A tradefman thou! and hope to go to heaven? Refolv'd for fea, the flaves thy baggage pack, Each faddled with his burden on his back: Nothing retards thy voyage, now, but he, That foft. voluptuous prince, call'd Luxury; And he may ask this civil queftion; Friend, What doft thou make a fhipboard? To • what end? Art thou of Bethlem's noble college free? Stark, ftaring mad, that thou would't tempt the fea? Cubb'd in a cabbin, on a mattress-laid, On a brown George, with loufed-fwob⚫bers, fed; Dead wine, that ftinks of the Borachio, fup From a foul jack, or greafy maple cup? Say, would it thou bear all this, to raise thy flore, From fix i'th hundred to fix hundred more? Death ftalks behind thee, and each flying • hour are very expenfive, they put those who are addicted to them upon raifing fresh fupplies of money, by all the methods of rapacioufnefs and corruption; fo that avarice and luxury very often become one complicated principle of action, in thofe whofe hearts are wholly fet upon eafe, magnificence, and pleafure. The most elegant and correct of all the Latin hiftorians obferves, that in his time, when the most formidable ftates of the world were fubdued by the Romans, the republic funk into thofe two vices of a quite different nature, luxury and avarice: and accordingly defcribes Catiline as one who coveted the wealth of other men, at the fame time that he fquandered away his own. This obfervation on the commonwealth, when it was in it's height of power and riches, holds good of all governments that are fettled in a ftate of eafe and profperity. At fuch times men naturally endeavour to outfhine one another in pomp and fplendor, and having no fears to alarm them from abroad, indulge themfelves in the enjoyment of all the pleafures they can get in their poffeffion; which naturally produces avarice, and an immoderate purfuit after wealth and riches. As I was humouring myself in the fpeculation of thefe two great principles of action, I could not forbear throwing my thoughts into a little kind of allegory or fable, with which I shall here prefent my reader. There were two very powerful tyrants engaged in a perpetual war againit each other: the name of the first was Luxury; and of the fecond Avarice. The aim of each of them was no lefs than univerfal monarchy over the hearts of mankind. Luxury had many generals under him, who did him great fervices, as Pleafure, Mirth, Pomp, and Fashion. Avarice was likewife very strong in his officers, being faithfully ferved by Hunger, Induftry, Care, and Watchfulness: he had likewife a privy counsellor who ing fomething or other in his ear: the was always at his elbow, and whispername of this privy-counfellor was Poverty. As Avarice conducted himself by the counfels of Poverty, his antagonift was entirely guided by the dictates and advice of Plenty, who was his first counsellor and minifter of ftate, 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, 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 hufband would often declare themselves 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. In deed the wife men of the world stood neuter: but alas! their numbers were not confiderable. At length, when thefe two potentates had wearied themselves with waging war upon one another, they agreed upon an interview, at which neither of their counfellors were to be prefent. It is faid that Luxury began the parley, and after having represented 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 two fhould be very good friends, were it not for the inftigations of Poverty, that pernicious counsellor, who made an ill ufe of his ear, and filled him with groundlefs apprehenfions, and prejudices. To this Avarice replied, that he looked upon THE Plenty, the first minifter of his antagonift, to be a much more destructive counsellor than Poverty, for that he was perpetually fuggefting pleasures, banishing all the neceflary cautions against want, and confequently undermining thofe principles on which the government of Avarice was founded. At last, in order to an accommodation, they agreed upon this preliminary: that each of them thould immediately difmifs his privy-counfellor. 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 eafon, we now find Luxury and Avarice taking poffeffion of the fame heart, and dividing the fame perfon between them. To which I shall only add, that fince the discarding of the counfellors above mentioned, Åvarice fupplies Luxury in the room of Plenty, as Luxury prompts Avarice in the place of Poverty. N° LVI. FRIDAY, MAY 4. FELICES ERRORE SUO HAPPY IN THEIR MISTAKE. HE Americans believe that all creatures have fouls, not only men and women, but brutes, vegetables, nay even the most inanimate things, as ftocks and tones. They believe the fame of all the works of art, as of knives, boots, looking glaffes; and that as any of thefe things perifh, their fouls go into another world, which is inhabited by the ghofts of men and women. For this reafon they always place by the corpfe 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 likewise spoken as unintelligibly of their fubftantial LUCAN, I. 454. C forms. I fhall only inftance Albertus Magnus, who in his differtation upon the loadstone obferving, that fire will deftroy it's magnetic virtues, tells us that he took particular notice of one as it lay glowing 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 Weft Indian phrase, the Soul of the loadstone. There is a tradition among the Americans, that one of their countrymen defcended in a vifion 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 diftin&t account of every thing he faw among those regions of the dead. A friend of mine, whom I have formerly 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 1 well as he could learn by many queftions which he asked them at feveral times, was in fubftance as follows: The vifionary, whofe name was Marraton, after having travelled for a long fpace under an hollow mountain, arrived at length on the confines of this world of fpirits, but could not enter it by reafon 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 fame pofture as when he watches for his prey. The Indian immediately ftarted back, whilft the lion rote with a fpring, and leaped towards him. Being wholly deftitute of all other weapons, he stooped down to take up an huge ftone in his hand; but to his infinite furprife grasp ed nothing, and found the fuppofed stone to be only the apparition of one. If he was disappointed 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 ghoft 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 a little thinner than the reft; when again, to his great furprize, he found the bushes made no refiftance, but he walked through briers and brambles 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 fubitances might be torn by thefe fubtle points and prickles, which were too weak to make any impreffions on flesh and blood. With this thought he resolved to travel through this intricate wood; when by degrees he felt a gale of perfumes breathing upon him, that grew ftronger and sweeter 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 scents and colours, that formed a wilderness of sweets, and were a kind of lining to thofe ragged scenes which he had before paffed through. As he was coming out of this delightful part of the wood, and entering upon the plains it enclosed, 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 fteed, 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 ghost of an hare, which run away before them with an unfpeakable fwiftnefs. As the man on the milkwhite fleed came by him, he looked upon him very attentively, and found him to be the young Prince Nicharagua, 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 landfkip of flowery plains, green meadows, running ftreams, funny hills, and fhady vales, as were not to be reprefented by his own expreffions, nor, as he said, by the conceptions of others. This happy region was peopled with innumerable fwarms of fpirits, who applied themfelves to exercifes 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 themfelves 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 scene, he was very often tempted to pluck the flowers that rofe every where about him in the greateft variety and profufion, having never seen several 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. at length came to the fide of a great river, and being a good fisherman himfelf, ftood 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. He I fhould have told my reader, that this |