving the door concealed behind them, stood before it, and said, "Open, Sesame!" The door instantly flew wide open.

Ali Baba, who expected a dark, dismal cavern, was surprised to see a well-lighted and spacious chamber, which received the light from an opening at the top of the rock, and in which were all sorts of provisions, rich bales of silk, stuff, brocade, and valuable carpeting, piled upon one another; gold and silver ingots in great heaps, and money in bags. The sight of all these riches made him suppose that this cave must have been occupied for ages by robbers, who had succeeded one another.

Ali Baba went boldly into the cave, and collected as much of the gold coin, which was in bags, as he thought his three asses could carry. When he had loaded them with the bags, he laid wood over them in such a manner that they could not be seen. When he had passed in and out as often as he wished, he stood before the door, and pronouncing the words, "Shut, Sesame!" the door closed of itself. He then made the best of his way to town.

When Ali Baba got home, he drove his asses into a little yard, shut the gates very carefully, threw off the wood that covered the panniers, carried the bags into his house, and ranged them in order before his wife. He then emptied the bags, which raised such a great heap of gold as dazzled his wife's eyes. and then he told her the whole adventure from beginning to end, and, above all, recommended her to keep it secret.

66

The wife rejoiced greatly at their good fortune, and would count all the gold piece by piece. "Wife," replied Ali Baba, you do not know what you undertake, when you pretend to count the money; you will never have done. I will dig a hole, and bury it. There is no time to be lost." "You are in the right, husband," replied she, "but let us

« ՆախորդըՇարունակել »