then importuned him to acquaint me in which of the cities which
contended for the honor of his birth he was really born? To
which he answered, "Upon my soul I can't tell."

Virgil then came up to me, with Mr. Addison under his arm.
"Well, sir," said he, "how many translations have these few last
years produced of my Aeneid?" I told him I believed several, but
I could not possibly remember; for that I had never read any but
Dr. Trapp's. "Ay," said he, "that is a curious piece indeed!" I
then acquainted him with the discovery made by Mr. Warburton of
the Elusinian mysteries couched in his sixth book. "What
mysteries?" said Mr. Addison. "The Elusinian," answered Virgil,
"which I have disclosed in my sixth book." "How!" replied
Addison. "You never mentioned a word of any such mysteries to me
in all our acquaintance." "I thought it was unnecessary," cried
the other, "to a man of your infinite learning: besides, you
always told me you perfectly understood my meaning." Upon this I
thought the critic looked a little out of countenance, and turned
aside to a very merry spirit, one Dick Steele, who embraced him,
and told him he had been the greatest man upon earth; that he
readily resigned up all the merit of his own works to him. Upon
which Addison gave him a gracious smile, and, clapping him on the
back with much solemnity, cried out, "Well said, Dick!"

I then observed Shakespeare standing between Betterton and Booth,
and deciding a difference between those two great actors
concerning the placing an accent in one of his lines: this was
disputed on both sides with a warmth which surprised me in
Elysium, till I discovered by intuition that every soul retained
its principal characteristic, being, indeed, its very essence.