Page images
PDF
EPUB

from that time proceeded with double alacrity: he soon overtook his companions again, and you may imagine how joyful was the meeting between him and Henry, who loved him too well not to go on very melancholy, while George had stayed behind. "How I rejoiced," said he, "to see you under the conduct of the lady Amendment! now nothing can ever part us more."

The Poetical Gallery, the Saloon of History, afforded them new delight in every room through which they passed were tables covered with gems, medals, little images, seals, intaglios, and all kinds of curiosities, of which they were assured, that the more they took the more welcome they should be.

But here George was a little perplexed again : his pockets were filled over and over; still, as he came to new treasures, he was forced to throw aside the old ones to make room; yet was told that it would not be taken well, if he did not keep them all at last he came, fortunately, into a room of polished steel, where, on a throne of jasper, sat a lady with a crown upon her head, of the brightest jewels. Upon her robe was woven, in the liveliest colours and perfectly distinct, though in miniature, every thing that the world contains: she had steel tablets in her hand, on which she was always engraving something excellent; and on the rich diadem that encircled her forehead, was embroidered the word Memory.

"You could not," said she to George, "have

applied to a properer person than to me, to help you out of your present difficulty." She then gave him a cabinet, so small and so light, that he could carry it without the least inconvenience; and, at the same time, so rich and elegant, that no snuffbox set with diamonds was ever more ornamented: it had millions of little drawers, all classed and numbered, and in these he found all the fine things he had been so encumbered with ranged in their proper order.

"The only thing I insist on," said she, “is, that you will keep your drawers exactly clean, and never litter them with trash. If you stuff them with what does not deserve a place, they will no longer be capable of containing real treasures, but the bottom of the cabinet will become directly like a sieve; and if Malice or Resentment ever persuade you to put in any thing out of their shops, you will soon find every drawer infested with snakes and adders. But above all things, value the gifts of Truth, Gratitude, and Friendship, which will fill them with constant perfume, that shall make you agreeable to every body."

Thus furnished, George proceeded joyfully, and ascended from one apartment to another, till he became possessed of all the treasures of the castle. Sometimes Imagination led him into delightful gardens, gay with perpetual spring; sometimes from entrances dug into the solid rock, (on the side of the apartments opposite to the windows) he wandered through the mines of Science, and brought

from thence riches that had not yet been discovered. The holy days always found him cheerfully glad to go with them, but not impatient for their approach; and equally glad to return when they flew back. Whenever he returned, he was received with honour, and crowned with wreaths of bays and laurels: he became a favourite with the Virtues and the Graces; and at last was led by them to the top of the castle, where Reputation and Prudence waited to receive him, and conduct him through a fair plain that was stretched out along the top of the mountain, aud terminated by the glittering temple of Felicity.

IMITATIONS OF OSSIAN.

« ՆախորդըՇարունակել »