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How many then should cover that stand bare!
How many be commanded, that command!

Он, who can hold a fire in his hand,
By thinking on the frofty Caucafus :
Or cloy the hungry edge of appetite,.
By bare imagination of a feast ?
Or wallow naked in December snow,
By thinking on fantaftic fammer's heat?
Oh, no! the apprehenfion of the good,
Gives but the greater feeling to the worse ;:
Fell Sorrow's tooth doth never rankle more,
Than when it bites, but lanceth not the fore.

'Tis flander;

Whose edge is sharper than the sword; whofe tongue
Outvenoms all the worms of Nile; whofe breath
Rides on the posting winds, and doth belie

All corners of the world. Kings, queens, and states,
Maids, matrons, nay, the fecrets of the grave,
This viperous flander enters.

THERE is a tide in the affairs of men,

Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune;

Omitted, all the voyage of their life

Is bound in fhallows, and in miferies.

TO-MORROW, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,
To the last fyllable of recorded time;
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools

The

The way to dusky death. Out, out, brief candle !
Life's but a walking fhadow, a poor player,
That ftruts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more! It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of found and fury,
Signifying nothing.

BOOK

BOOK II.

NARRATIVE PIECES.

K

CHAP. I.

THE DERVISE.

A DERVISE, travelling thro' Tartary, being arrived

at the town of Balk, went into the king's palace by a miftake, as thinking it to be a public inn or caravansary. Having looked about him for some time, he entered into a long gallery, where he laid down his wallet, and spread his carpet, in order to repose himself upon it after the manner of the eastern nations. He had not been long in this posture, before he was discovered by fome of the guards, who asked him what was his business in that place? The Dervise told them, he intended to take up his night's lodging in that cara, vanfary. The guards let him know, in a very angry manner, that the house he was in was not a caravansary, but the king's palace. It happened that the king himself passed through the gallery during this debate, and fmiling at the mistake of the Dervise, asked him how he could poffibly be fo dull as not to distinguish a palace from a caravanfary? Sire, fays the Dervife, give me leave to ask your majesty a question or two. Who were the perfons that lodged in this

houfe

houfe when it was firft built? The king replied, His ancestors. And who, fays the Dervife, was the last person that lodged here? The king replied, His father. And who is it, says the Dervife, that lodges here at prefent? The king told him, That it was he himself. And who, fays the Dervise, will be here after you? The king answered, The young prince his fon. Ah, Sire," faid the Dervife, "a house "that changes its inhabitants so often, and receives fuch a perpetual fucceffion of guests, is not a palace, but a ca"ravanfary." SPECTATOR

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CHAP. II.

A TURKISH TALE.

WE are told that the Sultan Mahmoud, by his perpes

tual wars abroad, and his tyranny at home, had filled his dominions with ruin and defolation, and half unpeopled the Perfian empire. The viûer to this great Sultan (whether an humourist or an enthufiaft, we are not informed) pretended to have learned of a certain Dervise to understand the language of birds, fo that there was not a bird that could open its mouth, but the vifier knew what it was it faid. As he was one evening with the emperor, in their return from hunting, they faw a couple of owls upon a tree that grew near an old wall out of a heap of rubbish. I would fain know, fays the fultan, what those two owls are saying to one another liften to their difcourfe and give me an account of it. The vifier approached the tree, pretending to be very attentive to the two owls. Upon his return to the Sultan, Sir, fays he, I have heard part of their conversation,

but

e

but dare not tell you what it is. The Sultan would not be faisfied with fuch an answer, but forced him to repeat word for word every thing the owls had faid. You must know then, faid the vifier, that one of thefe owls has a fon, and the other a daughter, between whom they are now upon a treaty of marriage. The father of the fon faid to the father of the daughter, in my hearing, Brother, I confent to this marriage,. provided you will fettle upon your daughter fifty ruined villages for her portion. To which the father of the daughter replied, instead of fifty I will give her five hundred, if you pleafe. God grant a long life to Sultan Mahmoud; whilst he reigns over us, we shall never want ruined villages.

THE ftory fays, the Sultan was fo touched with the fable,. that he rebuilt the towns and villages, which had been deftroyed, and from that time forward confulted the good of his people.. SPECTATOR..

CHAP. III.

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THERE

AVARICE AND LUXURY..

HERE were two very powerful tyrants engaged in a perpetual war against each other: the name of the first was Luxury, and of the second Avarice. The aim of each of them was no less than univerfal monarchy over the hearts of mankind. Luxury had many generals under him, who did him great service, as Pleasure, Mirth, Pomp, and Fafhion. Avarice was likewife very strong in his officers, being faithfully served by Hunger, Industry, Care, and Watchfulnefs: he had likewife a privy-counsellor who was always at

his

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