to the other in his old Age.  Indeed the Wise Men of the World stood Neuter; but alas! their Numbers were not considerable.  At length, when these two Potentates had wearied themselves with waging War upon one another, they agreed upon an Interview, at which neither of their Counsellors were to be present.  It is said that Luxury began the Parley, and after having represented the endless State of War in which they were engaged, told his Enemy, with a Frankness of Heart which is natural to him, that he believed they two should be very good Friends, were it not for the Instigations of Poverty, that pernicious Counsellor, who made an ill use of his Ear, and filled him with groundless Apprehensions and Prejudices.  To this Avarice replied, that he looked upon Plenty (the first Minister of his Antagonist) to be a much more destructive Counsellor than Poverty, for that he was perpetually suggesting Pleasures, banishing all the necessary Cautions against Want, and consequently undermining those Principles on which the Government of Avarice was founded.  At last, in order to an Accommodation, they agreed upon this Preliminary; That each of them should immediately dismiss his Privy-Counsellor.  When things were thus far adjusted towards a Peace, all other differences were soon accommodated, insomuch that for the future they resolved to live as good Friends and Confederates, and to share between them whatever Conquests were made on either side.  For this Reason, we now find Luxury and Avarice taking Possession of the same Heart, and dividing the same Person between them.  To which I shall only add, that since the discarding of the Counsellors above-mentioned, Avarice supplies Luxury in the room of Plenty, as Luxury prompts Avarice in the place of Poverty.

C.

[Footnote 1: 

  Alieni appetens, sui profusus.

Sallust.]

* * * * *

No. 56.  Friday, May 4, 1711.  Addison.

      ‘Felices errore suo ...’

      Lucan.

The Americans believe that all Creatures have Souls, not only Men and Women, but Brutes, Vegetables, nay even the most inanimate things, as Stocks and Stones.  They believe the same of all the Works of Art, as of Knives, Boats, Looking-glasses:  And that as any of these things perish, their Souls go into another World, which is inhabited by the Ghosts of Men and Women.  For this Reason they always place by the Corpse of their dead Friend a Bow and Arrows, that he may make use of the Souls of them in the other World, as he did of their wooden Bodies in this.  How absurd soever such an Opinion as this may appear, our European Philosophers have maintained several Notions altogether as improbable.  Some of Plato’s followers in particular,