340

DEATH S DOINGS.

presented as striking- upon a terrestrial globe, andlistening to the sound that proceeds from a thingso hollow. But, however apt the allusion of thefigure and character of our globe may be to a bub-ble, the schemes and projects of its inhabitantsresemble it still more strikingly. Some no soonerappear than they burst; while others, buoyant fora time, become the objects of admiration and ap-plause, according to the degree of altitude they at-tain, or the brilliant colours they exhibit; stilltheir duration is but evanescent, and at lengththey vanish into air. Thus it is with the visionsof Ambition, of Science, and of Wealth; the re-semblance may readily be traced, and, though theobservation may be trite, it is just.

Then there is the skull, with its spherical form:its teeming brain, like the vapour in an alembic,is ever in motion; till, exhausted by its efforts, itexpires, or becomes, like Hamlet's, a " distractedglobe."

Every age has its bubbles, great and small; andtheir history would furnish no uninteresting sub-