She then brought two of her children to him, who died
some years before, and resided with her in the same delightful
bower, advising him to breed up those others which were still with
him in such a manner that they might hereafter all of them meet
together in this happy place.
The tradition tells us further that he had afterwards a sight of
those dismal habitations which are the portion of ill men after
death; and mentions several molten seas of gold, in which were
plunged the souls of barbarous Europeans, who put to the sword so
many thousands of poor Indians for the sake of that precious metal.
But having already touched upon the chief points of this tradition,
and exceeded the measure of my paper, I shall not give any further
account of it.
SIX PAPERS ON WIT.
Ut pictura poesis erit -
HOR., Ars Poet. 361.
Poems like pictures are.
Nothing is so much admired, and so little understood, as wit. No
author that I know of has written professedly upon it. As for those
who make any mention of it, they only treat on the subject as it has
accidentally fallen in their way, and that too in little short
reflections, or in general declamatory flourishes, without entering
into the bottom of the matter. I hope, therefore, I shall perform
an acceptable work to my countrymen if I treat at large upon this
subject; which I shall endeavour to do in a manner suitable to it,
that I may not incur the censure which a famous critic bestows upon
one who had written a treatise upon "the sublime," in a low
grovelling style.
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