cruelty of his mistress. As I was recounting to him at large these several particulars, I observed that he covered his face with his hand, and that his breast heaved as though it would have bursted; which I took at first to have been a fit of laughter; but upon lifting up his head I saw his eyes all red with weeping. He forced a smile at the end of my story, and we parted.

About a fortnight after I received from him the following letter:

Dear Sir,

I am infinitely obliged to you for bringing me news of my angel. I have since married her, and think the low circumstances she was reduced to a piece of good luck to both of us, since it has quite removed that little pride and vanity, which was the only part of her character that I disliked, and given me an opportunity of showing her the constant and sincere affection which I professed to her in the time of her prosperity.

'Yours,

R. T.'

THE BARMECIDE.

No. 162.

I KNOW nothing so effectual to raise a man's fortune as complaisance, which recommends more to the favour of the great, than wit, knowledge, or any other talent whatsoever. I find this consideration very prettily illustrated by a little wild Arabian tale, which I shall here abridge for the sake of my reader, after having warned him, that I do not recommend to him

such

such an impertinent or vicious complaisance as is not consistent with honour and integrity.

Schacabac being reduced to great poverty, and having eaten nothing for two days together, made a visit to a noble barmecide in Persia, who was very hospitable, but withal a great humourist. The barmecide was sitting at his table, that seemed ready covered for an entertainment. Upon hearing Schacabac's complaint, he desired him to sit down and fall on. He then gave him an empty plate, and asked him how he liked his rice-soup. Schacabac, who was a man of wit, and resolved to comply with the barmecide in all his humours, told him it was admirable, and at the same time, in imitation of the other, lifted up the empty spoon to his mouth with great pleasure. The barmecide then asked him if he ever saw whiter bread? Schacabac, who saw neither bread nor meat, "If I did not like it, you may be sure,' said he, I should not eat so heartily of it.' You oblige me mightily,' replied the barmecide: pray let me help you to this leg of a goose.' Schacabac reached out his plate, and received nothing on it with great cheerfulness. As he was eating very heartily on this imaginary goose, and crying up the sauce to the skies, the barmecide desired him to keep a corner of his stomach for a roasted lamb fed with pistachio-nuts: and after having called for it, as though it had really been served up, Here is a dish,' says he, that you will see at nobody's table but my own,' Schacabac was wonderfully delighted with the taste of it; which is like nothing,' says he, I ever ate before.' Several other nice dishes were served up in idea; which both of them commended, and feasted on after the same

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manner.

I was conveyed, methought, into the entrance of the infernal regions, where I saw Rhadamanthus, one of the judges of the dead, seated in 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 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 enstody. 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 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

2

brought

brought my husband seven daughters, made him nine thousand cheeses, and left any 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 away 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 re-examination 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 passed most of 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 errors 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 with publishing the faults of others, that I had no time to consider my own.' 'Madam;' says Rhadamanthus, be pleased to file off to the left,

and

and make room for the venerable matron that stands behind you. Old gentlewoman,' says he, 'I think you are tourscore? 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 own family, and left it much more wealthy than I found it.' Khadamanthus, 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 checks 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 thit, pressing through the crowd, she was the next that 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 gain admirers. In order to it, I passed my time in bottling up may-dew, inventing