fheets: fo manifeft 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 paffages of a day; that I rode a journey, baited, fupped, went to bed, and rofe 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, nor tinged with thofe paffions that moft difturb and confound it; fuch as avarice, ambition, and many others. Now, as old men are faid to grow children again, fo 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 small remain der 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 re finers upon fleep, without any moral that I can discover.

"It happened that my maid left on the "table in my bed-chamber one of her ftorybooks (as the calls them) which I took up,

and found full of ftrange impertinence, "fitted to her tafte and condition; of poor "fervants who came to be ladies, and ferv"ing-men of low degree who married kings "daugh

daughters. Among other things, I met "this fage obfervation, That a lion would r never hurt a true virgin. With this med"ley of nonfenfe in my fancy I went to bed, "and dreamed that a friend waked me in "the morning, and propofed for pastime to "fpend a few hours in feeing the parish "lions, which he had not done fince he came to town; and, because they shewed "but once a week, he would not mifs the opportunity. I faid, I would humour him "although, to speak the truth, I was not "fond of thofe cruel fpectacles; and, if it "were not fo ancient a cuftom, founded as "I had heard upon the wifeft maxims, I "fhould be apt to cenfure the inhumanity of "those who introduced it." All this will be a riddle to the waking reader, until I difcover the fcene 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 the affirmed

herself to be a virgin, fhe muft, on her “wedding-day, and in her wedding cloaths, "perform the ceremony of going alone into "the den, and ftay an hour with the lion

let loofe and kept fafting four and twenty "hours on purpose. At a proper heighth "above the den, were convenient galleries

" for

for the relations and friends of the young couple, and open to all fpectators. No "maiden was forced to offer herself to the lion; but, if the refufed, it was a disgrace to marry her, and every one might have liberty of calling her a whore. And, me"thought, 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. Dun fran'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 skeleton, when I expected quite the contrary; but the keeper faid, it was no wonder at all, because the poor beaft had not got an ounce of woman's flesh, fince he came into the parish. 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 faid he wondered the parish would be at the charge of maintaining a lion for nothing. Friend, faid I, do you call it nothing to juftify the virtue of fo or hath your lion loft his f many ladies;

66

"diftin

"diftinguishing faculty? Can there be any "thing more for the honour of your parish, "than that all the ladies married in your "church were pure virgins? That is true " (faid he) and the doctor knows it to his 66 forrow; for there hath not been a couple "married in our church fince his worship 66 came amongst us. The virgins hereabouts are too wife to venture the claws of the lion; and, because nobody will marry "them, have all entered into a vow of virginity; fo that in proportion we have "much the largest nunnery in the whole 66 town. This manner of ladies entering "into a vow of virginity, because they were

not virgins, I eafily conceived; and my "dream told me, that the whole kingdom was full of nunneries plentifully stocked "from the fame reason.

66

"We went to fee another lion, where we "found much company met in the gallery. "The keeper told us, we fhould fee sport "enough, as he called it; and 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 "c countenance, and looked smiling upon her "lover and friends in the gallery; which I "thought nothing extraordinary, because it 66 was never known that any lion had been "mistaken. But, however, we were all "difappointed; for the lion lifted up his "right paw, which was the fatal fign, and, "advancing forward, seized her by the D VOL. XI. 46 arm,

"arm, and began to tear it. The poor lady "gave a terrible fhriek, and cried out, The lion is juft, I am no virgin! Oh! Sappho, "Sappho! he could fay no more, for the "lion gave her the coup de grace by a squeeze "in the throat, and the expired at his feet. "The keeper dragged away her body to "feed the animal, after the company fhould "be gone: for the parish lions never-used "to eat in publick. After a little pause, "another lady came on towards to 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 nofe, and laying one of his "claws on her bofom drew blood; how"ever, he let her go, and at the fame time "turned from lier 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 admit certain "imprudent and dangerous familiarities, "" bordering too much upon what is crimi"nal; neither was it fure, whether the lover "then present had not some sharers with him "in those freedoms, of which a lady can 66 never be too fparing.

"This happened to be an extraordinary "day; for a third lady came into the den, "laughing loud, playing with her fan, tof"fing her head, and fmiling round on the 66 young