The Young Gentleman and Ladys Monitor, and English Teachers Assistant | Page 7

of other creatures; in which I could not but observe, that
notwithstanding we are obliged by duty to keep ourselves in constant
employ, after the same manner as inferior animals are prompted to it by
instinct, we fell very short of them in this particular.
19. We are the more inexcusable, because there is a greater variety of
business to which we may apply ourselves. Reason opens to us a large
field of affairs, which other creatures are not capable of. Beasts of prey,
and I believe all other kinds, in their natural state of being, divide their
time between action and rest. They are always at work or asleep. In
short, their awaking hours are wholly taken up in seeking after their
food, or in consuming it.
20. The human species only, to the great reproach of our natures, are
filled with complaints--That the day hangs heavy on them, that they do
not know what to do with themselves, that they are at a loss how to
pass away their time, with many of the like shameful murmurs, which
we often find in the mouth of those who are styled reasonable beings.
21. How monstrous are such expressions among creatures who have the
labours of the mind as well as those of the body to furnish them with
proper employments; who, besides the business of their proper callings
and professions, can apply themselves to the duties of religion, to
meditation, to the reading of useful books, to discourse; in a word, who
may exercise themselves in the unbounded pursuits of knowledge and
virtue, and every hour of their lives make themselves wiser or better
than they were before.
22. After having been taken up for some time in this course of thought,
I diverted myself with a book, according to my usual custom, in order
to unbend my mind before I went to sleep. The book I made use of on
this occasion was Lucian where I amused my thoughts for about an
hour among the dialogues of the dead, which in all probability
produced the following dream:
23. I was conveyed, methought, into the entrance of the infernal regions,

where I saw _Rhadamanthus_, one of the judges of the dead, seated in
his tribunal. On his left hand stood the keeper of _Erebus_, on his right
the keeper of Elysium. I was told he sat upon women that day, there
being several of the sex lately arrived, who had not yet their mansions
assigned them.
24. I was surprised to hear him ask every one of them the same
question, namely, What they had been doing? Upon this question being
proposed to the whole assembly they stared upon one another, as not
knowing what to answer. He then interrogated each of them separately.
Madam, says he to the first of them, you have been upon the earth
about fifty years: What have you been doing there all this while? Doing,
says she, really I do not know what I have been doing: I desire I may
have time given me to recollect.
25. After about half an hour's pause, she told him that she had been
playing at crimp: upon which Rhadamanthus beckoned to the keeper on
his left hand, to take her into custody. And you, Madam, says the judge,
that look with such a soft and languishing air; I think you set out for
this place in your nine and twentieth year; what have you been doing
all this while? I had a great deal of business on my hands, says she,
being taken up the first twelve years of my life, in dressing a jointed
baby, and all the remaining part of it in reading plays and romances.
26. Very well, says he, you have employed your time to good purpose.
Away with her. The next was a plain country woman: Well, mistress,
says _Rhadamanthus_, and what have you been doing? An't please
your worship, says she, I did not live quite forty years; and in that time
brought my husband seven daughters, made him nine thousand cheeses,
and left my eldest girl with him to look after his house in my absence,
and who, I may venture to say, is us pretty a housewife as any in the
country.
27. Rhadamanthus smiled at the simplicity of the good woman, and
ordered the keeper of _Elysium_, to take her into his care. And you,
fair lady, says he, what have you been doing these five and thirty years?
I have been doing no hurt, I assure you sir, said she. That is well, says
he, but what good have you been doing? The lady was in great
confusion at this question, and not knowing what to answer, the two
keepers leaped out to seize her at