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heart ache; you have not that simper about the mouth for nothing."

The uncouth gibberish with which all this was uttered, like the darkness of an oracle, made us more attentive to it. To be short the knight, left the money with her that he had crossed her hand with, and got up again on his horse. As we were riding away, Sir Roger said he knew several sensible people who believed that these gipsies now and then foretold very strange things, and for half an hour together he appeared more jocund even than ordinary. In the height of his good humour, meeting a beggar upon the road, who was no conjuror, as he went to relieve him, he found his pocket had been picked; that being a kind of palmistry at which the race of gipsies are very dexterous.

VISION OF MIRZA.

ON the fifth day of the moon, which, according to the custom of my forefathers, I always keep holy, after having washed myself, and offered up my morning devotions, I ascended the high hills of Bagdad to spend the rest of the day in meditation and prayer. As I was here refreshing myself on the tops of the mountains, I fell into a contemplation of the vanity of human life, and passing from one thought to another, "Surely," said I, man is but a shadow, and life a dream."

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While I was thus musing, I cast my eyes toward the summit of a rock that was not far from me, and discovered one in the habit of a shepherd, but who was in reality a superior being. I drew near with profound reverence and fell at his feet. The genius smiled on me with a look of compassion and affability, that familiarised him to my imagination, and at once dispelled all the fears and apprehensions with which I approached him.

He lifted me from the ground, and taking me by the hand led me to the highest pinnacle of the rock, and placing me on the top of it, said, "Cast thy eyes eastward, and tell me what thou seest.” "I see," said I, 66

a

huge valley and a prodigious tide of water rolling through it."

"The valley that thou seest is the vale of misery, and the tide of water, that thou seest, a part of the great tide of eternity."

"What 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," 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 consummation. But examine now this sea that is bounded with darkness at both ends, and tell me what thou discoverest in it.” "I see a bridge standing in the midst of the tide." "The bridge thou seest is human life: 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, added to those that were entire, made up the number to about a hundred. As I was counting the arches, the genius told me that this bridge consisted at first of a thousand; but that a great flood swept away the rest, and left the bridge in the ruinous condition I now beheld it.

"But tell me further what thou discoverest in it."

"I see multitudes of people passing over it, 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 into the great tide that flowed underneath it: and upon further examination I perceived that there were innumerable trap-doors that lay concealed on the bridge, which the passengers no sooner trod upon, than they fell through them into the tide, and immediately disappeared. These hidden pitfalls were set very thick at the entrance of the bridge, so that throngs of people no sooner broke through the cloud than many fell into them. They grew thinner toward the middle, but multiplied and lay closer together toward 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 they fell through one after another, being quite tired and spent with so long 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 melancholy to see several dropping unexpectedly in the midst of mirth and jollity, and catching at everything that stood by them to save themselves. Some were looking up to the heavens in a thoughtful posture, and in the midst of their speculation, stumbled and fell out of sight. Multitudes were very busy in the pursuit of bubbles, that glittered in their eyes and danced before them; but often, when they thought themselves within the reach of them, and tried to grasp them, their footing failed and down they sunk.

"Take thine eyes off the bridge," said the genius, "and tell me if thou seest anything thou dost not comprehend?" Upon looking up, "What mean," said I, "those great flights of birds that are perpetually hovering about the bridge, and settling on it from time to time? I see vultures, harpies, ravens, cormorants, and, among many other feathered creatures, littled winged boys, that perch in great numbers upon the middle arches?" "These," said the genius, "are envy, avarice, superstition, despair, love, with the like cares and passions that infest human life."

The

I here fetched a deep sigh. "Alas, man was made in vain! how is he given away to misery and mortality; tortured in life, and swallowed up in death!" genius, being moved with compassion, bid me quit so uncomfortable a prospect. "Look no more on man in the first stage of his existence, in his setting out for eternity; but cast thine eye on that thick mist into which the tide bears the several generations of mortals that fall into it."

I directed my sight as I was ordered, and, whether the good genius strengthened it with any supernatural force, or dissipated part of the mist that was before too thick

for the eye to penetrate, I saw the valley opening at the farther end, and spreading forth into an immense ocean, that had a huge rock of adamant running through the midst of it, and dividing it into two equal parts. The clouds still rested upon one half of it, insomuch that I could discover nothing in it: but the other appeared to me a vast ocean, planted with innumerable islands, that were covered with fruits and flowers, and interwoven with a thousand little shining streams that ran among them. I could see persons dressed in glorious habits, with garlands upon their heads, passing among the trees, lying down by the sides of fountains, or resting on beds of flowers. Gladness grew in me at the scene. I wished for the wings of an eagle that I might fly away to these happy seats; but the genius told me that there was no passage to them except through the gates of death that I saw opening every moment upon the bridge.

I gazed with inexpressible pleasure on these happy islands. At length, I said, “Show me now, I beseech thee, the secrets that lie hid under these dark clouds which cover the ocean on the other side of the rock of adamant." The genius making no answer, I turned about to address myself to him a second time, but I found that he had left me. I then turned to the vision which I had been so long contemplating; but, instead of the rolling tide, the arched bridge, and the happy islands, I saw nothing but the long, hollow valley of Bagdad, with oxen, sheep, and camels grazing upon the sides of it.

DANIEL DEFOE.

DANIEL DEFOE, among the many political writers of the reign of Queen Anne, the most effective and voluminous upon the Whig side, was born A.D. 1661, and died 1731. Having twice suffered fine and imprisonment, he gave up politics, and wrote such fictitious works as, History of the Plague, Captain Singleton, and especially Robinson Crusoe.

PORTENTS OF THE PLAGUE IN LONDON

LONDON might well be said to be in tears; the mourners did not go about the streets indeed, for nobody put on black even for their dearest friends; but the voice of mourning was heard, the shrieks of women and children at the windows and doors of their houses, where their relations were dying or just dead, that it was enough to pierce the stoutest heart in the world to hear them. Tears and lamentations were in almost every house, especially in the first part of the visitation; for towards the latter end, men's hearts were hardened, and death was so always before their eyes, that they did not concern themselves so much for the loss of friends, expecting that themselves should be summoned the next hour.

The Inns of Court were all shut up, nor were very many of the lawyers in the Temple, Lincoln's Inn, or Gray's Inn to be seen there. Everybody was at peace, and there was no occasion for lawyers. Whole rows of houses in some places were shut close up, the inhabitants all fled, and only a watchman or two left. But the flight was not yet so great in the city, abstractedly so called; those who fled were chiefly from the west end of the town, and from what we call the heart of the city, that is, the wealthiest people. But in the place we call the liberties, in the suburbs, in Southwark, and in the east part, such as Wapping, Ratcliff, Stepney, and the like, the people generally stayed, except a few wealthy families, and such as did not depend upon their business.

While the fears of the people were young, they were increased by several odd accidents, which, put together,

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