festivity; some were
delighting themselves with the fragrant smells that exhaled far and wide
from the flowers, fruits, and odoriferous leaves of a variety of plants;
others were singing most melodious songs, to the great entertainment of
the hearers; some were sitting by the sides of fountains, and directing
the bubbling streams into various forms and channels; others were
walking, and amusing one another with cheerful and pleasant
conversation; others were retiring into shady arbors to repose on
couches; besides a variety of other paradisiacal entertainment. After
observing these things, the angel led his companions through various
winding paths, till he brought them at length to a most beautiful grove
of roses, surrounded by olive, orange, and citron trees. Here they found
many persons sitting in a disconsolate posture, with their heads
reclined on their hands, and exhibiting all the signs of sorrow and
discontent. The companions of the angel accosted them, and inquired into
the cause of their grief. They replied, "This is the seventh day since
we came into this paradise: on our first admission we seemed to
ourselves to be elevated into heaven, and introduced into a
participation of its inmost joys; but after three days our pleasures
began to pall on the appetite, and our relish was lost, till at length
we became insensible to their taste, and found that they had lost the
power of pleasing. Our imaginary joys being thus annihilated we were
afraid of losing with them all the satisfaction of life, and we began to
doubt whether any such thing as eternal happiness exists. We then
wandered through a variety of paths and passages, in search of the gate
at which we were admitted; but our wandering was in vain: for on
inquiring the way of some persons we met, they informed us, that it was
impossible to find the gate, as this paradisiacal garden is a spacious
labyrinth of such a nature, that whoever wishes to go out, enters
further and further into it; 'wherefore,' said they, 'you must of
necessity remain here to eternity; you are now in the middle of the
garden, where all delights are centred.'" They further said to the
angel's companions, "We have now been in this place for a day and a
half, and as we despair of ever finding our way out, we have sat down to
repose on this bank of roses, where we view around us olive-trees,
vines, orange and citron-trees, in great abundance; but the longer we
look at them, the more our eyes