The pilgrim could no longer sustain
himself.[15] Faith, courage, devotion deserted him with his failing
energies. He strove no longer with his destiny, he delivered himself
up to despair and death. He fell upon one knee with drooping head,
supporting himself by one quivering hand, and then, full of the anguish
of baffled purposes and lost affections, raising his face and arm to
heaven, thus to the elements he poured his passionate farewell.
'O life! once vainly deemed a gloomy toil, I feel thy sweetness now!
Farewell, O life, farewell my high resolves and proud conviction of
almighty fame. My days, my short unprofitable days, melt into the past;
and death, with which I struggle, horrible death, arrests me in this
wilderness. O my sister, could thy voice but murmur in my ear one single
sigh of love; could thine eye with its soft radiance but an instant
blend with my dim fading vision, the pang were nothing. Farewell,
Miriam! my heart is with thee by thy fountain's side. Fatal blast,
bear her my dying words, my blessing. And ye too, friends, whose too
neglected love I think of now, farewell! Farewell, my uncle; farewell,
pleasant home, and Hamadan's serene and shadowy bowers! Farewell,
Jabaster, and the mighty lore of which thou wert the priest and I the
pupil! Thy talisman throbs on my faithful heart.
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