Page:Armatafragment00ersk.djvu/307

 ¬tical one we had just come from, and sweating again like a bull, with my arms pinioned down as before, in a vain and fruitless approach to my handkerchief, I saw — may I never see an English play or opera if I deceive the reader in any thing — I saw the same individual men and women I had just before seen, and at the same inaccessible distances, unless it had pleased Heaven, for the punishment of a vain curiosity* or rather as a reward for my perseverance, to convert me into a salamander for the night. There is always, however, something to be learned, and even to be enjoyed, in this proba- tionary world from every occurrence, however painful. Seeing my friend and his sister ob- viously delighted, whilst I was literally dying, I could not help raising my mind to the con- templation of higher objects, reconciling to myself that the planets nearest the sun, and even the sun himself, might be inhabited by beings in other respects like ourselves, but with organs suited to their atmospheres, or perhaps to none at all, either of which would in a mo- ment ¬