HOW air !-Of all the days I have hitherto beheld, how much is this the brightest !— Sunim, the tender, the virtuous Sunim, has chofen Selima. Yes, my fifter, this happy day I am to become a bride! The bride of Sunim!Here let us repofe, while Eve and the first mothers of this infant earth delight to ornament the nuptial bower-Adam will presently come forth.-Oh! with what joy fhall I fly into his arms! This morn, my Thirfa, I know thou wilt permit me to give him the first kiss, to tell him how happy I am. He will call me his Selima, and the tear of affection will start into his eye. Then will I prefs his paternal hand to my beating heart that hand that shall conduct me to the facred bower, where I am to receive Sunim's vows.-Can't thou, Thirfa, conceive my bliss.-Ah! should pitying heaven reftore our young brother ; fhould Sunim find Eliel, and bring the beloved child once again to our common father, nothing would be wanting to our felicity. THIRSA. Poor dear Eliel ! where can he be !-Doth Sunim ftill feek him, fay'ft thou. SELIMA. Yes; ere wakeful Aurora left her couch, Seth and Sunim fprang from their moffy beds. THIRSA. Should they return with Eliel, what joy for us, and for our father. SELIMA. O yes, with what fatisfaction, what affection, what transport doth Adam stand and behold the child: how often does he tell us, Eliel has every trait of the unfortunate Abel. THIRS À. Abel! I never hear the name pronounced without feeling fomething unaccountable and ftrange. I knew not Abel, I only have been told he was one of the children of our fatherand that he is no more. How dreadful the idea! Since the creation, Abel is the only man who hath disappeared from the face of the earth. SELIM A. Alas! Adam, perhaps, hath loft other children. THIRSA. None of our brethren, at least, fince our existence, have perished. SELIMA. I believe that man is formed for long life, and preferves his strength even in age.-The only old man on earth affords us an example; is not our Father Adam as vigorous and robust as our brethren ? SELIMA. Aye, ftill beauteous-But Adam and Eve have been formed by the hand of God himfelf, his own workmanship; they are neceffarily therefore more beauteous, more ftrong, more perfect than the reft of the human race. THIRSA. Happy are we that they are; they will live the longer. SELIMA. Ah! may they survive us all. THIRS A. How majeftic, how noble, how affecting the perfon of our father! How venerable do the white locks flow.that adorn his head. SELIMA. It is the work of ages. THIRS A. Yes; for we behold no other man with the like. fifter, become thus white. SELIMA. No doubt, fhould indulgent heaven pro long his life. THIRSA. THIRSÅ. Wherefore doft thou figh ?-Haft thou any melancholy foreboding Eliel, doubtlessly, wandered into the woods, but ought we to Two days hath he been miffing. I dread every thing, I know not what. THIRSA. Thou terrifiest me, freezeft my blood!But, my fifter, Eliel, as well as I, is only thirteen. Thinkeft thou it poffible to die fo young? SELIMA. What! knoweft thou not youth hath no power over death? THIRSA. I have been told fo, but we have no examples-Neither can I conceive what is meant by death. SELIMA. Alas, turn thine eyes; behold where that cluster of cypress trees bend their mournful fhade-there our brother Abel lies. |