The patient gave me this account with fuch candour and opennets, that I conceived immediate hopes of his cure; because in diseases of the mind, the perfon afflicted is half recovered when he is fenfible of his distemper. Sir, faid I, the acknowledgment of your kinfman's merit is a very hopeful fymptom; for it is the nature of perfons afflicted with this evil, when they are incurable, to pretend a contempt of the perfon envied, if they are taxed with that weakness. A man who is really envious, will not allow he is fo; but upon fuch an accufation is tormented with the reflection, that to envy a'man is to acknowledge him your fuper or. But in your cafe, when you examine the bottom of your neart, I am apt to think it is avarice, which you miftake for envy. Were it not that you have both expectations from the fame man, you would look upon your coufin's accomplishments with pleafure. You that now confider him as an obstacle to your intereft, would then behold him as an ornament to your family. I obferved my patient upon this occalion recover himself in fome measure; and he owned to me that he hoped it was as I imagined; for that in all places but where he was his rival, he had pleasure in his company. This was the firft difcourfe we had upon this malady; but I do not doubt but, after two or three more, I fhall, by juft degrees, soften his envy into emulation.

Such an envy as I have here defcribed, may poffibly creep into an ingenuous mind: But the envy which makes a man uneafy to himself and others, is a certain diftortion and perverfenefs of temper, that renders him unwilling to be pleafed with any thing without him, that has either beauty or perfection in it. I look upon it as a diftemper in the mind, (which I know no moralift who has defcribed it in this light) when a man cannot difcern any thing which another is mafter of, that is agreeable. For which reafon I look upon the good-natured man to be endowed with a certain difcerning faculty which the envious are altogether deprived of. Shallow wits, fuperficial critics, and conceited fops, are with me fo many blind VOL. II C 2

men in refpect of excellencies. They behold nothing but faults and blemishes, and indeed fee nothing that is worth feeing. Shew them a poem, it is ftuff; a picture, it is daubing. They find nothing in architecture that is not irregular, or in mufic that is not out of tune. These fhould confider, that it is their envy which deforms every thing, and that the ugliness is not in the object, but in the eye. And as for nobler

minds, whofe merits are either not difcovered, or are mifrepresented by the envious part of mankind, they fhould rather confider their defamers with pity than indignation. A man cannot have an idea of perfection in another, which he was never fenfible of in himself. Mr. Locke tells us, that upon asking a blind man, what he thought fcarlet was: He answered, that he believed it was like the found of a trumpet. He was forced to form his conceptions of ideas which he had not, by thofe which he had. In the fame manner, afk an envious man what he thinks of virtue ; He will call it defign; what of good-nature? Ard he will term.it dulnefs. The difference is, that as the perfon before-mentioned was born blind, your envious men have contracted the diftemper themselves, and are troubled with a fort of acquired blindness. Thus the devil in Milton, though made an angel of light, could fee nothing to please him even in Paradise, and hated our first parents, though in their state of innocence.

TATLER, Vol. IV. No. 227.

ETERNITY,

WHEN I was at Grand Cairo, I picked up feve

ral oriental manufcripts, which I have ftill by me. Among others I met with one entitled, the Vifions of Mirzah, which I have read over with great pleasure. I intend to give it to the public when I have the firft vifion, which I have tranflated word for word as fol lows:

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ON

N the fifth day of the moon, which according to the cuftom of my forefathers I always keep holy, after having wafhed myself, and offered up my morn ing devotions, I afcended the high hills of Bagdad, in order to pafs 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 paffing from one thought to another, furely, faid I, man is but a shadow, and life a dream. Whilft I was thus musing, I caft my eye towards the fummit of a rock that was not far from me, where I difcovered one in the habit of a fhepherd, with a little mufical inftrument in his hand. As I looked upon him, he applied it to his lips, and began to play upon it. The found of it was exceeding fweet, and wrought into a variety of tunes that were inexpreffibly melodious, and altogether different from any thing I had ever heard: They put me in mind of thofe heavenly airs that are played to the departed fouls of good men upon their first arrival in Paradife, to wear out the impreffions of the laft agonies, and qualify them for the pleafures of that happy place. My heart melted away in fecret raptures.

"I have been often told that the rock before me was the haunt of a genius; and that feveral had been entertained with mufic who had paffed by it, but never heard that the musician had before made himfelf vifible. When he had raised my thoughts by thofe tranfporting airs which he had played, to tafte the pleafures of his converfation, as I looked upon him like one aftonished, he beckoned to me, and by the waving of his hand directed me to approach the place where he fat. I drew near with that reverence which is due to a fuperior nature; and as my heart was entirely fubdued by the captivating ftrains I had heard, I fell down at his feet and wept. The genius fmiled upon me with a look of compaffion and affability that familiarized him to my imagination, and at once difpelled all the fears and apprehenfions with which I approached him. He lifted me from the

ground, and taking me by the hand, Mirzah, faid he, have heard thee in thy foliloquies; follow me.

"He then led me to the highest pinnacle of the rock, and placing me on the top of it, caft thy eyes eaftward, faid he, and tell me what thou feeft; I'fce, faid I, a huge valley, and a prodigious tide of water roll through it. The valley that thou feeft, faid he, is the vale of mifery, and the tide of water that thou feeft is part of the great tide of eternity. What is the reafon, faid I, that the tide I fee rifes out of a thick mift at one end, and again lofes itself in a thick mist at the other? What thou feeft, faid he, is that portion of eternity which is called time, meafured out by the fun, and reaching from the beginning of the world to its confummation. Examine now, said he, the sea that is bounded with darknefs at both ends, and tell me what thou discoverest in it. I fee a bridge, faid I, flanding in the midst of the tide. The bridge thou feeft, said he, is human life; confider it attentively. Upon a more leifurely furvey of it, I found that it confifted of threefcore and ten intire arches, with feveral broken arches, which added to those that were intire, made up the number about an hundred. As I was counting the arches, the genius told me that this bridge confifted at first of a thousand arches; but that a great flood fwept away the reft, and left the bridge in the ruinous condition I now behold it: But tell me farther, faid he, what thou difcovereft on it. I fee multitudes of people paffing over it, and a black cloud hanging on each end of it. As I looked more attentively, I faw feveral of the paflengers dropping through the bridge 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 paffengers no fooner trod upon, but they fell through them into the tide, and immediately difappeared. Thefe hidden pit-falls were fet very thick at the entrance of the bridge, fo that throngs of people no fooner broke through the cloud, but many of them fell into them. They grew thinner towards the middle, but multiplied and lay closer

together towards the end of the arches that were intire.

"There were indeed fome perfons, but their number was very fmall, that continued a kind of a hobbling march on the broken arches, but fell through one after an other, being quite tired and spent with fo long a walk.

"I paffed fome time in the contemplation of this wonderful structure, and the great variety of objects which it reprefented. My heart was filled with a deep melancholy to fee feveral dropping unexpectedly in the midft of mirth and jollity, and catching at every thing that stood by them to fave themfelves. Some were looking up towards the heavens in a thoughtful pofture, and in the midst of a fpeculation ftumbled and fell out of fight. Multitudes were very bufy in the purfuit of bubbles that glittered in their eyes and danced before them; but often when they thought themselves within the reach of them, their footing failed, and down they funk. In this confusion of ob jects, I obferved fome with fcimeters in their hands, and others with urinals, who ran to and fro upon the bridge, thrusting several perfons on trap-doors which did not feem to lie in their way, and which they might have escaped had they not been thus forced upon them.

"The genius feeing me indulge myself in this melancholy profpect, told me I had dwelt long enough upon it: Take thine eyes off the bridge, said he, and tell me if thou yet feest any thing thou dost not comprehend. Upon looking up, what means, faid I, those great flights of birds that are perpetually hovering about the bridge, and fettling upon it from time to time? I fee vultures, harpies, ravens, cormorants, and among many other feathered creatures feveral little winged boys, that perch in great numbers upon the middle arches. Thefe, faid the genius, are envy, avarice, fuperftition, defpair, love, with the like cares and. paffions that infeft human life.

"I here fetched a deep figh; alas, faid I, man was made in vain! How is he given away to mifery and