I recalled her fields so richly cultivated, her roads so admirably constructed, her cities inhabited by a countless people, her fleets spread over every sea, her ports filled with the produce of both the Indies:  and then comparing the activity of her commerce, the extent of her navigation, the magnificence of her buildings, the arts and industry of her inhabitants, with what Egypt and Syria had once possessed, I was gratified to find in modern Europe the departed splendor of Asia; but the charm of my reverie was soon dissolved by a last term of comparison.  Reflecting that such had once been the activity of the places I was then contemplating, who knows, said I, but such may one day be the abandonment of our countries?  Who knows if on the banks of the Seine, the Thames, the Zuyder-Zee, where now, in the tumult of so many enjoyments, the heart and the eye suffice not for the multitude of sensations,—­who knows if some traveller, like myself, shall not one day sit on their silent ruins, and weep in solitude over the ashes of their inhabitants, and the memory of their former greatness.

At these words, my eyes filled with tears:  and covering my head with the fold of my mantle, I sank into gloomy meditations on all human affairs.  Ah! hapless man, said I in my grief, a blind fatality sports with thy destiny!* A fatal necessity rules with the hand of chance the lot of mortals!  But no:  it is the justice of heaven fulfilling its decrees!—­a God of mystery exercising his incomprehensible judgments!  Doubtless he has pronounced a secret anathema against this land:  blasting with maledictions the present, for the sins of past generations.  Oh! who shall dare to fathom the depths of the Omnipotent?

* Fatality is the universal and rooted prejudice of the East.  “It was written,” is there the answer to every thing.  Hence result an unconcern and apathy, the most powerful impediments to instruction and civilization.

And sunk in profound melancholy, I remained motionless.

CHAPTER III.

The apparition.

While thus absorbed, a sound struck my ear, like the agitation of a flowing robe, or that of slow footsteps on dry and rustling grass.  Startled, I opened my mantle, and looking about with fear and trembling, suddenly, on my left, by the glimmering light of the moon, through the columns and ruins of a neighboring temple, I thought I saw an apparition, pale, clothed in large and flowing robes, such as spectres are painted rising from their tombs.  I shuddered:  and while agitated and hesitating whether to fly or to advance toward the object, a distinct voice, in solemn tones, pronounced these words: