Some star which, from the ruined roof
Of shaked Olympus, by mischance did fall.—_Milton._
Page 137. _Persepolis._ Voltaire, in speaking of Persepolis, says, “Je
connois bien l’admiration qu’inspirent ces ruines—mais un palais érigé
au pied d’une chaîne des rochers sterils—peut il être un chef
d’œuvre des arts?”
Page 137. _Gomorrah._ Ula Deguisi is the Turkish appellation; but, on
its own shores, it is called Bahar Loth, or Almotanah. There were
undoubtedly more than two cities engulphed in the “dead sea.” In the
valley of Siddim were five—Adrah, Zeboin, Zoar, Sodom and Gomorrah.
Stephen of Byzantium mentions eight, and Strabo thirteen (engulfed)—but
the last is out of all reason.
It is said [Tacitus, Strabo, Josephus, Daniel of St. Saba, Nau,
Maundrell, Troilo, D’Arvieux], that after an excessive drought, the
vestiges of columns, walls, etc., are seen above the surface. At _any_
season, such remains may be discovered by looking down into the
transparent lake, and at such distances as would argue the existence of
many settlements in the space now usurped by the “Asphaltites.”
Page 137. _Eyraco._ Chaldea.
Page 137. _Palpable and loud._ I have often thought I could distinctly
hear the sound of the darkness as it stole over the horizon.
Page 137. _Young flowers were whispering, etc._ Fairies use flowers for
their charactery.—_Merry Wives of Windsor._
Page 138. _The moonbeam._ In Scripture is this passage—“The sun shall
not harm thee by day, nor the moon by night.” It is, perhaps, not
generally known that the moon, in Egypt, has the effect of producing
blindness to those who sleep with the face exposed to its rays, to which
circumstance the passage evidently alludes.
Page 139. _The lone Albatross._ The Albatross is said to sleep on the
wing.
Page 139. _The murmur that springs, etc._ I met with this idea in an
old English tale, which I am now unable to obtain and quote from
memory:—“The verie essence and, as it were, springe-heade and origine
of all musiche is the verie pleasaunte sounde which the trees of the
forest do make when they growe.”
Page 140. _Have slept with the bee._ The wild bee will not sleep in the
shade if there be moonlight.
The rhyme in this verse, as in one about sixty lines before, has an
appearance of affectation. It is, however, imitated from Sir W. Scott,
or rather from Claud Halcro—in whose mouth I admired its effect:
O! were there an island,
Tho’ ever so wild,
Where woman might smile, and
No man be beguiled, etc.
Page 141. _Apart from Heaven’s Eternity—and yet how far from Hell._
With the Arabians there is a medium between Heaven and Hell, where men
suffer no punishment, but yet do not attain that tranquil and even
happiness which they suppose to be characteristic of heavenly enjoyment.
Un no rompido sueno—
Un dia puro—allegre—libre
Quiera—
Libre de amor—de zelo—
De odio—de esperanza—de rezelo.
_Luis Ponce de Leon._
Sorrow is not excluded from “Al Aaraaf,” but it is that sorrow which the
living love to cherish for the dead, and which, in some minds, resembles
the delirium of opium. The passionate excitement of Love and the
buoyancy of spirit attendant upon intoxication are its less holy
pleasures—the price of which, to those souls who make choice of “Al
Aaraaf” as their residence after life, is final death and annihilation.