not dare to shun, and the search of pleasure which he could never find.

HAMET, on the contrary, did not seek pleasure, but pleasure seemed to
seek him: he had a perpetual complacence and serenity of mind, which
rendered him constantly susceptible of pleasing impressions; every thing
that was prepared to refresh or entertain him in his seasons of
retirement and relaxation, added something to the delight which was
continually springing in his breast, when he reviewed the past, or
looked forward to the future. Thus, the pleasures of sense were
heightened by those of his mind, and the pleasures of the mind by those
of sense: he had, indeed, as yet no wise; for as yet no woman had fixed
his attention, or determined his choice.

Among the ambassadors whom the monarchs of Asia sent to congratulate the
sons of Solyman upon their accession to the throne, there was a native
of Circassia, whose name was Abdallah. Abdallah had only one child, a
daughter, in whom all his happiness and affection centered; he was
unwilling to leave her behind, and therefore brought her to the court of
Persia. Her mother died while she was yet an infant; she was now in the
sixteenth year of her age, and her name was ALMEIDA. She was beautiful
as the daughters of Paradise, and gentle as the breezes of the spring;
her mind was without stain, and her manners were without art.

She was lodged with her father in a palace that joined to the gardens of
the seraglio; and it happened that a lamp which had one night been left
burning in a lower apartment, by some accident set fire to the net-work
of cotton that surrounded a sopha, and the whole room was soon after in
a flame. ALMORAN, who had been passing the afternoon in riot and
debauchery, had been removed from his banquetting room asleep; but HAMET
was still in his closet, where he had been regulating some papers that