wherefore am I thus? Why should the desires of vice be accomplished by
superior powers; and why should superior powers be permitted to
disappoint the expectations of virtue? Yet let me not rashly question
the ways of Him, in whose balance the world is weighed: by Him, every
evil is rendered subservient to good; and by His wisdom, the happiness
of the whole is secured. Yet I am but a part only, and for a part only I
can feel. To me, what is that goodness of which I do not partake? In my
cup the gall is unmixed; and have I not, therefore, a right to complain?
But what have I said? Let not the gloom that surrounds me, hide from me
the prospect of immortality. Shall not eternity atone for time?
Eternity, to which the duration of ages is but as an atom to a world!
Shall I not, when this momentary separation is past, again meet ALMEIDA
to part no more? and shall not a purer flame than burns upon the earth,
unite us? Even at this moment, her mind, which not the frauds of sorcery
can taint or alienate, is mine: that pleasure which she reserved for me,
cannot be taken by force; it is in the consent alone that it subsists;
and from the joy that she feels, and from that only, proceeds the joy
she can bestow.'

With these reflections he soothed the anguish of his mind, till the
dreadful moment arrived, in which the power of the talisman took place,
and the figure of ALMORAN was changed into that of HAMET, and the
figure of HAMET into that of ALMORAN.

At the moment of transformation, HAMET was seized with a sudden languor,
and his faculties were suspended as by the stroke of death. When he
recovered, his limbs still trembled, and his lips were parched with
thirst: he rose, therefore, and entering the cavern, at the mouth of
which he had been sitting, he stooped over the well to drink; but
glancing his eyes upon the water, he saw, with astonishment and horror,