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to look for meat, lighted upon the Toad, and preyed upon him, and with itspoison died, and made a most filthy squallid Liquor blacker than Ink, andtick like to Pitch melted, which made me wonder at the sight: And going todepart, I heard a Voice which said to me, You must not leave us; if you do,our Persons and Kingdom is lost without recovery. Then my Eyes wereopened, and I saw Nature walking up and down among the Carcases, and inher hand her unparallell’d Lamp; and taking a more serious view, I saw inthose rotten Atoms the Idea’s of all things natural and supernatural; and Ifound the dead King with his Wife were intombed in a Field Sable, and theTomb as it were of polished Jet or Ebony; and as in that place all thingswere strange, so most strange was it that the Tomb and the intombedCarcass were one, and that inseparably. Also upon the Tomb I foundwritten a Prophecy, viz. That they (if the Fire were kept equal andcontinual) should rise again, and be more glorious and powerful than everthey were before. Then said I to the Voice which is in the Glass, I must bedirected both what, and how, and when to do. The voice answered me,Take no care, only do as I shall direct you, and all shall be well; in themean time you may view the paces that are about, only be sure that youneglect not your time of attending here: And for to take away thetediousness which the length of time would otherwise work, ask of me, andI shall inform you in whatever you desire, not shall I thing my discourse tome a burden, so you will not think your labour a trouble. Then said I, Notso; though I should be bound to serve you during my whole Life, yetshould I count it a priviledge, not a burden. Then she gave unto me as itwere a Ball of fine Silk, wound up as on a bottom, and said, Make this fastto a Pin of this Tower, and then go round and behold the place, it mayshorten the time to you, and unwind it as you go, and by it you may returntill you know the place.But do not after the common guise.Then I passed along, and was no sooner out of that place, but a very thickmisty darkness apprehended me, so thick that I might feel it; and thoughmy head were as it were transparent and very light, and I took also aCandle with me, which was burning there continually at the entrance of theTower, yet the darkness was such, that it would not receive the light, forthey were not homogenial, but were a little dis-joyned by the Rays fo theLight, and as it were here and there condensed into strange figures, as ofBirds, Beasts, and creeping things of monstrous shapes: and by reason ofthis opposition the Rays of the Light extended but a little way, and theLight most clear did shoot as it were in Beams, and the darkness stood as Iwere in clusters by it self.71