another alternately patrons and protégès. A good underſtanding may be ſerviceable on both ſides. As to the author of theſe tales, I did indeed make a ſlight enquiry concerning him; and was told, if I recollect right, that his bones were mouldering in the churchyard at Weimar, or a place with ſome ſuch barbarous name. His ſpirit, for ought I know or care, may be freezing in Saturn or frying in Mercury: or, perhaps, the German is baſking in the Elyſian fields along ſide the Grecian Muſæus, encircled by a ring of baby ghoſts, crowding to hear his Lilliputian tales. But, whether alive or dead, a foreigner is never likely to come under articles with me; ſo I pay little regard to his birth, either in this or the other world, theſe being matters quite out of my line. What is to our preſent purpoſe is ſimply this:—The Tranſlator came and laid his bundle at my door; I was tempted to take the foundling in, and beſtow upon it a decent dreſs—which was certainly not cut out for a ſhroud. As my gentleman went off, he ſaid: ‘I ſhall lie for the preſent under a total eclipſe. Should the Reviewing Pack give their tongues merrily, and the public heartily join in the cry, I ſhall emerge, like Madam Luna, at the hooping and hallooing of the cannibals, from the jaws of the great dragon: and I may poſſibly be viſible with another bantling or two of the ſame breed in my arms!’
The riſque, therefore, you ſee, of this adventure is all my own. When a writer prints on his own account, you may plume yourſelf in your impartiality, and execute rigorous juſtice. But the caſe is different now, and I only juſt entreat you to ſay a few civil things: hereafter you may find that one good turn deſerves—
REVIEWER.
