tl, it i os el 
1826."] Haroun, the Lonely Man of Shiraz. 179 
from the hurry and contradictions of his dreaming, his fancy flew with 
& more regular wing, and he thought he was lying in a beautiful valley, 
discontented and pining under the ills of life, and wishing for death, 
when a beautiful acacia, against which his back was leaning, began 
sensibly to move, although there was not so much wind in that valley as 
would have flickered the flame of a little lamp; when turning his eyes 
round to behold the occasion of it, he saw, and was wonder-struck, the 
trunk of the tree gradually open, as it had been riven from the head to 
the root by a slow but sharp lightning ; and a beautiful spirit, whom he 
instantly knew, from traditional description, to be one of the better 
genii, stepped forth from its centre, enveloped in a golden-coloured 
glory, that shot around her a thousand separate beams, which in a few 
moments paled into a more silvery light, and at the same time mingled 
its distinct beams, till they melted into a wide and radiant halo, as if 
the moon had fallen from her height in the heavens, but had not lost 
any ray of her beauty or glory. There was a delicious noise of music 
around him, which seemed, to his ear, to arise from the very bosom of 
the earth, through the lips of the violets and roses which grew about 
his feet ; which, although it was night, as he dreamed, yet opened visibly 
and gradually to his eye, as if they had mistaken the light that spread 
among them to be the blaze of the sun; and the waters of the valley, 
which before ran noisily along, seemed to lose their motion, and stood 
in silence, or only slightly stirred under the vibrations of that unearthly 
‘harmony. Haroun, awed by the presence and the manner of the 
appearing of so fair a vision, had turned himself from his recumbent 
posture, and had bent himself on one knee, keeping his face to the 
green earth, which glittered as if sprinkled with diamonds more numerous 
than the myriad stars of the milky way. And now the good spirit 
addressed him, the unearthly music meanwhile not altogether ceasing, 
but only subduing itself into a quieter accompaniment of her voice, as 
if it were indeed a part of it. 
“ Arise, Haroun Aboulim, from that posture of lowliness, for thy’ 
virtues have exalted thee to a placein the favour of the good Genius 
whom I serve, and I am his messenger to thee, bringing thee a know- 
ledge which shall make thee even richer than thy deserts, great as they 
are, would warrant. Know, then, that thou art the son of Haroun 
Schemzeddin, the wealthiest diamond-merchant and usurer of the 
Hast; he who might have bought the world if it had been to be 
purchased, so boundless were his riches; but none knew the extent of 
them save the good spirits, who watch over all, the good and the bad, 
the poor and the rich, for he had amassed too much to confess his 
wealth, though it was suspected. It was in that war which ravaged and 
esolated the beautiful valleys and gorgeous cities of Persia, that thy 
father, fearful lest the rapacious enemy, and his hardly less rapacious 
countrymen, should seize on his great treasures, under the all-concealing 
cloak of night sank his gold and diamonds beneath the waters of the 
stream which refreshes the thirsty of Shiraz, intending, when the dove of 
peace had returned to Persian bowers, to bring them as covertly to the day 
again. But, in the mean time, in the first contest within the walls of the 
city, he was struck to the heart by a death-aimed arrow, and died on the 
instant, with no word of disclosure on his lips of where his treasures. 
jay'‘hidden. Thou wast then an innocent and helpless child, protected 
by the good genii, and had never been owned as his son: for though he 
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