< whole Proceffion of the Affair, and get the Advantage of the next Day's Experience before the Sun has rifen upon it.

THERE is scarce a great Poft but what I have fome Time or other been in; but my Behaviour ⚫ while I was Mafter of a College, pleases me fo well, that whenever there is a Province of that Nature vacant, I intend to ftep in as foon as I can.

I have done many Things that would not pass Examination, when I have had the Art of Flying, or being invifible; for which Reason I am glad I am not poffeffed of those extraordinary Qualities.

LASTLY, Mr. SPECTATOR, I have been a great Correfpondent of yours, and have read many of my Letters in your Paper which I never wrote you. If you have a mind I fhould really be fo, I have got a Parcel of Vifions and other Mifcellanies in my Noctuary, which I fhall fend you to enrich your Paper with on proper Occafions.

T

HO' the Author of the following Vifion is unknown to me, I am apt to think it may be the Work of that ingenious Gentleman, who promifed me, in the last Paper, fome Extracts out of his Noctuary.

SIR,

I Was the other Day reading the Life of Mahomet. Among many other Extravagances, I find it recorded of that Impoftor, that in the fourth Year

' of

' of his Age the Angel Gabriel caught him up, while he was among his Play-fellows, and, carrying him afide, cut open his Breaft, plucked out his Heart, and wrung out of it that black Drop of Blood, in which, fay the Turkish Divines, is contained the Fomes Peccati, fo that he was free from Sin ever after. I immediately said to my felf, tho' this Story be a Fiction, a very good Moral may be drawn from it, would every Man but apply it to himself, and endeavour to fqueeze out of his Heart whatever Sins or ill Quali" ties he finds in it.

6

WHILE my Mind was wholly taken up with this Contemplation, I infenfibly fell into a most pieafing Slumber, when methought two Porters entered my Chamber, carrying a large Cheft between them. After having fet it down in the middle of the Room they departed. I immediately endeavour'd to open 'what was fent me, when a Shape, like that in which we paint our Angels, appeared before me, and forbad me. Inclofed, faid he, are the Hearts of feveral of your Friends and Acquaintance; but before you can be qualified to fee and animadvert on the Failings of others, you must be pure your felf; whereupon he drew out his Incifion Knife, cut me open, took out my Heart, and began to fqueeze it. I was in a great Confufion, to fee how many things, which I had always cherished as Virtues, iffued out of my Heart on this Occafion. In fhort, after it had been throughly fqueezed, it looked like an empty Bladder, when the Phantome, breathing a fresh Particle of • Divine Air into it, restored it safe to its former Repolitory: and having fewed me up, we began to examine the Cheft.

THE Hearts were all inclofed in tranfparent Phials, and preferved in a Liquor which looked like Spirits of Wine. The firft which I caft my Eye upon, I was afraid would have broke the Glafs which con⚫tained it. It fhot up and down, with incredible Swift'ness, thro' the Liquor in which it fwam, and very 'frequently bounced against the Side of the Phial. The Fomes, or Spot in the Middle of it, was not large,

F 3

• but

4

but of a red fiery Colour, and seemed to be the Cause ⚫ of these violent Agitations. That, fays my Inftructor, is the Heart of Tom Dread-Nought, who behaved him⚫ felf well in the late Wars, but has for thefe Ten Years laft paft been aiming at fome Poft of Honour to no Purpose. He is lately retired into the Country, where quite choked up with Spleen and Choler, he rails at better Men than himself, and will be for ever uneafy, because it is impoffible he fhould think his Merit fufficiently rewarded. The next Heart that I examined was remarkable for its Smalness; it lay ftill • at the Bottom of the Phial, and I could hardly perceive that it beat at all. The Fomes was quite black, and had almoft diffused it felf over the whole Heart. This, fays my Interpreter, is the Heart of Dick Gloomy, who never thirfted after any thing but Money. Notwithstanding all his Endeavours, he is ftill poor. This has flung him into a moft deplorable State of Melancholy and Defpair. He is a Compofition of Envy and Idlenefs, hates Mankind, but gives them their Revenge by being more uneafy to himself, than to any one else.

THE Phia! I looked upon next contained a large fair Heart, which beat very strongly. The Fomes or Spot in it was exceeding fmall; but I could not help obferving, that which way foever I turned the Phial it always appeared uppermoft, and in the ftrongeft Point of Light. The Heart you are examining, fays my Companion, belongs to Will. Worthy. He has indeed, a moft noble Soul, and is poffeffed of a thoufand good Qualities. The Speck which you difcover is Vanity.

HERE, fays the Angel, is the Heart of Freelove, < your intimate Friend. Freelove and I, faid I, are at prefent very cold to one another, and I do not care for looking on the Heart of a Man, which I fear is ' overcaft with Rancour. My Teacher commanded me to look upon it; I did fo, and, to my unfpeakable Surprise, found that a fmall fwelling Spot, which I at firft took to be Ill-Will towards me, was only Paffion, and that upon my nearer Inspection it wholly

6

difappeared; upon which the Phantome told me Freelove was one of the beft-natured Man alive,

THIS, fays my Teacher, is a Female Heart of your Acquaintance. I found the Fomes in it of the largest Size, and of a hundred different Colours, which were ftill varying every Moment. Upon my asking to whom it belonged, I was informed that it was the Heart of Coquetilla.

I fet it down, and drew out another, in which I took the Fomes at firft Sight to be very fmall, but was amazed to find, that as I looked ftedfaftly upon it, it grew ftill larger. It was the Heart of Melija, a noted Prude who lives the next Door to me.

I fhow you this, fays the Phantome, becaufe it is indeed a Rarity, and you have the Happiness to know the Perfon to whom it belongs. He then put into my Hands a large Crystal Glafs, that inclofed an Heart, in which, though I examined it with the utmoft Nicety, I could not perceive any Blemish. I made no Scruple to affirm that it must be the Heart of Seraphina, and was glad, but not furprifed, to find that it was fo. She is, indeed, continued my Guide, the Ornament, as well as the Envy, of her Sex; at thefe incVords, he pointed to the Hearts of feveral of her Female Acquaintance which lay in different Phials, and had very large Spots in them, all of a deep Blue. You are not to wonder, fays he, that you fee no Spot in an Heart, whofe Innocence has been Proof against all the Corruptions of a depraved Age. If it has any Blemish, it is too fmall to be difcovered by Human Eyes.

I laid it down, and took up the Hearts of other Females, in all of which the Fomes ran in feveral Veins, which were twisted together, and made a very perplexed Figure. I asked the Meaning of it, and was told it reprefented Deceit.

I fhould have been glad to have examined the Hearts of feveral of my Acquaintance, whom I knew to be particularly addicted to Drinking, Gaming, Intriguing, &c. but my Interpreter told me I muft let that alone till another Opportunity, and flung

F4

⚫ down

'down the Cover of the Cheft with fo much violence,

Dicitis, Omnis in Imbecillitate eft et Gratia, & Caritas. Cicero de Nat. Deor. L.

M

AN may be confidered in two Views, as a Reafonable, and as a Sociable Being; capable of becoming himself either happy or miferable, and of contributing to the Happinefs or Mifery of his Fellow-Creatures. Suitably to this double Capacity, the Contriver of Human Nature hath witely furnished it with two Principles of Action, Self-love and Benevolence; defigned one of them to render Man wakeful to his own perfonal Intereft, the other to difpofe him for giving his utmost Affiftance to all engaged in the fame Purfuit. This is fuch an Account of our Frame, fo agreeable to Reafon, much for the Honour of our Maker, and the Credit of our Species, that it may appear somewhat unaccountable what should induce Men to reprefent Human Nature as they do under Characters of Difadvantage, or, having drawn it with a little and fordid Afpect, what Pleasure they can poffibly take in fuch a Picture. Do they reflect that it is their own, and, if we will believe themselves, is not more odious than the Original? One of the first that talked in this lofty Strain of our Nature was Epicurus. Beneficence, would his Followers fay, is all founded in Weakness; and, whatever he pretended, the Kindness that paffeth between Men and Men is by every Man directed to himself. This, it must be confeffed, is of a Piece with the rest of that hopeful Philofophy, which having patched Man up out of the four Elements, attributes his Being to Chance, and derives all his Actions from an unintelligible Declination of

Atoms.