warmth intended by nature for the circulation of the animal fluid; it was warm as the Egyptian sun, but her mind was chaste as the snow of Nova Zembla: wrapt in enthusiasm she became the hapless victim of credulity.

Could rivers of tears have atoned for her fall from virtue, long ere she departed from life would they have been obliterated from the page of memory; but the world, my beloved Leonora, loves to record the frailties of their neighbours, especially where the object is not a favourite one, with a pen of adamant: a melancholy truth, which evinces the necessity there exists for the youthful female to chuse Wisdom for her monitress, and banish the fervor of Imagination. The enthusiastic Laura, by one unguarded moment, lulled to sleep by confidence, awoke to despair, and secured to herself a bitterness that continued to flourish, even until the latest moment of her existence. Sensible of having erred, the big pang of agony laboured at her heart; her friends spoke of pardon and peace, but delicacy, wounded delicacy, admitted not the latter.

It is not, said she, a little time before her decease, it is not the contempt of my own sex, wounding as it may be, that I find the most mortifying, among whom are many classes: some striving to raise up the fallen; others to destroy, by slander, those whom they believe more praise-worthy than them selves: no, the barb that gores deepest, next to the conscious ness of having offended Him who made me, is the look and manner with which, since my fall, I have been generally regarded by the other. A shower of tears falling over her pale face stopped her utterance, and the grave in a few days hid her from the look of Licentiousness. In the enthusiastic mind, Leonora, Reason, triumphed over by the imagination, retires to the back ground, and be comes an idle spectator. But if not ordered back to her standard, as she bears a high and important of

fice in the economy of the human mind, Confusion, with Insanity in her train, will unavoidably pursue.

While the heart turns on an earthly axis, it must be variously affected, as all terrestrial objects on which it relies for happiness are liable to decay. Hence, my beloved Leonora, the superiority of that religion your excellent deceased mother took such pains to instil into your infant mind. That immoveable anchor of the soul is the best safeguard against the impulses of the passions, against the delusions and miseries of life. But even in Religion beware of enthusiasm on one hand, and a dull conformity on the other; for that religion which springs not from a regenerated heart, can never be acceptable to an all-wise and perfect Creator,

For the Literary Magazine.

OMAR AND FATIMA; OR, THE APOTHECARY OF ISPAHAN.

A Persian Tale.

THERE are few persons in the least acquainted with Ispahan, but what will recollect, that as you enter the city by the gate Haly, when you have passed the two dwarf columns which are inscribed with Arabic characters, you find yourself in a street that leads directly to the Bazar, which you naturally hurry through as fast as possible, because the whole of it is inhabited by Armenians, who are either tanners, curriers, or the manufacturers of a great variety of leathern articles. You then turn the corner on the right hand, which introduces you into another street, equally spacious and gay, being inhabited by bowerfletchers, armourers, feather-dressers, and, ascending a flight of steps, arrive at a gallery, in which, stuck by the side of each other, like the boxes upon their shelves, live all the druggists and apothecaries.

Whether this mode of building was anciently practised, or of modern

invention, is too curious a disquisition, and too useful a speculation, to be entered upon without more consideration, more time, more paper, and more patience, than can, in the present instance, be devoted to it. In fact it contains the germ from which one day may spring a folio; and I, alas! am at present confined to a few pages in a magazine.

This exordium was begun, continued, and ended, at the door of the shop of Nadir, the apothecary, which, it is well known, was situated in that part of the gallery which overlooks the Bazar, and, in an ob. lique direction, glances at the famous fountain of sha Abbas, which stands at the north corner.

Nadir was a man of literature, of science, and, which was still better, of honour and integrity; but he was a singular being, and would, in a metropolis less polite than Ispahan, have been denominated" a queer fellow;" for he shrunk from society, was devoted to contemplation and study, and, which was much worse, he was poor.

The beauty of one of the finest days of a Persian autumn had induced Nadir to cease from his labours (or, rather, as he had no particular occasion for them, his amusement), in pounding a few coarse drugs in an old mortar with a broken pestle, and leaving his shop door wide open without any fear of being robbed, even had not the police of the city been so good as it actually was, to cross the gallery, and lean upon the balustrade, from which he had the pleasure of observing a most plentiful market in the most disinterested point of view, as he had not money sufficient to enable him to become the purchaser of the smallest article. In this state of mind and pocket, the unfortunate apothecary was destined to behold baskets of the choicest fruit, of the most exquisite viands of every description, piles of the finest bread, cakes, and confectionary, pails of milk, and jars of honey, carried away, as the saying is, "under his very nose ;" and as nothing is so likely to produce an appetite as

having such a prospect without the means to gratify our desires, he found his inward man so affected with a gastric sensation, that he called to a venerable matron, ancient as the arch upon which his shop rested, and ordered her to bring him some refreshment, exclaiming at the same time, "Wretch that I am! with taste and sensibility to enjoy the good things of this world, yet, in the present instance, they vanish from before me, like the visionary banquets of the promised paradise from the grasp of sceptical Heb, and I am condemned, by the unfortunate salubrity of the place wherein I have settled, to live upon rice and water like a bramin !"

"And you have so little of the former left," said the old woman, as she presented him with a plate of the aliment and a glass of the menstruum, "that without we have speedily a fresh supply, I foresee that you will be reduced to live upon your own medicines."

"You do not talk like an apothecary," said Nadir, " if you expect that I could exist upon them in the way you suggest."

"It is a lamentable thing," she replied, "that you can neither take them yourself, nor get any one else to do it.'

At this instant a person in the dress of a Mahometan faquir (which, being a sect that aspires sometimes to the dignity of Moullah, are more regular in their apparel than the other, who profess to be the disciples of Brumma) stood before them; and, hearing this colloquy betwixt the old woman and her master, said, "You are mistaken, for I hope the whole world will take his medicines, if this is the learned apothecary Nadir, whose fame, wafted on the wings of the four winds, has reached me in my retreat in the Diamond Mountains, which you know lie to the east of Golconda."

"I know very little about the matter," said Nadir; " Diamond Mountains and Golconda are names connected with riches; therefore I

hope that my fame, which it appears from your statement is a far greater traveller than my person, has met with more success in the world."

"Son!" said the faquir, "never repine at the dispensations of Providence!"

At the appellation son, the apo thecary looked earnestly in the face of the faquir, and replied: "Father, though you are at least half a century younger than myself, as you appear in a religious habit, which I judge to be considerably older than the wearer, your phrase is correct. So, having adjusted this weighty matter, I should enquire if, medically or morally, I can afford you any assistance?"

"Medically," cried the faquir, "I think you may. I find myself tired and faint."

"Set out the arm-chair, Tamira!" said Nadir. "Lean upon me, most venerable father. So! now let me look at your tongue."

"My tongue!"

"Yes!" returned the apothecary. "Good! I am perfectly satisfied. This examination will be complete when I have felt your pulse; one, two, three; so! so! so!"

"Well!" said the faquir, "what do you think of my case?"

"A very common one among my patients. I fear I have scarcely enough of one sort of medicine left to furnish for it a single dose. However, though I am labouring under the same disorder, hospitality obliges me to relieve you. Here! swallow this plate of rice !"

"Rice!" said the faquir; "I am not much used to feed upon rice!” "No!" he continued: "why I thought your vows obliged you to eat nothing else, except you were sensually inclined to ornament your dish with a garnish of herbs. The conduit, over the way, of our once sublime and immortal sultan, who died at the age of thirty, will supply us with plenty of water. You need not use any discretion with respect to drinking."

"Then it seems to be your opinion that I want nothing but food?" "Solid and liquid: you want nothing else, depend upon it."

"It is a pity to starve in the midst of a market.”

"That was exactly my idea," said Nadir," when you entered the gallery."

"Why then did you not avail yourself of this opportunity to purchase?"

"Alas! venerable father," returned Nadir, "I had not come from Golconda.”

" I

"I understand you: you had not the means," said the faquir. have," he continued, and unbuckling his girdle, produced a long leathern purse. "In this there are fifteen tomans. I am under no restrictive Vows; therefore let this ancient matron descend into the market before it be too late, and purchase whatsoever you wish. I am weary; I shall tarry in this city some time; therefore, son, I mean to follow your prescription, and, in order to fill up the vacuum in my exhausted system, to eat, drink, and enjoy myself."

"What is your name?" said Nadir.

"Ismael," returned the faquir. "Then, good Ismael," he continu ed, though you might probably enjoy yourself with your fifteen tomans, a sum I hardly believed to have been in the exchequer, what must become of me? It is impossi~ ble that I can partake.” "Why?"

"For this reason: I am a man, most reverend father Ismael! that, as you may perceive, has lived long in the world, devoted to study, fond of contemplating the works of art and the wonders of nature. I have consequently, in my researches, not suffered the human system to be unexplored. In fact, I have examined it both physically and ethically. With this propension of mind, you will not wonder that I am poor; but you will wonder when I inform you, that I still am the possessor of two geins more valuable than any

that your mines of Golconda can boast; these, I fear, would be sullied if I were to accept your favours." "What gems

"I mean," continued Nadir, "my piety and my honour. You, Ismael, are, however you may have attempt ed to disguise that circumstance, a very young man; therefore, when you produce such immense riches, and wish to apply them in favour of so slight an acquaintance, I, who am apt to look below the surface of things, may very well doubt the correctness of their acquisition."

"You think," said Ismael, "that this paltry purse contains immense riches! I could very easily produce fifty times the sum! Nay, start not, Nadir! I honour you for your delicacy as much as I do for your sagacity. To piety and honour I am as much devoted as yourself: I therefore know, that these virtues produce in the human mind a generosity of thinking and acting, which frequently rises superior even to the general dictates of frigid caution, contracted philosophy, or commercial calculation. I seek you ás an adviser; I address you as a friend: receive these tomans; as a loan if you please let me place others in your hands for security; banish suspicion, and have the generosity to believe me for the moment to be what I appear. Let this evening be devoted to rest on my part, to relaxation from the fatigues of study on yours; a short time will probably explain the motives that ed me to seek this interview."

"At which of the four caravansaries in the Bazar do you lodge?" said Nadir.

"I have no lodging in Ispahan," replied Ismael; and as I will fairly state to you, that from the professional inquisitiveness of heir keepers, and the officers of the police stationed at those places, with respect to strangers, it would be extremely inconvenient to go to either of them, I hope you will suffer me to lodge with you."

"But your habit," said Nadir.
"My habit," continued Ismael,

" may cover me in your house, but it would probably discover me there; therefore I hope you will comply with my request."

"That," said Nadir," is presuming a good deal upon my credulity; I am inclined to trust you; but, alas! although I have rooms, they are unfurnished, consequently I have no accommodations; however, Abud my neighbour has, where I will be answerable for your safety."

Whether the appearance and frankness of the faquir; whether the means of indulging his appetite, which the tomans, still lying on the counter, presented; or that curiosi ty which is natural to the Persians, and was also professionally incident to Nadir; whether one or all these causes operated is uncertain. The sage of Zulpha, who first recorded this story, was not, like many European sages, gifted with that omniscient power which enables them in a moment to pervade the recesses, and develope the foldings of the human heart. He, therefore, has not stated more than he knew; which was, that the apothecary placed the tomans in his till, which till that time had never inclosed the twentieth part of so much wealth, and subtracting one from the heap, he gave it to Tamira, telling her to hasten to the market, and purchase materials for an entertainment worthy of a guest who seemed possessed of the riches of Golconda, and the generosity of Aurengzebe.

Here let us pause a little, in or der, in the first instance, to mention that useful, but too much neglected, part of the human species, who are never courted except upon the stimulations of pain, or at the suggestions of interest, and whom we chris tians, at least out of their hearing, have agreed to term old women; and in the second, to observe, that this appellation has been known to take a wider range, and mount to situations in which no female, old or young, except Pope Joan or Joan of Arc, ever sat or acted.

It has, to continue this specula

tion, been known to have been applied to the judicial bench of Persia, to the justice seat, nay to places still more solemn and sacred, such as the heads of colleges of dervises, &c.; and here, also, we have heard of old women at the heads of houses, of courts, of armies, of administrations, of municipalities, &c. but the Persian historian had heard nothing of this, he has therefore only mentioned the respect which is paid to the ancient part of the fair sex in their proper stations; and further, that Tamira, for integrity, for fidelity, and affection to her master, for experience in domestic oncerns, and general sagacity, was an excellent representative of all the old women in Ispahan.

She had, after an education in the house of Abud, descended like an heir-loom to honest Nadir from his father, a physician of great genius, little practice, and much humility, as appears by his only making his son an apothecary. We should never have been able to ascertain her age, had she not in the heat of a medical dispute, the only disputes which she ever had with her master, said, she well remembered the erection of the obelisk which they had every day before their eyes, to commemorate the recovery of sha Sefi from intemperance. Nadir, there fore, whom she had, by the shrewd ness of her observations and the sagacity of her interrogatories in his profession, both piqued and puzzled, maliciously calculated the period in which she had been acquiring this experience; he found that forty-six years had passed since the event which the obelisk recorded; which, added to the age she was when she came into the possession of his father, fixed her's at near seventy.

Tamira, however she might have acquired her medical skill, must, from the frugality of the board of Nadir, have certainly become a Cook by inspiration or intuition. But, no matter to what or whom she was obliged for her culinary science, it is certain that she was one of the best cooks in Ispahat. Of this she

now gave a specimen; for while we have been digressing, and Nadir, with the sage Ismael, were engaged in the discussion of general topics in the shop, she had, under the influence of the toman we have mentioned, furnished such an entertain. ment as never had before been seen in the house of Nadir, nor indeed of his ancestors.

The honest apothecary, when he entered the eating-room, was thunder-struck at the sight of the variety of viands spread before him, and the taste that was displayed in their disposition. "Reverend father," said he to the young faquir, "I fear that these temptations to sensual indulgence will leave the stings of remorse, if not the consequences of intemperance, behind them."

"Son!" cried Ismael, "fear nothing, but, as our prophet ordains, eat and live!"

Hospitality is the virtue of the Persians. It came into the head of Nadir, just as he was sitting down to table, that as he had been obliged to his neighbour Abud for many a dinner, he ought to send for him to partake of this.

The faquir, as Abud was to be his landlord, had no objection. A slave of his, who was in the shop at the time, was instantly dispatched for his master, who soon after arrived; and this trio, attended by Tamirà and the youth, continued at table perhaps fifty times as long as the Ar

ysician to the grand lama, who wrote the g den book in praise of abstinence, would have allowed.

In this hour of conviviality, the minds of all the parties expanded : Nadir discerned that his young friend had genius and learning sufficient to qualif, him for any situation; Abud wondered what could induce him to appear as a faquir, and agreed that he should become his inmate; Tamira, while she was amazed at his temperance with all those good things before him, admired him for his beauty and generosity; and the young slave, who had busied himself with the fruit and sweetmeats,