SCENE FROM HADAD.

BY JAMES A. HILLHOUSE.

The garden of ABSALOM's house on Mount Zion, near the palace, overlooking the city. TAMAR sitting by a fountain.

Tam. How aromatic evening grows! The flowers And spicy shrubs exhale like onycha;

Spikenard and henna emulate in sweets.

Blest hour! which He, who fashioned it so fair,

So softly glowing, so contemplative,

Hath set, and sanctified to look on man.

And lo! the smoke of evening sacrifice
Ascends from out the tabernacle.-Heaven,
Accept the expiation, and forgive

This day's offences!-Ha! the wonted strain,
Precursor of his coming!—Whence can this—
It seems to flow from some unearthly hand-

Had. Does beauteous Tamar view, in t

Herself, or heaven?

Tam. Nay, Hadad, tell me whence Those sad, mysterious sounds.

Had. What sounds, dear Princess? Tam. Surely, thou know'st; and now I Some spiritual creature waits on thee.

Had. I heard no sounds, but such as eve Up from the city to these quiet shades; A blended murmur sweetly harmonizing With flowing fountains, feathered minstrels And voices from the hills.

SCENE FROM HADAD.

165

Tam. The sounds I mean,

Floated like mournful music round my head,

From unseen fingers.

Had. When?

Tam. Now, as thou camest.

Had. 'Tis but thy fancy, wrought

To ecstasy; or else thy grandsire's harp
Resounding from his tower at eventide.
I've lingered to enjoy its solemn tones,
Till the broad moon, that rose o'er Olivet,
Stood listening in the zenith; yea, have deemed
Viols and heavenly voices answered him.

Tam. But these

Had. Were we in Syria, I might say

The Naiad of the fount, or some sweet Nymph,
The goddess of these shades, rejoiced in thee,
And gave thee salutations; but I fear

Judah would call me infidel to Moses.

Tam. How like my fancy! When these strains precede

Thy steps, as oft they do, I love to think

Some gentle being who delights in us

Is hovering near, and warns me of thy coming;

But they are dirge-like.

Had. Youthful fantasy,

Attuned to sadness, makes them seem so, lady.
So evening's charming voices, welcomed ever,
As signs of rest and peace;—the watchman's call,

Of swains, the bleat, the bark, the hou Send melancholy to a drooping soul.

Tam. But how delicious are the pen

That steal upon the fancy at their call

Had. Delicious to behold the world : Meek labour wipes his brow, and inter The curse, to clasp the younglings of 1 Herdsmen and shepherds fold their flo What merry strains they send from Oli The jar of life is still; the city speaks In gentle murmurs; voices chime with Waked in the streets and gardens; lov Eye the red west in one another's arms And nature, breathing dew and fragran A glimpse of happiness, which He, who Earth and the stars, had power to make

Tam. Ah! Hadad, meanest thou to re Who gave so much, because he gave no Had. Perfect benevolence, methinks, Unceasing happiness, and peace, and joy Filled the whole universe of human hea With pleasure, like a flowing spring of 1 Tam. Our Prophet teaches so, till mar Had. Rebellion!-Had he leaguered H With beings powerful, numberless, and d

SCENE FROM HADAD.

167

Mixed onset 'midst the lacerating hail,

And snake-tongued thunderbolts, that hissed and stung Worse than eruptive mountains,-this had fallen

Within the category.-But what did man?—

Tasted an apple! and the fragile scene,
Eden, and innocence, and human bliss,
The nectar-flowing streams, life-giving fruits,
Celestial shades, and amaranthine flowers,
Vanish; and sorrow, toil, and pain, and death,
Cleave to him by an everlasting curse.

Tam. Ah! talk not thus.

Had. Is this benevolence?

Nay, loveliest, these things sometimes trouble me;
For I was tutored in a brighter faith.

Our Syrians deem each lucid fount and stream,

Forest and mountain, glade and bosky dell,

Peopled with kind divinities, the friends

Of man, a spiritual race allied

To him by many sympathies, who seek

His happiness, inspire him with gay thoughts,

Cool with their waves, and fan him with their airs.

O'er them, the Spirit of the Universe,

Or Soul of Nature, circumfuses all

With mild, benevolent, and sun-like radiance;

Pervading, warming, vivifying earth,

As spirit does the body, till green herbs,

And beauteous flowers, and branchy cedars rise;