VISION II.

SPECTATOR. No 501.

How

OW are we tortured with the abfence of what we covet to poffefs, when it appears to be loft to us! what excurfions does the foul make in imagination after it! and how does it turn into itself again, more foolishly fond and dejected, at the disappointment! our grief, instead of having recourse to reason, which might reftrain it, fearches to find a further nourishment. It calls upon memory to relate the several paffages and circumstances of fatisfactions which we formerly enjoyed; the pleasures we purchased by thofe riches that are taken from us; or the power and fplendour of our departed honours; or the voice, the words, the looks, the temper, and affections of our friends that are deceased. It needs must happen from hence, that the paffion should often fwell to fuch a fize as to burst the heart which contains it, if time did not make these circumstances less strong and lively, so that reason should become a more equal match for the passion, or

if another defire which becomes more prefent did not overpower them with a livelier reprefentation. Thefe are thoughts which I had, when I fell into a kind of vifion upon this fubject, and may therefore ftand for a proper introduction to a relation of it.

I found myself upon a naked fhore, with company whofe afflicted countenances witnessed their conditions. Before us flowed a water deep, filent, and called the river of TEARS, which issuing from two fountains on an upper ground, encompaffed an ifland that lay before us. The boat which plied in it was old and shatter'd, having been fometimes overfet by the impatience and hafte of fingle paffengers to arrive at the other fide. This immediately was brought to us by MISFORTUNE who steers it, and we were all preparing to take our places, when there appeared a woman of a mild and compofed behaviour, who began to deter us from it, by representing the dangers which would attend our voyage. Hereupon some who knew her for PATIENCE, and fome of those too who 'till then cry'd the loudeft, were perfuaded by her, and return'd back. The reft of us went in, and fhe (whofe good-nature would not fuffer her to forfake perfons in trouble) defired leave to accompany us, that fhe might at least administer fome fmall comfort or advice while we failed. We were no fooner embarked but the boat was pushed off, the sheet was fpread; and being filled with fighs, which are the winds of that country, we made a paffage to the far

ther bank thro' feveral difficulties of which the most of us feem'd utterly regardless.

When we landed, we perceived the island to be ftrangely over-caft with fogs, which no brightness could pierce, fo that a kind of gloomy horror fat always brooding over it. This had fomething in it very fhocking to eafy tempers, infomuch that fome others, whom PATIENCE had by this time gain'd over, left us here, and privily convey'd themselves round the verge of the island to find a ford by which fhe told them they might escape.

For my part, I still went along with those who were for piercing into the centre of the place; and joining ourfelves to others whom we found upon the fame journey, we marched folemnly as at a funeral, thro' bordering hedges of rofemary, and thro' a grove of yew-trees, which love to over-shadow tombs and flourish in church-yards. Here we heard on every fide the wailings and complaints of feveral of the inhabitants, who had caft themselves difconfolately at the feet of trees; and as we chanced to approach any of these, we might perceive them wringing their hands, beating their breasts, tearing their hair, or after fome other manner vifibly agitated with vexation. Our forrows were heightened by the influence of what we heard and faw, and one of our number was wrought up to fuch a pitch of wildness, as to talk of hanging himself upon a bough which shot temptingly a-crofs the path we travelled in;

but he was restrained from it by the kind endeavours of our above-mentioned companion.

We had now gotten into the most dusky filent part of the island, and by the redoubled founds of fighs, which made a doleful whistling in the branches, the thickness of air which occafioned faintifh refpiration, and the violent throbbings of heart which more and more affected us, we found that we approach'd the GROTTO OF GRIEF. It was a wide, hollow, and melancholy cave, funk deep in a dale, and watered by rivulets that had a colour between red and black. Thefe crept flow, and half congealed amongst its windings, and mixed their heavy murmur with the echo of groans that rolled thro' all the paffages. In the moft retired part of it fat the DOLEFUL BEING herself; the path to her was strewed with goads, ftings, and thorns; and the throne on which she fat was broken into a rock with ragged peices pointing upwards for her to lean upon. A heavy mist hung above her, her head oppreffed with it reclined upon her arm: thus did she reign over her difconfolate fubjects, full of herself to ftupidity, in eternal penfiveness, and the profoundeft filence. On one fide of her stood DEJECTION just dropping into a fwoon, and PALENESS wafting to a skeleton; on the other side were CARE inwardly tormented with imaginations, and ANGUISH fuffering outward TROUBLES to fuck the blood from her heart in the shape of vuLTURES. The whole vault had a genuine dismalness in

it, which a few fcattered lamps, whofe blueish flames arofe and funk in their urns, difcovered to our eyes with encrease. Some of us fell down, overcome and spent with what they suffered in the way, and were gi ven over to those tormentors that stood on either hand of the presence; others, galled and mortified with pain, recover'd the entrance, where PATIENCE, whom we had left behind, was ftill waiting to receive us.

With her (whofe company was now become more grateful to us by the want we had found of her) we winded round the grotto, and afcended at the back of it, out of the mournful dale in whofe bottom it lay. On this eminence we halted, by her advice, to pant for breath; and lifting our eyes, which till then were fixed downwards, felt a fullen fort of fatisfaction, in obferving thro' the fhades what numbers had entered the island. This fatisfaction, which appears to have ill-nature in it, was excufable, because it happened at a time when we were too much taken up with our own concern, to have refpect to that of others; and therefore we did not confider them as fuffering, but ourfelves as not suffering in the most forlorn estate. It had alfo the groundwork of humanity and compaffion in it, though the mind was then too deeply engaged to perceive it; but as we proceeded onwards it began to discover itself, and from obferving that others were unhappy, we came to question one another, when it was that we met, and what were the fad occafions that