Indeed, can we doubt that such folly is on the decline, when we find
Albemarle Street in '60 willing to publish a harmless but
plain-speaking book which Smithfield shrank from in '80?'

The work is divided into three parts, devoted to three separate and
distinct visions, which the Bard pretends to have seen at three different
times in his sleep. In assuming the title of 'Sleeping Bard' Elis Wyn
committed a kind of plagiarism, as it originated with a certain poet who
flourished in the time of the Welsh princes, some nine hundred years
before he himself was born, and to this plagiarism he humorously alludes
in one of his visions. The visions are described in prose, but each is
followed by a piece of poetry containing a short gloss or comment. The
prose is graphic and vigorous, almost beyond conception; the poetry wild
and singular, each piece composed in a particular measure. Of the
measures, two are quite original, to be found nowhere else. The first
vision is the Vision of the World. The object of the Bard is to describe
the follies, vices, and crimes of the human race, more especially those
of the natives of the British Isles. In his sleep he imagines that he is
carried away by fairies, and is in danger of perishing owing to their
malice, but is rescued by an angel, who informs him that he has been sent
by the Almighty with orders to give him a distinct view of the world.
The angel, after a little time, presents him with a telescope, through
which he sees a city of a monstrous size, with thousands of cities and
kingdoms within it; and the great ocean, like a moat, around it; and
other seas, like rivers, intersecting it.

This city is, of course, the world. It is divided into three magnificent
streets. These streets are called respectively the streets of Pride,
Pleasure, and Lucre. In the distance is a cross street, little and mean
in comparison with the others, but clean and neat, and on a higher
foundation than the other streets, running upwards towards the east,
whilst they all sink downwards towards the north. This street is the
street of True Religion. The angel conducts him down the three principal
streets, and procures him glances into the inside of various houses. The
following scene in a cellar of what is called the street of Pleasure,
goes far to show that the pen of Elis Wyn, at low description, was not
inferior to the pencil of Hogarth:--

'From thence we went to a place where w