a frightful apparition. He saw
the Genius of Man, whom he had once before seen. He saw him upon a vast
and blooming island, surrounded by a stormy sea, wandering up and down,
and looking very anxiously upon the raging billows. The ocean was
covered with innumerable barks, in which men, aged and young, children,
women, and maidens, of all the nations of the world, were struggling
against the tempest, in order to reach the island. When they arrived
there, their first care was to bring to land different building
materials, which they flung together confusedly. After an immense number
had gained the shore, the Genius marked out, upon the most elevated part
of the island, the plan of a vast edifice; and each of the crowd, young
and old, weak or strong, took, according to his or her strength, a piece
from the mass of materials, and, directed by those whom the Genius had
chosen, carried it, and deposited it at the proper place. All worked
with pleasure, with courage, and without relaxation; and the fabric had
already risen high above the ground, when they were suddenly attacked by
numerous foes, who advanced out of a dark ambush in three columns. At
the head of each of these columns stood a general. The first bore a
glittering crown upon his head; on his brazen shield was written the word
_Power_; and in his right hand he held a sceptre, which, like the rod of
Mercury, had a snake and a scourge twisted round it. Before him went a
fierce hyena, holding in its jaws a book, on the back of which was
written _My Word_. His troops were armed with swords, spears, and other
implements of destruction. The second column was commanded by a majestic
matron, whose noble figure was clothed in a sacerdotal robe. On her
right stood _Superstition_, a gloomy-eyed spectre, bearing in his hand a
bow formed from the bones of the dead, and on his back a quiver filled
with poisoned arrows. On her left hovered a wild, fantastically clothed
figure, called _Fanaticism_, bearing a blazing torch. These two
phantoms, with menacing gestures and frightful grimaces, led the noble
matron in chains, like a prisoner. Before them went _Ambition_, whose
head was adorned with a triple crown; in his hand was an episcopal staff,
and on his mailed breast shone the word _Religion_. Fanaticism and
Superstition waited, with the utmost impatience, until Religion should
give them the signal to vent their fury, which they could scarcely
restrain. The army w