remote glories of The things above: but this was chiefly owing to their not making ufe of the telescope, through which, if you examined thoroughly The things below, they feemed to fhrink almost down to nothing, while The things above appeared the more beautiful and vaft, the more the telescope was ufed. But the furprifing part of the story was this, not that the pilgrims were captivated at firft fight with The things belaw, for that was natural enough, but that when they had tried them over and over, and found themselves deceived and difappointed in almost every one of them, it did not at all leffen their fondnefs, and they grafped at them again with the fame eagernefs as before. There were fome gay fruits which looked alluring, but on being opened, inftead of a kernel they were found to contain rottennefs, and those which feemed the fulleft, often proved on trial to be quite hollow and empty. Those which were moft tempting to the eye were often found to be wormwood to the tafte, or poifon to the ftomach, and many flowers that feemed moft bright and gay had a worm gnawing at the root.

Among the chief attractions of The things beloro were certain little lumps of yellow clay, on which almoft every eye and every heart was (fixed. When I faw the variety of uses to which this clay could be converted, and the respect which was fhewn to those who could fcrape to. gether the greatest number of pieces, I did not much wonder at the general defire to pick up

fome of them. But when I beheld the anxiety the wakefulness, the competitions, the contrivan ces, the tricks, the frauds, the fcuffling, the pushing, the turmoiling, the kicking, the fhoving, the cheating, the circumvention, the envy, the malig nity, which was excited by a defire to poffefs this article; when I faw the general fcramble among thofe who had little to get much, and of those who had much to get more, then I could not help applying to these people a Proverb in ufe among us, that gold may be bought too dear. Though I faw that there were various forts of baubles which engaged the hearts of different travellers, fuch as an ell of red or blue ribbon, for which fome were content to forfeit their future inheritance, committing the fin of Efau without his temptation of hunger; yet the yellow clay I foul was the grand object for which moft hands fcrambled and moft fouls were rifked. One thing was extraordinary, that the nearer these people were to being turned out of their tenement, the fonder they grew of thefe pieces of clay, so that I naturally concluded they meant to take the clay with them to the far country; bu I foon learnt this clay was not current there, the Lord having declared to thefe pilgrims, that as they had brought nothing into this world, they could carry nothing out.

I enquired of the different people who wer railing the various heaps of clay, fome of larger, fome of a fmaller fize, why they dif covered fuch unremitting anxiety, and for whom

Some whofe piles were immenfe, told me they were heaping up for their children; this Í thought very right, till on cafting my eyes round, I obferved many of the children of these very people had large heaps of their own. Others told me it was for their grand-children; but on enquiry, I found these were not yet born, and in many cafes there was little chance that they ever would. The truth, on a close examination, proved to be, that the true genuine heapers really heaped for themselves; that it was in fact neither for friend or child, but to gratify an inordinate appetite of their own. Nor was I much furprised after this to fee thefe yellow hoards at length canker, and the ruft of them become a witness against the hoarders, and eat their flesh as it were fire.

Many, however, who had fet out with a high heap of their father's railing, before they had got one third of their journey had fcarcely a fingle piece left. As I was wondering what had caufed thefe enormous piles to vanifh in fo fhort a time, Ifpied scattered up and down the country all forts of odd inventions, for fome or other of which the vain poffeffors of the great heaps of clay had trucked and battered them away in fewer hours than their ancestors had spent years in getting them together. O what a strange unaccountable medley it was! and what was ridiculous enough, I obferved that the greatest quantity of the clay was always exchanged for things that were of no ufe that I could discover, owing

I fuppofe to my ignorance of the manners of that country.

In one place I saw large heaps exhausted in order to fet two idle pampered horses a running; but the worst part of the joke was, the horses did not run to fetch or carry any thing, but merely to let the gazers fee which could run fafteft. Now this gift of fwiftnefs, exercifed to no one ufeful purpose, was only one out of many inftances, I observed, of talents used to no end. In another place I faw whole piles of the clay fpent to maintain long ranges of buildings full of dogs, on provifions which would have nicely fattened fome thousands of pilgrims who fadly wanted fattening, and whofe ragged tenements were out at elbows, for want of a little help to repair them. Some of the piles were regularly pulled down once in feven years in order to corrupt certain needy pilgrims to belie their confciences. Others were spent in playing with white stiff bits of paper painted over with red and black spots, in which I thought there must be some conjuring, becaufe the very of thefe painted pafleboards made the heaps fly from one to another, and back again to the fame, in a way that natural caufes could not account for. There was another proof that there must be fome magic in this bufinefs, which was that if a pafteboard with red spots fell into a hand which wanted a black one, the perfon changed color, his eyes flafhed fire, and he dif covered other fymptoms of madnefs, which

touch

fhewed that there was fome witchcraft in the cafe. These clean little pafteboards, as harmlefs as they looked, had the wonderful power of pulling down the higheft piles in lefs time than all the other caufes put together. I obferved that many fmall piles were given in exchange for an enchanted liquor, which when the purchafer had drank to a little excefs, he loft all power of managing the rest of his heap without lofing the love of it.

Now I found it was the opinion of fober pilgrims, that either hoarding the clay, or trucking it for any fuch purposes as the above, was thought exactly the fame offence in the eyes of the Lord, and it was expected that when they fhould come under his more immediate jurifdiction in the far country, the penalty annexed to hoarding and fquandering would be nearly the fame. While I examined the countenances of the owners of the heaps, I obferved that those who I well knew never intended to make any ufe at all of their heap, were far more terrified at the thought of lofing it, or of being torn from it, than thofe were who were employing it in the most useful manner. Thofe who belt knew what to do with it, fet their hearts leaft upon it, and were always moft willing to leave it. But fuch riddles were common in this odd country.

Now I wondered why thefe Pilgrims, who were naturally made erect with an eye formed to look up to The things above, yet had their eyes