confusion of objects, I observed some with scimitars in their hands,
who ran to and fro from the bridge, thrusting several persons on
trapdoors which did not seem to lie in their way, and which they
might have escaped had they not been thus forced upon them.

"The genius, seeing me indulge myself on this melancholy prospect,
told me I had dwelt long enough upon it. 'Take thine eyes off the
bridge,' said he, 'and tell me if thou yet 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 upon it from time to time? I see vultures, harpies,
ravens, cormorants, and among many other feathered creatures,
several little 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.'

"I here fetched a deep sigh. 'Alas,' said I, 'man was made in vain!
how is he given away to misery and mortality! tortured in life, and
swallowed up in death!' The genius, being moved with compassion
towards me, bade me quit so uncomfortable a prospect. 'Look no
more,' said he, '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 or no
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 further 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