ts.

As I was sitting after dinner in my elbow-chair, I took up Homer, and
dipped into that famous speech of Achilles to Priam, in which he tells
him, that Jupiter has by him two great vessels, the one filled with
blessings, and the other with misfortunes; out of which he mingles a
composition for every man that comes into the world. This passage so
exceedingly pleased me, that as I fell insensibly into my afternoon's
slumber, it wrought my imagination into the following dream:

When Jupiter took into his hands the government of the world, the
several parts of nature, with their presiding deities, did homage to
him. One presented him with a mountain of winds, another with a magazine
of hail, and a third with a pile of thunderbolts. The stars offered up
their influences; the ocean gave in his trident, the earth her fruits,
and the sun his seasons. Among the several deities who came to make
their court on this occasion, the destinies advanced with two great tuns
carried before them, one of which they fixed at the right hand of
Jupiter as he sat upon his throne, and the other on his left. The first
was filled with all the blessings, and the other with all the calamities
of human life. Jupiter, in the beginning of his reign, finding the world
much more innocent than it is in this iron age, poured very plentifully
out of the tun that stood at his right hand; but as mankind degenerated,
and became unworthy of his blessings, he set abroach the other vessel,
that filled the world with pain and poverty, battles and distempers,
jealousy and falsehood, intoxicating pleasures and untimely deaths.

He was at length so very much incensed at the great depravation of human
nature, and the repeated provocations which he received from all parts
of the earth, that having resolved to destroy the whole species, except
Deucalion and Pyrrha, he commanded the Destinies to gather up the
blessings which he had thrown away upon the sons of men, and lay them up
till the world should be inhabited by a more virtuous and deserving race
of mortals.

The three sisters immediately repaired to the earth, in search of the
several blessings that had been scattered on it; but found the task
which was enjoined them, to be much more difficult than they had
imagined. The first places they resorted to, as the most likely to
succeed in, were cities, palaces, and courts; but instead of meeting
with what they looked for here, they found nothing but envy, repini