There is never any possibility of a mistake
about them, they are so strong and so obvious.
Sometimes, as in case of Conradine, or Innocence
Triumphant, or of Leontine and
Belinda—a Moral Tale, the good intention is
indicated on the very title-page. Always it is
proclaimed before you are many pages deep in the
story.

In the two consecutive numbers of the Belle
Assemblée for the months of March and
April, 1809, a fair example of the story "of
the period" is set before us. It is an Eastern
tale, called Hulkem! a simple and striking
title enough. The narrative opens with a
description of the extraordinary hospitality and
generosity of Hulkem. He is a philanthropist,
whose sole object in life is the promotion
of the welfare and happiness of his fellow-
creatures, and who, with this end in view,
sets up an establishment where anybody who
chooses to apply for shelter is received with
all sorts of honourable ceremonials, conducted
to perfumed baths, waited upon by female
slaves of the rarest beauty, fed upon the
most sumptuous dishes, clothed in the richest
garments, and finally supplied with money on
his departure, whenever he is foolish enough to
go. The fame of Hulkem's good deeds spread
far and wide, and at last extended to the ears
of Hassam, a young man possessed of enormous
wealth, who instantly determines to emulate
his popular neighbour, and set up a rival
establishment for the reception of strangers
which shall outdo Hulkem's in splendour and
luxury. His determination is promptly carried
out, and it is the universal opinion that Hassam's
Temple of Hospitality furnishes better quarters
than even that of Hulkem himself; that his
apartments are more comfortable, his entertainments
more luxurious, his baths more richly
perfumed, his female slaves more astoundingly
beautiful, and his pecuniary gifts more munificent
than those of the original philanthropist.
Hassam finds, nevertheless, that Hulkem is
more popular than he is, and that the visitors
who patronise him set a higher value on the
comparatively plain hospitality of Hulkem than
on his own more splendid style of entertainment,
and esteem a single gold piece of Hulkem's
giving more than a score of them coming from
his own generous hand. Much puzzled and
annoyed, Hassam busies himself in efforts to
account for this strange phenomenon, and, after
long and careful research, finds that it is the way
in which Hulkem confers his benefits which invests
them with so great a charm, and that the
gifts and favours of his rival are doubled in value
in consequence of the sympathetic manner which
characterises every one of Hulkem's benevolent
acts. Unfortunately, this particular grace
is just what Hassam is unable to assume, though
he makes many attempts to master it; and so
indignant does he at last become in consequence
of his failure to make any advance towards propitiating
that ungrateful company of paupers
to whose service he has devoted his fortune
and his labours, that his admiration for Hulkem
degenerates gradually into such a measure of
hatred that he resolves to put a period to his
rival's existence, and see whether he cannot
manage at last to become a popular idol when
his rival is no longer in the field. He sets off,
with a dagger hidden under his cloak, full of
murderous intentions towards the unhappy
philanthropist.

Hassam, after going to Hulkem's "mansion,"
and not finding him at home, now begins
wandering about the country in a purposeless
way, throwing himself down on the ground
and getting up again, plucking flowers and
scattering their leaves to the wind, and generally
losing a great deal of time as assassins
frequently do in story-books and melodramas. He
wanders into a wood where he beholds a damsel
of exquisite beauty, seated on the turf before a
cottage-door. Hassam addresses her, and is
well received by the young lady. The interview
is beautifully detailed in the narrative:

" 'You are a stranger,' said she to Hassam,
with a voice as sweet as the notes of the lute,
and blushing with the most enchanting modesty;
'will you step into the cottage? You
come ———'

" 'From Hulkem's mansion.'

" 'You are welcome,' resumed the maiden,
smiling, 'to whatever our humble cottage can
afford.'

" 'Your cottage contains more than all the
wealth in Hulkem's possession could procure.'

" 'You are very kind. But will you not
step in?'

" 'Why may we not continue on this spot,
the abode of everything that can be called
amiable?' "

The beautiful damsel brings out the inevitable
dates and milk, and, taking up a lute, plays
to the enraptured Hassam "in a style which
affected the inmost fibres of his heart." Of
course, the pair fell in love with each other, and
the father, who has been absent, returning in
the course of the afternoon, is entirely favourable
to their union—only he remembers an
obstacle which he fears is insuperable, and
which is nothing less than a prior claim upon
his daughter's hand and heart, which is possessed
by no less a person than the great Hulkem
himself, Hassam's rival, as it seems, in all
things. Hassam declares that now the doom
of Hulkem is sealed. And the father of Zulima
(which is the heroine's name), falling into his
views with singular alacrity, points out a place
in the wood hard by, to which Hulkem is in
the habit of resorting every morning to say his
prayers. Next morning Hassam repairs to the
spot, dagger in hand, finds his victim bent to
the earth in an attitude of devotion, makes
several offers at him with his blade, but,
relenting, at last throws away the dagger. Upon
this Zulima rushes forward to embrace her
lover, and Hulkem, the rival, raising himself
from his praying-carpet, discloses to view the
intelligent features of Zulima's father, who has
adopted the little ruse in order to test the virtue
of his future son-in-law, and who was no other,