as readers, is extremely Gothic. He quotes Monfieur Segrais for a three-fold diftinction of the readers of poetry in the first of which he comprehends the rabble of readers, whom he does not treat as fuch with regard to their quality, but to their numbers, and the coarfeness of their tafte. His words are as follow: Segrais has diftinguished the readers of poetry, according to their capacity of judging, into three claffes. [He might have faid the fame of writers too, if he had pleased.] In the lowest form he places those whom he calls Les Petits Efprits, fuch things as are our upper-gallery audience in a play-house; who like nothing but the husk and rind of wit, prefer a quibble, a conceit, an epigram, before folid fenfe and elegant expreffion these are mob-readers. If Virgil and Martial ftood for parliament-men, we know al• ready who would carry it. But though they make the greateft appearance in the field, and cry the loudeft, the beft on it is they are but a fort of French Huguenots, or Dutch Boors, brought over in herds, but not naturalized; who have not lands of two pounds per annum in Parnaffus, and therefore are not privileged to poll. Their authors are of the fame level, fit to represent them on a mountebank's stage, or to be mafters of the ceremonies • în a bear-garden; yet these are they who have the moft admirers. But it often happens, to their mortification, that as their readers improve their stock of fenfe, (as they may by reading better books, and by converfation with men of judgment), they foon forfake them.' I must not difmifs this fubject without obferving, that as Mr. Locke in the paffage above-mentioned has discovered the most fruitful fource of wit, fo there is another of a quite contrary nature to it, which does likewife branch itself out into feveral kinds. For not only the resemblance, but the oppofition of ideas, does I does very often produce wit; as I could fhew in feveral little points, turns, and antithefes, that I may poffibly enlarge upon in fome future speculation. с No. 63. SATURDAY, MAY 12. Humano capiti cervicem pictor equinam HOR. Ars Poet. ver. If in a picture, Pifo, you fhou'd fee Or limbs of beafts, of the most different kinds, Wou'd you not laugh, and think the painter mad? Whofe incoherent style, like fick men's dreams, I. ROSCOMMON. I from a fubject in which it has been long employT is very hard for the mind to difengage itfelf ed. The thoughts will be rifing of themfelves from time to time, though we give them no encourage. ment; as the toflings and fluctuations of the fea continue feveral hours after the winds are laid. It is to this that I impute my last night's dream or vifion, which formed into one continued allegory the feveral schemes of wit, whether falfe, mixed, VOL. L A a or or true, that have been the fubject of my late papers. Methought I was transported into a country that was filled with prodigies and enchantments, governed by the Goddess of FALSEHOOD, and entitled The Region of Falfe Wit. There was nothing in the fields, the woods, and the rivers, that appeared natural. Several of the trees bloffomed in leaf-gold, fome of them produced bone-lace, and fome of them precious ftones. The fountains bubbled in an opera-tune, and were filled with ftags, wildboars, and mermaids, that lived among the waters; at the fame time that dolphins and several kinds of fish played upon the banks or took their pastime in the meadows. The birds had many of them golden beaks, and human voices. The flowers perfumed the air with fmells of incenfe, amber-grease, and pulvillios; and were fo interwoven with one another, that they grew up in pieces of embroidery. The winds were filled with fighs and meffages of diftant lovers. As I was walking to and fro in ́this enchanted wilderness, I could not forbear breaking out into foliloquies upon the feveral wonders which lay before me, when, to my great furprise, I found there were artificial echoes in every walk, that, by repetitions of certain words which I fpoke, agreed with me, or contradicted me, in every thing I faid. In the midft of my converfation with thefe invifible companions, I difcovered in the centre of a very dark grove a monftrous fabric built after the Gothic manner, and covered with innumerable devices in that barbarous kind of sculpture. I immediately went up to it, and found it to be a kind of heathen temple confecrated to the god of Dulness. Upon my entrance I faw the deity of the place dreffed in the habit of a Monk, with a book in one hand and a rattle in the other. Upon his right hand was Industry, with a lamp burning before her; and on his left Caprice, with a monkey fitting on her fhoulder fhoulder. Before his feet there ftood an Altar of a very odd make, which, as I afterwards found, was fhaped in that manner to comply with the inscription that surrounded it. Upon the altar there lay feveral offerings of Axes, Wings, and Eggs, cut in paper, and infcribed with verses. The temple was filled with votaries, who applied themselves to different diverfions, as their fancies directed them. In one part of it I faw a regiment of Anagrams, who were continually in motion, turning to the right or to the left, facing about, doubling their ranks, fhifting their stations, and throwing themselves into all figures, and countermarches of the most changeable and perplexed exercise. Not far from these was a body of Acrostics, made up of very difproportioned perfons. It was dif pofed into three columns, the officers planting themfelves in a line on the left hand of each column. The officers were all of them at least fix feet high, and made three rows of very proper men; but the common foldiers, who filled up the fpaces between the officers, were fuch dwarfs, cripples, and fearecrows, that one could hardly look upon them without laughing. There were behind the Acrostics two or three files of Chronograms, which differed only from the former, as their officers were equipped (like the figure of Time) with an hour glafs in one hand, and a fcythe in the other, and took their pofts promifcuoufly among the private men whom they commanded. In the body of the temple, and before the very face of the deity, methought I saw the phantom of Tryphiodorus the Lipogrammatift, engaged in a ball with four and twenty perfons, who purfued him by turns through all the intricacies and labyrinths of a country-dance, without being able to overtake him. Obferving feveral to be very bufy at the western end of the Temple, I inquired into what they were doing, and found there was in that quarter the A a 2 great great magazine of Rebufes. These were feveral things of the most different natures tied up in bundles, and thrown upon one another, in heaps like faggots. You might behold an anchor, a night rail, and a hobby-horse bound up together. One of the workmen, feeing me very much surprised, told me, there was an infinite deal of wit in feveral of those bundles, and that he would explain them to me if I pleased: I thanked him for his civility, but told him I was in very great haste at that time. As I was going out of the temple, I obferved in one corner of it a clufter of men and women laughing very heartily, and diverting themselves at a game of Crambo. I heard feveral Double Rhymes as I paffed by them, which raised a great deal of mirth. Not far from thefe was another fet of merry people engaged at a diverfion, in which the whole jeft was to mistake one perfon for another. To give occafion for thefe ludicrous mistakes, they were divided into pairs, every pair being covered from head to foot with the fame kind of drefs, though perhaps there was not the leaft refemblance in their faces. By this means an old man was fometimes mistaken for a boy, a woman for a man, and a Black-a-moor for an European, which very often produced great peals of laughter. Thefe I gueffed to be a party of Puns. But being very defirous to get out of this world of magic, which had almost turned my brain, I left the temple, and croffed over the fields that lay about it with all the fpeed I could make. I was not gone far before I heard the found of trumpets and alarms, which feemed to proclaim the march of an enemy; and, as I afterwards found, was in reality what I apprehended it. There appeared at a great diftance a very fhining light, and, in the midst of it, a person of a most beautiful as'pect; her name was TRUTH. On her right hand there marched a male-deity, who bore feveral quivers on his fhoulders, and grafped feveral arrows in |