C

gued with Thought, gave way to the 'forcible Oppreffions of Slumber and Sleep, whilft Fancy, unwilling yet to drop the Subject, prefented me "with the following Vifion.

METHOUGHT I was just a"woke out of a Sleep, that I could never remember the beginning of; the 'Place where I found my felf to be, C was a wide and fpacious Plain, full of People that wandered up and down C through feveral beaten Paths, whereof fome few were ftrait, and in direct lines, but most of them winding and turning like a Labyrinth; but yet it appeared to me afterwards, that thefe laft all met in one Iffue, fo that many that feemed to fteer quite contrary "Courses, did at length meet and face one another, to the no little amazemany of them.

'IN the midst of the Plain there was a great Fountain: They called it the Spring of Self-Love; out of it iffued two Rivulets to the Eaftward and Weftward; the Name of the firft was Heavenly-Wisdom, its Water was wonderfully clear, but of a yet more wonderful Effect; the other's Name was Worldly-Wisdom, its Water was thick,

6

and

and yet far from being dormant or C ftagnating, for it was in a continual -violent Agitation; which kept the Travellers, whom I fhall mention by and by, from being fenfible of the "Foulness and Thickness of the Water; which had this Effect, that it 'intoxicated thofe who drunk it, and 'made them miftake every Object that 'lay before them: both Rivulets were parted near their Springs into fo many others, as there were strait and 'crooked Paths, which they attended 'all along to their respective Iffues.

I obferved from the feveral Paths many now and then diverting, to re'fresh and otherwife qualify themselves for their Journey, to the respective 'Rivulets that ran near them; they 'contracted a very obfervable Courage and Steddinefs in what they were about, by drinking thefe Waters. At "the end of the Perfpective of every 'ftrait Path, all which did end in one "Iffue and Point, appeared a high Pillar, all of Diamond, cafting Rays as bright as thofe of the Sun into the Paths; which Rays had also certain fimpathizing and alluring Virtues in them, fo that whofoever had made

• fome

1

fome confiderable progress in his Journey onwards towards the Pillar, by the repeated impreffion of thefe Rays upon him, was wrought into an habitual Inclination and Conversion of his Sight towards it, fo that it grew at laft in a manner natural to him to look and gaze upon it, whereby he was kept fteddy in the ftrait Paths, which alone led to that radiant Body, the beholding of which was now grown a Gratification to his Nature.

AT the Iffue of the crooked Paths 'there was a great black Tower, out of 'the Centre of which ftreamed a long Succeffion of Flames, which did rife even above the Clouds; it gave a very great Light to the whole Plain, which did fometimes outshine the Light, and oppreft the Beams of the Adamantine Pillar; though, by the "Obfervation I made afterwards, it appeared that it was not for any Dimi"nution of Light, but that this lay in the Travellers, who would fometimes ftep out of the ftrait Paths, where they loft the full Profpect of the Radiant Pillar, and faw it but fide-ways: but the great Light from the black Tower, which was fomewhat particularly

cularly fcorching to them, would generally light and haften them to their Climate again.

proper

;

ROUND about the black Tower there were, methoughts, many 'thousands of huge mif-fhapen ugly • Monsters thefe had great Nets, which they were perpetually plying and cafting towards the crooked Paths, ' and they would now and then catch up thofe that were nearest to them: these they took up ftreight, and whirled over the Walls into the flaming Tower, and they were no more feen nor heard of.

THEY would fometimes caft their Nets towards the right Paths to catch the Stragglers, whofe Eyes for want of frequent drinking at the Brook that ran by them grew dim, whereby they loft their way; thefe would fometimes very narrowly mifs being catched away, but I could not hear whether any of thefe had ever been fo unfortuC nate, that had been before very hearty in the ftrait Paths.

I confidered all thefe ftrange Sights 'with great attention, till at laft I was interrupted by a Clufter of the Travellers in the crooked Paths, who E VOL. XIV < came

C

came up to me, bid me go along with them, and prefently fell to finging and dancing; they took me by the hand, and fo carried me away along with them. After I had followed ' them a confiderable time, I perceived I had loft the black Tower of light, at which I greatly wondered; but as I looked and gazed round about me, and faw nothing, I begun to fancy my firft Vifion had been but a Dream, and there was no fuch thing in reality: 'but then I confidered, that if I could fancy to fee what was not, I might C as well have an Illufion wrought on ' me at prefent, and not fee what was C really before me. I was very much confirmed in this Thought, by the Effect I then juft obferved the Water of Worldly-Wisdom had upon me; for as I had drunk a little of it again, I felt a very fenfible Effect in my Head; methought it distracted and difordered all there: this made me ftop of a fudden, "fufpecting fome Charm or Inchantment. As I was cafting about within my felf what I should do, and whom to apply to in this Cafe, I fpyed at C fome diftance off me a Man beckning, • and making figns to me to come over