NUMB. 44. SATURDAY, August 18, 1750.

Οναρ ἐν Διός ἔγιν

HOMER.

Dreams defcend from Jove.

POPE

To the RAMBLER.

I

SIR,

Had lately a very remarkable dream, which made fo strong an impreffion on me, that I remember it every word; and if you are not better employed, you may read the relation of it as follows:

Methought I was in the midst of a very entertaining fet of company, and extremely delighted in attending to a lively converfation, when on a fudden I perceived one of the most shocking figures imagination can frame, advancing towards me. She was dreft in black, her skin was contracted into a thoufand wrinkles, her eyes deep funk in her head, and her complexion pale and livid as the countenance of death. Her looks were filled with terror and unrelenting feverity, and her hands armed with whips and fcorpions. As foon as fhe came near, with a horrid frown, and a voice that chilled my very blood, fhe bid me follow her. I obeyed, and fhe led me through rugged paths, befet with briars and thorns, into a deep folitary valley. Wherever the paffed the fading verdure withered beneath her steps; her peftilential breath infected the air with malignant vapours, obfcured the luftre of the fun, and involved the fair face of heaven in univerfal gloom. Difinal howlings

howlings refounded through the foreft, from every baleful tree the night raven uttered his dreadful note, and the profpect was filled with defolation and horror. In the midft of this tremendous scene my execrable guide addreffed me in the following

manner:

"Retire with me, O rafh unthinking mortal, "from the vain allurements of a deceitful world, and "learn that pleasure was not defigned the portion ❝ of human life. Man was born to mourn and to "be wretched; this is the condition of all below "the ftars, and whoever endeavours to oppose it, " acts in contradiction to the will of heaven. Fly "then from the fatal enchantments of youth, and "focial delight, and here confecrate the folitary "hours to lamentation and woe. Mifery is the duty " of all fublunary beings, and every enjoyment is "an offence to the Deity, who is to be worshipped "only by the mortification of every sense of pleasure, " and the everlasting exercise of fighs and tears."

This melancholy picture of life quite funk my fpirits, and feemed to annihilate every principle of joy within me. I threw myself beneath a blasted yeugh, where the winds blew cold and difmal round my head, and dreadful apprehenfions chilled my heart. Here I refolved to lie till the hand of death, which I impatiently invoked, should put an end to the miseries of a life fo deplorably wretched. In this fad fituation I spied on one hand of me a deep muddy river, whose heavy waves rolled on in flow fullen murmurs. Here I determined to plunge, and was just upon the brink, when I found myself fuddenly drawn back. I turned about, and was furprised by

the

the fight of the lovelieft object I had ever beheld. The most engaging charms of youth and beauty appeared in all her form; effulgent glories fparkled in her eyes, and their awful fplendours were softened by the gentleft looks of compaffion and peace. At her approach the frightful spectre who had before tormented me, vanished away, and with her all the horrors fhe had caufed. The gloomy clouds brightened into cheerful funshine, the groves recovered their verdure, and the whole region looked gay and blooming as the garden of Eden. I was quite transported at this unexpected change, and reviving pleasure began to glad my thoughts, when, with a look of inexpreffible sweetness, my beauteous deliverer thus uttered her divine inftructions:

My name is RELIGION. I am the offspring "of TRUTH and Love, and the parent of Bene"VOLENCE, HOPE, and Joy. That monster from "whose power I have freed you is called SUPERSTI"TION, fhe is the child of DISCONTENT, and her "followers are FEAR and SORROW. Thus different

as we are, fhe has often the infolence to affume

my name and character, and feduces unhappy "mortals to think us the fame, till fhe, at length, "drives them to the borders of DESPAIR, that "dreadful abyfs into which you were juft going to "fink.

"Look round and furvey the various beauties of "the globe, which heaven has deftined for the "feat of the human race, and confider whether a "world thus exquifitely framed could be meant "for the abode of mifery and pain. For what end has the lavish hand of providence diffused such in"numerable

"numerable objects of delight, but that all might

rejoice in the privilege of existence, and be filled "with gratitude to the beneficent author of it? "Thus to enjoy the bleffings he has fent, is virtue " and obedience; and to reject them merely as "means of pleasure, is pitiable ignorance, or ab"furd perverseness. Infinite goodness is the fource " of created existence; the proper tendency of every "rational being, from the highest order of raptured feraphs, to the meaneft rank of men, is to rife inceffantly from lower degrees of happiness to higher. They have each faculties affigned them "for various orders of delights."

"What," cried I, "is this the language of RE"LIGION? Does fhe lead her votaries through "flowery paths, and bid them pafs an unlaborious "life? Where are the painful toils of virtue, the "mortifications of penitents, the felf-denying exercifes of faints and heroes ?"

"The true enjoyments of a reasonable being," anfwered the mildly, "do not confift in unbounded indulgence, or luxurious eafe, in the tumult of paffions, the languor of indolence, or the flutter "of light amusements. Yielding to immoral plea"fure corrupts the mind, living to animal and "trifling ones debafes it; both in their degree dif"qualify it for its genuine good, and confign it "over to wretchedness. Whoever would be really "happy must make the diligent and regular exer

cife of his fuperior powers his chief attention; adoring the perfections of his Maker, expreffing good-will to his fellow-creatures, cultivating in"ward rectitude. To his lower faculties he must " allow

« allow fuch gratifications as will, by refreshing him, invigorate his nobler purfuits. In the regions inhabited by angelic natures, unmingled felicity for ever blooms, joy flows there with a perpetual and abundant ftream, nor needs there. any mound to check its courfe. Beings con"scious of a frame of mind originally difeafed, as << all the human race has caufe to be, must use the

regimen of a stricter self-government. Whoever " has been guilty of voluntary exceffes, muft pa«tiently fubmit both to the painful workings of "nature, and needful severities of medicine, in "order to his cure. Still he is entitled to a mo"derate fhare of whatever alleviating accommo"dations this fair manfion of his merciful Parent "affords, confiftent with his recovery. And in "proportion as this recovery advances, the live"lieft joy will spring from his fecret sense of an " amended and improving heart. So far from the

horrors of defpair is the condition even of the guilty.Shudder, poor mortal, at the thought of "the gulf into which thou waft but now going to << plunge.

While the most faulty have ever encouragement to amend, the more innocent foul will be "fupported with ftill fweeter confolations under all "its experience of human infirmities; fupported "by the gladdening affurances that every fincere "endeavour to outgrow them fhall be affifted, accc cepted, and rewarded. To fuch a one the low"liest self-abasement is but a deep-laid foundation " for the most elevated hopes; fince they who faith"fully examine and acknowledge what they are, " fhall