Page:Essays and phantasies by James Thomson.djvu/221

 Rh where the vintners dwell, to seek the daughter of an infidel who sells wine.

"At the end of the street there advanced before me a damsel, with a fairy's cheeks, who, in the manner of a pagan, wore her tresses dishevelled over her shoulders like the sacerdotal thread. I said: 'O thou, to the arch of whose eyebrow the new moon is a slave, what quarter is this, and where is thy mansion?'

"She answered: 'Cast thy rosary on the ground; bind on thy shoulder the thread of paganism; throw stones at the glass of piety; and quaff wine from a full goblet:

"'After that come before me, that I may whisper a word in thine ear; thou wilt accomplish thy journey, if thou listen to my discourse.'

"Abandoning my heart, and rapt in ecstasy, I ran after her, till I came to a place, in which religion and reason forsook me.

"At a distance I beheld a company, all insane and inebriated, who came boiling and roaring with ardour from the wine of love.

"Without cymbals, or lutes, or viols, yet all full of mirth and melody; without wine, or goblet, or flask, yet all incessantly drinking.

"When the cord of restraint slipped from my hand, I desired to ask her one question, but she said: 'Silence!

"'This is no square temple, to the gate of which thou canst arrive precipitately; this is no mosque to which thou canst come with tumult, but without knowledge. This is the banquet-house of infidels, and within it all are intoxicated; all from the dawn of eternity to the day of resurrection, lost in astonishment.

"'Depart then from the cloister, and take the way to the tavern; cast off the cloak of a dervise and wear the robe of a libertine.'