The author Inatula to the reader. To the liberal patrons of science, to the ornaments of the society of knowledge; to the descendants of the sun of genius, whose minds are enlightened like the morning, be it known, that in the days of joy and festivity, in the temperate season of delight, when by the benign influences of the king of stars the teeming earth was cloathed in green, embroidered with bright clusters of flowers, the envy of the constellations, I walked forth with a few chearful companions, from the tumultuous waves of business into the calm of rural retirement, to recreate the mind with the prospect of vernal beauty. There I beheld the cup-bearers of the sky^1,from the fountain of benevolence, pouring forth bounty profuse on the exhilerated family of May, and the earth in full pride, intoxicated by the draught, disclosing without reserve the secrets of her swelling bosom. There I beheld the painter of the year^2  displaying his variegated fancies on his leafy tablets, and, with the pencil of power dipped in the aethereal bow, writing the lessons of wisdom divine on the fair forehead of blooming nature. There the rosy-finger'd spring, by the liquid mirror of a chrystalline pool, was attiring her fair daughters in seven-fold ornaments, while the love-whispering breeze stole kisses as they passed, and fanned their glowing beauties. From the warmth of the vital ray the little blossoms on every tree threw off their winter garments, and the infant buds of the spring from ruby cups sipped with joy the balmy dew. The leaves of the forest were loaded with manna, pure amber dropped from every bough, honey distilled from the rifted rock, and the humming bee, drunk with joy, strayed from flower to flower, forgetful of his bursting cells. Sweeter than the musk of Tatar^3, the morning breeze from the navel of every flower ravished perfume. The breath of the mountain heifer was fragrant as the gales of the Sirendiep^4, by feeding on spicy herbs. The mouth of the frisking antelope was red like the bill of the pert, loquacious parrot, by cropping the purple meads. Tremulous on the bladed grass shone bright the pearly drops, like an assembly of sparkling stars dancing on the plains of the zodiac; vocal was every bending spray, every reed was inspired, each warbling throat seemed to emulate the melodious voice of the bird of a thousand songs^5. The lofty mountains rose faint to the sight and lost their foreheads in the distant skies: the little hills, cloathed in darker green and skirted with embroidered vales, discovered the secret haunts of kids and bounding roes. The plain appears like paradise restored, where the proud cypress and tall arreca seem walking by the margin of the passing stream. The infant buds, impatient to look around them, rend their green garments and unfold their eyes; while every tree, on which the bulbul^6 sings, flutters with joy on the wings of their thousand leaves. The spring displaying her elegant taste, the proud walk of the gold-feathered pheasant, the light tread of the small-hoofed hind, and the dancing of the star-trained peacock, infused joy into the soul of the spectator of the astonishing works of the Creator; insomuch, that his heart, which from misfortune lay before shrunk like a flower in the bud, was now happily expanded, and the capacious cup of desired filled with the wine of pleasure. Some admired the external beauties of the objects they beheld, like the nightingale in love with the rose; some inchanted by the concert around, like Suphys^7 delighting in madness, tossed the cup of exultation into the skies; while others, of wisdom more sound, investigated the utility, perfection, and greatness of the designs of nature, till, from the beauty of the picture, they adored the hand of the artist, and quenched their thirst in the cup of knowledge from the sacred fountain of truth. 

The senses, formed to enjoy pleasure but for a time, became languid, when, wandering from my companions, I stretched myself down on the fallen blossoms of a mango-grove, where sleep delayed not long to shut the gates of light, nor did fancy fail to entertain the mind with incorporeal visions. Methought our company formed a circle on the grass, and were busied each according to his genius in writing a description of the scenes they beheld; when, lo, a young maid advanced towards us of such exquisite beauty and form, that a devotee of true faith would have worshipped the divinities which beamed in the arched temples of her eyes, and wish to wear the zinar^8, if woven of her ambrosial hair. Dark curling locks rolled down her snowy neck in simbol^9 wreaths, while, in envy of her soul-deluding countenance, the rising moon contracting her beams, like an inferior star, twinkled on the plain of the horizon. But how can I describe the delicate symmetry of her ivory limbs, the fair hemispheres of her panting bosom, the soft polish of her silver hands, and taper beauties of her coral fingers^10, that, like the rod of Moses, were pregnant with inchantment? or what shall I say of those twin rose-buds of her sweet mouth that, smiling, disclosed a row of pearls, which seemed as ranged in a crimson casket? On her forehead sat beauty in a sunbeam garment, and love emptying his quiver from the bows of her sparkling eyes: her stature was the most tall and delicate tree nourished in the garden of love, and her flowing robes of the purest white washed in the seven fountains of the sun. So majestic was her walk, that the pheasant of the forest would die to imitate, and the peacock languish to behold her: she slowly approached us; upon which all my companions, who had been lavishing their praise upon the streams, the birds, and the meads, at once broke their pen^11, directing their eyes towards her, like sun-flowers to the meridian ray; while a glory encircled her presence, like a halo round the moon. For a moment she beheld us with the eyes of life, then she began to pour pearls of heart-pleasing eloquence and jewels of inestimable wisdom into the lap of attention. "To be enamoured with the painted brides of the mead, transported with external beauty, and captivated by the vernal choir, is a weakness unworthy of reason, and from wisdom far removed. What is the tulip of a week's duration? what the song of a sunshine hour? what availeth it to give the heart into the hand of ingratitude, or to fix the soul upon that which remaineth not? Of all gardens that of rhetoric justly challenges the highest same. It knoweth no winter, and its flowers, like those of the jeweller, ever retain their beauty and intrinsic worth; and were the incense of the Persian tongue burnt on the Indian altar, the world would be perfumed with agla^12, and the lovers of sublime diction anointed as with the oil of roses." Thus saying, she disappeared, shedding fragrance around.ÐÐ I awoke in amaze, and mourned the absence of the daughter of paradise. But these words being deeply engraved on the table of memory, occasioned your humble slave Inatula, selector of the beauties of eloquence, and gleaner of the harvest of wit, to collect the fairest flowers dropt from the lap of fancy to adorn the glossy locks of rhetoric which fly loose to the essenced air. Hoping therefore that the magnanimous sons of true genius will be the nutritive elements of my labour, and that they will veil the defects of this bashful bride of imagination with the gracious skirts of their favour; it concerns me not, if the low-minded, epsying a fault, should give a loose to their tongue in the black field of calumny, like voracious panthers thirsting for the blood of the timorous hind; for it is known that the sculptor of the human frame wrote error upon his forehead. Since, then, I write with a design to please, let not my faults awaken your bitter spleen. If greater parts have fallen to your share from above, correct my thoughts, and mould them to the pleasure of your more exalted minds; if your genius should be low, expose not your own weakness by shewing mine. The true judges of the refinements of stile, and embellishers of the temple of knowledge, know how much of the blood of the liver is poured fourth, how the recesses of the brain are explored, and how deeply the mind must be searched, in obtaining the golden ore of poetry, and that not one pearl worthy of the king of science can see the sun, without diving a thousand times into the ocean of thought.

[Footnote^1 The clouds.]
[Footnote^2 The sun.]
[Footnote^3 Tartary.]
[Footnote ^4 Ceylon.]
[Footnote ^5 The nightingale.]
[Footnote ^6 The wood-lark, sometimes used for the nightingale.]
[Footnote ^7 Suphys are a sect of mad philosophers.]
[Footnote ^8 The zinar is a string of amulets wore by the Hindows around their necks.]
[Footnote ^9 Simbol is a kind of black twining aromatic grass.]
[Footnote ^10 The Indian ladies dye their fingers red.]
[Footnote ^11 An oriental expression for giving up one theme and passing on to another.]
[Footnote ^12 Agla is an Indian tree of a moderate height, producing a white flower very fragrant, from which they extract a perfume. From the knots of the same tree they also extract an odiferous gum, which serves the purpose of incense, the oily part of which is used as one of the compositions in otter of roses, which we have translated oil of roses, above: otter is a corruption of the Shanscrit word obatar, which signifies essence.]