1826.] A Dream in Westminster Abbey. 511 
glorious sky, I felt an unknown, an unbidden power, nerving me for the 
unequal and indescribable conflict. 
«© Whence and what art thou?” said I. “ By the name of him who 
triumphed over those dreary regions, bound their powers to the wheels 
of his chariot, swallowed up the whole empire in victory, and granted 
life and proclaimed immortality to the children of men, I conjure thee, 
I command thee to offer to me no violence, but to direct me how I 
may quit this dreadful place, and return again to praise him in the land 
of ‘the living.” 
«« Fear not,” said the shadowy form: “ I too am his worshipper ; the 
workmanship of his hand, the agent of his will, and the minister of his 
pleasure. Whatever of weal or of woe, of ioy or of sorrow, is the 
portion of your race, is bestowed through me. I am their best friend, 
yet they heed me not; their choicest benefactor, yet they abuse my 
bounty. At my breath the world sprang from nothing; and when this 
aged frame shall be wrapt up in death, or rather in that by which death 
shall be conquered, the world shall return to that whence it sprung ; and, 
but for the retribution of the immortal spirits which through me are lent 
to it, it shall be as though it had never been. I am Time,—the portion 
of the wise, the punishment of the foolish—the idol that the sages have 
adored, the victim which the heedless have been slaying ever since the 
foundation of the world—the measurer of the cup of life, the conductor 
to the portals of eternity.” 
My blood ran to my face as hot as lava, and discharging all its heat 
there, returned to my heart cold, curdling, and congealing like ice, at 
finding myself alone in the wild—the waste of nature—with one whose 
bounty I had so often slighted, and whose kind offers I had so often 
put by. - I reflected, however, that though Time is the occasion of folly, 
he is also the father of repentance; and that, however dissimilar they 
may be in appearance, his features always put one in mind of those of 
Hope. It was some satisfaction, too, that things were not quite so bad 
with me as I had at first apprehended. I had ‘fancied that I had come 
into the presence of Death; and therefore there was satisfaction in 
finding that’ I had found him with whom, as men say, Death never 
dwells. Those reflections in some measure calmed my spirits ; I entered 
into more familiar converse with the hoary personage, and found him, 
much to my satisfaction, both more courteous and more willing to 
instruct than his appearance at the first had indicated. My most 
anxious inquiry was, how I should best quit a region so dreary and 
so uncomfortable. He at once offered himself as my guide ; and imme- 
diately I began to follow his steps. 
Old as he was, the rapidity of his pace was astonishing,—so great, 
that if he had not ever and anon taken me by the hand, [ should not 
have been able to keep up with him. But, though we moved rapidly 
along, there seemed to be no improvement of the scene, which, on the 
other hand, became, as I thought, more gloomy and desolate. He 
perceived this (for he who discloses the secrets of men to one another 
must be presumed to know them himself), and therefore he bade me be 
under no apprehension,—as, however flowery the paths were over which 
he conducted men, he found that they always wearied as the way 
lengthened; and that, sooner or later, they all quitted his guidance 
and career for the silent repose of another. But though my fears 
were in some measure quieted, and though our motion was rapid in the 
