sive steps the human conception becomes more intense and nature more violent, until, in the final catastrophe, the last strange human whim is crushed out by the wilder freak of nature. The various steps to this climax are worth careful examination, especially the gathering violence of the elements—the general danger, the crashing stone, the howling wind rushing up the valley with the travellers, and the Slide itself.]

9. Joseph Addison.

Born 1672. Died 1719.

The Vision of Mirzah.1

[Addison's well-known story is an excellent example of the didactic tale, which may be regarded as the logical outgrowth, though in point of time the precursor, of the idealistic story. The actors in the didactic tale move not as individuals, hardly, again, as types of human life and passion, but as the mechanism of morality. These actors, as in the pure allegory, are often blocks and stones and worse than senseless things; or they may be named with human names, as in the novel with a purpose; but the moral aim is everywhere transcendent, is often “ clumsily forced into every hole and corner of the story, or thrown externally over it like a carpet over a railing." Addison's tale, however, without being preposterously allegorical, is honest narrative in that it confesses the moral purpose. In this respect it is like Pilgrim's Progress rather than that great class of "novels with a purpose,' best represented by Godwin's Caleb Williams, and the later and more popular Looking Backward, which serve up exposition in the dressing of a story, and in that guise force a socialistic pill down the throats of unsuspecting readers. Moreover, the style of Addison's story is worthy of study.]

WHEN I was at Grand Cairo I picked up several Oriental manuscripts, which I have still by me. Among others I met with one entitled, The Visions of Mirzah, which I have read over with great pleasure. 5 I intend to give it to the public when I have no other entertainment for them; and shall begin with the first

1 From The Spectator, No. 159.

vision, which I have translated word for word as follows:

ON the fifth day of the moon, which according to the custom of my forefathers I always kept holy, after having washed myself, and offered up my morn- 5 ing devotions, I ascended the high hills of Bagdat, in order to pass the rest of the day in meditation and prayer. As I was here airing myself on the tops of the mountains, I fell into a profound contemplation on the vanity of human life; and passing from one 10 thought to another, surely, said I, man is but a shadow and life a dream. Whilst I was thus musing, I cast 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 musical instrument in his hand. 15 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 inexpressibly melodious, and altogether different from anything I had ever heard. They put me in 20 mind of those heavenly airs that are played to the departed souls of good men upon their first arrival in paradise, to wear out the impressions of their last agonies, and qualify them for the pleasures of that happy place. My heart melted away in secret raptures. 25

I had been often told that the rock before me was the haunt of a genius; and that several had been entertained with music who had passed by it, but never heard that the musician had before made himself visible. When he had raised my thoughts, by 30 those transporting airs which he played, to taste the pleasures of his conversation, as I looked upon him

like one astonished, he beckoned to me, and by the waving of his hand directed me to approach the place where he sat. I drew near with that reverence which is due to a superior nature; and as my heart was 5 entirely subdued by the captivating strains I had heard, I fell down at his feet and wept. The genius smiled upon me with a look of compassion and affability that familiarized him to my imagination, and at once dispelled all the fears and apprehensions with 10 which I approached him. He lifted me from the ground, and taking me by the hand, Mirzah, said he, I have heard thee in thy soliloquies, follow me.

He then led me to the highest pinnacle of the rock, and placed me on the top of it. Cast thy eyes east15 ward, said he, and tell me what thou seest. I see,

said I, a huge valley and a prodigious tide of water rolling through it. The valley that thou seest, said he, is the vale of misery, and the tide of water that thou seest is part of the great tide of eternity. What 20 is the reason, said I, that the tide I see rises out of a thick mist at one end, and again loses itself in a thick mist at the other? What thou seest, says 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 consummation. Examine now, said he, this sea that is thus bounded with darkness at both ends, and tell me what thou discoverest in it. I see a bridge, said I, standing in the midst of the tide. The bridge thou seest, said he, is human life; 30 consider it attentively. Upon a more leisurely survey of it, I found that it consisted of threescore and ten entire arches, with several broken arches, which

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added to those that were entire, made up the number about an hundred. As I was counting the arches the genius told me that this bridge consisted at first of a thousand arches; but that a great flood swept away the rest, and left the bridge in the ruinous condition 5 I now beheld it. But tell me, further, said he, what thou discoverest on it. I see multitudes of people passing over it, said I, and a black cloud hanging on each end of it. As I looked more attentively, I saw several of the passengers dropping through the bridge, 10 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 sooner trod upon, but they fell through them into the tide and immediately dis- 15 appeared. These hidden pit-falls were set very thick at the entrance of the bridge, so that throngs of people no sooner broke through the cloud, but many of them fell into them. They grew thinner towards the middle, but multiplied and lay closer together towards 20 the end of the arches that were entire.

There were indeed some persons, 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 so long 25 a walk.

I passed some time in the contemplation of this wonderful structure, and the great variety of objects which it presented. My heart was filled with a deep melancholy to see several dropping unexpectedly in 30 the midst of mirth and jollity, and catching at everything that stood by them to save themselves.

Some