virtue, and every hour of their lives make themselves wiser or better
than they were before.

22. After having been taken up for some time in this course of thought,
I diverted myself with a book, according to my usual custom, in order to
unbend my mind before I went to sleep. The book I made use of on this
occasion was _Lucian_ where I amused my thoughts for about an hour among
the dialogues of the dead, which in all probability produced the
following dream:

23. I was conveyed, methought, into the entrance of the infernal
regions, where I saw _Rhadamanthus_, one of the judges of the dead,
seated in his tribunal. On his left hand stood the keeper of _Erebus_,
on his right the keeper of _Elysium_. I was told he sat upon women that
day, there being several of the sex lately arrived, who had not yet
their mansions assigned them.

24. I was surprised to hear him ask every one of them the same question,
namely, What they had been doing? Upon this question being proposed to
the whole assembly they stared upon one another, as not knowing what to
answer. He then interrogated each of them separately. Madam, says he to
the first of them, you have been upon the earth about fifty years: What
have you been doing there all this while? Doing, says she, really I do
not know what I have been doing: I desire I may have time given me to
recollect.

25. After about half an hour's pause, she told him that she had been
playing at crimp: upon which _Rhadamanthus_ beckoned to the keeper on
his left hand, to take her into custody. And you, Madam, says the judge,
that look with such a soft and languishing air; I think you set out for