or a virtuous edict, a fumptuary law or a glafs necklace." This interval of reflection only gave my companion fpirits to begin his description afresh; and as a greater inducement to raife iny curiofity, he informed me of the vaft fums that were given by the fpectators for places. "That the ceremony muft "be fine," cries he, " is very evident from the fine price that is paid for feeing it. Several ladies. have affured me, they would willingly part with "one eye, rather than be prevented from looking on "with the other. Come, come," continues he, "I have a friend, who for my fake will fupply "us with places at the most reasonable rates; I will "take care you fhall not be impofed upon; and he * will inform you of the ufe, finery, rapture, fplen"dour, and enchantment of the whole ceremony better than I." Pri Follies often repeated lose their abfurdity, and affume the appearance of reafon: his arguments were so often and fo ftrongly enforced, that I had actually fome thoughts of becoming a fpectator. We accordingly went together to bespeak a place; but guefs my furprise, when the man demanded a purfe of gold for a fingle feat: I could hardly believe him ferious upon making the demand. "thee, friend," cried I," after I have paid twenty "pounds for fitting here an hour or two, can I bring a part of the Coronation back?" No, Sir. "How long can I live upon it after I have come away?" Net long, Sir. "Can a coronation "cloath, feed, or fatten me?" Sir, replied the man, you seem to be under a mistake; all that you can bring away is the pleasure of having it to fay, that you faw the coronation. Blaft me," cries Tibbs, " if 66 66 that be all, there is no need of paying for that, "fince I am refolved to have that pleasure,, whether "I am there or no !" I am confcious my friend, that this is but a very confused description of the intended ceremony. You may object, that I neither fettle rank, precedency, nor place; that I feem ignorant whether Gules walks before or behind Garter; that I have neither mentioned the dimenfions of a lord's cap, nor measured the length of a lady's tail. I know your delight is in minute defcription; and this I am unhappily difqualified from furnishing; yet upon the whole I fancy it will be no way comparable to the magnificence of our late emperor Whangti's proceffion, when he was married to the moon, at which Fum Hoam himself prefided in perfon. Adieu. LETTER CV. IT TO THE SAME. was formerly the custom here, when men of dif tinction died, for their furviving acquaintance to throw each a flight prefent into the grave. Several things of little value were made ufe of for that purpofe; perfumes, reliques, fpices, bitter herbs, camomile, wormwood, and verfes. This cuftom however is almost difcontinued; and nothing but verfes alone are now lavished on fuch occafions; an oblation which they fuppofe may be interred with the dead, without any injury to the living. Upon the death of the great therefore the poets and undertakers are fure of employment. While one provides the long cloak, black ftaff, and mourning coach, the other produces the paftoral or elegy, the monody or apotheofis. The nobility need be under no apprehenfions, but die as faft as they think proper, the poet and undertaker are ready to fupply them; thefe can find metaphorical tears and family efcutcheons at half an hour's warning; and when the one has foberly laid the body in the grave, the other is ready to fix it figuratively among the ftars. There are feveral ways of being poetically forrowful on fuch occafions. The bard is now fome penfive youth of science, who fits deploring among the tombs; again he is Thyrfis complaining in à circle of harmless fheep. Now Britannia fits upon her own fhore, and gives a loofe to maternal tendernefs; at another time, Parnaffus, even the mountain Parnaffus, gives way to forrow, and is bathed in tears of diftrefs. But the moft ufual manner is this: Damon meets Menalcas, who has got a moft gloomy countenance. The shepherd afks his friend, whence that look of diftrefs? to which the other replies, that Pollio isno more. If that be the cafe then, cries Damon, let us retire to yonder bower at fome diftance off, where the cyprefs and the jeffamine add fragrance to the breeze; and let us weep alternately for Pollio, the friend of fhepherds, and the patron of every mufe. Ah, returns his fellow fhepherd, what think you rather of that grotto by the fountain fide; the murmuring ftream will help to affift our complaints, and a nightingale on a neighbouring tree will join her voice to the concert. When the place is thus fettled, they begin: the brook ftands ftill to hear their lamentations; the cows forget to graze; and the very tygers start from the foreft with fympathe tic concern. By the tombs of our ancestors, my dear dear Fum, I am quite unaffected in all this diftress: the whole is liquid laudanum to my fpirits; and a tyger of common fenfibility has twenty times more tenderness than I. But though I could never weep with the complaining fhepherd, yet I am fometimes induced to pity the poet, whofe trade is thus to make demigods and heroes for a dinner. There is not in nature a more difmal figure than a man who fits down to premeditated flattery; every ftanza he writes tacitly reproaches the meanness of his occupation, till at last his ftupidity becomes more ftupid, and his dulness more diminutive. I am amazed therefore that none have yet found out the secret of flattering the worthless, and yet of preferving a fafe confcience. I have often wished for fome method by which a man might do himself and his deceased patron juftice, without being under the hateful reproach of felf-conviction. After long lucubration, I have hit upon fuch an expedient; and fend you the fpecimen of a poem upon the decease of a great man, in which the flattery is perfectly fine, and yet the poet perfectly innocent. On the Death of the Right Honourable *** Ye mufes, pour the pitying tear O had he liv'd another year ! -He had not died to day. O, were he born to bless mankind In virtuous times of yore, Heroes themfelves had fallen behind! Whene er he went before. How fad the groves and plains appear, And fympathetic theep; Ev'n pitying hills would drop a tear! IT is the most usual method in every report, first to examine its probability, and then act as the conjuncture may require. The English, however, exert a different fpirit in fuch circumftances; they first act, and when too late begin to examine. From a knowledge of this difpofition, there are feveral here who make it their bufinefs to frame new reports at every convenient interval, all tending to denounce ruin both on their contemporaries and their pofterity. This denunciation is eagerly caught up by the public; away they fling to propagate the diftrefs; fell out at one place, buy in at another, grumble at their governors, fhout in mobs, and when they have thus for fome time behaved like fools, fit down coolly to argue and talk wisdom, to puzzle each other with fyllogifm, and prepare for the next report that prevails, which is always attended with the fame fuccefs. Thus are they ever rifing above one report only to fink into another. They refemble a dog in a well pawing to get free. When he has raised his upper 5 parts |