great scorn pushed him back. There now advanced a very beautiful
spirit indeed. She began to ogle Minos the moment she saw him.
She said she hoped there was some merit in refusing a great
number of lovers, and dying a maid, though she had had the choice
of a hundred. Minos told her she had not refused enow yet, and
turned her back.

She was succeeded by a spirit who told the judge he believed his
works would speak for him. "What works?" answered Minos. "My
dramatic works," replied the other, "which have done so much good
in recommending virtue and punishing vice." "Very well," said
the judge; "if you please to stand by, the first person who
passes the gate by your means shall carry you in with him; but,
if you will take my advice, I think, for expedition sake, you had
better return, and live another life upon earth." The bard
grumbled at this, and replied that, besides his poetical works,
he had done some other good things: for that he had once lent
the whole profits of a benefit-night to a friend, and by that
means had saved him and his family from destruction. Upon this
the gate flew open, and Minos desired him to walk in, telling
him, if he had mentioned this at first, he might have spared the
remembrance of his plays. The poet answered, he believed, if
Minos had read his works, he would set a higher value on them.
He was then beginning to repeat, but Minos pushed him forward,
and, turning his back to him, applied himself to the next
passenger, a very genteel spirit, who made a very low bow to
Minos, and then threw himself into an erect attitude, and
imitated the motion of taking snuff with his right hand. Minos
asked him what he had to say for himself. He answered, he would
dance a minuet with any spirit in Elysium: that he could