every Island is a Paradise accommodated to its respective Inhabitants.  Are not these, O Mirzah, Habitations worth contending for?  Does Life appear miserable, that gives thee Opportunities of earning such a Reward?  Is Death to be feared, that will convey thee to so happy an Existence?  Think not Man was made in vain, who has such an Eternity reserved for him.  I gazed with inexpressible Pleasure on these happy Islands.  At length, said I, shew me now, I beseech thee, the Secrets that lie hid under those dark Clouds which cover the Ocean on the other side of the Rock of Adamant.  The Genius making me no Answer, I turned about to address myself to him a second time, but I found that he had left me; I then turned again to the Vision which I had been so long contemplating; but Instead of the rolling Tide, the arched Bridge, and the happy Islands, I saw nothing but the long hollow Valley of Bagdat, with Oxen, Sheep, and Camels grazing upon the Sides of it.

AN ESSAY ON FANS

From the Spectator, No. 102

I do not know whether to call the following Letter a Satyr upon Coquets, or a Representation of their several fantastical Accomplishments, or what other Title to give it; but as it is I shall communicate it to the Publick.  It will sufficiently explain its own Intentions, so that I shall give it my Reader at Length, without either Preface or Postscript.

     Mr. Spectator: 

Women are armed with Fans as Men with Swords, and sometimes do more Execution with them.  To the end therefore that Ladies may be entire Mistresses of the Weapon which they bear, I have erected an Academy for the training up of young Women in the Exercise of the Fan, according to the most fashionable Airs and Motions that are now practis’d at Court.  The Ladies who carry Fans under me are drawn up twice a-day in my great Hall, where they are instructed in the Use of their Arms, and exercised by the following Words of Command,

          Handle your Fans,
          Unfurl your Fans,
          Discharge your Fans,
          Ground your Fans,
          Recover your Fans,
          Flutter your Fans.

By the right Observation of these few plain Words of Command, a Woman of a tolerable Genius, who will apply herself diligently to her Exercise for the Space of but one half Year, shall be able to give her Fan all the Graces that can possibly enter into that little modish Machine.

But to the end that my Readers may form to themselves a right Notion of this Exercise, I beg leave to explain it to them in all its Parts.  When my Female Regiment is drawn up in Array, with every one her Weapon in her Hand, upon my giving the Word to handle their Fans, each of them shakes her Fan at me with a Smile, then gives her Right-hand Woman a Tap upon the Shoulder, then presses her Lips with the Extremity