with these invifible companions, I discovered in the centre of a very dark grove a monstrous fabrick built after the Gothick manner, and covered with innumerable devices in that barbarous kind of fculpture. I immediately went up to it, and found it to be a kind of heathen temple confecrated to the god of Dulness. Upon my entrance I faw the deity of the place dreffed in the habit of a Monk, with a book in one hand, and a rattle in the other. Upon his right hand was Industry, with a lamp burning before her; and on his left Caprice, with a monkey fitting on her shoulder. Before his feet there stood an Altar of a very odd make, which, as I afterwards found, was fhaped in that manner to comply with the infcription that furrounded it. Upon the altar there lay feveral offerings of Axes, Wings, and Eggs, cut in paper, and infcribed with verses. The temple was filled with votaries, who applied themselves to different diverfions, as their fancies directed them. In one part of it I faw a regiment of Anagrams, who were continually in motion, turning to the right or to the left, facing about, doubling their ranks, fhifting their ftations, and throwing themselves into all the figures and counter-marches of the most changeable and perplexed exercise.

Not far from thefe was a body of Acrofiics, made up of very difproportioned perfons. It was difpofed into three columns, the officers planting themselves in a line on the left hand of each column. The officers were all of them at VOL. I.

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leaft fix feet high, and made three rows of very proper men; but the common foldiers, who filled up the spaces between the officers, were fuch dwarfs, cripples, and scarecrows, that one could hardly look upon them without laughing. There were behind the Acrofics two or three files of Chronograms, which differed only from the former, as their officers were equipped (like the figure of Time) with an hour-glafs in one hand, and a scythe in the other, and took their posts promifcuously among the private men whom they commanded.

In the body of the temple, and before the very face of the deity, methought I saw the phantom of Tryphiodorus, the Lipogrammatist, engaged in a ball with four-and-twenty perfons, who pursued him by turns through all the intricacies and labyrinths of a country-dance, without being able to overtake him.

Obferving several to be very bufy at the weftern end of the Temple, I enquired into what they were doing, and found there was in that quarter the great magazine of Rebusses. These were several things of the most different natures tied up in bundles, and thrown upon one another in heaps like faggots. You might behold an anchor, a night-rail, and a hobby-horse bound up together. One of the workmen feeing me very much furprised, told me, there was an infinite deal of WIT in several of those bundles, and that he would explain them to me if I pleased; I thanked him for his civility, but told him I was in very great hafte at that time. As

I was going out of the Temple, I obferved in one corner of it a clufter of men and women laughing very heartily, and diverting themselves at a game of Crambo. I heard feveral Double Rhymes as I paffed by them, which raised a great deal of mirth.

Not far from thefe was another fet of merry people engaged at a diverfion, in which the whole jeft was to mistake one perfon for another. To give occafion for thefe ludicrous mistakes, they were divided into pairs, every pair being covered from head to foot with the fame kind of drefs, though perhaps there was not the least resemblance in their faces. By this means an old man was fometimes mistaken for a boy, a woman for a man, and a black-a-moor for an European, which very often produced great peals of laughter. These I gueffed to be a party of Puns. But being very defirous to get out of this world of magick, which had almost turned my brain, I left the Temple, and croffed over the fields that lay about it with all the speed I could make. I was not gone far, before I heard the found of trumpets and alarms, which feemed to proclaim the march of an enemy; and, as I afterwards found, was in reality what I apprehended it. There appeared at a great diftance a very fhining light, and, in the midst of it, a perfon of a moft beautiful afpect; her name was TRUTH. On her right hand there marched a male deity, who bore feveral quivers on his fhoulders, and grafped feveral arrows in his hand. His name was WIT. The approach

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approach of these two enemies filled all the territories of Falle WIT with an unfpeakable confternation, infomuch that the goddess of thofe regions appeared in perfon upon her frontiers, with the feveral inferior deities, and the different bodies of forces which I had before feen in the temple, who were now drawn up in array, and prepared to give their foes a warm reception. As the march of the enemy was very flow, it gave time to the several inhabitants who bordered upon the Regions of FALSEHOOD to draw their forces into a body, with a defign to ftand upon their guard as neuters, and attend the iffue of the combat.

I must here inform my reader, that the frontiers of the enchanted region, which I have before defcribed, were inhabited by the fpecies of Mixed WIT, who made a very odd appearance when they were muftered together in an army. There were men whofe bodies were ftuck full of darts, and women whofe eyes were burning-glaffes: men that had hearts of fire, and women that had breafts of fnow. It would be endless to defcribe feveral monfters of the like nature, that compofed this great army; which immediately fell afunder, and divided itfelf into two parts, the one half throwing themfelves behind the banners of TRUTH, and the others behind thofe of FALSEHOOD.

The goddess of FALSEHOOD was of a gigantic ftature, and advanced fome paces before the front of her army; but as the dazzling light which flowed from TRUTH began to fhine

upon

upon her, fhe faded infenfibly; infomuch that in a little space she looked rather like an huge phantom, than a real fubftance. At length, as the goddess of TRUTH approached still nearer to her, fhe fell away entirely, and vanished amidst the brightness of her prefence; fo that there did not remain the leaft trace or impreffion of her figure in the place where the had been feen.

As at the rifing of the fun the constellations grow thin, and the ftars go out one after another, till the whole hemifphere is extinguished; such was the vanishing of the goddess: and not only of the goddess herself, but of the whole army that attended her, which fympathized with their leader, and shrunk into nothing, in proportion as the goddess disappeared. At the fame time the whole temple funk, the fish betook themselves to the ftreams, and the wild beasts to the woods, the fountains recovered their murmurs, the birds their voices, the trees their leaves, the flowers their scents, and the whole face of nature its true and genuine appearance. Though I still continued afleep, I fancied myself as it were awakened out of a dream, when I faw this region of prodigies restored to woods and rivers, fields and meadows.

Upon the removal of that wild scene of wonders, which had very much disturbed my imagination, I took a full furvey of the perfons of WIT and TRUTH; for indeed it was impoffible to look upon the first, without feeing the other at the fame time. There was behind them a strong compact body of figures. The genius Bb 3

of