because Sunderland took a fancy to make you a great man in the state,
that he, or his master, could make you as great in wit as Nature made me?
No, no; wit is like grace, it must be given from above. You can no more
get that from the king than my lords the bishops can the other. And,
though I will own you had some, yet believe me, my good friend, it was no
match for mine. I think you have not vanity enough in your nature 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