Excerpt from Christian SimilitudesOn a certain day, devoted to religious purposes, I retired to an elevated situation, in a mountainous district, for meditation and prayer. While there, I fell into a profound contemplation on the vanity of human life, and, passing from one thought to another, surely, said I, man's existence here seems but a mysterious shadow, and his life a troublous dream. While musing on this subject, I fell into a dream, or vision. Methought an angelic being stood before me, with a look of compassion and affability, and bade me follow him.This heavenly being then led me to the highest pinnacle of the rock, and placing me on the top of it, east thy eyes eastward, said he, and tell me what thou scest. I see, said I, a deep valley, and a great tide of water flowing through it. The valley that thou scest, said he, is this lower world, called by some the vale of misery, and the tide of water which thou scest is part of the great tide of eternity.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 scest, said he, is that portion of eternity called time, measured out by the sun, and reaching from the beginning of the world to its consummation. Examine now, said be, this sea which is bounded 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 scest, said be, is human life, consider it attentively.Upon a more leisurely survey, 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, my conductor told me that this bridge consisted, at the first, of one 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 the end of it.As I looked more attentively, I saw several passengers dropping through the bridge into the great tide flowing underneath it, and, upon further examination, perceived that there were innumerable trap-doors that lay concealed in the bridge, which the passengers no sooner trod upon than they fell through them into the tide, and instantly disappeared. These pitfalls were set very thick at the entrance of the bridge, so that throngs of human beings no sooner broke through the cloud hut many of them fell into them. They grow thinner toward the middle, but multiplied and lay closer together toward the arches that were entire.There were indeed some persons, hut their number was very small, that continued a kind of hobbling march on the broken arches, hut fell through one after another, being quite tired and spent after so long a walk. I observed, also, that several persons, about the middle of the bridge, had become so weary of their journey that they refused to traverse the bridge any longer, hut threw themselves over its side into the dark waters below.I passed some time in the contemplation of the wonderful scene before me, and the great variety of objects which it presented. My heart was quite moved and filled with melancholy, to sec several dropping unexpectedly in the midst of mirth and jollity, and catching at every thing that stood by to save themselves. Multitudes were very busy in catching at bubbles which glittered in their eyes, and danced before them, but often when they thought, themselves in reach of them, their footing gave way, and they sunk into the depths below. Some were looking up toward the heavens in a thoughtful posture, and in the midst of a speculation, stumbled and fell out of sight.