ery island is a paradise, accommodated to its
respective inhabitants. Are not these, O Mirza, habitations worth
contending for? Does life appear miserable, that gives thee
opportunities of earning such a reward? Is death to be feared, that will
convey thee to so happy an existence? Think not man was made in vain,
who has such an eternity reserved for him.”

I gazed with inexpressible pleasure on these happy islands. At length
said I, “Show me now, I beseech thee, the secrets that lie hid under
those dark clouds which cover the ocean, on the other side of the rock
of adamant.” The genius making me no answer, I turned about to address
myself to him a second time, but I found he had left me. I then turned
again to the vision I had been so long contemplating; but instead of the
rolling tide, the arched bridge, and the happy islands, I saw nothing
but the long, hollow valley of Bagdad, with oxen, sheep, and camels
grazing upon the sides of it.--JOSEPH ADDISON.




        THE PRAIRIES


      These are the gardens of the desert, these
    The unshorn fields, boundless and beautiful,
    For which the speech of England has no name--
    The Prairies. I behold them for the first,
    And my heart swells, while the dilated sight
    Takes in the encircling vastness. Lo! they stretch
    In airy undulations, far away,
    As if the ocean, in his gentlest swell,
    Stood still, with all his rounded billows fixed,
    And motionless forever. Motionless?--
    No--they are all unchained again. The clouds
    Sweep over with their shadows, and, beneath,
    The surface rolls and fluctuates to the eye;
    Dark hollows seem to glide along, and chase
    The sunny ridges. Breezes of the South!
    Who toss the golden and the flame-like flowers,
    And pass the prairie-hawk that, poised on high,
    Flaps his broad wings, yet moves not,--ye have played
    Among the palms of Mexico and vines
    Of Texas, and have crisped the limpid brooks
    That from the fountains of Sonora glide
    Into the calm Pacific--have ye fan