THE ADORATION OF FIRE
Reading edition
IN THE
FIRST AGES.
Divinam spirare fidem, ventosque loquaces
Exhalare solum, sacris se condidit antris,
Incubuitque adyto: vates ibi factus Apollo.
Pl. II. Temple of Mithras near Naki Rustan in Persia. Also temples in the rock near the Plain of the Magi. From Le Bruyn.
Frons erat, unde etiam nomen traxere Cerastæ.
Such was the painful exercise which Maghmud undertook in January this year; and for this purpose he chose a subterraneous vault. In the beginning of the next month, when he came forth, he was so pale, disfigured, and emaciated, that they hardly knew him. But this was not the worst effect of his devotion. Solitude, often dangerous to a melancholy turn of thought, had, under the circumstances of his inquietude, and the strangeness of his penance, impaired his reason. He became restless and suspicious, often starting.—In one of these fits he determined to put to death the whole family of his predecessor, Sha Hussein; among whom were several brothers, three uncles, and seven nephews, besides that prince's children. All these, in number above an hundred, the tyrant cut to pieces with his own hand in the palace yard, where they were assembled for that bloody purpose. Two small children only escaped by the intervention of their father, who was wounded in endeavouring to screen them.
