kind of reverie, when a man doses between sleeping and waking, and builds castles (as we say) in the air upon the ramblings of his own fancy.

The fifth and last sort of dreams is, by Greeks and Latins, mutually styled Phantasma, a word adopted into our own language by the greatest poet who ever wrote in it: now this phantasma is a visitation peculiar to the first mental absence or slumber, when the man fancies himself yet waking, and in fact can scarce be called asleep; at which time strange images and appearances seem to float before him and terrify his imagination. Here then you have all the several denominations of dreams perfectly distinguished and defined,' quoth the old sophist, and throwing himself back in his chair with an air of triumph, waited for the applause, which I was not backward in bestowing upon this pedantic farrago of dogmatizing dullness.

It will readily be believed that my uncle Antony did not fail to revive his favourite controversy, which had produced such fatal consequence to his discarded son: in fact he held fast with those ancient philosophers, who maintained the eternity of this material world, and as he saw no period when men would not be in existence, no moment in time to come when mortality shall cease, he by consequence argued that there could be no moment in time, when mortality shall commence. There were other points respecting this grand stumbling block of his philosophy, the human soul, upon which he was equally puzzled, for he sided with Aristotle against Plato in the unintelligible controversy concerning its power of motion: but whilst my uncle Antony was thus unluckily wedded to the wrong side in all cases, where reason ought to have been his guide, in points of mere quibble and sophistry, which reason has nothing to say to, and where a wise man would

take neither side, he regularly took both, or hung suspended between them like Socrates in the basket. Öf this sort was the celebrated question-Orumne prius, fuerit, an gallina-viz: Whether the egg was anterior to the hen, or the hen to the egg?'-This inquiry never failed to interest his passions in a peculiar degree, and he found so much to say on both sides, that he could never well determine which side to be of: at length however, hoping to bring it to some point, he took up the cause of Egg versus Hen, and having composed a learned essay, published it in one of the monthly magazines, as a lure to future controversialists. This essay he had so often avowed in my hearing, and piqued himself so highly upon it, that I must have been dull indeed not to have understood how to flatter him upon it: but when he had found month after month slip away, and no body mounting the stage upon his challenge, he felt angry at the contempt with which his labours were passed over, and without imparting to me his purpose, furnished the same magazine with a counter-essay, in which his former argument was handled with an asperity truly controversial, and the hen was triumphantly made to cackle over the new-laid egg, decidedly posterior to herself.

I am inclined to think, that if Antony had any partiality, it was not to this side; but as the second essay was clearly posterior to the first, (whatever the egg may have been to the hen) it had the advantage of being couched in all the spirit of a reply, with an agreeable tinge of the malice of one, so that when at length it came down printed in a fair type, and respectfully posted in the front of the longwisht-for magazine, his heart beat with joy, and calling out to me in a lofty tone of counterfeited anger, as he run his eye over it-'By the horns of

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Jupiter Ammon,' quoth he, here is a fellow has the confidence to enter the lists against me in the notable question of the egg. Then I hope you will break that egg about his ears,' replied I.— Hold your tongue, puppy, and listen,' quoth the sophist, and immediately began to read.

At every pause I was ready with a pooh! or pish! which I hooked in with every mark of contempt I could give it both by accent and action. At the conclusion of this essay my uncle Antony shut the book, and demanded what I thought of the author Hang him' I exclaimed, poor Grubstreet Garretteer: the fellow is too contemptible for your notice: he can neither write nor reason; he is a mere ignoramus, and does not know the commonest rules of logic; he has no feature of a critic about him, but the malice of one.'-' Hold your tongue,' cried Antony, no longer able to contain himself, you are a booby; I will maintain it to be as fine an essay as ever was written.'-With these words he snatched up the magazine and departed: I saw no more of him that night, and early next morning was presented by a servant with the following billet:-The Grub-street Garretteer finds himself no longer fit company for the sagacious Mr. William Simper; therefore desires him without loss of time to seek out better society than that of a 6 mere ignoramus, who does not know the common rules of logic:' one rule however he makes bold to lay down, which is, Never again to see the face of an impertinent upstart, called William Simper, whilst he remains on this earth.'

A. S.

NUMBER CVIII.

Sunt verba et voces, quibus hunc lenire dolorem
Possis, et magnam morbi deponere partem.

HORAT.

DRIVEN from my uncle Antony's door by my unlucky mistake between the hen and her egg, my case would have been desperate, but that I had yet one string left to my bow, and this was my aunt, Mrs. Susanna Simper, who lived within a few miles of my uncle, but in such declared hostility, that I promised myself a favourable reception, if I could but flatter her animosity with a sufficient portion of invective; and for this I deemed myself very tolerably qualified, having so much good-will towards the business, and no slight inducements to spur me to it.

My aunt, who was an aged maiden, and a valetudinarian, was at my arrival closeted with her apothecary upon his departure I was admitted to my audience, in which I acquitted myself with all the address I was master of: my aunt heard my story , through without interrupting me by a single word; at last, fixing her eyes upon me, she said, 'Tis very well, child; you have said enough: your uncle's character I perfectly understand; look well to your own, for upon that will depend the terms you and I shall be upon.'-She now took up a phial from the table, and surveying it for some time, said to me- Here is a nostrum recommended by my apothecary, that promises great things, but perhaps contains none of the wondrous properties it professes to

have the label says it is a carminative, sedative mixture; in others words, it will expel vapours and spasms, and quiet the mind and spirits: do you think it will make good what it promises?'-So whimsical a question put to me at such a moment confounded me not a little, and I only murmured out in reply, that I hoped it would Take it then,' said my aunt, 6 as you have faith in it; swallow it yourself, and when I see how it operates with you, I may have more confidence in it on my own account. I was now in a more awkward dilemma than ever, for she had emptied the dose into a cup, and tendered it to me in so peremptory a manner, that, not knowing how to excuse myself, and being naturally submissive, I silently took the cup with a trembling hand, and swallowed its abominable

contents.

'Much good may it do you, child,' cried she, 'you have done more for me than I would for any doctor in the kingdom: don't you find it nauseous to the palate?'-I confest that it was very nauseous. -' And did you think yourself in need of such a medicine?' I did not perceive that I was.'

Then you did not swallow it by your own choice, but my desire?' I had no hesitation in acknowledging that Upon my word, child,' she replied, 'you have a very accommodating way with you.' I was now fighting with the cursed drug, and had all the difficulty in life to keep it where it was. My aunt saw my distress, and smiling at it, demanded if I was not sick: I confest I was rather discomposed in my stomach with the draught.—'I don't doubt it,' she replied; but as you have so civilly made yourself sick for my sake, cannot you flatter me so far as to be well when I request it?' I was just then struggling to keep the nausea down, and

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