Near the Levantine shores there dwelt of old An aged ruler, feared in every land; Not that he owned enormous heaps of gold, Not that vast armies marched at his command,-- But on his people's minds he things impressed, Which filled with desperate courage every breast The boldest of his subjects first he took, Of paradise to give them a foretaste-- The paradise his lawgiver had painted; With every joy the lying prophet's book Within his falsely-pictured heaven had placed, They thought their senses had become acquainted. And how was this effected? 'Twas by wine-- Of this they drank till every sense gave way, And, while in drunken lethargy they lay, Were borne, according to their chief's design, To sports of pleasantness--to sunshine glades, Delightful gardens and inviting shades. Young tender beauties were abundant there, In earliest bloom, and exquisitely fair; These gayly thronged around the sleeping men, Who, when at length they were awake again, Wondering to see the beauteous objects round, Believed that some way they'd already found Those fields of bliss, in every beauty decked, The false Mahomet promised his elect. Acquaintance quickly made, the Turks advance; The maidens join them in a sprightly dance; Sweet music charms them as they trip along; And every feathered warbler adds his song. The joys that could for every sense suffice. Were found within this earthly paradise. Wine, too, was there--and its effects the same; These people drank, till they could drink no more, Were earned to the place from whence they came. And what resulted from this trickery? These men believed that they should surely be Again transported to that place of pleasure, If, without fear of suffering or of death, They showed devotion to Mahomet's faith, And to their prince obedience without measure. Thus might their sovereign with reason say, And that, now his device had made them so, His was the mightiest empire here below.... All this might be very well in one of La Fontaine's tales--setting apart the weakness of the verse; and there are a hundred historical anecdotes which could be tolerated there only. SECTION II. Assassination being, next to poisoning, the crime most cowardly and most deserving of punishment, it is not astonishing that it has found an apologist in a man whose singular reasoning is, in some things, at variance with the reason of the rest of mankind.