s agitated glance to the starry vault of Araby, and, clasping
his hands in the anguish of devotion, thus prays:--

'O Lord God of Israel, Creator of the Universe, ineffable Jehovah! a
child of Christendom, I come to thine ancient Arabian altars to pour
forth the heart of tortured Europe. Why art thou silent? Why no longer
do the messages of thy renovating will descend on earth? Faith fades and
duty dies. A profound melancholy has fallen on the spirit of man. The
priest doubts, the monarch cannot rule, the multitude moans and toils,
and calls in its frenzy upon unknown gods. If this transfigured mount
may not again behold Thee; if not again, upon thy sacred Syrian plains,
Divinity may teach and solace men; if prophets may not rise again to
herald hope; at least, of all the starry messengers that guard thy
throne, let one appear, to save thy creatures from a terrible despair!'

[Illustration: page2-157]

A dimness suffused the stars of Arabia; the surrounding heights, that
had risen sharp and black in the clear purple air, blended in shadowy
and fleeting masses, the huge branches of the cypress tree seemed to
stir, and the kneeling pilgrim sank upon the earth senseless and in a
trance.

And there appeared to him a form; a shape that should be human, but vast
as the surrounding hills. Yet such was the symmetry of the vision that
the visionary felt his littleness rather than the colossal proportions
of the apparition. It was the semblance of one who, though not young,
was still untouched by time; a countenance like an oriental night, dark
yet lustrous, mystical yet clear. Thought, rather than melancholy,
spoke from the pensive passion of his eyes, while on his lofty forehead
glittered a star that threw a solemn radiance on the repose of his
majestic features.

'Child of Christendom,' said the mighty form, as he seemed slowly to
wave a sceptre fashioned like a palm tree, 'I am the angel of Arabia,
the guardian spirit of that land which governs the world; for power is
neither the sword nor the shield, for these pass away, but ideas, which
are divine. The thoughts of all lands come from a higher source than
man, but the intellect of Arabia comes from the Most High. Therefore
it is that from this spot issue the principles which regulate the human
destiny.

'That Christendom which thou hast quitted, and over whose expiring
attributes thou art a mourner, was a savage forest while the cedars of
Lebanon, for countless ages,