_Translated from the Spanish._
It was night; and by degrees, that sweet forgetfulness which suspends our
faculties insensibly began to steal over me, and I fell asleep. In an
instant my soul was transported to an unknown region. I found myself in
the centre of a spacious plain, surrounded by groves of mournful cypresses.
The whole enclosure was full of superb mausoleums, some assuming the shape
of pyramids, whose lofty summits almost touched the clouds; and others the
forms of altars, whose magnificence presented the most imposing spectacle.
On all were engraved the epitaphs and sculptured insignia of the heroes
who had been interred there. In various places I discovered coffins lying
on the ground covered with sable palls, and bodies extended on the bare
earth, meanly enveloped in miserable garbs.
I wandered, filled with terror, through this dismal region. By the light
of the moon, which shone in the midst of an unclouded sky, I attentively
regarded these proud monuments, and curiosity impelled me to read the
pompous epitaphs inscribed on them. "How remarkable a difference!" I
observed to myself; "when ordinary men, incapable of eclipsing their
fellow mortals, lie forgotten in dust and corruption, those great men who
have excited astonishment and admiration throughout the world, even after
the lapse of many ages, still breathe in splendid marble! Happy are they
who have had the glory of performing brilliant achievements! Even though
inexorable fate refuse to spare them, their ashes afterwards revive, and
under the very stroke of death, they rise triumphantly to a glorious
immortality!"
I was indulging in these reflections, when, on a sudden, a hoarse and
fearful blast of wind affrighted me. The earth rocked under my feet, the
mausoleum waved to and fro with violence, the cypresses were torn up with
tremendous fury, and, from time to time, I heard a sound as of fleshless
bones clashing together. In a moment, the heavens were covered with black
clouds, and the moon withdrew her splendour. The horror inspired by the
darkness of the night, and the dead silence which reigned amidst the tombs,
caused my hair to stand on end, and stiffened my limbs until I had
scarcely power to move them.
In this dreadful situation, I saw an old man approaching me. His head was
bald--his beard white--in his right hand he carried a crooked scythe, and
in his left an hour-glass--whilst two immense flapping wings nearly
concealed his body. "Thou," said he to me in a terrible voice, "who art
still dazzled by the dignities and honours which mankind pursue with such
reckless eagerness, see whether you perceive any difference between the
dust of the monarch and that of the most wretched slave!" He spoke, and
striking the ground a tremendous blow with his scythe, all these proud
monuments fell headlong to the earth, and in an instant were reduced to
dust. My terror was then redoubled, and my strength almost failed me. I
could only perceive that there was no distinction. All was dust,
corruption, and ashes. "Go," said he, "seek another road to the temple of
immortality! Behold the termination of those titles of grandeur which men
so ardently desire! They vainly imagine that, after death, they shall
survive in history, or in marbles, which shall leap emulously from their
quarries to form such monuments of pride as you have just beheld; but they
are miserably deceived; their existence ends at the instant they expire,
and their fame, however deeply engraven on brass and marble, cannot have a
longer duration than that of a brief moment when compared with eternity! I
myself, TIME, consume and utterly annihilate all those structures which
have vanity for their base; the works which are founded on virtue are not
subject to my jurisdiction. They pass to the boundless regions of another
world, and receive the reward of immortality!" With these words he
disappeared.
I awoke with a deadly dullness, and found that my sleep had been
productive of instruction. Thenceforth I regarded, in a very different
point of view, the pompous titles which before had dazzled me, and, by the
aid of a little reflection, I soon became thoroughly sensible of their
vanity.