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the judges of the dead, feated on his tribunal. On his left hand flood the keeper of Erebus, on his right the keeper of Elyfium. I was told he fat upon women that day, there being several of the fex lately arrived, whe had not yet their manfions affigned them. I was furprifed to hear him afk every one of them the fame ques tion, namely, What they had been doing? Upon this question being proposed to the whole affembly, they ftared one upon another, as not knowing what to anfwer. He then interrogated each of them separately. Madam, fays he to the firit of them, you have been upon the earth about fifty years: what have you been do ing there all this while? Doing, fays fhe; really I do not knew what I have been doing: I defire I may have time given me to recollect. After about half an hour's paufe, he told him that he had been playing at crimp; upon which Rhadamanthus beckoned to the keeper on his left hand to take her into cuftody. And you, Madam, fays the judge, that look with fuch a foft and languifhing air; I think you fet out for this place in your nine-and-twentieth year, what have you been doing all this while I had a great deal of bufinefs on my hands, fays fhe, being taken up the first twelve years of my life in dreffing a jointed baby, and all the remaining part of it in reading plays and romances. Very well, fays he, you have employed your time to good purpose. Away with her. The next was a plain country-woman; Well, miftrefs, fays Rbadamanthus, and what have you been doing? An't pleafe your worship, fays she, I did not live quite forty years; and in that time brought my hufband feven daughters, made him nine thousand cheefes, and left my eldest girl with him to look after his houfe in my abfence; and who, I may venture to fay, is as pretty a housewife as any in the country. Rhadamanthus fmiled at the fimplicity of the good woman, and ordered the keeper of Elyfium to take her into his care. And you, fair lady, fays he, what have you been doing thefe five and thirty years? I have been doing no hurt, I affure you, Sir, faid the. That is well, faid he; but what good have you been doing? The lady was in great confufion at this question; and, not knowing what to answer, the two keepers leaped

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out to feize her at the fame time; the one took her by the hand to convey her to Elyfium, the other caught hold of her to carry her away to Erebus. But Rhadamanthus obferving an ingenuous modefty in her countenance and behaviour, bid them both let her loofe, and fet her afide for re-examination when he was more at leifure. An old woman, of a proud and four look, prefented herself next at the bar; and being afked what the had been doing? Truly, faid fhe, I lived threefcore and ten years in a very wicked world, and was fo angry at the behaviour of a parcel of young flirts, that I palled most of my laft years in condemning the follies of the times. I was every day blaming the filly conduct of people about me, in order to deter thofe I converfed with from falling into the like errours and mifcarriages. Very well, fays Rhadamanthus, but did you keep the fame watchful eye over your own actions? Why truly, fays fhe, I was fo taken up with publishing the faults of others, that I had no time to confider my own. Madam, fays Rhadamanthus, be pleafed to file off to the left, and make room for the venerable matron that stands behind you. Old gentlewoman, fays he, I think you are fourfcore: you have heard the queftion; what have you been doing fo long in the world? Ah, Sir, fays the, I have been doing what I fhould not have done; but I had made a firm refolution to have changed my life, if I had not been fnatched off by an untimely end. Madam, fays he, you will pleafe to follow your leader: and, fpying another of the fame age, interrogated her in the fame form. To which the matron replied, I have been the wife of a husband who was as dear to me in his old age as in his youth. I have been a mother, and very happy in my children, whom 1 endeavoured to bring up in every thing that is good. My eldest fon is bleft by the poor, and beloved by every one that knows him. I lived within my own family, and left it much more wealthy than I found it. Rhadamanthus, who knew the value of the old lady, fmiled upon her m such a manner, that the keeper of Elylium, who knew his office, reached out his hand to her. He no fooner touched her, but her wrinkles vanished, her eyes fparkled; her cheeks glowed with blushes, and

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PART I fhe appeared in full bloom and beauty. A young woman, obferving that this officer who conducted the happy to Elyfium, was fo great a beautifier, longed to be in his hands; fo that, preffing through the crowd, fhe was the next that appeared at the bar: and being afked what fhe had been doing the five and twenty years that she had paffed in the world? I have endeavoured, fays fhe, ever fince I came to years of difcretion, to make myself lovely, and gain admirers. In order to it, I paft my time in bottling up May-dew, inventing whitewafhes, mixing colours, cutting out patches, confulting my glafs, fuiting my complexion,-Rhadamanthus, without hearing her out, gave the fign to take her off. Upon the approach of the keeper of Erebus, her colour faded," her face was puckered up with wrinkles, and her whole perfon loft in deformity.

I was then furprised with a distant found of a whole troop of females that came forward, laughing, finging, and dancing. I was very defirous to know the reception they would meet with, and withal was very ap prehenfive that Rhadamanthas would fpoil their mirth s but at their nearer approach, the noife grew fo very great that it awakened me.

I lay fome time reflecting in myfelf on the oddnefs. of this dream; and could not forbear afking my own heart, what I was doing? I aufwered myfelf that I was writing Guardians. If my readers make as good a ufe of this work as I defign they fhould, I hope it will never be imputed to me as work that is vain and unprofitable.

I fhall conclude this paper with recommending to them the fame fhort felf-examination. If every one of them frequently lays his hand upon his heart, and confiders what he is doing, it will check him in all the idle, or, what is worfe, the vicious, moments of life; lift up his mind when it is running on in a series of indifferent actions, and encourage him when he is engaged in thofe which are virtuous and laudable. In a word, is wit very much alleviate that guilt which the belt of men have reafon to acknowledge in their daily confeffions, of "leaving undone thofe things which they ought to have done, and of doing thofe things which they ought not to have done.”

XVI. Cha

XVI. Character of Francis I.

FRANCIS died at Rambouillet, on the last day of March, in the fifty-third year of his age, and the thirty-third of his reign. During twenty-eight years of that time, an avowed rivalship fubfifted between him and the Em peror; which involved, not only their own dominions, but the greater part of Europe, in wars, profecuted with more violent animofity, and drawn out to a greater length, than had been known in any former period. Many circumstances contributed to both. Their animofity was founded in oppofition of intereft, heightened by perfonal emulation, and exasperated, not only by mutual injuries, but by reciprocal infults. At the fame time, whatever advantage one feemed to poffefs towards gaining the afcendant, was wonderfully balanced by fome favourable circumstance peculiar to the other. The Emperor's dominions were of great extent; the French king's lay more compact: Francis governed his kingdom with abfolute power; that of Charles was limited, but he supplied the want of authority by addrefs: the troops of the former were more impetuous and enterprifing thofe of the latter, better difciplined, and more patient of fatigue.

The talents and abilities of the two monarchs were as different as the advantages which they poffeffed, and contributed no lefs to prolong the contest between them. Francis took his refolutions fuddenly; profecuted them, at first, with warmth; and pushed them into execution with a most adventurous courage: but, being destitute of the perfeverance neceffary to furmount difficulties, he often abandoned his defigns, or relaxed the vigour of purfuit, from impatience, and fometimes from levity. Charles deliberated long, and determined with coolness: but, having once fixed his plan, he adhered to it with inflexible obstinacy; and neither danger, nor difcouragement, could turn him afide from the execution of it.

The fuccefs of their enterprises was as different as their characters, and was uniformly influenced by them. Francis, by his impetuous activity, often difconcerted the Emperor's best-laid schemes; Charles, by a more calm, but steady profecution of his defigns, checked the

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rapidity of his rival's career, and baffled or repulfed his most vigorous efforts. The former, at the opening of a war or of a campaign, broke in upon his enemy with the violence of a torrent, and carried all before him; the latter, waiting until he faw the force of his rival begin to abate, recovered, in the end, not only all that he Irad loft, but made new acquifitions. Few of the French monarch's attempts towards conqueft, whatever promifing afpe&t they might wear at firft, were conducted to an happy iffue; many of the Emperor's enterprifes, even after they appeared defperate and impracticable, terminated in the most profperous manner.

The degree, however, of their comparative merit and reputation, has not been fixed, either by a strict forutiny into their abilities for government, or by an impartial confideration of the greatness and fuccefs of their undertakings; and Francis is one of thofe monarchs, who Occupy a higher rank in the temple of fame, than ei ther their talents or performances intitle them to hold. This pre-eminence he owed to many different circumftances. The fuperiority which Charles acquired by the victory of Pavia, and which, from that period, he preferved through the remainder of his reign, was fo manifeft, that Francis's ftruggle against his exorbitant and growing dominion, was viewed by most of the other powers, not only with the partiality which naturally arifes for those who gallantly maintain an unequal conteft, but with the favour due to one, who was refifting a common enemy, and endeavouring to fet bounds to a monarch equally formidable to them all. The characters of princes, too, efpecially among their contemporaries, depend, not only upon their talents for govern ment, but upon their qualities as men. Francis, notwithstanding the many errours confpicuous in his foreign policy and domestic administration, was, nevertheless, humane, beneficent, generous. He poffeffed dignity without pride, affability free from neannefs, and courtefy exempt from deceit. All who had access to know him, and no man of merit was ever denied that privilege, refpected and loved him. Captivated with his perfonal qualities, his fubjects forgot his defects as a monarch; and, admiring him as the moft accomplished and amiable gentle

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