xtended the wide-spreading plains of
Elysium. They were bounded upon all sides by gentle elevations entirely
covered with flowers, and occasionally shooting forward into the
champaign country; behind these appeared a range of mountains clothed
with bright green forests, and still loftier heights behind them,
exhibiting, indeed, only bare and sharply-pointed peaks glittering with
prismatic light. The undulating plain was studded in all directions with
pavilions and pleasure-houses, and groves and gardens glowing with the
choicest and most charming fruit; and a broad blue river wound through
it, covered with brilliant boats, the waters flashing with phosphoric
light as they were cut by the swift and gliding keels. And in the centre
of the plain rose a city, a mighty group of all that was beautiful in
form and costly in materials, bridges and palaces and triumphal gates of
cedar and of marble, columns and minarets of gold, and cupolas and domes
of ivory; and ever and anon appeared delicious gardens, raised on the
terraces of the houses; and groups of palm trees with their tall, thin
stems, and quivering and languid crests, rose amid the splendid masonry.
A sweet soft breeze touched the cheek of the entranced Proserpine, and a
single star of silver light glittered in the rosy sky.

''Tis my favourite hour,' exclaimed Proserpine..Thus have I gazed upon
Hesperus in the meads of Enna! What a scene! How fortunate that we
should have arrived at sunset!'

'Ah, Madam!' observed Manto, 'in Elysium the sky is ever thus. For the
Elysians, the sun seems always to have just set!'

'Fortunate people!' replied Proserpine. 'In them, immortality and
enjoyment seem indeed blended together. A strange feeling, half of
languor, half of voluptuousness, steals over my senses! It seems that
I at length behold the region of my girlish dreams. Such once I fancied
Olympus. Ah! why does not my Pluto live in Elysium?'

The Elysians consisted of a few thousand beatified mortals, the only
occupation of whose existence was enjoyment; the rest of the population
comprised some millions of Gnomes and Sylphs, who did nothing but work,
and ensured by their labour the felicity of the superior class. Every
Elysian, male or female, possessed a magnificent palace in the city,
and an elegant pavilion on the plain; these, with a due proportion of
chariots, horses, and slaves, constituted a proper establishment. The
Sylphs and the Gnomes were either scattered abo