or a virtuous edict, a sumptuary law or a glass necklace. This interval of reflection only gave my companion spirits to begin his description afresh; and as a greater inducement to raise my curiosity, he informed me of the vast sums that were given by the spectators for places. "That the ceremony must "be fine," cres he, " is very evident from the fine "price that is paid for seeing it. Several ladies "have assured 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 sake will supply 'us with places at the most reasonable rates; I will "take care you shall not be imposed upon; and he "will inform you of the use, finery, rapture, splen"dour, and enchantment of the whole ceremony "better than I." Follies often repeated lose their absurdity, and assume the appearance of reason: his arguments were so often and so strongly enforced, that I had actually some thoughts of becoming a spectator. We accordingly went together to bespeak a place; but guess my surprise, when the man demanded a purse of gold for a single seat: I could hardly believe him serious upon making the demand. 66 "Pri thee, friend," cried I," after I have paid twenty pounds for sitting 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." Not 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 say, that you saw the coronation. "Blast me," cries Tibbs, "if "that be all, there is no need of paying for that, "since "since I am resolved to have that pleasure, whether "I am there or no?" I am conscious my friend, that this is but a very confused description of the intended ceremony. You may object, that I neither settle rank, precedency, nor place; that I seem ignorant whether Gules walks before or behind Garter; that I have neither mentioned the dimensions of a lord's cap, nor measured the length of a lady's tail. I know your delight is in minute description; and this I am unhappily disqualified from furnishing; yet the whole I fancy it will be no way comparable to the magnificence of our late emperor Whangti's procession, when he was married to the moon, at which Fum Hoam himself presided in Adieu. upon person. LETTER CV. TO THE SAME. IT was formerly the custom here, when men of distinction died, for their surviving acquaintance to throw each a slight present into the grave. Several things of little value were made use of for that purpose; perfumes, reliques, spices, bitter herbs, camomile, wormwood, and verses. This custom however is almost discontinued; and nothing but verses alone are now lavished on such occasions; an oblation which they suppose may be interred with the dead, without any injury to the living. Upon the death of the great therefore the poets and undertakers are sure of employment. While one provides the long cloak, black staff, and mourning coach, the other produces the pastoral or elegy, the monody or apotheosis. The nobility need be under no apprehensions, but die as fast as they think proper, the poet and undertaker are ready to supply them; these can find metaphorical tears and family escutcheons at half an hour's warning; and when the one has soberly laid the body in the grave, the other is ready to fix it figuratively among the stars. There are several ways of being poetically sorrowful on such occasions. The bard is now some pensive youth of science, who sits deploring among the tombs; again he is Thyrsis complaining in a circle of harmless sheep. Now Britannia sits upon her own shore, aud gives a loose to maternal tenderness at another time, Parnassus, even the mountain Parnassus, gives way to sorrow, and is bathed in tears of distress. But the most usual manner is this: Damon meets Menalcas, who has got a most gloomy countenance. The shepherd asks his friend, whence that look of distress? to which the other replies, that Pollio is no more. If that be the case then, cries Damon, let us retire to yonder bower at some distance off, where the cypress and the jessamine add fragrance to the breeze; and let us weep alternately for Pollio, the friend of shepherds, and the patron of every muse. Ah, returns his fellow shepherd, what think you rather of that grotto by the fountain side; the murmuring stream will help to assist our complaints, and a nightingale on a neighbouring tree will join her voice to the concert. When the place is thus settled, they begin: the brook stands still to hear their lamentations; the cows forget to graze; and thevery tygers start from the forest with sympathetic concern. By the tombs of our ancestors, my dear dear Fum, I am quite unaffected in all this distress: the whole is liquid laudanum to my spirits; and a tyger of common sensibility has twenty times more tenderness than I. But though I could never weep with the complaining shepherd, yet I am sometimes induced to pity the poet, whose trade is thus to make demigods and heroes for a dinner. There is not in nature a more dismal figure than a man who sits down to premeditated flattery: every stanza he writes tacitly reproaches the meanness of his occupation, till at last his stupidity becomes more stupid, and his dulness more diminutive. I am amazed therefore that none have yet found out the secret of flattering the worthless, and yet of preserving a safe conscience. I have often wished for some method by which a man might do himself and his deceased patron justice, without being under the hateful reproach of self-conviction. After long lucubration, I have hit upon such an expedient; and sent you the specimen 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 muses, 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 themselves had fallen behind! -Whene'er he went before. How sad the groves and plains appear, Ev'n pitying hills would drop a tear! His one provides the long cloak, black staff CITIZE m, I am quite liquid lac mon sensibly. an I. I could never we," yet I am sout se trade is thus s. a dinner. There is ré e than a man who s ... every stanza he w ecomes more stupid. meanness of his occ, dv hat none have vet found mch an expe 4 poem upon the There are several ways of bei But the most usual monyetion. After Menalcas, who has got, |