When the storm had disappeared with them behind the stars, the vastness of creation appeared. All being rejoiced in eternity. The worlds lay along the heavens like an Alpine chain; the suns encircled the primal source of light; and covering all was the Throne of God. "Pray before thou wakest, for the earth, too, will disappear," said the voice near me. And my whole heart was filled with prayer by the very nearness of this higher being. But the green cloud now moved more rapidly with me eastward toward the approaching earth; and the cedar island floated with its happy multitudes towards the other islands. The sea glowed in the east as with the colors of the dawn; and deeper and deeper sank the green cloud into the aurora of earth. Suddenly, then, the halo of glory round the head of the invisible being became as a great rainbow, and was absorbed in an infinite radiance which filled the heavens. And the earth passed away like a summer night. I awoke, and instead of the cloud there was a green meadow around me, and above me glittered the stars. The first night of summer had followed the last night of spring. The moon was rising like a silver bow in the ghostly air. And in the north the sunset colors of the spring were changing upon the mountain-tops into the morning glow of the summer. My heart still clung to the eternal stars, where now awake I lingered in my dream, and I sighed, "Alas! each day above is the beginning of spring." Then I heard the voice in me repeat the old words, "Child of man, sacrifice time to eternity,"--and I sighed no more. FOOTNOTES: [Footnote 1: I need not tell any one that the valley itself is situated in the departments of the Upper Pyrenees.] [Footnote 2: It is well known that the Symplegadian rocks continually dashed against each other, and destroyed every passing ship, until Orpheus's lyre subdued and tranquillized them.] [Footnote 3: Alluding to a painting by Reynolds, in which Garrick, invited by both Muses, follows Thalia.] [Footnote 4: A kind of jelly-fish.] [Footnote 5: Ten drops of this instantly sweeten half a pound of sour beer.] [Footnote 6: The cave is twenty feet high, but the entrance only five feet.] [Footnote 7: French miles. The valley is about two German miles--ten English miles--long.] [Footnote 8: The Höfersche heaven-path, or how to learn the way to eternal salvation in twenty-four hours.] [Footnote 9: A market-place in Rome where deformed beings were sold, and fetched a higher price the uglier they were.] [Footnote 10: A Parisian dentist wrote this over his door.]