took in the length of their wrists, as mine more demoniacally piqued themselves on the longitude and sharpness of their claws. Neither was the party equipped in the same livery, but exhibited all sorts of dresses, from the priest's to the soldier's, and from hat of a modern fine gentleman to he rags of a polisson, whose cloven oofs peeped through his second-hand oots. They all wore vizards, howver, which, although not complete lisguises, (for the by-standers preended to distinguish them by their node of playing, and I heard them vhisper, "That's Astaroth," "that's Belphegor," and so forth,) yet sered, like the wire masque of a fencer, o save their faces from the awkward ccidents incident to so violent a port. I did, indeed, remark one old entleman, and, 'twas said, he had been notable man in his day, who made match to be played bare-faced; but whether, like Entellus of old, he had ecome stiff and unwieldy, or wheher he was ill-seconded by his few nd awkward partners, so it was, that e was soon obliged to give up the ame, which the rest continued to rosecute with the utmost vigour.

As few of the volumes, which it as their amusement to buffet, stood any bangs with the racket, the hole ground was whitened with their agments; and it would have grieved our very heart, sir, to see the waste good paper and pica. The incesint demand of the players for new aterials was as constantly supplied a set of little ragged urchins, noise differing from printers' devils, cept that each had at his back a mall pair of bat's wings, which, I ppose, were only for shew, as I did pt observe the imps make any use them. The books, which they rought in quantities from the inte

rior of the building, they tossed one by one into the air, and it seemed their object (but which they rarely attained,) to throw them out of the reach of the gamesters' rackets, and, if possible, over the low boundaries of the court-yard. On the other side of these limits waited an immense and miscellaneous concourse of spectators, whose interest seemed to be excited by the fate of each volume. The general appearance of the game resembled tennis, or rather battledore and shuttle-cock; but I was unable to trace the various and apparently complicated principles acted upon by those engaged in it. those engaged in it. This observed in general, that when, by its natural lightness and elasticity, or by the dexterity of the diablotins by whom it was committed to the air, or by the stroke of some friendly racket, or, in fine, by a combination of these causes, a volume was so fortunate as to clear the barrier, it was caught up like a relique by the spectators on the outside. You have seen, sit, boys at a review chace each other for the fragments of smoking cartridges, which may give you some idea of the enthusiastic regard with which these fortunate books were received by this admiring multitude. On the contrary, when any one was struck to the ground, or shattered to pieces within the inclosure, its fall was solemnized by whooping and hisses and groans from the good company. So far I could understand the game well enough, and could easily comprehend further, that the imps by whom each book was thrown into the air, had deep bets in dependence upon its being struck across the line. But it was not so easy to comprehend the motives of the different players. Sometimes you beheld them anxious to strike a volume among the specta

tors, sometimes equally industrious to intercept its flight, and dash it to the ground. Often you saw them divide into different parties, the one attempting to keep up a favourite book, the other to bring it down. These partialities occasionally gave rise to very diverting bye-games. I sometimes saw a lubbard fiend, in attempting to give an impulse to a ponderous volume, strike it right up into the air, when, to the infinite dehight and laughter of the beholders, it descended with added momentum upon his own noddle, and put him out of combat for some time. I also observed the little bat-winged gentry occasionally mix among the racqueteers, and endeavour to bias their game by bribing them to play booty. Their offers were sometimes accepted with silent shame, sometimes rejected with open contempt; but I observed in general, that those whom these bustling but subordinate imps were able to influence, were the worst players, and most frequently exposed to the ridiculous accidents which ex-. cited the contempt of the spectators. Indeed, the gamesters were incalculably different in strength, activity, and dexterity; and one of superior address was very often able, by a welltimed back-stroke of his racket, to send in, or to bring down, a book, which all his comrades had combined to destroy or to save. Such a game, it may be easily believed, was not played by such a description of beings without infinite noise, clamour, and quarrel. Sometimes a book would be bandied between two of them without any further regard for the volume than as they could strike it against each other's face, and very often one party seemed determined to buffet a work to shivers, merely because another set had endeavoured

to further it on its journey over the lists. After all, a great deal seeme to depend on the degree of phlogiste which each manufacturer endeavoured to throw into his volume, and which, if successfully infused, afford ed an elasticity capable of resisting the downward impulse of the mos unfavourable racket. In some fer cases, the mob without made a scramble for a favourite, broke, deranged the play, overset the r queteers, and carried off in triumph, works which apparently would never have reached them according to the usual practice of the game. These? cases, however, were uncommon: and when, through a violent and ur fair blow, some tome, which had been waited for with anxiety without the barrier, was beat down and trample on by the players, its fall only occa sioned slight murmurs among t the res pectable part of the expectants, with out any desperate attempt to rescue. A single friend or two sometimes e sayed to collect the fragments of: volume, and to raise an outcry agains the usage which it had sustained but, unless supported by the general voice of the exterior mass, they were usually jostled down by the player or silenced by a smart knock with racket. The fate of a volume, ali, cæteris paribus, depended in some degree on its size. Your ligh twelve-mo, sir, (to use your own barbarous dialect) flew further with a favourable impulse, and afforded less mark to the assailant, than to larger and more ponderous quarte But neither was this rule without es ception. Some large volumes sprea their wings like wild swans, and we off triumphant, notwithstanding the buffets of opposition; and, the other hand, you might see?: whole covey of crown octavos, 2-i

duodecimos, and such small deer, drop as fast as a flight of plovers who have received a shower of hail-shot while upon the wheel. In short, the game depended on an endless complication of circumstances and principles; and although I could easily detect many of them when operating singly, they were yet so liable to be balanced and counterbalanced, that I would sooner have betted on throwing doublets thrice running at backgammon than upon the successful escape of any single volume from the rackets, and its favourable transmission to the other side of the court-yard. But, after I had long watched this extraordinary scene, I at length detected a circumstance which altogether confounded the few calculations which its uncertainty had previously permitted me to form.

Iobserved that there mingled among those engaged in the game, as well as among the gazing crowd, a man in the extremity of old age. His motions were as slow as the hourhand of a watch, yet he seemed to be omnipresent; for, wherever I went, I saw him or the traces of his footsteps. Wherever I turned my eyes, whether upon the players, or upon the populace who watched their motions, I beheld him; and though I could with infinite difficulty find but his occupation while gazing upon him, yet, by watching him from time to time, I discovered that his influence was as powerful as its operations were slow and invisible. To this personage, whom I heard them call Tempus, various appeals were made on all hands. The patrons of the wrecked volumes claimed his protection almost unanimously; the defeated players themselves, though more coldly, desired him to do justice between them and their more

successful opponents, or to make register of the undue violence by which spectators in some cases rescued their lawful prey. The old gentleman, to do him right, was as impartial as the justices of peace in a small debt court, when none has a tenant at the bar, and as inexorable as the same bench when dinner-time draws near.. He continued his tardy but incessant manœuvres, now crawling among the feet of the gamesters to collect and piece together some of those volumes which had suffered the extremity of their fury, and now gliding unseen and unnoticed among the spectators, to wile out of their hands certain works which they had received with the loudest jubilee; and he succeeded in both cases, as nurses do in securing the play-things of children, which they have either broken in a pet, or admired to satiety. The use which he made of his power and his perseverance, was very different in these different cases. When he had slyly possessed himself of some of these works which had been most highly applauded, I detected him stealing towards a neighbouring ditch (the Lethe of the region) into which he discharged his burthen, without the least regret on the part of those from whom he had abstracted it. On the other hand, in his slow and imperceptible manner, he would every now and then unfold to some of the more grave and respectable among the by-standers, fragments and favourite passages out of books he had rescued from among the feet of the racket-players, and, by the impression these made, he gradually paved the way for a general and brilliant reception of an entire volume. And I must observe of. the books thus brought into notice, that they were said to be rarely liable to a second

declension in public favour, but, with a few worthies, who, like them, had stood the test of Time, were, I was informed, deposited in an honourable and distinguished place in his library, for the admiration and instruction of future ages.

The general feeling of surprise and consternation, with which I had hitherto regarded this extraordinary scene, began soon to give way to curiosity and to the desire of making more minute observations. I ventured to draw as near as I durst to the old father I have described, who was then employed in collecting and piecing a huge quarto, which had received an uncommonly severe buffet from a racket, and on the front of which I could spell the word MADOC. "Good father," said I, as respectfully as I could, "do you account that volume a great treasure?” "Since I saved," answered he, "a poem in the same measure, the work of an old blind man, out of the hands of some gay courtiers, I have hardly made a more valuable acquisition." "And what then do you purpose to do with it?" pursued I, emboldened by his affability."—" Reserve it under my mantle, as I did the former, for an age worthy of it."-" Good Tempus," resumed I, " if I do not entirely mistake your person, I have some reason to complain of hard measure from you. Is it not you that have thinned my hair, wrinkled my forehead, diminished my apartments, lessened my income, rendered my opinions antiquated, and my company undesirable; yet all this will I forgive you on one slight condition. You cannot have forgot a small miscellany, published about twenty years ago, which contained some copies of verses subscribed Amyntor ?" The old personage protested his total

want of recollection." You wil soon remember them," rejoined I "suffer me but to repeat the verses t Lydia, when a fly settled on the ti of her ear."" I have not time," a swered the obdurate old brute, a though he was Time itself "Y promise me," cried I, endeavourin to detain him, "that you will los back among your stores for this litt volume, and give it that interest the eyes of posterity, which was fused to it by contemporary stupid ty and malevolence." My son, replied he, gliding from my grasp : he spoke, "you ask of me imposs bilities. Yon ditch, to which is co signed all the refuse of this Pand monium, has most assuredly receive the volume in which you are so mu interested. Yet do not be altogeth disconcerted. A set of honest pain taking persons have erected gratin upon the common-sewer of oblivio from one interval to another, for t precise purpose of gathering t scraps of printed paper thrown in it, without being deterred by t mean and nameless purposes whi they have served. No lame begg rakes the kennel for stub-nails wi half the assiduity that these gent! men fish among all sorts of trash f the names and offal of forgott rhymers; for Love esteems no of mean, or, as the same old friend has

Entire affection scorneth nicer hands If thou hast any luck," continu he, looking at me with infinite co tempt, "thy fragments may be the fished up by some future antiquar and thy name rendered as famous the respectable sounds of Herric or Derricke, or others that are of now remembered because till no they have been most deservedly fu got." With that, his usual consta