1832.] The Field of Monuments : a Vision. 429 



Gray, and Burns ; the latter distinguished by its greater altitude. But 

 we passed by innumerable little monuments, almost like grave-stones, 

 so slightly elevated above the surface of the plain, that the name was 

 scarcely visible ; upon one of these I observed the name of Addison. 



" Surely," said I, suddenly stopping, " there is some mistake here/' 



" Here we make no mistakes," said my companion. " I perceive you 

 are surprised that your estimate and ours of the genius of Addison, so 

 widely differs. Humour, morality, and good sense, distinguish the 

 writings of Addison, but genius I know not where: his poetry owes 

 any charm it possesses, to a correct judgment, rather than to a fine 

 imagination ; but poetry is not the child of reason, although it must be 

 corrected and chastened by her. Poetry is that which is conversant with 

 beauty and with power ; which calculates not, labours not ; but springs 

 up like a first creation, and throws over the dulness of reality a spirit of 

 energy and life. The province of imagination is visionary ; but Addison 

 confined his poetry within the province of reason." 



" But," said I, " I perceive we have passed by a monument greatly 

 more elevated than any of its neighbours ; let us return to it." 



" It is the record," said my companion, "of Dean Swift." 



" You estimate his genius high/' said I. 



C( Not higher than it deserves," returned my guide. 



" Why I" said I, " no man has written so much nonsense." 



" He wrote," replied my companion, " much that fools would call 

 nonsense ; but which wise men would perceive to be sense in disguise ; 

 he took a new view of human nature/' 



" He satirized it," said I. 



" No ;" returned my instructor, " his work is no satire upon human 

 nature, only upon its absurdities and pretensions. In one part of his 

 work, where men are represented six inches high, and where yet the 

 drama of life is carried on as among mortals such as yourself, Swift has 

 satirized the objects of intellectual pride ; ambition, glory, and distinc- 

 tion, are all shorn of their illusions ; for he represents the highest offices 

 in the state awarded to those who are able to leap highest on a pack- 

 thread ; he ridicules national honour, by making wars originate in dis- 

 putes about the manner of breaking an egg ; and if he would lay bare 

 the insignificance of human grandeur, he represents the emperor six 

 inches high, with his sceptre and crown, sitting in divan with the lords 

 of his council, and regulating the concerns of a kingdom twelve miles in 

 circumference. In all this he shews the insignificance of great things ; 

 while in another part of his work he satirizes the too great importance 

 that is attached to little things ; he views things through a magnifying 

 glass, and thus beauty becomes deformity ; and the frailties of human 

 nature being stripped of the veil which throws over them the glass of 

 refinement, humility is taught, and personal vanity humbled/' 

 " And what is the estimate here/' said I, " of his other works ?" 

 " They have added little," replied my companion, "to the height of 

 this monument ; but come," added he, " let us proceed." 



I would have stopped as we passed the lofty pillar upon which the 

 name of Pope was inscribed, but my guide told me it was unnecessary, 

 because the estimate which we mortals had formed of his genius corres- 

 ponded almost exactly with that which the pillar indicated. " But 

 yonder/' said he, " upon the verge of that comparatively desert plain, 

 stands a range of far loftier monuments ; let us hasten towards them, for 



