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The Mountain of Calamity.

BOUT a month ago, in returning from a fox-chace on Nimrod, a rolling ftone threw him down, and falling with my right leg under him, fo bruifed my knee, that I have never fince been able to set my foot to the ground; when the accident first happened, I was dejected beyond measure, not fo much from the actual pain I fuffered, as from the horrors of being confined many weeks during the beft feafon for hunting. I am now almost free from pain; but the limb is fo weak, that I am still confined, and have had, for the last fortnight past, full leifure to reflect on my various fenfations during my imprisonment.

You can hardly conceive, Sir, the prodigious revolution which has taken place in my mind. Many things now delight which formerly afforded no fatisfaction, and I look with indifference on purfuits, which before appeared to me the moft engaging.

I have lately had recourfe to reading, which hadpreviously afforded me little amusement, and was confequently little pursued. Yesterday evening, after reading the Spectator, where he compares "the evils of "this life to rocks and precipices, which appear rugged " and barren at a distance, but, at our nearer approach, "we find little fruitful fpots and refreshing fprings, "mixed with the harfhnefs and deformities of nature.' With my mind engaged in this contemplation, I went to reft, when the following dream produced fuch vivid imagery to my fancy, that I almost doubt whether I was afleep, or only mufing and commenting on the metaphor. I conceived myself transported to a delightful country, beautifully variegated with gentle hills and vales, with woods and plains and cultivated fields, which were for ever changing as I paffed on; for Time, who was my conductor, never would give me leave to ftop a minute in a place, except when fleep made me infen

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fible of his progreffive motion: For then he would gently carry me in his arms to fome spot which commanded nearly the fame profpect with that where wearinefs had overtaken me; but I would not have you fancy my conductor was an old man with a scythe and an hour-glafs, as he is generally reprefented; no, he was continually changing fhapes; when I firft met him, he was a healthy, playful boy; he taught me many a puerile game, and cheered my first steps with pastimes and delights; we danced rather than walked the beginning of our journey, for all was fport and feftive innocence; at length he led me by the hand through Academic Groves, where every step we took enlarged my profpects, and increased my fatisfaction in his company. I had only one caufe of difcontent, and that was, as I before hinted, that he never would permit me to stop a minute in a place, or go back to view the fcenes which had given me the greatest pleasure; indeed he would fometimes give a reafon for his non-compliance, by telling me, "that the delight of every fcene confifted "chiefly in its novelty;" and he would fometimes fhew me the picture of the places I had vifited, reflected in the Mirror of Experience, which confirmed the truth of what he faid. On my departure from the Academic Grove, I was ftruck with the appearance of a vaft extenfive plain, a fort of heath or common, interfected by many roads, but which all feemed to tend towards an object I had never before beheld; it was a distant mountain, whose bleak and barren afpect at once convinced me that it was the Mountain of Calamity; I fhrunk from the fight, and would have gladly turned back into the Grove, or at leaft wifhed to ftop, and refolve which of the roads it were moft advifeable to take; but my conductor hurried me on, bidding me not dire& my eyes to painful objects at a distance, but look about me; I did fo, and was again delighted with the profpect near at hand; the ground was enamelled with a thousand flowers, that fhed their fweets as we paffed by; I faw before me at a little diftance the most de

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lightful objects, through which the several roads seemed to take their refpective courses; one led thro' a city, whofe palaces glittered with riches, the effect of trade; another led to a splendid Fane, dedicated to Naval and Military Honours; another to a facred Grove, where Holy Contemplation feemed to enfure peace and happinefs; and others ftill thro' various and interesting scenes; each was furrounded with enchanting profpects, but each was more or less exposed to a view of the diftant Mountain; and I obferved, that, in proportion as the inhabitants of these feveral places ftruggled to afcend to the highest spots of their fituation, they had a more distinct view of the Mountain which all wished to fhun: Struck with this reflection, I chofe a road different from any I have mentioned, and paffed through villages and pleasant farms, where unexpected scenery on every fide delighted me; I could often view detached parts of all the other roads, and fometimes travelled a few miles in each; but though my profpects on each fide were ever varying, and always pleasant, yet I could not avoid a fight of the fearful Mountain, and this, as I approached it nearer, feemed to rob the furrounding landscapes of their charms, and, by degrees, I found my spirits finking, and became difgufted with my journey. Sometimes my conductor would bid me take courage, and enjoy with him the nearer profpects, or look back on the country we had paffed; there I faw fome hills which I had climbed with eafe, and fome which I had avoided without knowing how: I was often pleased to fee torrents which I had paffed without danger, and sometimes vexed to perceive objects that I had miffed, and to which now there was no going back; by thus looking round occafionally, I infenfibly preffed forward till I was fo near the Mountain, that it seemed impoffible to remove it from my eyes; but how was I overwhelmed with despair at the horrors of my way, when, on a fudden, a few steps farther prefented the full profpect of the River of Death, which fwept away thoufands in their paffage to the Mountain! Nay, I saw some

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voluntarily plunge into the waves, rather than look forward; but my conductor recommended me to Fortitude, who leading me through the bye-path of Difficulty, I began to afcend the Mountain; and now I perceived it lefs barren than I dreaded; the roads were rugged indeed, but the view from thence of the country I had paffed, was often not unpleafing the river at the foot of the hill had loft its terrors, though from the plains of Happiness it was a dreadful object; I could trace its courfe, and faw, with aftonifhment, that it wandered through the whole extent of the journey I had taken, and that many who purfued the feveral tracks, were of ten destroyed by the rapid torrent, in the moft unex pected part of their progrefs to that Mountain, which they faw, but never reached. As I was earnestly furveying the many places where I had myself escaped, I struck my bruifed knee againft a projecting rock, and awoke with the pain.

ISRAEL SRAEL loved Jofeph better than all his children, age; and he gave him a coat of many colours. But when his brethren faw their father's partiality to him, they hated him, and would not fpeak peaceably unto him. And Jofeph dreamed a dream, and he told it to his brethren. Behold, he faid, we were binding fheaves in the field; and lo! my fheaf arofe and ftood upright; and your fheaves ftood round about, and made obeifance to my fheaf. And his brethren faid unto him, Shalt thou indeed have dominion over us? And they hated him the more for his dreams and for his words.

It happened that his brethren went to feed their father's flock in Dothan. And Jofeph went after his brethren; but, when they faw him afar off, they confpired against him to flay him; and they faid one to another, We will tell our father that fome evil beaft hath devoured him. But Reuben wifhed to deliver him

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