Elegant extracts

fore. proach the place where he sat. I drew near fathers, I always keep holy, after having with that reverence which is due to a supewashed myself, and offered up my morn- rior nature; and as my heart was entirely ing devotions, I ascended the high hills of subdued by the captivating strains I had Bagdat, in order to pass the rest of the day heard, I fell down at his feet, and wept. in meditation and prayer. As I was here The genius 'smiled upon me with a look of airing myself on the tops of the mountains, compassion and affability that familiarized I fell into a profound contemplation on him to my imagination, and at once disthe fanity of human life ; and passing from pelled all the fears and apprehensions with one thought to another, Surely, said I, which I approached him. He lifted me man is but a shadow, and life a dream. from the ground, and taking me by the Whilst I was thus musing, I cast my eyes hand, Mirza, said he, I have heard thee towards the summit of a rock that was not in thy soliloquies ; follow me. far from me, where I discovered one in He then led me to the highest pinnacle the habit of a shepherd, with a little mu. of the rock, and placing me on the top of écal instrument in his hand. As I looked it, Cast thy eyes eastward, said he, and tell upon him, he applied it to his lips, and be- nie what thou seest. I see, said I, a huge gan to play upon it. The sound of it was ex- valley, and a prodigious tide of water rollceeding sweet, and wrought into a variety ing through it. The valley that thou seest, of tunes that were inexpressibly melodious, said he, is the vale of misery; and the tide and altogether different from any thing I of water that thou seest, is part of the great had ever heard : they put me in mind of tide of eternity. What is the reason, said those heavenly airs that are played to the I, that the tide I see rises out of a thick departed souls of good men upon their first mist at one end, and again loses itself in a arrival in Paradise, to wear out the impres- thick mist at the other? What thou seest, ciods of the last agonies, and qualify them said he, is that portion of eternity, which is for the pleasures of that happy place. My called Time, measured out by the sun, and heart melted away in secret raptures. reaching from the beginning of the world

I had been often told, that the rock be. to its consummation. Examine now, said fore me was the haunt of a genius; and he, this sea, that is bounded with darkness that several had been entertained with that at both ends, and tell me what thou disco. music, who had passed by it, but never verest in it. I see a bridge, said I, standheard that the musician had before made ing in the midst of the tide. The bridge - himself visible. When he had raised my thou seest, said he, is human life; consider thoughts, by those transporting airs which it attentively. Upon a more leisurely survey of it, I found that it consisted of three- The genius seeing me indulge myself score and ten entire arches, with several in this melancholy prospect, told me I broken arches, which, added to those that had dwelt long enough upon it : Take were entire, made up the number about thine eyes off the bridge, said he, and tell an hundred. As I was counting the arch- me if thou seest any thing thou dost not es, the genius told me that this bridge comprehend. Upon looking up, What consisted at first of a thousand arches; but mean, said I, those great flights of birds that a great food swept away the rest, and that are perpetually hovering about the left the bridge in the ruinous condition I bridge, and settling upon it from time to now beheld it: but tell me further, said time? I see vultures, harpies, ravens, corhe, what thou discoverest on it. I see mul morants, and, among many other feathertitudes of people passing over it, said I, ed creatures, several little winged boys, and a black cloud hanging on each end that perch in great numbers upon

the of it. As I looked more attentively, I saw middle arches. These, said the genius, several of the passengers dropping through are envy, avarice, superstition, despair, the bridge into the great tide that flowed love, with the like cares and passions that underneath it; and, upon further examina. infest human life. tion, perceived there were innumerable I here fetched a deep sigh: Alas, said I, trap-doors that lay concealed in the bridge, man was made in vain! how is he given which the passengers no sooner trod upon, away to misery and mortality! tortured in but they fell through them into the tide, life, and swallowed up in death! The and immediately disappeared. These hid- genius being moved with compassion toden pit-falls were set very thick at the en- wards me, bid me quit so uncomfortable a trance of the bridge, so that throngs of prospect. Look no more, said he, on man people no sooner broke through the in the first stage of his existence, in his setcloud, but many of them fell into them. ting out for eternity; but cast thine eye They grew thinner towards the middle, on that thick mist into which the tide bears but multiplied and lay closer together the several generations of mortals that fall towards the end of the arches that were into it. I directed my sight as I was orentire.

dered, and (whether or no the good genius There were indeed some persons, but strengthened it with any supernatural force, their number was very small, that conti- or dissipated part of the mist that was benued a kind of hobbling march on the fore too thick for the eye to penetrate) I broken arches, but fell through one after saw the valley opening at the farther end, another, being quite tired and spent with and spreading forth into an immense ocean, so long a walk.

that had a huge rock of adamant running passed some time in the contempla- through the midst of it, and dividing it tion of this wonderful structure, and the into two equal parts. The clouds still great variety of objects which it presented. rested on one half of it, insomuch that I My heart was filled with a deep melancho- could discover nothing in it: but the other ly, to see several dropping unexpectedly appeared to me a vast ocean, planted with in the midst of mirth and jollity, and catch- innumerable islands, that were covered ing at every thing that stood by them, to with fruits and Aowers, and interwoven save themselves. Some were looking up with a thousand little shining seas that ran towards the heavens in a thoughtful pos- among them. I could see persons dressed ture, and, in the midst of a speculation, in glorious habits, with garlands upon stumbled and fell out of sight. Multitudes their heads, passing among the trees, lying were very busy in the pursuit of bubbles, dow'n by the sides of fountains, or resting that glittered in their eyes, and danced be. on beds of flowers; and could hear a confore them: but often, when they thought fused harmony of singing birds, falling themselves within the reach of them, their waters, human voices, and musical instrufooring failed, and down they sunk. In ments. Gladness grew in me at the disthis confusion of objects, I observed some covery

of so delighiful a scene. I wished with scimitars in their hands, and others for the wings of an eagle, that I might fiy with urinals, who ran to and fro upon the away to those happy seats ; but the genius bridge, thrusting several persons on trap- told me there was no passage to them doors which did not seem to lie in their except through the gates of death tha way, and which they might have escaped I saw opening every moment upon th had they not been thus forced upon them. bridge. The islands, said he, that li

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Elegant extracts, Том 55