I'll hold you an hundred pounds to a China orange, that your paper is neglected as low and vulgar, and yourself condemned as an unfashionable blockhead. Yours, as you behave, WILL. HAZARD. T. NUMB. III. Thursday, February 14, 1764. Suave mari magno, turbantibus æquora ventis, E terrâ magnum alterius fpectare laborem. LUCRET. When raging winds the ruffled deep deform, WE E writers of essays, or (as they are termed) periodical papers, juftly claim to ourselves a place among the modern improvers of literature. Neither Bentley nor Burman, nor any other equally fagacious commentator, has been able to discover the least traces of any fimilar productions among the ancients: except we can fuppofe, that the hiftory of Thucidydes was retailed weekly in fixpenny numbers; that Seneca dealt out his morality every faturday; or that Tully wrote speeches and philofophical difquifitions, whilft Virgil and Horace clubbed together to furnish the poetry, for a Roman Magazine. THERE is a word, indeed, by which we are fond of diftingushing our works, and for which we must confefs ourselves indebted to the Latin. Myself, and every petty journalist, affect to dignify our hafty performances by filing them LuCUBRATIONS; by which we mean, if we mean any thing, that as the day is too fhort for our labours, we are obliged to call in the affistance of the night: not to mention the modest infinuation, that our compofitions are fo correct, that (like the orations of Demofthenes) they may be faid to fmell of the lamp. We would be understood to follow the directions of the Roman Satirift" to ແ grow pale by the midnight candle;" though perhaps, as our own Satirift expreffes it, we may be thought Sleepless ourselves to give our readers fleep. BUT, as a relief from the fatigue of so many restless hours, we have frequently gone to fleep for the benefit of the public: and furely we, whofe labours are confined to a sheet and half, may be indulged in taking a nap now and then, as well as those engaged in longer works; who (accord ing to Horace) are to be excused, if a little drowziness sometimes creeps in upon them. AFTER this preface, the reader will not be surprised, if I take the liberty to relate a dream of my own. It is ufual on these occafions to be lulled to fleep by fome book; and most of my brethren pay that compliment to Virgil or ShakeSpeare: but as I could never discover any opiate qualities in those authors, I chofe rather to doze over fome modern performance. I must beg to be excufed from mentioning particulars, as I would not provoke the refentment of my cotemporaries: Nobody will imagine, that I dipt into any of our modern novels, or took up any of our late tragedies. Let it fuffice, that I prefently fell fast asleep. I FOUND myself transported in an instant to the fhore of an immense sea, covered with innumerable veffels; and though many of them fuddenly disappeared every minute, I faw others continually launching forth, and perfuing the fame course. The feers of vifions, and dreamers of dreams, have their organs of fight fo confiderably improved, that they can take in any object, however diftant or minute. It is not therefore to be wondered at, that I could difcern every thing diftinctly, though the waters before me were of the deepest black. WHILE I ftood contemplating this amazing scene, one of those good-natured GENII, who never fail making their appearance to extricate dreamers from their difficulties, rofe from the fable ftream, and planted himself at my elbow. His complexion was of the darkest hue, not unlike that of the Demons of a printinghoufe; his jetty beard fhone like the briftles of a a blacking-brush : on his head he wore a turbant of imperial paper; and There hung a calf-skin on his reverend limbs. which was gilt on the back, and faced with robings of Morocco, lettered (like a rubric-post) with the names of the most eminent authors. In his left hand he bore a printed fcroll, which from the marginal corrections I imagined to be a proof-fheet; and in his right he waved the quill of a goofe. He immediately accofted me." Town, "faid he, I am the GENIUS, who is deftined to "conduct you through these turbulent waves. "The fea that you now behold is the OCEAN OF "INK. Those towers, at a great diftance, "whose "whose bases are founded upon rocks, and "whose tops feem loft in the clouds, are fituated "in the ISLE OF FAME. Contiguous to these, 66 you may difcern by the glittering of its golden "fands, is the COAST OF GAIN, which leads to "a fertile and rich Country. All the veffels, "which are yonder failing with a fair wind on "the main fea, are making towards one or other "of thefe: but you will obferve, that on their "first fetting out they were irresistibly drawn "into the EDDIES OF CEITICISM, where they cc were obliged to encounter the moft dreadful "tempefts and hurricanes. In these dangerous "ftreights, you see with what violence every bark "is toft up and down: fome go to the bottom "at once; others, after a faint struggle, are beat "to pieces; many are much damaged; while a "few by found planks and tight rigging are ena"bled to weather the ftorm." At this fight I started back with horror: and the remembrance ftill dwells fo ftrong upon my fancy, that I even now imagine the torrent of CRITICISM burfting in upon me, and ready to overwhelm me in an inftant. "CAST a look, resumed my inftructor, on that ❝vaft lake divided into two parts, which lead to yonder magnificent ftructures, erected by the "Tragic |