suddenly it fell ten thousand fathom deep, into the abyss of the present--

into self-knowledge--into tenfold sadness. I roused myself--I cast off

my waking dreams; and I, who just now could almost hear the shouts of the

Roman throng, and was hustled by countless multitudes, now beheld the

desart ruins of Rome sleeping under its own blue sky; the shadows lay

tranquilly on the ground; sheep were grazing untended on the Palatine, and

a buffalo stalked down the Sacred Way that led to the Capitol. I was alone

in the Forum; alone in Rome; alone in the world. Would not one living man

--one companion in my weary solitude, be worth all the glory and

remembered power of this time-honoured city? Double sorrow--sadness,

bred in Cimmerian caves, robed my soul in a mourning garb. The generations

I had conjured up to my fancy, contrasted more strongly with the end of all

-the single point in which, as a pyramid, the mighty fabric of society

had ended, while I, on the giddy height, saw vacant space around me.

From such vague laments I turned to the contemplation of the minutiae of my

situation. So far, I had not succeeded in the sole object of my desires,

the finding a companion for my desolation. Yet I did not despair. It is

true that my inscriptions were set up for the most part, in insignificant

towns and villages; yet, even without these memorials, it was possible that

the person, who like me should find himself alone in a depopulate land,

should, like me, come to Rome. The more slender my expectation was, the

more I chose to build on it, and to accommodate my actions to this vague

possibility.

It became necessary therefore, that for a time I should domesticate myself

606

The Last Man