abit, your future destinies, and the scheme of the universe; and yet
you have the folly to believe you are acquainted with the past, the
present, and the future. I am an intelligence somewhat superior to you,
though there are millions of beings as much above me in power and in
intellect as man is above the meanest and weakest reptile that crawls
beneath his feet; yet something I can teach you: yield your mind wholly
to the influence which I shall exert upon it, and you shall be undeceived
in your views of the history of the world, and of the system you
inhabit." At this moment the bright light disappeared, the sweet and
harmonious voice, which was the only proof of the presence of a superior
intelligence, ceased; I was in utter darkness and silence, and seemed to
myself to be carried rapidly upon a stream of air, without any other
sensation than that of moving quickly through space. Whilst I was still
in motion, a dim and hazy light, which seemed like that of twilight in a
rainy morning, broke upon my sight, and gradually a country displayed
itself to my view covered with forests and marshes. I saw wild animals
grazing in large savannahs, and carnivorous beasts, such as lions and
tigers, occasionally disturbing and destroying them; I saw naked savages
feeding upon wild fruits, or devouring shell-fish, or fighting with clubs
for the remains of a whale which had been thrown upon the shore. I
observed that they had no habitations, that they concealed themselves in
caves, or under the shelter of palm trees, and that the only delicious
food which nature seemed to have given to them was the date and the cocoa-
nut, and these were in very small quantities and the object of
contention. I saw that some few of these wretched human beings that
inhabited the wide waste before my eyes, had weapons pointed with flint
or fish-bone, which they made use of for destroying birds, quadrupeds, or
fishes, that they fed upon raw; but their greatest delicacy appeared to
be a maggot or worm, which they sought for with great perseverance in the
buds of the palm. When I had cast my eyes on the varied features of this
melancholy scene, which was now lighted by a rising sun, I heard again
the same voice which had astonished me in the Colosaeum, and which
said,--"See the birth of Time! Look at man in his newly created state,
full of youth and vigour. Do you see aught in this state to admire or
envy?" As the last words fell on my ear, I was ag