is improbable and unnatural. The pain I might have had from this objection, is prevented by confidering they have miffed another, against which I fhould have been at a lols to defend myself. They might have asked me whe ther the dreams I publish, can properly be called Lucabrations, which is the name have given to all my papers, whether io volumes or half sheets: fo manifelt a contradiction in terminis, that I wonder no fophifter ever thought of it. But the other is a cavil. I remember when I was a boy at school, I have often dreamed out the whole piffages of the day; that I rode a journey, baited, fopped, went to bed, and role next morning: and I have known young ladies, who could dream a whole contexture of adventures in one night, large enough to make a novel. In youth the imagination is ftrong, not mixed with cares, not tinged with thofe paflions that most disturb and confound it; fuch as avarice, ambition, and many others. Now, as old men are said to grow children again, so in this article of dreaming I am returned to my childhood. My imagination is at full eafe, without care, avarice, or ambition to clog it; by which, among many others, I have this advantage, of doubling the finall remainder of my time, and living four and twenty hours in the day. However, the dream I am going now to relate is as wild as can well he imagined, and adapted to please these refiners upon fleep, without any moral that I can difcover.

*

"It happened, that my maid left on the table in my "bed-chamber one of her story books (as fhe calls them),, which I took up, and found full of ftrange impertinence, "fitted to her taste and condition; of poor fervants who came to be ladies, and ferving men of low degree who married kings daughters. Among other things, "I met this fage obfervation, that a lion would never "hurt a true virgin. With this medley of nonsense in

my fancy I went to bed, and dreamed that a friend waked me in the morning, and propofed for paftime to "fpend a few hours in feeing the parish-lions, which he "had not done fince he came to town; and becaufe "they fhewed but once a-week, he would not miss the "opportunity. I faid I would honour him; although

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to speak the truth, I was not fond of those cruel fpec"tacles; and if it were not fo antient a custom, found❝ed, as I had heard, upon the wifeft maxims, I fhould "be apt to cenfure the inhumanity of those who intro"duced it." All this will be a riddle to the waking reader, until I discover the scene my imagination had formed upon the maxim, that a lion would never hurt a true virgin. "I dreamed, that, by a law of immemorial time, a he-lion was kept in every parish at the common charge, "and in a place provided adjoining to the church-yard; "that before any one of the fair fex was married, if she "affirmed herself to be a virgin, fhe muft on her wed “ding day, and in her wedding cloaths, perform the ceremony of going alone into the den, and flay an "hour with the lion let loose, and kept fafting four and

twenty hours on purpose. At a proper height above "the den, were convenient galleries for the relations and "friends of the young couple, and open to all spectators. "No maiden was forced to offer herfelf to the lion; but "if the refused, it was a difgrace to marry her, and

every one might have liberty of calling her a whore. "And methought it was as ufual a diverfion to fee the "parish lions, as with us to go to a play or an opera..

And it was reckoned convenient to be near the church, "either for marrying the virgin, if the escaped the trial, "or for burying her bones when the lion had devoured the reft, as he conftantly did."

To go on therefore with the dream: "we called firft "(as I remember) to fee St Dunstan's lion; but we were "told, they did not fhew to-day. From thence we "went to that of Covent-garden, which, to my great "furprize, we found as lean as a fkeleton, when I expect "ed quite the contrary; but the keeper faid it was no "wonder at all, becaufe the poor beaft had not got an "ounce of woman's flesh, fince he came into the parifh. "This amazed me more than the other, and I was forming to myself a mighty veneration for the ladies "in that quarter of the town; when the keeper went on, and laid he wondered the parifh would be at the "charge of maintaining a lion for nothing. Friend, faid "1, do you call it nothing to justify the virtue of fo many ladies; or hath your lion loft his diftinguifhing

"faculty }

"faculty? Can there be any thing more for the ho"nour of your parish, than that all the ladies married in 46 your church were pure virgins? that is true, faid he, " and the doctor knows it to his forrow; for there hath " not been a couple married in our church Gince his wor "ship came amongst us. The virgins hereabouts are too "wife to venture the claws of the lion; and, because "no-body will marry them, have all entered into a vow "of virginity; so that in proportion we have much the "largest nunnery in the whole town. This manner of "ladies entering into a vow of virginity, becacle they 66 were not virgins, I easily conceived; and my dream "told me, that the whole kingdom was full of nunneries ་ plentifully stocked from the fame reason.

"We went to fee another lion, where we found "much company met in the gallery. The keeper told ." us, we should fee Sport enough, as he called it; and

But

in a little time we faw a young beautiful lady put into "the den, who walked up towards the lion with all "imaginable fecurity in her countenance, and looked "fmiling upon her lover and friends in the gallery ; "which I thought nothing extraordinary, because it was "never known that any lion had been mistaken. "however, we were all disappointed; for the lion lifted 66 up his right paw, which was the fatal fign, and advane "cing forward, feized her by the arm, and began to "tear it. The poor lady gave a terrible fhriek, and cri"ed out, The lion is just, I am no virgin♪ Oh! Sap"pho, Sappho! the could fay no more, for the lion gave "her the coup de grace. by a squeeze in the throat,

and fhe expired at his feet. The keeper dragged a"way her body to feed the animal, after the company fhould be gone; for the parish lions never used to eat in public. After a little pause, another lady came on "towards the lion in the fame manner as the former.

We obferved the beast smell her with diligence. He "fcratched both her hands with lifting them to his now, "and laying one of his claws on her botona drew blood;

however he let her go, and at the fame time turned «from her with a fort of contempt, at which he was "not a little mortified, and retired with fome confufion ❝ to her friends in the gallery. Methought the whole

"company immediately understood the meaning of this; "that the eafinefs of the lady had fuffered her to adinit "certain imprudent and dangerous familiarities, border"ing too much upon what is criminal; neither was "it fure, whether the lover then prefent had not fome "fharers with him in thofe freedoms, of which a lady 6.6 can never be too sparing.

"This happened to be an extraordinary day; for a third lady cane into the den, laughing loud, playing "with her fan, tolling her head, and fmiling round on "the young fellows in the gallery. However, the lion "leaped on her with great fury, and we gave her for gone; but on a fudden he let go his hold, and turned "from her as if he were naufeated; then gave her a lafh “with his tail; after which fhe returned to the gallery, "not the least out of countenance: and this, it feems, "was the ufual treatment of coquets.

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"I thought we had seen enough; but my friend would "needs have us go and vifit one or two lions in the city.

We called at two or three dens where they happen"ed not to fhew; but we generally found half a core 26 young girls between eight and eleven years old, play. "ing with each lion, fitting on his back, and putting their 6. hands into his mouth; fome of them would now and "then get a scratch, but we always difcovered upon ex"amining, that they had been hoydening with the young "apprentices. One of them was calling to a pretty girl about twelve years old, who flood by us in the galle. ry, to come down to the lion, and upon her retusal, faid, Ah! Mifs Betty, we could never get you to come "near the lion, fince you played at hoop and hide with 66 my brother in the garret.

We followed a couple, with the wedding folks, going "to the church of St Mary Ax. The lady, though well "stricken in years, extremely crooked and deformed,

was dreffed out beyond the gaiety of fifteen, having "jumbled together, as I imagined, all the tawdry re"mains of aunts, god-mothers, and grand-mothers, for "fome generations paft. One, of the neighbours whif "pered me, that he was an old maid, and had the "cleareft reputation of any in the par fh. thing strange in that, thought I, but was

There is nomuch furpriz

ied

"ed when I obferved afterwards, that he went toward "the lion with diftruft and concern. The beaft was ly "ing down; but upon fight of her fnuffed up his nose two or three times, and then giving the fign of death, "proceeded inftantly to execution. In the midst of her agonies he was heard to name the words Italy and "artifices with the utmost horror, and feveral repeated "execrations; and at last concluded, Fool that I was "to put fo much confidence in the toughness of my skin!

"The keeper immediately fet all in order again for "another customer, which happened to be a famous "prule, whom her parents, after long threatenings and "much perfuafion, had, with the extremeft difficulty,

prevailed on to accept a young handfome goldfmith, "who might have pretended to five times her fortune. "The fathers and mothers in the neighbourhood used to " quote her for an example to their daughters; her el "bows were rivetted to her fides, and her whole perfon “fo ordered as to inform every body, that she was afraid "they fhould touch her. She only dreaded to approach "the lion because it was a he one, and abhorred to think "" a male animal fhould prefume ro breathe on her. The fight of a man at twenty yards diftance made her draw "back her head. She always fat upon the farther cor"ner of the chair, although there were fix chairs be"tween her and her lover, and with the door wide o. "pen, and her little fifter in the room. She was never "faluted but at the tip of the ear; and her father had "much ado to make her dine without her gloves, when "there was a man at table. She entered the den with "fo ne fear, which we took to proceed from the height of her modefty, offended at the fight of fo many meu in the gallery. The lion, beholding her at a distance, immediately gave the deadly fign, at which the poor "creature (methinks I fee her fill) mifcarried in a fright "before us all. The lion feemed to be as much furprized as we, and gave her time to make her confel lion; That he was five months gone by the foreman "of her father's fhop; that this was her third big belly: and when her friends asked, why she would venture the "trial? the faid, her nurse told her, that a lion would "never hurt a woman with child." Upon this I im

me