134 JEROME CARDAN. 



right of him, and that he ran in company with an 

 immense multitude, of every rank, and sex, and age; 

 there were women, men, old men, boys, infants, poor 

 men, rich men, clothed in many fashions. Then he 

 asked, " Whither are we all hastening ?" One of the com- 

 pany replied, " To death." In great terror the dreamer 

 began then to ascend the mountain slope, drawing himself 

 up by clinging to the vines through which he went, and 

 with which that part of the mountain was all covered. 

 They were dry vines with sere leaves, such as are seen in 

 autumn when the grapes have all been gathered. He 

 ascended with much labour, for the mountain at its base 

 was steep, and as he looked back on his way, he saw that 

 all the vines among which he had passed, no longer dry, 

 were green and full of blossom. In a little while the 

 ascent became easier, the mountain was less steep, and the 

 dreamer hurried on. When he came near the top, he 

 found the ground there barren, and across bare rocks and 

 broken stones he was still pushing forward, as if by a 

 strong impulse of the will. Suddenly he was on the point 

 of plunging into the dark maw of an abyss, a chasm so 

 huge and terrible, that, as a waking thought, it remained 

 for the next thirty years a thing to shudder at. The 

 dreamer, however, checked himself in his career, and 

 turning to the right, wandered across a wintry plain, 

 covered with heaths, timidly, as one uncertain of his way. 



