REPRESENTATIVE ESSAYS.

A COLLOQUY IN WESTMINSTER ABBEY.

BY WASHINGTON IRVING.

(BORN 1783, DIED 1859.)

I know that all beneath the moon decays,
And what by mortals in this world is brought,
In time's great period shall return to naught.
I know that all the muse's heavenly lays,
With toil of sprite which are so dearly bought,
As idle sounds, of few or none are sought;

That there is nothing lighter than mere praise.

DRUMMOND OF HAWTHORNDEN.

HERE are certain half-dreaming moods of mind, in which we naturally steal away from noise and glare,

and seek some quiet haunt, where we may indulge our reveries and build our air-castles undisturbed. In such a mood I was loitering about the old gray cloisters of Westminster Abbey, enjoying that luxury of wandering thought which one is apt to dignify with the name of reflection; when suddenly an interruption of madcap boys from Westminster School, playing at football, broke in upon the monastic stillness of the place, making the vaulted passages and mouldering tombs echo with their merriment. I sought to take refuge from their noise by penetrating still deeper into the solitudes of the pile, and