veller, whofe poffeffion at beft is but a loan of fhort duration; for if they are not taken away from him, he must speedily pafs away from them, and make room for the next comer.

But declining the profecution of a common theme, let thou and I afk ourselves, where the mind of our deceased friend is migrated? O! for fome courteous angel to tell us this great secret! to instruct us in the provinces affigned to difembodied fpirits! Do they fleep till the refurrection? and if so, where are their dormitories? Or if they are exempted from the flumbers of the grave, where do they exert their active faculties? or where are the repofitories of these wonderful intelligences?

But these problems are never to be unriddled by mortals! An impenetrable cloud refteth upon thefe mysterious fubjects! Wherefore let our thoughts be rather employed upon themes whofe knowledge we can better afcertain. Let the death of our friends reconcile us to the view of our own fepulchres; and fince the decree is unavoidable, let us regard life, in the light in which the ancients looked upon it, as a feaft; and let us depart from table with the fatisfaction and chearfulness of a convivafatur, of a guest pleased with his entertainment, and thankful for the comforts of it. Or else let us look upon the world as a theatre,

atre, when a few years hence it will import us nought, which of us personated a statesman, and which of us an inferior character.

But although I have hinted, that there is little on this globe to deferve our fondness, I would nevertheless with thee to love me as much as thou canft, and to rest affured, after all, that thou art not my creditor. And whofefoever's lot it fhall be to quit the ftage first, let him preserve his former tenderness for the furvivor. Let him maintain his integrity and friendship in a separate state; and if he be indulged the liberty of choosing his own province, be it that of a guardian angel to his friend below, to lead him gently through the meanders and difficulties of life, and to wait upon the confines of the two worlds to receive and welcome the social spirit, when diflodged hence. Nor entertain one doubt, that we fhall be at a lofs to find out each other. For congenial fouls know their mates by intellectual intuition, and scorn the mediation of fenfible organs for the difcovery of one another.

Dated the eleventh of the tenth moon
of the Christian hegira, 1743.

MIRZA TO HEBATOLLA,

A LEARNED DERVISE.

He difcourfes on the happiness of good men, the intricacy of Providence-inquires into the rife and reafons of moral and natural evil-accounts for both on the hypothesis of a future ftate of retribution-vilifies the pride of man, and makes mention of his Maker in the strongest phraseology of the Orientals--concludes with an exhortation to patience and acquiefcence.

V

ENERABLE dervife! thou illuftrious miffionary and legate of Allah! may peace with its downy pinions hover around thy dwelling.

Wilt thou permit a fheep of thy fold to approach thy facred recefs, and falute the hem of thy vestment?

I am perplexed with doubts and difficulties, and come to thee for a folution. Diffipate the mists and fogs of ignorance, that involve my understanding; illuminate my benighted mind, and purge

my

my intellectual optics, that I may clearly discern the ways of Heaven.

To whom should I apply but to thee, faithful and vigilant fhepherd, the oracle of thy diftrict, and the lantern of thy flock? Thou that dispensest the celeftial manna with unremitting constancy, oh! fatisfy the cravings of a foul, that hungereth and thirfteth after thy inftructions.

A Hebrew fultan hath afferted, "that a good man fhall be fatisfied from himself;" and when thou waft expatiating upon this hallowed aphorifm, I verily knew that thou wast speaking experimentally.

Yes, thou treasury of all erudition and virtue ! I can believe whatever thou telleft me of the good man. I believe that his foul receiveth pleasure from a thousand avenues. That the fpirit of unerring wisdom taketh up his lodging in his breast, and diffuseth a divine ferenity and peace. Like a familiar friend, this spirit suppeth with him, and not only partaketh of his meals, but fhareth his couch alfo. Say, happy and fage dervise, for furely thou canst tell this important truth, are any joys wanting, where the bosom is occupied by this heavenly gueft? Is not every thought an unison with the suggestions of this illustrious vifitant? The harmony of instruments is but a faint resem

blance

blance of the harmony of the worthy mind. O! the midnight mufic of such a favourite of Allah ! nearly akin to the fongs of angels, and the golden harps of feraphs!

But tell me, thou guardian of thy sheepfold, is the calm of the good man permanent, and uninterrupted? Doth no doubt about Providence fpring up fometimes, and ruffle the smooth expanfe of his breaft? or, like a fullen cloud, fhoot athwart the fky, and deform the peaceful azure? Surely not, for purified spirits are as clear of doubts as of guilt. It is the grofs and terrene foul, that liveth in fuch troubled regions. I feel thefe incumbrances of polluted clay, which fink me down, whenever I attempt to wade the mighty gulph.

Mysterious Providence! an abyfs without a bottom! a fea without a fhore! at beft it is fuch to the common understanding of humanity, not defecated from the dregs of vice and folly. O! that fome courteous inhabitant of the bright empyrean would defcend from his high abode, and unveil to us thefe inexplicable arcana! Or are we to remain in darkness, till we are ejected these tabernacles of flefh, and become denizens of the fields of light? Thefe bodies of ours are brittle manfions, obnoxious to deftruction from violence.

But