1 under him, who did him great fervices, as Pleasure, Mirth, Pomp, and Fafhion. Avarice was likewife very strong in his officers, being faithfully ferved by Hunger, Induftry, Care, and Warchfulness: he had likewife a privycounfellor who was always at his elbow, and whifpering fomething or other in his ear: the name of this privy-counfellor was Poverty. As Avarice conducted i himfelf by the counfels of Poverty, his antagonist was intirely guided by the dictates and advice of Plenty, who was his firft counfellor and minifter of state, that concerted all his meafures for him, and never departed out of his fight. While thefe two great rivals were thus contending for empire, their conquefts were very various. Luxury got poffeffion of one heart, and Avarice of another. The father of a family would often range himself under the banners of Avarice, and the fon under thofe of Luxury. The wife and husband would often declare themfelves on the two different parties; nay, the fame perfon would very often fide with one in his youth, and revolt to the other in his old age. Indeed the wife men of the world stood neuter; but alas ! their numbers were not confiderable. At length, when these two potentates had wearied themfelves with waging war upon one another, they agreed upon an interview, at which neither of their counsellors were to be prefent. It is faid that Luxury begun the parley, and after having reprefented the endless state of war in which they were engaged, told his enemy, with a frankness of heart which is natural to him, that he believed they too fhould be very good friends, were it not for the inftigations of Poverty, that pernicious counsellor, who made an ill use of his ear, and filled him with groundlefs apprehenfions and prejudices. To this Avarice replied, that he looked upon Plenty, the first minister of his antagonist, to be a much more deftructive counsellor than Poverty, for that he was perpetually fuggefting pleasures, banishing all the neceffary cautions againft want, and confequently under mining thofe principles on which the government of Avarice was founded. At laft, in order to an accommo⚫ dation, they agreed upon this preliminary: That each of of them fhould immediately dismiss his privy-counsellor. When things were thus far adjusted towards a peace, all other differences were foon accommodated, infomuch that for the future they refolved to live as good friends and confederates, and to fhare between them whatever conquefts were made on either fide. For this reason, we now find Luxury and Avarice taking poffeffion of the fame heart, and dividing the fame perfon between them. To which I fhall only add, that, fince the difcarding of the counsellors above-mentioned, Avarice fupplies Luxury in the room of Plenty, as Luxury prompts Avarice in the place of Poverty. C. THE not only men and women, but brutes, vegetables, nay even the most inanimate things; as ftocks and stones. They believe the fame of all the works of art; as of knives, boots, looking-glaffes; and that as any of these things perish, their fouls go into another world, which is inhabited by the ghofts of men and women. For this reafon they always place by the corps of their dead friend a bow and arrows, that he may make ufe of them in the other world, as he did of their wooden bodies in this. How abfurd foever fuch an opinion as this may appear, our European philofophers have maintained feveral notions altogether as improbable. Some of Plato's followers in particular, when they talk of the world of ideas, entertain us with fubftances and beings no lefs extravagant and chimerical. Many Ariftotelians have likewife spoken as unintelligibly of their substantial forms. I fhall only inftance Albertus Magnus, who in his differtation upon the loadstone, obferving that fire will deftroy 1 ftroy its magnetic virtues, tells us that he took particular notice of one as it lay growing amidst an heap of burning coals, and that he perceived a certain blue vapour to arife from it, which he believed might be the fubftantial form; that is, in our West Indian phrafe, the Soul of the Loadstone. There is a tradition among the Americans, that one of their countrymen defcended in a vision to the great repofitory of fouls, or, as we call it here, to the other world; and that upon his return he gave his friends a distinct account of every thing he faw among thofe regions of the dead. A friend of mine, whom I have for. merly mentioned, prevailed upon one of the interpreters of the Indian kings, to inquire of them, if poffible, what tradition they have among them of this matter; which, as well as he could learn by many questions which he afked them at feveral times, was in fubftance as follows: The vifionary, whofe name was Marraton, after hav ing travelled for a long space under an hollow mountain, arrived at length on the confines of this world of fpirits, but could not enter it by reason of a thick forest made up of bushes, brambles, and pointed thorns, fo perplexed and interwoven with one another, that it was impoffible to find a paffage through it. Whilft he was looking about for fome track or path-way that might be worn in any part of it, he faw an huge lion couched under the fide of it, who kept his eye upon him in the same posture as when he watches for his prey. The Indian immediately ftarted back, whilft the lion role with a fpring, and leaped towards him. Being wholly deftitute of all other weapons, he ftooped down to take up an huge ftone in his hand; but to his infinite furprife grafped nothing, and found the supposed stone to be only the apparition of one. If he was difappointed on this fide, he was as much pleafed on the other, when he found the lion, which had feized on his left fhoulder, had no power to hurt him, and was only the ghost of that ravenous creature which it appeared to be. He no fooner got rid of his impotent enemy, but he marched up to the wood, and after having furveyed it for fome time, endeavoured to prefs into one part of it that was little thinner than the reft; when again, to his great furprife, he found the bushes made no reftance, but he walked through briers and blambles with the fame eafe as through the open air; and, in fhort, that this whole wood was nothing elfe but a wood of fhades. He immediately concluded, that this huge thicket of thorns and brakes was defigned as a kind of fence or quickfet hedge to the ghofts it inclosed; and that probably their foft fubftances might be torn by thefe fubtle points and prickles, which were too weak to make any impreffions in flesh and blood. With this thought he refolved to travel through this intricate wood; when by degrees he felt a gale of perfumes breathing upon him, that grew ftronger and fweeter in proportion as he advanced. He had not proceeded much further, when he obferved the thorns and briers to end, and give place to a thousand beautiful green trees covered with bloffoms of the finest fcents and colours that formed a wilderness of sweets, and were a kind of lining to those ragged scenes which he had before paffed through. As he was coming ot of this delightful part of the wood, and entering upon the plains it enclofed, he faw feveral horfemen rufhing by him, and a little while after heard the cry of a pack of dogs. He had not liftened long before he faw the apparition of a milk-white steed, with a young man on the back of it, advancing upon full-ftretch after the fouls of about an hundred beagles that were hunting down the ghoft of an hare, which run away before them with an unfpeakable fwiftnefs. As the man on the milk-white steed came by him, he looked upon him very attentively, and found him to be the young prince Nicaragua, who died about half a year before, and by reafon of his great virtues, was at that time lamented over all the western parts of America. He had no fooner got out of the wood, but he was entertained with fuch a landskip of flowery plains, green meadows, running ftreams, funny hills, and thady vales, as were not to be reprefented by his own expreffions, nor, as he said, by the conceptions of others. This happy happy region was peopled with innumerable fwarms of fpirits, who applied themselves to exercises and diverfions according as their fancies led them. Some of them were toffing the figure of a coit; others were pitching the fhadow of a bar; others were breaking the apparition of a horfe; and multitudes employing themfeives upon ingenious handicrafts with the fouls of departed utenfils; for that is the name which in the Indian language they give their tools when they are burnt or broken. As he travelled through this delightful fcene, he was very often tempted to pluck the flowers that rofe everywhere about him in the greateft variety and profusion, having never feen feveral of them in his own country; but he quickly found that, though they were objects of his fight, they were not liable to his touch. He at length came to the fide of a great river, and being a good fisherman himfelf, stood upon the banks of it fome time to look upon an angler that had taken a great many fhapes of fishes, which lay flouncing up and down by him. I fhould have told my reader, that this Indian had been formerly married to one of the greatest beauties of his country, by whom he had feveral children. This couple were fo famous for their love and conftancy to one another, that the Indians to this day, when they give a married man joy of his wife, with that they may live together like Marraton and Yaratilda. Marraton had not stood long by the fisherman when he faw the fhadow of his beloved Yaratilda, who had for some time fixed her eyes upon him before he difcovered her. Her arms were stretched out towards him, floods of tears ran down her eyes; her looks, her hands, her voice called him over to her; and at the fame time feemed to tell him that the river was unpaffable. Who can defcribe the paflion made up of joy, forrow, love, defirc, astonishment, that rofe in the Indian upon the fight of his dear Yaratilda! He could exprefs it by nothing but his tears, which ran like a river down his cheeks as he looked upon her, He had not stood in this posture long, before he plunged into the stream that lay before him; and finding it to be nothing but the phantom of a river, walked |