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BOOK III.

NARRATIVE PIECES.

THE JUDGMENT OF RHADAMANTHUS.

I WAS yesterday comparing the industry of man with that of other creatures; in which I could not but observe, that, notwithstanding we are obliged by duty to keep ourselves in constant employ, after the same manner as inferior animals are prompted to it by instinct, we fall very short of them in this particular. We are here the more inexcusable, because there is a greater variety of business, to which we may apply ourselves. Reason opens to us a large field of affairs, which other creatures are not capable of. Beasts of prey, and I believe all other kinds, in their natural state of being, divide their time between action and rest; they are always at work or asleep in short, their waking hours are wholly taken up in seeking after their food, or in consuming it. The human species only, to the great reproach of our nature, are filled with complaints—that the day hangs heavy on them, that they do not know what to do with themselves, that they are at a loss how to pass away their time, with many of the like shameful murmurs, which we often find in the mouths of those who are styled reasonable beings. How monstrous are such expressions among creatures who have the labours of the mind, as well as those of the body, to furnish them with proper employments; who, beside the business of heir callings and professions, can apply themselves to the duties of religion, to meditation, to the reading of

useful books, to discourse; in a word, who may exercise themselves in the unbounded pursuits of knowledge and virtue, and every hour of their lives make themselves wiser or better than they were before.

After having been taken up for some time in this course of thought, I diverted myself with a book, according to my usual custom, in order to unbend my mind before I went to sleep. The book I made use of on this occasion was Lucian, where I amused my thoughts for about an hour among the dialogues of the dead, which, in all probability, produced the following dream :

I was conveyed, methought, into the entrance of the infernal regions, where I saw Rhadamanthus, one of the judges of the dead, seated on his tribunal. On his left hand stood the keeper of Erebus, on his right the keeper of Elysium: I was told he sat upon women that day, there being several of the sex lately arrived, who had not as yet their mansions assigned them. I was surprised to hear him ask every one of them the same question, namely, "What they had been doing?" Upon this question being proposed to the whole assembly, they stared one upon another, as not knowing what to answer : he then interrogated each of them separately. "Madam," says he to the first of them," you have been upon the Earth about fifty years, what have you been doing there all this while?" "Doing," says she, "really I don't know what I have been doing; I desire I may have time given me to recollect." After about half an hour's pause, she told him, that she had been playing at crimp; upon which Rhadamanthus beckoned to the keeper on his left hand to take her into custody. "And you, madam," says the judge, "that look with such a soft and languishing air; I think you set out for this place in your nine-and-twentieth year; what have you been doing all this while?" "I had a great deal of business on my hands," says she, "being taken up the first twelve years of my life

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in dressing a jointed baby, and all the remaining part of it in reading plays and romances.” “Very well,” says he, "you have employed your time to good purpose.-Away with her." The next was a plain, country woman: Well, mistress," says Rhadamanthus," and what have you been doing?" "An't please your worship," says she, “ I did not live quite forty years; and, in that time, brought my husband seven daughters, made him nine thousand cheeses, and left my eldest girl with him, to look after his house in my absence; and who, I may venture to say, is as pretty a housewife as any in the country." Rhadamanthus smiled at the simplicity of the good woman, and ordered the keeper of Elysium to take her into his care. “And you, fair lady,” says he, “what have you been doing these five and thirty years?" "I have been doing no hurt, I assure you, sir,” said she. "That is well," says he; "but what good have you been doing?" The lady was in great confusion at this question, and, not knowing what to answer, the two keepers leaped out to seize her at the same time; the one took her by the hand to convey her to Elysium, the other caught hold of her to carry her to Erebus; but Rhadamanthus, observing an ingenuous modesty in her countenance and behaviour, bid them both let her loose, and set her aside for a reexamination, when he was more at leisure. An old woman, of a proud and sour look, presented herself next at the bar, and being asked what she had been doing? Truly," says she, "I lived threescore and ten years in a very wicked world; and was so angry at the behaviour of a parcel of young flirts, that I past almost all my last years in condemning the follies of the times; I was every day blaming the silly conduct of people about me, in order to deter those I conversed with from falling into the like errours and miscarriages." "Very well," says Rhadamanthus ; "but did you keep the same watchful eye over your own actions?"" Why, truly," says she, " I was so taken up

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with publishing the faults of others, that I had no time to consider my own. "be says Rhadamanthus, pleased to file off to the left, and make room for the venerable matron that stands behind you.-Old gentlewoman,' says he, "I think you are fourscore? you have heard the question, what have you been doing so long in the world?', "Ah, sir," says she, "I have been doing what I should not have done; but I had made a firm resolution to have changed my life, if I had not been snatched off by an untimely end." "Madam," says he, "you will please to follow your leader;" and spying another of the same age, interrogated her in the same form. To which the matron replied, "I have been the wife of a husband, who was as dear to me in his old age as in his youth. I have been a mother, and very happy in my children, whom I endeavoured to bring up in every thing that is good; my eldest son is blest by the poor, and beloved by every one that knows him; I lived within my income, and left my family much more wealthy than I found it." Rhadamanthus, who knew the value of the old lady, smiled upon her in such a manner, that the keeper of Elysium, who knew his office, reached out his hand to her: he no sooner touched her but her wrinkles vanished, her eyes sparkled, her cheeks glowed with blushes, and she appeared in full bloom and beauty. A young woman observing that this officer, who conducted the happy to Elysium, was so great a beautifier, longed to be in his hands; so that, pressing through the crowd, she was the next who appeared at the bar, and being asked," what she had been doing the five and twenty years that she had passed in the world? "I have endeavoured," says she, "ever since I came to years of discretion, to make myself lovely, and to gain admirers: in order to it, I passed my time in bottling up May-dew, inventing white washes, mixing colours, cutting out patches, consulting my glass, suiting my complexion, tearing off F

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my tucker, sinking my stays-" Rhadamanthus, without hearing her out, gave the sign to take her off. Upon the approach of the keeper of Erebus her colour faded, her face puckered up with wrinkles, and her whole person was lost in deformity.

I was then surprised with a distant sound of a whole troop of females, that came forward laughing, singing, and dancing: I was very desirous to know the reception they would meet with, and, withal, was very apprehensive, that Rhadamanthus would spoil their mirth; but at their nearer approach the noise grew so very great that it awaked me. ADDISON.

VISION OF THEODORE.

SON of Perseverance, whoever thou art, whose curiosity has led thee hither, read and be wise. He that now calls upon thee is Theodore, the Hermit of Teneriffe, who, in the fifty-seventh year of his retreat, left this instruction to mankind, lest his solitary hours should be spent in vain.

I was once what thou art now, a groveller on the Earth, and a gazer at the sky: I trafficked, and heaped wealth together; I loved, and was favoured; I wore the robe of honour, and heard the musick of adulation; I was ambitious, and rose to greatness; I was unhappy, and retired. I sought for some time what I at length found here, a place where real wants might be easily supplied, and where I might not be under the necessity of purchasing the assistance of men by the toleration of their follies. Here I saw fruits, and herbs, and water, and here determined to wait the band of death, which, I hope, when at last it comes, fall lightly upon me.

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Forty-eight years had I now passed in forgetfulness of all mortal cares, and without any inclination to wander farther than the necessity of procuring sustenance re

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