NUMBER XLIV. SATURDAY, JULY 16th, 1808. I have had a dream, past the wit of man to say what dream it was : man is but an ass, if he go about to expound this dream. SHAKSPEARE. HAVING, a few evenings ago, fallen into a slumber, sicut meus est mos, in my friend Sir Everard's library, I had (scarcely closed my eyes, when there appeared before me what I will not assert to have been supernatural, towering, or bright; and which my Readers will the more readily suppose to have been my Genius. The Vision pointing to a door, over which the words ESSAYIST'S MUSEUM were inscribed, we immediately entered the Repository; which was surrounded with glazed cases, distributed into compartments, and containing the Rarities from which this Gallery derived its title. The first curiosity which attracted my attention was a Coxcombeter; consisting of a small glass tube, hermetically sealed, and enclosing a reddish liquor, expressed from the pericardium of a Coquette's heart. Whilst I was observing that the summit temperature was marked Puppy Heat, this little Instrument paid me the compliment, as I held it in my hand, of falling suddenly, and so considerably as to Thinking Point. Near to the coxcombeter was the pineal gland of a Beau; which, when examined with a Magnifier, was found to be encompassed with a horny substance, cut into numerous mirrors, in which the self-complacent Soul which once inhabited this bijou is supposed to have been for ever contemplating its own charms.+ My Genius (being somewhat given, as I suspect, to punning,) informed me that these were the only Reflections a Mind of fashion could endure. In an adjoining compartment was an amoro-magnetico-telegraphick Dial Plate, on the model of the amicable one, noticed by Strada, in his Prolusions; and not far distant stood a formally shaped phial of political starch,§ which appeared, from the label, to have been presented by a Spanish Junta to a late member of the British Cabinet. Beside this stiffening were a dozen bottles of the last year's Sunbeams, carefully distilled from cucumbers, accord * Spectator, No. 281. Voyage to Laputa, * ing to an approved and modern process; and intended by the University of Lagado, for Benjamin Count Rumford, in return for his ingenious tract on radiant heat. Here, in a cage of moderate dimensions, I was gratified by the sight of some Lilliputian sheep and horned cattle, grazing on a pasture about six times as large as a lark's sod. In the centre, the celebrated tooth of the Brobdingnag footman,+ was set up as a rubbing post. Here were to be seen a full length portrait of the Emperor of Blefuscu, as small as life; some purses of Lilliputian sprugs; a comb, made of the stumps of the King of Brobdingnag's beard, fixed into a back formed from a paring of his royal Consort's thumb-nail; together with the gold ring which her stupendous Majesty so graciously took from her little! finger; and threw over the head of Gulliver, like a collar. In this part of the Museum I was likewise shewn an uncommonly clumsy suit of clothes, manufactured for this very Gulliver, by a Laputan Taylor, whose practice was to take measure of his Customers with a quadrant. On bringing the Coxcombeter within the atmosphere of this illmade suit, I found the included liquor sink to the very bulb. Here also was a Flap, of which the * Voyage to Lilliput. + Voyage to Brobdingnag. $ Ibid. finishing was so exquisite, and the decorations were so rich, that it must have been Gold Flap in waiting to some Sovereign of Laputa. At the top of the chamber, which we now approached, beneath a marble shrine or temple of simply elegant construction, I remarked a "sable "well,"* from whence, notwithstanding the inky tint which thus characterized their source, issued streams of such pure morality, limpid narrative, and easy wit, that it was impossible not to recognise the flow of Addison, at once. I entreated to have my Ecritoire replenished from this spring; but learned, with greater mortification than surprise, that this was a boon beyond the power of my Genius to be stow. In the first compartment, as we descended, on the side of the room opposite to that which we had just inspected, I perceived a rich embroidery, curiously worked upon a cobweb;† and purporting to be a production of the late ingenious Doctor Darwin. The Coxcombeter immediately rose, in token of respect. On opening a small parcel which lay on the same shelf, I found it full of shuttlecocks, lashes for whips, flies, fishing hooks, and a variety of miscellaneous trifles, carefully folded in a paper, which on Pope's lines to the Lady Frances Shirley. + Spectator, No. 364. inspection proved to be a well-known letter to Sir Roger de Coverley, from Will Wimble.* Here also were to be found the watch which, in a fit of absence, Will Honeycomb "squirted" into the Thames; and the pebble which he gravely pocketed in its stead.+ Near these was a sort of column; of which Sir Roger's hat formed the base; his cane the shaft; and the capital was fantastically composed of the perverse widow'st fan and gloves. Observing two Rings laid beside each other in an amber case, I discovered one to be Angelica's; and the other that of Amurath. On touching the former, my Genius, to my great confusion, vanished;|--but re-appeared when the magic circle was withdrawn. I had in the meantime drawn the Sultan's ruby on my finger; and was somewhat alarmed by feeling a sudden pinch; which I can no otherwise account for than by recollecting that I was at the moment contemplating my Genius with some complacence. Opposite to the place where I now stood, there was seated an armed Figure, which I might have taken for "Alonzo the * Spectator, No. 108. Ibid, No. 77. Ibid, passim. § Adventurer, No. 20. This was its effect. On one occasion, when Angelica puts it into her mouth,-la fa sparir, come ad un soffio il lumé. ORL. FUR. c. 29. st. 64. |