with the odours of the night flowers. I am weeping; now I speak, Oh, my brother, would that I had not cast thee from me! My heart is very sad, my brother-my heart yearns for thee! I would give my sceptre for thy love! Wilt thou not come to me again, my brother?' Take back thy glass, magician; let me wait and think before I look again.'

The sage looked on him with a smile. "Wouldst thou know what thou shalt be when two more years shall have passed away?" he inquired. "Yes; let me see again.' Hafed took the mirror, breathed on it, and looked at what was imaged there, then started back aghast. "I am in the same garden, but I am no longer a monarch. I am a fugitive; a miserable creature fleeing for my life. I resolve never to live dishonoured. Man-man! am I to die by my own hand? After all, magic has done this; there is no truth in what I have seen.'

"

"There may be truth, my lord, if you will have it so."

"I do not understand you," said the prince, striving to appear unconcerned. "You have shown me two distinct periods of my future life, and it is dependent on me whether they shall remain but visions, or whether they shall become realities. Is this what you would say?"

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'My lord has rightly divined his servant's meaning."

'Old man, I am not content. Show me again what I have seen, with all that precedes, and intervenes, and follows, in regular succession.'

"The prince holds the mirror, let him look."

With intense earnestness Hafed gazed, when, having taken it from his lips, the dimness faded, and he beheld himself reclining on the cushions in the chamber next the caliph's apartment. Then it seemed to him that the officer on guard entered, bringing news that his master's spirit was quickly passing away. In a moment he stood beside his father's couch, and repeated all that the absent Casbin had said, adding many yet more bitter sayings, till at the poisoned words the expiring monarch gathered up his remaining strength, and, before the ministers and chief men there assembled, renounced his eldest son, and named the slanderer his successor. Afterwards, in rapid progression, Hafed saw how his brother disputed not his parent's will, but left the city, and withdrew to a distant part of the land, where he occupied himself in doing good, yet coming from time to time, as occasion required, to give the youthful sovereign counsel. How, in the arrogance of his heart, the supplanter would not hear, but did rashly and wrongly; and, angered by Casbin's wise remonstrances, forbade him to approach his

presence. And how the people mourned the departure of their beloved prince, but feared to offend the tyrant by showing their sorrow. His power was at the highest; he was master of the world; yet this very superiority destroyed all sympathy with other men. All feared, none loved him; and, while he was almost worshipped as a god, he envied the meanest of his subjects who had one true friend. A secret want made his heart ache beneath the kingly robe. Confidants he had, indeed, but they betrayed him,—and favourites, but they proved false; they on whom he freely lavished benefits requited his gifts with ingratitude. At last he determined to free Souban, the eldest of the six captive princes, and to bind him to him heart and soul by innumerable kindnesses. "Surely," he thought, "he to whom I give liberty, and whom I make next to myself in 'honour, will care for me.' ." "Ask me what thou wilt, and I will give it thee, only love me," said he to the released Souban, who replied, "Let my brothers have their freedom, and make me governor over my own land," and Hafed did so. But ere a year was gone, he found that he had been again deceived; Souban raised the standard of revolt. The chief captain, whom the caliph had displaced, that he might give the command to the second brother, refused again to head the troops; the army would not follow any other leader. Defeat and shame ensued. The people murmured: the great men, displeased that aliens should be placed above them, intrigued to overthrow the sovereign, and were aided by the grand vizier, whom, though his daughter was Casbin's wife, Hafed had retained on account of his great wisdom. To covert discontent succeeded open dissension. Hafed, bewildered, knew not what to do. He closed his ears to warning and advice, and spent his days and nights in riotous feasting or indolent repose. Suddenly a company of conspirators stormed the palace, slaying all that opposed them, and clamouring for the caliph's head. Hafed might have sought safety in flight, though there was little chance of escape, but he could not brook disgrace. He fell by his own dagger; and, though a superstitious reverence for the dead saved his corpse from ignominious treatment, it received no sepulchral honours.

Shuddering, Hafed gave back the glass. "Old man," he said, "you have amply repaid the service that I rendered to you. You have taught me a fearful lesson, and I thank you for it." He remained for some minutes in profound thought; then he would have returned to the palace, but all was darkness about him. He called to the magician, but no answer was returned. A hand was laid gently on his shoulder; a

voice said, softly, "What ails my brother?" and by the light of a taper that the inquirer held, he saw that he was again in the chamber with purple hangings, and that Casbin was leaning over him. "I come to call you to our father," repeated the elder prince; " and truly you must rejoice to be awakened, for your sleep was sorely troubled."

"Has it all been a vision? Have I never left these cushions, Have I seen all these things in my slumbers alone?" asked Hafed, wonderingly.

"Brother-brother, our father has sent for us; his hours are numbered!"

Hafed started. "Nevertheless," said he to himself, "the lesson is learned, and I will not forget it."

Into the darkened room they went together, and found, gathered around the caliph's bed, the great men of the realm. "Hafed," gasped the dying monarch, "let these bear witness that the throne is yours-yours alone."

"Not so, not so, my father," cried the young man. "Casbin is older and worthier than I am."

“Nay, let us share the power, or I will none of it,” persisted the youth.

"So be it then," and the caliph sank back beneath the touch of the death-angel.

When the funeral observances were over, and the new rulers were duly installed in their government, Hafed confided to his brother the wondrous dream that had visited him, saying, "Such it must be; for I have searched throughout the city, yet can I not find the magician's dwelling, neither does any one know aught of the man."

"The vision was doubtless from Allah," replied Casbin. "Let it not come true. We can hardly retain the conquered kingdom, without great cost and trouble. Before we can completely subdue it, we must crush the spirit and courage of the inhabitants; then they will not care to defend the land from other foes, and thus an easy way will be made for the entrance of an enemy into our dominions. Let us, therefore, restore the country to its rightful king, and make it his interest to be our friend; thus the barren mountains on the north, and the hardy race that peoples them, will be a safeguard for us against invasion on that side, while the dwellers on the south will trade with our merchants."

"Thou hast well said, my brother," answered Hafed.

So it was done. Souban and his people were true and useful allies to the mighty monarchs at Bagdad; and long and glorious was the reign of Casbin and Hafed.

"Would that there were a glass like that of the magician,” they would often say, "for could we but see the result of our actions, and how every sin brings its own punishment, we should less readily yield to temptation."

Such a mirror has never been found; but we need it not, for we should tread the path of duty that is clearly traced for each of us, whether the way be rough or smooth, and we know where strength may be obtained to enable us to follow it faithfully.

CARLA MEREX.

LIGHT FOR SARDINIA.

[Our present political alliance with Sardinia has induced us to obtain the following information for our readers as calculated to interest them. This Paper is by an intelligent and trustworthy observer, long resident abroad.—ED.]

THE kingdom of Sardinia, which is one and the same with Piedmont and Savoy, and the Sardinian States, is now under the crown of Carlo Emmanuele. Many travellers have described the outward aspect of the country, but in their rapid course few have had the opportunity of making themselves acquainted with the political and religious state of the nation. A few lines on this twofold subject may therefore be acceptable to our readers.

Hunted down all over the Continent of Europe, liberty has taken refuge in three small countriesBelgium, where it really reigns; Switzerland, where it should reign; and Sardinia, where it has just penetrated, and where, although welcomed, it has yet to struggle for every inch of ground it occupies. Before 1847 this country was nothing but a part of the enslaved and priest-ridden Italy. Since then-since her king, Carlo Alberto, converted to constitutional principles, granted to his people a charter of rights political and civil, and since his successor has struck the first blow against the uncontrolled power of the

priests, in putting them on a level with all other citizens before the courts of justice, Sardinia has stood apart, and become the pioneer of Italian freedom. But, like all pioneers, it has hard work to do, and must toil mainly for another generation.

Three elements here, as in England, Spain, and Belgium, constitute the government. First, the king, who personally is sincerely constitutional; he reigns, but he does not govern, and he finds it convenient to have the responsibility of everything thrown upon his ministers. It is a settled habit with him, whenever he wants to have anything done by the ministers, to turn to one of them in the council, and say, “Is this constitutional," and he never insists on that which is not conformed to the statuto. He is quite popular among the masses of the people. The other day, when coming from Spezzia to Genoa, the king was nearly wrecked, and the news of his danger and escape caused a thrill of emotion through the whole country.

After the king comes the Senate, an aristocratic body, somewhat like the House of Lords in England, but without the qualities of that illustrious body. The peers of England, with all their privileges, are the friends of freedom and of progress; but the hereditary senators of Sardinia, brought up under the reign of despotism, have not followed their king, and, in the opinion of most of them, the charter granted by Charles Albert will prove the ruin of the country. Their consent being necessary to the enactment of every law, they have stood in the way of many a salutary reform. It is hoped, however, that as the king is empowered to make new Senators, he will, before long, change into majority the minority of the Senate, by adding to their number men of the right spirit.

Last, but not least, is the House of Representatives, a noble body of men upon the whole, in whom reside