e to
pretend to a competition in that point with me.

_Addison_.--I have been told by my friends that I was rather too modest,
so I will not determine this dispute for myself, but refer it to Mercury,
the god of wit, who fortunately happens to be coming this way with a soul
he has brought to the Shades.

Hail, divine Hermes! A question of precedence in the class of wit and
humour, over which you preside, having arisen between me and my
countryman, Dr. Swift, we beg leave--

_Mercury_.--Dr. Swift, I rejoice to see you. How does my old lad? How
does honest Lemuel Gulliver? Have you been in Lilliput lately, or in the
Flying Island, or with your good nurse Glumdalclitch? Pray when did you
eat a crust with Lord Peter? Is Jack as mad still as ever? I hear that
since you published the history of his case the poor fellow, by more
gentle usage, is almost got well. If he had but more food he would be as
much in his senses as Brother Martin himself; but Martin, they tell me,
has lately spawned a strange brood of Methodists, Moravians,
Hutchinsonians, who are madder than ever Jack was in his worst days. It
is a great pity you are not alive again to make a new edition of your
"Tale of the Tub" for the use of these fellows. Mr. Addison, I beg your
pardon; I should have spoken to you sooner, but I was so struck with the
sight of my old friend the doctor, that I forgot for a time the respects
due to you.

_Swift_.--Addison, I think our dispute is decided before the judge has
heard the cause.

_Addison_.--I own it is in your favour, but--

_Mercury_.--Don't be discouraged, friend Addison. Apollo perhaps would
have given a different judgment. I am a wit, and a rogue, and a foe to
all dignity. Swift and I naturally like one another. He worships me
more than Jupiter, and I honour him more than Homer; but yet, I assure
you, I have a great value for you. Sir Roger de Coverley, Will
Honeycomb, Will Wimble, the Country Gentleman in the Freeholder, and
twenty more characters, drawn with the finest strokes of unaffected wit
and humour in your admirable writings, have obtained for you a high place
in the class of my authors, though not quite so high a one as the Dean of
St. Patrick's. Perhaps you might have got before him if the decency of
your nature and the cautiousness of your judgment would have given you
leave. But, allowing that in the force and spirit of his wit he has
really the advantage, how much does he yield to