'shall ALMEIDA awake, and these
dreams of folly and superstition vanish? That only is virtue, by which
happiness is produced; and whatever produces happiness, is therefore
virtue; and the forms, and words and rites, which priests have pretended
to be required by Heaven, are the fraudful arts only by which they
govern mankind.'

ALMEIDA, by this impious insult, was roused from grief to indignation:
'As thou hast now dared,' said she, 'to deride the laws, which thou
wouldst first have broken; so hast thou broken for ever the tender
bonds, by which my soul was united to thine. Such as I fondly believed
thee, thou art not; and what thou art, I have never loved. I have loved
a delusive phantom only, which, while I strove to grasp it, has vanished
from me.' ALMORAN attempted to reply; but on such a subject, neither her
virtue nor her wisdom would permit debate. 'That prodigy,' said she,
'which I thought was the sleight of cunning, or the work of sorcery, I
now revere as the voice of Heaven; which, as it knew thy heart, has in
mercy saved me from thy arms. To the will of Heaven shall my will be
obedient; and my voice also shall pronounce, to ALMORAN ALMEIDA.'

ALMORAN, whose whole soul was now suspended in attention, conceived new
hopes of success; and foresaw the certain accomplishment of his purpose,
though by an effect directly contrary to that which he had laboured to
produce. Thus to have incurred the hatred of ALMEIDA in the form of
HAMET, was more fortunate than to have taken advantage of her love; the
path that led to his wishes was now clear and open; and his marriage
with ALMEIDA in his own person, waited only till he could resume it. He,
therefore, instead of soothing, provoked her resentment: 'If thou hast
loved a phantom,' said he, 'which existed only in imagination; on such a
phantom my love also has been fixed: thou hast, indeed, only the form of
what I called ALMEIDA; my love thou hast rejected, because thou hast
never loved; the object of thy passion was not HAMET, but a throne; and
thou hast made the observance of rituals, in which folly only can
suppose there is good or ill, a pretence to violate thy faith, that thou
mayst still gratify thy ambition.'

To this injurious reproach, ALMEIDA made no reply; and ALMORAN
immediately quitted her apartment, that he might reassume his own
figure, take advantage of the disposition which, under the appearance
of HAMET, he had produced in favour of himself: But Osmyn,