call up whatever perfons I would chufe to name, and in whatever numbers, among all the dead from the beginning of the world to the present time, and command them to anfwer any questions I fhould think fit to ask with this condition, that my questions must be confined within the compafs of the times they lived in. And one thing I might depend upon, that they would certainly tell me truth, for lying was a talent of no ufe in the lower world. I made my humble acknowledgments to his highness for fo great a favour.

We

were in a chamber, from whence there was a fair profpect into the park. And, because my firft inclination was to be entertained with fcenes of pomp and magnificence, I defired to fee Alexander the Great at the head of his army just after the battle of Arbela, which, upon a motion of the governor's finger, immediately appeared in a large field under the window, where we ftood. Alexander was called up into the room: it was with great difficulty that I understood his Greek, and had but little of my own. He affured me upon his honour, that he was not poifoned, but died of a fever by exceffive drinking ".

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An hint from Gulliver, that we have loft the true Greek idiom: ORRERY.

In this paffage there is a peculiar beauty, though it is not discovered at an hafty view. The appearance of Alexander with a victorious army immediately af

Next

Next I faw Hannibal paffing the Alps, who told me, he had not a drop of vinegar in his camp.

I faw Cæfar and Pompey at the head of their troops juft ready to engage. I faw the former in his last great triumph. I defired, that the fenate of Rome might appear before me in one large chamber, and a modern representative in counterview in another. The firft feemed to be an affembly of heroes and demy-gods, the other a knot of pedlars, pick-pockets, highwaymen, and bullies.

The governor at my request gave the fign for Cæfar and Brutus to advance towards us. I was ftruck with a profound veneration at the fight of Brutus, and could easily discover the moft confummate virtue, the greateft intrepidity and firmness of mind, the trueft love of his country, and general benevolence for mankind, in every lineament of his countenance. I obferved with much pleasure, that these two perfons were in good intelligence with each other; and Cafar freely confefled to me, that the greatest actions of his own life were not equal by many degrees to the glory of taking

Livy the Roman historian has related, that Hannibal burnt a great pile of wood upon a rock that topped his paffage, and when it was thus heated poured vinegar upon it, by which it was made fo foft as to be easily cut through.

it away. I had the honour to have much converfation with Brutus; and was told, that his ancestor Junius, Socrates, Epaminondas, Cato the younger, Sir Thomas More, and himself were perpetually together: a fextumvirate, to which all the ages of the world cannot add a Seventh.

It would be tedious to trouble the reader with relating, what vaft numbers of illuftrious perfons were called up to gratify that infatiable defire I had to fee the world in every period of antiquity placed before me. I chiefly fed mine eyes with beholding the destroyers of tyrants and ufurpers, and the reftorers of liberty to oppreffed and injured nations. But it is impoffible to exprefs the fatisfaction I received in my own mind, after such a manner as to make it a fuitable entertainment to the reader.

I am in fome doubt whether Cato the cenfor can fairly claim a rank among fo choice a group of ghofts. ORRERY.

This note of his lordship is an encomium on the judgment

of our author, who knew that Cato the cenfer and Cato the younger were very different perfons, and for good reafons preferred the latter.

CHAP.

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CHAP. VIII.

A further account of Glubbdubdrib. Ancient and modern bistory corrected.

Aving a defire to fee those ancients, who were most renowned for wit and learning, I fet apart one day on purpose, I propofed that Homer and Ariftotle might appear at the head of all their commentators; but thefe were fo numerous, that fome hundreds were forced to attend in the court and outward rooms of the palace. I knew and could diftinguish those two heroes at first fight, not only from the croud, but from each other. Homer was the taller and comlier person of the two, walked very erect for one of his age, and his eyes were the most quick and piercing I ever beheld. Ariftotle ftooped much, and made ufe of a ftaff. His vifage was meagre, his hair lank and thin, and his voice hollow. I foon discovered that both of them were perfect strangers to the reft of the company, and had never feen or heard of them before.

This defcription of Ari otle is fine, and in a few words reprefents the true nature of his works. By not having the immortal fpirit of Homer, he was unable to keep his body erect and his ftaff which feebly fupported him, like his commentators, made this defect more confpicuous. He want

And

ed not fome ufeful qualities, but these real ornaments like his hair were thin and ungraceful. ORRERY.

In this the noble commentator feems to be mistaken, for it cannot be believed that Ariftotle's real ornaments however. few were ungraceful.

I had a whisper from a ghoft, who shall be nameless, that thefe commentators always kept in the most diftant quarters from their principals in the lower world, through a consciousness of shame and guilt, because they had so horribly mifreprefented the meaning of thofe authors to pofterity. I introduced Didymus and Euftathius to Homer, and prevailed on him to treat them better than perhaps they deserved, for he foon found they wanted a genius to enter into the fpirit of a poet.

But

Ariftotle was out of all patience with the account I gave him of Scotus and Ramus, as I prefented them to him, and he afked them whether the reft of the tribe were as great dunces as themselves.

pro

I then defired the governor to call up Def cartes and Gaffendi, with whom I prevailed to explain their fyftems to Ariftotle. This great philofopher freely acknowledged his own mistakes in natural philofophy, because he ceeded in many things upon conjecture, as all men must do; and he found, that Gaffendi, who had made the doctrine of Epicurus as palatable as he could, and the vortices of Descartes were equally to be exploded. He predicted the fame fate to attraction, whereof the present learned are fuch zealous afferters. He faid,

Gaffendi was efteemed one of the greatest ornaments of France; he was a doctor of divinity and royal profeffor of mathematics; he was born in Proence in 1592, and died in 1655.

With great induftry he collected whatever related to the perfon and to the philofophy of Epicurus, the latter of which he has reduced into a compleat Sylem. ORRERY.

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that