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Swells in the breast, and with resistless force
O'erbears each gentler motion of the mind.
As when a deluge overspreads the plains,
The wand'ring rivulet and silver lake
Mix undistinguish'd in the general roar.

ABDALLA.

Yet can ambition in Abdalla's breast,
Claim but the second place: there mighty love
Has fix'd his hopes, inquietudes, and fears,
His glowing wishes, and his jealous pangs.

CALI.

Love is indeed the privilege of youth;
Yet on a day like this, when expectation
Pants for the dread event-But let us reason-

ABDALLA.

Hast thou grown old amidst the crowd of courts,
And turn'd th' instructive page of human life,
To cant, at last, of reason to a lover?
Such ill-tim'd gravity, such serious folly,
Might well befit the solitary student,

Th' unpractis'd dervise, or sequester'd faquir.
Know'st thou not yet, when love invades the
soul,

That all her faculties receive his chains?
That reason gives her sceptre to his hand,
Or only struggles to be more enslav'd?
Aspasia, who can look upon thy beauties?
Who hear thee speak, and not abandon reason?
Reason! the hoary dotard's dull directress,
That loses all because she hazards nothing!
Reason! the tim'rous pilot, that, to shun
The rocks of life, for ever flies the port!

CALI.

But why this sudden warmth?

ABDALLA.

Because I love;
Because my slighted passion burns in vain!
Why roars the lioness distress'd by hunger?
Why foams the swelling wave when tempests rise?
Why shakes the ground when subterraneous fires
Fierce through the bursting caverns rend their
way?

CALI.

Not till this day thou sawst this fatal fair;
Did ever passion make so swift a progress?
Once more reflect, suppress this infant folly.

ABDALLA.

Gross fires, enkindled by a mortal hand,
Spread by degrees, and dread th' oppressing
stream;

The subtler flames emitted from the sky
Flash out at once, with strength above resistance.

CALI.

How did Aspasia welcome your address?
Did you proclaim this unexpected conquest?
Or pay with speaking eyes a lover's homage?

ABDALLA.

Confounded, aw'd, and lost in admiration,
I gaz'd, I trembled; but I could not speak;

When e'en as love was breaking off from wonder,
And tender accents quiver'd on my lips,
She mark'd my sparkling eyes, and heaving
breast;

And smiling, conscious of her charms, withdrew. [Enter Demetrius and Leontius.

CALI.

Now be some moments master of thyself; Nor let Demetrius know thee for a rival. Hence! or be calm-To disagree is ruin.

SCENE II.

CALI, DEMETRIUS, LEONTIUS, ABDALLA.

DEMETRIUS.

When will occasion smile upon our wishes,
And give the tortures of suspense a period?
Still must we linger in uncertain hope? [dom,
Still languish in our chains, and dream of free-
Like thirsty sailors gazing on the clouds,
Till burning death shoots through their wither'd
limbs ?

CALI.

Deliverance is at hand; for Turkey's tyrant,
Sunk in his pleasures, confident and gay,
With all the hero's dull security,
Trusts to my care his mistress and his life,
And laughs and wantons in the jaws of death.

LEONTIUS.

So weak is man when destin'd to destruction !The watchful slumber, and the crafty trust.

CALI.

At my command yon iron gates unfold;
At my command the sentinels retire;
With all the license of authority,
Through bowing slaves, Irange the private rooms,
And of to morrow's action fix the scene.

DEMETRIUS.

To morrow's action! Can that hoary wisdom,
Borne down with years, still doat upon to morrow!
That fatal mistress of the young, the lazy,
The coward, and the fool, condemn'd to lose
An useless life in waiting for to morrow,
To gaze with longing eyes upon to morrow,
Till interposing death destroys the prospect!
Strange that this gen'ral fraud from day to day
Should fill the world with wretches undetected.
The soldier, lab'ring through a winter's march,
Still sees to morrow drest in robes of triumph;
Still to the lover's long-expecting arms
To morrow brings the visionary bride.
But thou, too old to bear another cheat,
Learn, that the present hour alone is man's.

LEONTIUS.

The present hour with open arms invites;
Seize the kind fair, and press her to thy bosom,

DEMETRIUS.

Who knows, ere this important morrow rise,
But fear or mutiny may taint the Greeks?
Who knows, if Mahomet's awaking anger
May spare the fatal bow-string tili to morrow?

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He's gone--Here rest, iny soul, thy fainting wing,
Here recollect thy dissipated pow'rs.-
Our distant int'rests, and our diff'rent passions,
Now haste to mingle in one common centre,
And fate lies crowded in a narrow space.
Yet in that narrow space what dangers rise !-
Far more I dread Abdalla's fiery folly,
Than all the wisdom of the grave divan.
Reason with reason fights on equal terms;
The raging madman's unconnected schemes
We cannot obviate, for we cannot guess.
Deep in my breast be treasur'd this resolve,

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When Cali mounts the throne, Abdalla dies. Too fierce, too faithless, for neglect or trust. [Enter Irene with Attendants,

SCENE VII.

CALI, IRENE, ASPASIA, &c.

CALI.

Amidst the splendour of encircling beauty, Superior majesty proclaims thee queen, And nature justifies our monarch's choice.

IRENE.

Reserve this homage for some other fair; Urge me not on to glitt'ring guilt, nor pour In my weak ear th' intoxicating sounds.

CALI.

Make haste, bright maid, to rule the willing world;

Aw'd by the rigour of the sultan's justice,
We court thy gentleness.

ASPASIA.

Can Cali's voice

Concur to press a hapless captive's ruin?

CALI.

Long would my zeal for Mahomet and thee
Detain me here. But nations call upon me,
And duty bids me chuse a distant walk,
Nor taint with care the privacies of love.

SCENE VIII.,

IRENE, ASPASIA, Attendants.

ASPASIA.

If yet this shining pomp, these sudden honours,
Swell not thyself beyond advice or friendship,
Nor yet inspire the follies of a queen,
Or tune thine ear to soothing adulation,
Suspend awhile the privilege of pow'r
To hear the voice of truth; dismiss thy train,
Shake off th' encumbrances of state a moment,
And lay the tow'ring sultaness aside,

[Irene signs to her attendants to retire.
While I foretel thy fate; that office done,-
No more I boast th' ambitious name of friend,
But sink among thy slaves without a murmur.

IRENE.

Did regal diadems invest my brow,
Yet should my soul, still faithful to her choice,
Esteem Aspasia's breast the noblest kingdom.

ASPASIA.

The soul, once tainted with so foul a crime,
No more shall glow with friendship's hallow'd
ardour:

Those holy beings, whose superior care
Guides erring mortals to the paths of virtue,
Affrighted at impiety like thine,

Resign their charge to baseness and to ruin.

IRENE.

Upbraid me not with fancied wickedness; I am not yet a queen or an apostate.

But should I sin beyond the hope of mercy,
If, when religion prompts me to refuse,
The dread of instant death restrains my tongue?

ASPASIA.

Reflect that life and death, affecting sounds!
Are only varied inodes of endless being;
Reflect that life, like ev'ry other blessing,
Derives its value from its use alone;
Not for itself, but for a nobler end,
Th' Eternal gave it, and that end is virtue.
When inconsistent with a greater good,
Reason commands to cast the less away;
Thus life, with loss of wealth is well preserv'd,
And virtue cheaply sav'd with loss of life.

IRENE

If built on settled thought, this constancy
Not idly flutters on a boastful tongue,
Why, when destruction rag'd around our walls,
Why fled this haughty heroine from the battle?
Why then did not this warlike Amazon
Mix in the war, and shine among the heroes?

ASPASLA.

Heav'n, when its hand pour'd softness on our limbs,

Unfit for toil, and polish'd into weakness.
Made passive fortitude the praise of woman:
Our only arms are innocence and meekness.
Not then with raving cries 1 fill'd the city;
But, while Demetrius, dear lamented name!
Pour'd storms of fire upon our fierce invaders,
Implor'd th' Eternal Pow'r to shield my country,
With silent sorrows, and with calm devotion.

IRENE.

O! did Irene shine the queen of Turkey,
No more should Greece lament those pray'rs re-
jected;

Again should golden splendour grace her cities,
Again her prostrate palaces should rise,
Again her temples sound with holy music:
No more should danger fright, or want distress
The smiling widows, and protected orphans.

ASPASIA.

Be virtuous ends pursu'd by virtuous means, Nor think th' intention sanctifies the deed: That maxim, publish'd in an impious age, Would loose the wild enthusiast to destroy, And fix the fierce usurper's bloody title; Then bigotry might send her slaves to war, And bid success become the test of truth: Unpitying massacre might waste the world, And persecution boast the call of Heaven.

IRENE.

Shall I not wish to cheer afflicted kings,
And plan the happiness of mourning millions?

ASPASIA.

Dream not of pow'r thou never canst attain: When social laws first harmonis'd the world, Superior man possess'd the charge of rule, The scale of justice, and the sword of power, Nor left us ought but flattery and state.

IRENE.

To me my lover's fondness will restore
Whate'er man's pride has ravish'd from our sex.

ASPASIA.

When soft security shall prompt the sultan,
Freed from the tumults of unsettled conquest,
To fix his court, and regulate his pleasures,
Soon shall the dire seraglio's horrid gates
Close like th' eternal bars of death upon thee.
Immur'd, and buried in perpetual sloth,
That gloomy slumber of the stagnant soul,
There shalt thou view from far the quiet cottage,
And sigh for cheerful poverty in vain;
There wear the tedious hours of life away,
Beneath each curse of unrelenting Heav'n,
Despair and slav'ry, solitude and guilt.

IRENE.

There shall we find the yet untasted bliss
Of grandeur and tranquillity combia'd.
A PASIA.

Tranquillity and guilt, disjoin'd by Heaven,
Still stretch in vain their longing arms afar;
Nor dare to pass th' insuperable bound.
Ah! let me rather seek the convent's cell;
There when my thoughts, at interval of pray'r,
Descend to range these mansions of misfortune,
Oft' shall I dwell on our disastrous friendship,
And shed the pitying tear for lost Irene,

IRENE.

Go, languish on in dull obscurity;
Thy dazzled soul, with all its boasted greatness,
Shrinks at th' o'erpow'ring gleams of regal
state,

Stoops from the blaze like a degenerate eagle,
And flies for shelter to the shades of life.

ASPASIA.

On me should Providence, without a crime,
The weighty charge of royalty confer;
Call me to civilize the Russian wilds,
Or bid soft science polish Britain's heroes:
Soon should'st thou see, how false thy weak
reproach.

My bosom feels, enkindled from the sky,
The lambent flames of mild benevolence,
Untouch'd by fierce ambition's raging fires.

IRENE.

Ambition is the stamp impress'd by Heaven
To mark the noblest minds; with active heat
Inform'd, they mount the precipice of pow'r,
Grasp at command, and tow'r in quest of
empire;

While vulgar souls compassionate their cares,
Gaze at their height, and tremble at their dan-
Thus meaner spirits with amazement mark [ger:
The varying seasons, and revolving skies,
And ask, what guilty pow'r's rebellious hand
Rolls with eternal toil the pond'rous orbs:
While some archangel, nearer to perfection,
In easy state presides o'er all their motions,
Directs the planets with a careless nod,
Conducts the Sun, and regulates the spheres.

ASPASIA.

Well mayst thou hide in labyrinths of sound The cause that shrinks from reason's pow'rfu! roice. [thought. Stoop from thy flight, trace back th' entangled

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