means some who were
not disgusted by the nauseousness drank double and treble portions.
I observed a beautiful young female, who, tasting it immediately from
curiosity, screwed up her face and cast it from her with great disdain,
whence advancing presently to the wheel, she drew a coronet, which
she clapped up so eagerly that I could not distinguish the degree; and
indeed I observed several of the same sex, after a very small sip, throw
the bottles away. As soon as the spirit is dismissed by the operator,
or apothecary, he is at liberty to approach the wheel, where he hath a
right to extract a single lot: but those whom Fortune favors she permits
sometimes secretly to draw three or four. I observed a comical kind of
figure who drew forth a handful, which, when he opened, were a bishop,
a general, a privy-counselor, a player, and a poet-laureate, and,
returning the three first, he walked off, smiling, with the two last.
Every single lot contained two more articles, which were generally
disposed so as to render the lots as equal as possible to each other; on
one was written, EARL, RICHES, HEALTH, DISQUIETUDE; on another, COBLER,
SICKNESS, GOOD-HUMOR; on a third, POET, CONTEMPT, SELF-SATISFACTION; on
a fourth, GENERAL, HONOR, DISCONTENT; on a fifth, COTTAGE, HAPPY LOVE;
on a sixth, COACH AND SIX, IMPOTENT JEALOUS HUSBAND; on a seventh,
PRIME MINISTER, DISGRACE; on an eighth, PATRIOT, GLORY; on a ninth,
PHILOSOPHER, POVERTY, EASE; on a tenth, MERCHANT, RICHES, CARE. And
indeed the whole seemed to contain such a mixture of good and evil, that
it would have puzzled me which to choose. I must not omit here that
in every lot was directed whether the drawer should marry or remain in
celibacy, the married lots being all marked with a large pair of horns.
We were obliged, before we quitted this place, to take each of us an
emetic from the apothecary, which immediately purged us of all our
earthly passions, and presently the cloud forsook our eyes, as it doth
those of Aeneas in Virgil, when removed by Venus; and we discerned
things in a much clearer light than before. We began to compassionate
those spirits who were making their entry into the flesh, whom we had
till then secretly envied, and to long eagerly for those delightful
plains which now opened themselves to our eyes, and to which we now
hastened with the utmost eagerness. On our way we met with several
spirits with very dejected countenances; but our expedition would not
s