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 the same time; the one took her by the hand to convey her to Elysium; the other caught hold of her to carry her away to Erebus.

28.  But Rhadamanthus observing an ingenuous modesty in her countenance and behaviour, bid them both let her loose, and set her aside for a re-examination when he was more at leisure.  An old woman, of a proud and sour look, presented herself next at the bar, and being asked what she had been doing?  Truly, says she, I lived three score and ten years in a very wicked world, and was so angry at the behaviour of a parcel of young flirts, that I past most of my last years in condemning the follies of the times.

29.  I was every day blaming the silly conduct of people about me, in order to deter those I conversed with from falling into the like errors and miscarriages.  Very well, says Rhadamanthus, but did you keep the same watchful eye over your own actions?  Why truly, says she, I was so taken up with publishing the faults of others, that I had no time to consider my own.

30.  Madam, says Rhadamanthus, be pleased to file off to the left, and make room for the venerable matron that stands behind you.  Old gentlewoman, says he, I think you are fourscore?  You have heard the question, what have you been doing so long in the world?  Ah! sir, says she, I have been doing what I should not have done, but I had made a firm resolution to have changed my life, if I had not been snatched off by an untimely end.

31.  Madam, says he, you will please to follow your leader, and spying another of the same age, interrogated her in the same 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 I endeavoured to bring up in every thing that is good.

32.  My eldest son is blest 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 smiled upon her in such a manner, that the keeper of Elysium, who knew his office, reached out his hand to her.  He no sooner touched her but her wrinkles vanished, her eyes sparkled, her cheeks glowed with blushes, and she appeared in full bloom and beauty.

33.  A young woman observing that this officer, who conducted the happy to Elysium, was so great a beautifier, longed to be in his hands, so that, pressing through the croud, she was the next that appeared at the bar, and being asked what she had been doing the five and twenty years that she had passed in the world, I have endeavoured, says she, ever since I came to the years of discretion, to make myself lovely, and gain admirers.