“I relate these things in the briefest possible manner, and make no allusions to my feelings during the time I listened to the strange being, Ettelavar, further than to remark, that during the--temptation, shall it be called?--I seemed to be hovering in the aërial expanse, and realized a fullness and activity of life never realized before, and knew for the first time what it was to be a human being. My freed spirit soared away into the superincumbent ether, and far, very far, beneath us rolled the great revolving globe; while far away in the black inane, twinkled myriads of fiery sparks--the starry eyes of God, looking through the tremendous vault of Heaven. Picture to yourself a soul, quitting earth, perhaps forever, and hovering over it like a gold-crested cloud, at set of sun, when all the winds are hushed to sleep on the still and loving bosom of its protecting God, and thine! “By the exercise of a power to me unknown, Ettelavar arrested our motion, and the cloud on which we seemed to float stood still in mid-air, and he said to me, ‘Look and learn!’ “Like busy insects in the summer sun, afar off in the distance I beheld large masses of human beings toiling wearily up a steep ascent, over the summit of which there floated heavily, thick, dense, murky, gloom-laden clouds. Crimson and red on their edges were they, as if crowned with thunder, and their bowels overcharged with lightnings; and their sombre shadows fell upon the plains below, heavy and pall-like, even as shrouds on the limbs of beauty, or the harsh critic’s sentence upon the first fruits of budding and aspiring genius. ‘It is nothing but a crowd,’ said I; and the being at my side repeated, as if in astonishment, ‘_Nothing_ but a crowd? Boy, the destinies of nations centre in a crowd. Witness Paris. Look again!’ Obeying mechanically, I did so, and soon beheld a strange commotion among the people; and I heard a wail go up--a cry of deep anguish--a sound heavily freighted with human woe and agony. I shuddered. “On the extreme apex of the mountain stood a colossal monument, not an obelisk, but a sort of temple, perfect in its proportions, and magnificent to the view. This edifice was surmounted by a large and highly polished golden pyramid in miniature. On all of the faces of this pyramid was inscribed the Latin word FELICITAS; I asked for an explanation from my guide, but instead of giving it, he placed his air-like hand upon my head, and drawing it gently over my brow and eyes, said, ‘Look!’