mining Manner in which you talk fometimes. In hopes of your Amendment, Mr. SPECTATOR, 2 "I am, SIR, Your gentle Reader. the YOUR profeffed Regard to the fair Sex, may perhaps make them 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 are to be very much confidered in all our Actions, it will be proper to dwell upon Behaviour at Church. On Sunday laft 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 Gigglers 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 the would if poffible ftifle her Laughter. There were many Gentlemen who looked at them ftedfaftly, but this they took for ogling and admiring them: . There was one of the merry ones in particular, that found one but just then that he had but five Fingers, for the 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 hold up his Wand on thefe Occafions, and keep the Decency of the Place as a Magiftrate does the Peace in a Tumult elsewhere? Getidali edo o 310 Mr.SPECTATORA E CILA Am a Woman's Man, and read with a very fine Lady I your Paper wherein you fall upon us whom you cur vy: What do you think I did? you must know the was dreffing, I read the Spectator to her, and she laughed at the Places where the thought I was touched; I threw a ⚫ way your Moral, and taking up her Girdle cryed out, Give me but what this Ribbon bound, Take all the reft the Sun goes round. T SHE fmiled, Sir, and faid you were a Pedant; fo fay of me what you pleafe, read Seneca, and quote him against me if you think fit. I am, S I R, Your bumble Servant. No 159. Saturday, September 1. Omnem qua nunc obducta tuenti Mortales hebetat vifus tibi, & humida circum W Virg. J HEN I was at Grand Cairo I picked up feveral Oriental Manufcripts, which I have still by me. Among others I met with one entituled, The Vifions of Mirza, which I have read over with great Pleasure. I intend to give it to the Publick when I have no other Entertainment for them; and shall begin with the first Vifion, which I have translated Word for Word as follows. 4 No the fifth Day of the Moon, which according "O to the Cultom of my Forefathers I always keep holy, after having washed my felf, and offered up my Morning Devotions, I afcended the high Hills of Bagdat, in order to pafs the rest 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. Whilft I was thus mufing, bcaft my Eyes to⚫wards the Summit of a Rock that was not far from me, • where I discovered one in the Habit of a Shepherd, with " a 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 sweet, 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 laft N° 159. Agonies, and qualifie them for the Pleasures 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 himself visible. When he had raised my Thoughts, by thofe tranfporting Airs which he played, to tafte 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 fmiled upon me with a Look of Compaffion and Affability that familiarized him to my Imagination, and at once difpelled 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 lead 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, faid I, a huge Valley and a prodigious Tide of Water rolling thro' it. The Valley that thou feeft, faid he, is the Vale of Mifery, and the Tide of Water that thou feeft is part of the great Tide of Eternity. What is the Reason, said I, that the Tide I fee rifes out of a thick Mift at one End, and again lofes it felf in a thick Mift at the other? What thou feeft, faid 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 discovereft in it. I fee a Bridge, faid I, ftanding in the Midst 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 Num⚫ber about an hundred. As I was counting the Arches the Genius told me that this Bridge confifted at first ་ ; of of a thoufand 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, faid 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 feverál of the Paffengers dropping thro' the Bridge, into the great Tide that flowed underneath it; and upon further Exa<mination, perceived there were innumerable Trap-doors that lay concealed in the Bridge, which the Paffengers no fooner trod upon, but they fell through them into the Tide and immediately difappeared. Thefe hidden Pit-talls 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 toge ther towards the End of the Arches that were entire. THERE were indeed fome Perfons, but their Number was very small, that continued a kind of hobbling March on the broken Arches, but fell through one after another,being quite tired and spent with fo longa Walk. I paffed fome Time in the Contemplation of this won⚫derful Structure, 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 flood by them to fave themfelves. Some were looking up towards the Heavens in a thoughtful Posture, 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, I obferved fome with Scymetars in their Hands, and others with Urinals, who ran to and fro upon ⚫ the Bridge, thrufting feveral Perfons on Trap doors which did not feem to lie in their Way, and which they might have efcaped had they not been thus forced upon then. 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 feest any thing thou dost not comprehend. ⚫ Upon 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 fein great Numbers upon the middle Arches. Thefe, faid the Genius, are Envy, Avarice, Superftition, Despair, Love, with the like Cares and Paffions that infest humane LifeSa ki 17979 I here fetched a deep Sigh, Alas, faid I, Man was made gh, Alas, fa in vain! How is he given away to Mifery ifery and Mortality! tortured in Life, and swallowed up in Death! The Geni⚫ us being moved with Compaffion towards me, bid me 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 • Mift 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 good Genius ftrength⚫ened it with any fupernatural Force, or diffipated Part of ⚫ the Mift that was before too thick for the Eye to penetrate) I saw the Valley opening at the further End, and fpreading forth into an immenfe Ocean, that had a huge Rock of Adamant running through the midst of it, and ⚫ dividing it into two equal Parts. The Clouds ftill refted on one Half of it, infomuch that I could difcover nothing ⚫ init: but the other appeared to me a vaft Ocean planted with unnumerable Islands, that were covered with Fruits ⚫ and Flowers, and interwoven with a thousand little fhining • Seas that ran among them. I could fee Perfons dreffed in glorious Habits with Garlands upon t their Heads, paffing among the Trees, lying down by the Sides of Foun⚫tains, or refting Beds of Flowers; and could hear a ⚫ confused Harmony of finging Birds, falling Waters, hu<mane Voices, and mufical Inftruments. Gladness grew in meupon the Discovery of fo delightful a Scene. I wished for the Wings of an Eagle, that I might fly away to thofe happy Seats; but the Genius told me there was no Paffage to them, except through the Gates of Death that faw opening every Moment upon the Bridge. The flands, laid he, that lie fo fresh and green before thee, and with which the whole Face of the Ocean appears fpot 9 ted |