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"Almet," ſaid the ſtranger, "thou ſeeſt before thee a man, whom the hand of Proſperity has overwhelmed with wretchedneſs. Whatever I once deſired as the means of happineſs, I now posseſs; but I am not yet happy, and therefore I deſpair. I regret the lapſe of time, becauſe it glides away without enjoyment; and as I expect nothing in the future but the vanities of the paſt. I do not wiſh that the future ſhould arrive. Yet I tremble leſt it ſhould be cut off; and my heart ſinks, when I anticipate the moment in which eternity ſhall cloſe even the vacuity of my life, like the ſeas upon the path of a ſhip, and leave no traces of my exiſtence more durable than the furrow which remains after the waves have united. If in the treaſures of thy wiſdom there is any precept to obtain felicity vouchſafe it to me: for this purpoſe I am come; a purpoſe which I yet fear to reveal, leſt, like all the former, it ſhould be diſappointed."
Almet liſtened with looks of astoniſhment and pity, to this complaint of a being in whom reason was known to be a pledge of immortality: but the serenity
