thought a sufficient qualification ?- Gaining buttles or taking towns,' replied the man in black, may be of service; but a gentleman may have a very fine monument here without ever seeing a battle or a siege. This, then, is the monument of some poet, I presume,-of one whose wit has gained him immortality?' 1 -'No, sir,' replied my guide, the gentleman who lies here never made verses; and as for wit, he despised it in others, because he had none himself.'-Pray tell me in a word,' said I, peevishly, 'what is the man who lies here particularly remarkable for ?''Remarkable, sir!' said my companion; why, sir, 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 he not be ashamed to be seen among company where even moderate merit would look like infamy?'-'I suppose,' replied the man in black, the gentleman was rich, and his friends, as is usual in such a case, told him he was great. He readily believed them; the guardians of the temple, as they got by the self-delusions, were ready to believe him too; so he paid his money for a fine monument; and the workman, as you see, has made him one of the most beautiful Think not, however, that this gentleman is singular in his desire of being buried among the great: there are several others in the temple who, hated and shunned by the great while alive, have come here fully resolved to keep them company now they are dead.'

As we walked along to a particular part of the temple, There, says the gentleman, pointing with his finger, that is the poet's corner; there you see 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 instructing his fellowcreatures! Yes,' says my guide, they hate him for that very reason. There are a set of men called answerers of books, who take upon them to watch the republic of letters, and distribute reputation by the sheet; they somewhat resemble the eunuchs in a seraglio, who are incapable of giving pleasure themselves, and hinder those that would. These answerers have no other employment but to cry out dunce,' and 'scribbler,' to praise the dead and revile the living; to grant a man of confessed abilities some small share of merit; to applaud twenty block heads, in order to gain the reputation of candour; and to revile the moral cha

Such

racter of the man whose writings they cannot injure. wretches are kept in pay by some mercenary bookseller, or more frequently the bookseller himself takes this dirty work off their hands, as all that is required is to be very abusive and very dull. Every poet of any genius is sure to find such enemies: he feels, though he seems to despise their malice; they make him miserable here; and in the pursuit of empty fame, at last he gains solid anxiety.'

·

Has this been the case with every poet I see here?' cried I.Yes, with every mother's son of them,' replied he, 'except he happened to be born a mandarin. If he has much money, he may buy reputation from your book-answerers, as well as a monument from the guardians of the temple.'

'But are there not some men of distinguished taste, as in China, who are willing to patronise men of merit, and soften the rancour of malevolent dulness?'

'I own there are many,' replied the man in black; but, alas! sir, the book-answerers crowd about them, and call themselves the writers of books; and the patron is too indolent to distinguish : thus poets are kept at a distance, while their enemies eat up all their rewards at the mandarin'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 further ceremony, and was going to enter, when a person, who held the gate in his hand, told me I must pay first. I was surprised at such a demand, and asked the man, whether the people of England kept a show? whether the paltry sum 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 seen, than thus meanly to tax a curiosity which tended to their own honour?' As for your questions,' replied the gate-keeper, 'to be sure they may be very right, because I don't understand them: but as for that three-pence, I farm it from one who rents it from another, who hires it from a third, who leases it from the guardians of the temple; and we all must live.' I expected, upon paying here, to see something extraordinary, since what I had seen for nothing filled me with so much surprise; but in this I was disappointed; there was little more within than black coffins, rusty armour, tattered standards, and some few slovenly figures in wax. I was sorry I had paid, but I comforted myself by considering it would be my .ast payment. A person attended us, who, without once blushing, told a hundred lies: he talked of a lady who died by pricking her finger; of a king with a golden head, and twenty such pieces