the cool Shades and Retirements of the Mountain Haemus.  I clos’d the Book and went to Bed.  What I had just before been reading made so strong an Impression on my Mind, that Fancy seemed almost to fulfil to me the Wish of Virgil, in presenting to me the following Vision.

’Methought I was on a sudden plac’d in the Plains of Boeotia, where at the end of the Horizon I saw the Mountain Parnassus rising before me.  The Prospect was of so large an Extent, that I had long wander’d about to find a Path which should directly lead me to it, had I not seen at some distance a Grove of Trees, which in a Plain that had nothing else remarkable enough in it to fix my Sight, immediately determined me to go thither.  When I arrived at it, I found it parted out into a great Number of Walks and Alleys, which often widened into beautiful Openings, as Circles or Ovals, set round with Yews and Cypresses, with Niches, Grotto’s, and Caves placed on the Sides, encompassed with Ivy.  There was no Sound to be heard in the whole Place, but only that of a gentle Breeze passing over the Leaves of the Forest, every thing beside was buried in a profound Silence.  I was captivated with the Beauty and Retirement of the Place, and never so much, before that Hour, was pleased with the Enjoyment of my self.  I indulged the Humour, and suffered my self to wander without Choice or Design.  At length, at the end of a Range of Trees, I saw three Figures seated on a Bank of Moss, with a silent Brook creeping at their Feet.  I ador’d them as the tutelar Divinities of the Place, and stood still to take a particular View of each of them.  The Middlemost, whose Name was Solitude, sat with her Arms across each other, and seemed rather pensive and wholly taken up with her own Thoughts, than any ways grieved or displeased.  The only Companions which she admitted into that Retirement, was the Goddess Silence, who sat on her right Hand with her Finger on her Mouth, and on her left Contemplation, with her Eyes fixed upon the Heavens.  Before her lay a celestial Globe, with several Schemes of Mathematical Theorems.  She prevented my Speech with the greatest Affability in the World:  Fear not, said she, I know your Request before you speak it; you would be led to the Mountain of the Muses; the only way to it lies thro’ this Place, and no one is so often employ’d in conducting Persons thither as my self.  When she had thus spoken, she rose from her Seat, and I immediately placed my self under her Direction; but whilst I passed through the Grove, I could not help enquiring of her who were the Persons admitted into that sweet Retirement.  Surely, said I, there can nothing enter here but Virtue and virtuous Thoughts:  The whole Wood seems design’d for the Reception and Reward of such Persons as have spent their Lives according to the Dictates of their Conscience and the Commands of the Gods.  You imagine right, said she; assure your self this Place was at first