of this Story.

* * * * *

No. 585. Wednesday, August 25, 1714. Addison.

'Ipsi laetitia voces ad sidera jactant
Intonsi montes: ipsae jam carmina rupes,
Ipsae sonant arbusta--'

Virg.

_The Sequel of the Story of_ Shalum _and_ Hilpa.

The Letter inserted in my last had so good an Effect upon _Hilpa,_ that
she answered it in less than a Twelvemonth, after the following Manner.

Hilpa, _Mistress of the Vallies, to_ Shalum, _Master of Mount_ Tirzah.

_In the 789th Year of the Creation._

'What have I to do with thee, O _Shalum?_ Thou praisest _Hilpa_'s
Beauty, but art thou not secretly enamoured with the Verdure of her
Meadows? Art thou not more affected with the Prospect of her green
Vallies, than thou wouldest be with the Sight of her Person? The
Lowings of my Herds, and the Bleatings of my Flocks, make a pleasant
Eccho in thy Mountains, and sound sweetly in thy Ears. What tho' I am
delighted with the Wavings of thy Forests, and those Breezes of
Perfumes which flow from the Top of _Tirzah:_ Are these like the
Riches of the Valley?

'I know thee, O _Shalum;_ thou art more wise and happy than any of the
Sons of Men. Thy Dwellings are among the Cedars; thou searchest out
the Diversity of Soils, thou understandest the Influences of the
Stars, and markest the Change of Seasons. Can a Woman appear lovely in
the Eyes of such a one? Disquiet me not, O _Shalum;_ let me alone,
that I may enjoy those goodly Possessions which are fallen to my Lot.
Win me not by thy enticing Words. May thy Trees increase and multiply;
mayest thou add Wood to Wood, and Shade to Shade; but tempt not
_Hilpa_ to destroy thy Solitude, and make thy Retirement populous.

The _Chinese_ say, that a little time afterwards she accepted of a Treat
in one of the neighbouring Hills to which _Shalum_ had invited her. This
Treat lasted for two Years, and is said to have cost _Shalum_ five
hundred Antelopes, two thousand Ostriches, and a thousand Tun of Milk;
but what most of all recommended it, was that Variety of delicious
Fruits and Pot-herbs, in which no Person then living could any way equal
_Shalum_.

He treated her in the Bower which he had planted amidst the Wood of
Nightingales. This Wood was made up of such Fruit-Trees and Plants as
are most agreeable to the several Kinds of Singing Birds; so that it had
drawn i