fir, replied my guide, the gentleman who lies here never made verfes; and as for wit, he defpifed it in others, because he had none himself. Pray tell me then in a word, faid I peevifhly, what is the great man who lies bere particularly remarkable for? Remarkable, fir! faid my companion; why, fir, the gentleman that lies here is remarkable, very remarkable-for a tomb in Westminster-abbey. But, head of my Ancestors! how has he got here? I fancy he could never bribe the guardians of the temple to give him a place. Should be not be ashamed to be feen among company, where even moderate merit would look like infamy? I fuppofe, replied the man in black, the gentleman was rich, and his friends, as is ufual in fuch a cafe, told him he was great. He readily believed them; the guardians of the temple, as they got by the felfdelufion, were ready to believe him too; fo he paid his money for a fine monument; and the workman, as you fee, has made him one the most beautiful. Think not, however, that this gentleman is fingular in his defire of being buried among the great; there are feveral others in the temple, who, hated and fhunned by the great while alive, have come here, fully refolved to keep them company now they are dead.

As we walked along to a particular part of the temple, there, fays the gentleman, pointing with his finger, that is the poets corner; there you fee the monuments of Shakspeare, and Milton, and Prior, and Drayton. Drayton! I replied, I never heard of him before; but I have been told of one Pope, is he there? It is time enough, replied my guide, these hundred years; he is not long dead; people have not done hating him yet. Strange, cried I, can any be found to hate a man, whose life was wholly spent in entertaining and inftructing his fellow-creatures! Yes, fays my guide, they hate him for that very reafon. There are a fet of men

called

called anfwerers of books, who take upon them to watch the republic of letters, and diftribute reputation by the sheet; they fomewhat refemble the eunuchs in a feraglio, who are incapable of giving pleasure themselves, and hinder thofe that would Thefe anfwerers have no other employment but to cry out Dunce, and Scribbler, to praise the dead, and revile the living; to grant a man of confeffed abilities fome small fhare of merit; to applaud twenty blockheads in order to gain the reputation of candour; and to revile the moral character of the man whofe writings they cannot injure. Such wretches are kept in pay by fome mercenary bookfeller, or more frequently, the bookfeller himself takes this dirty work off their hands, as all that is required is to be very abufive and very dull. Every Poet of any genius is fure to find fuch enemies; he feels, though he feems to defpife, their malice; they make him miferable here, and in the pursuit of empty fame, at laft he gains folid anxiety.

Has this been the cafe with every poet I fee bere? cried I-Yes, with every mother's fon of them, replied he, except he happened to be born a mandarine. If he has much money, he may buy reputation from your book-anfwerers, as well as a monument from the guardians of the temple.

But are there not fome men of diftinguished tafte, as in China, who are willing to patronize men of merit, aud foften the rancour of malevolent dulnefs?

I own there are many, replied the man in black, but, alas! fir, the book-anfwerers crowd about them, and call themselves the writers of books; and the patron is too indolent to diftinguish: thus poets are kept at a distance, while their enemies eat up all

their rewards at the mandarine's table.

Leaving this part of the temple, we made up to an iron gate, through which my companion told me we were to pass in order to see the monuments of the

kings. Accordingly I marched up without farther ceremony, and was going to enter, when a perfon, who held the gate in his hand, told me I must pay firft. I was furprised at fuch a demand; and asked the man, whether the people of England kept a fhew? whether the paltry fum he demanded was not a national reproach? whether it was not more to the honour of the country to let their magnificence or their antiquities be openly feen, than thus meanly to tax a curiofity which tended to their own honour? As for your questions, replied the gate-keeper, to be fure they may be very right, becaufe I don't understand them; but, as for that there three-pence, I farm it from one, who rents it from another, who hires it from a third, who leafes it from the guardians of the temple, and we all muft live. I expected, upon paying here, to fee fomething extraordinary, fince what I had feen for nothing filled me with fo much furprize; but in this I was difappointed; there was little more within than black coffins, rufty armour, tattered ftandards, and fome few flovenly figures in wax. I was forry I had paid, but I comforted myfelf by confidering it would be my laft payment. A perfon attended us, who, without once blufhing, told an hundred lies; he talked of a lady who died by pricking her finger; of a king with a golden head, and twenty fuch pieces of abfurdity. Look ye there, gentlemen, fays he, pointing to an old oak chair, there's a curiofity for ye; in that chair the kings of England were crowned; you fee alfo a ftone underneath, and that ftone is Jacob's pillow. I could fee no curiofity either in the oak chair, or the ftone; could I, indeed, behold one of the old kings of England feated in this, or Jacob's head laid upon the other, there might be fomething curious in the fight; but in the prefent cafe there was no more reafon for my furprize than if I fhould pick a ftone from their streets, and call it a curiofity, merely be

caufe

cause one of the kings happened to tread upon it as he paffed in a proceffion.

From hence our conductor led us through feveral dark walks and winding ways, uttering lies, talking to himfelf, and flourishing a wand which he held in his hand. He reminded me of the black magicians of Kobi. After we had been almoft fatigued with a variety of objects, he, at laft, defired me to confider attentively a certain fuit of armour, which feemed to fhew nothing remarkable. This armour, faid he, belonged to general Monk. Very furprizing, that a general fhould wear armour! And pray, added he, obferve this cap, this is general Monk's cap. Very strange indeed, very strange, that a general fhould have a cap aljo! Pray friend, what might this cap have coft originally? That, Sir, fays he, I don't know; but this cap is all the wages I have for my trouble. A very Small recompence, truly, faid I., Not fo very fmall replied he, for every gentleman puts fome money into it, and I spend the money. What, more money! ftill more money! Every gentleman gives fomething, Sir. I'll give thee nothing, returned I; the guardians of the temple should pay you your wages, friend, and not permit you to fqueeze thus from every fpectator. When we pay our money at the door to fee a fhew, we never give more as we are going out. Sure, the guardians of the temple can never think they get enough. Shew me the gate; if I ftay longer, I may probably meet with more of thofe ecclefiaftical beggars.

Thus leaving the temple precipitately, I returned to my lodgings, in order to ruminate over what was great, and to defpife what was mean, in the occurrences of the day.

LETTER

LETTER XIV.

FROM THE SAME.

I WAS fome days ago agreeably furprised by a meffage from a lady of diftinction, who fent me word, that the moft paffionately defired the pleasure of my acquaintance; and, with the utmost impatience, expected an interview. I will not deny, my dear Fum Hoam, but that my vanity was raifed at fuch an invitation; I flattered myself that she had feen me in fome public place, and had conceived an affection for my perfon, which thus induced her to deviate from the ufual decorums of the fex. My imagination painted her in all the bloom of youth and beauty. I fancied her attended by the Loves and Graces; and I fet out with the moft pleafing expectations of feeing the conqueft I had made.

When I was introduced into her apartment, my expectations were quickly at an end; I perceived a little fhrivelled figure indolently reclined on a fofa, who nodded by way of approbation at my approach. This, as I was afterwards informed, was the lady herself, a woman equally diftinguished for rank, politeness, tafte, and understanding. As I was dreffed after the fashion of Europe, fhe had taken me for an Englishman, and confequently faluted me in her ordinary manner; but when the footman informed her grace that I was the gentleman from China, fhe inftantly lifted herself from the couch, while her eyes fparkled with unufual vivacity.

Blefs me! can this be the gentleman that was "born fo far from home? What an unusual fhare "of fomething nefs in his whole appearance! Lord! "how I am charmed with the outlandish cut of his "face! how bewitching the exotic breadth of his "forehead!