4.  I drew near with that reverence which is due to a superior nature; and as my heart was entirely subdued by the captivating strains I had heard, I fell down at his feet and wept.  The genius smiled on me with a look of compassion and affability, that familiarized him to my imagination, and at once dispelled all the fears and apprehensions with which I approached him.  He lifted me from the ground, and taking me by the hand, Mirza, said he, I have heard thee in thy soliloquies:  follow me.

5.  He then led me to the highest pinnacle of the rock, and placing me on the top of it, cast thy eyes eastward, said he, and tell me what thou seest.  I see, said I, a huge valley, and a prodigious tide of water rolling through it.

The valley that then seest, said, he, is the vale of misery and the tide of water that thou seest, is part of the great tide of eternity.

6.  What is the reason, said I, that the tide I see rises out of a thick mist at one end, and again loses itself in a thick mist at the other?  What thou seest, said he, is that portion of eternity which is called time, measured out by the sun, and reaching from the beginning of the world to its consummation.  Examine now, said he, this sea that is bounded with darkness at both ends, and tell me what thou discoverest in it.  I see a bridge, said I; standing in the midst of the tide.  The bridge thou seest said he, is human life; consider it attentively.

7.  Upon a more leisurely survey of it, I found that it consisted of threescore and ten entire arches, with several broken arches, which, added to those that were entire, made up the number of about an hundred.  As I was counting the arches, the genius told me that this bridge consisted at the first of a thousand arches; but that a great flood swept away the rest, and left the bridge in the ruinous condition I now beheld it; but tell me further, said he, what thou discoverest on it.  I see multitudes of people passing over it, said I, and a black cloud hanging on each end of it.

8.  As I looked more attentively, I saw several of the passengers 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 passengers no sooner trod upon, but they fell through them into the tide, and immediately disappeared.  These hidden pitfalls were set very thick at the entrance of the bridge, so that throngs of people no sooner 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 entire.

9.  There were indeed some persons, but their number was very small, that continued a kind of hobbling march on the broken arches, but fell through one after another, being quite tired and spent with so long a walk.