that of the opium-eater--I would that it had never commenced, but had
not sufficient fortitude to relinquish it. But most probably this
regret arose as I looked back through the bright and peaceful vista of
my earliest days, and then fondly trusting that it could but lead to
some lovely period, ere I existed here; but alas! I could recal no
recollection of it, nor could any one else that I knew of, with the
exception of Pythagoras, and, perhaps, my Lord Herbert of Cherbery.

But I must cut short all this absurdity, to call it by the mildest
term, especially as my pilgrimage is drawing "towards an end, like a
tale that is told."

I arose from my bed apparently with similar prejudices ere I was
confined to it, but, with my constitution, they have happily received
a fatal blow. Had I been with others, I should probably have lingered
in Venice until my hour had come, but, as it was, what had I to stop
for?

"Whether it was despair that urged me on,
God only knows--but to the very last,
I had the lightest foot in Ennerdale."

Many a weary mile have I since accomplished in a state of health
almost incredible, though I am now convinced that I have performed my
last; but it was a beautiful one!

On the eastern shores of the Bay of Naples rises the mountain of St.
Angelo. For days had I gazed upon it with a wistful eye, and with all
the eagerness of my childhood, when I never saw a distant hill but I
was restless until I had reached it. Notwithstanding that my strength
now daily diminished, my desire so increased upon me, that but a brief
time had elapsed ere I had gratified it. This mountain protrudes
abruptly into the Mediterranean, dividing the bay of Salerno from that
of Naples.

I have enjoyed the grandest scenery of Europe, but never, never such
as this, or at such a moment. The death stillness of the day was
appalling--the air was motionless, the heavens cloudless, and the deep
blue sea, far, far beneath me, without a ripple; and not a sound
reached my ear but that of my own watch. There I rested on the summit,
basking in the sun, and enjoying a view, if such might be so called,
worthy an angel's while to fly down and witness, and which, I dare
say, one does now and then among these aerial solitudes.

And now my feverish curiosity with regard to distant countries is
satisfied to the full. It once was such as extended to other worlds,
when I would welcome death in order to indulge it. The time