Imagens da página
PDF
ePub

LETTER XIII.

FROM THE SAME.

I AM juft returned from Westminster-abbey, the place of fepulture for the philofophers, heroes, and kings of England. What a gloom do monumental infcriptions, and all the venerable remains of deceafed merit infpire! Imagine a temple marked with the hand of antiquity, folemn as religious awe, adorned with all the magnificence of barbarous profufion, dim windows, fretted pillars, long colonades, and dark cielings. Think, then, what were my fenfations at being introduced to fuch a fcene. Iftood in the midst of the temple, and threw my eyes round on the walls, filled with the statues, the infcriptions, and the monuments of the dead.

Alas, I faid to myfelf, how does pride attend the puny child of duft even to the grave! Even humbie as I am, I poffefs more confequence in the prefent fcene than the greatest hero of them all; they have toiled for an hour to gain a tranfient immortality, and are at length retired to the grave, where they have no attendant but the worm, none to flatter but the epitaph.

As I was indulging fuch reflections, a gentleman, dreffed in black, perceiving me to be a ftranger, came up, entered into converfation, and politely offered to be my inftructor and guide through the temple. If any monument, faid he, fhould particularly excite your curiofity, I fhall endeavour to fatisfy your demands. I accepted with thanks the gentleman's offer, adding, that "I was come to

obferve the policy, the wifdom, and the juftice "of the English, in conferring rewards upon de❝ceafed

[ocr errors]

"ceafed merit. If adulation like this (continued I) "be properly conducted, as it can no ways injure "thofe who are flattered, fo it may be a glorious "incentive to those who are now capable of enjoy"ing it. It is the duty of every good government "to turn this monumental pride to its own advantage; to become ftrong in the aggregate from "the weaknefs of the individual. If none but the "truly great have a place in this awful repofitory, "a temple like this will give the fineft leffons of "morality, and be a ftrong incentive to true ambi"tion. I am told, that none have a place here but "characters of the most distinguished merit." The man in black feemed impatient at my obfervations, fo I discontinued my remarks, and we walked on together to take a view of every particular monument in order as it lay.

As the eye is naturally caught by the finest objects, I could not avoid being particularly curious about one monunient, which appeared more beautiful than the reft: that, faid I to my guide, I take to be the tomb of fome very great man. By the peculiar excellence of the workmanship, and the magnificence of the defign, this must be a trophy raised to the memory of fome king who has faved his country from ruin, or law-giver, who has reduced his fellow-citizens from anarchy into juft fubjection. It is not requifite, replied my companion fmiling, to have fuch qualifications in order to have a very fine monument here. More humble abilities will fuffice. What, I fuppofe then, the gaining two or three battles, or the taking half a Score towns, is thought a fufficient qualification? Gaining battles, or taking towns, replied the man in black, may be of fervice; but a gentleman may have a very fine monument here without ever seeing a battle or a fiege. This, then, is the monument of fone poet, I prefume, of one whofe wit has gained him immortality? No,

D 4

fir,

fir, replied my guide, the gentleman who lies here never made verfes; and as for wit, he defpifed it in others, because he had none himself. Pray tell me then in a word, faid I peevishly, what is the great man who lies here particularly remarkable for? Remarkable, fir! faid my companion; why, fir, the gentleman that lies here is remarkable, very remarkable-for a tomb in Westminster-abbey. But, head of my Ancestors! how has he got here? I fancy he could never bribe the guardians of the temple to give him a place. Should be not be ashamed to be feen among company, where even moderate merit would look like infamy? I fuppofe, replied the man in black, the gentleman was rich, and his friends, as is ufual in fuch a cafe, told him he was great. He readily believed them; the guardians of the temple, as they got by the felfdelufion, were ready to believe him too; fo he paid his money for a fine monument; and the workman, as you fee, has made him one the most beautiful. Think not, however, that this gentleman is fingular in his defire of being buried among the great; there are feveral others in the temple, who, hated and fhunned by the great while alive, have come here, fully refolved to keep them company now they

are dead.

As we walked along to a particular part of the temple, there, fays the gentleman, pointing with his finger, that is the poets corner; there you fee the monuments of Shakspeare, and Milton, and Prior, and Drayton. Drayton! I replied, I never heard of him before; but I have been told of one Pope, is he there? It is time enough, replied my guide, these hundred years; he is not long dead'; people have not done hating him yet. Strange, cried I, can any be found to hate a man, whose life was wholly spent in entertaining and instructing his fellow-creatures! Yes, fays my guide, they hate him for that very reason. There are a fet of men called

.

called answerers of books, who take upon them to watch the republic of letters, and diftribute reputation by the sheet; they fomewhat refemble the eunuchs in a feraglio, who are incapable of giving pleasure themselves, and hinder thofe that would. These answerers have no other employment but to cry out Dunce, and Scribbler, to praise the dead, and revile the living; to grant a man of confeffed abilities fome fmall fhare of merit; to applaud twenty blockheads in order to gain the reputation of candour; and to revile the moral character of the man whose writings they cannot injure. Such wretches are kept in pay by fome mercenary bookfeller, or more frequently, the bookfeller himself takes this dirty work off their hands, as all that is required is to be very abufive and very dull. Every Poet of any genius is fure to find fuch enemies; he feels, though he feems to defpife, their malice; they make him miferable here, and in the purfuit of empty fame, at laft he gains folid anxiety.

Has this been the cafe with every poet I fee here? cried I-Yes, with every mother's fon of them, replied he, except he happened to be born a manda- 7 rine. If he has much money, he may buy reputation from your book-anfwerers, as well as a monument from the guardians of the temple.

But are there not fome men of diftinguished tafte, as ' in China, who are willing to patronize men of merit, aud foften the rancour of malevolent dulness?

I own there are many, replied the man in black, but, alas! fir, the book-anfwerers crowd about them, and call themselves the writers of books; and the patron is too indolent to diftinguish: thus poets are kept at a diftance, while their enemies eat up all their rewards at the mandarine's table.

Leaving this part of the temple, we made up to an iron gate, through which my companion told me we were to pass in order to fee the monuments of the

kings. Accordingly I marched up without farther ceremony, and was going to enter, when a person, who held the gate in his hand, told me I must pay firft. I was furprised at fuch a demand; and afked the man, whether the people of England kept a fhew? whether the paltry fum he demanded was not a national reproach? whether it was not more to the honour of the country to let their magnificence or their antiquities be openly seen, than thus meanly to tax a curiofity which tended to their own honour? As for your questions, replied the gate-keeper, to be fure they may be very right, because I don't understand them; but, as for that there three-pence, I farm it from one, who rents it from another, who hires it from a third, who leafes it from the guardians of the temple, and we all muft live. I expected, upon paying here, to fee fomething extraordinary, fince what I had feen for nothing filled me with fo much furprize; but in this I was difappointed; there was little more within than black coffins, rufty armour, tattered standards, and fome few flovenly figures in wax. I was forry I had paid, but I comforted myfelf by confidering it would be my laft payment. A perfon attended us, who, without once blufhing, told an hundred lies; he talked of a lady who died by pricking her finger; of a king with a golden head, and twenty fuch pieces of abfurdity. Look ye there, gentlemen, fays he, pointing to an old oak chair, there's a curiofity for ye; in that chair the kings of England were crowned; you fee alfo a ftone underneath, and that ftone is Jacob's pillow. I could fee no curiofity either in the oak chair, or the ftone; could I, indeed, behold one of the old kings of England feated in this, or Jacob's head laid upon the other, there might be fomething curious in the fight; but in the prefent cafe there was no more reafon for my furprize than if I fhould pick a ftone from their ftreets, and call it a curiofity, merely be

cause

« AnteriorContinuar »