THE GOLDEN CLEW.

CHAPTER I..

LOST STATE OF MAN.

As I lay one night, meditating on many things upon my bed, and considering the various analogies between things seen and things unseen, sleep insensibly stole over my members, and the following vision presented itself to my fancy.

I thought that I was standing on a certain eminence, from which I could look down upon a wide horizon, including a vast extent of country, the features of which seemed involved in one mass of confusion: the surface of this region was so irregular, and the heaps of ruin and rubbish with which it was scattered were so singular in their appearance, so rough, so torn, and so confused, that I at first supposed I was looking on the site of some ancient city, rooted up by earthquakes and terrestrial commotions, and blasted by the fires of heaven.

I looked again, and the features of the landscape became more distinct. I then saw valleys, rocks, deep lakes, and rushing waterfalls, and among these, various specimens of every order and species of architecture, tumbled together in the most astonishing manner, from the primitive hut to the most superb examples of the Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian orders, with the rich entablatures, and fluted columns, and coronels of olive-leaves belonging to this last. Neither were there wanting in this scene of wild confusion, the broken ruins of ancient Gothic towers and archways, vast ranges of cloisters, passing away from the eye in

long perspective, with triumphal arches, pyramids, and obelisks, over one and all of which seemed to have been already passed a sentence of decay.

While I marvelled what all this might mean, behold. one stood by my side, prepared as an interpreter, being well skilled in the signification of emblems, and he said to me, "Child of man, what do you see?"

"I see, sir," I replied, "an exceedingly confused mass of ruin, but I see no living creatures, excepting certain ravenous birds, which wing their way in the air, and rest at times on the higher peaks of the rocks, and the summits of the ruins."

"These," said the interpreter, 66 are the spirits of darkness, which hover over the abodes of the sons of men, and await the moment in which they may be permitted to make a prey of their carcasses.

"In the language of inspiration," continued he, "the winged inhabitants of the air are the emblems of spirits, be they evil, or be they good. The dove is the Holy Spirit, whose groanings for the sins of the human race ever ascend towards the throne of the Father; and the dove that dwells in the cliffs is the emblem of those souls who have been converted, and brought into a conformity of nature with the Lord the Spirit. The soul of man in general is compared in Scripture to a bird escaped out of the snare of the fowler. Psalm iv. 7 And unclean, ravenous birds are the evil spirits, who seek the destruction of the human race, and are ever awaiting the moment when those on whom the sentence of eternal death is passed, shall be finally delivered up to become their prey; these are they to whom the angel shall say in the last day (Rev. xix. 17, 18), Come and gather yourselves together unto the supper of the great God, that ye may eat the flesh of kings, and the flesh of captains, and the flesh of mighty men, and the flesh of horses, and of them that sit on them, and the flesh of all men, both free and bond, both small and great.'

While I wondered at these things, the interpreter opened his mouth and spake again: "See you not," said he, "in the centre of yonder mass of ruins and rubbish, a deep, dark, and marshy pit? Behold, there is the abode of the human race, there the children of Adam are enclosed as in a labyrinth, and from that centre proceed many ways and winding paths, intersect

ing each other in endless mazes, offering, apparently, many means of escape, but all, with the exception of one only, ending in darkness, perplexity, and confusion: but whereas there is no safety in the bottom of the labyrinth, and certain destruction awaits all those who remain therein, it may be supposed that many try to escape from thence; and hence every path which leads from the centre of the maze, has been repeatedly tried by the wise, the prudent, and the learned of every age: but all with equal ill-success, and every attempt has but tended to prove that the enemy of the human race has laid his plans too skilfully to admit of the escape of any single individual of the human race, through the exertion of his own unassisted strength and reason. Hence no other but certain destruction would await every person, born of Adam in the natural course, had not one sent of God descended among the human race, and obtained permission, through certain penalties paid to divine justice, to bring with him a Golden Clew, which last he fixed, with a divine skill, and infinite foreknowledge, along the perplexed and tangled pathways; whereby he who has once been brought to lay his hand thereon, is assured of being led through all his difficulties, and finally brought out beyond those gates, which open into light, and glory, and everlasting blessedness."

"And who," I said, "was that holy person who laid this glorious Clew?"

But while I spake, methought the scene changed; my divine instructer had disappeared, and I suddenly found myself enclosed in the pit at the bottom of the labyrinth, where I beheld multitudes of my fellow-creatures around me, all of whom seemed to be either absorbed by their own cares and afflictions, or lost in a more hopeless state of stupidity and darkness. Then I looked up, and beheld only darkness, or a very obscure and gloomy day; for many heavy clouds, charged with storms and tempests, were rolling between our place of abode and the solar orb, obscuring the rays of the celestial light and glory from our view, and presenting their own dark bodies instead of them. These were clouds without water, rolling angrily before the tempest, to which is reserved the mist of darkness for ever: and behold, the noise of winds and indistinct murmurs proceeded from these clouds, resembling great

swelling words of vanity. Then I would know what these clouds meant, but the interpreter was gone, and I was left without a guide. So I looked down from the heavens upon the things which surrounded me. And I saw the pit, that the earth was damp and barren within it; here were no springs or wells of living water, but fetid puddles, and for a sustenance, a few wild olivetrees and berries of the wilderness. Notwithstanding which, the objects which met my view on the sides of the pit were many of them noble and striking; on a nearer view, the various paths which wound away from the centre of this miserable valley were inviting to the eye, and some of them seemed at least to promise deliverance.

CHAPTER II.

INEFFICACY OF HUMAN WISDOM.

It was impossible for me to enter into discourse with the mass of the people who inhabited this pit, for they were wholly occupied collecting and filtering the muddy water which they could find at the bottom of their wells or tanks, and in grubbing in the ground for earth-nuts; but presently, observing a company of sedate-looking persons, who were sitting apart from the rest, I entered into discourse with them, placing myself in the mire at their sides.

The subject with which they were engaged was their own state and that of their fellow-creatures; and one old man, of a venerable appearance, and wearing a beard of considerable length, delivered his sentiments, to the following purport. "There can be no doubt," he said, “ that there is a God, and that he is just, holy, and pure, for God is one, and he is perfect, and want of virtue cannot be attributed to him, because it is an imperfection; but how,"he asked, if God is just, how should he have made creatures so helpless and faulty as we are, and how should he have placed us in such a situation?"-"Our helplessness and misery," replied another, "are the consequence of our want of virtue; if

we would leave our sins, we should be happy, and nothing more is necessary to render us perfect but a resolution to become so."

"True," replied a third of these sages, "but there is such a darkness shed over the minds of most men, that few among them have any other than the most incorrect views of what is really estimable in morality."

It behooves such persons, then," replied the second speaker, "to search the works of true philosophers, to acquire a true system of ethics; to study the finest models of ancient characters; to soften, enrich, and elevate their minds, by the contemplation of the writings of the most finished authors, and the study of the chef d'œuvres of the artist; in a word, to hold perfection before their eyes, till, insensibly, they acquire somewhat of the inspiration which these objects are calculated to impart; and, until they are converted from the state of brutality in which the mass of mankind are now sunk, into rational, intellectual, and virtuous individuals."

I was taken with the swelling sounds of these sentiments, and in reply, I thus addressed the speaker :

"Venerable father, it is impossible for any one to be more weary and disgusted than I am with this present state of being; neither am I without apprehensions for the future: for I see under my feet the traces of earthquakes and subterranean fires, and above, I behold nothing but threatening storms and blastings. I am fully persuaded, that unless I find some means of escaping this labyrinth, I must be lost.

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"I have heard of a Golden Clew, laid among these perplexities, and I have been told that he who follows this Clew will assuredly be delivered from this labyrinth; but you speak of some other and better way of deliverance; and I am disposed to seek your way first, inasmuch as I am led to believe you a sage, a prudent, and experienced person."

The philosopher, in reply (for the person whom I was addressing was a philosopher), drew up his lip in scorn, when he heard me speak of the Golden Clew, and replied, "Would you, young man, trust your welfare to a slender thread? I have, indeed, heard of this Clew, though I never attempted to discover it, or to take hold of it. I rather, indeed, believe it to be a tale made for children and for women; and I have every reason to believe, that all which has ever been said about this pre