The vision of mirza summary

"The Visions of Mirza," which I have read over with great pleasure. I intend to give it to the
public when I have no other entertainment for them, and shall begin with the first vision,
which I have translated word for word, as follows:- 1 "On the fifth day of the moon, which
according to the custom of my forefathers I always keep holy, after having washed myself
and offered up my morning devotions, I ascended the high hills of Baghdad, in order to pass
the rest of the day in meditation and prayer. As I was here airing myself on the tops of the
mountains, I fell into a profound contemplation on the vanity of human life, and passing from
one thought to another, 'Surely,' said I, 'man is but a shadow, and life a dream.' Whilst I was
thus musing, I cast my eyes towards the summit of a rock that was not far from me, where I
discovered one in the habit of a shepherd, with a little musical instrument in his hand. As I
looked upon him he applied it to his lips, and began to play upon it. The sound of it was
exceeding sweet, and wrought into a variety of tunes that were inexpressibly melodious and
altogether different from anything I had ever heard. They put me in mind of those heavenly
airs that are played to the departed souls of good men upon their first arrival in Paradise, to
wear out the impressions of the last agonies, and qualify them for the pleasures of that happy
place. My heart melted away in secret raptures. 2 "I had often been told that the rock before
me was the haunt of a genius; and that several had been entertained with music who had
passed by it, but never heard that the musician had before made himself visible. When he had
raised my thoughts by those transporting airs which he played, to taste the pleasures of his
conversation, as I looked upon him like one astonished, he beckoned to me, and by the
waving of his hand directed me to approach the place where he sat. I drew near with that
reverence which is due to a superior nature; and as my heart was entirely subdued by the
captivating strains I had heard, I fell down at his feet and wept. The genius smiled upon me
with a look of compassion and affability that familiarized him to my imagination, and at once
dispelled all the fears and apprehensions with which I approached him. He lifted me from the
ground, and taking me by the hand, 'Mirza,' said he, 'I have heard thee in thy soliloquies;
follow me.' 3 "He then led me to the highest pinnacle of the rock, and placing me on the top
of it, 'Cast thy eyes eastward,' said he 'and tell me what thou seest.' 'I see,' said I, 'a huge
valley and a prodigious tide of water rolling through it.' 'The valley that thou seest,' said he,
'is the Vale of Misery, and the tide of water that thou seest is part of the great tide of eternity.'
What is the reason,' said I, 'that the tide I see rises out of a thick mist at one end, and again
loses itself in a thick mist at the other?' 'What thou seest,' said he, 'is that portion of eternity
which is called time, measured out by the sun, and reaching from the beginning of the world
to its consummation. Examine now,' said he, 'this sea that is thus bounded by darkness at both
ends, and tell me what thou discoverest in it.' 'I see a bridge,' said I, 'standing in the midst of
the tide.' 'The bridge thou seest,' said he, 'is human life; consider it attentively.' Upon a more
leisurely survey of it I found that it consisted of more than threescore and ten entire arches,
with several broken arches, which, added to those that were entire, made up the number to
about a hundred. As I was counting the arches, the genius told me that this bridge consisted at
first of a thousand arches; but that a great flood swept away the rest, and left the bridge in the
ruinous condition I now beheld it. 'But tell me further,' said he, 'what thou discoverest on it.' 'I
see multitudes of people passing over it,' said I, 'and a black cloud hanging on each end of it.'
As I looked more attentively, I saw several of the passengers dropping through the bridge into
the great tide that flowed underneath it; and upon further examination, perceived there were
innumerable trap-doors that lay concealed in the bridge, which the passengers no sooner trod
upon, but they fell through them into the tide and immediately disappeared. These hidden
pitfalls were set very thick at the entrance of the bridge, so that throngs of people no sooner
broke through the cloud, but many of them fell into them. They grew thinner towards the
middle, but multiplied and lay closer together towards the end of the arches that were entire.
4 "There were indeed some persons, but their number was very small, that continued a kind
of hobbling march on the broken arches, but fell through one after another, being quite tired
and spent with so long a walk. 5 "I passed some time in the contemplation of this wonderful
structure, and the great variety of objects which it presented. My heart was filled with a deep
melancholy to see several dropping unexpectedly in the midst of mirth and jollity, and
catching at everything that stood by them to save themselves. Some were looking up towards
the heavens in a thoughtful posture, and in the midst of a speculation stumbled and fell out of
sight. Multitudes were very busy in the pursuit of bubbles that glittered in their eyes and
danced before them, but often when they thought themselves within the reach of them their
footing failed and down they sunk. In this confusion of objects, I observed some with
scimitars in their hands, and others with urinals, who ran to and fro upon the bridge, thrusting
several persons on trap-doors which did not seem to lie in their way, and which they might
have escaped had they not been thus forced upon them. 6 "The genius, seeing me indulge
myself on this melancholy prospect, told me I had dwelt long enough upon it, "Take thine
eyes off the bridge,' said he, 'and tell me if thou seest anything thou dost not comprehend.'
Upon looking up, 'What mean,' said I, 'those great flights of birds that are perpetually
hovering about the bridge, and settling up it from time to time? I see vultures, harpies, ravens,
cormorants, and among many other feathered creatures several little winged boys that perch
in great numbers upon the middle arches,' 'These,' said the genius, 'are Envy, Avarice,
Superstition, Despair, Love, with the like cares and passions that infest human life.' 7 "I here
fetched a deep sigh. 'Alas,' said I, 'man was made in vain: how is he given away to misery and
mortality, tortured in life, and swallowed up in death! The genius being moved with
compassion towards me, bid me quit so uncomfortable a prospect. 'Look no more,' said he,
'on man in the first stage of his existence, in his setting out for eternity; but cast thine eye on
that thick mist into which the tide bears the several generations of mortals that fall into it.' I
directed my sight as I was ordered, and (whether or no the good genius strengthened it with
any supernatural force, or dissipated part of the mist that was before too thick for eye to
penetrate) I saw the valley opening at the farther end, and spreading forth into an immense
ocean that had a huge rock of adamant running through the midst of it, and dividing it into
two equal parts. The clouds still rested on one half of it, insomuch that I could discover
nothing in it; but the other appeared to me a vast ocean planted with innumerable islands, that
were covered with fruits and flowers, and interwoven with a thousand little shining seas that
ran among them. I could see persons dressed in glorious habits with garlands upon their
heads, passing among the trees, lying down by the sides of fountains, or resting on beds of
flowers; and could hear a confused harmony of singing birds, falling waters, human voices,
and Musical Instruments. Gladness grew in me upon the discovery of so delightful a scene. I
wished for the wings of an eagle that I might fly away to those happy seats; but the genius
told me there was no passage to them except through the gates of death that I saw opening
every moment upon the bridge. 'The islands,' said he, 'that lie so fresh and green before thee,
and with which the whole face of the ocean appears spotted as far as thou canst see, are more
in number than the sands on the seashore; there are myriads of islands behind those which
thou here discoverest, reaching farther than thine eye, or even thine imagination can extend
itself. These are the mansions of good men after death, who, according to the degree and
kinds of virtue in which they excelled, are distributed amount these several islands, which
abound with pleasures of different kinds and degrees suitable to the relishes and perfections
of those who are settled in them; every island is a paradise accommodated to its respective
inhabitants. Are not these, O Mirza, habitations worth contending for? Does life appear
miserable that gives thee opportunities of earning such a reward? Is death to be feared that
will convey thee to so happy an existence? Think not man was made in vain who has such an
eternity reserved for him.' I gazed with inexpressible pleasure on these happy islands. At
length, said I, 'Show me now, I beseech thee, the secrets that lie hid under those dark clouds
which cover the ocean on the other side of the rock of adamant.' The genius making me no
answer, I turned me about to address myself to him a second time, but I found that he had left
me; I then turned again to the vision which I had been so long contemplating; but, instead of
the rolling tide, the arched bridge, and the happy islands, I saw nothing but the long valley of
Baghdad, with oxen, sheep, and camels grazing upon the sides of it."

The end of the first vision of Mirza.

Short summary

The Vision of Mirza claims to be a found manuscript (unlikely) and tells the story of a vision
of an allegory of human existence. Perhaps most striking and best remembered is a bridge,
veiled in mist on each end, over which people are traveling. Periodically, trap doors open and
people fall into the waters below. Some, as they fall, seek to grasp at anything and everything
around them. Some look piously upward as the fall. There are some on the bridge who shove
other, weaker travelers onto the platforms of these trap doors.

There is not exposition on the meaning of the vision, nor, I think, does there need to be.

Long summary

The Vision of Mirza – an ultimate blend of Romanticism and Morality. Before dwelling deep
into the concept, let’s move with the foundational study that is its background study of more
other deep concepts circling around the text. Further details flowing down by the following
topics,

* “The Spectator” – a reader-friendly magazine.

* “The vision of Mirza” – a picked concept by Addison to the magazine.
* Life lessons learned by the narrator

“The Spectator” – a reader-friendly magazine:

 “The Spectator” is a magazine that was collaboratively done by both Joseph
Addison and Robert Steele. This magazine was successive writing of the
magazine entitled “The Tatler” on March 1, 1711. It was a daily publication
which lasted up to the year 1712. Later it bounded into seven volumes of books. It
was one of the influential periodicals of 18th and 19th century, started in
England and later it was read by many readers of the American colonies. It
contains 555 solid essays as counted as the number of periodicals published so far
in this magazine. Addison contributed 274 essays and Steele to 236 essays
respectively.
The title of this magazine is a more notable one. Even though this magazine
was the collaborative writings of Addison and Steele, it never named in anyone’s
authorization. No one was mentioned as an author to this magazine rather it was
simply mentioned as the implied descriptions of the “Spectator”. This magazine
stands still by its certain important characters, including Sir Andrew Freeport,
Captain Sentry, Will Honeycomb, Sir Roger and the Spectator himself is
more important. The entire magazine was standing a stranger’s like a
spokesperson about the realities of the Victorian society.
The main objectives of this magazine including,
* A medium to reflect all the social events in an entertainment comes the intellectual
way.
* Propagated all the social things, women were given more highlights.
* It was feeding emotions, morals, intellectuals, and lifetime essentials through the
writings of society.

The Vision of Mirza - Joseph Addison:

At the outset, when we give a glance on the title of this essay "The Vision of
Mirza", it is clear that it is on someone's perception and vision on something,
whose name mentions as "The Mirza". Because of pointing out the Mirza's
perceptions, the original text is deliberately written in the first-person narrative. It
was September 1, 1714, when Addison was in the capital of Egypt named Cairo,
he happened to read one of the oriental manuscripts titled "The Vision of Mirza"
which he had with him just for spending while away his time. After picking "The
Vision of Mirza" from his collections, he decided to give its essence to the readers
of his magazine named “The Spectator” as a content of the day. For that, he
started reading with immense pleasure and decided to translate the essay in word
to word form of translation.

Summary:

This essay begins with the introduction of the unknown character, just by the
first person narrative, it is assumed that the narrator of this essay speaking about
his experience he had with another unknown person who is considered as the
genius man. In this essay, we never happened to know the name of the narrator
until we reach a few lines before the conclusion.
Further, the narrator started explaining his daily routine, because on that
particular day is marked as the fifth day of the moon in the sky. He says that there
was a practice followed by his ancestor that every fifth day of the moon is taken as
an auspicious day when he used to be more devoted and meditating towards god
more and more than before.
The narrator starts moving towards Bagdad hills just to spend off his entire day
with devotions and meditations.Just after reaching the hills, he starts to engage
with the essence of the nature prevailing there and starts praising the birth of a
human being.He is getting fuse together with the nature sequences of the hills,
breezy and windy clouds, blissful ambience, huge valleys, high hills and with so
many things he starts forgetting himself and come out of all his sufferings and
worries.Meanwhile, he happens to hear some good music that he never heard
before and his attention shifting towards the music playing by somebody in the
hills. After noticing by careful consideration, he finds that the music comes from a
shepherd like personality who is engaged in playing the flute by his lips. By
attracting towards the music, he started seeking the birthplace in the soulful music.

For the very first time, he feels like he is going to depart his souls to heaven just
like the immaculate souls of the good people reaching towards the blissful heaven.
Because of the receiving music in his ears seems to heavenly tune to receive
departed souls of the earth to heaven.By getting closer and closer, the narrator
happens to approach by the old man. He gently asks the narrator and brings him to
the top of the nearby rock. Just after fixing him safely on the rock, the narrator
 sees his surrounded area and embracing with all the ambience and the natural
sequence of the area. Just by the translation of Addison and the exact content of
the essay “The Vision of the Mirza”, we can able to locate the very same emotions
and pictures of the narrator in this essay.

Life lesson learns by the narrator:

Almost, his eyes by enjoying the nature's feast, his soul is filled with tranquillity.
However, the man looks like a Shepherd, here he considers as a man of wisdom or the
genius in the furthermore description of the essay. Meantime, the genius man asks the
narrator to look towards the Eastern side of the hills.

Mirza with the genius man

* When he happens to look there, he is capable of observing certain things, he says to

genius man as follows;

“I see, said I, a huge Valley and a prodigious Tide of Water rolling through it.”

He says he sees a huge valley and the flow of a tide of water in the first deep
observation. This essay by Joseph Addison is known for its use of allegories. The excellent
use of allegories, just to withstand the etiquettes of life is highly remarkable. Just by getting
the answers of his question, the genius man clarifies that what he sees is all about the
matter of the philosophy of life. He says that the valley he sees is nothing and it symbolizes
the Vale of misery and the tide of water symbolizes the tide of eternity.

The narrator proceeds by the questions his observation to his genius man. He asks that he
is capable of observing the sea tides rising from the picture of mist and disappear to the
other end of the mist. Moreover, his question is all about why it happens to arise and
disappear in the mist.

The genius man says that what he sees is nothing but a part of eternity which names as
Time. The part of the eternity that is, time is rising in one direction and ends with the other
end. The process is processed by the Sun. For this World's consummation, time raising and
disappearing at the end of the everyday.

Now, the genius man questions to the narrator that if instead, he happens to see the sea
is submerged into the state of darkness what happens to see next?. The question is
answering by the narrator that he can see the bridge where people used to cross the sea for
passing into the next journey of continuity. The genius man stresses that the bridge he sees
is symbolized to the life of human life.

Pausing at a time, the narrator keeps counting the arches through which the bridge is
made. He approximately sketches threescore and ten, with some more arches totally he
randomly finds hundreds of arches at the overall structure of the bridge.

The genius meanwhile explains that at the first bridge was standing with thousands of
arches. However, but because of the striking of a certain storm damaged the entire bridge.
Now it standstill with some hundreds of broken arches.

The genius proceeds by listing out the saddest part he experienced with the bridge.
Though it started its journey as a stubborn one. Due to many external hard drives, it became
fragile and people travelling on the bridge keep losing their life randomly. If a certain amount
of people started their journey on the bridge, some may lose their life entirely by clutching
into the fragile pitfalls of the bridge and disappear into the stream of the water which is
running beneath the bridge. A very few supposed to reach their expected destination. This
exactly reflects life is also like this bridge seems easier sometimes to cross over many
difficulties, but in reality, it is not so.

By receiving keenly on the words of the genius, the narrator started reacting the present
state of his life. Meantime, he can also witness people falling down into the stream of water
and dying mercilessly which piercing his heart badly.

Just turning his attention, the narrator begins by saying that at the same time life is not
at all tough to go through, it is the perception of every human being to take the life as
difficult or easy to come across. Therefore perspectives decide the successful journey of life.
Meanwhile, he asks the narrator to look above the sky and see the treasures of the sky.

The narrator happens to see a lot of birds flying all across the sky with free usage of
their wings. Suddenly he asks to see something more beyond the range of the sky and from
the upwards of the bridge.

The narrator surprisingly happens to witness the huge range of valley with beautiful
nature sequence prevailing at there. He extremely forgets him a while just by the catchy
natural atmosphere of the location.

This, therefore, needs to be taking special to look at life as in a good motive. Sometimes
looking over good perception would be the timely turning point of our life which resulted in
a better future. From this first vision of Mirza is essential and the lovely subject to look at life
as an optimistic perception of our life.

As by tracing the information on the vision of Mirza, the above translation is all about
the first vision of the version. It is supposed to clear that there is a second vision is nearly
available.

Q&A
1.What is the theme of the vision of Mirzah?
Allegory that presents heaven as a eutopia composed of islands that are "the Mansions
of good Men after Death." "Every Island is a Paradise accommodated to its respective
Inhabitants." Described as the first vision, but no more were published.

2.What happens in the first vision of Mirza?

In the first vision, Mirza sees a beautiful valley full of flowers, trees, and a crystal stream.
The valley is surrounded by mountains, and there is a shepherd who is playing sweet
melodies on his flute. In the second vision, Mirza sees a throne in the sky, with a figure
seated on it who is surrounded by angels.

3. What do Ravens harpies and cormorants symbolize in the visions of Mirzah?

Literary Devices Symbolism … I see vultures, harpies, ravens, cormorants, and among many
other feathered creatures… … These,' said the Genius, ` are Envy, Avarice, Suspicion,
Despair, Love, with the like cares and passions that infest human life.

4.What is the vision of the Mirza Bridge?

An allegory by Addison, published in the Spectator (No. 159). Mirzah has a vision of
human life as a bridge over which multitudes are passing, some dropping through
concealed trap‐doors into the flood beneath.

5.Did the first vision happen?

The First Vision Opens the Restoration

In the spring of 1820, God the Father and Jesus Christ appeared to Joseph Smith as he
prayed in a grove of trees near his home in western New York. This event is known as the
First Vision.

6.What does a cormorant symbolize literature?

The cormorant slightly shifted from a bad omen to a representation of greed, demonstrated
in John Taylor's 1622 story, “The Water-Cormorant His Complaint: Against a Brood of
Land-Cormorants.” Folger Shakespeare Library.

7. What does the cormorant symbolize?

Cormorant symbolizes taking action, bravery, and resourcefulness. This regal bird knows
exactly what it wants and how to get it. Cormorant is asking you to dive deep to catch your
desires.

8. What does a cormorant symbolize literature?

The cormorant slightly shifted from a bad omen to a representation of greed, demonstrated
in John Taylor's 1622 story, “The Water-Cormorant His Complaint: Against a Brood of
Land-Cormorants.” Folger Shakespeare Library.

9.What is the second vision of Mirza?

In the first vision, Mirza sees a beautiful valley full of flowers, trees, and a crystal stream. The
valley is surrounded by mountains, and there is a shepherd who is playing sweet melodies
on his flute. In the second vision, Mirza sees a throne in the sky, with a figure seated on it
who is surrounded by angels
JOSEPH ADDISON “ The Vision of Mirza”

1. Interpret the visions.

"The Vision of Mirza" is a poem written by Joseph Addison in 1712. It tells the story
of a man named Mirza who has two visions while he is asleep.

2.What was the first vision? And the second vision?

In the first vision, Mirza sees a beautiful valley full of flowers, trees, and a crystal stream.
The valley is surrounded by mountains, and there is a shepherd who is playing sweet
melodies on his flute.

In the second vision, Mirza sees a throne in the sky, with a figure seated on it who is
surrounded by angels. The figure tells Mirza that he has been chosen to spread the message of
peace and love to the world.

3.Explain the symbolism of the shepherd playing exceedingly sweet

melodies.

The shepherd playing sweet melodies in the first vision can be seen as a symbol of the
peaceful and harmonious nature of the valley. The throne and angels in the second vision
symbolize the divine presence and the importance of the message that Mirza has been given.

4.What do you think was the effect of these visions upon the man who saw
them?

It is likely that the visions had a profound effect on Mirza, inspiring him to spread the
message of peace and love to others.