Methought I returned to the great hall, where I had been the morning before, but, to my furprise, instead of the company that I left there, I faw towards the upper end of the hall, a beautiful virgin, feated on a throne of gold. Her name (as they told me) was Public Credit. The walls, instead of being adorned with pictures and maps, were hung with many acts of parliament written in golden letters. At the upper end of the hall was the Magna Charta, with the act of uniformity on the right hand, and the act of toleration on the left. At the lower end of the hall was the act of fettlement, which was placed full in the eye of the virgin that fat upon the throne. Both the fides of the hall were covered with fuch acts of parliament as had been made for the establishment of public funds. The Lady feemed to fet an unspeakable value upon thefe feveral pieces of furniture, infomuch that she often refreshed her eye with them, and often smiled with a fecret pleasure, as fhe looked upon them; but, at the fame time, fhewed a very particular uneafinefs, if the faw any thing approaching that might hurt them. She appeared indeed infinitely timorous in all her behaviour: And, whether it was from the delicacy of her conftitution, or that fhe was troubled with vapours, as I was afterwards told by one who I found was none of her well-wishers, fhe changed colour, and ftartled at every thing the heard. She was likewife (as I afterwards found) a greater valetudinarian than any I had ever met with, even in her own fex, and fubject to fuch momentary confumptions, that, in the twinkling of an eye, he would fall away from the most florid complexion, and the most healthful state of body, and wither into a fkeleton. Her recoveries were often as fudden as her decays, infomuch that the would revive in a moment out of a wasting diftemper into a habit of the highest health and vigour. I had very soon an opportunity of obferving thefe VOL. I. B quick quick turns and changes in her conftitution. There fat at her feet a couple of fecretaries, who received every hour letters from all parts of the world, which the one or the other of them was perpetually reading to her; and, according to the news fhe heard, to which the was exceedingly attentive, fhe changed colour, and difcovered many fymptoms of health or fickness. Behind the throne was a prodigious heap of bags of money, which were piled upon one another fo high that they touched the cieling. The floor, on her right hand and on her left, was covered with vaft fums of gold that rofe up in pyramids on either fide of her: But this I did not fo much wonder at, when I heard upon enquiry, that fhe had the fame virtue in her touch, which the poets tell us a Lydian king was formerly poffeffed of; and that the could convert whatever the pleafed into that precious metal. After a little dizzinefs, and confused hurry of thought, which a man often meets with in a dream, methought the hall was alarmed, the doors flew open, and there entered half a dozen of the most hideous phantoms that I had ever feen (even in a dream) before that time. They came in two by two, though matched in the most diffociable manner, and mingled together in a kind of dance. It would be tedious to defcribe their habits and perfons, for which reafon I fhall only inform my reader, that the first couple was Tyranny and Anarchy, the fecond were Bigotry and Atheifin, the third the genius of a commonwealth, and a young man of about twenty-two years of age, whofe name I could not learn. He had a fword in his right hand, which in the dance he often brandifhed at the act of fettlement; and a citizen, who stood by me, whispered in my ear, that he faw a fpunge in his left hand. The dance of fo many jarring natures put me in mind of the fun, moon, and earth, in the the Rehearsal, that danced together for no other end but to eclipse one another. The Reader will eafily fuppofe, by what has been before faid, that the Lady on the throne would have been almost frighted to diftraction, had the feen but any one of these spectres; what then must have been her condition when the faw them all in a body? She fainted and died away at the fight. Et neque jam color eft mifto candore rubori; Nec vigor, & vires, & quæ modo visa placebant ; Nec corpus remanet-- OVID. Met. 1. iii. ver. 491, Her fpirits faint, Her blooming cheeks affume a palid teint, There was as great a change in the hill of money-bags, and the heaps of money; the former fhrinking, and falling into fo many empty bags, that I now found not above a tenth part of them had been filled with money. The reft that took up the fame fpace, and made the fame figure as the bags that were really filled with money, had been blown up with air, and called into my memory the bags full of wind, which Homer tells us his hero received as a prefent from Æolus. The great heaps of gold on either fide the throne, now appeared to be only heaps of paper, or little piles of notched fticks, bound up together in bundles, like Bathfaggots. Whilft I was lamenting this fudden defolation that had been made before me, the whole scene vanished: In the room of the frightful spectres, there now entered a fecond dance of apparitions very agreeably matched together, and made up of very amiable phantoms. The firft pair was Liberty with Monarchy at her right hand: The fecond was Moderation leading in Religion; and the third a perfon whom I had never feen, with the Genius of · Great B 2 Great Britain. At the firft entrance the Lady revived, the bags fwelled to their former bulk, the piles of faggots and heaps of paper changed into pyramids of guineas: And, for my own part, I was fo tranfported with joy, that I awaked, though I muft confefs, I would fain have fallen afleep again to have clofed my vifion, if I could have done it. -Egregii mortalem altique filenti? C HOR. Sat. vi. 1. 2. ver. 58. One of uncommon filence and referve. N author, when he firft appears in the world, AN is very apt to believe it has nothing to think of but his performances. With a good fhare of this vanity in my heart, I made it my bufinefs thefe three days to liften after my own fame; and, as I have fometimes met with circumftances which did not difplease me, I have been encountered by others which gave me as much mortification. It is incredible to think how empty I have in this time obferved fome part of the fpecies to be, what mere blanks they are when they first come abroad in the morning, how utterly they are at a stand until they are fet a going by fome paragraph in a news-paper: Such perfons are very acceptable to a young author, for they defire no more in any thing but to be new to be agreeable. If I found confolation among fuch, I was as much difquieted by the incapacity of others. These are mortals who have a certain curiofity without power of reflection, and perufed my papers like fpectators rather than readers. But there is fo little pleasure in inquiries that fo nearly concern ourselves, (it being the worst way in the world to fame, to be too anxious about it) that upon upon the whole I refolved for the future to go on in my ordinary way; and without too much fear or hope about the bufinefs of reputation, to be very careful of the defign of my actions, but very negligent of the confequences of them. It is an endless and frivolous purfuit to act by any other rule than the care of fatisfying our own minds in what we do. One would think a filent man, who concerned himself with no one breathing, should be very little liable to mifinterpretations; and yet I remember I was once taken up for a Jefuit, for no other reafon but my profound taciturnity. It is from this misfortune that to be out of harm's way, I have ever fince affected crowds. He who comes into affemblies only to gratify his curiofity, and not to make a figure, enjoys the pleafures of retirement' in a more exquifite degree, than he poffibly could in his clofet; the lover, the ambitious, and the mifer, are followed thither by a worse crowd than any they can withdraw from. To be exempt from. the paffions with which others are tormented, is the only pleafing folitude. I can very juftly fay with the ancient fage, I am never lefs alone than when alone. As I am infignificant to the company in public places, and as it is visible I do not come thither as moft do, to fhew myfelf; I gratify the vanity of all who pretend to make an appearance, and have often as kind looks from well-dreffed Gentlemen and Ladies, as a poet would bestow upon one of his audience. There are fo many gratifications attend this public fort of obfcurity, that fome little diftaftes I daily receive have loft their anguish; and I did the other day, without the least displeasure, overhear one fay of me, That frange fellow; and another anfwer, I have known the fellow's face thefe twelve years, and fo muft you; but I believe you are the first ever asked who he was. There are, I must confefs, many to whom my perfon is as well known as that of their nearest B 3 relations, |