destruction is at hand." He heeded it not, and with his senses slept his conscience.
When they arose to pursue their journey, a tempest gathered; thick clouds were in the heavens; all was black. Night's sable mantle was thrown over the horizon, and only now and then a flash of lightning, attended with a dreadful thunderbolt, showed them both the dead waters of oblivion; near them was the path which slides the unhappy deluded mortal down to its deep and noisome bed.
Alphonso's conductor, who had before appeared certain of being on safe ground, trembled and turned pale when he found himself in the fatal path. Alphonso was on the brink! He receded; his flesh grew cold, his eyeballs glared, and his hair stood on end. Presently he heard a low plashing of the dead waters of oblivion; they closed with a sullen roar over the unhappy sufferer, and all was silent. "This is the end of the careless votary of Indolence," thought Alphonso, as he turned from the dead waters of the lake. "Let this be a lesson to me!"
He stood in deep perplexity some time, not daring to turn back, and he knew it would. be certain death to proceed; but suddenly the clouds dispersed, the air was calm, and all was silent; he blessed the returning light, and with new vigor passed on his way in search of Learning. He was overjoyed when he found himself out of the fatal vale of Indolence.
Again he viewed those hills which so discouraged him when they met his eye before; but now they appeared to him with a far different aspect, as he traced over them the path to Learning's happy temple.
