of possessing; for the intolerable thought
of uniting her to so objectionable a being as himself would have been
dismissed as utterly inelegant even had he been in a manner of living
to provide for her adequately, which itself seemed clearly impossible.
Disregarding all similar emotions, therefore, he walked without pausing
to his abode, and stretching his body upon the rushes, drank the entire
liquid unhesitatingly, and prepared to pass beyond with a tranquil mind
entirely given up to thoughts and images of Mian.

X

Upon a certain occasion, the particulars of which have already been
recorded, Ling had judged himself to have passed into the form of a
spirit on beholding the ethereal form of Mian bending over him. After
swallowing the entire liquid, which had cost the dead magician so much
to distil and make perfect, it was with a well-assured determination of
never again awakening that he lost the outward senses and floated in the
Middle Air, so that when his eyes next opened upon what seemed to be
the bare walls of his own chamber, his first thought was a natural
conviction that the matter had been so arranged either out of a
charitable desire that he should not be overcome by a too sudden
transition to unparalleled splendour, or that such a reception was the
outcome of some dignified jest on the part of certain lesser and more
cheerful spirits. After waiting in one position for several hours,
however, and receiving no summons or manifestation of a celestial
nature, he began to doubt the qualities of the liquid, and applying
certain tests, he soon ascertained that he was still in the lower world
and unharmed. Nevertheless, this circumstance did not tend in any way
to depress his mind, for, doubtless owing to some hidden virtue of
the fluid, he felt an enjoyable emotion that he still lived; all his
attributes appeared to be purified, and he experienced an inspired
certainty of feeling that an illustrious and highly-remunerative future
lay before one who still had an ordinary existence after being both
officially killed and self-poisoned.

In this intelligent disposition thoughts of Mian recurred to him with
unreproved persistence, and in order to convey to her an account of the
various matters which had engaged him since his arrival at the city, and
a well-considered declaration of the unchanged state of his own feelings
towards her, he composed and despatched with impetuous haste the
following delicate verses: