the wrecks of millions who had mistaken their soundings and lastly, those vast polar waters which the Deity had locked with barriers of eternal ice, and from which those who entered them returned no more. I observed that he was rather garrulous and fond of repetition; but I checked any disrespectful idea that might occur, by recollecting it was the effect of his condescension. He waved the roll at his departure; and retiring, he left me in admiration.

The next was one whose steps were irregularly slow, and his paces measured with extreme exactness. His eye was riveted upon a chain which he was slowly linking; the links were eternal adamant, and the chain was indissoluble. His look was the most contemplative I had ever beheld: Reason seemed totally to have expelled all the passions, (which frequently share, and sometimes usurp her throne,) and to reign uncontrolled upon his brow; until, at the close of about five minutes, when he had accomplished some happy link in his chain, he gave a start of ecstacy, and Reason seemed to share her throne with Joy, and to reign triumphant and combined upon his brow. Two other sages then approached him, and

from their conference, I collected that these two were Plato and Pythagoras; and that their intention was to lay the foundation of their temple of science. Phythagoras laid the corner-stone: all mutually contributed their labours; but I observed that they consigned to the first the arrangement of the materials. More than half the work was effected, when their strength began to droop, and I trembled for the temple,-I trembled for mankind; when a youth advanced, arrayed in a robe depicted with strange symbols and characters; his language was almost wholly numerical, so that I could not discover the country from which he came; but I believe he was an Arab: he joined them with alacrity; and the foundation was complete.

Just at that moment a flourish of martial music assailed my ear, so grand, that Plato, Pythagoras, and the temple were forgotten, and every sense was directed to the quarter whence it issued. A flood of glory enveloped him who entered, and concealed him, at first, from my view; but I heard the thunder of his footsteps. At length, I perceived an old man of the most august deportment: gods and men

appeared to obey him; for he raised his sceptre to heaven, and it thundered; he stretched it over the earth, and a shock of a thousand armies was heard; he struck the ground, and the groans of Erebus arose. His garment flowed loose and unrestrained; and a crown of immortal amaranths overshadowed his brow, in artless and unarranged luxuriance. I now found that I had known him long before; the fire of heaven was in his eyes; and this was the cause that I did not at first recollect that I had known him before; for then he was blind; but the powers of darkness could no longer control them, and they had "burst "their cerements." I knew him now; and knowing him, I almost instinctively looked for another, and that other came. Unlike the rapid step of the former, his was composed and majestic: his garment flowed-not unrestrained, but was adjusted with the most graceful and admirable symmetry: his wreath was not so luxuriant, but selected and combined with a taste the most fascinating and charming: he held a golden ploughshare in his right hand, and in his left a rich cluster of grapes; while bees fluttered in harmless swarms around

his garland. He approached the first with a timid and hesitating step, and plucked some of the amaranths from his crown: the first turned to detect the theft; but when he perceived the exquisite judgment with which they were disposed, he beamed forth an immortal smile of approbation: it was the smile of Apollo upon Mercury, when he found that he had stolen his arrows.

Then came one in whose sparkling eye and rosy cheeks wit and good humour for ever beamed. I found I had known him before; and I confess I had the impudence to run and shake hands with him. His crown was of almost every leaf and flower that the earth produces; among the rest, the myrtle of Venus, and the vine-leaf of Bacchus. At one time he gave enforcement to virtue and morality, with as much gravity as he could command; at another, he handed me a goblet with an enchanting familiarity. I observed that he had an arrow from the quiver of Cupid; yet, as soon as he had anointed it with a juice he had obtained from Momus, it became the shaft of Satire. At length he retired, and bidding me not to forget the happy hours we had spent

together, he followed the other two.-Farewell, immortal bards, I will not forget you; I will often turn from occupation and the world to you; and even when I enter on paths strewed with the flowers of other poets, I will remember that many of the sweetest are yours!

Then appeared a hero in a Grecian habit, who seemed deeply intent upon delineating a portrait, and, from the inscription, I perceived it to be that of Socrates. When it was perfected, he suddenly dropped the portrait, and grasped his sword, but still retained the pen; at the same time, an invisible hand spread the spoils of Persia over his shoulders.

Next came a Roman, whose words and appearance were widely at variance; his loose garments indicated his dissolute life, while his language was chaste and succinct; his gestures indicated the debauchee, while historic truth and philosophic morality issued from his tongue.

The next was in the habit of a Carthaginian slave; modest wit and unaffected humour came in all the simplicity of nature from his lips: he held a volume which he incessantly studied, and in which I perceived the name of