Strangers. It is natural among us, when Men have a true Relish of our Company and our Value, to fay every thing with a better Grace; and there is without defigning it fomething ornamental in what Men utter before Women, which is loft or neglected in Converfations of Men only, Give me Leave to tell you, Sir, it would do you no great Harm if you your felf, came a little more into our Company; it would certainly cure you of a certain pofitive and determining manner in ⚫ which you talk fometimes. In hopes of your Amend ment, Mr. SPECTATOR, YOUR Iam, SIR, Your gentle Reader. OUR profeffed Regard to the Fair Sex, may perhaps make them value your Admonitions when they will not thofe of other Men. I defire you, Sir, to repeat fome Lectures upon Subjects which you have now and then in a curfory manner only juft touched. I would have a Spectator wholly writ upon good Breeding; and after you have afferted that Time and Place C are to be very much confidered in all our Actions, it will be proper to dwell upon Behaviour at Church. On Sunday last a grave and reverend Man preached at our Church: There was fomething particular in his • Accent, but without any manner of Affectation. This Particularity a Set of Giglers thought the most neceffary Thing to be taken Notice of in his whole Difcourfe, and made it an Occafion of Mirth during the whole Time of Sermon: You fhould fee one of them ready to burft behind a Fan, another pointing to a Companion in another Seat, and a fourth with an arch Compofure, as if he would if poffible ftife her Laughter. There were many Gentlemen who looked at them stedfastly, but this they took for ogling and admiring them: There was one of the merry ones in particular, that found out but just then that fhe had but five Fingers, for fhe fell a reckoning the pretty pieces of Ivory over and over again, to find her felf Employment and not laugh out. Would it not be expedient, Mr. SPECTATOR, that the Church-Warden 'fhould 'fhould hold up his Wand on these Occafions, and keep the Decency of the Place as a Magistrate does the Peace in a Tumult elsewhere? Mr. SPECTATOR, :I Am a Woman's Man, and read with a very fine Lady your Paper, wherein you fall upon us whom you envy: What do you think I did? you must know fhe was dreffing, I read the Spectator to her, and fhe laughed at the Places where fhe thought I was touched; I threw away your Moral, and taking up her Girdle ⚫ cryed out, ་ T Give me but what this Ribbon bound, Take all the reft the Sun goes round. SHE fmiled, Sir, and faid you were a Pedant; so fay of me what you please, read Seneca, and quote him against me if you think fit. I am, SIR, Your humble Servant. N° 159. Saturday, September 1. - Omnem que nunc obducta tuenti W HEN I was at Grand Cairo I picked up feveral Oriental Manufcripts, which I have ftill by me. Among others I met with one entitled, The Vifions of Mirza, which I have read over with great Pleafure. I intend to give it to the Publick when I have no other Entertainment for them; and fhall begin with the first Vision, which I have Tranflated Word for Word as follows. On the fifth Day of the Moon, which according to N the Custom of my Forefathers I always keep holy, after having washed my felf, and offered up my Morning 6 Morning Devotions, I afcended the high Hills of Bagdat, in order to país the reft of the Day in Meditation and Prayer. As I was here airing my felf on the Tops of the Mountains, I fell into a profound Contemplation on the Vanity of humane Life; and paffing from one Thought to another, Surely, faid I, Man is but a Shadow and Life a Dream. Whilst I was thus mufing, I 'caft my Eyes towards the Summit of a Rock that was not far from me, where I discovered one in the Habit of a Shepherd, with a little Mufical Inftrument in his Hand. As I looked upon him he applied it to his Lips, and began to play upon it. The Sound of it was exceeding fweet, and wrought into a variety of Tunes that were inexpreffibly melodious, and altogether different from any thing I had ever heard: They put me in mind of thofe heavenly Airs that are played to the departed Souls of good Men upon their firft Arrival in Paradife, to wear out the Impreffions of their last Ago nies, and qualifie them for the Pleafures of that happy Place. My Heart melted away in fecret Raptures. I had been often told that the Rock before me was the Haunt of a Genius; and that feveral had been entertained with Mufick who had paffed by it, but never heard that the Mufician had before made himfelf vifible. When he had raised my Thoughts, by thofe tranfporting Airs which he played, to taste the Pleafures of his Converfation, as I looked upon him like one aftonished, he beckoned to me, and by the waving of his Hand directed me to approach the Place where he fat. I drew near with that Reverence, which is due to a fuperior Nature; and as my Heart was entirely fubdued by the captivating Strains I had heard, I fell down at his Feet and wept. The Genius fimiled upon me with a Look of Compaffion and Affability that familiarized him to my Imagination, and at once dif pelled all the Fears and Apprehenfions with which I approached him. He lifted me from the Ground, and taking me by the Hand, Mirzah, faid he, I have heard thee in thy Soliloquies; follow me. HE then led me to the highest Pinnacle of the Rock, and placing me on the Top of it, Caft thy Eyes Eaftward, faid he, and tell me what thou feeft. I fee, said <I, a huge Valley and a prodigious Tide of Water roll ing thro' it. The Valley that thou feest, said he, is the • Vale of Mifery, and the Tide of Water that thou seest • is part of the great Tide of Eternity. What is the Reafon, faid, I, that the Tide I fee rifes out of a thick Mist at one End; and again lofes it self in a thick Mist at the other? What chou seeft, said he, is that Portion of Eternity which is called Time, measured out by the • Sun, and reaching from the Beginning of the World to its Confummation. Examine now, faid he, this • Sea that is thus bounded with Darkness at both Ends, ⚫ and tell me what thou difcoverest in it. I fee a Bridge, faid I, ftanding in the Midft of the Tide. The Bridge ⚫ thou feeft, faid he, is humane Life, confider it attentively. Upon a more leifurely Survey of it, I found that it confifted of threefcore and ten entire Arches, with feveral broken Arches, which, added to thofe that < were entire, made up the Number about an hundred. As I was counting the Arches, the Genius told me that this Bridge confifted at first of a thousand Arches; but that a great Flood fwept away the reft, and left the Bridge in the ruinous Condition I now beheld it. But ⚫ tell me further, said he, what thou discovereft on it. I fee multitudes of People paffing over it, faid I, and a 'black Cloud hanging on each End of it. As I looked more attentively, I faw feveral of the Paffengers dropping thro' the Bridge, into the great Tide that flowed underneath it; and upon further Examination, perceived there were innumerable Trap-doors that lay "concealed in the Bridge, which the Passengers no fooner trod upon, but they fell through them into the Tide and immediately difappeared. These hidden Pit-falls • were fet very thick at the Entrance of the Bridge, fo that Throngs of People no fooner broke through the Cloud, but many of them fell into them. They grew thinner towards the middle, but multiplied and lay ⚫ closer together towards the End of the Arches that were ❝ entire. THERE were indeed some Perfons, but their Num⚫ber was very fmall, that continued a kind of hobbling March on the broken Arches, but fell through one • after another, being quite tired and spent withfo long a Walk, I paffed fome Time in the Contemplation of this wonderful Srtucture, and the great Variety of Objects which it prefented. My Heart was filled with a deep Melancholy to fee feveral dropping unexpectedly in the midst of Mirth and Jollity, and catching at every thing that stood by them to fave themselves. Some were looking up. towards the Heavens in a thoughtful Pofture, and in the Midft of a Speculation ftumbled and fell out of Sight. Multitudes were very bufy in the • Purfuit of Bubbles that glittered in their Eyes and danced before them, but often when they thought themfelves within the reach of them their Footing failed and down they funk. In this Confufion of Objects, L ⚫ obferved fome with Scymetars in their Hands, and others with Urinals, who ran to and fro upon the Bridge, thrusting feveral Perfons on Trap-doors which did not feem to lie in their Way, and which they I might have escaped had they not been thus forced upon them. THE Genius feeing me indulge my felf in this melancholy Profpect, told me I had dwelt long enough upon it: Take thine Eyes off the Bridge, faid he, and tell me if thou yet feeft any thing thou doft not comprehend. Upon looking up, What mean, faid I, thofe great Flights of Birds that are perpetually hovering about the Bridge, and fettling upon it from time to time? I fee Vultures, Harpyes, Ravens, Cormorants, and among many other feathered Creatures feveral little winged Boys, that perch in great Numbers upon the middle Arches. Thefe, faid the Genius, are Envy, Avarice, Superftition, Defpair, Love, with the like Cares and Paffions that infeft humane Life. I here fetched a deep Sigh, Alas, faid I, Man was • made in vain! How is he given away to Mifery and Mortality! tortured in Life, and fwallowed up in Death! The Genius being moved with Compaffion towards me, bid mne quit fo uncomfortable a Profpect. Look no more, faid he, on Man in the firft Stage of his Existence, in his fetting out for Eternity; but caft thine Eye on that thick Mist into which the Tide bears the feveral Generations of Mortals that fall into it. I directed my Sight as I was ordered, and (whether or no the |