Replied his friend.-No! I'm surpris'd at that;
Where I came from it is the common chat;
But you shall hear; an odd affair indeed!
And, that it happen'd, they are all agreed:
Not to detain you from a thing so strange,
A gentleman, that lives not far from Change,
This week, in short, as all the Alley knows,
Taking a puke, has thrown up three black crows.-
Impossible!-Nay but it's really true;

I have it from good hands, and so may you-
From whose, I pray?-So having nam'd the man,
Straight to enquire his curious comrade ran.
Sir, did you tell-relating the affair-
Yes, Sir, I did; and if it's worth your care,
Ask Mr. Such-a-one, he told it me,

But, by the bye, 'twas two black crows, not three.

Resolv'd to trace so wond'rous an event,
Whip, to the third, the virtuoso went,
Sir-and so forth-Why yes; the thing is fact,
Tho' in regard to number not exact;
It was not two black crows, 'twas only one,
The truth of that you may depend upon,
The gentleman himself told me the case-
Where may I find him?-Why, in such a place.

Away goes he, and having found him out, Sir, be so good as to resolve a doubt

Then to his last informant he referr'd,

And begg'd to know, if true what he had heard?
Did you, Sir, throw up a black crow-Not I-

Bless me! how people propagate a lie!

Black crows have been thrown up, three, two, and one;

And here, I find, all comes, at last, to none!

Did you say nothing of a crow at all?-
Crow-crow-perhaps I might, now I recall

The matter over-and, pray Sir, what was't?
Why I was horrid sick, and, at the last,
I did throw up, and told my neighbour so,
Something that was as black, Sir, as a crow*.

Mr. Byrom continued to live happy and respectable in the bosom of domestic peace and comfort, until, in the seventy-second year of his age, and on the 28th of September, 1763, he submitted, after an illness borne with great fortitude and resignation, to the stroke of death.

In all the relations of life Mr. Byrom supported a character of great innocence, integrity, and virtue; his talents were very respectable, and his industry was great; he possessed a heart alive to the finest feelings of humanity, and was a sincere and devotional believer in the records and doctrines of christianity.

The contributions of Mr. Byrom to the Spectator took place at an early period of his life; yet are they such as reflect great honour on his literary acquirements, and are justly considered as ornaments to the work in which they are included. Four papers in the eighth volume have been attributed to him by the annotators, but of these only two can be considered as certainly of his production. These are Nos. 586 and 593; in the last of which he himself affirms, "that he has

* Byrom's Miscellaneous Poems, vol. i. p. 49-51.

no manner of title to the vision which succeeded his first letter;" an avowal, however, which the annotators seem to have little regarded, as they still persist in giving our author credit for the composition of N° 587. For the conjectural ascription of N° 597, they have no other authority than what similarity of subject can afford; the paper appearing to have been formed on some hints in Mr. Byrom's first communication.

The two authentic papers of our ingenious essayist are on Dreaming, a subject which, in the hands of various writers, has been productive of much pleasing illustration. He takes it for granted, that "dreams are certainly the result of our waking thoughts; and our daily hopes and fears are what give the mind such nimble relishes of pleasure, and such severe touches of pain, in its midnight rambles." His object, therefore, is to point out the best method of rendering the workings of fancy in sleep grateful to the mind, and consequently friendly to health and happiness. Temperance in the indulgence of our appetites, and the habitual practice of virtue, he justly contends, are the only means which are adapted to the attainment of so desirable a result.

The state of the mind during sleep and dreaming, has been the theme of much controversy among physiologists and metaphysicians; but the

VOL. III.

best deduced opinions tend strongly to confirm the rationality of the means on which Mr. Byrom depends for success. Whether with Dr. Darwin we assert that "the power of volition is totally suspended in sleep ;" or with Dugald Stewart, that "the influence of the will over the faculties both of mind and body is then interrupted *;" it will follow, that the associations or trains of ideas which occur in dreaming, being under little or no subjection to the influence of volition, (although in frightful dreams the will is sometimes painfully but unavailingly exerted,) must take their tone and complexion either from the mental associations of our waking hours, or from the sensations and irritations of the corporeal frame. It is obvious therefore, that if such be the passive state of the mind in our dreams, and that we cannot voluntarily adopt or reject a train of thought, of what importance it may be both to health and peace of mind, that the associations of our waking hours, and the state of our bodily organs, be such as shall not, during the time which nature has allotted to repose, give rise to scenes of guilt, of misery, and of terror.

The couch of the vicious and luxurious is often haunted with spectres of every dreadful

* Vide Zoonomia, vol. i. and Dugald Stewart's Elements of the Philosophy of the Human Mind, p. 577.

pure

form and hue, while the temperate and the
in heart enjoy slumbers the most delicious and
.refreshing:

Dulcis et alta quies, placidæque simillima morti.
Virgilii Æneid. lib. v. 522.

Or are transported into regions of ever-varying beauty and enjoyment, into

-a world of gayer tinct and grace,

O'er which are shadowy cast Elysian gleams
That play, in waving lights, from place to place,
And shed a roseate smile on nature's face.

THOMSON.

10. ZACHARY PEARCE, D. D. bishop of Rochester, and a critic of considerable celebrity, was born in High Holborn, London, in 1690. His father, who had acquired great wealth as a distiller, educated him at Westminster-school, where he was chosen one of the King's scholars, and, in -1710, elected to Trinity College, Cambridge.

It was during the early part of his residence at the university, that he contributed to the periodical collections of Steele and Addison; to the Guardian in 1713, and to the eighth volume of the Spectator in 1714. The production, however, which first made him known to the public, and which procured him very powerful patronage, was an edition of Cicero de Oratore, printed