{"collection":"philosophy-ethics","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_72540/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_72540","id":"gutenberg_72540","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/72540","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Essays, Letters & Speeches","Category: Philosophy & Ethics","English literature -- 19th century"],"text":"THE DOCTOR, &c.\n\n\n\n\nThere is a kind of physiognomy in the titles of books no less than in \nthe faces of men, by which a skilful observer will as well know what \nto expect from the one as the other.\n\nBUTLER'S REMAINS.\n\n\n\n\nTHE DOCTOR, &c.\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration: a tetrahedron]\n\n\n\n\nVOL. VI.\n\n\n\n\n\nLONDON:\n\nLONGMAN, BROWN, GREEN, AND LONGMANS.\n\n1847.\n\n\n\n\nLONDON:\n\nPRINTED BY W. NICOL, PALL-MALL.\n\n\n\n\nPREFACE.\n\nINVENIAS ETIAM DISJECTI MEMBRA POET\u00c6.\n\n\nIn the distribution of the lamented Southey's literary property, the \nHistory of the Brazils, his much treasured MS. History of Portugal, \nthe Doctor, &c. and the MS. materials for its completion, fell to the \nshare of Edith May Warter, his eldest child, and, as he used to call \nher, his right hand,\u2014to whom he addressed the Dedication of the Tale \nof Paraguay, and to whom he commenced a little Poem of which the lines \nfollowing are almost the last, if not the very last, he ever wrote in \nverse.\n\n  O daughter dear, who bear'st no longer now\n  Thy Father's name, and for the chalky flats\n  Of Sussex hast exchanged thy native land\n  Of lakes and mountains,\u2014neither change of place\n  Condition, and all circumstantial things,\n  Nor new relations, and access of cares\n  Unfelt before, have alienated thee\n  Nor wean'd thy heart from this beloved spot,\n  Thy birth place, and so long thy happy home!\n\nThe present Volume is drawn up from the MS. materials alluded to, as \nnearly as possible in the order the Author had intended, and the \nseventh and concluding volume is in the press and will shortly be \npublished.\n\nThe whole of the MS. sheets, previous to being sent to the press, were \ncautiously examined by his no less amiable and excellent, than highly \ngifted Widow, who, at the time, was staying with us on a visit at \nWest-Tarring. Had the lamented Southey continued the work, it was his \nintention, in this volume, to have advanced a step in the story,\u2014and \nthe Interchapters, no doubt, would have been enlarged, according to \ncustom. His habit was, as he said, \u201cto lay the timbers of them, and to \njot down, from time to time, remarks serious or jocose, as they \noccurred to him.\u201d Full readily would this holy and humble man of heart \nhave acceded to the truth conveyed in these lines from Martin Tupper's \nProverbial philosophy,\u2014and none the less for their dactylic cadence.\n\n  There is a grave-faced folly, and verily a laughter loving wisdom;\n  And what, if surface judges, account it vain frivolity?\n  There is indeed an evil in excess, and a field may lie fallow too\n    long;\n  Yet merriment is often as a froth, that mantleth on the strong mind:\n  And note thou this for a verity,\u2014the subtlest thinker when alone,\n  From ease of thoughts unbent, will laugh the loudest with his\n    fellows:\n  And well is the loveliness of wisdom mirrored in a cheerful\n    countenance,\n  Justly the deepest pools are proved by dimpling eddies;\n  For that, a true philosophy commandeth an innocent life,\n  And the unguilty spirit is lighter than a linnet's heart;\n  Yea, there is no cosmetic like a holy conscience;\n  The eye is bright with trust, the cheek bloomed over with affection,\n  The brow unwrinkled with a care, and the lip triumphant in its\n    gladness.[1]\n\n[Footnote 1: Of Ridicule, 1st Series. On my acquainting Mrs. Southey \nwith my intention of quoting these lines, she wrote me word back: \n\u201cThat very passage I had noted, as singularly applicable to him _we_ \nknew so well,\u2014whom the world, the children of this generation,\u2014knew so \nlittle!\u201d]\n\nThe only liberty taken with the original MS. is the omission of, now \nand then a name, or even a paragraph, which might have given pain to \nthe living. Such passages were thrown off playfully, and were, as Mrs. \nSouthey can testify, erased by the author continually. It was no \ncustom of Southey to cast \u201cfire-brands, arrows, and death,\u201d and to \nsay, \u201cAm I not in sport?\u201d _(Proverbs, xxvi. 18, 19.)_\n\nIt only remains to add that the Editor has carefully verified all \nreferences,\u2014that he is responsible for the headings of the chapters \n(some few excepted,)\u2014for the Mottoes to cc. clxxx. and clxxxi.,\u2014and \nfor the casual foot notes.\n\nJOHN WOOD WARTER.\n\n_Vicarage House,_\n_West-Tarring, Nov. 25th._\n\n\n\n\nPRELUDE OF MOTTOES.\n\n\n  Two thyngys owyth every clerk\n  To advertysyn, begynnyng a werk,\n  If he procedyn wyl ordeneely,\n  The fyrste is _what_, the secunde is _why_.\n  In wych two wurdys, as it semyth me\n  The Foure causys comprehendyd be\n  Wych as our philosofyrs us do teche,\n  In the begynnyng men owe to seche\n  Of every book; and aftyr there entent,\n  The fyrst is clepyd cause efficyent:\n  The secunde they clepe cause materyal,\n  Formal the thrydde; the fourte fynal.\n  The efficyent cause is the auctour,\n  Wych aftyr hys cunnyng doth hys labour\n  To a complyse the begunne matere,\n  Wych cause is secunde; and the more clere\n  That it may be, the formal cause\n  Settyth in dew ordre clause be clause.\n  And these thre thyngys, longyn to what,\n  Auctour, matere and forme ordinat,\n  The fynal cause declaryth pleynly\n  Of the werk begunne the cause why;\n  That is to seyne what was the entent\n  Of the auctour fynally, and what he ment.\n\nOSBERN BOKENAM.\n\n\n  Look for no splendid painted outside here,\n  But for a work devotedly sincere;\n  A thing low prized in these too high-flown days:\n  Such solid sober works get little praise.\n        Yet some there be\n      Love true solidity.\n\n  And unto such brave noble souls I write,\n  In hopes to do them and the subject right.\n  I write it not to please the itching vein\n  Of idle-headed fashionists, or gain\n        Their fond applause;\n      I care for no such noise.\n\n  I write it only for the sober sort,\n  Who love right learning, and will labour for't;\n  And who will value worth in art, though old,\n  And not be weary of the good, though told\n        Tis out of fashion\n      By nine-tenths of the nation.\n\n  I writ it also out of great good will\n  Unto my countrymen; and leave my skill\n  Behind me for the sakes of those that may\n  Not yet be born; but in some after day\n        May make good use\n      Of it, without abuse.\n\n  But chiefly I do write it, for to show\n  A duty to the Doctor which I owe.\n\nTHOMAS MACE.\n\n\nPhysicians are many times forced to leave such methods of curing as \nthemselves know to be the fittest, and being overruled by their \npatient's impatiency are fain to try the best they can in taking that \nway of cure, which the cured will yield unto: in like sort, \nconsidering how the case doth stand with this present age, full of \ntongue and weak of brain, behold we yield to the stream thereof: into \nthe causes of goodness we will not make any curious or deep inquiry; \nto touch them now and then it shall be sufficient, when they are so \nnear at hand that easily they may be conceived without any far removed \ndiscourse. That way we are contented to prove, which being the worse \nin itself, is notwithstanding now, by reason of common imbecility, the \nfitter and likelier to be brooked.\n\nHOOKER.\n\n\n  _Qui lit beaucoup et jamais ne medite,\n     Semble \u00e0 celuy qui mange avidement,\n     Et de tous mets surcharge tellement\n   Son estomach que rien ne luy profit._\n\nQUATRAINE DE PIBRAC.\n\nthus englished by Sylvester,\n\n  Who readeth much and never meditates,\n    Is like a greedy eater of much food,\n  Who so surcloys his stomach with his cates\n    That commonly they do him little good.\n\n\n_Je s\u00e7ay qu'en ce discours l'on me pourra reprendre, que j'ay mis \nbeaucoup de particularitez qui sont fort superflu\u00ebs. Je le crois: \nmais, je s\u00e7ay, que si elles desplaisent \u00e0 aucuns, elles plairont aux \nautres: me semblant, que ce n'est pas assez, quand on lou\u00eb des \npersonnes, dire qu'elles sont belles, sages, vertueuses, valeureuses, \nvaillantes, magnanimes, lib\u00e9rales, splendides et tr\u00e8s-parfaites. Ce \nsont lo\u00fcanges et descriptions gen\u00e9rales, et lieux-communs empruntez de \ntout le monde. Il en faut specifier bien le tout, et descrire \nparticuli\u00e9rement les perfections, afin que mieux on les touche au \ndoigt: et telle est mon opinion._\n\nBRANTOME.\n\n\n  _Non sai se l'arte, o il caso abbia fornita\n     Cosi bell' opra, o siano entrambi a parte;\n   Perocch\u00e8 l'arte \u00e8 tal che il caso imita,\n     E'l caso \u00e8 tal che rassomiglia all' arte:\n   E questo a quella, e quella a questo unita,\n     Quanto pu\u00f2, quanto sa, mesce e comparte.\n   Un la materia al bel lavor dispose,\n   L'altra meglio adornolla, e poi s'ascose._\n\nMETASTASIO.\n\n\n_Tous ceux qui ont quelquesfois pes\u00e9 le grand travail et le labeur de \nl'imagination, l'ont jug\u00e9 pour le plus grand qui se puisse trouver, et \nont eu raison; d'autant que celuy lequel veut et desire en contenter \nplusieurs, doit aussi chercher des moyens differens, afin que ce qui \nest ennuyeux \u00e0 l'un, l'autre le trouve doux et agreable; car de le \ndonner \u00e0 tous, il est impossible; veu, qu' entre trois personnes \nseulement que l'on aura convi\u00e9es, il se trouvera une grande diference \nde gouts, ainsi que l'a dit Horace, luy, dis-je qui l'avoit si bien \nexperiment\u00e9: par ainsi il n'est pas possible qu'en une si longue \nhistoire que celle dont je vay traictant, que je ne donne de la peine \npar la diversit\u00e9 des chapitres. Toutetfois si le jugement s'en faict \npar des personnes privees et libres de toute passion, ils diront que \nc'est le vray moyen d'entretenir les esprits curieux._\n\nL'HISTOIRE DU CHEVALIER DU SOLEIL.\n\n\nBe rather wise than witty, for much wit hath commonly much froth; and \n'tis hard to jest and not sometimes jeer too; which many times sinks \ndeeper than was intended or expected; and what was designed for mirth, \nends in sadness.\n\nCALEB TRENCHFIELD.\n(probably a fictitious name.) RESTITUTA.\n\n\nIn some passages you will observe me very satirical. Writing on such \nsubjects I could not be otherwise. I can write nothing without aiming, \nat least, at usefulness. It were beneath my years to do it, and still \nmore dishonourable to my religion. I know that a reformation of such \nabuses as I have censured is not to be expected from the efforts of an \nauthor; but to contemplate the world, its follies, its vices, its \nindifferences to duty, and its strenuous attachment to what is evil, \nand not to reprehend, were to approve it. From this charge, at least, \nI shall be clear; for I have neither tacitly, nor expressly flattered \neither its characters or its customs.\n\nCOWPER.\n\n\n_Nemo eo sapientius desipuisse, nemo stultius sapuisse videtur._\n\nSaid of Cardan by I know not who.\n\n\n_Il y en a qui pensent que les lecteurs re\u00e7oivent peu d'instruction, \nquand on leur repr\u00e9sente des choses qui n'ont pas est\u00e9 achev\u00e9es,  \nqu'eux appellent \u0153uvres imparfaites; mais je ne suis pas de leur \nadvis; car quand quelque fait est descrit \u00e0 la verit\u00e9, et avec ses \ncirconstances, encor qu'il ne soit parvenu qu' \u00e0 mychemin, si peut-on \ntousjours en tirer du fruict._\n\nLA NOUE.\n\n\n  Authors, you know of greatest fame,\n  Thro' modesty suppress their name;\n  And would you wish me to reveal\n  What these superior wits conceal?\n  Forego the search, my curious friend,\n  And husband time to better end.\n  All my ambition is, I own,\n  To profit and to please unknown,\n  Like streams supplied from springs below\n  Which scatter blessings as they flow.\n\nDR. COTTON.\n\n\nThus have I, as well as I could, gathered a posey of observations as \nthey grew,\u2014and if some rue and wormwood be found amongst the sweeter \nherbs, their wholesomeness will make amends for their bitterness.\n\nADAM LITTLETON.\n\n\n  This worthy work in which of good examples are so many,\n  This orchard of Alcinous, in which there wants not any\n  Herb, tree, or fruit that may mans use for health or pleasure serve;\n  This plenteous horn of Acheloy, which justly doth deserve\n  To bear the name of Treasury of Knowledge, I present\n  To your good worships once again,\u2014desiring you therefore\n  To let your noble courtesy and favour countervail\n  My faults, where art or eloquence on my behalf doth fail,\n  For sure the mark whereat I shoot is neither wreaths of bay,\n  Nor name of author, no, nor meed; but chiefly that it may\n  Be liked well of you and all the wise and learned sort;\n  And next, that every wight that shall have pleasure for to sport\n  Him in this garden, may as well bear wholesome fruit away\n  As only on the pleasant flowers his retchless senses stay.\n\nGOLDING.\n\n\nDoubtless many thoughts have presented, and are still presenting \nthemselves to my mind, which once I had no idea of. But these, in I \nbelieve every instance, are as much the growth of former rooted \nprinciples, as multiplied branches grow from one and the same main \nstem. Of such an inward vegetation I am always conscious; and I \nequally seem to myself to perceive the novelty of the fresh shoot, and \nits connexion with what had been produced before.\n\nALEXANDER KNOX.\n\n\nThe extensive argument and miscellaneous nature of the work led him to \ndeclare his sentiments on a multitude of questions, on which he \nthought differently from other writers, and of course, to censure or \nconfute their opinions. Whole bodies of men, as well as individuals of \nthe highest reputation, were attacked by him, and his manner was to \nspeak his sense of all with freedom and force. So that most writers, \nand even readers, had some ground of complaint against him. Not only \nthe free-thinkers and unbelievers, against whom the tenour of his book \nwas directed, but the heterodox of every denomination were treated \nwithout much ceremony, and of the orthodox themselves, some tenet or \nother, which till then they had held sacred, was discussed and \nreprobated by him. Straggling heresies, or embodied systems, made no \ndifference with him; as they came in his way, no quarter was given to \neither, \u201chis end and manner of writing,\u201d as Dr. Middleton truly \nobserved, \u201cbeing to pursue truth wherever he found it.\u201d\n\nHURD'S LIFE OF WARBURTON.\n\n\nThou art like my rappee, here, a most ridiculous superfluity; but a \npinch of thee now and then is a more delicious treat.\n\nCLANDESTINE MARRIAGE.\n\n\n  Yea\u2014but what am I?\n  A scholar, or a schoolmaster, or else some youth?\n  A lawyer, a student, or else a country clown?\n  A brumman, a basket-maker, or a baker of pies?\n  A flesh, or a fishmonger, or a sower of lies?\n  A louse, or a louser, a leek or a lark,\n  A dreamer, a drommell, a fire or a spark?\n  A caitiff, a cut-throat, a creeper in corners,\n  A hairbrain, a hangman, or a grafter of horners?\n  A merchant, a maypole, a man or a mackarel,\n  A crab or a crevise, a crane or a cockerell?\n\nAPIUS AND VIRGINIA.\n\n\n  It may appear to some ridiculous\n  Thus to talk knave and madman, and sometimes\n  Come in with a dried sentence, stuft with sage.\n\nWEBSTER.\n\n\n_Etsi ver\u00f2, qu\u00e6 in isto opere desiderentur, recti\u00f9s forsan qu\u00e0m quivis \nalius, perspiciam; et si meo plan\u00e8 voto standum fuisset, id, in tant\u00e2, \nqu\u00e6 hodie est librorum copi\u00e2, vel plan\u00e8 suppressissem, vel in multos \nannos adhuc pressissem; tamen aliquid amicis, aliquid tempori dandum; \net cum iis qui aliquid fructus ex eo sperant, illud communicandum \nputavi. Hunc itaque meum qualemcunque laborem, Lector candide, boni \nconsule; quod te facil\u00e8 facturum confido, si eum animum ad legendum \nattuleris, quem ego ad scribendum, veritatis nimirum aliisque \ninserviendi cupidum._\n\nSENNERTUS.\n\n\n\n\nCONTENTS.\n\n\nCHAPTER CLXXII.\u2014p. 1.\n\nDESCARTES' NOTION CONCERNING THE PROLONGATION OF LIFE. A SICILIAN \nPROPOSAL FOR BREEDING UP CHILDREN TO BE IMMORTAL. ASGILL'S ARGUMENT \nAGAINST THE NECESSITY OF DYING.\n\n  O harmless Death! whom still the valiant brave,\n    The wise expect, the sorrowful invite;\n  And all the good embrace, who know the Grave\n    A short dark passage to eternal light.\n\nSIR WILLIAM DAVENANT.\n\n\nCHAPTER CLXXIII.\u2014p. 30.\n\nMORE CONCERNING ASGILL. HIS DEFENCE IN THE HOUSE OF COMMONS, HIS \nEXPULSION, FARTHER SPECULATIONS AND DEATH.\n\n  Let not that ugly Skeleton appear!\n  Sure Destiny mistakes; this Death's not mine!\n\nDRYDEN.\n\n\nCHAPTER CLXXIV.\u2014p. 48.\n\nTHE DOCTOR INDULGES IN THE WAY OF FANTASTIC AND TYPICAL SPECULATION ON \nHIS OWN NAME, AND ON THE POWERS OF THE LETTER D., WHETHER AS REGARDS \nDEGREES AND DISTINCTIONS, GODS AND DEMIGODS, PRINCES AND KINGS, \nPHILOSOPHERS, GENERALS OR TRAVELLERS.\n\nMy mouth's no dictionary; it only serves as the needful interpreter of \nmy heart.\n\nQUARLES.\n\n\nCHAPTER CLXXV.\u2014p. 56.\n\nTHE DOCTOR FOLLOWS UP HIS MEDITATIONS ON THE LETTER D. AND EXPECTS \nTHAT THE READER WILL BE CONVINCED THAT IT IS A DYNAMIC LETTER, AND \nTHAT THE HEBREWS DID NOT WITHOUT REASON CALL IT DALETH\u2014THE DOOR\u2014AS \nTHOUGH IT WERE THE DOOR OF SPEECH.\u2014THE MYSTIC TRIANGLE.\n\nMore authority dear boy, name more; and sweet my child let them be men \nof good repute and carriage.\u2014\n\nLOVE'S LABOUR LOST.\n\n\nCHAPTER CLXXVI.\u2014p. 66.\n\nTHE DOCTOR DISCOVERS THE ANTIQUITY OF THE NAME OF DOVE FROM PERUSING \nJACOB BRYANT'S ANALYSIS OF ANCIENT MYTHOLOGY.\u2014CHRISTOPHER AND \nFERDINAND COLUMBUS.\u2014SOMETHING ABOUT PIGEON-PIE, AND THE REASON WHY THE \nDOCTOR WAS INCLINED TO THINK FAVOURABLY OF THE SAMARITANS.\n\nAn I take the humour of a thing once, I am like your tailor's needle; \nI go through.\n\nBEN JONSON.\n\n\nCHAPTER CLXXVII.\u2014p. 73.\n\nSOMETHING ON THE SCIENCE AND MYSTERY OF NUMBERS WHICH IS NOT ACCORDING \nTO COCKER.\u2014REVERIES OF JEAN D'ESPAGNE, MINISTER OF THE FRENCH-REFORMED \nCHURCH IN WESTMINSTER, AND OF MR. JOHN BELLAMY.\u2014A PITHY REMARK OF \nFULLER'S AND AN EXTRACT FROM HIS PISGAH SIGHT OF PALESTINE, TO \nRECREATE THE READER.\n\n  None are so surely caught, when they are catch'd\n  As wit turn'd fool: folly, in wisdom hatch'd\n  Hath wisdom's warrant, and the help of school,\n  And wit's own grace to grace a learned fool.\n\nLOVE'S LABOUR LOST.\n\n\nCHAPTER CLXXVIII.\u2014p. 85.\n\nTHE MYSTERY OF NUMBERS PURSUED, AND CERTAIN CALCULATIONS GIVEN WHICH \nMAY REMIND THE READER OF OTHER CALCULATIONS EQUALLY \nCORRECT\u2014ANAGRAMMATIZING OF NAMES, AND THE DOCTOR'S SUCCESS THEREIN.\n\n\u201cThere is no efficacy in numbers, said the wiser Philosophers; and \nvery truly,\u201d\u2014saith Bishop Hacket in repeating this sentence; but he \ncontinues,\u2014\u201csome numbers are apt to enforce a reverent esteem towards \nthem, by considering miraculous occurrences which fell out in _holy \nScripture_ on such and such a number.\u2014_Non potest fortuit\u00f2 fieri, quod \ntam s\u00e6pe fit_, says Maldonatus whom I never find superstitious in this \nmatter. It falls out too often to be called contingent; and the \noftener it falls out, the more to be attended.\u201d\n\n\nCHAPTER CLXXIX.\u2014p. 93.\n\nTHE SUBJECT OF ANAGRAMS CONTINUED; A TRUE OBSERVATION WHICH MANY FOR \nWANT OF OBSERVATION WILL NOT DISCOVER TO BE SUCH, VIZ., THAT THERE IS \nA LATENT SUPERSTITION IN THE MOST RATIONAL OF MEN.\u2014LUCKY AND \nUNLUCKY\u2014FITTING AND UNFITTING\u2014ANAGRAMS, AND HOW THE DOCTOR'S TASTE IN \nTHIS LINE WAS DERIVED FROM OUR OLD ACQUAINTANCE JOSHUA SYLVESTER.\n\n  _Ha gran forza una vecchia opinione;\n     E bisogna grand' arte, e gran fatica,\n     A cavarla del capo alle persone._\n\nBRONZINO PITTORE.\n\n\nCHAPTER CLXXX.\u2014p. 101.\n\nTHE DOCTOR'S IDEAS OF LUCK, CHANCE, ACCIDENT, FORTUNE AND \nMISFORTUNE.\u2014THE DUCHESS OF NEWCASTLE'S DISTINCTION BETWEEN CHANCE AND \nFORTUNE WHEREIN NO-MEANING IS MISTAKEN FOR MEANING.\u2014AGREEMENT IN \nOPINION BETWEEN THE PHILOSOPHER OF DONCASTER AND THE PHILOSOPHER OF \nNORWICH.\u2014DISTINCTION BETWEEN UNFORTUNATELY UGLY, AND WICKEDLY \nUGLY.\u2014DANGER OF PERSONAL CHARMS.\n\n_\u1f1c\u03c3\u03c4\u03b9 \u03b3\u1f70\u03c1 \u1f61\u03c2 \u1f00\u03bb\u03b7\u03b8\u1ff6\u03c2 \u1f10\u03c0\u03af\u03c6\u03b8\u03b5\u03b3\u03bc\u03b1 \u03c4\u1f78 \u03b1\u1f50\u03c4\u03cc\u03bc\u03b1\u03c4\u03bf\u03bd, \u1f00\u03bd\u03b8\u03c1\u03ce\u03c0\u03c9\u03bd \u1f61\u03c2 \u1f14\u03c4\u03c5\u03c7\u03b5 \u03ba\u03b1\u1f76 \n\u1f00\u03bb\u03bf\u03b3\u03af\u03c3\u03c4\u03c9\u03c2 \u03c6\u03c1\u03bf\u03bd\u03bf\u03cd\u03bd\u03c4\u03c9\u03bd, \u03ba\u03b1\u1f76 \u03c4\u1f78\u03bd \u03bc\u1f72\u03bd \u03bb\u03cc\u03b3\u03bf\u03bd \u03b1\u1f50\u03c4\u1ff6\u03bd \u03bc\u1f74 \u03ba\u03b1\u03c4\u03b1\u03bb\u03b1\u03bc\u03b2\u03b1\u03bd\u03cc\u03bd\u03c4\u03c9\u03bd, \u03b4\u03b9\u1f70 \n\u03b4\u1f72 \u03c4\u1f74\u03bd \u1f00\u03c3\u03b8\u03ad\u03bd\u03b5\u03b9\u03b1\u03bd \u03c4\u1fc6\u03c2 \u03ba\u03b1\u03c4\u03b1\u03bb\u03ae\u03c8\u03b5\u03c9\u03c2, \u03b1\u03bb\u03cc\u03b3\u03c9\u03c2 \u03bf\u1f30\u03bf\u03bc\u03ad\u03bd\u03c9\u03bd \u03b4\u03b9\u03b1\u03c4\u03b5\u03c4\u03ac\u03c7\u03b8\u03b1\u03b9 \u03c4\u03b1\u1fe6\u03c4\u03b1, \u1f67\u03bd \n\u03c4\u1f78\u03bd \u03bb\u03cc\u03b3\u03bf\u03bd \u1f10\u03b9\u03c0\u03b5\u1fd6\u03bd \u1f40\u03c5\u03ba \u1f14\u03c7\u03bf\u03c5\u03c3\u03b9\u03bd._\n\nCONSTANT. ORAT. AD SANCT. C\u00c6T. C. VII.\n\n\u201cDeformity is either natural, voluntary, or adventitious, being either \ncaused by _God's unseen Providence_, (_by men nick-named, chance_,) or \nby men's cruelty.\u201d\n\nFULLER'S HOLY STATE, B. iii. C. 15.\n\n\nCHAPTER CLXXXI.\u2014p. 108.\n\nNO DEGREE OF UGLINESS REALLY UNFORTUNATE.\u2014FIDUS CORNELIUS COMPARED TO \nA PLUCKED OSTRICH.\u2014WILKES' CLAIM TO UGLINESS CONSIDERED AND NEGATIVED \nBY DR. JOHNSON, NOTWITHSTANDING HOGARTH'S PORTRAIT.\u2014CAST OF THE EYE \u00c0 \nLA MONTMORENCY.\u2014ST. EVREMOND AND TURENNE.\u2014WILLIAM BLAKE THE PAINTER, \nAND THE WELSH TRIADS.\u2014CURIOUS EXTRACT FROM THAT VERY CURIOUS AND RARE \nBOOK, THE DESCRIPTIVE CATALOGUE OF HIS OWN PICTURES,\u2014AND A PAINFUL ONE \nFROM HIS POETICAL SKETCHES.\n\n\u201c_If thou beest not so handsome as thou wouldest have been thank God \nthou art not more unhandsome than thou art._ 'Tis His mercy thou art \nnot the mark for passenger's fingers to point at, an Heteroclite in \nnature, with some member defective or redundant. Be glad that thy clay \ncottage hath all the necessary forms thereto belonging, though the \noutside be not so fairly plaistered as some others.\u201d\n\nFULLER'S HOLY STATE, B. iii. C. 15.\n\n\nCHAPTER CLXXXII.\u2014p. 128.\n\nAN IMPROVEMENT IN THE FORM OF THE HUMAN LEG SUGGESTED BY A PHYSICIAN. \nTHE DOCTOR'S CURE OF A BROKEN SHIN AND INVENTION OF A SHIN-SHIELD.\n\n_Res fisci est, ubicunque natat._ Whatsoever swims upon any water, \nbelongs to this exchequer.\n\nJEREMY TAYLOR. _Preface to the Duct. Dub._\n\n\nCHAPTER CLXXXIII.\u2014p. 133.\n\nVIEWS OF OLD AGE. MONTAGNE, DANIEL CORNEILLE, LANGUET, PASQUIER, DR. \nJOHNSON, LORD CHESTERFIELD, ST. EVREMOND.\n\n                What is age\n  But the holy place of life, the chapel of ease\n  For all men's wearied miseries?\n\nMASSINGER.\n\n\nCHAPTER CLXXXIV.\u2014p. 148.\n\nFURTHER OBSERVATIONS CONCERNING OLD AGE. BISHOP REYNOLDS. OPINION OF \nTHE DOCTOR CONCERNING BEASTS AND MEN. M. DE CUSTINE. THE WORLD IS TOO \nMUCH WITH US. WORDSWORTH. SIR WALTER RALEIGH.\n\nIn these reflections, which are of a serious, and somewhat of a \nmelancholy cast, it is best to indulge; because it is always of use to \nbe serious, and not unprofitable sometimes to be melancholy.\n\nFREEMAN'S SERMONS.\n\n\nCHAPTER CLXXXV.\u2014p. 157.\n\nEVOLVEMENTS. ANALOGIES. ANTICIPATIONS.\n\n          I have heard, how true\n  I know not, most physicians as they grow\n  Greater in skill, grow less in their religion;\n  Attributing so much to natural causes,\n  That they have little faith in that they cannot\n  Deliver reason for: this Doctor steers\n  Another course.\n\nMASSINGER.\n\n\nCHAPTER CLXXXVI.\u2014p. 163.\n\nLEONE HEBREO'S DIALOGI DE AMORE.\u2014THE ELIXIR OF LIFE NO OBSTACLE TO \nDEATH.\u2014PARACELSUS.\u2014VAN HELMONT AND JAN MASS.\u2014DR. DOVE'S OPINION OF A \nBIOGRAPHER'S DUTIES.\n\nThere's a lean fellow beats all conquerors!\n\nOLD FORTUNATUS.\n\n\nCHAPTER CLXXXVII.\u2014p. 174.\n\nVAN HELMONT'S WORKS, AND CERTAIN SPECIALITIES IN HIS LIFE.\n\n_Voil\u00e0 mon conte.\u2014Je ne s\u00e7ay s'il est vray; mais, je l'ay ainsi ouy \nconter.\u2014Possible que cela est faux, possible que non.\u2014Je m'en rapporte \n\u00e0 ce qui en est. Il ne sera pas damn\u00e9 qui le croira, ou d\u00e9croira._\n\nBRANT\u00d4ME.\n\n\nINTERCHAPTER XX.\u2014p. 181.\n\nST. PANTALEON OF NICOMEDIA IN BITHYNIA\u2014HIS HISTORY, AND SOME FURTHER \nPARTICULARS NOT TO BE FOUND ELSEWHERE.\n\n   _Non dicea le cose senza il quia;\n  Che il dritto distingueva dal mancino,\n  E dicea pane al pane, e vino al vino._\n\nBERTOLDO.\n\n\nARCH-CHAPTER.\u2014p. 198.\n\n\nCHAPTER CLXXXVIII.\u2014p. 207.\n\nFOLLY IN PRINT, REFERRED TO, BUT (N.B.) NOT EXEMPLIFIED. THE FAIR MAID \nOF DONCASTER. DOUBTS CONCERNING THE AUTHENTICITY OF HER STORY. \nTHEVENARD, AND LOVE ON A NEW FOOTING. STARS AND GARTERS, A MONITORY \nANECDOTE FOR OUR SEX, AND A WHOLESOME NOVELTY IN DRESS RECOMMENDED TO \nBOTH.\n\n  They be at hand, Sir, with stick and fiddle,\n  They can play a new dance, Sir, called hey, diddle, diddle.\n\nKING CAMBYSES.\n\n\nCHAPTER CLXXXIX.\u2014p. 217.\n\nTHE DOCTOR'S OPINION OF LATE HOURS. DANCING. FANATICAL OBJECTION OF \nTHE ALBIGENSES; INJURIOUS EFFECT OF THAT OPINION WHEN TRANSMITTED TO \nTHE FRENCH PROTESTANTS. SIR JOHN DAVIES AND BURTON QUOTED TO SHOW THAT \nIT CAN BE NO DISPARAGEMENT TO SAY THAT ALL THE WORLD'S A STAGE, WHEN \nALL THE SKY'S A BALL-ROOM.\n\n  I could be pleased with any one\n  Who entertained my sight with such gay shows,\n  As men and women moving here and there,\n  That coursing one another in their steps\n  Have made their feet a tune.\n\nDRYDEN.\n\n\nCHAPTER CXC.\u2014p. 229.\n\nDANCING PROSCRIBED BY THE METHODISTS. ADAM CLARKE. BURCHELL'S REMARKS \nON THE UNIVERSALITY OF THIS PRACTICE. HOW IT IS REGARDED IN THE \nCOLUMBIAN PHILOSOPHY.\n\n_Non vi par adunque che habbiamo ragionato a bastanza di questo? A \nbastanza parmi, rispose il Signor Gasparo; pur desidero io d'intendere \nqualche particolarit\u00e0 anchor._\n\nIL CORTEGIANO.\n\n\nCHAPTER CXCI.\u2014p. 242.\n\nA SERIOUS WORD IN SAD APOLOGY FOR ONE OF THE MANY FOOLISH WAYS IN \nWHICH TIME IS MIS-SPENT.\n\n  Time as he passes us, has a dove's wing,\n  Unsoil'd, and swift, and of a silken sound;\n  But the World's Time, is Time in masquerade!\n  Their's, should I paint him, has his pinions fledged,\n  With motley plumes; and where the peacock shews\n  His azure eyes, is tinctured black and red\n  With spots quadrangular of diamond form,\n  Ensanguined hearts, clubs typical of strife,\n  And spades, the emblem of untimely graves.\n\nCOWPER.\n\n\nCHAPTER CXCII.\u2014p. 249.\n\nMORE OF THE DOCTOR'S PHILOSOPHY, WHICH WILL AND WILL NOT BE LIKED BY \nTHE LADIES, AND SOME OF THE AUTHOR'S WHICH WILL AND WILL NOT BY THE \nGENTLEMEN. THE READER IS INTRODUCED TO COUNT CASTIGLIONE, AND TO SIR \nJOHN CHEKE.\n\n              _Ou tend l'auteur \u00e0 cette heure?\n   Que fait'il? Revient-il? Va-t-il? Ou s'il demeure?_\n\n                  L'AUTEUR.\n\n  _Non, je ne reviens pas, car je n'ai pas \u00e9t\u00e9;\n   Je ne vais pas aussi, car je suis arr\u00e9t\u00e9;\n   Et ne demeure point, car, tout de ce pas m\u00eame\n   Je pretens m'en aller._\n\nMOLIERE.\n\n\nCHAPTER CXCIII.\u2014p. 265.\n\nMASTER THOMAS MACE, AND THE TWO HISTORIANS OF HIS SCIENCE, SIR JOHN \nHAWKINS AND DR. BURNEY. SOME ACCOUNT OF THE OLD LUTANIST AND OF HIS \n\u201cMUSIC'S MONUMENT.\u201d\n\n  This Man of Music hath more in his head\n  Than mere crotchets.\n\nSIR W. DAVENANT.\n\n\nCHAPTER CXCIV.\u2014p. 289.\n\nA MUSIC LESSON FROM MASTER THOMAS MACE TO BE PLAYED BY LADY FAIR:\u2014A \nSTORY, THAN WHICH THERE IS NONE PRETTIER IN THE HISTORY OF MUSIC.\n\n  What shall I say? Or shall I say no more?\n  I must go on! I'm brim-full, running o'er.\n  But yet I'll hold, because I judge ye wise; \n  And few words unto such may well suffice.\n  But much\u2014much more than this I could declare;\n  Yet for some certain reasons I'll forbear.\n  But less than this I could not say; because,\n  If saying less, I should neglect my cause,\n  For 'tis the Doctor's cause I plead so strong for,\n  And 'tis his cause compleated that I long for,\n  And 'tis true doctrine certainly I preach,\n  And 'tis that doctrine every priest should teach.\n\nTHOMAS MACE, TO ALL DIVINE READERS.\n\n\nCHAPTER CXCV.\u2014p. 300.\n\nANOTHER LESSON WITH THE STORY AND MANNER OF ITS PRODUCTION.\n\n  _\u039f\u1f50\u03b4\u03b5\u1f76\u03c2 \u1f10\u03c1\u03b5\u1fd6 \u03c0\u03bf\u03b8\u1fbd, \u1f61\u03c2 \u1f51\u03c0\u03cc\u03b2\u03bb\u03b7\u03c4\u03bf\u03bd \u03bb\u03cc\u03b3\u03bf\u03bd,\n   \u2014\u2014\u2014\u1f14\u03bb\u03b5\u03be\u03b1\u03c2, \u1f00\u03bb\u03bb\u1f70 \u03c4\u1fc6\u03c2 \u03c3\u03b1\u03c5\u03c4\u1fe6 \u03c6\u03c1\u03b5\u03bd\u03cc\u03c2._\n\nSOPHOCLES.\n\n\nCHAPTER CXCVI.\u2014p. 305.\n\nFURTHER ACCOUNT OF MASTER THOMAS MACE,\u2014HIS LIGHT HEART, HIS SORROWS, \nAND HIS POVERTY,\u2014POORLY, POOR MAN, HE LIVED, POORLY, POOR MAN, HE \nDIED\u2014PHINEAS FLETCHER.\n\n  The sweet and the sour,\n  The nettle and the flower,\n  The thorn and the rose,\n  This garland compose.\n\nSMALL GARLAND OF PIOUS AND GODLY SONGS.\n\n\nCHAPTER CXCVII.\u2014p. 322.\n\nQUESTION PROPOSED, WHETHER A MAN BE MAGNIFIED OR MINIFIED BY \nCONSIDERING HIMSELF UNDER THE INFLUENCE OF THE HEAVENLY BODIES, AND \nANSWERED WITH LEARNING AND DISCRETION.\n\nI find by experience that Writing is like Building, wherein the \nundertaker, to supply some defect, or serve some convenience which at \nfirst he foresaw not, is usually forced to exceed his first model and \nproposal, and many times to double the charge and expence of it.\n\nDR. JOHN SCOTT.\n\n\nCHAPTER CXCVIII.\u2014p. 335.\n\nPETER HOPKINS' VIEWS OF ASTROLOGY. HIS SKILL IN CHIROMANCY, PALMISTRY, \nOR MANUAL DIVINATION WISELY TEMPERED.\u2014SPANISH PROVERB AND SONNET BY \nBARTOLOME LEONARDO DE ARGENSOLA.\u2014TIPPOO SULTAN.\u2014MAHOMETAN \nSUPERSTITION.\u2014W. Y. PLAYTES' PROSPECTUS FOR THE HORN BOOK FOR THE \nREMEMBRANCE OF THE SIGNS OF SALVATION.\n\n  _Seguite dunque con la mente lieta,\n   Seguite, Monsignor, che com' io dico,\n   Presto presto sarete in su la meta._\n\nLUDOVICO DOLCE.\n\n\nCHAPTER CXCIX.\u2014p. 347.\n\nCONCERNING THE GREAT HONOURS TO WHICH CERTAIN HORSES HAVE ATTAINED, \nAND THE ROYAL MERITS OF NOBS.\n\n  _Siento para contarlas que me llama\n   El \u00e1 mi, yo \u00e1 mi pluma, ella \u00e1 la fama._\n\nBALBUENA.\n\n\nCHAPTER CC.\u2014p. 355.\n\nA CHAPTER OF KINGS.\n\n   FIMBUL-FAMBI _heitr\n   S\u00e1 er fatt kann segia,\n   That er \u00f3snotvrs athal._\n\n  _Fimbul-fambi (fatuus) vocatur\n   Qui pauca novit narrare:\n   Ea est hominis insciti proprietas._\n\nEDDA, _H\u00e1va M\u00e1l._\n\n\nINTERCHAPTER XXI.\u2014p. 372.\n\nMEASURE FOR MEASURE.\n\n           _Le Plebe \u00e8 bestia\n  Di cento teste, e non rinchiude in loro\n  Pur oncia di saper._\n\nCHIABRERA.\n\n\nINTERCHAPTER XXII.\u2014p. 378.\n\nVARIETY OF STILES.\n\n_Qualis vir, talis oratio._\n\nERASMI ADAGIA.\n\n\nINTERCHAPTER XXIII.\u2014p. 383.\n\nA LITTLE ADVICE BESTOWED UPON THE SCORNFUL READER IN A SHORT \nINTERCHAPTER.\n\nNo man is so foolish, but may give another good counsel sometimes; and \nno man is so wise, but may easily err, if he will take no other \ncounsel but his own.\n\nBEN JONSON.\n\n\n\n\nTHE DOCTOR, &c.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER CLXXII.\n\nDESCARTES' NOTION CONCERNING THE PROLONGATION OF LIFE. A SICILIAN \nPROPOSAL FOR BREEDING UP CHILDREN TO BE IMMORTAL. ASGILL'S ARGUMENT \nAGAINST THE NECESSITY OF DYING.\n\n  O harmless Death! whom still the valiant brave,\n    The wise expect, the sorrowful invite;\n  And all the good embrace, who know the Grave\n    A short dark passage to eternal light.\n\nSIR WILLIAM DAVENANT.\n\n\nSir Kenelm Digby went to Holland for the purpose of conversing with \nDescartes, who was then living in retirement at Egmont. Speculative \nknowledge, Digby said to him, was no doubt a refined and agreeable \npursuit, but it was too uncertain and too useless to be made a man's \noccupation, life being so short that one has scarcely time to acquire \nwell the knowledge of necessary things. It would be far more worthy of \na person like Descartes, he observed, who so well understood the \nconstruction of the human frame, if he would apply himself to discover \nmeans of prolonging its duration, rather than attach himself to the \nmere speculation of philosophy. Descartes made answer that this was a \nsubject on which he had already meditated; that as for rendering man \nimmortal, it was what he would not venture to promise, but that he was \nvery sure he could prolong his life to the standard of the Patriarchs.\n\nSaint-Evremond to whom Digby repeated this, says that this opinion of \nDescartes was well known both to his friends in Holland and in France. \nThe Abb\u00e9 Picot, his disciple and his martyr, was so fully persuaded of \nit that it was long before he would believe his master was dead, and \nwhen at length unwillingly convinced of what it was no longer possible \nto deny or doubt, he exclaimed, _que c'en \u00e9toit fait et que la fin du \nGenre humain alloit venir!_\n\nA certain Sicilian physician who commented upon Galen was more \ncautious if not more modest than Descartes. He affirmed that it was \ncertainly possible to render men immortal, but then they must be bred \nup from the earliest infancy with that view; and he undertook so to \ntrain and render them,\u2014if they were fit subjects.\u2014Poor children! if it \nhad indeed been possible thus to divest them of their reversionary \ninterest in Heaven.\n\nA much better way of abolishing death was that which Asgill imagined, \nwhen he persuaded himself from Scripture that it is in our power to go \nto Heaven without any such unpleasant middle passage. Asgill's is the \nworst case of intolerance that has occurred in this country since \npersecution has ceased to affect life or member.\n\nThis remarkable man was born about the middle of the seventeenth \ncentury and bred to the Law in Lincoln's Inn under Mr. Eyre a very \neminent lawyer of those days. In 1698 he published a treatise with \nthis title\u2014\u201cSeveral assertions proved, in order to create another \nspecies of money than Gold and Silver,\u201d and also an \u201cEssay on a \nRegistry for Titles of Lands.\u201d Both subjects seem to denote that on \nthese points he was considerably advanced beyond his age. But the \nwhole strength of his mind was devoted to his profession, in which he \nhad so completely trammelled and drilled his intellectual powers that \nhe at length acquired a habit of looking at all subjects in a legal \npoint of view. He could find flaws in an hereditary title to the \ncrown. But it was not to seek flaws that he studied the Bible; he \nstudied it to see whether he could not claim under the Old and New \nTestament something more than was considered to be his share. The \nresult of this examination was that in the year 1700 he published \u201cAn \nArgument proving that according to the Covenant of Eternal Life \nrevealed in the Scriptures Man may be translated from hence into that \nEternal Life without passing through death, although the Human Nature \nof Christ himself could not be thus translated till he had passed \nthrough death.\u201d\n\nThat, the old motto, (says he) worn upon tomb-stones, \u201cDeath is the \nGate of Life,\u201d is a lie, by which men decoy one another into death, \ntaking it to be a thorough-fare into Eternal Life, whereas it is just \nso far out of the way. For die when we will, and be buried where we \nwill, and lie in the grave as long as we will, we must all return from \nthence and stand again upon the Earth before we can ascend into the \nHeavens. \u201c_Hinc itur ad astra._\u201d He admitted that \u201cthis custom of the \nworld to die hath gained such a prevalency over our minds by \nprepossessing us of the necessity of death, that it stands ready to \nswallow his argument whole without digesting it.\u201d But the dominion of \ndeath, he said, is supported by our fear of it, by which it hath \nbullied the world to this day. Yet \u201cthe custom of the World to die is \nno argument one way or other;\u201d however, because he knew that custom \nitself is admitted as an evidence of title, upon presumption that such \ncustom had once a reasonable commencement and that this reason doth \ncontinue, it was incumbent upon him to answer this Custom by shewing \nthe time and reason of its commencement and that the reason was \ndetermined.\n\n\u201cFirst then,\u201d says he, \u201cI do admit the custom or possession of Death \nover the world to be as followeth: that Death did reign from Adam to \nMoses by an uninterrupted possession over all men women and children, \ncreated or born, except one breach made upon it in that time by Enoch; \nand hath reigned from Moses unto this day by the like uninterrupted \npossession, except one other breach made upon it in this time by \nElijah. And this is as strong a possession as can be alledged against \nme.\n\n\u201cThe religion of the World now is that Man is born to die. But from \nthe beginning it was not so, for Man was made to live. God made not \nDeath till Man brought it upon himself by his delinquency. Adam stood \nas fair for Life as Death, and fairer too, because he was in the \nactual possession of Life,\u2014as Tenant thereof at the Will of God, and \nhad an opportunity to have made that title perpetual by the Tree of \nLife, which stood before him with the Tree of Knowledge of Good and \nEvil. And here 'tis observable how the same act of man is made the \ncondition both of his life and death: \u2018put forth thy hand and pull and \neat and die,\u2019 or \u2018put forth thy hand and pull and eat and live for \never.\u2019 'Tis not to be conceived that there was any physical virtues in \neither of these Trees whereby to cause life or death; but God having \nsanctified them by those two different names, he was obliged to make \ngood his own characters of them, by commanding the whole Creation to \nact in such a manner as that Man should feel the effects of this word, \naccording to which of the Trees he first put forth his hand. And it is \nyet more strange, that man having life and death set before him at the \nsame time and place, and both to be had upon the same condition, that \nhe should single out his own death and leave the Tree of Life \nuntouched. And what is further strange, even after his election of \ndeath he had an interval of time before his expulsion out of Paradise, \nto have retrieved his fate by putting forth his hand to the Tree of \nLife; and yet he omitted this too!\n\n\u201cBut by all this it is manifest that as the form or person of man in \nhis first creation was capable of eternal life without dying, so the \nfall of man which happened to him after his creation hath not disabled \nhis person from that capacity of eternal life. And therefore durst Man \neven then have broken through the Cherubim and flaming sword, or could \nhe now any way come at the Tree of Life, he must yet live for ever, \nnotwithstanding his sin committed in Paradise and his expulsion out of \nit. But this Tree of Life now seems lost to Man; and so he remains \nunder the curse of that other Tree, \u2018in the day that thou eatest \nthereof thou shalt die.\u2019 Which sentence of the Law is the cause of the \ndeath of Man, and was the commencement of the Custom of Death in the \nWorld, and by the force of this Law Death has kept the possession \n(before admitted) to this day.\n\n\u201cBy his act of delinquency and the sentence upon it, Adam stood \nattainted and became a dead man in law, though he was not executed \ntill about nine hundred years afterwards.\u201d Lawyer as Asgill was, and \nlegally as he conducts his whole extraordinary argument, he yet offers \na moral extenuation of Adam's offence. Eve after her eating and Adam \nbefore his eating, were, he says, in two different states, she in the \nstate of Death, and he in the State of Life; and thereby his was much \nthe harder case. For she by her very creation was so much a part of \nhimself that he could not be happy while she was miserable. The loss \nof her happiness so much affected him by sympathy that all his other \nenjoyments could do him no good; and therefore since he thought it \nimpossible for her to return into the same state with him, he chose, \nrather than be parted from her, to hazard himself in the same state \nwith her. Asgill then resumes his legal view of the case: the offence \nhe says was at last joint and several; the sentence fell upon Mankind \nas descendants from these our common ancestors, and so upon Christ \nhimself. And this is the reason why in the genealogy of our Saviour as \nset down by two Evangelists his legal descent by Joseph is only \ncounted upon, \u201cbecause all legal descents are accounted from the \nfather.\u201d As he was born of a Virgin to preserve his nature from the \ndefilement of humanity, so was he of a Virgin espoused to derive upon \nhimself the curse of the Law by a legal father: for which purpose it \nwas necessary that the birth of Christ should, in the terms of the \nEvangelist, be on this wise and no otherwise. And hence the Genealogy \nof Christ is a fundamental part of Eternal Life.\n\nThe reader will soon perceive that technically as Asgill treated his \nstrange argument, he was sincerely and even religiously convinced of \nits importance and its truth. \u201cHaving shewn,\u201d he proceeds, \u201chow this \nLaw fell upon Christ, it is next incumbent on me to shew that it is \ntaken away by his death, and consequently that the long possession of \nDeath over the World can be no longer a title against Life. But when I \nsay this Law is taken away, I don't mean that the words of it are \ntaken away; for they remain with us to this day and being matter of \nRecord must remain for ever; but that it is satisfied by other matter \nof Record, by which the force of it is gone. Law satisfied is no Law, \nas a debt satisfied is no debt. Now the specific demand of the Law was \nDeath; and of a man; and a man made under the Law. Christ qualified \nhimself to be so: and as such suffered under it, thus undergoing the \nliteral sentence. This he might have done and not have given the Law \nsatisfaction, for millions of men before him had undergone it and yet \nthe Law was nevertheless dissatisfied with them and others, but He \ndeclared _It is finished_ before he gave up the ghost. By the dignity \nof his person he gave that satisfaction which it was impossible for \nmankind to give.\u201d\n\nFor the Law, he argues, was not such a civil contract that the breach \nof it could be satisfied; it was a Law of Honour, the breach whereof \nrequired personal satisfaction for the greatest affront and the \nhighest act of ingratitude to God, inasmuch as the slighter the thing \ndemanded is, the greater is the affront in refusing it. \u201cMan by his \nvery creation entered into the labours of the Creator and became Lord \nof the Universe which was adapted to his enjoyments. God left him in \npossession of it upon his parole of honour, only that he would \nacknowledge it to be held of Him, and as the token of this tenure that \nhe would only forbear from eating of one tree, withal telling him that \nif he did eat of it, his life should go for it. If man had had more \nthan his life to give, God would have had it of him. This was rather a \nresentment of the affront, than any satisfaction for it; and therefore \nto signify the height of this resentment God raises man from the dead \nto demand further satisfaction from him. Death is a commitment to the \nprison of the Grave till the Judgement of the Great Day; and then the \ngrand Habeas Corpus will issue to the Earth and to the Sea, to give up \ntheir dead: to remove the Bodies, with the cause of their commitment.\n\n\u201cYet was this a resentment without malice; for as God maintained his \nresentment under all his love, so He maintained his love under all his \nresentment. For his love being a love of kindness flowing from his own \nnature, could not be diminished by any act of man; and yet his honour \nbeing concerned to maintain the truth of his word, he could not \nfalsify that to gratify his own affection. And thus he bore the \npassion of his own love, till he had found out a salvo for his honour \nby that Son of Man who gave him satisfaction at once by the dignity of \nhis person. Personal satisfactions by the Laws of Honour are esteemed \nsufficient or not, according to the equality or inequality between the \npersons who give or take the affront. Therefore God to vindicate his \nhonour was obliged to find out a person for this purpose equal to \nHimself: the invention of which is called the manifold wisdom of God, \nthe invention itself being the highest expression of the deepest love, \nand the execution of it, in the death of Christ, the deepest \nresentment of the highest affront.\n\n\u201cNow inasmuch as the person of our Saviour was superior to the human \nnature, so much the satisfaction by his death surmounted the offence. \nHe died under the Law but he did not arise under it, having taken it \naway by his death. The life regained by him in his resurrection was by \nConquest, by which, according to all the Laws of Conquest, the Law of \nDeath is taken away. For by the Laws of Conquest the Laws of the \nconquered are _ipso facto_ taken away, and all records and writings \nthat remain of them are of no more force than waste paper. Hence the \ntitle of Christ to Eternal Life is become absolute,\u2014by absolute\u201d\u2014says \nthis theologo-jurist,\u2014\u201cI mean discharged from all tenure or condition, \nand consequently from all forfeiture. And as his title to life is thus \nbecome absolute by Conquest, so the direction of it is become eternal \nby being annexed to the Person of the Godhead: thus Christ ever since \nhis resurrection did, and doth, stand seized of an absolute and \nindefeazable Estate of Eternal Life, without any tenure or condition \nor other matter or thing to change or determine it for ever.\u201d \u201cI had \nreason\u201d says Asgill \u201cthus to assert the title of Christ at large; \nbecause this is the title by and under which I am going to affirm my \nargument and to claim Eternal Life for myself and all the world.\u201d\n\n\u201cAnd first I put it upon the Profession of Divinity to deny one word \nof the fact as I have repeated it. Next I challenge the Science of the \nLaw to shew such another Title as this is. And then I defy the \nLogicians to deny my Argument: of which this is the abstract: That the \nLaw delivered to Adam before the Fall is the original cause of Death \nin the World: That this Law is taken away by the Death of Christ: That \ntherefore the legal power of death is gone. And I am so far from \nthinking this Covenant of Eternal Life to be an allusion to the forms \nof Title amongst men, that I rather adore it as the precedent for them \nall; believing with that great Apostle that the things on Earth are \nbut the patterns of things in the Heavens where the Originals are \nkept.\u201d This he says because he has before made it appear that in the \nCovenant of Eternal Life all things requisite to constitute a legal \ninstrument are found, to wit, the date, the parties, the contents, and \nconsideration, the sealing, and execution, the witnesses, and the \nCeremony required of Man, whereby to execute it on his part and take \nthe advantage of it.\n\nBy the sacrifice which our Lord offered of himself, this technical but \nsincere and serious enthusiast argues, more than an atonement was \nmade. \u201cAnd that this superabundancy might not run to waste, God \ndeclared that Man should have Eternal Life absolute as Christ himself \nhad it; and hence Eternal Life is called the Gift of God through our \nLord and Saviour Jesus Christ, over and above our redemption. Why \nthen,\u201d he asks, \u201cdoth Death remain in the World? Why because Man knows \nnot the Way of Life\u2014\u2018the way of Life they have not known.\u2019 Because our \nfaith is not yet come to us\u2014\u2018when the Son of Man comes shall he find \nfaith upon the earth?\u2019 Because Man is a beast of burden that knows not \nhis own strength in the virtue of the Death and the power of the \nResurrection of Christ. Unbelief goes not by reason or dint of \nargument, but is a sort of melancholy madness, by which if we once \nfancy ourselves bound, it hath the same effect upon us as if we really \nwere so. Death is like Satan, who appears to none but those who are \nafraid of him: Resist the Devil and he will flee from you. Because \nDeath had once dominion over us, we think it hath and must have it \nstill. And this I find within myself, that though I can't deny one \nword I have said in fact or argument, yet I can't maintain my belief \nof it without making it more familiar to my understanding, by turning \nit up and down in my thoughts and ruminating upon some proceedings \nalready made upon it in the World.\n\n\u201cThe Motto of the Religion of the World is _Mors Janua Vit\u00e6_; if we \nmean by this the Death of Christ, we are in the right; but if we mean \nour own Death then we are in the wrong. Far be it from me to say that \nMan may not attain to Eternal Life, though he should die; for the Text \nruns double. \u2018_I am the Resurrection and the Life; he that liveth and \nbelieveth on me, shall never die; and though he were dead he shall \nlive._\u2019 This very Text shows that there is a nearer way of entering \ninto Eternal Life than by the way of Death and Resurrection. Whatever \ncircumstances a man is under at the time of his death, God is bound to \nmake good this Text to him, according to which part of it he builds \nhis faith upon; if he be dead there's a necessity for a resurrection; \nbut if he be alive there's no occasion for Death or Resurrection \neither. This text doth not maintain two religions, but two articles of \nfaith in the same religion, and the article of faith for a present \nlife without dying is the higher of the two.\n\n\u201cNo man can comprehend the heights and depths of the Gospel at his \nfirst entrance into it; and in point of order, \u2018the last enemy to be \ndestroyed is Death.\u2019 The first essay of Faith is against Hell, that \nthough we die we may not be damned; and the full assurance of this is \nmore than most men attain to before Death overtakes them, which makes \nDeath a terror to men. But they who attain it can sing a requiem \u2018Lord \nnow lettest thou thy Servant depart in peace!\u2019 and if God takes them \nat their word, they lie down in the faith of the Resurrection of the \nJust. But whenever he pleases to continue them, after that attainment, \nmuch longer above ground, that time seems to them an interval of \nperfect leisure, till at last espying Death itself, they fall upon it \nas an enemy that must be conquered, one time or other, through faith \nin Christ. This is the reason why it seems intended that a respite of \ntime should be allotted to believers after the first Resurrection and \nbefore the dissolution of the World, for perfecting that faith which \nthey began before their death but could not attain to in the first \nreach of life: for Death being but a discontinuance of Life, wherever \nmen leave off at their death, they must begin at their resurrection. \nNor shall they ascend after their resurrection, till they have \nattained to this faith of translation, and by that very faith they \nshall be then convinced that they need not have died.\n\n\u201cWhen Elijah courted death under the juniper tree in the wilderness, \nand \u2018said\u2014now Lord, take away my life, for I am not better than my \nfathers,\u2019 that request shews that he was not educated in this faith of \ntranslation, but attained it afterwards by study. Paul tells \u2018we shall \nnot all die but we shall all be changed;\u2019 yet though he delivered this \nto be his faith in general, he did not attain to such a particular \nknowledge of the way and manner of it as to prevent his own death: he \ntells us he had not yet attained the Resurrection of the dead, but was \npressing after it. He had but a late conversion, and was detained in \nthe study of another part of divinity, the confirming the New \nTestament by the Old and making them answer one another,\u2014a point \nprevious to the faith of translation, and which must be learned before \nit\u2014in order to it. But this his pressing (though he did not attain,) \nhath much encouraged me,\u201d says Asgill, \u201cto make this enquiry, being \nwell assured that he would not have thus pursued it, had he not \napprehended more in it than the vulgar opinion.\n\n\u201cWe don't think ourselves fit to deal with one another in human \naffairs till our age of one and twenty. But to deal with our offended \nMaker, to counterplot the malice of fallen Angels, and to rescue \nourselves from eternal ruin, we are generally as well qualified before \nwe can speak plain, as all our life-time after. Children can say over \ntheir religion at four or five years old, and their parents that \ntaught them can do no more at four or five and fifty. The common Creed \nof the Christian religion may be learned in an hour: and one days \nphilosophy will teach a man to die. But to know the virtue of the \nDeath and Power of the Resurrection of Christ, is a science calculated \nfor the study of Men and Angels for ever.\n\n\u201cBut if man may be thus changed without death, and that it is of no \nuse to him in order to Eternal Life; what then is Death? Or, whereunto \nserveth it? What is it? Why 'tis a misfortune fallen upon man from the \nbeginning, and from which he has not yet dared to attempt his \nrecovery: and it serves as a Spectre to fright us into a little better \nlife (perhaps) than we should lead without it. Though God hath formed \nthis Covenant of Eternal Life, Men have made an agreement with Death \nand Hell, by way of composition to submit to Death, in hope of \nescaping Hell by that obedience; and under this allegiance we think \nourselves bound never to rebel against it! The study of Philosophy is \nto teach men to die, from the observations of Nature; the profession \nof Divinity is to enforce the doctrine from Revelation: and the \nscience of the Law is to settle our civil affairs pursuant to these \nresolutions. The old men are making their last Wills and Testaments; \nand the young are expecting the execution of them by the death of the \ntestators; and thus\n\n  _Mortis ad exemplum totus componitur orbis._\n\nI was under this Law of Death once; and while I lay under it, I felt \nthe terror of it, till I had delivered myself from it by those \nthoughts which must convince them that have them. And in this thing \nonly, I wish, for their sakes, that all men were as I am. The reason \nwhy I believe that this doctrine is true, is, because God hath said \nit: yet I could not thus assert it by argument, if I did not conceive \nit with more self-conviction than I have from any maxims or positions \nin human science. The Covenant of Eternal Life is a Law of itself and \na science of itself, which can never be known by the study of any \nother science. It is a science out of Man's way, being a pure \ninvention of God. Man knows no more how to save himself than he did to \ncreate himself; but to raise his ambition for learning this, God \ngraduates him upon his degree of knowledge in it, and gives him badges \nof honour as belonging to that degree, upon the attainment whereof a \nman gains the title of a Child of the Resurrection: to which title \nbelongs this badge of honour, to die no more but make our exit by \ntranslation, as Christ, who was the first of this Order, did before \nus. And this world being the academy to educate Man for Heaven, none \nshall ever enter there till they have taken this degree here.\n\n\u201cLet the Dead bury the Dead! and the Dead lie with the Dead! And the \nrest of the Living go lie with them! I'll follow him that was dead, \nand is alive, and living for ever. And though I am now single, yet I \nbelieve that this belief will be general before the general change, of \nwhich Paul speaks, shall come; and that then, and not before, shall be \nthe Resurrection of the Just, which is called the first Resurrection; \nand after that the Dead so arisen, with the Living, then alive, shall \nhave learned this faith, which shall qualify them to be caught up \ntogether in the air, then shall be the General Resurrection, after \nwhich Time shall be no more.\n\n\u201cThe beginning of this faith, like all other parts of the Kingdom of \nHeaven will be like a grain of mustard seed, spreading itself by \ndegrees till it overshadow the whole earth. And since \u2018the things \nconcerning Him must have an end,\u2019 in order to this they must have a \nbeginning. But whoever leads the van will make the world start, and \nmust expect for himself to walk up and down, like Cain, with a mark on \nhis forehead, and run the gauntlet for an Ishmaelite, having every \nman's hand against him because his hand is against every man; than \nwhich nothing is more averse to my temper. This makes me think of \npublishing with as much regret as he that ran way from his errand when \nsent to Niniveh: but being just going to cross the water\u2014(he was going \nto Ireland,\u2014) I dared not leave this behind me undone, lest a Tempest \nsend me back again to do it. And to shelter myself a little, (though I \nknew my speech would betray me) I left the Title page anonymous. Nor \ndo I think that any thing would now extort my name from me but the \ndread of the sentence, \u2018he that is ashamed of me and of my words, of \nhim will I be ashamed before my Father and his Angels:\u2019 for fear of \nwhich I dare not but subscribe my argument, though with a trembling \nhand; having felt two powers within me all the while I have been about \nit, one bids me write, and the other bobs my elbow. But since I have \nwrote this, as Pilate did his inscription, without consulting any one, \nI'll be absolute as he was; \u2018what I have written, I have written.\u2019\n\n\u201cHaving pursued that command, \u2018Seek first the Kingdom of God,\u2019 I yet \nexpect the performance of that promise, \u2018to receive in this life an \nhundred fold, and in the world to come life everlasting.\u2019 I have a \ngreat deal of business yet in this world, without doing of which \nHeaven itself would be uneasy to me: but when that is done I know no \nbusiness I have with the dead, and therefore do depend that I shall \nnot go hence by \u2018returning to the dust,\u2019 which is the sentence of that \nlaw from which I claim a discharge: but that I shall make my exit by \nway of translation, which I claim as a dignity belonging to that \nDegree in the Science of Eternal Life of which I profess myself a \ngraduate. And if after this I die like other men, I declare myself to \ndie of no religion. Let no one be concerned for me as a desperade: I \nam not going to renounce the other part of our religion, but to add \nanother article of faith to it, without which I cannot understand the \nrest. And if it be possible to believe too much in God, I desire to be \nguilty of that sin.\n\n\u201cBehold ye despisers and wonder! Wonder to see Paradise lost, with the \nTree of Life in the midst of it! Wonder and curse at Adam for an \noriginal fool, who in the length of one day never so much as thought \nto put forth his hand, for him and us, and pull and eat and live for \never! Wonder at and damn ourselves for fools of the last impression, \nthat in the space of seventeen hundred years never so much as thought \nto put forth our hands, every one for himself, and seal and execute \nthe Covenant of Eternal Life.\n\n\u201cTo be even with the World at once, he that wonders at my faith, I \nwonder at his unbelief. The Blood of Christ hath an incident quality \nwhich cleaneth from sin; and he that understands this never makes any \nuse of his own personal virtues as an argument for his own salvation, \nlest God should overbalance against him with his sins; nor doth God \never object a man's sins to him in the day of his faith; therefore \ntill I am more sinful than He was holy, my sins are no objection \nagainst my faith. And because in Him is all my hope, I care not \n(almost) what I am myself.\n\n\u201cIt is observed in the mathematics that the practice doth not always \nanswer the theory; and that therefore there is no dependence upon the \nmere notions of it as they lie in the brain, without putting them \ntogether in the form of a tool or instrument, to see how all things \nfit. This made me distrust my own thoughts till I had put them \ntogether, to see how they would look in the form of an argument. But \nin doing this, I thank God I have found every joint and article to \ncome into its own place and fall in with and suit one another to a \nhair's breadth, beyond my expectation: or else I could not have had \nthe confidence to produce this as an engine in Divinity to convey man \nfrom Earth to Heaven. I am not making myself wings to fly to Heaven \nwith, but only making myself ready for that conveyance which shall be \nsent me. And if I should lose myself in this untrodden path of Life, I \ncan still find out the beaten Road of Death blindfold. If therefore, \nafter this, \u2018I go the way of my fathers\u2019 I freely waive that haughty \nepitaph, _magnis tamen excidit ausis_, and instead knock under table \nthat Satan hath beguiled me to play the fool with myself, in which \nhowever he hath shewed his masterpiece; for I defy the whole clan of \nHell to produce another lye so like to truth as this is. But if I act \nmy motto, and go the way of an Eagle in the air, then have I played a \ntrump upon Death and shewn myself a match for the Devil.\n\n\u201cAnd while I am thus fighting with Death and Hell, it looks a little \nlike foul play for Flesh and Blood to interpose themselves against me. \nBut if any one hath spite enough to give me a polt, thinking to \nfalsify my faith by taking away my life, I only desire them first to \nqualify themselves for my executioners, by taking this short test in \ntheir own consciences: whoever thinks that any thing herein contained \nis not fair dealing with God and Man, let him\u2014or her\u2014burn this book, \nand cast a stone at him that wrote it.\u201d\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER CLXXIII.\n\nMORE CONCERNING ASGILL. HIS DEFENCE IN THE HOUSE OF COMMONS, HIS \nEXPULSION, FARTHER SPECULATIONS AND DEATH.\n\n  Let not that ugly Skeleton appear!\n  Sure Destiny mistakes; this Death's not mine!\n\nDRYDEN.\n\n\nThe substance of Asgill's argument has been given in his own words, \nbut by thus abstracting and condensing it his peculiar manner is lost. \nThis though it consisted more perhaps in appearance than in reality, \nis characteristic of the author, and may be well exemplified in the \nconcluding passage of one of his political pamphlets:\n\n  \u201cBut I shall raise more choler by this way of writing,\n   For writing and reading are in themselves commendable things,\n   But 'tis the way of writing at which offence is taken,\n   And this is the misfortune of an Author,\n   That unless some are angry with him, none are pleased.\n   Which puts him under this dilemma,\n   That he must either ruin himself or his Printer.\n\n\u201cBut to prevent either, as far as I can, I would rather turn Trimmer \nand compound too. And to end all quarrels with my readers (if they \nplease to accept the proposal,\n\n  And to shew withal that I am no dogmatical Author,)\n\nI now say to them all, in print, what I once did to one of them, by \nword of mouth. Whoever meets with any thing in what I publish, which \nthey don't like,\n\n             _Let 'em strike it out._\n  But to take off part of the Odium from me,\n  They say others write like me,\n  In short paragraphs:\n  (An easy part of a mimick,)\n  But with all my heart!\n  I don't care who writes like me,\n  So I do'nt write like them.\u201d\n\nMany a book has originated in the misfortunes of its Author. Want, \nimprisonment, and disablement by bodily infirmity from active \noccupation, have produced almost as many works in prose or rhyme, as \nleisure, voluntary exertion, and strong desire. Asgill's harmless \nheresy began in an involuntary confinement to which he was reduced in \nconsequence of an unsuccessful speculation; he had engaged in this \nadventure (by which better word our forefathers designated what the \nAmericans call a _spec_,) with the hope of increasing his fortune, \ninstead of which he incurred so great a loss that he found it \nnecessary to keep his chamber in the Temple for some years. There he \nfell to examining that \u201cBook of Law and Gospel,\u201d both which we call \nthe Bible; and examining it as he would have perused an old deed with \nthe hope of discovering in it some clause upon which to ground a claim \nat law, this thought, he says, first came into his head; but it was a \ngreat while coming out. He was afraid of his own thoughts, lest they \nwere his own only, and as such a delusion. And when he had tried them \nwith pen, ink and paper, and they seemed to him plainer and plainer \nevery time he went over them, and he had formed them into an Argument, \n\u201cto see how they would bear upon the proof,\u201d even then he had no \nintention of making them public.\n\n\u201cBut writing an ill hand,\u201d says he, \u201cI resolved to see how it would \nlook in print. On this I gave the Printer my Copy, with money for his \nown labour, to print off some few for myself, and keep the press \nsecret. But I remember before he got half way through, he told me his \nmen fancied I was a little crazed, in which I also fancied he spoke \none word for them and two for himself. However I bid him go on; and at \nlast it had so raised his fancy that he desired my leave to print off \none edition at the risque of his own charge, saying he thought some of \nthe Anabaptists would believe it first. I being just then going for \nIreland, admitted him, with this injunction, he should not publish \nthem 'till I was got clear out of Middlesex; which I believe he might \nobserve; though by what I heard afterwards, they were all about town \nby that time I got to St. Albans: and the book was in Ireland almost \nas soon as I was, (for a man's works will follow him,) with a noise \nafter me that I was gone away mad.\u201d\n\nAsgill was told in Ireland that the cry which followed him would \nprevent his practice; it had a contrary effect, for \u201cpeople went into \nCourt to see him as a Monster and heard him talk like a man.\u201d In the \ncourse of two years he gained enough by his profession to purchase \nLord Kenmure's forfeited estate, and to procure a seat in the Irish \nHouse of Commons. The purchase made him enemies; as he was on the way \nto Dublin he met the news that his book had been burnt by Order of the \nHouse. He proceeded however, took the oaths and his seat, and the Book \nhaving been condemned and executed without hearing the author in its \ndefence, nothing more was necessary than to prove him the Author and \nexpel him forthwith, and this was done in the course of four days. \nAfter this he returned to England and obtained a seat for Bramber, \napparently for the mere sake of securing himself against his \ncreditors. This borough he represented for two years; but in the first \nParliament after the Union some of the Scotch Members are said to have \nlooked upon it as a disgrace to the House of Commons that a man who \nenjoyed his liberty only under privilege should sit there, and instead \nof attempting to remedy a scandal by straight forward means, they took \nthe easier course of moving for a Committee to examine his book. Their \nreport was that it was profane and blasphemous, highly reflecting upon \nthe Christian Religion. He was allowed however to make his defence, \nwhich he thus began.\n\n\u201cMr. Speaker, this day calls me to something I am both unapt and \naverse to\u2014Preaching. For though, as you see, I have vented some of my \nthoughts in religion, yet I appeal to my conversation, whether I use \nto make that the subject of my discourse. However that I may not let \nthis accusation go against me by a _Nihil dicit_, I stand up to make \nmy defence. I have heard it from without doors that I intended to \nwithdraw myself from this day's test and be gone; which would have \ngiven them that said it an opportunity to boast that they had once \nspoken truth. But _quo me fata trahunt_, I'll give no man occasion to \nwrite _fugam fecit_ upon my grave-stone.\u201d\n\nHe then gave the history of his book and of his expulsion in Ireland, \nand thanked the House for admitting him to a defence before they \nproceeded to judgement. \u201cI find,\u201d said he, \u201cthe Report of the \nCommittee is not levelled at the argument itself which I have \nadvanced, nor yet against the treatise I have published to prove it, \nbut against some expressions in that proof, and which I intend to give \nparticular answers to. But there is something else laid to my charge \nas my design in publishing that argument, of higher concern to me than \nany expressions in the treatise, or any censure that can fall on me \nfor it; as if I had wrote it with a malicious intention to expose the \nscriptures as false, because they seemed to contain what I asserted; \nand that therefore if that assertion did not hold true, the Scripture \nmust be false. Now whether this was my intention or no, there is but \none Witness in Heaven or Earth can prove, and that is He that made me, \nand in whose presence I now stand, and Who is able to strike me dead \nin my place; and to Him I now appeal for the truth of what I protest \nagainst: that I never did write or publish that argument with any \nintention to expose the Scriptures; but on the contrary, (though I was \naware that I might be liable to that censure, which I knew not how to \navoid) I did both write and publish it, under a firm belief of the \ntruth of the Scriptures: and with a belief, (under that) that what I \nhave asserted in that argument is within that truth. And if it be not, \nthen I am mistaken in my argument and the Scripture remains true. Let \nGod be true and every man a lyar. And having made this protestation, I \nam not much concerned whether I am believed in it or not; I had rather \ntell a truth than be believed in a lie at any time.\u201d\n\nHe then justified the particular passage which had been selected for \ncondemnation, resting his defence upon this ground, that he had used \nfamiliar expressions with the intent of being sooner read and more \nreadily understood. There was indeed but a single word which savoured \nof irreverence, and certainly no irreverence was intended in its use: \nno one who fairly perused his argument but must have perceived that \nthe levity of his manner in no degree detracted from the seriousness \nof his belief. \u201cYet,\u201d said he, \u201cif by any of those expressions I have \nreally given offence to any well-meaning Christian, I am sorry for it, \nthough I had no ill intention in it: but if any man be captious to \ntake exceptions for exception sake, I am not concerned. I esteem my \nown case plain and short. I was expelled one House for having too much \nland; and I am going to be expelled another for having too little \nmoney. But if I may yet ask one question more; pray what is this \nblasphemous crime I here stand charged with? A belief of what we all \nprofess, or at least what no one can deny. If the death of the body be \nincluded in the Fall, why is not the life of the body included in the \nResurrection? And what if I have a firmer belief of this than some \nothers have? Am I therefore a blasphemer? Or would they that believe \nless take it well of me to call them so. Our Saviour in his day took \nnotice of some of little faith and some of great faith, without \nstigmatizing either of them with blasphemy for it. But I do not know \nhow 'tis, we are fallen into such a sort of uniformity that we would \nfain have Religion into a Tyrant's bed, torturing one another into our \nown size of it only. But it grows late, and I ask but one saying more \nto take leave of my friends with. I do believe that had I turned this \nDefence into a Recantation, I had prevented my Expulsion: but I have \nreserved my last words as my ultimate reason against that Recantation. \nHe that durst write that book, dares not deny it!\u201d\n\n\u201cAnd what then?\u201d said this eccentric writer, when five years \nafterwards he published his Defence. \u201cWhy then they called for \ncandles; and I went away by the light of 'em: and after the previous \nquestion and other usual ceremonies, (as I suppose) I was expelled the \nHouse. And from thence I retired to a Chamber I once had in the \nTemple; and from thence I afterwards surrendered myself in discharge \nof my bail, and have since continued under confinement. And under that \nconfinement God hath been pleased to take away, \u2018the Desire of mine \nEyes with a stroke,\u2019 which hath however drowned all my other troubles \nat once; for the less are merged in the greater;\n\n  _Qui venit hic fluctus, fluctus supereminet omnes._\n\nAnd since I have mentioned her, I'll relate this of her. She having \nbeen educated a Protestant of the Church of England, by a Lady her \nGrandmother, her immediate parents and other relations being Roman \nCatholics, an honest Gentleman of the Romish persuasion, who knew her \nfamily, presented her, while she was my fellow-prisoner, with a large \nfolio volume, being the history of the Saints canonized in that \nChurch, for her reading; with intention, as I found, to incline her \nthat way. With which, delighting in reading, she entertained herself \n'till she shad gone through it; and some time after that she told me \nthat she had before some thoughts towards that religion, but that the \nreading that history had confirmed her against it.\n\n\u201cAnd yet she would never read the book I was expelled for 'till after \nmy last expulsion; but then reading it through, told me she was \nreconciled to the reasons of it, though she could not say she believed \nit. However she said something of her own thoughts with it, that hath \ngiven me the satisfaction that she is \u2018dead in Christ,\u2019 and thereby \nsure of her part in the first Resurrection: the Dead in Christ shall \narise first. And this _pars decessa mei_ leaving me half dead while \nshe remains in the grave, hath since drawn me, in diving after her, \ninto a nearer view and more familiar though more unusual thoughts of \nthat first Resurrection than ever I had before. From whence I now find \nthat nothing less than this _fluctus decumanus_ would have cast me \nupon, or qualified me for, this theme, if yet I am so qualified. And \nfrom hence I am advancing that common Article in our Creed, the \nResurrection of the Dead, into a professed study; from the result of \nwhich study I have already advanced an assertion, which (should I vent \nalone) perhaps would find no better quarter in the world than what I \nhave advanced already. And yet, though I say it that perhaps should \nnot, it hath one quality we are all fond of,\u2014it is News; and another \nwe all should be fond of, it is good News: or at least, good to them \nthat are so, \u2018for to the froward all things are froward.\u2019\n\n\u201cHaving made this Discovery, or rather collected it from the Word of \nLife; I am advancing it into a Treatise whereby to prove it in special \nform, not by arguments of wit or sophistry, but from the evidence and \ndemonstration of the truth as it is in Jesus: which should I \naccomplish I would not be prevented from publishing that edition to \ngain more than I lost by my former; nor for more than Balak ever \nintended to give, or than Balaam could expect to receive, for cursing \nthe people of Israel, if God had not spoilt that bargain. I find it as \nold as the New Testament, \u2018if by any means I may attain the \nResurrection of the Dead.\u2019 And though Paul did not then so attain, \n(not as if I had already attained,) yet he died in his calling, and \nwill stand so much nearer that mark at his Resurrection. But if Paul, \nwith that effusion of the Spirit upon him in common with the other \nApostles, and that superabundant revelation given him above them all, \nby that rapture unto things unutterable, did not so attain in that his \nday; whence should I a mere Lay, (and that none of the best neither) \nwithout any function upon me, expect to perfect what he left so \nundone?\u2014In pursuit of this study I have found, (what I had not before \nobserved) that there are some means since left us towards this \nattainment, which Paul had not in his day; for there now remain extant \nunto the world, bound up with that now one entire record of the Bible, \ntwo famous Records of the Resurrection that never came to Paul's \nhands; and for want whereof, perhaps, he might not then so attain. But \nhaving now this intelligence of them, and fearing that in the day of \nAccount I may have a special surcharge made upon me for these \nadditional Talents and further Revelations; and bearing in mind the \ndreadful fate of that cautious insuring servant who took so much care \nto redeliver what he had received _in statu quo_ as he had it that it \nmight not be said to be the worse for his keeping, I have rather \nadventured to defile those Sacred Records with my own study and \nthoughts upon them, than to think of returning them wrapt up in a \nnapkin clean and untouched.\n\n\u201cWhether ever I shall accomplish to my own satisfaction what I am now \nso engaged in, I do not yet know; but 'till I do, I'll please myself \nto be laughed at by this cautious insuring world, as tainted with a \nfrenzy of dealing in Reversions of Contingencies. However in the mean \ntime I would not be thought to be spending this interval of my days by \nmyself in beating the air, under a dry expectancy only of a thing so \nseemingly remote as the Resurrection of the Dead: like \nCourtiers-Extraordinary fretting out their soles with attendances in \nante-rooms for things or places no more intended to be given them than \nperhaps they are fit to have them. For though I should fall short of \nthe attainment I am attempting, the attempt itself hath translated my \nPrison into a Paradise; treating me with food and enamouring me with \npleasures that man knows not of: from whence, I hope, I may without \nvanity say,\n\n  _Deus nobis h\u00e6c otia fecit._\u201d\n\nWhat the farther reversion might be to which Asgill fancied he had \ndiscovered a title in the Gospels, is not known. Perhaps he failed in \nsatisfying himself when he attempted to arrange his notions in logical \nand legal form, and possibly that failure may have weakened his \npersuasion of the former heresy: for though he lived twenty years \nafter the publication of his Defence and the announcement of this \nsecond discovery in the Scriptures, the promised argument never \nappeared. His subsequent writings consist of a few pamphlets in favour \nof the Hanoverian succession. They were too inconsiderable to \ncontribute much towards eking out his means of support, for which he \nwas probably chiefly indebted to his professional knowledge. The \nremainder of his life was past within the Rules of the King's Bench \nPrison, where he died in 1738 at a very advanced age, retaining his \nvivacity and his remarkable powers of conversation to the last. If it \nbe true that he nearly attained the age of an hundred (as one \nstatement represents) and with these happy faculties unimpaired, he \nmay have been tempted to imagine that he was giving the best and only \nconvincing proof of his own argument. Death undeceived him, and Time \nhas done him justice at last. For though it stands recorded that he \nwas expelled the House of Commons as being the Author of a Book in \nwhich are contained many profane and blasphemous expressions, highly \nreflecting upon the Christian Religion! nothing can be more certain \nthan that this censure was undeserved, and that his expulsion upon \nthat ground was as indefensible as it would have been becoming, if, in \npursuance of the real motives by which the House was actuated, an Act \nhad been past disqualifying from that time forward any person in a \nstate of insolvency from taking or retaining a seat there.\n\nIn the year 1760 I find him mentioned as \u201cthe celebrated gentleman \ncommonly called \u2018translated Asgill.\u2019\u201d His name is now seen only in \ncatalogues, and his history known only to the curious:\u2014\u201c_Mais, c'est \nassez parl\u00e9 de luy, et encore trop, ce diront aucuns, qui pourront \nm'en blasmer, et dire que j'estois bien de loisir quand j'escrivis \ncecy; mais ils seront bien plus de loisir de la lire, pour me \nreprendre._\u201d[1]\n\n[Footnote 1: BRANTOME.]\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER CLXXIV.\n\nTHE DOCTOR INDULGES IN THE WAY OF FANTASTIC AND TYPICAL SPECULATION ON \nHIS OWN NAME, AND ON THE POWERS OF THE LETTER D., WHETHER AS REGARDS \nDEGREES AND DISTINCTIONS, GODS AND DEMIGODS, PRINCES AND KINGS, \nPHILOSOPHERS, GENERALS OR TRAVELLERS.\n\nMy mouth's no dictionary; it only serves as the needful interpreter of \nmy heart.\n\nQUARLES.\n\n\nThere were few things in the way of fantastic and typical speculation \nwhich delighted the Doctor so much as the contemplation of his own \nname:\n\n  DANIEL DOVE.\n\nD. D. it was upon his linen and his seal. D. D. he used to say, \ndesignated the highest degree in the highest of the sciences, and he \nwas D. D. not by the forms of a University, but by Nature or Destiny.\n\nBesides, he maintained, that the letter D was the richest, the most \npowerful, the most fortunate letter in the alphabet, and contained in \nits form and origin more mysteries than any other.\n\nIt was a potential letter under which all powerful things were \narranged; Dictators, Despots, Dynasties, Diplomas, Doctors, \nDominations; Deeds and Donations and Decrees; Dioptrics and Dynamics; \nDialectics and Demonstrations.\n\nDiaphragm, Diathesis, Diet, Digestion, Disorder, Disease, Diagnosis; \nDiabrosis, Diaphragmatis, Diaphthora, Desudation, Defluxions, \nDejection, Delirium, Delivery, Dyspepsy, Dysmenorrh\u0153a, Dysor\u0153xia, \nDyspn\u0153a, Dysuria, Dentition, Dropsy, Diabetes, Diarrh\u0153a, Dysentery; \nthen passing almost in unconscious but beautiful order from diseases \nto remedies and their consequences, he proceeded with Dispensation, \nDiluents, Discutients, Deobstruents, Demulcents, Detergents, \nDesiccatives, Depurantia, Diaphoretics, Dietetics, Diachylon, \nDiacodium, Diagrydium, Deligations, Decoctions, Doses, Draughts, \nDrops, Dressings, Drastics, Dissolution, Dissection. What indeed he \nwould say, should we do in our profession without the Ds?\n\nOr what would the Divines do without it\u2014Danger, Despair, Death, Devil, \nDoomsday, Damnation; look to the brighter side, there is the Doxology, \nand you ascend to _\u0394\u03b9\u1f78\u03c2_, and Deus and Deity.\n\nWhat would become of the farmer without Dung, or of the Musician \nwithout the Diapason? Think also of Duets in music and Doublets at \nBackgammon. And the soldier's toast in the old Play, \u201cthe two Ds Drink \nand your Duty.\u201d[1]\n\n[Footnote 1: Shirley, Honoria and Mammon.]\n\nLook at the moral evils which are ranged under its banners, \nDissentions, Discord, Duels, Dissimulation, Deceit, Dissipation, \nDemands, Debts, Damages, Divorce, Distress, Drunkenness, \nDram-drinking, Distraction, Destruction.\n\nWhen the Poet would describe things mournful and calamitous, whither \ndoth he go for epithets of alliterative significance? where but to the \nletter D? there he hath Dim, Dusky, Drear, Dark, Damp, Dank, Dismal, \nDoleful, Dolorous, Disastrous, Dreadful, Desperate, Deplorable.\n\nWould we sum up the virtues and praise of a perfect Woman, how should \nwe do it but by saying that she was devout in religion, decorous in \nconduct, domestic in habits, dextrous in business, dutiful as a wife, \ndiligent as a mother, discreet as a mistress, in manner debonnaire, in \nmind delicate, in person delicious, in disposition docile, in all \nthings delightful. Then he would smile at Mrs. Dove and say, I love my \nlove with a D. and her name is Deborah.\n\nFor degrees and distinctions, omitting those which have before been \nincidentally enumerated, are there not Dauphin and Dey, Dux, Duke, \nDoge. Dominus, with its derivatives Don, the Dom of the French and \nPortugueze, and the Dan of our own early language; Dame, Damsel, and \nDamoisel in the untranslated masculine. Deacons and Deans, those of \nthe Christian Church, and of Madagascar whose title the French write \nDian, and we should write Deen not to confound them with the \ndignitaries of our Establishment. Druids and Dervises, Dryads, \nDemigods and Divinities.\n\nRegard the Mappa Mundi. You have Denmark and Dalecarlia, Dalmatia and \nthe fertile Delta, Damascus, Delos, Delphi and Dodona, the Isles of \nDomingo and Dominica, Dublin and Durham and Dorchester and Dumfries, \nthe shires of Devon, Dorset and Derby and the adjoining Bishoprick. \nDantzic and Drontheim, the Dutchy of Deux Ponts; Delhi the seat of the \nGreat Mogul, and that great city yet unspoiled, which\n\n            Geryon's sons\n  Call El Dorado,\u2014\n\nthe Lakes Dembea and Derwentwater, the rivers Dwina, Danube and \nDelawar, Duero or Douro call it which you will, the Doubs and all the \nDons, and our own wizard Dee,\u2014which may be said to belong wholly to \nthis letter, the vowels being rather for appearance than use.\n\nThink also, he would say of the worthies, heroes and sages in D. \nDavid, and his namesake of Wales. Diogenes, D\u00e6dalus, Diomede, and \nQueen Dido, Decebalus the Dacian King, Deucalion, Datames the Carian \nwhom Nepos hath immortalized, and Marshal Daun who so often kept the \nKing of Prussia in check, and sometimes defeated him. Nay if I speak \nof men eminent for the rank which they held, or for their exploits in \nwar, might I not name the Kings of Persia who bore the name of Darius, \nDemaratus of Sparta, whom the author of Leonidas hath well pourtrayed \nas retaining in exile a reverential feeling toward the country which \nhad wronged him: and Deodatus, a name assumed by, or given to Lewis \nthe 14th, the greatest actor of greatness that ever existed. Dion who \nlives for ever in the page of Plutarch; the Demetrii, the Roman Decii, \nDiocletian, and Devereux Earl of Essex, he by whom Cadiz was taken, \nand whose execution occasioned the death of the repentant Elizabeth by \nwhom it was decreed. If of those who have triumphed upon the ocean \nshall we not find Dragat the far-famed corsair, and our own more \nfamous and more dreadful Drake. Dandolo the Doge who at the age of  \n[2] triumphed over the perfidious Greeks, and was first chosen by the \nvictorious Latins to be the Emperor of Constantinople: Doria of whom \nthe Genoese still boast. Davis who has left his name so near the \nArctic Pole. Dampier of all travellers the most observant and most \nfaithful.[3] Diaz who first attained that Stormy Cape, to which from \nhis time the happier name of Good Hope hath been given; and Van Diemen \nthe Dutchman. If we look to the learned, are there not Duns Scotus and \nDescartes. Madame Dacier and her husband. Damo the not-degenerate \ndaughter of Pythagoras, and though a woman renowned for secrecy and \nsilence; Dante and Davila, Dugdale and Dupin; Demosthenes, Doctor Dee, \n(he also like the wizard stream all our own) and Bishop Duppa to whom \nthe _\u0395\u03b9\u03ba\u1f7c\u03bd \u0392\u03b1\u03c3\u03b9\u03bb\u03b9\u03ba\u1f74_ whether truly or not, hath been ascribed: Sir \nKenelm Digby by whom it hath been proved that Dogs make syllogisms; \nand Daniel Defoe. Here the Doctor always pronounced the christian name \nwith peculiar emphasis, and here I think it necessary to stop, that \nthe Reader may take breath.\n\n[Footnote 2: The blank is in the original MS. Qu\u00e6re, _ninety-five_?]\n\n[Footnote 3: \u201cOne of the most faithful, as well as exact and excellent \nof all voyage writers.\u201d _Vindici\u00e6 Eccl. Angl._ p. 115. Unhappily \nSouthey's wish to continue this work was not responded to. The \ncontinuation would have proved invaluable now; for who, so well as he, \nknew the wiles of the Romish Church, and the subtilties of the \nJesuit?]\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER CLXXV.\n\nTHE DOCTOR FOLLOWS UP HIS MEDITATIONS ON THE LETTER D. AND EXPECTS \nTHAT THE READER WILL BE CONVINCED THAT IT IS A DYNAMIC LETTER, AND \nTHAT THE HEBREWS DID NOT WITHOUT REASON CALL IT DALETH\u2014THE DOOR\u2014AS \nTHOUGH IT WERE THE DOOR OF SPEECH.\u2014THE MYSTIC TRIANGLE.\n\nMore authority dear boy, name more; and sweet my child let them be men \nof good repute and carriage.\u2014\n\nLOVE'S LABOUR LOST.\n\n\nThe Doctor as I have said in the last Chapter pronounced with peculiar \nemphasis the christian name of Daniel Defoe. Then taking up the \nauspicious word.\u2014Is there not Daniel the prophet, in honour of whom my \nbaptismal name was given, Daniel if not the greatest of the prophets, \nyet for the matter of his prophecies the most important. Daniel the \nFrench historian, and Daniel the English poet; who reminds me of other \npoets in D not less eminent. Donne, Dodsley, Drayton, Drummond, \nDouglas the Bishop of Dunkeld, Dunbar, Denham, Davenant, Dyer, Durfey, \nDryden, and Stephen Duck; Democritus the wise Abderite, whom I \nespecially honour for finding matter of jest even in the profoundest \nthought, extracting mirth from philosophy, and joining in delightful \nmatrimony wit with wisdom. Is there not Dollond the Optician. \nDalembert and Diderot among those Encyclopedists with whose renown\n\n  all Europe rings from side to side,\n\nDerham the Astro-Physico\u2014and Christo\u2014Theologian, Dillenius the \nbotanist, Dion who for his eloquence was called the golden-mouthed; \nDiagoras who boldly despising the false Gods of Greece, blindly and \naudaciously denied the God of Nature. Diocles who invented the \ncissoid, Deodati, Diodorus, and Dion Cassius. Thus rich was the letter \nD even before the birth of Sir Humphrey Davy, and the catastrophe of \nDoctor Dodd: before Daniel Mendoza triumphed over Humphreys in the \nring, and before Dionysius Lardner, Professor at the St \u2014\u2014 'niversity \nof London, projected the Cabinet Cyclop\u00e6dia, Daniel O'Connell fought \nMr. Peel, triumphed over the Duke of Wellington, bullied the British \nGovernment, and changed the British Constitution.\n\nIf we look to the fine arts, he pursued, the names of Douw, and Durer, \nDolce and Dominichino instantly occur. In my own profession, among the \nancients, Dioscorides; among the moderns Dippel, whose marvellous oil \nis not more exquisitely curious in preparation than powerful in its \nuse; Dover of the powder; Dalby of the Carminative; Daffy of the \nElixir; Deventer by whom the important art of bringing men into the \nworld has been so greatly improved; Douglas who has rendered lithotomy \nso beautiful an operation, that he asserteth in his motto it may be \ndone speedily, safely, and pleasantly; Dessault now rising into fame \namong the Continental surgeons, and Dimsdale who is extending the \nblessings of inoculation. Of persons eminent for virtue or sanctity, \nwho ever in friendship exceeded Damon the friend of Pythias? Is there \nnot St. John Damascenus, Dr. Doddridge, Deborah the Nurse of Rebekah, \nwho was buried beneath Beth-el under an Oak, which was called \nAllon-bachuth, the Oak of Weeping, and Deborah the wife of Lapidoth, \nwho dwelt under her palm-trees between Ramah and Beth-el in Mount \nEphraim, where the children of Israel came up to her for judgment, for \nshe was a mother in Israel; Demas for whom St. Paul greets the \nColossians, and whom he calleth his fellow labourer; and Dorcas which \nbeing interpreted is in Hebrew Tabitha and in English Doe, who was \nfull of good works and alms-deeds, whom therefore Peter raised from \nthe dead, and whom the Greeks might indeed truly have placed among the \n_\u0394\u03b5\u03c5\u03c4\u03b5\u03c1\u03cc\u03c0\u03bf\u03c4\u03bc\u03bf\u03b9_; Daniel already named, but never to be remembered too \noften, and Dan the father of his tribe. Grave writers there are, the \nDoctor would say, who hesitate not to affirm that Dan was the first \nKing of Denmark more properly called Danmark from his name, and that \nhe instituted there the military order of Dannebrog. With the \npretensions of these Danish Antiquaries he pursued, I meddle not. \nThere is surer authority for the merits of this my first namesake. \n\u201cDan shall judge his people, as one of the tribes of Israel. Dan shall \nbe a serpent by the way, an adder in the path, that biteth the horse's \nheels, so that his rider shall fall backward.\u201d Daniel quoth the \nDoctor, is commonly abbreviated into Dan, from whence doubtless it \ntaketh its root; and the Daniel therefore who is not wise as a \nserpent, falsifieth the promise of the patriarch Jacob.\n\nThat this should have been the Dan who founded the kingdom of Denmark \nhe deemed an idle fancy. King Dans in that country however there have \nbeen, and among them was King Dan called Mykelati or the Magnificent, \nwith whom the Bruna Olld, or age of Combustion, ended in the North, \nand the Hougs Olld or age of barrows began, for he it was who \nintroduced the custom of interment. But he considered it as indeed an \nhonour to the name, that Death should have been called _\u0394\u03ac\u03bd\u03bf\u03c2_ by the \nMacedonians, not as a dialectic or provincial form of _\u0398\u03ac\u03bd\u03b1\u03c4\u03bf\u03c2_ but \nfrom the Hebrew Dan, which signifies, says Jeremy Taylor, a Judge, as \nintimating that Judges are appointed to give sentence upon criminals \nin life and death.\n\nEven if we look at the black side of the shield we still find that the \nD preserves its power: there is Dathan, who with Korah and Abiram went \ndown alive into the pit, and the earth closed upon them; Dalila by \nwhom Sampson was betrayed; Dionysius the acoustical tyrant; Domitian \nwho like a true vice-gerent of Beelzebub tormented flies as well as \nmen; Decius the fiercest of the persecutors; the inhuman Dunstan, and \nthe devilish Dominic, after whom it seems all but an anticlimax to \nname the _ipsissimus_ Diabolus, the Devil himself. And here let us \nremark through how many languages the name of the author of evil \nretains its characteristic initial, _\u0394\u03b9\u03ac\u03b2\u03bf\u03bb\u03bf\u03c2_, Diabolus, Diavolo, \nDiablo, Diabo, Diable, in Dutch Duival, in Welsh Diawl, and though the \nGermans write him Teufel, it is because in their coarser articulation \nthe D passes into the cognate sound of T, without offending their \nobtuser organs of hearing. Even in the appellations given him by \nfamiliar or vulgar irreverence, the same pregnant initial prevails, he \nis the Deuce, and Old Davy and Davy Jones. And it may be noted that in \nthe various systems of false religion to which he hath given birth, \nthe Delta is still a dominant inchoative. Witness Dagon of the \nPhilistines, witness the Daggial of the Mahommedans, and the forgotten \nroot from whence the _\u0394\u03b9\u1f78\u03c2_ of the Greeks is derived. Why should I \nmention the Roman Diespiter, the Syrian Dirceto, Delius with his \nsister Delia, known also as Dictynna and the great Diana of the \nEphesians. The Sicyonian Dia, Dione of whom Venus was born, Deiphobe \nthe Cum\u00e6an Sybil who conducted \u00c6neas in his descent to the infernal \nregions. Doris the mother of the Nereids, and Dorus father of the race \nof Pygmies. Why should I name the Dioscuri, Dice and Dionysus, the \nEarth, Mother Demeter, the Demiourgos, gloomy Dis, Demogorgon dread \nand Daphne whom the Gods converted into a Laurel to decorate the brows \nof Heroes and Poets.\n\nTruly he would say it may be called a dynamic letter; and not without \nmystery did the Hebrews call it Daleth, the door, as though it were \nthe door of speech. Then its form! how full of mysteries! The wise \nEgyptians represented it by three stars disposed in a triangle: it was \ntheir hieroglyphic of the Deity. In Greek it is the Delta.\n\n  \u0394\n\nIn this form were the stupendous Pyramids built, when the sage \nEgyptians are thought to have emblematised the soul of man, which the \ndivine Plato supposed to be of this shape. This is the mysterious \ntriangle, which the Pythagoreans called Pallas, because they said it \nsprang from the brain of Jupiter, and Tritogeneia, because if three \nright lines were drawn from its angles to meet in the centre, a triple \nbirth of triangles was produced, each equal to the other.\n\n[Figure: a tetrahedron]\n\nI pass reverently the diviner mysteries which have been illustrated \nfrom hence, and may perhaps be typified herein. Nor will I do more \nthan touch upon the mechanical powers which we derive from a knowledge \nof the properties of the figures, and upon the science of \nTrigonometry. In its Roman and more familiar form, the Letter hath \nalso sublime resemblances or prototypes. The Rainbow resting upon the \nearth describes its form. Yea, the Sky and the Earth represent a grand \nand immeasurable D; for when you stand upon a boundless plain, the \nspace behind you and before in infinite longitude is the straight \nline, and the circle of the firmament which bends from infinite \naltitude to meet it, forms the bow.\n\nFor himself, he said, it was a never failing source of satisfaction \nwhen he reflected how richly his own destiny was endowed with Ds. The \nD was the star of his ascendant. There was in the accident of his \nlife,\u2014and he desired it to be understood as using the word accident in \nits scholastic acceptations,\u2014a concatenation, a concentration. Yea he \nmight venture to call it a constellation of Ds. Dove he was born; \nDaniel he was baptized; Daniel was the name of his father; Dinah of \nhis mother, Deborah of his wife; Doctor was his title, Doncaster his \ndwelling place; in the year of his marriage, which next to that of his \nbirth was the most important of his life, D was the Dominical letter; \nand in the amorous and pastoral strains wherein he had made his \npassion known in the magazines, he had called himself Damon and his \nmistress Delia.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER CLXXVI.\n\nTHE DOCTOR DISCOVERS THE ANTIQUITY OF THE NAME OF DOVE FROM PERUSING \nJACOB BRYANT'S ANALYSIS OF ANCIENT MYTHOLOGY.\u2014CHRISTOPHER AND \nFERDINAND COLUMBUS.\u2014SOMETHING ABOUT PIGEON-PIE, AND THE REASON WHY THE \nDOCTOR WAS INCLINED TO THINK FAVOURABLY OF THE SAMARITANS.\n\nAn I take the humour of a thing once, I am like your tailor's needle; \nI go through.\n\nBEN JONSON.\n\n\nDove also was a name which abounded with mystical significations, and \nwhich derived peculiar significance from its mysterious conjunction \nwith Daniel. Had it not been said \u201cBe ye wise as serpents and harmless \nas Doves?\u201d To him the text was personally applicable in both parts. \nDove he was by birth. Daniel by baptism or the second birth, and \nDaniel was Dan, and Dan shall be a serpent by the way.\n\nBut who can express his delight when in perusing Jacob Bryant's \nAnalysis of ancient Mythology, he found that so many of the most \nillustrious personages of antiquity proved to be Doves, when their \nnames were truly interpreted or properly understood! That erudite \ninterpreter of hidden things taught him that the name of the Dove was \nI\u00f6n and I\u00f6nah, whence in immediate descent the O\u00e4n and Oannes of \nBerosus and Abydenus, and in longer but lineal deduction \u00c6neas, \nHannes, Hanno, Ionah, _\u0399\u03bf\u03ac\u03bd\u03bd\u03b7\u03c2_, Johannes, Janus, Eanus among the \nelder Romans, Giovanni among the later Italians, Juan, Joam, Jean, \nJohn, Jan, Iwain, Ivan, Ewan, Owen, Evan, Hans, Ann, Hannah, Nannette, \nJane, Jeannette, Jeanne, Joanna and Joan; all who had ever borne these \nnames, or any name derived from the same radical, as doubtless many \nthere were in those languages of which he had no knowledge, nor any \nmeans of acquiring it, being virtually Doves. Did not Bryant expressly \nsay that the prophet Jonah was probably so named as a messenger of the \nDeity, the mystic Dove having been from the days of Jonah regarded as \na sacred symbol among all nations where any remembrance of the \ndestruction and renovation of mankind was preserved! It followed \ntherefore that the prophet Jonah, Hannibal, St. John, Owen Glendower, \nJoan of Arc, Queen Anne, Miss Hannah More, and Sir Watkin Williams \nWynn, were all of them his namesakes, to pretermit or pass over Pope \nJoan, Little John, and Jack the Giantkiller. And this followed, not \nlike the derivation of King Pepin from _\u1f4d\u03c3\u03c0\u03b5\u03c1_, by a jump in the \nprocess, such as that from _\u03b4\u03b9\u03ac\u03c0\u03b5\u03c1_ to napkin; nor like the equally \nwell known identification of a Pigeon with an Eel Pye, in the logic of \nwhich the Doctor would have detected a fallacy, but in lawful \netymology, and according to the strict interpretation of words. If he \nlooked for the names through the thinner disguise of language there \nwas Semiramis who having been fed by Doves, was named after them. What \nwas Zurita the greatest historian of Arragon, but a young stock Dove? \nWhat were the three Palominos so properly enumerated in the \nBibliotheca of Nicolas Antonio. Pedro the Benedictine in whose sermons \na more than ordinary breathing of the spirit might not unreasonably be \nexpected from his name; Francisco who translated into Castillian the \nPsychomachia of the Christian poet Aurelius Prudentius, and Diego the \nPrior of Xodar, whose _Liber de mutatione aeris, in quo assidua, et \nmirabilis mutationis temporum historia, cum suis causis, enarratur_, \nhe so greatly regretted that he had never been able to procure: what \nwere these Palominos? what but Doves?\u2014Father Colombiere who framed the \nservice for the Heart of Jesus which was now so fashionable in \nCatholic countries, was clearly of the Dove genus. St. Columba was a \ndecided Dove; three there were certainly, the Senonian, the Cordovan \nand the Cornish: and there is reason to believe that there was a \nfourth also, a female Dove, who held a high rank in St. Ursula's great \narmy of virgins. Columbo the Anatomist, deservedly eminent as one of \nthose who by their researches led the way for Harvey, he also was a \nDove. Lastly,\u2014and the Doctor in fine taste always reserved the \ngreatest glory of the Dove name, for the conclusion of his \ndiscourse\u2014lastly, there was Christopher Columbus, whom he used to call \nhis famous namesake. And he never failed to commend Ferdinand Columbus \nfor the wisdom and piety with which he had commented upon the mystery \nof the name, to remark that his father had conveyed the grace of the \nHoly Ghost to the New World, shewing to the people who knew him not \nwho was God's beloved son, as the Holy Ghost had done in the figure of \na Dove at the baptism of St. John, and bearing like Noah's Dove the \nOlive Branch, and the Oil of Baptism over the waters of the ocean.\n\nAnd what would our onomatologist have said if he had learned to read \nthese words in that curious book of the &c. family, the Oriental \nfragments of Major Edward Moor: \u201cIn respect to St. Columba, or Colomb, \nand other superstitious names and things in close relationship, I \nshall have in another place something to say. I shall try to connect \n_Col-omb_, with Kal-O'm,\u2014those infinitely mysterious words of Hindu \nmythology: and with these, divers _Myth\u00e9_, converging into or \ndiverging from O'M\u2014A U M,\u2014the Irish _Ogham_,\u2014I A M,\u2014_Amen, \n\u0399\u039b\u03c9_,\u2014Il-Kolmkill, &c. &c. &c.\u201d Surely had the onomatologist lived to \nread this passage, he would forthwith have opened and corresponded \nwith the benevolent and erudite etc\u00e6terarist of Bealings.\n\nThese things were said in his deeper moods. In the days of courtship \nhe had said in song that Venus's car was drawn by Doves, regretting at \nthe time that an allusion which came with such peculiar felicity from \nhim, should appear to common readers to mean nothing more than what \nrhymers from time immemorial had said before him. After marriage he \noften called Mrs. Dove his Turtle, and in his playful humours when the \ngracefulness of youth had gradually been superseded by a certain \nrotundity of form, he sometimes named her _\u03c6\u03ac\u03c4\u03c4\u03b1_ his ring-dove. Then \nhe would regret that she had not proved a stock-dove,\u2014and if she \nfrowned at him, or looked grave, she was his pouting pigeon.\n\nOne inconvenience however Mrs. Dove felt from his reverence for the \nname. He never suffered a pigeon-pie at his table. And when he read \nthat the Samaritans were reproached with retaining a trace of Assyrian \nsuperstition because they held it unlawful to eat this bird, he was \nfrom that time inclined to think favourably of the schismatics of \nMount Gerizim.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER CLXXVII.\n\nSOMETHING ON THE SCIENCE AND MYSTERY OF NUMBERS WHICH IS NOT ACCORDING \nTO COCKER.\u2014REVERIES OF JEAN D'ESPAGNE, MINISTER OF THE FRENCH-REFORMED \nCHURCH IN WESTMINSTER, AND OF MR. JOHN BELLAMY.\u2014A PITHY REMARK OF \nFULLER'S AND AN EXTRACT FROM HIS PISGAH SIGHT OF PALESTINE, TO \nRECREATE THE READER.\n\n  None are so surely caught, when they are catch'd\n  As wit turn'd fool: folly, in wisdom hatch'd\n  Hath wisdom's warrant, and the help of school,\n  And wit's own grace to grace a learned fool.\n\nLOVE'S LABOUR LOST.\n\n\nIt may easily be supposed that the Doctor was versed in the science of \nnumbers; not merely that common science which is taught at schools and \nmay be learnt from Cocker's Arithmetic, but the more recondite \nmysteries which have in all ages delighted minds like his; and of \nwhich the richest specimens may be seen in the writings of the Hugonot \nMinister Jean de l'Espagne, and in those of our contemporary Mr. John \nBellamy, author of the Ophion, of various papers in the Classical \nJournal, and defender of the Old and New Testament.\n\n_Cet auteur est assez digne d'etre lu_, says Bayle of Jean de \nl'Espagne, and he says it in some unaccountable humour, too gravely \nfor a jest. The writer who is thus recommended was Minister of the \nReformed French Church in Westminster, which met at that time in \nSomerset Chapel, and his friend Dr. De Garencieres, who wrote \ncommendatory verses upon him in French, Latin and Greek, calls him\n\n  _Belle lumiere des Pasteurs,\n   Ornement du Siecle ou nous sommes,\n   Qui trouve des admirateurs\n   Par tout ou il y a des hommes._\n\nHe was one of those men to whom the Bible comes as a book of problems \nand riddles, a mine in which they are always at work, thinking that \nwhatever they can throw up must needs be gold. Among the various \nobservations which he gave the world without any other order, as he \nsays, than that in which they presented themselves to his memory, \nthere may be found good, bad and indifferent. He thought the English \nChurch had improperly appointed a Clerk to say Amen for the people. \nAmen being intended, among other reasons, as a mark whereby to \ndistinguish those who believed with the officiating Priest from \nIdolaters and Heretics. He thought it was not expedient that Jews \nshould be allowed to reside in England, for a Jew would perceive in \nthe number of our tolerated sects, a confusion worse than that of \nBabel; and as the multitude here are always susceptible of every folly \nwhich is offered, and the more monstrous the faith, to them the better \nmystery, it was to be feared, he said, that for the sake of converting \ntwo or three Jews we were exposing a million Christians to the danger \nof Judaizing; or at least that we should see new religions start up, \ncompounded of Judaism with Christianity. He was of opinion, in \nopposition to what was then generally thought in England that one \nmight innocently say God bless you, to a person who sneezed, though he \ncandidly admitted that there was no example either in the Old or New \nTestament, and that in all the Scriptures only one person is mentioned \nas having sneezed, to wit the Shunamite's son. He thought it more \nprobable from certain texts that the Soul at death departs by way of \nthe nostrils, than by way of the mouth according to the vulgar \nnotion:\u2014had he previously ascertained which way it came in, he would \nhave had no difficulty in deciding which way it went out. And he \npropounded and resolved a question concerning Jephtha which no person \nbut himself ever thought of asking: _Pourquoy Dieu voulant delivrer \nles Israelites, leur donna pour liberateur, voire pour Chef et \nGouverneur perpetuel, un fils d'une paillarde?_ \u201cO Jephtha, Judge of \nIsrael,\u201d that a Frenchman should call thee in filthy French _fils \nd'une putain!_\n\nBut the peculiar talent of the _Belle Lumiere des Pasteurs_ was for \ncabalistic researches concerning numbers, or what he calls _L'Harmonie \ndu Temps_. Numbers, he held, (and every generation, every family, \nevery individual was marked with one,) were not the causes of what \ncame to pass, but they were marks or impresses which God set upon his \nworks, distinguishing them by the difference of these their cyphers. \nAnd he laid it down as a rule that in doubtful points of computation, \nthe one wherein some mystery could be discovered was always to be \npreferred. QUOY?\u2014(think how triumphantly his mouth opened and his nose \nwas erected and his nostrils were dilated, when he pronounced that \ninterrogation)\u2014QUOY? _la variet\u00e9 de nos opinions qui provient \nd'imperfection, aneantira-t-elle les merveilles de Dieu?_ In the \ncourse of his Scriptural computations he discovered that when the Sun \nstood still at the command of Joshua, it was precisely 2555 years \nafter the Creation, that is seven years of years, a solar week, after \nwhich it had been preordained that the Sun should thus have its \nsabbath of rest: _Ceci n'est il pas admirable?_ It was on the tenth \nyear of the tenth year of the years that the Sun went back ten \ndegrees, which was done to show the chronology: _ou est le stupide qui \nne soit ravi en admiration d'une si celeste harmonie?_ With equal \nsagacity and equal triumph he discovered how the generations from Adam \nto Christ went by twenty-twos; and the generations of Christ by \nsevens, being 77 in all, and that from the time the promise of the \nSeed was given till its fulfilment there elapsed a week of years, \nseven times seventy years, seventy weeks of years, and seven times \nseventy weeks of years by which beautiful geometry, if he might be \npermitted to use so inadequate a term, the fullness of time was made \nup.\n\nWhat wonderful significations also hath Mr. Bellamy in his kindred \npursuits discovered and darkly pointed out! Doth he not tell us of \nseven steps, seven days, seven priests, seven rams, seven bullocks, \nseven trumpets, seven shepherds, seven stars, seven spirits, seven \neyes, seven lamps, seven pipes, seven heads, four wings, four beasts, \nfour kings, four kingdoms, four carpenters; the number three he has \nleft unimproved,\u2014but for two,\u2014\n\n              which number Nature framed\n  In the most useful faculties of man,\n  To strengthen mutually and relieve each other,\n  Two eyes, two ears, two arms, two legs and feet,\n  That where one failed the other might supply,\n\nfor this number Mr. Bellamy has two cherubims, two calves, two \nturtles, two birds alive, two         [1], two baskets of figs, two \nolive trees, two women grinding, two men in the fields, two woes, two \nwitnesses, two candlesticks; and when he descends to the unit, he \ntells us of one tree, one heart, one stick, one fold, one pearl,\u2014to \nwhich we must add one Mr. John Bellamy the Pearl of Commentators.\n\n[Footnote 1: The blank is in the MS.]\n\nBut what is this to the exquisite manner in which he elucidates the \npolytheism of the Greeks and Romans, showing us that the inferior Gods \nof their mythology were in their origin only men who had exercised \ncertain departments in the state, a discovery which he illustrates in \na manner the most familiar, and at the same time the most striking for \nits originality. Thus, he says, if the Greeks and Romans had been \nEnglishmen, or if we Englishmen of the present day were Greeks and \nRomans, we should call our Secretary at War, Lord Bathurst for \ninstance, Mars; the Lord Chancellor (Lord Eldon to wit) Mercury,\u2014as \nbeing at the head of the department for eloquence.\u2014(But as Mercury is \nalso the God of thieves may not Mr. Bellamy, grave as he is, be \nsuspected of insinuating here that the Gentlemen of the Long Robe are \nthe most dextrous of pickpockets?)\u2014The first Lord of the Admiralty, \nNeptune. The President of the College of Physicians, Apollo. The \nPresident of the Board of Agriculture, Janus. Because with one face he \nlooked forward to the new year, while at the same time he looked back \nwith the other on the good or bad management of the agriculture of the \nlast, wherefore he was symbolically represented with a second face at \nthe back of his head. Again Mr. Bellamy seems to be malicious, in thus \ntypifying or seeming to typify Sir John Sinclair between two \nadministrations with a face for both. The ranger of the forests he \nproceeds, would be denominated Diana. The Archbishop of Canterbury, \nMinerva;\u2014Minerva in a Bishop's wig! The first Lord of the Treasury, \nJuno; and the Society of Suppression of Vice,\u2014Reader, lay thy watch \nupon the table, and guess for three whole minutes what the Society for \nthe Suppression of Vice would be called upon this ingenious scheme, if \nthe Greeks and Romans were Englishmen of the present generation, or if \nwe of the present generation were heathen Greeks and Romans. I leave a \n_carte blanche_ before this, lest thine eye outrunning thy judgement, \nshould deprive thee of that proper satisfaction which thou wilt feel \nif thou shouldst guess aright. But exceed not the time which I have \naffixed for thee, for if thou dost not guess aright in three minutes, \nthou wouldest not in as many years.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nVENUS. Yes Reader. By Cyprus and Paphos and the Groves of Idalia. By \nthe little God Cupid,\u2014by all the Loves and Doves,\u2014and by the lobbies \nof the London theatres\u2014he calls the Society for the Suppression of \nVice, VENUS!\n\nFancy, says Fuller, runs riot when spurred with superstition. This is \nhis marginal remark upon a characteristic paragraph concerning the \nChambers about Solomon's Temple, with which I will here recreate the \nreader. \u201cAs for the mystical meaning of these chambers, Bede no doubt, \nthought he hit the very mark\u2014when finding therein the three conditions \nof life, all belonging to God's Church: in the ground chamber, such as \nlive in marriage; in the middle chamber such as contract; but in the \n_excelsis_ or third story, such as have attained to the sublimity of \nperpetual virginity. Rupertus in the lowest chamber lodgeth those of \npractical lives with Noah; in the middle\u2014those of mixed lives with \nJob; and in the highest\u2014such as spend their days with Daniel in holy \nspeculations. But is not this rather _lusus_, than _allusio_, sporting \nwith, than expounding of scriptures? Thus when the gates of the Oracle \nare made _five square_, Ribera therein reads our conquest over the \nfive senses, and when those of the door of the Temple are said to be \n_four square_, therein saith he is denoted the _quaternion_ of \nEvangelists. After this rate, Hiram (though no doubt dexterous in his \nart) could not so soon fit a pillar with a fashion as a Friar can fit \nthat fashion with a mystery. If made three square, then the Trinity of \nPersons: four square, the cardinal virtues: five square, the \n_Pentateuch of Moses_: six square, the _Petitions_ or the _Lord's \nPrayer_: seven square, their _Sacraments_: eight square, the \n_Beatitudes_: nine square, the Orders of Angels: ten square, the \nCommandments: eleven square, the moral virtues: twelve square, the \narticles of the creed are therein contained. In a word\u2014for matter of \nnumbers\u2014fancy is never at a loss\u2014like a beggar, never out of her way, \nbut hath some haunts where to repose itself. But such as in expounding \nscriptures reap more than God did sow there, never eat what they reap \nthemselves, because such grainless husks, when seriously thrashed out, \nvanish all into chaff.\u201d[2]\n\n[Footnote 2: Pisgah Sight of Palestine, Book iii. c. vii.]\n\n\n\n\nCLXXVIII.\n\nTHE MYSTERY OF NUMBERS PURSUED, AND CERTAIN CALCULATIONS GIVEN WHICH \nMAY REMIND THE READER OF OTHER CALCULATIONS EQUALLY \nCORRECT\u2014ANAGRAMMATIZING OF NAMES, AND THE DOCTOR'S SUCCESS THEREIN.\n\n\u201cThere is no efficacy in numbers, said the wiser Philosophers; and \nvery truly,\u201d\u2014saith Bishop Hacket in repeating this sentence; but he \ncontinues,\u2014\u201csome numbers are apt to enforce a reverent esteem towards \nthem, by considering miraculous occurrences which fell out in _holy \nScripture_ on such and such a number.\u2014_Non potest fortuit\u00f2 fieri, quod \ntam s\u00e6pe fit_, says Maldonatus whom I never find superstitious in this \nmatter. It falls out too often to be called contingent; and the \noftener it falls out, the more to be attended.\u201d[1]\n\n[Footnote 1: On referring to Bishop Hacket's Sermons I find this Motto \nit not copied out _Verbatim_. See p. 245.]\n\n\nThis choice morsel hath led us from the science of numbers. Great \naccount hath been made of that science in old times. There was an \nepigrammatist who discovering that the name of his enemy Damagoras \namounted in numerical letters to the same sum as _\u039b\u03bf\u03b9\u03bc\u1f78\u03c2_ the plague, \ninferred from thence that Damagorus and the Plague were one and the \nsame thing; a stingless jest serving like many satires of the present \nage to show the malice and not the wit of the satirist. But there were \nthose among the ancients who believed that stronger influences existed \nin the number of a name, and that because of their arithmetical \ninferiority in this point, Patroclus was slain by Hector, and Hector \nby Achilles. Diviners grounded upon this a science which they called \nOnomantia or Arithmomantia. When Maurice of Saxony to the great fear \nof those who were most attached to him, engaged in war against Charles \nV, some one encouraged his desponding friends by this augury, and said \nthat if the initials of the two names were considered, it would be \nseen that the fortunes of Maurice preponderated over those of Charles \nin the proportion of a thousand to a hundred.\n\nA science like this could not be without attractions for the Doctor; \nand it was with no little satisfaction that he discovered in the three \nDs with which his spoons and his house linen were marked, by \nconsidering them as so many capital Deltas, the figures 444, combining \nthe complex virtues of the four thrice told. But he discovered greater \nsecrets in the names of himself and his wife when taken at full \nlength. He tried them in Latin and could obtain no satisfactory \nresult, nor had he any better success in Greek when he observed the \nproper orthography of _\u0394\u03b1\u03bd\u03b9\u1f74\u03bb_ and _\u0394\u03b5\u03b2\u03b2\u1ff6\u03c1\u03b1_.[2] But anagrammatists \nare above the rules of orthography, just as Kings, Divines and Lawyers \nare privileged, if it pleases them, to dispense with the rules of \ngrammar. Taking these words therefore letter by letter according to \nthe common pronunciation (for who said he pronounces them Danieel and \nDeboarah?) and writing the surname in Greek letters instead of \ntranslating it, the sum which it thus produced was equal to his most \nsanguine wishes, for thus it proved\n\n   Daniel and Deborah  Dove.\n  _\u0394\u03b1\u03bd\u03b9\u1f72\u03bb_   _\u0394\u03b5\u03b2\u03cc\u1fe5\u03b1_ _\u0394\u03bf\u1f7a\u03b5_.\n\n      _\u0394\u03b1\u03bd\u03b9\u1f72\u03bb_\n      _\u0394_   4\n      _\u03b1_   1\n      _\u03bd_  50\n      _\u03b9_  10\n      _\u03b5_   5\n      _\u03bb_  30\n          -\u2014-\n  Daniel  100\n\n      _\u0394\u03b5\u03b2\u03cc\u1fe5\u03b1_\n      _\u0394_   4\n      _\u03b5_   5\n      _\u03b2_   2\n      _\u03bf_  70\n      _\u03c1_ 100\n      _\u03b1_   1\n          -\u2014-\n  Deborah 182\n\n      _\u0394\u03bf\u1f7a\u03b5_\n      _\u0394_   4\n      _\u03bf_  70\n      _\u03c5_ 400\n      _\u03b5_   5\n          -\u2014-\n  Dove    479\n\nThe whole being added together gave the following product\n\n  Daniel  100\n  Deborah 182\n  Dove    479\n          \u2014--\n          761\n\n[Footnote 2: _\u0394\u03b5\u03b2\u03cc\u1fe5\u1fe5\u03b1_ Gen. xxxv. 8., _\u0394\u03b5\u03b2\u03b2\u1ff6\u03c1\u03b1_ Judges iv. 4. The \ndouble _\u1fe5_ will not affect the mystery!]\n\nHere was the number 761 found in fair addition, without any arbitrary \nchange of letters, or licentious innovation in orthography. And herein \nwas mystery. The number 761 is a prime number; from hence the Doctor \ninferred that as the number was indivisible, there could be no \ndivision between himself and Mrs. Dove; an inference which the harmony \nof their lives fully warranted. And this alone would have amply \nrewarded his researches. But a richer discovery flashed upon him. The \nyear 1761 was the year of his marriage, and to make up the deficient \nthousand there was M for marriage and matrimony. These things he would \nsay must never be too explicit; their mysterious character would be \nlost if they lay upon the surface; like precious metals and precious \nstones you must dig to find them.\n\nHe had bestowed equal attention and even more diligence in \nanagrammatizing the names. His own indeed furnished him at first with \na startling and by no means agreeable result; for upon transposing the \ncomponent letters of Daniel Dove, there appeared the words _Leaden \nvoid!_ Nor was he more fortunate in a Latin attempt, which gave him \n_Dan vile Deo_. _Vel dona Dei_ as far as it bore a semblance of \nmeaning was better; but when after repeated dislocations and juxta \npositions there came forth the words _Dead in love_, Joshua Sylvester \nwas not more delighted at finding that Jacobus Stuart made _justa \nscrutabo_, and James Stuart _A just Master_, than the Doctor,\u2014for it \nwas in the May days of his courtship. In the course of these \nanagrammatical experiments he had a glimpse of success which made him \nfeel for a moment like a man whose lottery ticket is next in number to \nthe \u00a320,000 prize. Dove failed only in one letter of being Ovid. In \nold times they did not stand upon trifles in these things, and John \nBunyan was perfectly satisfied with extracting from his name the words \n_Nu hony in a B_,\u2014a sentence of which the orthography and the import \nare worthy of each other. But although the Doctor was contented with a \nvery small sufficit of meaning, he could not depart so violently from \nthe letters here. The disappointment was severe though momentary: it \nwas, as we before observed, in the days of his courtship; and could he \nthus have made out his claim to be called Ovid, he had as clear a \nright to add Naso as the Poet of Sulmo himself, or any of the Nasonic \nrace, for he had been at the promontory, \u201cand why indeed Naso,\u201d as \nHolofernes has said?\u2014Why not merely for that reason \u2018looking toward \nDamascus\u2019 which may be found in the second volume of this work in the \nsixty-third chapter and at the two hundred and thirtieth page, but \nalso \u201cfor smelling out the odoriferous flowers of fancy, the jerks of \ninvention?\u201d[3]\n\n[Footnote 3: Love's Labour Lost, Act iv. Sc. ii.]\n\nThus much for his own name. After marriage he added his wife's with \nthe conjunction copulative, and then came out _Dear Delia had bound \none_: nothing could be more felicitous, Delia as has already been \nnoticed, having been the poetical name by which he addressed the \nobject of his affections. Another result was _I hadden a dear \nbond-love_, but having some doubts as to the syntax of the verb, and \nsome secret dislike to its obsolete appearance, he altered it into \n_Ned, I had a dear bond-love_, as though he was addressing his friend \nDr. Miller the organist, whose name was Edward.\n\n\n\n\nCLXXIX.\n\nTHE SUBJECT OF ANAGRAMS CONTINUED; A TRUE OBSERVATION WHICH MANY FOR \nWANT OF OBSERVATION WILL NOT DISCOVER TO BE SUCH, VIZ., THAT THERE IS \nA LATENT SUPERSTITION IN THE MOST RATIONAL OF MEN. LUCKY AND \nUNLUCKY\u2014FITTING AND UNFITTING\u2014ANAGRAMS, AND HOW THE DOCTOR'S TASTE IN \nTHIS LINE WAS DERIVED FROM OUR OLD ACQUAINTANCE JOSHUA SYLVESTER.\n\n  Ha gran forza una vecchia opinione;\n    E bisogna grand' arte, e gran fatica,\n    A cavarla del capo alle persone.\n\nBRONZINO PITTORE.\n\n\nAnagrams are not likely ever again to hold so high a place among the \nprevalent pursuits of literature as they did in the seventeenth \ncentury, when Louis XIII. appointed the Proven\u00e7al Thomas Billen to be \nhis Royal Anagrammatist, and granted him a salary of 1200 _livres_. \nBut no person will ever hit upon an apt one without feeling that \ndegree of pleasure and surprize with which any odd coincidence is \nremarked. Has any one who knows Johnny the Bear heard his name thus \nanagrammatized without a smile? we may be sure he smiled and growled \nat the same time when he first heard it himself.\n\nMight not Father Salvator Mile, and Father Louis Almerat, who were \nboth musicians, have supposed themselves as clearly predestined to be \nmusical, as ever seventh son of a Septimus thought himself born for \nthe medical professions, if they had remarked what Penrose discovered \nfor them, that their respective names, with the F. for Friar prefixed, \neach contained the letters of the six musical notes _ut_, _re_, _mi_, \n_fa_, _sol_, _la_, and not a letter more or less?\n\nThere is, and always hath been, and ever will be, a latent \nsuperstition in the most rational of men. It belongs to the weakness \nand dependence of human nature. Believing as the scriptures teach us \nto believe, that signs and tokens have been vouchsafed in many cases, \nis it to be wondered at that we seek for them sometimes in our moods \nof fancy, or that they suggest themselves to us in our fears and our \ndistress? Men may cast off religion and extinguish their conscience \nwithout ridding themselves of this innate and inherent tendency.\n\nProper names have all in their origin been significant in all \nlanguages. It was easy for men who brooded over their own \nimaginations, to conceive that they might contain in their elements a \nmore recondite, and perhaps, fatidical signification; and the same \nturn or twist of mind which led the Cabbalists to their extravagant \nspeculations have taken this direction, when confined within the \nlimits of languages which have no supernatural pretensions. But no \nserious importance was attached to such things, except by persons \nwhose intellects were in some degree deranged. They were sought for \nchiefly as an acceptable form of compliment, sometimes in \nself-complacency of the most offensive kind, and sometimes for the \nsting which they might carry with them. Lycophron is said to have been \nthe inventor of this trifling.\n\nThe Rules for the true discovery of perfect anagrams, as laid down by \nMrs. Mary Fage,[1] allowed as convenient a license in orthography as \nthe Doctor availed himself of in Greek.\n\n  E may most\u2014what conclude an English word,\n  And so a letter at a need afford.\n  H is an aspiration and no letter;\n  It may be had or left which we think better.\n  I may be I or Y as need require;\n  Q ever after doth a U desire;\n  Two Vs may be a double U; and then\n  A double U may be two Vs again.\n  X may divided be, and S and C\n  May by that letter comprehended be.\n  Z a double S may comprehend:\n  And lastly an apostrophe may ease\n  Sometimes a letter when it doth not please.\n\n[Footnote 1: In her Fames Roule, or the names of King Charles, his \nQueen and his most hopeful posterity; together with the names of the \nDukes, Marquisses, &c., anagrammatized, and expressed by acrostick \nlines on their lives. London, 1637, R. S.]\n\nTwo of the luckiest hits which anagrammatists have made were on the \nAttorney General William Noy, _I moyl in law_; and Sir Edmundbury \nGodfrey _I find murdered by rogues_. Before Felton's execution it was \nobserved that his anagram was _No, flie not_.\n\nA less fortunate one made the Lady Davies mad, or rather fixed the \ncharacter of her madness. She was the widow of Sir John Davies, the \nstatesman and poet, and having anagrammatized Eleanor Davies into \nReveal O Daniel, she was crazy enough to fancy that the spirit of the \nProphet Daniel was incorporated in her. The Doctor mentioned the case \nwith tenderness and a kind of sympathy. \u201cThough the anagram says Dr. \nHeylyn, had too much by an L and too little by an S, yet she found \nDaniel and Reveal in it, and that served her turn.\u201d Setting up for a \nProphetess upon this conceit, and venturing upon political predictions \nin sore times, she was brought before the Court of High Commission, \nwhere serious pains were preposterously bestowed in endeavouring to \nreason her out of an opinion founded on insanity. All, as might have \nbeen expected, and ought to have been foreseen, would not do, \u201ctill \nLamb, then Dean of the Arches, shot her through and through with an \narrow borrowed from her own quiver.\u201d For while the Divines were \nreasoning the point with her out of scripture, he took a pen into his \nhand, and presently finding that the letters of her name might be \nassorted to her purpose, said to her, Madam, I see that you build much \non anagrams, and I have found out one which I hope will fit you: Dame \nEleanor Davies,\u2014_Never so mad a Ladie!_ He then put it into her hands \nin writing, \u201cwhich happy fancy brought that grave Court into such a \nlaughter, and the poor woman thereupon into such a confusion, that \nafterwards she either grew wiser, or was less regarded.\u201d\u2014This is a \ncase in which it may be admitted that ridicule was a fair test of \ntruth.\n\nWhen Henri IV. sent for Marshal Biron to court, with an assurance of \nfull pardon if he would reveal without reserve the whole of his \nnegociations and practices, that rash and guilty man resolved to go \nand brave all dangers, because certain Astrologers had assured him \nthat his ascendant commanded that of the King, and in confirmation of \nthis some flattering friend discovered in his name _Henri de Bourbon_ \nthis anagram _De Biron Bonheur_. _Comme ainsi fust_, says one of his \ncontemporaries, _qu'il en fist gloire, quelque Gentilhomme bien advis\u00e9 \nl\u00e0 present\u2014dit tout bas \u00e0 l'oreille d'un sien amy, s'il le pense ainsi \nil n'est pas sage, et trouvera qu'il y a du_ Robin _dedans_ Biron. \n_Robin_ was a name used at that time by the French as synonymous with \nsimpleton. But of unfitting anagrams none were ever more curiously \nunfit than those which were discovered in Marguerite de Valois, the \nprofligate Queen of Navarre; _Salve, Virgo Mater Dei; ou, de vertu \nroyal image!_ The Doctor derived his taste for anagrams from the poet \nwith whose rhymes and fancies he had been so well embued in his \nboyhood, old Joshua Sylvester, who as the translator of Du Bartas, \nsigned himself to the King in anagrammatical French _Voy Sire \nSaluste_, and was himself addressed in anagrammatical Latin as _Vere \nOs Salustii_.\n\n\u201cExcept Eteostiques,\u201d say Drummond of Hawthornden, \u201cI think the \nAnagram the most idle study in the world of learning. Their maker must \nbe _homo miserrim\u00e6 patienti\u00e6_, and when he is done, what is it but \n_magno conatu nugas magnas agere!_ you may of one and the same name \nmake both good and evil. So did my Uncle find in Anna Regina, \n_Ingannare_, as well as of Anna Britannorum Regina, _Anna Regnantium \nArbor_: as he who in Charles de Valois, found _Chass\u00e8 la dure loy_, \nand after the massacre found _Chasseur desloyal_. Often they are most \nfalse, as Henri de Bourbon, _Bonheur de Biron_. Of all the \nanagrammatists and with least pain, he was the best who, out of his \nown name, being Jacques de la Chamber, found _La Chamber de Jacques_, \nand rested there: and next to him, here at home, a Gentleman whose \nmistress's name being Anna Grame, he found it an _Anagrame_ already.\u201d\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER CLXXX.\n\nTHE DOCTOR'S IDEAS OF LUCK, CHANCE, ACCIDENT, FORTUNE AND \nMISFORTUNE.\u2014THE DUCHESS OF NEWCASTLE'S DISTINCTION BETWEEN CHANCE AND \nFORTUNE WHEREIN NO-MEANING IS MISTAKEN FOR MEANING.\u2014AGREEMENT IN \nOPINION BETWEEN THE PHILOSOPHER OF DONCASTER AND THE PHILOSOPHER OF \nNORWICH.\u2014DISTINCTION BETWEEN UNFORTUNATELY UGLY, AND WICKEDLY \nUGLY.\u2014DANGER OF PERSONAL CHARMS.\n\n_\u1f1c\u03c3\u03c4\u03b9 \u03b3\u1f70\u03c1 \u1f61\u03c2 \u1f00\u03bb\u03b7\u03b8\u1ff6\u03c2 \u1f10\u03c0\u03af\u03c6\u03b8\u03b5\u03b3\u03bc\u03b1 \u03c4\u1f78 \u03b1\u1f50\u03c4\u03cc\u03bc\u03b1\u03c4\u03bf\u03bd, \u1f00\u03bd\u03b8\u03c1\u03ce\u03c0\u03c9\u03bd \u1f61\u03c2 \u1f14\u03c4\u03c5\u03c7\u03b5 \u03ba\u03b1\u1f76 \n\u1f00\u03bb\u03bf\u03b3\u03af\u03c3\u03c4\u03c9\u03c2 \u03c6\u03c1\u03bf\u03bd\u03bf\u03cd\u03bd\u03c4\u03c9\u03bd, \u03ba\u03b1\u1f76 \u03c4\u1f78\u03bd \u03bc\u1f72\u03bd \u03bb\u03cc\u03b3\u03bf\u03bd \u03b1\u1f50\u03c4\u1ff6\u03bd \u03bc\u1f74 \u03ba\u03b1\u03c4\u03b1\u03bb\u03b1\u03bc\u03b2\u03b1\u03bd\u03cc\u03bd\u03c4\u03c9\u03bd, \u03b4\u03b9\u1f70 \n\u03b4\u1f72 \u03c4\u1f74\u03bd \u1f00\u03c3\u03b8\u03ad\u03bd\u03b5\u03b9\u03b1\u03bd \u03c4\u1fc6\u03c2 \u03ba\u03b1\u03c4\u03b1\u03bb\u03ae\u03c8\u03b5\u03c9\u03c2, \u03b1\u03bb\u03cc\u03b3\u03c9\u03c2 \u03bf\u1f30\u03bf\u03bc\u03ad\u03bd\u03c9\u03bd \u03b4\u03b9\u03b1\u03c4\u03b5\u03c4\u03ac\u03c7\u03b8\u03b1\u03b9 \u03c4\u03b1\u1fe6\u03c4\u03b1, \u1f67\u03bd \n\u03c4\u1f78\u03bd \u03bb\u03cc\u03b3\u03bf\u03bd \u1f10\u03b9\u03c0\u03b5\u1fd6\u03bd \u1f40\u03c5\u03ba \u1f14\u03c7\u03bf\u03c5\u03c3\u03b9\u03bd._\n\nCONSTANT. ORAT. AD SANCT. C\u00c6T. C. VII.\n\n\u201cDeformity is either natural, voluntary, or adventitious, being either \ncaused by _God's unseen Providence_, (_by men nick-named, chance_,) or \nby men's cruelty.\u201d\n\nFULLER'S HOLY STATE, B. iii. c. 15.\n\n\nIt may readily be inferred from what has already been said of our \nPhilosopher's way of thinking, that he was not likely to use the words \nluck, chance, accident, fortune or misfortune, with as little \nreflection as is ordinarily shown in applying them. The distinction \nwhich that fantastic\u2014and yet most likeable person\u2014Margaret Duchess of \nNewcastle, makes between Chance and Fortune was far from satisfying \nhim. \u201cFortune,\u201d says her Grace, (she might have been called her Beauty \ntoo) \u201cis only various corporeal motions of several creatures\u2014designed \nto one creature, or more creatures; either to _that_ creature, or \n_those_ creatures advantage, or disadvantage; if advantage, man names \nit Good Fortune; if disadvantage, man names it Ill Fortune. As for \nChance, it is the visible effects of some hidden cause; and Fortune, a \nsufficient cause to produce such effects; for the conjunction of \nsufficient causes, doth produce such or such effects, which effects \ncould not be produced\u2014if any of those causes were wanting: so that \nChances are but the effects of Fortune.\u201d\n\nThe Duchess had just thought enough about this to fancy that she had a \nmeaning, and if she had thought a little more she might have \ndiscovered that she had none.\n\nThe Doctor looked more accurately both to his meaning and his words; \nbut keeping as he did, in my poor judgement, the golden mean between \nsuperstition and impiety, there was nothing in this that savoured of \npreciseness or weakness, nor of that scrupulosity which is a compound \nof both. He did not suppose that trifles and floccinaucities of which \nneither the causes nor consequences are of the slightest import, were \npredestined; as for example\u2014whether he had beef or mutton for dinner, \nwore a blue coat or a brown\u2014or took off his wig with his right hand or \nwith his left. He knew that all things are under the direction of \nalmighty and omniscient Goodness; but as he never was unmindful of \nthat Providence in its dispensations of mercy and of justice, so he \nnever disparaged it.\n\nHerein the Philosopher of Doncaster agreed with the Philosopher of \nNorwich who saith, \u201clet not fortune\u2014which hath no name in Scripture, \nhave any in thy divinity. Let providence, not chance, have the honour \nof thy acknowledgements, and be thy \u0152dipus on contingences. Mark well \nthe paths and winding ways thereof; but be not too wise in the \nconstruction, or sudden in the application. The hand of Providence \nwrites often by abbreviatures, hieroglyphics or short characters, \nwhich like the laconism on the wall, are not to be made out but by a \nhint or key from that spirit which indicted them.\u201d[1]\n\n[Footnote 1: The Readers of Jeremy Taylor will not fail to remember \nthe passage following from his Great Exemplar.\n\n\u201cGod's Judgments are like _the writing upon the wall_, which was a \nmissive of anger from God upon Belshazzar. It came upon an errand of \nrevenge, and yet was writ in so dark characters that none could read \nit but a prophet.\u201d\u2014DISC. xviii. _Of the Causes and Manner of the \nDivine Judgments_.]\n\nSome ill, he thought, was produced in human affairs by applying the \nterm unfortunate to circumstances which were brought about by \nimprudence. A man was unfortunate, if being thrown from his horse on a \njourney, he broke arm or leg, but not if he broke his neck in \nsteeple-hunting, or when in full cry after a fox; if he were \nimpoverished by the misconduct of others, not if he were ruined by his \nown folly and extravagance; if he suffered in any way by the villainy \nof another, not if he were transported, or hanged for his own.\n\nNeither would he allow that either man or woman could with propriety \nbe called, as we not unfrequently hear in common speech, \n_unfortunately_ ugly. _Wickedly_ ugly, he said, they might be, and too \noften were; and in such cases the greater their pretensions to beauty, \nthe uglier they were. But goodness has a beauty of its own, which is \nnot dependent upon form and features, and which makes itself felt and \nacknowledged however otherwise ill-favoured the face may be in which \nit is set. He might have said with Seneca, _errare mihi visus est qui \ndixit_\n\n  _Gratior est pulchro veniens e corpore virtus;_\n\n_nullo enim honestamento eget; ipsa et magnum sui decus est, et corpus \nsuum consecret._ None, he would say with great earnestness, appeared \nso ugly to his instinctive perception as some of those persons whom \nthe world accounted handsome, but upon whom pride, or haughtiness or \nconceit had set its stamp, or who bore in their countenances what no \ncountenance can conceal, the habitual expression of any reigning vice, \nwhether it were sensuality and selfishness, or envy, hatred, malice \nand uncharitableness. Nor could he regard with any satisfaction a fine \nface which had no ill expression, if it wanted a good one: he had no \npleasure in beholding mere formal and superficial beauty, that which \nlies no deeper than the skin, and depends wholly upon \u201ca set of \nfeatures and complexion.\u201d He had more delight, he said in looking at \none of the statues in Mr. Weddel's collection, than at a beautiful \nwoman if he read in her face that she was as little susceptible of any \nvirtuous emotion as the marble. While therefore he would not allow \nthat any person could be unfortunately ugly, he thought that many were \nunfortunately handsome, and that no wise parent would wish his \ndaughter to be eminently beautiful, lest what in her childhood was \nnaturally and allowably the pride of his eye\u2014should when she grew up \nbecome the grief of his heart. It requires no wide range of \nobservation to discover that the woman who is married for her beauty \nhas little better chance of happiness than she who is married for her \nfortune. \u201cI have known very few women in my life,\u201d said Mrs. Montagu, \n\u201cwhom extraordinary charms and accomplishments did not make unhappy.\u201d\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER CLXXXI.\n\nNO DEGREE OF UGLINESS REALLY UNFORTUNATE.\u2014FIDUS CORNELIUS COMPARED TO \nA PLUCKED OSTRICH.\u2014WILKES' CLAIM TO UGLINESS CONSIDERED AND NEGATIVED \nBY DR. JOHNSON, NOTWITHSTANDING HOGARTH'S PORTRAIT.\u2014CAST OF THE EYE \u00c0 \nLA MONTMORENCY.\u2014ST. EVREMOND AND TURENNE.\u2014WILLIAM BLAKE THE PAINTER, \nAND THE WELSH TRIADS.\u2014CURIOUS EXTRACT FROM THAT VERY CURIOUS AND RARE \nBOOK, THE DESCRIPTIVE CATALOGUE OF HIS OWN PICTURES,\u2014AND A PAINFUL ONE \nFROM HIS POETICAL SKETCHES.\n\n\u201c_If thou beest not so handsome as thou wouldest have been thank God \nthou art not more unhandsome than thou art._ 'Tis His mercy thou art \nnot the mark for passenger's fingers to point at, an Heteroclite in \nnature, with some member defective or redundant. Be glad that thy clay \ncottage hath all the necessary forms thereto belonging, though the \noutside be not so fairly plaistered as some others.\u201d\n\nFULLER'S HOLY STATE, B. iii. c. 15.\n\n\nI asked him once if there was not a degree of ugliness which might be \ndeemed unfortunate, because a consciousness of it affected the \nill-favoured individual so as to excite in him discontent and envy, \nand other evil feelings. He admitted that in an evil disposition it \nmight have this tendency; but he said a disposition which was \ninjuriously affected by such a cause, would have had other \npropensities quite as injurious in themselves and in their direction, \nevolved and brought into full action by an opposite cause. To \nexemplify this he instanced the two brothers Edward IV. and Richard \nIII.\n\nFidus Cornelius burst into tears in the Roman Senate, because Corbulo \ncalled him a plucked ostrich: _adversus alia maledicta mores et vitam \nconvulnerantia, frontis illi firmitas constitit; adversus hoc tam \nabsurdum lacrim\u00e6 prociderunt; tanta animorum imbecillitas est ubi \nratio discessit._ But instances of such weakness, the Doctor said, are \nas rare as they are ridiculous. Most people see themselves in the most \nfavourable light. \u201cUgly!\u201d a very ugly, but a very conceited fellow \nexclaimed one day when he contemplated himself in a looking-glass; \n\u201cugly! and yet there's something genteel in the face!\u201d There are more \ncoxcombs in the world than there are vain women; in the one sex there \nis a weakness for which time soon brings a certain cure, in the other \nit deserves a harsher appellation.\n\nAs to ugliness, not only in this respect do we make large allowances \nfor ourselves, but our friends make large allowances for us also. Some \none praised Palisson to Madame de Sevign\u00e9 for the elegance of his \nmanners, the magnanimity, the rectitude and other virtues which he \nought to have possessed; _h\u00e9 bien_ she replied, _pour moi je ne \nconnois que sa laideur; qu'on me le dedouble donc._ Wilkes, who \npretended as little to beauty, as he did to public virtue, when he was \noff the stage used to say, that in winning the good graces of a lady \nthere was not more than three days difference between himself and the \nhandsomest man in England. One of his female partizans praised him for \nhis agreeable person, and being reminded of his squinting, she replied \nindignantly, that it was not more than a gentleman ought to squint. So \nrightly has Madame de Villedieu observed that\n\n  _En mille occasions l'amour a s\u00e7eu prouver\n   Que tout devient pour luy, matiere \u00e0 sympathie,\n   Quand il fait tant que d'en vouloir trouver._\n\nShe no doubt spoke sincerely, according to the light wherein, in the \nobliquity of her intellectual eyesight she beheld him. Just as that \nprince of republican and unbelieving bigots, Thomas Holles said of the \nsame person, \u201cI am sorry for the irregularities of Wilkes; they are \nhowever only as spots in the sun!\u201d \u201cIt is the weakness of the many,\u201d \nsays a once noted Journalist \u201cthat when they have taken a fancy to a \nman, or to the name of a man they take a fancy even to his failings.\u201d \nBut there must have been no ordinary charm in the manners of John \nWilkes, who in one interview overcame Johnson's well-founded and \nvehement dislike. The good nature of his countenance, and its vivacity \nand cleverness made its physical ugliness be overlooked; and probably \nhis cast of the eye, which was a squint of the first water, seemed \nonly a peculiarity which gave effect to the sallies of his wit.\n\nHogarth's portrait of him he treated with characteristic good humour, \nand allowed it \u201cto be an excellent compound caricature, or a \ncaricature of what Nature had already caricatured. I know but one \nshort apology said he, to be made for this gentleman, or to speak more \nproperly, for the _person_ of Mr. Wilkes; it is, that he did not make \nhimself; and that he never was solicitous about the _case_ (as \nShakespeare calls it) only so far as to keep it clean and in health. I \nnever heard that he ever hung over the glassy stream, like another \nNarcissus admiring the image in it; nor that he ever stole an amorous \nlook at his counterfeit in a side mirror. His form, such as it is, \nought to give him no pain, while it is capable of giving so much \npleasure to others. I believe he finds himself tolerably happy in the \nclay cottage to which he is tenant for life, because he has learned to \nkeep it in pretty good order. While the share of health and animal \nspirits which heaven has given out, should hold out, I can scarcely \nimagine he will be one moment peevish about the outside of so \nprecarious, so temporary a habitation; or will ever be brought to our \n_Ingenium Galb\u00e6 mal\u00e8 habitat:\u2014Monsieur est mal log\u00e9._\u201d This was part \nof a note for his intended edition of Churchill.\n\nSquinting, according to a French writer, is not unpleasing, when it is \nnot in excess. He is probably right in this observation. A slight \nobliquity of vision sometimes gives an archness of expression, and \nalways adds to the countenance a peculiarity, which when the \ncountenance has once become agreeable to the beholder, renders it more \nso. But when the eye-balls recede from each other to the outer verge \nof their orbits, or approach so closely that nothing but the \nintervention of the nose seems to prevent their meeting, a sense of \ndistortion is produced, and consequently of pain. _Il y a des gens_, \nsays Vigneul Marville, _qui ne sauroient regarder des louches sans en \nsentir quelque douleur aux yeux. Je suis des ceux-la._ This is because \nthe deformity is catching, which it is well known to be in children; \nthe tendency to imitation is easily excited in a highly sensitive \nframe\u2014as in them; and the pain felt in the eyes gives warning that \nthis action which is safe only while it is unconscious and unobserved, \nis in danger of being deranged.\n\nA cast of the eye _\u00e0 la Montmorency_ was much admired at the Court of \nLouis XIII. where the representative of that illustrious family had \nrendered it fashionable by his example. Descartes is said to have \nliked all persons who squinted for his nurse's sake, and the anecdote \ntells equally in favour of her and of him.\n\nSt. Evremond says in writing the Eulogy of Turenne. _Je ne m'amuserai \npoint \u00e0 depeindre tous les traits de son visage. Les caract\u00e9res des \nGrands Hommes n'ont rien de commun avec les portraits des belles \nfemmes. Mais je puis dire en gros qu'il avoit quelque chose d'auguste \net d'agr\u00e9able; quelque chose en sa physionomie qui faisoit concevoir \nje ne sai quoi de grand en son ame, et en son esprit. On pouvoit juger \n\u00e0 le voir, que par un disposition particuliere la Nature l'avoit \npr\u00e9par\u00e9 \u00e0 faire tout ce qu'il a fait._ If Turenne had not been an \nill-looking man, the skilful eulogist would not thus have excused \nhimself from giving any description of his countenance; a countenance \nfrom which indeed, if portraits belie it not, it might be inferred \nthat nature had prepared him to change his party during the civil \nwars, as lightly as he would have changed his seat at a card-table,\u2014to \nrenounce the Protestant faith, and to ravage the Palatinate. _Ne \nsouvenez-vous pas de la physionomie funeste de ce grand homme,_ says \nBussy Rabutin to Madame de Sevign\u00e9. An Italian bravo said _che non \nteneva specchio in camera, perche quando si crucciava diveniva tanto \nterribile nell' aspetto, che veggendosi haria fatto troppo gran paura \na se stesso._[1]\n\n[Footnote 1: IL CORTEGIANO, 27.]\n\nQueen Elizabeth could not endure the sight of deformity; when she went \ninto public her guards it is said removed all misshapen and hideous \npersons out of her way.\n\nExtreme ugliness has once proved as advantageous to its possessor as \nextreme beauty, if there be truth in those Triads wherein the Three \nMen are recorded who escaped from the battle of Camlan. They were \nMorvran ab Teged, in consequence of being so ugly, that every body \nthinking him to be a Demon out of Hell fled from him; Sandde \nBryd-Angel, or Angel-aspect, in consequence of being so fine of form, \nso beautiful and fair, that no one raised a hand against him\u2014for he \nwas thought to be an Angel from Heaven: and Glewlwyd Gavaelvawr, or \nGreat-grasp (King Arthur's porter) from his size and strength, so that \nnone stood in his way, and every body ran before him; excepting these \nthree, none escaped, from Camlan,\u2014that fatal field where King Arthur \nfell with all his chivalry.\n\nThat painter of great but insane genius, William Blake, of whom Allan \nCunningham has written so interesting a memoir, took this Triad for \nthe subject of a picture, which he called the Ancient Britons. It was \none of his worst pictures,\u2014which is saying much; and he has \nillustrated it with one of the most curious commentaries in his very \ncurious and very rare descriptive Catalogue of his own Pictures.\n\nIt begins with a translation from the Welsh, supplied to him no doubt \nby that good simple-hearted, Welsh-headed man, William Owen, whose \nmemory is the great store-house of all Cymric tradition and lore of \nevery kind.\n\n\u201cIn the last battle of King Arthur only Three Britons escaped; these \nwere the Strongest Man, the Beautifullest Man, and the Ugliest Man. \nThese Three marched through the field unsubdued as Gods; and the Sun \nof Britain set, but shall arise again with tenfold splendour, when \nArthur shall awake from sleep, and resume his dominion over earth and \nocean.\n\n\u201cThe three general classes of men,\u201d says the painter, \u201cwho are \nrepresented by the most Beautiful, the most Strong, and the most Ugly, \ncould not be represented by any historical facts but those of our own \ncountrymen, the Ancient Britons, without violating costumes. The \nBritons (say historians) were naked civilised men, learned, studious, \nabstruse in thought and contemplation; naked, simple, plain in their \nacts and manners; wiser than after ages. They were overwhelmed by \nbrutal arms, all but a small remnant. Strength, Beauty and Ugliness \nescaped the wreck, and remain for ever unsubdued, age after age.\n\n\u201cThe British Antiquities are now in the Artist's hands; all his \nvisionary contemplations relating to his own country and its ancient \nglory, when it was, as it again shall be, the source of learning and \ninspiration. He has in his hands poems of the highest antiquity. Adam \nwas a Druid, and Noah. Also Abraham was called to succeed the \nDruidical age, which began to turn allegoric and mental signification \ninto corporeal command; whereby human sacrifice would have depopulated \nthe earth. All these things are written in Eden. The artist is an \ninhabitant of that happy country; and if every thing goes on as it has \nbegun, the work of vegetation and generation may expect to be opened \nagain to Heaven, through Eden, as it was in the beginning.\n\n\u201cThe Strong Man represents the human sublime. The Beautiful Man \nrepresents the human pathetic, which was in the ban of Eden divided \ninto male and female. The Ugly Man represents the human reason. They \nwere originally one man, who was fourfold: he was self divided and his \nreal humanity drawn on the stems of generation; and the form of the \nfourth was like the Son of God. How he became divided is a subject of \ngreat sublimity and pathos. The Artist has written it, under \ninspiration, and will if God please, publish it. It is voluminous, and \ncontains the ancient history of Britain, and the world of Satan and of \nAdam.\n\n\u201cIn the mean time he has painted this picture, which supposes that in \nthe reign of that British Prince, who lived in the fifth century, \nthere were remains of those naked heroes in the Welsh mountains. They \nare now. Gray saw them in the person of his Bard on Snowdon; there \nthey dwell in naked simplicity; happy is he who can see and converse \nwith them, above the shadows of generation and death. In this picture, \nbelieving with Milton the ancient British history, Mr. Blake has done \nas all the ancients did, and as all the moderns who are worthy of \nfame, given the historical fact in its poetical vigour; so as it \nalways happens; and not in that dull way that some historians pretend, \nwho being weakly organised themselves, cannot see either miracle or \nprodigy. All is to them a dull round of probabilities and \npossibilities; but the history of all times and places is nothing else \nbut improbabilities and impossibilities,\u2014what we should say was \nimpossible, if we did not see it always before our eyes.\n\n\u201cThe antiquities of every nation under Heaven are no less sacred than \nthose of the Jews, they are the same thing, as Jacob Bryant and all \nantiquaries have proved. How other antiquities came to be neglected \nand disbelieved, while those of the Jews are collected and arranged is \nan enquiry, worthy of both the Antiquarian and the Divine. All had \noriginally one language, and one religion, this was the religion of \nJesus, the everlasting Gospel. Antiquity preached the Gospel of Jesus, \nthe reasoning historian, turner and twister of courses and \nconsequences, such as Hume, Gibbon, and Voltaire, cannot with all \ntheir artifice, turn or twist one fact, or disarrange self evident \naction and reality. Reasons and opinions concerning acts are not \nhistory. Acts themselves alone are history, and they are neither the \nexclusive property of Hume, Gibbon, and Voltaire, Echard, Rapin, \nPlutarch, nor Herodotus. Tell me the acts O historian, and leave me to \nreason upon them as I please; away with your reasoning and your \nrubbish. All that is not action is not worth reading. Tell me the \nWhat; I do not want you to tell me the Why, and the How; I can find \nthat out myself, as well as you can, and I will not be fooled by you \ninto opinions, that you please to impose, to disbelieve what you think \nimprobable, or impossible. His opinion, who does not see spiritual \nagency, is not worth any man's reading; he who rejects a fact because \nit is improbable, must reject all History, and retain doubts only.\n\n\u201cIt has been said to the Artist, take the Apollo for the model of your \nbeautiful man, and the Hercules for your strong man, and the Dancing \nFawn for your ugly man. Now he comes to his trial. He knows that what \nhe does is not inferior to the grandest antiques. Superior they cannot \nbe, for human power cannot go beyond either what he does, or what they \nhave done, it is the gift of God, it is inspiration and vision. He had \nresolved to emulate those precious remains of antiquity. He has done \nso, and the result you behold. His ideas of strength and beauty have \nnot been greatly different. Poetry as it exists now on earth, in the \nvarious remains of ancient authors, Music as it exists in old tunes or \nmelodies, Painting and Sculpture as it exists in the remains of \nantiquity and in the works of more modern genius, is Inspiration, and \ncannot be surpassed; it is perfect and eternal: Milton, Shakspeare, \nMichael Angelo, Rafael, the finest specimens of ancient Sculpture and \nPainting, and Architecture, Gothic, Grecian, Hindoo and Egyptian are \nthe extent of the human mind. The human mind cannot go beyond the gift \nof God, the Holy Ghost. To suppose that Art can go beyond the finest \nspecimens of Art that are now in the world, is not knowing what Art \nis; it is being blind to the gifts of the Spirit.\n\n\u201cIt will be necessary for the Painter to say something concerning his \nideas of Beauty, Strength and Ugliness.\n\n\u201cThe beauty that is annexed and appended to folly, is a lamentable \naccident and error of the mortal and perishing life; it does but \nseldom happen; but with this unnatural mixture the sublime Artist can \nhave nothing to do; it is fit for the burlesque. The beauty proper for \nsublime Art, is lineaments, or forms and features that are capable of \nbeing the receptacle of intellect; accordingly the Painter has given \nin his beautiful man, his own idea of intellectual Beauty. The face \nand limbs (?) that deviates or alters least, from infancy to old age, \nis the face and limbs (?) of greatest Beauty and Perfection.\n\n\u201cThe Ugly likewise, when accompanied and annexed to imbecillity and \ndisease, is a subject for burlesque and not for historical grandeur; \nthe artist has imagined the Ugly man; one approaching to the beast in \nfeatures and form, his forehead small, without frontals; his nose high \non the ridge, and narrow; his chest and the stamina of his make, \ncomparatively little, and his joints and his extremities large; his \neyes with scarce any whites, narrow and cunning, and everything \ntending toward what is truly ugly; the incapability of intellect.\n\n\u201cThe Artist has considered his strong man as a receptacle of Wisdom, a \nsublime energizer; his features and limbs do not spindle out into \nlength, without strength, nor are they too large and unwieldy for his \nbrain and bosom. Strength consists in accumulation of power to the \nprincipal seat, and from thence a regular gradation and subordination; \nstrength in compactness, not extent nor bulk.\n\n\u201cThe strong man acts from conscious superiority, and marches on in \nfearless dependence on the divine decrees, raging with the \ninspirations of a prophetic mind. The Beautiful man acts from duty, \nand anxious solicitude for the fates of those for whom he combats. The \nUgly man acts from love of carnage, and delight in the savage \nbarbarities of war, rushing with sportive precipitation into the very \nteeth of the affrighted enemy.\n\n\u201cThe Roman Soldiers rolled together in a heap before them: \u2018like the \nrolling thing before the whirlwind:\u2019 each shew a different character, \nand a different expression of fear, or revenge, or envy, or blank \nhorror, or amazement, or devout wonder and unresisting awe.\n\n\u201cThe dead and the dying, Britons naked, mingled with armed Romans, \nstrew the field beneath. Amongst these, the last of the Bards who were \ncapable of attending warlike deeds, is seen falling, outstretched \namong the dead and the dying; singing to his harp in the pains of \ndeath.\n\n\u201cDistant among the mountains are Druid Temples, similar to Stone \nHenge. The sun sets behind the mountains, bloody with the day of \nbattle.\n\n\u201cThe flush of health in flesh, exposed to the open air, nourished by \nthe spirits of forests and floods, in that ancient happy period, which \nhistory has recorded, cannot be like the sickly daubs of Titian or \nRubens. Where will the copier of nature, as it now is, find a \ncivilized man, who has been accustomed to go naked. Imagination only \ncan furnish us with colouring appropriate, such as is found in the \nfrescoes of Rafael, and Michael Angelo: the disposition of forms \nalways directs colouring in works of true art. As to a modern man, \nstripped from his load of clothing, he is like a dead corpse. Hence \nRubens, Titian, Correggio, and all of that class, are like leather and \nchalk; their men are like leather, and their women like chalk, for the \ndisposition of their forms will not admit of grand colouring; in Mr. \nB's Britons, the blood is seen to circulate in their limbs; he defies \ncompetition in colouring.\u201d\n\nMy regard for thee, dear Reader, would not permit me to leave \nuntranscribed this very curious and original piece of composition. \nProbably thou hast never seen, and art never likely to see either the \n\u201cDescriptive Catalogue\u201d or the \u201cPoetical Sketches\u201d of this insane and \nerratic genius, I will therefore end the chapter with the _Mad Song_ \nfrom the latter,\u2014premising only _Dificultosa provincia es la que \nemprendo, y \u00e0 muchos parecer\u00e0 escusada; mas para la entereza desta \nhistoria, ha parecido no omitir aguesta parte._[2]\n\n  The wild winds weep,\n    And the night is a-cold;\n  Come hither, Sleep,\n    And my griefs unfold:\n  But lo! the morning peeps\n    Over the eastern steep;\n  And the rustling birds of dawn\n    The earth do scorn.\n\n  Lo! to the vault\n    Of paved heaven,\n  With sorrow fraught\n    My notes are driven:\n  They strike the ear of night\n    Make weep the eyes of day;\n  They make mad the roaring winds\n    And with tempests play.\n\n  Like a fiend in a cloud\n    With howling woe,\n  After night I do croud\n    And with night will go;\n  I turn my back to the east,\n    From whence comforts have increas'd;\n  For light doth seize my brain\n    With frantic pain.\n\n[Footnote 2: LUIS MU\u00d1OZ. VIDA DEL P. L. DE GRANADA.]\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER CLXXXII.\n\nAN IMPROVEMENT IN THE FORM OF THE HUMAN LEG SUGGESTED BY A PHYSICIAN. \nTHE DOCTOR'S CURE OF A BROKEN SHIN AND INVENTION OF A SHIN-SHIELD.\n\n_Res fisci est, ubicunque natat._ Whatsoever swims upon any water, \nbelongs to this exchequer.\n\nJEREMY TAYLOR. _Preface to the Duct. Dub._\n\n\nSome Dr. Moreton is said to have advanced this extraordinary opinion \nin a treatise upon the beauty of the human structure, that had the \ncalf of the leg been providentially set before, instead of being \npreposterously placed behind, it would have been evidently better, for \nas much as the shin-bone could not then have been so easily broken.\n\nI have no better authority for this than a magazine extract. But there \nhave been men of science silly enough to entertain opinions quite as \nabsurd, and presumptuous enough to think themselves wiser than their \nMaker.\n\nSupposing the said Dr. Moreton has not been unfairly dealt with in \nthis statement, it would have been a most appropriate reward for his \nsagacity if some one of the thousand and one wonder-working Saints of \nthe Pope's Calendar had reversed his own calves for him, placed them \nin front, conformably to his own notion of the fitness of things, and \nthen left him to regulate their motions as well as he could. The \n_Gastrocnemius_ and the _Sol\u00e6us_ would have found themselves in a new \nand curious relation to the _Rectus femoris_ and the two _Vasti_, and \nthe anatomical reformer would have learnt feelingly to understand the \nterm of antagonizing muscles in a manner peculiar to himself.\n\nThe use to which this notable philosopher would have made the calf of \nthe leg serve, reminds me of a circumstance that occurred in our \nfriend's practice. An old man hard upon threescore and ten, broke his \nshin one day by stumbling over a chair; and although a hale person who \nseemed likely to attain a great age by virtue of a vigorous \nconstitution, which had never been impaired through ill habits or \nexcesses of any kind, the hurt that had been thought little of at \nfirst became so serious in its consequences, that a mortification was \nfeared. Daniel Dove was not one of those practitioners who would let a \npatient die under their superintendence _secundum artem_, rather than \nincur the risque of being censured for trying in desperate cases any \nmethod not in  the regular course of practise: and recollecting what \nhe had heard when a boy, that a man whose leg and life were in danger \nfrom just such an accident, had been saved by applying yeast to the \nwound, he tried the application. The dangerous symptoms were presently \nremoved by it; a kindly process was induced, the wound healed, and the \nman became whole again.\n\nDove was then a young man; and so many years have elapsed since old \nJoseph Todhunter was gathered to his fathers, that it would now \nrequire an antiquarian's patience to make out the letters of his name \nupon his mouldering headstone. All remembrance of him (except among \nhis descendants, if any there now be) will doubtless have past away, \nunless he should be recollected in Doncaster by the means which Dr. \nDove devised for securing him against another such accident.\n\nThe Doctor knew that the same remedy was not to be relied on a second \ntime, when there would be less ability left in the system to second \nits effect. He knew that in old age the tendency of Nature is to \ndissolution, and that accidents which are trifling in youth, or middle \nage, become fatal at a time when Death is ready to enter at any breach \nand Life to steal out through the first flaw in its poor crazy \ntenement. So, having warned Todhunter of this, and told him that he \nwas likely to enjoy many years of life, if he kept a whole skin on his \nshins, he persuaded him to wear spatterdashes, quilted in front and \nprotected there with whalebone, charging him to look upon them as the \nmost necessary part of his clothing, and to let them be the last \nthings which he doffed at night, and the first which he donn'd in the \nmorning.\n\nThe old man followed this advice; lived to the great age of \neighty-five, enjoyed his faculties to the last; and then died so \neasily, that it might truly be said he fell asleep.\n\nMy friend loved to talk of this case; for Joseph Todhunter had borne \nso excellent a character through life, and was so cheerful and so \nhappy, as well as so venerable an old man, that it was a satisfaction \nfor the Doctor to think he had been the means of prolonging his days.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER CLXXXIII.\n\nVIEWS OF OLD AGE, MONTAGNE, DANIEL CORNEILLE, LANGUET, PASQUIER, DR. \nJOHNSON, LORD CHESTERFIELD, ST. EVREMOND.\n\n                What is age\n  But the holy place of life, the chapel of ease\n  For all men's wearied miseries?\n\nMASSINGER.\n\n\nMontagne takes an uncomfortable view of old age. _Il me semble_, he \nsays, _qu'en la vieillesse, nos ames sont subjectes \u00e0 des maladies et \nimperfections plus importunes qu'en la jeunesse. Je le disois estant \njeune, lors on me donnoit de mon menton par le nez; je le dis encore \u00e0 \ncette heure, que mon poil gris me donne le credit. Nous appellons \nsagesse la difficult\u00e9 de nos humeurs, le desgoust des choses \npresentes: mais \u00e0 la verit\u00e9, nous ne quittons pas tant les vices, \ncomme nous les changeons; et, \u00e0 mon opinion, en pis. Outre une sotte \net caduque fiert\u00e9, un babil ennuyeux, ces humeures espineuses et \ninassociables, et la superstition, et un soin ridicule des richesses, \nlors que l'usage en est perdu, j'y trouve plus d'envie, d'injustice, \net de malignit\u00e9. Elle nous attache plus de rides en l'esprit qu'au \nvisage: et ne se void point d'ames ou fort rares, qui en vieillissant \nne sentent l'aigre, et le moisi._\n\nTake this extract, my worthy friends who are not skilled in French, or \nknow no more of it than a Governess may have taught you,\u2014in the \nEnglish of John Florio, Reader of the Italian tongue unto the \nSovereign Majesty of Anna, Queen of England, Scotland, &c. and one of \nthe gentlemen of her Royal privy chamber, the same Florio whom some \ncommentators upon very insufficient grounds, have supposed to have \nbeen designed by Shakespere in the Holofernes of Love's Labour's Lost.\n\n\u201cMethinks our souls in age are subject unto more importunate diseases \nand imperfections than they are in youth. I said so being young, when \nmy beardless chin was upbraided me, and I say it again, now that my \ngray beard gives me authority. We entitle wisdom, the frowardness of \nour humours, and the distaste of present things; but in truth we \nabandon not vices so much as we change them; and in mine opinion for \nthe worse. Besides a silly and ruinous pride, cumbersome tattle, \nwayward and unsociable humours, superstition, and a ridiculous carking \nfor wealth, when the use of it is well nigh lost. I find the more \nenvy, injustice and malignity in it. It sets more wrinkles in our \nminds than in our foreheads, nor are there any spirits, or very rare \nones, which in growing old taste not sourly and mustily.\u201d\n\nIn the same spirit, recollecting perhaps this very passage of the \ndelightful old Gascon, one of our own poets says,\n\n        Old age doth give by too long space,\n  Our souls as many wrinkles as our face;\n\nand the same thing, no doubt in imitation of Montagne has been said by \nCorneille in a poem of thanks addressed to Louis XIV., when that King \nhad ordered some of his plays to be represented during the winter of \n1685, though he had ceased to be a popular writer,\n\n  _Je vieillis, ou du moins, ils se le persuadent;\n   Pour bien \u00e9crire encor j'ai trop long tems \u00e9crit,\n   Et les rides du front passent jusqu' \u00e0 l'esprit._\n\nThe opinion proceeded not in the poet Daniel from perverted \nphilosophy, or sourness of natural disposition, for all his affections \nwere kindly, and he was a tender-hearted, wise, good man. But he wrote \nthis in the evening of his days, when he had\n\n                out lived the date\n  Of former grace, acceptance and delight,\n\nwhen,\n\n        those bright stars from whence\n  He had his light, were set for evermore;\n\nand when he complained that years had done to him\n\n                              this wrong,\n  To make him write too much, and live too long;\n\nso that this comfortless opinion may be ascribed in him rather to a \ndejected state of mind, than to a clear untroubled judgement. But \nHubert Languet must have written more from observation and reflection \nthan from feeling, when he said in one of his letters to Sir Philip \nSidney, \u201cyou are mistaken if you believe that men are made better by \nage; for it is very rarely so. They become indeed more cautious, and \nlearn to conceal their faults and their evil inclinations; so that if \nyou have known any old man in whom you think some probity were still \nremaining, be assured that he must have been excellently virtuous in \nhis youth.\u201d _Erras si credis homines fieri \u00e6tate meliores; id nam est \nrarissimum. Fiunt quidem cautiores, et vitia animi, ac pravos suos \naffectus occultare discunt: quod si quem senem novisti in quo aliquid \nprobitatis superesse judices, crede eum in adolescenti\u00e2 fuisse \noptimum._\n\nLanguet spoke of its effects upon others. Old Estienne Pasquier in \nthat uncomfortable portion of his _Jeux Po\u00ebtiques_ which he entitles \n_Vieillesse Rechign\u00e9e_ writes as a self-observer, and his picture is \nnot more favourable.\n\n  _Je ne nourry dans moy qu'une humeur noire,\n   Chagrin, fascheux, melancholic, hagard,\n   Grongneux, despit, presomptueux, langard,\n   Je fay l'amour au bon vin et au boire._\n\nBut the bottle seems not to have put him in good humour either with \nothers or himself.\n\n  _Tout la monde me put; je vy de telle sort,\n     Que je ne fay meshuy que tousser et cracher,\n     Que de fascher autruy, et d'autruy me fascher;\n   Je ne supporte nul, et nul ne me supporte.\n   Un mal de corps je sens, un mal d'esprit je porte;\n     Foible de corps je veux, mais je ne puis marcher;\n     Foible de esprit je n'oze \u00e0 mon argent toucher,\n   Voil\u00e0 les beaux effects que la vieillesse apporte!\n     O combien est heureux celuy qui, de ses ans\n     Jeune, ne passe point la fleur de son printans,\n   Ou celuy qui venu s'en retourne aussi vite!\n     Non: je m'abuze; ain\u00e7ois ces maux ce sont appas\n     Qui me feront un jour trouver doux mon trespas,\n   Quand il plaira a Dieu que ce monde je quitte._\n\n   The miserable life I lead is such,\n     That now the world loathes me and I loathe it;\n     What do I do all day but cough and spit,\n   Annoying others, and annoyed as much!\n   My limbs no longer serve me, and the wealth\n     Which I have heap'd, I want the will to spend.\n   So mind and body both are out of health,\n     Behold the blessings that on age attend!\n   Happy whose fate is not to overlive\n   The joys which youth, and only youth can give,\n     But in his prime is taken, happy he!\n   Alas, that thought is of an erring heart,\n   These evils make me willing to depart\n     When it shall please the Lord to summon me.\n\nThe Rustic, in Hammerlein's curious dialogues _de Nobilitate et \nRusticitate_, describes his old age in colours as dark as Pasquier's; \n_plenus dierum_, he says, _ymmo senex valde, id est, octogenarius, et \nsenio confractus, et heri et nudiustercius, ymmo plerisque \nrevolutionibus annorum temporibus, corporis statera recurvatus, \nsingulto, tussito, sterto, ossito, sternuto, balbutio, catharizo, \nmussico, paraleso, gargariso, cretico, tremo, sudo, titillo, digitis \ns\u00e6pe geliso, et insuper (quod deterius est) cor meum affligitur, et \ncaput excutitur, languet spiritus, fetet anhelitus, caligant oculi et \nfacillant_[1] _articuli, nares confluunt, crines defluunt, tremunt \ntactus et deperit actus, dentes putrescunt et aures surdescunt; de \nfacili ad iram provocor, difficili revocor, cito credo, tarde \ndiscedo._\n\n[Footnote 1: _Facillant_ is here evidently the same as _vacillant_. \nFor the real meaning of _facillo_ the reader is referred to Du Cange \nin v. or to Martinii Lexicon.]\n\nThe effects of age are described in language not less characteristic \nby the Conte Baldessar Castiglione in his Cortegiano. He is explaining \nwherefore the old man is always \u201c_laudator temporis acti_;\u201d and thus \nhe accounts for the universal propensity;\u2014_gli anni fuggendo se ne \nportan seco molte commodit\u00e0, e tra l' altre levano dal sangue gran \nparte de gli spiriti vitali; onde la complession si muta, e divengon \ndebili gli organi, per i quali l' anima opera le sue virt\u00f9. Per\u00f2 de i \ncori nostri in quel tempo, come allo autunno le fogli de gli arbori, \ncaggiono i soavi fiori di contento; e nel loco de i sereni et chiari \npensieri, entra la nubilosa e turbida tristitia di mille calamit\u00e0 \ncompagnata, di modo che non solamente il corpo, ma l' animo anchora \u00e8 \ninfermo; ne de i passati piaceri reserva altro che una tenace memoria, \ne la imagine di quel caro tempo della tenera eta, nella quale quando \nci troviamo, ci pare che sempre il cielo, e la terra, e ogni cosa \nfaccia festa, e rida intorno \u00e0 gli occhi nostri e nel pensiero, come \nin un delitioso et vago giardino, fiorisca la dolce primavera d' \nallegrezza: onde forse saria utile, quando gia nella fredda stagione \ncomincia il sole della nostra vita, spogliandoci de quei piaceri, \nandarsene verso l' occaso, perdere insieme con essi anchor la lor \nmemoria, e trovar_ (_come disse Temistocle_) _un' arte, che a scordar \ninsegnasse; perche tanto sono fallaci i sensi del corpo nostro, che \nspesso ingannano anchora il giudicio della mente. Per\u00f2 parmi che i \nvecchi siano alla condition di quelli, che partendosi dal porto, \ntengon gli occhi in terra, e par loro che la nave stia ferma, e la \nriva si parta; e pur \u00e8 il contrario; che il porto, e medesimamente il \ntempo, e i piaceri restano nel suo stato, e noi con la nave della \nmortalit\u00e0 fuggendo n' andiamo, l' un dopo l' altro, per quel \nprocelloso mare che ogni cosa assorbe et devora; ne mai piu pigliar \nterra ci \u00e8 concesso; anzi sempre da contrarii venti combattuti, al \nfine in qualche scoglio la nave rompemo._\n\nTake this passage, gentle reader, as Master Thomas Hoby has translated \nit to my hand.\n\n\u201cYears wearing away carry also with them many commodities, and among \nothers take away from the blood a great part of the lively spirits; \nthat altereth the complection, and the instruments wax feeble whereby \nthe soul worketh his effects. Therefore the sweet flowers of delight \nvade[2] away in that season out of our hearts, as the leaves fall from \nthe trees after harvest; and instead of open and clear thoughts, there \nentereth cloudy and troublous heaviness, accompanied with a thousand \nheart griefs: so that not only the blood, but the mind is also feeble, \nneither of the former pleasures retaineth it any thing else but a fast \nmemory, and the print of the beloved time of tender age, which when we \nhave upon us, the heaven, the earth and each thing to our seeming \nrejoiceth and laugheth always about our eyes, and in thought (as in a \nsavoury and pleasant garden) flourisheth the sweet spring time of \nmirth: So that peradventure, it were not unprofitable when now, in the \ncold season, the sun of our life, taking away from us our delights \nbeginneth to draw toward the West, to lose therewithall the \nmindfulness of them, and to find out as Themistocles saith, an art to \nteach us to forget; for the senses of our body are so deceivable, that \nthey beguile many times also the judgement of the mind. Therefore, \nmethinks, old men be like unto them that sailing in a vessel out of an \nhaven, behold the ground with their eyes, and the vessel to their \nseeming standeth still, and the shore goeth; and yet is it clean \ncontrary, for the haven, and likewise the time and pleasures, continue \nstill in their estate, and we with the vessel of mortality flying \naway, go one after another through the tempestuous sea that swalloweth \nup and devoureth all things, neither is it granted us at any time to \ncome on shore again; but, always beaten with contrary winds, at the \nend we break our vessel at some rock.\u201d\n\n[Footnote 2: \u2018Vade\u2019 is no doubt the true word here. The double sense \nof it,\u2014that is, to _fade_, or to _go away_,\u2014may be seen in Todd's \nJohnson and in Nares' Glossary. Neither of them quote the following \nlines from the Earl of Surrey's Poems. They occur in his Ecclesiastes.\n\n  We, that live on the earth, draw toward our decay,\n  Our children fill our place awhile, and then they vade away.\n\nAnd again,\n\n  New fancies daily spring, which vade, returning mo.]\n\n\u201cWhy Sir,\u201d said Dr. Johnson, \u201ca man grows better humoured as he grows \nolder. He improves by experience. When young he thinks himself of \ngreat consequence, and every thing of importance. As he advances in \nlife, he learns to think himself of no consequence, and little things \nof little importance, and so he becomes more patient and better \npleased.\u201d This was the observation of a wise and good man, who felt in \nhimself as he grew old, the effect of Christian principles upon a kind \nheart and a vigorous understanding. One of a very different stamp came \nto the same conclusion before him; _Crescit \u00e6tate pulchritudo \nanimorum_, says, Antonio Perez, _quantum minuitur eorundem corporum \nvenustas._\n\nOne more of these dark pictures. \u201cThe heart\u201d says Lord Chesterfield, \n\u201cnever grows better by age; I fear rather worse; always harder. A \nyoung liar will be an old one; and a young knave will only be a \ngreater knave as he grows older. But should a bad young heart, \naccompanied with a good head, (which by the way, very seldom is the \ncase) really reform, in a more advanced age, from a consciousness of \nits folly, as well as of its guilt; such a conversion would only be \nthought prudential and political, but never sincere.\u201d\n\nIt is remarkable that Johnson, though, as has just been seen, he felt \nin himself and saw in other good men, that the natural effect of time \nwas to sear away asperities of character\n\n  Till the smooth temper of their age should be\n  Like the high leaves upon the Holly Tree,\n\nyet he expressed an opinion closely agreeing with this of Lord \nChesterfield. \u201cA man, he said, commonly grew wicked as he grew older, \nat least he but changed the vices of youth, head-strong passion and \nwild temerity, for treacherous caution and desire to circumvent.\u201d \nThese he can only have meant of wicked men. But what follows seems to \nimply a mournful conviction that the tendency of society is to foster \nour evil propensities and counteract our better ones: \u201cI am always, he \nsaid, on the young people's side when there is a dispute between them \nand the old ones; for you have at least a charm for virtue, till age \nhas withered its very root.\u201d Alas, this is true of the irreligious and \nworldly-minded, and it is generally true because they composed the \nmajority of our corrupt contemporaries.\n\nBut Johnson knew that good men became better as they grew older, \nbecause his philosophy was that of the Gospel. Something of a \nphilosopher Lord Chesterfield was, and had he lived in the days of \nTrajan or Hadrian, might have done honour to the school of Epicurus. \nBut if he had not in the pride of his poor philosophy shut both his \nunderstanding and his heart against the truths of revealed religion, \nin how different a light would the evening of his life have closed.\n\n_Une raison essentielle_, says the Epicurean Saint Evremond, _qui nous \noblige \u00e0 nous retirer quand nous sommes vieux, c'est qu'il faut \nprevenir le ridicule o\u00f9 l'age nous fait tomber presque toujours._ And \nin another place he says, _certes le plus honn\u00e9te-homme dont personne \nn'a besoin, a de la peine a s'exempter du ridicule en vieillissant._ \nThis was the opinion of a courtier, a sensualist, and a Frenchman.\n\nI cannot more appositely conclude this chapter than by a quotation \nascribed, whether truly or not, to St. Bernard. _Maledictum caput \ncanum et cor vanum, caput tremulum et cor emulum, canities in vertice \net pernicies in mente: facies rugosa et lingua nugosa, cutis sicca et \nfides ficta; visus caligans et caritas claudicans; labium pendens et \ndens detrahens; virtus debilis et vita flebilis; dies uberes et \nfructus steriles, amici multi, et actus stulti._\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER CLXXXIV.\n\nFURTHER OBSERVATIONS CONCERNING OLD AGE. BISHOP REYNOLDS. OPINION OF \nTHE DOCTOR CONCERNING BEASTS AND MEN. M. DE CUSTINE. THE WORLD IS TOO \nMUCH WITH US. WORDSWORTH. SIR WALTER RALEIGH.\n\nIn these reflections, which are of a serious, and somewhat of a \nmelancholy cast, it is best to indulge; because it is always of use to \nbe serious, and not unprofitable sometimes to be melancholy.\n\nFREEMAN'S SERMONS.\n\n\n\u201cAs usurers,\u201d says Bishop Reynolds, \u201cbefore the whole debt is paid, do \nfetch away some good parts of it for the loan, so before the debt of \ndeath be paid by the whole body, old age doth by little and little, \ntake away sometimes one sense sometimes another, this year one limb, \nthe next another; and causeth a man as it were to die daily. No one \ncan dispel the clouds and sorrows of old age, but Christ who is the \nsun of righteousness and the bright morning star.\u201d\n\nYet our Lord and Saviour hath not left those who are in darkness and \nthe shadow of death, without the light of a heavenly hope at their \ndeparture, if their ways have not wilfully been evil,\u2014if they have \ndone their duty according to that law of nature which is written in \nthe heart of man. It is the pride of presumptuous wisdom (itself the \nworst of follies) that has robbed the natural man of his consolation \nin old age, and of his hope in death, and exacts the forfeit of that \nhope from the infidel as the consequence and punishment of his sin. \nThus it was in heathen times, as it now is in countries that are \ncalled christian. When Cicero speaks of those things which depend upon \nopinion, he says, _hujusmodi sunt probabilia; impiis apud inferos \np\u0153nas esse pr\u00e6paratas; eos, qui philosophi\u00e6 dent operam, non arbitrari \nDeos esse._ Hence it appears he regarded it as equally probable that \nthere was an account to be rendered after death; and that those who \nprofessed philosophy would disbelieve this as a vulgar delusion, live \ntherefore without religion, and die without hope, like the beasts that \nperish!\n\n\u201c_If_ they perish,\u201d the Doctor, used always reverently to say when he \ntalked upon this subject. Oh Reader, it would have done you good as it \nhas done me, if you had heard him speak upon it, in his own beautiful \nold age! \u201c_If_ they perish,\u201d he would say. \u201cThat the beasts die \nwithout hope we may conclude; death being to them like falling asleep, \nan act of which the mind is not cognizant! But that they live without \nreligion, he would not say,\u2014that they might not have some sense of it \naccording to their kind; nor that all things animate, and seemingly \ninanimate did not actually praise the Lord, as they are called upon to \ndo by the Psalmist, and in the _Benedicite_!\u201d\n\nIt is a pious fancy of the good old lexicographist Adam Littleton that \nour Lord took up his first lodging in a stable amongst the cattle, as \nif he had come to be the Saviour of them as well as of men; being by \none perfect oblation of himself, to put an end to all other \nsacrifices, as well as to take away sins. This, he adds the Psalmist \nfears not to affirm speaking of God's mercy. \u201cThou savest,\u201d says he, \n\u201cboth man and beast.\u201d\n\nThe text may lead us further than Adam Littleton's interpretation.\n\n\u201c_Qu'on ne me parle plus de_ NATURE MORTE, says M. de Custine, in his \nyouth and enthusiasm, writing from Mont-Auvert; _on sent ici que la \nDivinit\u00e9 est partout, et que les pierres sont p\u00e9n\u00e9tr\u00e9es comme \nnous-m\u00eames d'une puissance cr\u00e9atrice! Quand on me dit que les rochers \nsont insensibles, je crois entendre un enfant soutenir que l'aiguille \nd'une montre ne marche pas, parce qu'il ne la voit pas se mouvoir._\u201d\n\nDo not, said our Philosopher, when he threw out a thought like this, \ndo not ask me how this can be! I guess at every thing, and can account \nfor nothing. It is more comprehensible to me that stocks and stones \nshould have a sense of devotion, than that men should be without it. I \ncould much more easily persuade myself that the birds in the air, and \nthe beasts in the field have souls to be saved, than I can believe \nthat very many of my fellow bipeds have any more soul than, as some of \nour divines have said, serves to keep their bodies from putrefaction. \n\u201cGod forgive me, worm that I am! for the sinful thought of which I am \ntoo often conscious,\u2014that of the greater part of the human race, the \nsouls are not worth saving!\u201d\u2014I have not forgotten the look which \naccompanied these words, and the tone in which he uttered them, \ndropping his voice toward the close.\n\nWe must of necessity, said he, become better or worse as we advance in \nyears. Unless we endeavour to spiritualize ourselves, and supplicate \nin this endeavour for that Grace which is never withheld when it is \nsincerely and earnestly sought, age bodilizes us more and more, and \nthe older we grow the more we are embruted and debased: so manifestly \nis the awful text verified which warns us that \u201cunto every one which \nhath shall be given, and from him that hath not, even that he hath \nshall be taken away from him.\u201d In some the soul seems gradually to be \nabsorbed and extinguished in its crust of clay; in others as if it \npurified and sublimed the vehicle to which it was united. _Viget \nanimus, et gaudet non multum sibi esse cum corpore; magnam oneris \npartem sui posuit._[1] Nothing therefore is more beautiful than a wise \nand religious old age; nothing so pitiable as the latter stages of \nmortal existence\u2014when the World and the Flesh, and that false \nphilosophy which is of the Devil, have secured the victory for the \nGrave!\n\n[Footnote 1: SENECA.]\n\n\u201cHe that hath led a holy life,\u201d says one of our old Bishops, \u201cis like \na man which hath travelled over a beautiful valley, and being on the \ntop of a hill, turneth about with delight, to take a view of it \nagain.\u201d The retrospect is delightful, and perhaps it is even more \ngrateful if his journey has been by a rough and difficult way. But \nwhatever may have been his fortune on the road, the Pilgrim who has \nreached the Delectable Mountains looks back with thankfulness and \nforward with delight.\n\nAnd wherefore is it not always thus? Wherefore, but because as \nWordsworth has said,\n\n  The World is too much with us, late and soon\n  Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers.\n\n\u201cThough our own eyes,\u201d says Sir Walter Raleigh, \u201cdo every where behold \nthe sudden and resistless assaults of Death, and Nature assureth us by \nnever failing experience, and Reason by infallible demonstration, that \nour times upon the earth have neither certainty nor durability, that \nour bodies are but the anvils of pain and diseases, and our minds the \nhives of unnumbered cares, sorrows and passions; and that when we are \nmost glorified, we are but those painted posts against which Envy and \nFortune direct their darts; yet such is the true unhappiness of our \ncondition, and the dark ignorance which covereth the eyes of our \nunderstanding, that we only prize, pamper, and exalt this vassal and \nslave of death, and forget altogether, or only remember at our \ncast-away leisure, the imprisoned immortal Soul, which can neither die \nwith the reprobate, nor perish with the mortal parts of virtuous men; \nseeing God's justice in the one, and his goodness in the other, is \nexercised for evermore, as the everliving subjects of his reward and \npunishment. But when is it that we examine this great account? Never, \nwhile we have one vanity left us to spend! We plead for titles till \nour breath fail us; dig for riches whilst our strength enableth us; \nexercise malice while we can revenge; and then when time hath beaten \nfrom us both youth, pleasure and health, and that Nature itself hateth \nthe house of Old Age, we remember with Job that \u2018we must go the way \nfrom whence we shall not return, and that our bed is made ready for us \nin the dark.\u2019 And then I say, looking over-late into the bottom of our \nconscience, which Pleasure and Ambition had locked up from us all our \nlives, we behold therein the fearful images of our actions past, and \nwithal this terrible inscription that \u2018God will bring every work into \njudgement that man hath done under the Sun.\u2019\n\n\u201cBut what examples have ever moved us? what persuasions reformed us? \nor what threatenings made us afraid? We behold other mens tragedies \nplayed before us; we hear what is promised and threatened; but the \nworld's bright glory hath put out the eyes of our minds; and these \nbetraying lights, with which we only see, do neither look up towards \ntermless joys, nor down towards endless sorrows, till we neither know, \nnor can look for anything else at the world's hands.\u2014But let us not \nflatter our immortal Souls herein! For to neglect God all our lives, \nand know that we neglect Him; to offend God voluntarily, and know that \nwe offend Him, casting our hopes on the peace which we trust to make \nat parting, is no other than a rebellious presumption, and that which \nis the worst of all, even a contemptuous laughing to scorn, and \nderiding of God, his laws and precepts. _Frustr\u00e0 sperant qui sic de \nmisericordi\u00e2 Dei sibi blandiuntur;_ they hope in vain, saith Bernard, \nwhich in this sort flatter themselves with God's mercy.\u201d\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER CLXXXV.\n\nEVOLVEMENTS. ANALOGIES. ANTICIPATIONS.\n\n          I have heard, how true\n  I know not, most physicians as they grow\n  Greater in skill, grow less in their religion;\n  Attributing so much to natural causes,\n  That they have little faith in that they cannot\n  Deliver reason for: this Doctor steers\n  Another course.\n\nMASSINGER.\n\n\nI forget what poet it is, who, speaking of old age, says that\n\n  The Soul's dark mansion, battered and decayed,\n  Lets in new light through chinks that time has made;\n\na strange conceit, imputing to the decay of our nature that which \nresults from its maturation.\n\nAs the ancients found in the butterfly a beautiful emblem of the \nimmortality of the Soul, my true philosopher and friend looked, in \nlike manner, upon the chrysalis as a type of old age. The gradual \nimpairment of the senses and of the bodily powers, and the diminution \nof the whole frame as it shrinks and contracts itself in age, afforded \nanalogy enough for a mind like his to work on, which quickly \napprehended remote similitudes, and delighted in remarking them. The \nsense of flying in our sleep, might probably, he thought, be the \nanticipation or forefeeling of an unevolved power, like an aurelia's \ndream of butterfly motion.\n\nThe tadpole has no intermediate state of torpor. This merriest of all \ncreatures, if mirth may be measured by motion, puts out legs before it \ndiscards its tail and commences frog. It was not in our outward frame \nthat the Doctor could discern any resemblance to this process; but he \nfound it in that expansion of the intellectual faculties, those \naspirations of the spiritual part, wherein the Soul seems to feel its \nwings and to imp them for future flight.\n\nOne has always something for which to look forward, some change for \nthe better. The boy in petticoats longs to be drest in the masculine \ngender. Little boys wish to be big ones. In youth we are eager to \nattain manhood, and in manhood matrimony becomes the next natural step \nof our desires. \u201cDays then should speak, and multitude of years should \nteach wisdom;\u201d and teach it they will, if man will but learn, for \nnature brings the heart into a state for receiving it.\n\n_Jucundissima est \u00e6tas devexa jam, non tamen pr\u00e6ceps; et illam quoque \nin extrem\u00e2 regul\u00e2 stantem, judico habere suas voluptates; aut hoc \nipsum succedit in locum voluptatum, nullis egere. Quam dulce est, \ncupiditates fatigasse ac reliquisse!_[1] This was not Dr. Dove's \nphilosophy: he thought the stage of senescence a happy one, not \nbecause we outgrow the desires and enjoyments of youth and manhood, \nbut because wiser desires, more permanent enjoyments, and holier hopes \nsucceed to them,\u2014because time in its course brings us nearer to \neternity, and as earth recedes, Heaven opens upon our prospect.\n\n[Footnote 1: SENECA.]\n\n\u201cIt is the will of God and nature,\u201d says Franklin, \u201cthat these mortal \nbodies be laid aside when the soul is to enter into real life. This is \nrather an embryo state, a preparation for living. A man is not \ncompletely born until he be dead. Why, then, should we grieve that a \nnew child is born among the immortals, a new member added to their \nhappy society? We are spirits. That bodies should be lent us, while \nthey can afford us pleasure, assist us in acquiring knowledge, or in \ndoing good to our fellow-creatures, is a kind and benevolent act of \nGod. When they become unfit for these purposes, and afford us pain \ninstead of pleasure, instead of an aid become an encumbrance, and \nanswer none of the intentions for which they were given, it is equally \nkind and benevolent, that a way is provided by which we may get rid of \nthem. Death is that way.\u201d\n\n\u201cGod,\u201d says Fuller, \u201csends his servants to bed, when they have done \ntheir work.\u201d\n\nThis is a subject upon which even Sir Richard Blackmore could write \nwith a poet's feeling.\n\n  Thou dost, O Death, a peaceful harbour lie\n  Upon the margin of Eternity;\n  Where the rough waves of Time's impetuous tide\n  Their motion lose, and quietly subside:\n  Weary, they roll their drousy heads asleep\n  At the dark entrance of Duration's deep.\n  Hither our vessels in their turn retreat;\n  Here still they find a safe untroubled seat,\n  When worn with adverse passions, furious strife,\n  And the hard passage of tempestuous life.\n\n  Thou dost to man unfeigned compassion show,\n  Soothe all his grief, and solace all his woe.\n  Thy spiceries with noble drugs abound,\n  That every sickness cure and every wound.\n  That which anoints the corpse will only prove \n  The sovereign balm our anguish to remove.\n  The cooling draught administered by thee,\n  O Death! from all our sufferings sets us free.\n  Impetuous life is by thy force subdued,\n  Life, the most lasting fever of the blood.\n  The weary in thy arms lie down to rest,\n  No more with breath's laborious task opprest.\n  Hear, how the men that long life-ridden lie,\n  In constant pain, for thy assistance cry,\n  Hear how they beg and pray for leave to die.\n  For vagabonds that o'er the country roam,\n  Forlorn, unpitied and without a home,\n  Thy friendly care provides a lodging-room.\n  The comfortless, the naked, and the poor,\n  Much pinch'd with cold, with grievous hunger more,\n  Thy subterranean hospitals receive,\n  Assuage their anguish and their wants relieve.\n  Cripples with aches and with age opprest,\n  Crawl on their crutches to the Grave for rest.\n  Exhausted travellers that have undergone\n  The scorching heats of life's intemperate zone,\n  Haste for refreshment to their beds beneath\n  And stretch themselves in the cool shades of death.\n  Poor labourers who their daily task repeat,\n  Tired with their still returning toil and sweat,\n  Lie down at last; and at the wish'd for close\n  Of life's long day, enjoy a sweet repose.\n\n  Thy realms, indulgent Death, have still possest\n  Profound tranquillity and unmolested rest.\n  No raging tempests, which the living dread,\n  Beat on the silent regions of the dead:\n  Proud Princes ne'er excite with war's alarms\n  Thy subterranean colonies to arms.\n  They undisturbed their peaceful mansions keep,\n  And earthquakes only rock them in their sleep.\n\nMuch has been omitted, which may be found in the original, and one \ncouplet removed from its place; but the whole is Blackmore's.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER CLXXXVI.\n\nLEONE HEBREO'S DIALOGI DE AMORE.\u2014THE ELIXIR OF LIFE NO OBSTACLE TO \nDEATH.\u2014PARACELSUS.\u2014VAN HELMONT AND JAN MASS.\u2014DR. DOVE'S OPINION OF A \nBIOGRAPHER'S DUTIES.\n\nThere's a lean fellow beats all conquerors!\n\nOLD FORTUNATUS.\n\n\nIn Leone Hebreo's Dialogi de Amore, one of the interlocutors says, \n\u201c_Vediamo che gli huomini naturalmente desiano di mai non morire; \nlagual cosa \u00e8 impossibile, manifesta, e senza speranza._\u201d To which the \nother replies, \u201c_Coloro chel desiano, non credeno interamente che sia \nimpossibile, et hanno inteso per le historie legali, che Enoc, et \nElia, et ancor Santo Giovanni Evangelista sono immortali in corpo, et \nanima: se ben veggono essere stato per miracolo: onde ciascuno pensa \nche \u00e0 loro Dio potria fare simil miracolo. E per\u00f2 con questa \npossibilita si gionta qualche remota speranza, laquale incita un lento \ndesiderio, massimamente per essere la morte horribile, e la \ncorruttione propria odiosa \u00e0 chi si vuole, et il desiderio non \u00e8 d' \nacquistare cosa nuova, ma di non perdere la vita, che si truova; \nlaquale havendosi di presente, \u00e8 facil cosa ingannarsi l'huomo \u00e0 \ndesiare che non si perda; se ben naturalmente \u00e8 impossibile: chel \ndesiderio di ci\u00f2 \u00e8 talmente lento, che pu\u00f2 essere di cosa impossibile \net imaginabile, essendo di tanta importantia al desiderante. Et ancora \nti dir\u00f2 chel fondamento di questo desiderio non \u00e8 vano in se, se bene \n\u00e8 alquanto ingannoso, per\u00f2 chel desiderio dell' huomo d'essere \nimmortale \u00e8 veramente possibile; perche l'esentia dell' huomu, (come \nrettamente Platon vuole) non \u00e8 altro che la sua anima intellettiva, \nlaquale per la virtu, sapientia, cognitione, et amore divino si fa \ngloriosa et immortale._\u201d\n\nParacelsus used to boast that he would not die till he thought proper \nso to do, thus wishing it to be understood that he had discovered the \nElixir of life. He died suddenly, and at a time when he seemed to be \nin full health; and hence arose a report, that he had made a compact \nwith the Devil, who enabled him to perform all his cures, but came for \nhim as soon as the term of their agreement was up.\n\nWherefore indeed should he have died by any natural means who so well \nunderstood the mysteries of life and of death. What, says he, is life? \n_Nihil mehercl\u00e8 vita est aliud, nisi Mumia qu\u00e6dam Balsamita conservans \nmortale corpus \u00e0 mortalibus vermibus, et eschara cum impress\u00e2 liquoris \nsalium commistur\u00e2._ What is Death? _Nihil certe aliud quam Balsami \ndominium, Mumi\u00e6 interitus, salium ultima materia._ Do you understand \nthis, Reader? If you do, I do not.\n\nBut he is intelligible when he tells us that Life may be likened to \nFire, and that all we want is to discover the fuel for keeping it \nup,\u2014the true Lignum Vit\u00e6. It is not against nature, he contends, that \nwe should live till the renovation of all things; it is only against \nour knowledge, and beyond it. But there are medicaments for prolonging \nlife; and none but the foolish or the ignorant would ask why then is \nit that Princes and Kings who can afford to purchase them, die \nnevertheless like other people. The reason says the great Bombast von \nHohenheim is that their physicians know less about medicine than the \nvery boors, and moreover that Princes and Kings lead dissolute lives. \nAnd if it be asked why no one except Hermes Trismegistus has used such \nmedicaments; he replies that others have used them, but have not let \nit be known.\n\nVan Helmont was once of opinion that no metallic preparation could \ncontain in itself the blessing of the Tree of Life, though that the \nPhilosopher's stone had been discovered was a fact that consisted with \nhis own sure knowledge. This opinion however was in part changed, in \nconsequence of some experiments made with an aurific powder, given him \nby a stranger after a single evening's acquaintance; _(vir peregrinus, \nunius vesperi amicus:)_ these experiments convinced him that the stone \npartook of what he calls Zoophyte life, as distinguished both from \nvegetative and sensitive. But the true secret he thought, must be \nderived from the vegetable world, and he sought for it in the Cedar, \ninduced, as it seems, by the frequent mention of that tree in the Old \nTestament. He says much concerning the cedar,\u2014among other things, that \nwhen all other plants were destroyed by the Deluge, and their kinds \npreserved only in their seed, the Cedars of Lebanon remained uninjured \nunder the waters. However when he comes to the main point, he makes a \nfull stop, saying, _C\u00e6tera autem qu\u00e6 de Cedro sunt, mecum sepelientur: \nnam mundus non capax est._ It is not unlikely that if his mysticism \nhad been expressed in the language of intelligible speculation, it \nmight have been found to accord with some of Berkeley's theories in \nthe _Siris_. But for his reticence upon this subject, as if the world \nwere not worthy of his discoveries, he ought to have been deprived of \nhis two remaining talents. Five he tells us he had received for his \nportion, but because instead of improving them, he had shown himself \nunworthy of so large a trust, he by whom they were given had taken \nfrom him three. \u201c_Ago illi gratias, quod cum contulisset in me quinque \ntalenta, fecissemque me indignum, et hactenus repudium coram eo factus \nessem, placuit divin\u00e6 bonitati, auferre \u00e0 me tria, et relinquere adhuc \nbina, ut me sic ad meliorem frugem exspectaret. Maluit, inquam, me \ndepauperare et tolerare, ut non essem utilis plurimis, mod\u00f2 me \nsalvaret ab hujus mundi periculis. Sit ipsi \u00e6terna sanctificatio._\u201d\n\nHe has however informed posterity of the means by which he prolonged \nthe life of a man to extreme old age. This person whose name was Jan \nMass, was in the service of Martin Rythovius, the first Bishop of \nYpres, when that prelate, by desire of the illustrious sufferers, \nassisted at the execution of Counts Egmond and Horn. Mass was then in \nthe twenty-fifth year of his age. When he was fifty-eight, being poor, \nand having a large family of young children, he came to Van Helmont, \nand entreated him to prolong his life if he could, for the sake of \nthese children, who would be left destitute in case of his death, and \nmust have to beg their bread from door to door. Van Helmont, then a \nyoung man, was moved by such an application, and considering what \nmight be the likeliest means of sustaining life in its decay, he \ncalled to mind the fact that wine is preserved from corruption by the \nfumes of burnt brimstone; it then occurred to him that the acid liquor \nof sulphur, _acidum sulfuris stagma_, (it is better so to translate \nhis words than to call it the sulphuric acid,) must of necessity \ncontain the fumes and odour of sulphur, being, according to his \nchemistry, nothing but those fumes of sulphur, combined with, or \nimbibed in, its mercurial salt. The next step in his reasoning was to \nregard the blood as the wine of life; if this could be kept sound, \nthough longevity might not be the necessary consequence, life would at \nleast be preserved from the many maladies which arose from its \ncorruption, and the sanity, and immunity from such diseases, and from \nthe sufferings consequent thereon, must certainly tend to its \nprolongation. He gave Mass therefore a stone bottle of the distilled \nliquor of sulphur, and taught him also how to prepare this oil from \nburnt sulphur. And he ordered him at every meal to take two drops of \nit in his first draught of beer; and not lightly to exceed that; two \ndrops, he thought, contained enough of the fumes for a sufficient \ndose. This was in the year 1600; and now, says Helmont, in 1641, the \nold man still walks about the streets of Brussels. And what is still \nbetter, _(quodque augustius est,)_ in all these forty years, he has \nnever been confined by any illness, except that by a fall upon the ice \nhe once broke his leg near the knee; and he has constantly been free \nfrom fever, remaining a slender and lean man, and always poor.\n\nJan Mass had nearly reached his hundredth year when this was written, \nand it is no wonder that Van Helmont, who upon a fantastic analogy had \nreally prescribed an efficient tonic, should have accounted by the \nvirtue of his prescription for the health and vigour, which a strong \nconstitution had retained to that extraordinary age. There is no \nreason for doubting the truth of his statement; but if Van Helmont \nrelied upon his theory, he must have made further experiments; it is \nprobable therefore that he either distrusted his own hypothesis, or \nfound upon subsequent trials that the result disappointed him.\n\nVan Helmont's works were collected and edited by his son Francis \nMercurius, who styles himself _Philosophus per Unum in quo Omnia \nEremita peregrinans_, and who dedicated the collection as a holocaust \nto the ineffable Hebrew Name. The Vita Authoris which he prefixed to \nit relates to his own life, not to his father's, and little can be \nlearnt from it, except that he is the more mystical and least \nintelligible of the two. The most curious circumstances concerning the \nfather are what he has himself communicated in the treatise entitled \nhis Confession, into which the writer of his life in Aikin's Biography \nseems not to have looked, nor indeed into any of his works, the \narticles in that as in our other Biographies, being generally compiled \nfrom compilations, so as to present the most superficial information, \nwith the least possible trouble to the writer and the least possible \nprofit to the reader,\u2014skimming for him not the cream of knowledge, but \nthe scum.\n\nDr. Dove used to say that whoever wrote the life of an author without \ncarefully perusing his works acted as iniquitously as a Judge who \nshould pronounce sentence in a cause without hearing the evidence; nay \nhe maintained, the case was even worse, because there was an even \nchance that the Judge might deliver a right sentence, but it was \nimpossible that a life so composed should be otherwise than grievously \nimperfect, if not grossly erroneous. For all the ordinary business of \nthe medical profession he thought it sufficient that a practitioner \nshould thoroughly understand the practice of his art, and proceed \nempirically: God help the patients, he would say, if it were not so! \nand indeed without God's help they would fare badly at the best. But \nhe was of opinion that no one could take a lively and at the same time \na worthy interest in any art or science without as it were identifying \nhimself with it, and seeking to make himself well acquainted with its \nhistory: a Physician therefore, according to his way of thinking ought \nto be as curious concerning the writings of his more eminent \npredecessors, and as well read in the most illustrious of them, as a \ngeneral in the wars of Hannibal, C\u00e6sar, the Black Prince, the Prince \nof Parma, Gustavus Adolphus, and Marlborough. How carefully he had \nperused Van Helmont was shown by the little landmarks whereby after an \ninterval of\u2014alas how many years,\u2014I have followed him through the \nvolume,\u2014_haud passibus \u00e6quis_.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER CLXXXVII.\n\nVAN HELMONT'S WORKS, AND CERTAIN SPECIALITIES IN HIS LIFE.\n\n_Voil\u00e0, mon conte.\u2014Je ne s\u00e7ay s'il est vray; mais, je l'ay ainsi ouy \nconter.\u2014Possible que cela est faux, possible que non.\u2014Je m'en rapporte \n\u00e0 ce qui en est. Il ne sera pas damn\u00e9 qui le croira, ou d\u00e9croira._\n\nBRANT\u00d4ME.\n\n\n\u201cThe works of Van Helmont,\u201d Dr. Aikin says, \u201care now only consulted as \ncuriosities; but with much error and jargon, they contain many shrewd \nremarks, and curious speculations.\u201d\n\nHow little would any reader suppose from this account of them, or \nindeed from any thing which Dr. Aikin has said concerning this once \ncelebrated person, that Van Helmont might as fitly be classed among \nenthusiasts as among physicians, and with philosophers as with either; \nand that like most enthusiasts it is sometimes not easy to determine \nwhether he was deceived himself or intended to deceive others.\n\nHe was born at Brussels in the year 1577, and of noble family. In his \nTreatise entitled _Tumulus Pestis_ (to which strange title a \nstranger[1] explanation is annexed) he gives a sketch of his own \nhistory, saying, \u201c_imitemini, si quid forte boni in e\u00e2 occurrerit._\u201d \nHe was a devourer of books, and digested into common places for his \nown use, whatever he thought most remarkable in them, so that few \nexceeded him in diligence, but most, he says, in judgement. At the age \nof seventeen, he was appointed by the Professors Thomas Fyenus, Gerard \nde Velleers, and Stornius, to read surgical lectures in the Medical \nCollege at Louvain. _Eheu_, he exclaims, _pr\u00e6sumsi docere, qu\u00e6 ipse \nnesciebam!_ and his presumption was increased because the Professors \nof their own accord appointed him to this Lectureship, attended to \nhear him, and were the Censors of what he delivered. The writers from \nwhom he compiled his discourses were Holerius, Tagaultius, Guido, \nVigo, \u00c6gineta, and \u201cthe whole tribe of Arabian authors.\u201d But then he \nbegan, and in good time, to marvel at his own temerity and \ninconsiderateness in thinking that by mere reading, he could be \nqualified to teach what could be learnt only by seeing, and by \noperating, and by long practice, and by careful observation: and this \ndistrust in himself was increased when he discovered that the \nProfessors could give him no further light than books had done. \nHowever at the age of twenty-two he was created Doctor of Medicine in \nthe same University.\n\n[Footnote 1:\n\n  Lector, titulus quem legis, terror lugubris, foribus affixus,\n              intus mortem, mortis genus, et hominum\n           nunciat flagrum. Sta, et inquire, quid hoc?\n                      Mirare. Quid sibi vult\n                     Tumuli Epigraphe Pestis?\n      Sub anatome abii, non obii; quamdiu malesuada invidia\n                 Momi, et hominum ignara cupido,\n                           me fovebunt.\n                            Ergo heic\n         Non funus, non cadaver, non mors, non sceleton\n                   non luctus, non contagium.\n                       \u00c6TERNO DA GLORIAM\n    Quod Pestis jam desiit, sub Anatomes proprio supplicio.]\n\n\nVery soon he began to repent that he, who was by birth noble, should \nhave been the first of his family to choose the medical profession, \nand this against the will of his mother, and without the knowledge of \nhis other relations. \u201cI lamented, he says, with tears the sin of my \ndisobedience, and regretted the time and labour which had been thus \nvainly expended: and often with a sorrowful heart I intreated the Lord \nthat he would be pleased to lead me to a vocation not of my own \nchoice, but in which I might best perform his will; and I made a vow \nthat to whatever way of life he might call me, I would follow it, and \ndo my utmost endeavour therein to serve him. Then, as if I had tasted \nof the forbidden fruit, I discovered my own nakedness. I saw that \nthere was neither truth nor knowledge in my putative learning; and \nthought it cruel to derive money from the sufferings of others; and \nunfitting that an art founded upon charity, and conferred upon the \ncondition of exercising compassion, should be converted into a means \nof lucre.\u201d\n\nThese reflections were promoted if not induced by his having caught a \ndisorder which as it is not mentionable in polite circles, may be \ndescribed by intimating that the symptom from which it derives its \nname is alleviated by what Johnson defines tearing or rubbing with the \nnails. It was communicated to him by a young lady's glove, into which \nin a evil minute of sportive gallantry he had insinuated his hand. The \nphysicians treated him, _secundum artem_, in entire ignorance of the \ndisease; they bled him to cool the liver, and they purged him to carry \noff the torrid choler and the salt phlegm, they repeated this \nclearance again and again, till from a hale strong and active man they \nhad reduced him to extreme leanness and debility without in the \nslightest degree abating the cutaneous disease. He then persuaded \nhimself that the humours which the Galenists were so triumphantly \nexpelling from his poor carcase had not preexisted there in that state \nbut were produced by the action of their drugs. Some one cured him \neasily by brimstone, and this is said to have made him feelingly \nperceive the inefficiency of the scholastic practice which he had \nhitherto pursued.\n\nIn this state of mind he made over his inheritance to a widowed \nsister, who stood in need of it, gave up his profession, and left his \nown country with an intention of never returning to it. The world was \nall before him, and he began his travels with as little fore-knowledge \nwhither he was going, and as little fore-thought of what he should do, \nas Adam himself when the gate of Paradise was closed upon him; but he \nwent with the hope that God would direct his course by His good \npleasure to some good end. It so happened that he who had renounced \nthe profession of medicine as founded on delusion and imposture was \nthrown into the way of practising it, by falling in company with a man \nwho had no learning, but who understood the practical part of \nchemistry, or pyrotechny, as he calls it. The new world which Columbus \ndiscovered did not open a wider or more alluring field to ambition and \nrapacity than this science presented to Van Helmont's enthusiastic and \nenquiring mind. \u201cThen\u201d says he, \u201cwhen by means of fire I beheld the \n_penetrale_, the inward or secret part of certain bodies, I \ncomprehended the separations of many, which were not then taught in \nbooks, and some of which are still unknown.\u201d He pursued his \nexperiments with increasing ardour, and in the course of two years \nacquired such reputation by the cures which he performed, that because \nof his reputation he was sent for by the Elector of Cologne. Then \nindeed he became more ashamed of his late and learned ignorance, and \nrenouncing all books because they sung only the same cuckoo note, \nperceived that he profited more by fire, and by conceptions acquired \nin praying. \u201cAnd then,\u201d says he, \u201cI clearly knew that I had missed the \nentrance of true philosophy, on all sides obstacles and obscurities \nand difficulties appeared, which neither labour, nor time, nor vigils, \nnor expenditure of money could overcome and disperse, but only the \nmere goodness of God. Neither women, nor social meetings deprived me \nthen of even a single hour, but continual labour and watching were the \nthieves of my time; for I willingly cured the poor and those of mean \nestate, being more moved by human compassion, and a moral love of \ngiving, than by pure universal charity reflected in the Fountain of \nLife.\u201d\n\n\n\n\nINTERCHAPTER XX.\n\nST. PANTALEON OF NICOMEDIA IN BITHYNIA\u2014HIS HISTORY, AND SOME FURTHER \nPARTICULARS NOT TO BE FOUND ELSEWHERE.\n\n   _Non dicea le cose senza il quia;\n  Che il dritto distingueva dal mancino,\n  E dicea pane al pane, e vino al vino._\n\nBERTOLDO.\n\n\nThis Interchapter is dedicated to St. Pantaleon, of Nicomedia in \nBithynia, student in medicine and practitioner in miracles, whose \nmartyrdom is commemorated by the Church of Rome, on the 27th of July.\n\n  _Sancte Pantaleon, ora pro nobis!_\n\nThis I say to be on the safe side; though between ourselves reader, \nNicephorus, and Usuardus, and Vincentius and St. Antoninus \n(notwithstanding his sanctity) have written so many lies concerning \nhim, that it is very doubtful whether there ever was such a person, \nand still more doubtful whether there be such a Saint. However the \nbody which is venerated under his name, is just as venerable as if it \nhad really belonged to him, and works miracles as well.\n\nIt is a tradition in Corsica that when St. Pantaleon was beheaded, the \nexecutioner's sword was converted into a wax taper, and the weapons of \nall his attendants into snuffers, and that the head rose from the \nblock and sung. In honour of this miracle the Corsicans as late as the \nyear 1775 used to have their swords consecrated, or charmed,\u2014by laying \nthem on the altar while a mass was performed to St. Pantaleon.\n\nBut what have I, who am writing in January instead of July, and who am \nno papist, and who have the happiness of living in a protestant \ncountry, and was baptized moreover by a right old English name,\u2014what \nhave I to do with St. Pantaleon? Simply this, my new pantaloons are \njust come home, and that they derive their name from the aforesaid \nSaint is as certain,\u2014as that it was high time I should have a new \npair.\n\nSt. Pantaleon though the tutelary Saint of Oporto (which city boasteth \nof his relics) was in more especial fashion at Venice: and so many of \nthe grave Venetians were in consequence named after him, that the \nother Italians called them generally Pantaloni in derision,\u2014as an \nIrishman is called Pat, and as Sawney is with us synonymous with \nScotchman, or Taffy for a son of Cadwallader and votary of St. David \nand his leek. Now the Venetians wore long small clothes; these as \nbeing the national dress were called Pantaloni also; and when the \ntrunk-hose of Elizabeth's days went out of fashion, we received them \nfrom France, with the name of pantaloons.\n\nPantaloons then as of Venetian and Magnifico parentage, and under the \npatronage of an eminent Saint, are doubtless an honourable garb. They \nare also of honourable extraction, being clearly of the Bracc\u00e6 family. \nFor it is this part of our dress by which we are more particularly \ndistinguished from the Oriental and inferior nations and also from the \nabominable Romans whom our ancestors, Heaven be praised! subdued. \nUnder the miserable reign of Honorius and Arcadius, these Lords of the \nWorld thought proper to expel the Braccarii, or breeches-makers, from \ntheir capitals, and to prohibit the use of this garment, thinking it a \nthing unworthy that the Romans should wear the habit of \nBarbarians:\u2014and truly it was not fit that so effeminate a race should \nwear the breeches.\n\nThe Pantaloons are of this good Gothic family. The fashion having been \ndisused for more than a century was re-introduced some five and twenty \nyears ago, and still prevails so much\u2014that I who like to go with the \nstream, and am therefore content to have fashions thrust upon me, have \njust received a new pair from London.\n\nThe coming of a box from the Great City is an event which is always \nlooked to by the juveniles of this family with some degree of \nimpatience. In the present case there was especial cause for such \njoyful expectation, for the package was to contain no less a treasure \nthan the story of the Lioness and the Exeter Mail, with appropriate \nengravings representing the whole of that remarkable history, and \nthose engravings emblazoned in appropriate colours. This adventure had \nexcited an extraordinary degree of interest among us when it was \nrelated in the newspapers: and no sooner had a book upon the subject \nbeen advertised, than the young ones one and all were in an uproar, \nand tumultuously petitioned that I would send for it,\u2014to which, \nthinking the prayer of the petitioners reasonable, I graciously \nassented. And moreover there was expected among other things _ejusdem \ngeneris_, one of those very few perquisites which the all-annihilating \nhand of Modern Reform has not retrenched in our public offices,\u2014an \nAlmanac or Pocket-Book for the year, curiously bound and gilt, three \nonly being made up in this magnificent manner for three magnificent \npersonages, from one of whom this was a present to my lawful \nGoverness. Poor Mr. Bankes! the very hairs of his wig will stand \nerect,\n\n  Like quills upon the fretful porcupine,\n\nwhen he reads of this flagrant misapplication of public money; and Mr. \nWhitbread would have founded a motion upon it, had he survived the \nbattle of Waterloo.\n\nThere are few things in which so many vexatious delays are continually \noccurring, and so many rascally frauds are systematically practised, \nas in the carriage of parcels. It is indeed much to be wished that \nGovernment could take into its hands the conveyance of goods as well \nas letters, for in this country whatever is done by Government is done \npunctually and honourably;\u2014what corruption there is lies among the \npeople themselves, among whom honesty is certainly less general than \nit was half a century ago. Three or four days elapsed on each of which \nthe box ought to have arrived. Will it come to day Papa? was the \nmorning question: why does not it come? was the complaint at noon; and \nwhen will it come? was the query at night. But in childhood the delay \nof hope is only the prolongation of enjoyment; and through life \nindeed, hope if it be of the right kind, is the best food of \nhappiness. \u201cThe House of Hope,\u201d says Hafiz, \u201cis built upon a weak \nfoundation.\u201d If it be so, I say, the fault is in the builder: Build it \nupon a Rock, and it will stand.\n\n_Expectata dies_,\u2014long looked for, at length it came. The box was \nbrought into the parlour, the ripping-chissel was produced, the nails \nwere easily forced, the cover was lifted, and the paper which lay \nbeneath it was removed. There's the pantaloons! was the first \nexclamation. The clothes being taken out, there appeared below a paper \nparcel, secured with string. As I never encourage any undue \nimpatience, the string was deliberately and carefully untied. Behold, \nthe splendid Pocket-Book, and the history of the Lioness and the \nExeter Mail,\u2014had been forgotten!\n\nO St. Peter! St. Peter!\n\n\u201cPray, Sir,\u201d says the Reader, \u201cas I perceive you are a person who have \na reason for every thing you say, may I ask wherefore you call upon \nSt. Peter on this occasion.\u201d\n\nYou may Sir.\n\nA reason there is and a valid one. But what that reason is, I shall \nleave the commentators to discover; observing only, for the sake of \nlessening their difficulty, that the Peter upon whom I have called is \nnot St. Peter of Verona, he having been an Inquisitor, one of the \nDevil's Saints, and therefore in no condition at this time to help any \nbody who invokes him.\n\n\u201cWell Papa, you must write about them, and they must come in the next \nparcel,\u201d said the children. Job never behaved better, who was a \nscriptural Epictetus; nor Epictetus who was a heathen Job.\n\nI kissed the little philosophers; and gave them the Bellman's verses, \nwhich happened to come in the box, with horrific cuts of the Marriage \nat Cana, the Ascension and other portions of gospel history, and the \nBellman himself,\u2014so it was not altogether a blank. We agreed that the \ndisappointment should be an adjourned pleasure, and then I turned to \ninspect the pantaloons.\n\nI cannot approve the colour. It hath too much of the purple; not that \nimperial die by which ranks were discriminated at Constantinople, nor \nthe more sober tint which Episcopacy affecteth. Nor is it the bloom of \nthe plum;\u2014still less can it be said to resemble the purple light of \nlove. No! it is rather a hue brushed from the raven's wing, a black \npurple; not Night and Aurora meeting, which would make the darkness \nblush; but Erebus and Ultramarine.\n\nDoubtless it hath been selected for me because of its alamodality,\u2014a \ngood and pregnant word, on the fitness of which some German whose name \nappears to be erroneously as well as uncouthly written Geamoenus, is \nsaid to have composed a dissertation. Be pleased Mr. Todd to insert it \nin the interleaved copy of your dictionary!\n\nThankful I am that they are not like Jean de Bart's full dress \nbreeches; for when that famous sailor went to court he is said to have \nworn breeches of cloth of gold, most uncomfortably as well as \nsplendidly lined with cloth of silver.\n\nHe would never have worn them had he read Lampridius, and seen the \nopinion of the Emperor Alexander Severus as by that historian \nrecorded: \u201c_in line\u00e2 autem aurum mitti etiam dementiam judicabat, cum \nasperitati adderetur rigor._\u201d\n\nThe word breeches has, I am well aware, been deemed ineffable, and \ntherefore not to be written\u2014because not to be read. But I am \nencouraged to use it by the high and mighty authority of the \nAnti-Jacobin Review. Mr. Stephens having in his Memoirs of Horne Tooke \nused the word small-clothes is thus reprehended for it by the \nindignant Censor.\n\n\u201cHis _breeches_ he calls _small-clothes_;\u2014the first time we have seen \nthis bastard term, the offspring of gross ideas and disgusting \naffectation in print, in any thing like a book. It is scandalous to \nsee men of education thus employing the most vulgar language, and \ncorrupting their native tongue by the introduction of illegitimate \nwords. But this is the age of affectation. Even our fishwomen and \nmilkmaids affect to blush at the only word which can express this part \nof a man's dress, and lisp _small-clothes_ with as many airs as a \nwould-be woman of fashion is accustomed to display. That this folly is \nindebted for its birth to grossness of imagination in those who evince \nit, will not admit of a doubt. From the same source arises the \nridiculous and too frequent use of a French word for a part of female \ndress; as if the mere change of language could operate a change either \nin the thing expressed, or in the idea annexed to the expression! \nSurely, surely, English women, who are justly celebrated for good \nsense and decorous manners, should rise superior to such pityful, such \npaltry, such low-minded affectation.\u201d\n\nHere I must observe that one of these redoubtable critics is thought \nto have a partiality for breeches of the Dutch make. It is said also \nthat he likes to cut them out for himself, and to have pockets of \ncapacious size, wide and deep; and a large fob, and a large allowance \nof lining.\n\nThe Critic who so very much dislikes the word small-clothes, and \nargues so vehemently in behalf of breeches, uses no doubt that edition \nof the scriptures that is known by the name of the Breeches Bible.[1]\n\n[Footnote 1: The Bible here alluded to was the Genevan one, by Rowland \nHall, A.D. 1560. It was for many years the most popular one in \nEngland, and the notes were great favorites with the religious public, \ninsomuch so that they were attached to a copy of King James' \nTranslation as late as 1715. From the peculiar rendering of Genesis, \niii. 7, the Editions of this translation have been commonly known by \nthe name of \u201cBreeches Bibles.\u201d\u2014See Cotton's Various Editions of the \nBible, p. 14, and Ames and Herbert, Ed. Dibdin, vol. iv. p. 410.]\n\nI ought to be grateful to the Anti-Jacobin Review. It assists in \nteaching me my duty to my neighbour, and enabling me to live in \ncharity with all men. For I might perhaps think that nothing could be \nso wrong-headed as Leigh Hunt, so wrong-hearted as Cobbett, so foolish \nas one, so blackguard as the other, so impudently conceited as \nboth,\u2014if it were not for the Anti-Jacobin. I might believe that \nnothing could be so bad as the coarse, bloody and brutal spirit of the \nvulgar Jacobin,\u2014if it were not for the Anti-Jacobin.\n\nBlessings on the man for his love of pure English! It is to be \nexpected that he will make great progress in it, through his \nfamiliarity with fishwomen and milk-maids; for it implies no common \ndegree of familiarity with those interesting classes to talk to them \nabout breeches, and discover that they prefer to call them \nsmall-clothes.\n\nBut wherefore did he not instruct us by which monosyllable he would \nexpress the female garment, \u201cwhich is indeed the sister to a \nshirt,\u201d\u2014as an old poet says, and which he hath left unnamed,\u2014for there \nare two by which it is denominated. Such a discussion would be worthy \nboth of his good sense, and his decorous stile.\n\nFor my part, instead of expelling the word _chemise_ from use I would \nhave it fairly naturalized.\n\nMany plans have been proposed for reducing our orthography to some \nregular system, and improving our language in various ways. Mr. \nElphinstone, Mr. Pinkerton, and Mr. Spence, the founder of the \nSpensean Philanthropists, have distinguished themselves in these \nuseful and patriotic projects, and Mr. Pytches is at present in like \nmanner laudably employed,\u2014though that gentleman contents himself with \nreforming what these bolder spirits would revolutionize. I also would \nfain contribute to so desirable an end.\n\nWe agree that in spelling words it is proper to discard all reference \nto their etymology. The political reformer would confine the attention \nof the Government exclusively to what are called truly British \nobjects; and the philological reformers in like manner are desirous of \nestablishing a truly British language.\n\nUpon this principle, I would anglicize the orthography of _chemise_; \nand by improving upon the hint which the word would then offer in its \nEnglish appearance, we might introduce into our language a distinction \nof genders\u2014in which it has hitherto been defective. For example,\n\n  Hemise and Shemise.\n\nHere without the use of an article, or any change of termination we \nhave the needful distinction made more perspicuously than by _\u00f3_ and \n_\u0144_, _hic_ and _h\u00e6c_, _le_ and _la_, or other articles serving for no \nother purpose.\n\nAgain. In letter-writing, every person knows that male and female \nletters have a distinct sexual character, they should therefore be \ngenerally distinguished thus,\n\n  Hepistle and Shepistle.\n\nAnd as there is the same marked difference in the writing of the two \nsexes I would propose\n\n  Penmanship and Penwomanship.\n\nErroneous opinions in religion being promulgated in this country by \nwomen as well as men, the teachers of such false doctrines may be \ndivided into\n\n  Heresiarchs and Sheresiarchs,\n\nso that we should speak of\n\n  the Heresy of the Quakers\n  the Sheresy of Joanna Southcote's people.\n\nThe troublesome affection of the diaphragm, which every person has \nexperienced, is upon the same principle to be called according to the \nsex of the patient\n\n  Hecups or Shecups,\n\nwhich upon the principle of making our language truly British is \nbetter than the more classical form of\n\n  Hiccups and H\u00e6ccups.\n\nIn its objective use the word becomes\n\n  Hiscups or Hercups,\n\nand in like manner Histerics should be altered into Herterics, the \ncomplaint never being masculine.\n\nSo also instead of making such words as agreeable, comfortable, &c. \nadjectives of one termination, I would propose,\n\n  Masculine agreabeau, Feminine agreabelle\n         comfortabeau           comfortabelle\n           miserabeau           miserabelle,\n                                  &c. &c.\n\nThese things are suggested as hints to Mr. Pytches, to be by him \nperpended in his improvement of our Dictionary. I beg leave also to \npoint out for his critical notice the remarkable difference in the \nmeaning of the word misfortune, as applied to man, woman, or child: a \npeculiarity for which perhaps no parallel is to be found in any other \nlanguage.\n\nBut to return from these philological speculations to the Anti-Jacobin \nby whom we have been led to them, how is it that this critic, great \nmaster as he is of the vulgar tongue, should affirm that breeches is \nthe only word by which this part of a man's dress can be expressed. \nHad he forgotten that there was such a word as galligaskins?\u2014to say \nnothing of inexpressibles and dont-mention 'ems. Why also did he \nforget pantaloons?\u2014and thus the Chapter like a rondeau comes round to \nSt. Pantaleon with whom it began,\n\n  _Sancte Pantaleon, ora pro nobis!_\n\n\n\n\n\u201cHere is another Chapter without a heading,\u201d\u2014the Compositor would have \nsaid when he came to this part of the Manuscript, if he had not seen \nat a glance, that in my great consideration I had said it for him.\n\nYes, Mr. Compositor! Because of the matter whereon it has to treat, we \nmust, if you please, entitle this an\n\n  ARCH-CHAPTER.\n\nA Frenchman once, who was not ashamed of appearing ignorant on such a \nsubject, asked another who with some reputation for classical \nattainments had not the same rare virtue, what was the difference \nbetween Dryads and Hamadryads; and the man of erudition gravely \nreplied that it was much the same as that between Bishops and \nArchbishops.\n\nI have dignified this Arch-Chapter in its designation, because it \nrelates to the King.\n\nDr. Gooch, you are hereby requested to order this book for his \nMajesty's library,\n\n  _C'est une rare pi\u00e8ce, et digne sur ma foi,\n   Qu'on en fasse pr\u00e9sent au cabinet d'un roi._[1]\n\n[Footnote 1: MOLIERE.]\n\nDr. Gooch I have a great respect for you. At the time when there was \nan intention of bringing a bill into Parliament for emancipating the \nPlague from the Quarantine Laws, and allowing to the people of Great \nBritain their long withheld right of having this disease as freely as \nthe small pox, measles and any other infectious malady, you wrote a \npaper and published it in the Quarterly Review, against that insane \nintention; proving its insanity so fully by matter of fact, and so \nconclusively by force of reasoning, that your arguments carried \nconviction with them, and put an end, for the time, to that part of \nthe emancipating and free trade system.\n\nDr. Gooch, you have also written a volume of medical treatises of \nwhich I cannot speak more highly than by saying, sure I am that if the \nexcellent subject of these my reminiscences were living, he would, for \nhis admiration of those treatises have solicited the pleasure and \nhonour of your acquaintance.\n\nDr. Gooch, comply with this humble request of a sincere, though \nunknown admirer, for the sake of your departed brother-in-physic, who, \nlike yourself, brought to the study of the healing art, a fertile \nmind, a searching intellect and a benevolent heart. More, Dr. G. I \nmight say, and more I would say, but\u2014\n\n  Should I say more, you well might censure me\n  (What yet I never was) a flatterer.[2]\n\n[Footnote 2: BEAUMONT AND FLETCHER.]\n\nWhen the King (God bless his Majesty!) shall peruse this book and be \nwell-pleased therewith, if it should enter into his royal mind to call \nfor his Librarian, and ask of him what honour and dignity hath been \ndone to the author of it, for having delighted the heart of the King, \nand of so many of his liege subjects, and you shall have replied unto \nhis Majesty, \u201cthere is nothing done for him;\u201d then Dr. Gooch when the \nKing shall take it into consideration how to testify his satisfaction \nwith the book, and to manifest his bounty toward the author, you are \nrequested to bear in mind my thoughts upon this weighty matter, of \nwhich I shall now proceed to put you in possession.\n\nShould he generously think of conferring upon me the honour of \nknighthood, or a baronetcy, or a peerage, (Lord Doncaster the title,) \nor a step in the peerage, according to my station in life, of which \nyou Dr. Gooch can give him no information; or should he meditate the \ninstitution of an Order of Merit for men of letters, with an intention \nof nominating me among the original members, worthy as such intentions \nwould be of his royal goodness, I should nevertheless, for reasons \nwhich it is not necessary to explain, deem it prudent to decline any \nof these honours.\n\nFar be it from me, Dr. Gooch, to wish that the royal apparel should be \nbrought which the King useth to wear, and the horse that the King \nrideth upon, and the crown royal which is set upon his head; and that \nthis apparel and horse should be delivered to the hand of one of the \nKing's most noble princes, that he might array me withal; and bring me \non horseback through the streets of London, and proclaim before me, \nthus shall it be done to the man whom the King delighteth to honour! \nSuch an exhibition would neither accord with this age, nor with the \nmanners of this nation, nor with my humility.\n\nAs little should I desire that his Majesty should give orders for me \nto be clothed in purple, to drink in gold and to sleep upon gold, and \nto ride in a chariot with bridles of gold, and to have an head-tire of \nfine linen, and a chain about my neck, and to eat next the King, \nbecause of my wisdom, and to be called the King's cousin. For purple \ngarments, Dr. Gooch are not among the _propria qu\u00e6 maribus_ in England \nat this time; it is better to drink in glass than in gold, and to \nsleep upon a feather bed than upon a golden one; the only head-tire \nwhich I wear is my night-cap, I care not therefore for the fineness of \nits materials; and I dislike for myself chains of any kind.\n\nThat his Majesty should think of sending for me to sit next him \nbecause of my wisdom, is what he in his wisdom will not do, and what, \nif he were to do, would not be agreeable to me, in mine. But should \nthe King desire to have me called his Cousin, accompanying that of \ncourse with such an appanage as would be seemly for its support, and \nshould he notify that most gracious intention to you his Librarian, \nand give order that it should be by you inserted in the Gazette,\u2014to \nthe end that the secret which assuredly no sagacity can divine, and no \nindiscretion will betray, should incontinently thereupon be \ncommunicated through you to the royal ear; and that in future editions \nof this work, the name of the thus honoured author should appear with \nthe illustrious designation, in golden letters of, \u201cby special command \nof his Majesty,\n\n  COUSIN TO THE KING.\u201d\n\nA gracious mandate of this nature, Dr. Gooch, would require a severe \nsacrifice from my loyal and dutiful obedience. Not that the respectful \ndeference which is due to the royal and noble house of Gloucester \nshould withhold me from accepting the proffered honour: to that house \nit could be nothing derogatory; the value of their consanguinity would \nrather be the more manifest, when the designation alone, unaccompanied \nwith rank, was thus rendered by special command purely and singularly \nhonourable. Still less should I be influenced by any apprehension of \nbeing confounded in cousinship with Olive, calling herself Princess of \nCumberland. Nevertheless let me say, Dr. Gooch, while I am free to say \nit,\u2014while I am treating of it paulo-post-futuratively, as of a \npossible case, not as a question brought before me for my prompt and \nirrevocable answer,\u2014let me humbly say that I prefer the incognito even \nto this title. It is not necessary, and would not be proper to enter \ninto my reasons for that preference; suffice it that it is my humour \n(speaking be it observed respectfully, and using that word in its \ncritical and finer sense), that it is the idiosyncrasy of my \ndisposition, the familiar way in which it pleases me innocently to \nexercise my privilege of free will. It is not a secret which every \nbody knows, which nobody could help knowing and which was the more \nnotoriously known because of its presumed secresy. Incognito I am and \nwish to be, and incognoscible it is in my power to remain:\n\n          He deserves small trust,\n  Who is not privy councillor to himself,\n\nbut my secret, (being my own) is, like my life (if that were needed) \nat the King's service, and at his alone;\n\n  _\u03a4\u03bf\u1fd6\u03c2 \u03ba\u03c5\u03c1\u03af\u03bf\u03b9\u03c2 \u03b3\u1f70\u03c1 \u03c0\u03ac\u03bd\u03c4\u03b1 \u03c7\u03c1\u1f74 \u03b4\u03b7\u03bb\u03bf\u1fe6\u03bd \u03bb\u03cc\u03b3\u03bf\u03bd._[3]\n\n[Footnote 3: SOPHOCLES.]\n\nBe pleased therefore Dr. Gooch, if his Majesty most graciously and \nmost considerately should ask, what may be done for the man (\u2014meaning \nme,\u2014) whom the King delighteth to honour;\u2014be pleased, good Dr. Gooch, \nto represent that the allowance which is usually granted to a retired \nEnvoy, would content his wishes, make his fortunes easy, and gladden \nhis heart;\u2014(Dr. Gooch you will forgive the liberty thus taken with \nyou!)\u2014that \u201cwhere the word of a King is, there is power,\u201d\u2014that an \nostensible reason for granting it may easily be found, a sealed \ncommunication from the unknown being made through your hands;\u2014that \nmany Envoys have not deserved it better, and many secret services \nwhich have been as largely rewarded have not afforded to the King so \nmuch satisfaction;\u2014finally that this instance of royal bounty will not \nhave the effect of directing public suspicion toward the object of \nthat bounty, nor be likely to be barked at by Joseph Hume, Colonel \nDavies, and Daniel Whittle Harvey!\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER CLXXXVIII.\n\nFOLLY IN PRINT, REFERRED TO, BUT (N.B.) NOT EXEMPLIFIED. THE FAIR MAID \nOF DONCASTER. DOUBTS CONCERNING THE AUTHENTICITY OF HER STORY. \nTHEVENARD AND LOVE ON A NEW FOOTING. STARS AND GARTERS, A MONITORY \nANECDOTE FOR OUR SEX, AND A WHOLESOME NOVELTY IN DRESS RECOMMENDED TO \nBOTH.\n\n  They be at hand, Sir, with stick and fiddle,\n  They can play a new dance, Sir, called hey, diddle, diddle.\n\nKING CAMBYSES.\n\n\nYou have in the earlier chapters of this Opus, gentle Reader, heard \nmuch of the musical history of Doncaster; not indeed as it would have \nbeen related by that thoroughly good, fine-ear'd, kind-hearted, \nopen-handed, happiest of musicians and men, Dr. Burney the first; and \nyet I hope thou mayest have found something in this relation which has \nbeen to thy pleasure in reading, and which, if it should be little to \nthy profit in remembrance, will be nothing to thy hurt. From music to \ndancing is an easy transition, but do not be afraid that I shall take \nthee to a Ball,\u2014for I would rather go to the Treading Mill myself.\n\nWhat I have to say of Doncaster dancing relates to times long before \nthose to which my reminiscences belong.\n\nIn a collection of Poems entitled \u201cFolly in Print\u201d\u2014(which title might \nbe sufficiently appropriate for many such collections)\u2014or a Book of \nRhymes, printed in 1667, there is a Ballad called the Northern Lass, \nor the Fair Maid of Doncaster. Neither book or ballad has ever fallen \nin my way, nor has that comedy of Richard Broome's, which from its \nname Oldys supposed to have been founded upon the same story. I learn \nhowever in a recent and voluminous account of the English Stage from \nthe Revolution (by a gentleman profoundly learned in the most \nworthless of all literature, and for whom that literature seems to \nhave been quite good enough,) that Broome's play has no connection \nwith the ballad, or with Doncaster. But the note in which Oldys \nmentions it has made me acquainted with this Fair Maid's propensity \nfor dancing, and with the consequences that it brought upon her. Her \nname was Betty Maddox; a modern ballad writer would call her \nElizabeth, if he adopted the style of the Elizabethan age; or Eliza if \nhis taste inclined to the refinements of modern euphony. When an \nhundred horsemen wooed her, says Oldys, she conditioned that she would \nmarry the one of them who could dance her down;\n\n  You shall decide your quarrel by a dance,[1]\n\nbut she wearied them all; and they left her a maid for her pains.\n\n  _Legiadria suos fervabat tanta per artus,\n   Ut qu\u00e6cunque potest fieri saltatio per nos\n   Humanos, agili motu fiebat ab ill\u00e2._[2]\n\n[Footnote 1: DRYDEN.]\n\n[Footnote 2: MACARONICA.]\n\nAt that dancing match they must have footed it till, as is said in an \nold Comedy, a good country lass's capermonger might have been able to \ncopy the figure of the dance from the impressions on the pavement.\n\nFor my own part I do not believe it to be a true story; they who \nplease may. Was there one of the horsemen but would have said on such \noccasion, with the dancing Peruvians in one of Davenant's operatic \ndramas,\n\n          Still round and round and round,\n          Let us compass the ground.\n          What man is he who feels\n          Any weight at his heels,\n  Since our hearts are so light, that, all weigh'd together,\n  Agree to a grain, and they weigh not a feather.\n\nI disbelieve it altogether, and not for its want of verisimilitude \nalone, but because when I was young there was no tradition of any such \nthing in the town where the venue of the action is laid; and therefore \nI conjecture that it is altogether a fictitious story, and may \nperadventure have been composed as a lesson for some young spinster \nwhose indefatigable feet made her the terror of all partners.\n\nThe Welsh have a saying that if a woman were as quick with her feet as \nher tongue, she would catch lightning enough to kindle the fire in the \nmorning; it is a fanciful saying, as many of the Welsh sayings are. \nBut if Miss Maddox had been as quick with her tongue as her feet, \ninstead of dancing an hundred horsemen down, she might have talked \ntheir hundred horses to death.\n\nWhy it was a greater feat than that of Kempe the actor, who in the age \nof odd performance danced from London to Norwich. He was nine days in \ndancing the journey and published an account of it under the title of \nhis \u201cNine Day's Wonder.\u201d[3] It could have been no \u201clight fantastic \ntoe\u201d that went through such work; but one fit for the roughest game at \nfootball. At sight of the aweful foot to which it belonged, Cupid \nwould have fled with as much reason as the Dragon of Wantley had for \nturning tail when Moor of Moor Hall with his spiked shoe-armour \npursued him. He would have fled before marriage, for fear of being \nkicked out of the house after it. They must have been feet that \ninstead of gliding and swimming, and treading the grass so trim, went \nas the old Comedy says lumperdee, clumperdee.[4]\n\n[Footnote 3: Webster's Westward Ho. Act. v. Sc. i.\u2014Anno 1600.]\n\n[Footnote 4: RALPH ROISTER DOISTER.]\n\nThe Northern Lass was in this respect no Cinderella. Nor would any \none, short of an Irish Giant have fallen in love with her slipper, as \nThevenard the singer did with that which he saw by accident at a \nshoe-maker's, and enquiring for what enchanting person it was made, \nand judging of this earthly Venus as the proportions of Hercules have \nbeen estimated _ex pede_, sought her out, for love of her foot, \ncommenced his addresses to her, and obtained her hand in marriage.\n\nThe story of Thevenard is true, at least it has been related and \nreceived as such; this of the Fair Maid of Doncaster is not even _ben \ntrovato_. Who indeed shall persuade me, or who indeed will be \npersuaded, that if she had wished to drop the title of spinster and \ntake her matrimonial degree, she would not have found some good excuse \nfor putting an end to the dance when she had found a partner to her \nliking? A little of that wit which seldom fails a woman when it is \nneeded, would have taught her how to do this with a grace, and make it \nappear that she was still an invincible dancer, though the Stars had \ndecreed that in this instance she should lose the honour of the dance. \nSome accident might have been feigned like those by which the ancient \nepic poets, and their imitators contrive in their Games to disappoint \nthose who are on the point of gaining the prize which is contended \nfor.\n\nIf the Stars had favoured her, they might have predestined her to meet \nwith such an accident as befel a young lady in the age of minuets. She \nwas led out in a large assembly by her partner, the object of all \neyes; and when the music began and the dance should have began also, \nand he was in motion, she found herself unable to move from the spot, \nshe remained motionless for a few seconds, her colour changed from \nrose to ruby, presently she seemed about to faint, fell into the arms \nof those who ran to support her, and was carried out of the room. The \nfit may have been real, for though nothing ailed her, yet what had \nhappened was enough to make any young woman faint in such a place. It \nwas something far more embarrassing than the mishap against which \nSoame Jenyns cautions the ladies when he says,\n\n  No waving lappets should the dancing fair,\n  Nor ruffles edged with dangling fringes wear;\n  Oft will the cobweb ornaments catch hold\n  On the approaching button, rough with gold;\n  Nor force nor art can then the bonds divide\n  When once the entangled Gordian knot is tied.\n  So the unhappy pair, by Hymen's power\n  Together joined in some ill-fated hour,\n  The more they strive their freedom to regain,\n  The faster binds the indissoluble chain.\n\nIt was worse than this in the position in which she had placed herself \naccording to rule, for beginning the minuet, she was fastened not by a \nspell, not by the influence of her malignant Stars, but by the hooks \nand eyes of her garters. The Countess of Salisbury's misfortune was as \nmuch less embarrassing as it was more celebrated.\n\nNo such misfortunes could have happened to that Countess who has been \nrendered illustrious thereby, nor to the once fair danceress, who \nwould have dreaded nothing more than that her ridiculous distress \nshould become publicly known, if they had worn _genouill\u00e8res_, that is \nto say, knee-pieces. A necessary part of a suit of armour was \ndistinguished by this name in the days of chivalry; and the article of \ndress which corresponds to it may be called kneelets, if for a new \narticle we strike a new word in that mint of analogy, from which \nwhatever is lawfully coined comes forth as the King's English. Dress \nand cookery are both great means of civilization, indeed they are \namong the greatest; both in their abuse are made subservient to luxury \nand extravagance, and so become productive of great evils, moral and \nphysical; and with regard to both the physician may sometimes \ninterfere with effect, when the moralist would fail. In diet the \nphysician has more frequently to oppose the inclinations of his \npatient, than to gratify them; and it is not often that his advice in \nmatters of dress meets with willing ears, although in these things the \nmaxim will generally hold good, that whatever is wholesome is \ncomfortable, and that whatever causes discomfort or uneasiness is more \nor less injurious to health. But he may recommend kneelets without \nhaving any objection raised on the score of fashion, or of vanity; and \nold and young may be thankful for the recommendation. Mr. \nReady-to-halt would have found that they supported his weak joints and \nrendered him less liable to rheumatic attacks; and his daughter \nMuch-afraid, if she had worn them when she \u201cfooted it handsomely,\u201d \nmight have danced without any fear of such accidents as happened to \nthe Countess of old, or the heroine of the minuet in later times.\n\nBegin therefore forthwith, dear Lady-readers, to knit _genouill\u00e8res_ \nfor yourselves, and for those whom you love. You will like them better \nI know by their French name, though English comes best from English \nlips; but so you knit and wear them, call them what you will.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER CLXXXIX.\n\nTHE DOCTOR'S OPINION OF LATE HOURS. DANCING. FANATICAL OBJECTION OF \nTHE ALBIGENSES; INJURIOUS EFFECT OF THAT OPINION WHEN TRANSMITTED TO \nTHE FRENCH PROTESTANTS. SIR JOHN DAVIES AND BURTON QUOTED TO SHOW THAT \nIT CAN BE NO DISPARAGEMENT TO SAY THAT ALL THE WORLD'S A STAGE, WHEN \nALL THE SKY'S A BALL-ROOM.\n\n  I could be pleased with any one\n  Who entertained my sight with such gay shows,\n  As men and women moving here and there,\n  That coursing one another in their steps\n  Have made their feet a tune.\n\nDRYDEN.\n\n\nThe Doctor was no dancer. He had no inclination for this pastime even \nin what the song calls \u201cour dancing days,\u201d partly because his activity \nlay more in his head than in his heels, and partly perhaps from an \napprehension of awkwardness, the consequence of his rustic breeding. \nIn middle and later life he had strong professional objections, not to \nthe act of dancing, but to the crowded and heated rooms wherein it was \ncarried on, and to the late hours to which it was continued. In such \nrooms and at such assemblies, the Devil, as an old dramatist says, \n\u201ctakes delight to hang at a woman's girdle, like a rusty watch, that \nshe cannot discern how the time passes.\u201d[1] Bishop Hall in our \nfriend's opinion spake wisely when drawing an ideal picture of the \nChristian, he said of him, \u201cin a due season he betakes himself to his \nrest. He presumes not to alter the ordinance of day and night; nor \ndares confound, where distinctions are made by his Maker.\u201d\n\n[Footnote 1: WEBSTER.]\n\nConcerning late hours indeed he was much of the same opinion as the \nman in the old play who thought that \u201cif any thing was to be damned, \nit would be Twelve o'clock at night.\u201d\n\n  These should be hours for necessities,\n  Not for delights; times to repair our nature\n  With comforting repose, and not for us\n  To waste these times.[2]\n\nHe used to say that whenever he heard of a ball carried on far into \nthe night, or more properly speaking, far into the morning, it \nreminded him with too much reason of the Dance of Death.\n\n  Rise with the lark, and with the lark to bed:\n  The breath of night's destructive to the hue\n  Of ev'ry flow'r that blows. Go to the field,\n  And ask the humble daisy why it sleeps\n  Soon as the sun departs? Why close the eyes\n  Of blossoms infinite, long ere the moon\n  Her oriental veil puts off? Think why,\n  Nor let the sweetest blossom Nature boasts\n  Be thus exposed to night's unkindly damp.\n  Well may it droop, and all its freshness lose,\n  Compell'd to taste the rank and pois'nous steam\n  Of midnight theatre, and morning ball.\n  Give to repose the solemn hour she claims\n  And from the forehead of the morning steal\n  The sweet occasion. O there is a charm\n  Which morning has, that gives the brow of age\n  A smack of earth, and makes the lip of youth\n  Shed perfume exquisite. Expect it not,\n  Ye who till noon upon a down-bed lie,\n  Indulging feverous sleep.[3]\n\n[Footnote 2: SHAKESPEARE.]\n\n[Footnote 3: HURDIS' VILLAGE CURATE.]\n\nThe reader need not be told that his objections were not puritanical, \nbut physical. The moralist who cautioned his friend to refrain from \ndancing, because it was owing to a dance that John the Baptist lost \nhis head, talked, he said, like a fool. Nor would he have formed a \nmuch more favourable opinion of the Missionary in South Africa, who \ntold the Hottentots that dancing is a work of darkness, and that a \nfiddle is Satan's own instrument. At such an assertion he would have \nexclaimed a fiddlestick![4]\u2014Why and how that word has become an \ninterjection of contempt, I must leave those to explain who can. The \nAlbigenses and the Vaudois are said to have believed that a dance is \nthe Devil's procession, in which they who dance break the promise and \nvow which their sponsors made for them at their baptism that they \nshould renounce the Devil and all his works, the pomps and vanities of \nthis wicked world,\u2014(not to proceed further,)\u2014this being one of his \nworks, and undeniably one of the aforesaid vanities and pomps. They \nbreak moreover all the ten commandments, according to these fanatics; \nfor fanatics they must be deemed who said this; and the manner in \nwhich they attempted to prove the assertion by exemplifying it through \nthe decalogue, shows that the fermentation of their minds was in the \nacetous stage.\n\n[Footnote 4: The explanation following is given in Grose's Classical \nDictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. FIDDLESTICK'S END. Nothing: the ends \nof the ancient fiddlesticks ending in a point: hence metaphorically \nused to express a thing terminating in nothing.]\n\nUnfortunately for France, this opinion descended to the Huguenots; and \nthe progress of the Reformation in that country was not so much \npromoted by Marot's psalms, as it was obstructed by this prejudice, a \nprejudice directly opposed to the temperament and habits of a \nmercurial people. \u201cDancing,\u201d says Peter Heylyn, \u201cis a sport to which \nthey are so generally affected, that were it not so much enveighed \nagainst by their straight-laced Ministers, it is thought that many \nmore of the French Catholicks had been of the Reformed Religion. For \nso extremely are they bent upon this disport, that neither Age nor \nSickness, no nor poverty itself, can make them keep their heels still, \nwhen they hear the Music. Such as can hardly walk abroad without their \nCrutches, or go as if they were troubled all day with a Sciatica, and \nperchance have their rags hang so loose about them, that one would \nthink a swift Galliard might shake them into their nakedness, will to \nthe Dancing Green howsoever, and be there as eager at the sport, as if \nthey had left their several infirmities and wants behind them. What \nmakes their Ministers (and indeed all that follow the Genevian \nDiscipline) enveigh so bitterly against Dancing, and punish it with \nsuch severity when they find it used? I am not able to determine, nor \ndoth it any way belong unto this discourse. But being it is a \nRecreation which this people are so given unto, and such a one as \ncannot be followed but in a great deal of company, and before many \nwitnesses and spectators of their carriage in it; I must needs think \nthe Ministers of the French Church more nice than wise, if they choose \nrather to deter men from their Congregations, by so strict a Stoicism, \nthan indulge any thing unto the jollity and natural gaiety of this \npeople, in matters not offensive, but by accident only.\u201d[5]\n\n  Sweet recreation barr'd, what doth ensue,\n  But moody and dull melancholy,\n  Kinsman to grim and comfortless despair;\n  And at their heels, a huge infectious troop\n  Of pale distemperatures and foes to life.[6]\n\n[Footnote 5: The Rector of a Parish once complained to Fenelon of the \npractice of the villagers in dancing on Sunday evenings. \u201cMy good \nfriend,\u201d replied the prelate, \u201cyou and I should not dance, but \nallowance must be made to the poor people, who have only one day in \nthe week to forget their misfortunes.\u201d]\n\n[Footnote 6: SHAKESPEARE.]\n\nIt is a good natured Roman Catholic who says, \u201cthat the obliging vices \nof some people are better than the sour and austere virtues of \nothers.\u201d The fallacy is more in his language than in his morality; for \nvirtue is never sour, and in proportion as it is austere we may be \nsure that it is adulterated. Before a certain monk of St. Gal, Iso by \nname, was born, his mother dreamt that she was delivered of a \nhedge-hog; her dream was fulfilled in the character which he lived to \nobtain of being bristled with virtues like one. Methinks no one would \nlike to come in contact with a person of this description. Yet among \nthe qualities which pass with a part of the world for virtues, there \nare some of a soft and greasy kind, from which I should shrink with \nthe same instinctive dislike. I remember to have met somewhere with \nthis eulogium past upon one dissenting minister by another, that he \nwas a lump of piety! I prefer the hedge-hog.\n\nA dance, according to that teacher of the Albigenses whose diatribe \nhas been preserved, is the service of the Devil, and the fiddler, whom \nBen Jonson calls Tom Ticklefoot, is the Devil's minister. If he had \nknown what Plato had said he would have referred to it in confirmation \nof this opinion, for Plato says that the Gods compassionating the \nlaborious life to which mankind were doomed, sent Apollo, Bacchus and \nthe Muses to teach them to sing, to drink, and to dance. And the old \nPuritan would to his own entire satisfaction have identified Apollo \nwith Apollyon.\n\n  \u201cBut shall we make the welkin dance indeed?\u201d[7]\n\n[Footnote 7: SHAKSPEARE.]\n\nSir John Davies, who holds an honourable and permanent station among \nEnglish statesmen and poets deduces Dancing, in a youthful poem of \nextraordinary merit, from the Creation, saying that it\n\n                    then began to be\n    When the first seeds whereof the world did spring,\n  The fire, air, earth, and water did agree,\n    By Love's persuasion, Nature's mighty king,\n    To leave their first disordered combating;\n  And in a dance such measure to observe,\n  As all the world their motion should preserve.\n\nHe says that it with the world\n\n                     in point of time begun;\n  Yea Time itself, (whose birth Jove never knew,\n    And which indeed is elder than the Sun)\n    Had not one moment of his age outrun,\n  When out leapt Dancing from the heap of things\n  And lightly rode upon his nimble wings.\n\n  For that brave Sun, the father of the day,\n    Doth love this Earth, the mother of the Night,\n  And like a reveller in rich array,\n    Doth dance his galliard in his leman's sight.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n  Who doth not see the measures of the Moon,\n    Which thirteen times she danceth every year?\n  And ends her pavin thirteen times as soon\n    As doth her brother, of whose golden hair\n    She borroweth part, and proudly doth it wear;\n  Then doth she coyly turn her face aside,\n  That half her cheek is scarce sometimes descried.\n\n  And lo the Sea that fleets about the land\n    And like a girdle clips her solid waist,\n  Music and measure both doth understand.\n    For his great crystal eye is always cast\n    Up to the Moon, and on her fixed fast;\n  And as she danceth in her pallid sphere,\n  So danceth he about the centre here.\n\nThis is lofty poetry, and one cannot but regret that the poet should \nhave put it in the mouth of so unworthy a person as one of Penelope's \nsuitors, though the best of them has been chosen. The moral \napplication which he makes to matrimony conveys a wholesome lesson:\n\n  If they whom sacred love hath link'd in one,\n    Do, as they dance, in all their course of life;\n  Never shall burning grief, nor bitter moan,\n    Nor factious difference, nor unkind strife,\n    Arise betwixt the husband and the wife;\n  For whether forth, or back, or round he go,\n  As the man doth, so must the woman do.\n\n  What if, by often interchange of place\n    Sometimes the woman gets the upper hand?\n  That is but done for more delightful grace;\n    For on that part she doth not ever stand;\n    But as the measure's law doth her command,\n  She wheels about, and ere the dance doth end,\n  Into her former place she doth transcend.[8]\n\n[Footnote 8: It is remarkable that Sir John Davies should have written \nthis Poem, which he entitled the Orchestra, and that very remarkable \nand beautiful one on the Immortality of the Soul.]\n\nThis poem of Sir John Davies's could not have been unknown to Burton, \nfor Burton read every thing; but it must have escaped his memory, \notherwise he who delighted in quotations and quoted so well, would \nhave introduced some of his stanzas, when he himself was treating of \nthe same subject and illustrated it with some of the same similitudes. \n\u201cThe Sun and Moon, some say,\u201d (says he) \u201cdance about the earth; the \nthree upper planets about the Sun as their centre, now stationary, now \ndirect, now retrograde, now _in apog\u00e6o_, then in _perig\u00e6o_, now swift, \nthen slow; occidental, oriental, they turn round, jump and trace \n[symbol for venus] and [symbol for mercury] about the Sun, with those \nthirty-three _Macul\u00e6_ or Burbonian planets, _circa Solem saltantes \ncytharedum_, saith Fromundus. Four Medicean stars dance about Jupiter, \ntwo Austrian about Saturn, &c. and all belike to the music of the \nspheres.\u201d\n\nSir Thomas Browne had probably this passage in his mind, when he said \n\u201cacquaint thyself with the _choragium_ of the stars.\u201d\n\n\u201cThe whole matter of the Universe and all the parts thereof,\u201d says \nHenry More, \u201care ever upon motion, and in such a dance as whose traces \nbackwards and forwards take a vast compass; and what seems to have \nmade the longest stand, must again move, according to the modulations \nand accents of that Music, that is indeed out of the hearing of the \nacutest ears, but yet perceptible by the purest minds, and the \nsharpest wits. The truth whereof none would dare to oppose, if the \nbreath of the gainsayer could but tell its own story, and declare \nthrough how many Stars and Vortices it has been strained, before the \nparticles thereof met, to be abused to the framing of so rash a \ncontradiction.\u201d\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER CXC.\n\nDANCING PROSCRIBED BY THE METHODISTS. ADAM CLARKE. BURCHELL'S REMARKS \nON THE UNIVERSALITY OF THIS PRACTICE. HOW IT IS REGARDED IN THE \nCOLUMBIAN PHILOSOPHY.\n\n_Non vi par adunque che habbiamo ragionato a bastanza di questo? A \nbastanza parmi, rispose il Signor Gasparo; pur desidero io d'intendere \nqualche particolarit\u00e0 anchor._\n\nIL CORTEGIANO.\n\n\nThe Methodist Preachers in the first Conference (that is Convocation \nor Yearly Meeting) after Mr. Wesley's death, past a law for the public \nover which their authority extends, or in their own language made a \nrule, that \u201cschoolmasters and schoolmistresses who received \ndancing-masters into their schools, and parents also who employed \ndancing-masters for their children, should be no longer members of the \nMethodist Society.\u201d Many arguments were urged against this rule, and \ntherefore it was defended in the Magazine which is the authorized \norgan of the Conference, by the most learned and the most judicious of \ntheir members, Adam Clarke. There was however a sad want of judgement \nin some of the arguments which he employed. He quoted the injunction \nof St. Paul, \u201cwhatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of \nthe Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him,\u201d and he \napplied the text thus. Can any person, can any Christian _dance_ in \nthe name of the Lord Jesus? Or, through him, give thanks to God the \nFather for such an employment?\n\nAnother text also appeared to him decisive against dancing and its \ninseparable concomitants; \u201cwoe unto them who chaunt unto the sound of \nthe viol, and invent unto themselves instruments of music, as did \nDavid.\u201d The original word which we translate _chaunt_, signifies \naccording to him, _to quaver, to divide, to articulate,_ and may, he \nsays, as well be applied to the management of the feet, as to the \nmodulations of the voice. This interpretation is supported by the \nSeptuagint, and by the Arabic version; but suppose it be disputed, he \nsays, \u201cyet this much will not be denied, that the text is pointedly \nenough against that without which dancing cannot well be carried on, I \nmean, instrumental music.\u201d He might have read in Burton that \u201cnothing \nwas so familiar in France as for citizens wives, and maids to dance a \nround in the streets, and often too for want of better instruments to \nmake good music of their own voices and dance after it.\u201d Ben Jonson \nsays truly \u201cthat measure is the soul of a dance, and Tune the \ntickle-foot thereof,\u201d but in case of need, the mouth can supply its \nown music.\n\nIt is true the Scripture says \u201cthere is a time to dance;\u201d but this he \nexplains as simply meaning \u201cthat human life is a variegated scene.\u201d \nSimple readers must they be who can simply understand it thus, to the \nexclusion of the literal sense. Adam Clarke has not remembered here \nthat the Psalms enjoin us to praise the Lord with tabret and harp and \nlute, the strings and the pipe, and the trumpet and the loud cymbals, \nand to praise his name in the dance, and that David danced before the \nArk. And though he might argue that Jewish observances are no longer \nbinding, and that some things which were _permitted_ under the Jewish \ndispensation are no longer lawful, he certainly would not have \nmaintained that any thing which was _enjoined_ among its religious \nsolemnities, can now in itself be sinful.\n\nI grant, he says, \u201cthat a number of motions and steps, circumscribed \nby a certain given space, and changed in certain quantities of time, \nmay be destitute of physical and moral evil. But it is not against \nthese things abstractedly that I speak. It is against their \nconcomitant and consequent circumstances; the undue, the improper \nmixture of the sexes; the occasions and opportunities afforded of \nbringing forth those fruits of death which destroy their own souls, \nand bring the hoary heads of their too indulgent parents with sorrow \nto the grave.\u201d\n\nSo good a man as Adam Clarke is not to be suspected of acting like an \nAdvocate here, and adducing arguments which he knew to be fallacious, \nin support of a cause not tenable by fair reasoning. And how so wise a \nman could have reasoned so weakly, is explained by a passage in his \nmost interesting and most valuable autobiography. \u201c_Mal\u00e2 ave_, when \nabout twelve or thirteen years of age, I learned to _dance_. I long \nresisted all solicitations to this employment, but at last I suffered \nmyself to be overcome; and learnt, and profited beyond most of my \nfellows. I grew passionately fond of it, would scarcely walk but in \n_measured time_, and was continually _tripping_, moving and \n_shuffling_, in all times and places. I began now to value myself, \nwhich, as far as I can recollect, I had never thought of before; I \ngrew impatient of control, was fond of company, wished to mingle more \nthan I had ever done with young people; I got also a passion for \n_better clothing_, than that which fell to my lot in life, was \ndiscontented when I found a neighbour's son _dressed better_ than \nmyself. I lost the spirit of _subordination_, and did not _love work_, \nimbibed a spirit of _idleness_, and in short, drunk in all the \nbrain-sickening effluvia of _pleasure_; dancing and company took the \nplace of _reading_ and _study_; and the authority of my parents was \nfeared indeed, but not respected; and few serious impressions could \nprevail in a mind imbued now with frivolity, and the love of pleasure; \nyet I entered into no disreputable assembly, and in no one case, ever \nkept any improper company; I formed no illegal connection, nor \nassociated with any whose characters were either tarnished or \nsuspicious. Nevertheless _dancing_ was to me a _perverting influence_, \nan _unmixed moral evil_; for although by the mercy of God, it led me \nnot to depravity of manners, it greatly weakened the _moral \nprinciple_, drowned the voice of a well instructed conscience, and was \nthe first cause of impelling me _to seek my happiness in this life_. \nEvery thing yielded to the disposition it had produced, and every \nthing was absorbed by it. I have it justly in abhorrence for the moral \ninjury it did me; and I can testify, (as far as my own observations \nhave extended, and they have had a pretty wide range,) I have known it \nto produce the same evil in others that it produced in me. I consider \nit therefore as a branch of that _worldly education_, which leads from \nheaven to earth, from things spiritual to things sensual, and from God \nto Satan. Let them plead for it who will; I know it to be _evil_, and \nthat _only_. They who bring up their children in this way, or send \nthem to these schools where _dancing_ is taught, are consecrating them \nto the service of Moloch, and cultivating the passions, so as to cause \nthem to bring forth the weeds of a fallen nature, with an additional \nrankness, deep rooted inveteracy, and inexhaustible fertility. _Nemo \nsobrius saltat_, \u2018no man in his senses will dance,\u2019 said Cicero, a \nheathen; shame on those Christians who advocate a cause by which many \n_sons_ have become profligate, and many _daughters_ have been ruined.\u201d \nSuch was the experience of Adam Clarke in _dancing_, and such was his \nopinion of the practice.[1]\n\n[Footnote 1: It is old Fuller's observation, that \u201cpeople over \nstrait-laced in one part will hardly fail to grow awry in another.\u201d \nOver against the observations of Adam Clarke may be set the following, \nfrom the life of that excellent man\u2014Sir William Jones. \u201cNor was he so \nindifferent to slighter accomplishments as not to avail himself of the \ninstructions of a celebrated dancing master at Aix-la-Chapelle. He had \nbefore taken lessons from Gallini in that trifling art.\u201d\u2014Carey's Lives \nof English Poets. Sir William Jones, p. 359.]\n\nAn opinion not less unfavourable is expressed in homely old verse by \nthe translator of the Ship of Fools, Alexander Barclay.\n\n  Than it in the earth no game is more damnable;\n    It seemeth no peace, but battle openly,\n  They that it use of minds seem unstable,\n    As mad folk running with clamour, shout and cry\n    What place is void of this furious folly?\n  None; so that I doubt within a while\n  These fools the holy Church shall defile.\n\n  Of people what sort or order may we find,\n    Rich or poor, high or low of name\n  But by their foolishness and wanton mind,\n    Of each sort some are given unto the same.\n    The priests and clerks to dance have no shame.\n  The friar or monk, in his frock and cowl,\n  Must dance in his dortour, leaping to play the fool.\n\n  To it comes children, maids, and wives,\n    And flattering young men to see to have their prey;\n  The hand-in-hand great falsehood oft contrives.\n    The old quean also this madness will assay;\n    And the old dotard, though he scantly may\n  For age and lameness stir either foot or hand,\n  Yet playeth he the fool, with others in the band.\n\n  Then leap they about as folk past their mind,\n    With madness amazed running in compace;\n  He most is commended that can most lewdness find,\n    Or can most quickly run about the place,\n    There are all manners used that lack grace,\n  Moving their bodies in signs full of shame,\n  Which doth their hearts to sin right sore inflame.\n\n  Do away your dances, ye people much unwise!\n    Desist your foolish pleasure of travayle!\n  It is methinks an unwise use and guise\n    To take such labour and pain without avayle.\n    And who that suspecteth his maid or wives tayle,\n  Let him not suffer them in the dance to be;\n    For in that game though size or cinque them fayle\n  The dice oft runneth upon the chance of three.\n\nThe principle upon which such reasoning rests is one against which the \nDoctor expressed a strong opinion, whenever he heard it introduced. \nNothing, he thought, could be more unreasonable than that the use of \nwhat is no ways hurtful or unlawful in itself, should be prohibited \nbecause it was liable to abuse. If that principle be once admitted, \nwhere is it to stop? There was a Persian tyrant, who having committed \nsome horrible atrocity in one of his fits of drunkenness, ordered all \nthe wine in his dominions to be spilt as soon as he became sober, and \nwas conscious of what he had done; and in this he acted rightly, under \na sense of duty as well as remorse, for it was enjoining obedience to \na law of his religion, and enforcing it in a manner the most \neffectual. But a Christian government which because drunkenness is a \ncommon sin shall prohibit all spirituous liquors, would by so doing \nsubject the far greater and better part of the community to an unjust \nand hurtful privation, thus punishing the sober, the inoffensive and \nthe industrious, for the sake of the idle, the worthless and the \nprofligate.\n\nJones of Nayland regarded these things with no puritanical feeling. \n\u201cIn joy, and thanksgiving,\u201d says that good and true minister of the \nChurch of England, \u201cthe tongue is not content with speaking, it must \nevoke and utter a song, while the feet are also disposed to dance to \nthe measures of music, as was the custom in sacred celebrities of old \namong the people of God, before the World and its vanities had \nengrossed to themselves all the expressions of mirth and festivity. \nThey have now left nothing of that kind to religion; which must sit by \nin gloomy solemnity, and see the World with the Flesh and the Devil \nassume to themselves the sole power of distributing social happiness.\u201d\n\n\u201cDancing,\u201d says Mr. Burchell, \u201cappears to have been in all ages of the \nworld, and perhaps in all nations, a custom so natural, so pleasing, \nand even useful, that we may readily conclude it will continue to \nexist as long as mankind shall continue to people the earth. We see it \npractised as much by the savage as by the civilized, as much by the \nlowest, as by the highest classes of society; and as it is a \nrecreation purely corporeal, and perfectly independent of mental \nqualification, or refinement, all are equally fitted for enjoying it: \nit is this probably which has occasioned it to become universal. All \nattempts therefore at rendering any exertion of the mind necessary to \nits performance, are an unnatural distortion of its proper and \noriginal features. Grace and ease of motion are the extent of its \nperfection; because these are the natural perfections of the human \nbody. Every circumstance and object by which man is surrounded may be \nviewed in a philosophical light; and thus viewed, dancing appears to \nbe a recreative mode of exercising the body and keeping it in health, \nthe means of shaking off spleen, and of expanding one of the best \ncharacters of the heart,\u2014the social feeling. When it does not affect \nthis, the fault is not in the dance, but in the dancer; a perverse \nmind makes all things like itself. Dancing and music, which appears to \nbe of equal antiquity, and equally general among mankind, are \nconnected together only by a community of purpose: what one is for the \nbody, the other is for the mind.\u201d\n\nThe Doctor had come to a conclusion not unlike this traveller's \nconcerning dancing,\u2014he believed it to be a manifestation of that \ninstinct by which the young are excited to wholesome exercise, and by \nwhich in riper years harmless employment is afforded for superfluous \nstrength and restless activity. The delight which girls as well as \nboys take in riotous sports were proof enough, he said, that Nature \nhad not given so universal an inclination without some wise purpose. \nAn infant of six months will ply its arms and legs in the cradle, with \nall its might and main, for joy,\u2014this being the mode of dancing at \nthat stage of life. Nay, he said, he could produce grave authorities \non which casuists would pronounce that a probable belief might be \nsustained, to prove that it is an innate propensity and of all \npropensities the one which has been developed in the earliest part of \nmortal existence; for it is recorded of certain Saints, that on \ncertain holidays, dedicated either to the mystery, or to the heavenly \npatron under whose particular patronage they were placed, they danced \nbefore they were born, a sure token or presage of their future \nholiness and canonization, and a not less certain proof that the love \nof dancing is an innate principle.\n\n  Lovest thou Music?\n                Oh, 'tis sweet!\n  What's dancing?\n                E'en the mirth of feet.[2]\n\n[Footnote 2: From a Masque quoted by D'ISRAELI.]\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER CXCI.\n\nA SERIOUS WORD IN SAD APOLOGY FOR ONE OF THE MANY FOOLISH WAYS IN \nWHICH TIME IS MIS-SPENT.\n\n  Time as he passes us, has a dove's wing,\n  Unsoil'd, and swift, and of a silken sound;\n  But the World's Time, is Time in masquerade!\n  Their's, should I paint him, has his pinions fledged,\n  With motley plumes; and where the peacock shews\n  His azure eyes, is tinctured black and red\n  With spots quadrangular of diamond form,\n  Ensanguined hearts, clubs typical of strife,\n  And spades, the emblem of untimely graves.\n\nCOWPER.\n\n\nHunting, gaming and dancing are three propensities to which men are \ninclined equally in the savage and in the civilized,\u2014in all stages of \nsociety from the rudest to the most refined, and in all its grades; \nthe Doctor used to say they might be called semi-intellectual. The \nuses of hunting are obvious wherever there are wild animals which may \nbe killed for food, or beasts of prey which for our own security it is \nexpedient to destroy.\n\nIndeed because hunting, hawking and fishing (all which according to \nGwillim and Plato are comprised in the term Venation) tend to the \nproviding of sustenance for man, Farnesius doth therefore account them \nall a species of agriculture. The great heraldic author approves of \nthis comprehensive classification. But because the more heroic hunting \nin which danger is incurred from the strength and ferocity of the \nanimals pursued, hath a resemblance of military practice, he delivers \nhis opinion that \u201cthis noble kind of venation is privileged from the \ntitle of an Illiberal Art, being a princely and generous exercise; and \nthose only, who use it for a trade of life, to make sure thereof, are \nto be marshalled in the rank of mechanics and illiberal artizans.\u201d The \nDoctor admired the refinement of these authors, but he thought that \nneither lawful sporting, nor poaching could conveniently be \ndenominated agricultural pursuits.\n\nHe found it not so easy to connect the love of gaming with any \nbeneficial effect; some kind of mental emotion however, he argued, was \nrequired for rendering life bearable by creatures with whom sleep is \nnot so compleatly an act of volition, that like dogs they can lie down \nand fall asleep when they like. For those persons therefore who are \ndisposed either by education, capacity, or inclination to make any \nworthier exertion of their intellectual faculties, gaming, though \ninfinitely dangerous as a passion, may be useful as a pastime. It has \nindeed a strong tendency to assume a dangerous type, and to induce as \nfurious an excitement as drunkenness in its most ferocious form, but \namong the great card-playing public of all nations, long experience \nhas produced an effect in mitigating it analogous to what the practice \nof inoculation has effected upon the small-pox. Vaccination would have \nafforded our philosopher a better illustration if it had been brought \ninto notice during his life.\n\nPope has assigned to those women who neither toil or spin, \u201can old age \nof cards,\u201d after \u201ca youth of pleasure.\u201d This perhaps is not now so \ngenerally the course of female life, in a certain class and under \ncertain circumstances, as it was in his days and in the Doctor's. The \nDoctor, certainly was of opinion that if the senescent spinsters and \ndowagers within the circle of his little world, had not their cards as \nduly as their food, many of them would have taken to something worse \nin their stead. They would have sought for the excitement which they \nnow found at the whist or quadrille table, from the bottle, or at the \nMethodist Meeting. In some way or other, spiritual or spirituous they \nmust have had it;[1] and the more scandalous of these ways was not \nalways that which would occasion the greatest domestic discomfort, or \nlead to the most injurious consequences. Others would have applied to \nhim for relief from maladies which by whatever names they might be \ncalled, were neither more nor less than the effect of that _t\u00e6dium \nvit\u00e6_ which besets those who having no necessary employment have not \ndevised any for themselves. And when he regarded the question in this \nlight he almost doubted whether the invention of cards had not been \nmore beneficial than injurious to mankind.\n\n[Footnote 1: It happened during one of the lamented Southey's visits \nhere at the Vicarage, West-Tarring, that a cargo of spirits was run \nclose by. His remark was\u2014\u201cBetter spirituous smuggling than spiritual \npride.\u201d]\n\nIt was not with an unkind or uncharitable feeling, still less with a \ncontemptuous one that Anne Seward mentioning the death of a lady \u201clong \ninvalid and far advanced in life,\u201d described her as \u201ca civil social \nbeing, whose care was never to offend; who had the spirit of a \ngentlewoman in never doing a mean thing, whose mite was never withheld \nfrom the poor; and whose inferiority of understanding and knowledge \nfound sanctuary at the card-table, that universal leveller of \nintellectual distinctions.\u201d Let not such persons be despised in the \npride of intellect! Let them not be condemned in the pride of self \nrighteousness!\n\n\u201cOur law,\u201d says the Puritan Matthew Mead, \u201csupposes all to be of some \ncalling, not only men but women, and the young ladies too; and \ntherefore it calls them during their virgin state spinsters. But alas, \nthe viciousness and degeneracy of this age hath forfeited the title. \nMany can _card_, but few can spin; and therefore you may write them \n_carders_, _dancers_, _painters_, _ranters_, _spenders_, rather than \nspinsters. Industry is worn out by pride and delicacy; the comb and \nthe looking-glass possess the place and the hours of the spindle and \nthe distaff; and their great business is to curl the locks, instead of \ntwisting wool and flax. So that both male and females are prepared for \nall ill impressions by the mischief of an idle education.\u201d\n\n\u201cThere is something strange in it,\u201d says Sterne, \u201cthat life should \nappear so short _in the gross_, and yet so long _in the detail_. \nMisery may make it so, you'll say;\u2014but we will exclude it,\u2014and still \nyou'll find, though we all complain of the shortness of life what \nnumbers there are who seem quite overstocked with the days and hours \nof it, and are constantly sending out into the highways and streets of \nthe city, to compel guests to come in, and take it off their hands: to \ndo this with ingenuity and forecast, is not one of the least arts and \nbusiness of life itself; and they who cannot succeed in it, carry as \nmany marks of distress about them, as bankruptcy itself could wear. Be \nas careless as we may, we shall not always have the power,\u2014nor shall \nwe always be in a temper to let the account run thus. When the blood \nis cooled, and the spirits which have hurried us on through half our \ndays before we have numbered one of them, are beginning to \nretire;\u2014then wisdom will press a moment to be heard,\u2014afflictions, or a \nbed of sickness will find their hours of persuasion:\u2014and should they \nfail, there is something yet behind:\u2014old age will overtake us at the \nlast, and with its trembling hand, hold up the glass to us.\u201d\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER CXCII.\n\nMORE OF THE DOCTOR'S PHILOSOPHY, WHICH WILL AND WILL NOT BE LIKED BY \nTHE LADIES, AND SOME OF THE AUTHOR'S WHICH WILL AND WILL NOT BY THE \nGENTLEMEN. THE READER IS INTRODUCED TO COUNT CASTIGLIONE, AND TO SIR \nJOHN CHEKE.\n\n              _Ou tend l'auteur \u00e0 cette heure?\n   Que fait-il? Revient-il? Va-t-il? Ou s'il demeure?_\n\n                        L'AUTEUR.\n\n  _Non, je ne reviens pas, car je n'ai pas \u00e9t\u00e9;\n   Je ne vais pas aussi, car je suis arr\u00e9t\u00e9;\n   Et ne demeure point, car, tout de ce pas m\u00eame\n   Je pretens m'en aller._\n\nMOLIERE.\n\n\nThe passage with which the preceding Chapter is concluded, is \nextracted from Sterne's Sermons, one of those discourses in which he \ntried the experiment of adapting the style of Tristram Shandy to the \npulpit;\u2014an experiment which proved as unsuccessful as it deserved to \nbe. Gray however thought these sermons were in the style which in his \nopinion was most proper for the pulpit, and that they showed \u201ca very \nstrong imagination and a sensible head. But you see him, he adds, \noften tottering on the verge of laughter, and ready to throw his \nperriwig in the face of his audience.\u201d\n\nThe extract which has been set before the reader is one of those \npassages which bear out Gray's judgement; it is of a good kind, and in \nits kind so good, that I would not weaken its effect, by inserting too \nnear it the following Epigram from an old Magazine, addressed to a \nlady passionately fond of cards.\n\n  Thou, whom at length incessant gaming dubs,\n  Thrice honourable title! Queen of Clubs,\n  Say what vast joys each winning card imparts,\n  And that, too justly, called the King of Hearts.\n  Say, when you mourn of cash and jewels spoil'd,\n  May not the thief be Knave of Diamonds stil'd?\n  One friend, howe'er, when deep remorse invades,\n  Awaits thee Lady; 'tis the Ace of Spades!\n\nIt has been seen that the Doctor looked upon the love of gaming as a \npropensity given us to counteract that indolence which if not thus \namused, would breed for itself both real and imaginary evils. And \ndancing he thought was just as useful in counteracting the factitious \ninactivity of women in their youth, as cards are for occupying the \nvacuity of their minds at a later period. Of the three \nsemi-intellectual propensities, as he called them which men are born \nwith, those for hunting and gaming are useful only in proportion, as \nthe earth is uncultivated, and those by whom it is inhabited. In a \nwell ordered society there would be no gamblers, and the Nimrods of \nsuch a society, must like the heroes in Tongataboo, be contented with \nno higher sport than rat-catching: but dancing will still retain its \nuses. It will always be the most graceful exercise for children at an \nage when all that they do is graceful; and it will always be that \nexercise which can best be regulated for them, without danger of their \nexerting themselves too much, or continuing in it too long. And for \nyoung women in a certain rank, or rather region of life,\u2014the temperate \nzone of society,\u2014those who are above the necessity of labour, and \nbelow the station in which they have the command of carriages and \nhorses,\u2014that is for the great majority of the middle class;\u2014it is the \nonly exercise which can animate them to such animal exertion as may \nsuffice\n\n  \u201cTo give the blood its natural spring and play.\u201d[1]\n\n[Footnote 1: SOUTHEY.]\n\nMr. Coleridge says (in his Table Talk) \u201cthat the fondness for dancing \nin English women is the reaction of their reserved manners: it is the \nonly way in which they can throw themselves forth in natural liberty.\u201d \nBut the women are not more fond of it in this country, than they are \nin France and Spain. There can be no healthier pastime for them, (as \ncertainly there is none so exhilarating, and exercise unless it be \nexhilarating is rarely healthful)\u2014provided,\u2014and upon this the Doctor \nalways insisted,\u2014provided it be neither carried on in hot rooms, nor \nprolonged to late hours. They order these things, he used to say, \nbetter in France; they order them better indeed anywhere than in \nEngland, and there was a time when they were ordered better among \nourselves.\n\n\u201cThe youth of this city,\u201d says the honest old chronicler and historian \nof the metropolis his native place, \u201cused on holidays, after evening \nprayers, to exercise their basters and bucklers, at their master's \ndoors; and the maidens, one of them playing on a timbrel, to dance for \ngarlands hanged athwart the streets, which open pastimes in my youth, \nbeing now suppressed, worser practises within doors are to be feared.\u201d\n\nEvery one who is conversant with the Middle Ages, and with the \nliterature of the reigns of Elizabeth, James and Charles I. must have \nperceived in how much kindlier relations the different classes of \nsociety existed toward each other in those days than they have since \ndone. The very word independence had hardly found a place in the \nEnglish language, or was known only as denoting a mischievous heresy. \nIt is indeed, as one of our most thoughtful contemporaries has well \nsaid, an \u201cunscriptural word,\u201d\u2014and \u201cwhen applied to man, it directly \ncontradicts the first and supreme laws of our nature; the very essence \nof which is universal dependence upon God, and universal \ninterdependence on one another.\u201d\n\nThe Great Rebellion dislocated the relations which had for some \ncenturies thus happily subsisted; and the money getting system which \nhas long been the moving principle of British society, has, aided by \nother injurious influences, effectually prevented the recovery which \ntime, and the sense of mutual interest, and mutual duty, might \notherwise have brought about. It was one characteristic of those old \ntimes, which in this respect deserve to be called good, that the \ndifferent classes participated in the enjoyments of each other. There \nwere the religious spectacles, which, instead of being reformed and \nrendered eminently useful as they might have been, were destroyed by \nthe brutal spirit of puritanism. There were the Church festivals, till \nthat same odious spirit endeavoured to separate, and has gone far \ntoward separating, all festivity from religion. There were tournaments \nand city pageants at which all ranks were brought together: they are \nnow brought together only upon the race-course. Christmas Mummers have \nlong ceased to be heard of. The Morris dancers have all but \ndisappeared even in the remotest parts of the kingdom. I know not \nwhether a May-pole is now to be seen. What between manufactures and \nmethodism England is no longer the merry England which it was once a \nhappiness and an honour to call our country. Akenside's words \u201cTo the \nCountry Gentlemen of England,\u201d may be well remembered.\n\n    And yet full oft your anxious tongues complain\n    That lawless tumult prompts the rustic throng;\n    That the rude Village-inmates now disdain\n    Those homely ties which rul'd their fathers long.\n    Alas, your fathers did by other arts\n    Draw those kind ties around their simple hearts.\n    And led in other paths their ductile will;\n    By succour, faithful counsel, courteous cheer,\n    Won them their ancient manners to revere,\n  To prize their countries peace and heaven's due rites fulfil.\n\nMy friend saw enough of this change in its progress to excite in him \nmany melancholy forebodings in the latter part of his life. He knew \nhow much local attachment was strengthened by the recollection of \nyouthful sports and old customs; and he well understood how little men \ncan be expected to love their country, who have no particular \naffection for any part of it. Holidays he knew attached people to the \nChurch, which enjoined their observance; but he very much doubted \nwhether Sunday Schools would have the same effect.\n\nIn Beaumont and Fletcher's Play of the Prophetess, the countrymen \ndiscourse concerning the abdicated Emperor who has come to reside \namong them. One says to the other,\n\n  Do you think this great man will continue here?\n\nthe answer is\n\n  Continue here? what else? he has bought the great farm;\n  A great man[2] with a great inheritance\n  And all the ground about it, all the woods too\n  And stock'd it like an Emperor. Now all our sports again\n  And all our merry gambols, our May Ladies,\n  Our evening dances on the green, our songs,\n  Our holiday good cheer; our bagpipes now, boys,\n  Shall make the wanton lasses skip again,\n  Our sheep-shearings and all our knacks.\n\n[Footnote 2: Southey has inserted a query here. \u201cQy Manor or Mansion.\u201d \nIt is usually printed as in the text.\u2014See Act v. Sc. iii.]\n\nIt is said however in the _Cortegiano, che non saria conveniente che \nun gentilhuomo andasse ad honorare con la persona sua una festa di \ncontado, dove i spettatori, et i compagni fussero gente ignobile._ \nWhat follows is curious to the history of manners. _Disse allhor' il \nS. Gasparo Pallavicino, nel paese nostro di Lombardia non s'hanno \nqueste rispetti: anzi molti gentil'huomini giovani trovansi, che le \nfeste ballano tuttol' di nel Sole co i villani, et con esti giocano a \nlanciar la barra, lottare, correre et saltare; et io non credo che sia \nmale, perche ivi non si fa paragone della nobilt\u00e0, ma della forza, e \ndestrezza, nelle quai cose spesso gli huomini di villa non vaglion \nmeno che i nobili; et par che que quella domestichezza habbia in se \nuna certa liberalit\u00e0 amabile._\u2014An objection is made to this; _Quel \nballar nel Sole, rispose M. Federico, a me non piace per modo alcuno; \nne so che guadagno vi si trovi. Ma chi vuol pur lottar, correr et \nsaltar co i villani, dee (al parer mio) farlo in modo di provarsi, et \n(come si suol dir) per gentilezza, non per contender con loro, et dee \nl'huomo esser quasi sicuro di vincere; altramente non vi si metta; \nperche sta troppo male, et troppo \u00e8 brutta cosa, et fuor de la dignit\u00e0 \nvedere un gentilhuomo vinto da un villano, et massimamente alla lotta; \nper\u00f2 credo io che sia ben astenersi almano in presentia di molti, \nperche il guadagno nel vincere \u00e8 pochissimo, et la perdita nell' esse \nvinto \u00e8 grandissima._\n\nThat is, in the old version of Master Thomas Hoby; \u201cit were not meet \nthat a gentleman should be present in person, and a doer in such a \nmatter in the country, where the lookers-on and the doers were of a \nbase sort. Then said the Lord Gasper Pallavicino, in our country of \nLombardy these matters are not passed upon; for you shall see there \nyoung gentlemen, upon the holydays, come dance all the day long in the \nsun with them of the country, and pass the time with them in casting \nthe bar, in wrestling, running and leaping. And I believe it is not \nill done; for no comparison is there made of nobleness of birth, but \nof force and slight; in which things many times the men of the country \nare not a whit inferior to gentlemen: and it seemeth this familiar \nconversation containeth in it a certain lovely freeness.\u201d \u201cThe dancing \nin the sun,\u201d answered Sir Frederick, \u201ccan I in no case away withal; \nand I cannot see what a man shall gain by it. But whoso will wrestle, \nrun and leap with men of the country, ought, in my judgement, to do it \nafter a sort; to prove himself, and (as they are wont to say) for \ncourtesy, not to try mastery with them. And a man ought (in a manner) \nto be assured to get the upper hand, else let him not meddle withal; \nfor it is too ill a sight, and too foul a matter, and without \nestimation, to see a gentleman overcome by a carter, and especially in \nwrestling. Therefore I believe it is well done to abstain from it, at \nthe leastwise in the presence of many; if he be overcome, his gain is \nsmall, and his loss in being overcome very great.\u201d\n\nThis translation is remarkable for having a Sonnet, or more correctly \nspeaking, a quatorzain by Sackville prefixed to it, and at the end of \nthe volume a letter of Sir John Cheke's to the translator, curious for \nits peculiar spelling, and for the opinion expressed in it that our \nlanguage ought as much as possible to be kept pure and unmixed.\n\n\u201cI have taken sum pain,\u201d he says, \u201cat your request, cheflie in your \npreface; not in the reading of it, for that was pleasaunt unto me, \nboath for the roundnes of your saienges and welspeakinges of the saam, \nbut in changing certein wordes which might verie wel be let aloan, but \nthat I am verie curious in mi freendes matters, not to determijn, but \nto debaat what is best. Whearin I seek not the bestnes haplie bi \ntruth, but bi mijn own phansie and sheo of goodnes.\n\n\u201cI am of this opinion that our own tung shold be written cleane and \npure, unmixt and unmangeled with borowing of other tunges; wherein if \nwe take not heed bi tijm, ever borowing and never payeng, she shall be \nfain to keep her house as bankrupt. For then doth our tung naturallie \nand praiseablie utter her meaning, when she boroweth no conterfectness \nof other tunges to attire her self withall, but useth plainlie her own \nwith such shift as nature, craft, experiens, and folowing of other \nexcellent doth lead her unto; and if she went at ani tijm (as being \nunperfight she must) yet let her borow with suche bashfulnes, that it \nmai appear, that if either the mould of our own tung could serve us to \nfascion a woord of our own, or if the old denisoned wordes could \ncontent and ease this neede, we wold not boldly venture of unknoven \nwordes. This I say, not for reproof of you, who have scarslie and \nnecessarily used, whear occasion serveth, a strange word so, as it \nseemeth to grow out of the matter and not to be sought for; but for \nmijn our defens, who might be counted overstraight a deemer of \nthinges, if I gave not thys accompt to you, my freend and wijs, of mi \nmarring this your handiwork.\n\n\u201cBut I am called awai. I prai you pardon mi shortnes; the rest of my \nsaienges should be but praise and exhortacion in this your doinges, \nwhich at moar leisor I shold do better.\n\n  From my house in Wood street\n\n  the 16 of July 1557.\n\n                      Yours assured\n\n                             JOAN CHEEK.\u201d\n\nSir John Cheke died about two months after the date of this letter: \nand Hoby's translation was not published till 1561, because \u201cthere \nwere certain places in it, which of late years being misliked of some \nthat had the perusing of it, the Author thought it much better to keep \nit in darkness a while, then to put it in light, imperfect, and in \npiecemeal, to serve the time.\u201d The book itself had been put in the \nlist of prohibited works, and it was not till 1576 that the Conte \nCamillo Castiglione, the author's son, obtained permission to amend \nthe obnoxious passages and publish an expurgated edition.\n\nIt would have vexed Sir John if he had seen with how little care the \nprinter, and his loving friend Master Hoby observed his system of \northography, in this letter. For he never used the final e unless when \nit is sounded, which he denoted then by doubling it; he rejected the \ny, wrote u when it was long, with a long stroke over it, doubled the \nother vowels when they were long, and threw out all letters that were \nnot pronounced. No better system of the kind has been proposed, and \nmany worse. Little good would have been done by its adoption, and much \nevil, if the translators of the Bible had been required to proceed \nupon his principle of using no words but such as were true English of \nSaxon original. His dislike of the translation for corrupting as he \nthought the language into vocables of foreign growth, made him begin \nto translate the New Testament in his own way. The Manuscript in his \nown hand, as far as it had proceeded, is still preserved at Bene't \nCollege,[3] and it shows that he found it impracticable to observe his \nown rule. But though as a precisian he would have cramped and \nimpoverished the language, he has been praised for introducing a short \nand expressive style, avoiding long and intricate periods, and for \nbringing \u201cfair and graceful writing into vogue;\u201d he wrote an excellent \nhand himself, and it is said that all the best scholars in those times \nfollowed his example, \u201cso that fair writing and good learning seemed \nto commence together.\u201d\n\n[Footnote 3: This has been since printed with a good Glossary by the \nRev. James Goodwin, Fellow and Tutor of Corpus Christi Coll. \nCambridge, and is very curious. All that remains is the Gospel \naccording to St. Matthew. As an instance of Cheke's Englishisms I may \nrefer to the rendering of _\u03c0\u03c1\u03bf\u03c3\u03ae\u03bb\u03c5\u03c4\u03bf\u03bd_ in c. xxiij. _v._ 15, by \n_freschman_. Some little of the MS. is lost.\u2014See Preface, p. 10.]\n\nO Soul of Sir John Cheke, thou wouldst have led me out of my way, if \nthat had been possible,\u2014if my ubiety did not so nearly resemble \nubiquity, that in Anywhereness and Everywhereness I know where I am, \nand can never be lost till I get out of Whereness itself into Nowhere.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER CXCIII.\n\nMASTER THOMAS MACE, AND THE TWO HISTORIANS OF HIS SCIENCE, SIR JOHN \nHAWKINS AND DR. BURNEY. SOME ACCOUNT OF THE OLD LUTANIST AND OF HIS \n\u201cMUSIC'S MONUMENT.\u201d\n\n  This Man of Music hath more in his head\n  Than mere crotchets.\n\nSIR W. DAVENANT.\n\n\nThou wast informed, gentle Reader, in the third Volume and at the two \nhundred and sixth page of this much-hereafter-to-be-esteemed Opus, \nthat a _Tattle de Moy_ was a new-fashioned thing in the Year of our \nLord 1676. This was on the authority of the good old Lutanist, whom, I \nthen told you, I took leave of but for a while, bethinking me of \nPope's well known lines,\n\n  But all our praises why should Lords engross?\n  Rise, honest Muse! and sing the MAN OF ROSS.\n\nAnd now gentle reader, seeing that whether with a consciousness of \nsecond sight or not, Master Mace, praiseworthy as the Man of Ross, has \nso clearly typified my Preludes and Voluntaries, my grave Pavines and \ngraver Galliards, my Corantoes and Serabands, my Chichonas, and above \nall my Tattle-de-Moys, am I not bound in gratitude to revive the \nmemory of Master Mace; or rather to extend it and make him more fully \nand more generally known than he has been made by the two historians \nof his science Sir John Hawkins and Dr. Burney. It is to the honour of \nboth these eminent men, who have rendered such good services to that \nscience, and to the literature of their country, that they should have \nrelished the peculiarities of this simple-hearted old lutanist. But it \nmight have been expected from both; for Dr. Burney was as \nsimple-hearted himself, and as earnestly devoted to the art: and Sir \nJohn who delighted in Ignoramus and in Izaak Walton, could not fail to \nhave a liking for Thomas Mace.\n\n\u201cUnder whom he was educated,\u201d says Sir John, \u201cor by what means he \nbecame possessed of so much skill in the science of music, as to be \nable to furnish out matter for a folio volume, he has no where \ninformed us; nevertheless his book contains so many particulars \nrespecting himself, and so many traits of an original and singular \ncharacter, that a very good judgement may be formed both of his temper \nand ability. With regard to the first, he appears to have been an \nenthusiastic lover of his art; of a very devout and serious turn of \nmind; and cheerful and good humoured under the infirmities of age, and \nthe pressure of misfortunes. As to the latter his knowledge of music \nseems to have been confined to the practice of his own instrument; and \nso much of the principles of the science as enabled him to compose for \nit; but for his style in writing he certainly never had his fellow.\u201d\n\nThis is not strictly just as relating either to his proficiency in \nmusic, or his style as an author. Mace says of himself, \u201chaving said \nso much concerning the lute, as also taken so much pains in laying \nopen all the hidden secrets thereof, it may be thought I am so great a \nlover of it, that I make light esteem of any other instrument besides; \nwhich truly I do not; but love the viol in a very high degree; yea \nclose unto the lute; and have done much more, and made very many more \ngood and able proficients upon it, than ever I have done upon the \nlute. And this I shall presume to say, that if I excel in either, it \nis most certainly upon the viol. And as to other instruments, I can as \ntruly say, I value every one that is in use, according to its due \nplace; as knowing and often saying, that all God's creatures are good; \nand all ingenuities done by man, are signs, tokens, and testimonies of \nthe wisdom of God bestowed upon man.\u201d\n\nSo also though it is true that Thomas Mace stands distinguished among \nthe writers on Music, yet it could be easy to find many fellows for \nhim as far as regards peculiarity of style. A humourist who should \ncollect odd books might form as numerous a library, as the man of \nfastidious taste who should confine his collection to such works only \nas in their respective languages were esteemed classical. \u201cThe \nsingularity of his style,\u201d says Sir John, \u201cremarkable for a profusion \nof epithets and words of his own invention, and tautology without end, \nis apt to disgust such as attend less to the matter than manner of his \nbook; but in others it has a different effect; as it exhibits, without \nthe least reserve all the particulars of the author's character, which \nwas not less amiable than singular.\u201d\u2014\u201cThe vein of humour that runs \nthrough it presents a lively portraiture of a good-natured, gossipping \nold man, virtuous and kind-hearted.\u201d\u2014The anxious \u201cprecision with which \nhe constantly delivers himself, is not more remarkable than his eager \ndesire to communicate to others all the knowledge he was possessed of, \neven to the most hidden secrets.\u201d\u2014\u201cThe book breathes throughout a \nspirit of devotion; and, agreeable to his sentiments of music is a \nkind of proof that his temper was improved by the exercise of his \nprofession.\u201d\u2014There is no pursuit by which, if it be harmless in \nitself, a man may not be improved in his moral as well as in his \nintellectual nature, provided it be followed for its own sake: but \nmost assuredly there is none however intrinsically good, or beneficial \nto mankind, from which he can desire any moral improvement, if his \nmotive be either worldly ambition, or the love of gain.\u2014_\u1f08\u03b4\u03cd\u03bd\u03b1\u03c4\u03bf\u03bd \u1f10\u03ba \n\u03c6\u03b1\u03cd\u03bb\u03b7\u03c2 \u1f00\u03c6\u03bf\u03c1\u03bc\u1fc6\u03c2 \u1f10\u03c0\u1f76 \u03c4\u1f78 \u03c4\u03ad\u03bb\u03bf\u03c2 \u1f10\u03c5\u03b4\u03c1\u03b1\u03bc\u03b5\u1fd6\u03bd._[1]\n\n[Footnote 1: IAMBLICHUS.]\n\nTo give an account of \u201cMusic's Monument,\u201d which Dr. Burney calls a \nmatchless book, not to be forgotten among the curiosities of the \nseventeenth century! will be to give the character of Thomas Mace \nhimself, for no author ever more compleatly embodied his own spirit in \nhis writings.\n\nIt is introduced with an Epistle Dedicatory, which by an easy \nmisrepresentation has been made to appear profane.\n\n  To Thee, One-Only-Oneness, I direct\n  My weak desires and works.\n  Thou only art The Able True Protector;\n  Oh be my shield, defender and director,\n  Then sure we shall be safe.\n  Thou know'st, O Searcher of all hearts how I,\n  With right, downright, sincere sincerity,\n  Have longed long to do some little good,\n  (According to the best I understood)\n  With thy rich talent, though by me made poor,\n  For which I grieve, and will do so no more,\n  By thy good Grace assisting, which I do\n  Most humbly beg for. Oh, adjoin it to\n  My longing ardent soul; and have respect\n  To this my weak endeavour, and accept,\n  In thy great mercy, both of it and me,\n  Even as we dedicate ourselves to Thee.\n\nAn Epistle, in verse, follows \u201cto all Divine Readers, especially those \nof the Dissenting Ministry, or Clergy, who want not only skill, but \ngood will to this most excelling part of divine service, viz. singing \nof psalms, hymns and spiritual songs, to the praise of the Almighty, \nin the public Assemblies of his Saints: and yet more particularly, to \nall great and high Persons, Supervisors, Masters, or Governors of the \nChurch, (if any such there should be) wanting skill, or good will \nthereunto.\u201d\n\nHe says to those \u201chigh men of honour,\u201d that\n\n                   Example is the thing;\n   There's but one way, which is yourselves to sing.\n   This sure will do it; for when the vulgar see\n   Such worthy presidents their leaders be,\n   Who exercise therein and lead the van,\n   They will be brought to't, do they what they can.\n   But otherwise for want of such example,\n   Tis meanly valued, and on it they trample;\n   And by that great defect, so long unsought,\n   Our best Church Music's well-nigh brought to nought.\n                      Besides,\n   No robes adorn high persons like to it;\n   No ornaments for pure Divines more fit.\n\n   That Counsel given by the Apostle Paul\n   Does certainly extend to Christians all.\n   Colossians the third, the sixteenth verse;\n   (Turn to the place:) that text will thus rehearse,\n   Let the word of Christ dwell in you plenteously,\n   (What follows? Music in its excellency.)\n   Admonishing yourselves, in sweet accord,\n   In singing psalms with grace unto the Lord,\n  _Sed sine arte_, that cannot be done,\n  _Et sine arte_, better let alone.\n\nHaving thus \u201cfronted this Book with the divine part, and preached his \nlittle short sermon\u201d upon the last of St. Paul, he says that his first \nand chief design in writing this book was only to discover the occult \nmysteries of the noble lute, and to shew the great worthiness of that \ntoo much neglected and abused instrument, and his good will to all the \ntrue lovers of it, in making it plain and easy, giving the true \nreasons why it has been formerly a very hard instrument to play well \nupon, and also why now it is become so easy and familiarly pleasant. \n\u201cAnd I believe,\u201d says he, \u201cthat whosoever will but trouble himself to \nread those reasons,\u2014and join his own reason, with the reasonableness \nof those reasons, will not be able to find the least reason to \ncontradict those reasons.\u201d\n\nHe professed that by his directions \u201cany person, young or old, should \nbe able to perform so much and so well upon it, in so much or so \nlittle time, towards a full and satisfactory delight and pleasure, \n(yea, if it were but only to play common toys, jigs or tunes,) as upon \nany instrument whatever; yet with this most notable and admirable \nexception, (for the respectable commendation of the lute,) that they \nmay, besides such ordinary and common contentments, study and practice \nit all the days of their lives, and yet find new improvements, yea \ndoubtless if they should live unto the age of Methusalem, ten times \nover; for there is no limitation to its vast bounds and bravery.\u201d It \nappears that the merit of this book in this respect is not overstated, \none of his sons attained to great proficiency on this instrument by \nstudying the book without any assistance from his father; and Sir John \nHawkins affirms on his own knowledge that Mr. John Immyns, lutanist to \nthe Chapel Royal, has the like experience of it. \u201cThis person who had \npractised on sundry instruments for many years, and was able to sing \nhis part at sight, at the age of forty took to the lute, and by the \nhelp of Mace's book alone, became enabled to play thorough base, and \nalso easy lessons on it; and by practice had rendered the tablature as \nfamiliar to him, as the notes of the scale.\u201d\n\nThe notation called the tablature is minutely explained in the work. \nIt has not the least relation to the musical character; the six \nstrings of the lute are represented by as many lines, \u201cand the several \nfrets or stops by the letters a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h, y (a preference \nto i as being more conspicuous) k; the letter _a_ ever signifying the \nopen string in all positions.\u201d Many persons have been good performers \non the lute, and at the same time totally ignorant of the notes of the \nGamut. His printer, he said, \u201chad outdone all music work in this kind \never before printed in this nation; and was indeed the only fit person \nto do the like, he only having those new materials, the like to which \nwas never had made before in England.\u201d They might have been more \ndistinct, and more consistent;\u2014five being common English characters, \nthe _c_ more resembling the third letter in the Greek alphabet than \nany thing else, the _b_ reversed serving for _g_, and the _d_ in like \nmanner for _e_.\n\nThe characters for the time of notes he compares to money, as \nsupposing that most people would be ready enough to count them the \nbetter for that. Considering therefore the semi-breve as a groat, the \nminim becomes two pence, the crotchet a penny, the quaver a \nhalf-penny, and the semi-quaver a farthing. Trouble not yourself for \nthe demi-quaver, he says, till you have a quick hand, it being half a \nsemi-quaver.\n\nBut besides these, there are marks in his notation for the fifteen \ngraces which may be used upon the lute, though few or none used them \nall. They are the Shake, the Beat, the Back-fall, the Half-fall, the \nWhole-fall, the Elevation, the Single Relish, the Double Relish, the \nSlur, the Slide, the Spinger, the Sting, the Tutt, the Pause and the \nSoft and Loud Play, \u201cwhich is as great and good a grace as any other \nwhatever.\u201d\n\n\u201cSome,\u201d says Master Mace, \u201cthere are, and many I have met with, who \nhave such a natural agility in their nerves, and aptitude to that \nperformance, that before they could do any thing else to purpose, they \nwould make a shake rarely well. And some again can scarcely ever gain \na good shake, by reason of the unaptness of their nerves to that \naction, but yet otherwise come to play very well. I, for my own part, \nhave had occasion to break both my arms; by reason of which, I cannot \nmake the nerve-shake well, nor strong; yet by a certain motion of my \narm, I have gained such a contentive shake, that sometimes my scholars \nwill ask me, how they shall do to get the like? I have then no better \nanswer for them, than to tell them, they must first break their arm, \nas I have done; and so possibly after that, by practice, they may get \nmy manner of Shake.\u201d\n\nRules are given for all these graces, but observe he says \u201cthat \nwhatever your grace be, you must in your farewell express the true \nnote perfectly, or else your pretended grace, will prove a disgrace.\u201d\n\n\u201cThe Spinger is a grace very neat and curious, for some sort of notes, \nand is done thus: After you have hit your note, you must just as you \nintend to part with it, dab one of your rest fingers lightly upon the \nsame string, a fret or two frets below, (according to the air,) as if \nyou did intend to stop the string, in that place, yet so gently, that \nyou do not cause the string to sound, in that stop, so dab'd; but only \nso that it may suddenly take away that sound which you last struck, \nyet give some small tincture of a new note, but not distinctly to be \nheard as a note; which grace, if well done and properly is very taking \nand pleasant.\u201d\n\nThe Sting is \u201canother very neat and pretty grace,\u201d it makes the sound \nseem to swell with pretty unexpected humour, and gives much \ncontentment upon cases.\n\nThe Tut is easily done, and always with the right hand. \u201cWhen you \nwould perform this grace, it is but to strike your letter which you \nintend shall be so graced, with one of your fingers, and immediately \nclap on your next striking finger upon the string which you struck; in \nwhich doing, you suddenly take away the sound of the letter; and if \nyou do it clearly, it will seem to speak the word, _Tut_, so plainly, \nas if it were a living creature, speakable!\u201d\n\nWhile however the pupil was intent upon exhibiting these graces, the \nzealous master exhorted him not to be unmindful of his own, but to \nregard his postures, for a good posture is comely, creditable and \npraiseworthy, and moreover advantageous as to good performance. \u201cSet \nyourself down against a table, in as becoming a posture, as you would \nchoose to do for your best reputation. Sit upright and straight; then \ntake up your lute, and lay the body of it in your lap across. Let the \nlower part of it lie upon your right thigh, the head erected against \nyour left shoulder and ear; lay your left hand down upon the table, \nand your right arm over the lute, so that you may set your little \nfinger down upon the belly of the lute, just under the bridge, against \nthe treble, or second string: and then keep your lute stiff, and \nstrongly set with its lower edge against the table-edge; and so, \nleaning your breast something hard against its ribs, cause it to stand \nsteady and strong, so that a bystander cannot easily draw it from your \nbreast, table, and arm. This is the most becoming, steady and \nbeneficial posture.\u201d\n\n\u201cYour left hand thus upon the table, your lute firmly fixed, yourself \nand it in your true postures,\u2014bring up your left hand from the table, \nbended, just like the balance of a hook, all excepting your thumb, \nwhich must stand straight and span'd out; your fingers also, all \ndivided out from the other in an equal and handsome order; and in this \nposture, place your thumb under the neck of the lute, a little above \nthe fret, just in the midst of the breadth of the neck; all your \nfour-fingers in this posture, being held close over the strings on the \nother side, so that each finger may be in a readiness to stop down \nupon any fret. And now in this lively and exact posture, I would have \nyour posture drawn, which is the most becoming posture I can direct \nunto for a lutanist.\u201d\n\n\u201cKnow that an old lute is better than a new one.\u201d Old instruments \nindeed, are found by experience to be far the best, the reasons for \nwhich Master Mace could no further dive into than to say, he \napprehended, \u201cthat by extreme age, the wood and those other adjuncts, \nglue, parchment, paper, linings of cloth, (as some used) but above all \nthe varnish, are by time very much dried, limped, made gentle, \nrarified, or to say better, even airified; so that that stiffness, \nstubbornness, or _clunguiness_ which is natural to such bodies, are so \ndebilitated and made pliable, that the pores of the wood, have a more \nfree liberty to move, stir or secretly vibrate; by which means the air \n(which is the life of all things both animate and inanimate) has a \nmore free and easy recourse to pass and repass, &c. Whether I have hit \nupon the right cause, I know not, but sure I am that age adds goodness \nto instruments.\u201d\n\nThe Venice lutes were commonly good; and the most esteemed maker was \nLaux Malles, whose name was always written in text letters. Mace had \nseen two of his lutes, \u201cpitiful, old, battered, cracked things;\u201d yet \nfor one of these, which Mr. Gootiere, the famous lutanist in his time \nshowed him, the King paid an hundred pounds. The other belonged to Mr. \nEdward Jones, one of Gootiere's scholars; and he relates this \u201ctrue \nstory\u201d of it; that a merchant bargained with the owner to take it with \nhim in his travels, on trial; if he liked it, he was on his return to \ngive an hundred pounds for it; otherwise he was to return it safe, and \npay twenty pounds \u201cfor his experience and use of it.\u201d\u2014He had often \nseen lutes of three or four pounds a piece \u201cmore illustrious and \ntaking to a common eye.\u201d\n\nThe best shape was the Pearl mould, both for sound and comeliness, and \nconvenience in holding. The best wood for the ribs was what he calls \nair-wood, this was absolutely the best; English maple next. There were \nvery good ones however of plum, pear, yew, rosemary-air, and ash. \nEbony and ivory, though most costly and taking to a common eye were \nthe worst. For the belly the finest grained wood was required, free \nfrom knots or obstructions; cypress was very good, but the best was \ncalled Cullen's-cliff, being no other than the finest sort of fir, and \nthe choicest part of that fir. To try whether the bars within, to \nstrengthen and keep it straight and tight, were all fast, you were \ngently to knock the belly all along, round about, and then in the \nmidst, with one of your knuckles; \u201cif any thing be either loose in it, \nor about it, you may easily perceive it, by a little fuzzing or \nhizzing; but if all be sound, you shall hear nothing but a tight plump \nand twanking knock.\u201d\n\nAmong the aspersions against the lute which Master Mace indignantly \nrepelled, one was that it cost as much in keeping as a horse. \u201cI do \nconfess,\u201d said he, \u201cthat those who will be prodigal and extraordinary \ncurious, may spend as much as may maintain two or three horses, and \nmen to ride upon them too if they please. But he never charged more \nthan ten shillings for first stringing one, and five shillings a \nquarter for maintaining it with strings.\u201d\n\nThe strings were of three sorts, minikins, Venice Catlins, and Lyons, \nfor the basses; but the very best for the basses were called Pistoy \nBasses; these, which were smooth and well-twisted strings, but hard to \ncome by, he supposes to be none others than thick Venice Catlins, and \ncommonly dyed of a deep dark red. The red strings however were \ncommonly rotten, so were the yellow, the green sometimes very good; \nthe clear blue the best. But good strings might be spoilt in a quarter \nof an hour, if they were exposed to any wet, or moist air. Therefore \nthey were to be bound close together, and wrapt closely up either in \nan oiled paper, a bladder, or a piece of sere cloth, \u201csuch as often \ncomes over with them,\u201d and then to be kept in some close box, or \ncupboard, but not amongst linen (for that gives moisture,) and in a \nroom where is usually a fire. And when at any time you open them for \nyour use, take heed they lie not too long open, nor in a dark window, \nnor moist place; for moisture is the worst enemy to your strings.\n\n\u201cHow to choose and find a true string, which is the most curious piece \nof skill in stringing, is both a pretty curiosity to do, and also \nnecessary. First, draw out a length, or more; then take the end, and \nmeasure the length it must be of, within an inch or two, (for it will \nstretch so much at least in the winding up,) and hold that length in \nboth hands, extended to reasonable stiffness: then, with one of your \nfingers strike it; giving it so much liberty in slackness as you may \nsee it vibrate, or open itself. If it be true, it will appear to the \neye, just as if they were two strings; but if it shows more than two, \nit is false, and will sound unpleasantly upon your instrument, nor \nwill it ever be well in tune, either stopt or open, but snarl.\u201d Sir \nJohn Hawkins observes that this direction is given by Adrian Le Roy in \nhis instructions for the lute, and is adopted both by Mersennus and \nKircher. Indeed this experiment is the only known test of a true \nstring, and for that reason is practised by such as are curious at \nthis day.\n\nIn his directions for playing, Master Mace says, \u201ctake notice that you \nstrike not your strings with your nails, as some do, who maintain it \nthe best way of play; but I do not; and for this reason; because the \nnail cannot draw so sweet a sound from the lute as the nibble end of \nthe flesh can do. I confess in a concert it might do well enough, \nwhere the mellowness, (which is the most excellent satisfaction from a \nlute) is lost in the crowd; but alone, I could never receive so good \ncontent from the nail as from the flesh.\u201d\n\nMace considered it to be absolutely necessary that all persons who \nkept lutes should know how to repair them; for he had known a lute \n\u201csent fifty or sixty miles to be mended of a very small mischance, \n(scarce worth twelve pence for the mending) which besides the trouble \nand cost of carriage, had been broken all to pieces in the return, and \nso farewell lute and all the cost.\u201d One of the necessary tools for \nthis work is \u201ca little working knife, such as are most commonly made \nof pieces of broken good blades, fastened into a pretty thick haft of \nwood or bone, leaving the blade out about two or three inches;\u201d \u201cgrind \nit down upon the back,\u201d he says, \u201cto a sharp point, and set to a good \nedge; it will serve you for many good uses, either in cutting, \ncarving, making pins, &c.\u201d\n\nHis directions for this work are exceedingly minute; but when the lute \nwas in order, it was of no slight importance to keep it so, and for \nthis also he offers some choice observations. \u201cYou shall do well, ever \nwhen you lay it by in the day-time, to put it into a bed that is \nconstantly used, between the rug and blanket, but never between the \nsheets, because they may be moist.\u201d \u201cThis is the most absolute and \nbest place to keep it in always.\u201d \u201cThere are many great commodities in \nso doing; it will save your strings from breaking, it will keep your \nlute in good order, so that you shall have but small trouble in tuning \nit; it will sound more brisk and lively, and give you pleasure in the \nvery handling of it; if you have any occasion extraordinary to set up \nyour lute at a higher pitch, you may do it safely, which otherwise you \ncannot so well do, without danger to your instrument and strings: it \nwill be a great safety to your instrument, in keeping it from decay, \nit will prevent much trouble in keeping the bars from flying loose and \nthe belly from sinking: and these six conveniences considered all \ntogether, must needs create a seventh, which is, that lute-playing \nmust certainly be very much facilitated, and made more delightful \nthereby. Only no person must be so inconsiderate as to tumble down \nupon the bed whilst the lute is there, for I have known, said he, \nseveral good lutes spoilt with such a trick.\u201d\n\nI will not say of the reader, who after the foregoing specimens of \nMusic's Monument has no liking for Master Mace and his book that he\n\n  Is fit for treasons, stratagems and spoil,\n\nbut I cannot but suspect that he has no taste for caviare, dislikes \nlaver, would as willingly drink new hock as old, and more willingly \nthe base compound which passes for champagne, than either. Nay I could \neven suspect that he does not love those \u201cthree things which persons \nloving, love what they ought,\u2014the whistling of the wind, the dashing \nof the waves, and the rolling of thunder:\u201d and that he comes under the \ncommination of this other triad, \u201clet no one love such as dislike the \nscent of cloves, the taste of milk and the song of birds.\u201d My Welsh \nfriends shall have the pleasure of reading these true sayings, in \ntheir own ancient, venerable and rich language.\n\n_Tri dyn o garu tri pheth \u00e0 garant \u00e0 ddylaint; gorddyan y gwgnt, boran \ny t\u00f2nau, ac angerdd y daran._\n\n_Tri pheth ma chared neb a 'u hanghara: rhogleu y meillion, bl\u00e2s \nllaeth, a ch\u00e2n adar._\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER CXCIV.\n\nA MUSIC LESSON FROM MASTER THOMAS MACE TO BE PLAYED BY LADY FAIR:\u2014A \nSTORY, THAN WHICH THERE IS NONE PRETTIER IN THE HISTORY OF MUSIC.\n\n  What shall I say? Or shall I say no more?\n  I must go on! I'm brim-full, running o'er.\n  But yet I'll hold, because I judge ye wise;\n  And few words unto such may well suffice.\n  But much\u2014much more than this I could declare;\n  Yet for some certain reasons I'll forbear.\n  But less than this I could not say; because,\n  If saying less, I should neglect my cause,\n  For 'tis the Doctor's cause I plead so strong for,\n  And 'tis his cause compleated that I long for,\n  And 'tis true doctrine certainly I preach,\n  And 'tis that doctrine every priest should teach.\n\nTHOMAS MACE, TO ALL DIVINE READERS.\n\n\nO Lady fair, before we say,\n\n  Now cease my lute; this is the last\n  Labour that thou and I shall waste,\n  And ended is that we begun;\n  My lute be still, for I have done:[1]\n\nbefore we say this, O Lady fair, play I pray you the following lesson \nby good Master Mace. It will put you in tune for the story \u201cnot \nimpertinent\u201d concerning it, which he thought fit to relate, although, \nhe said, many might chuse to smile at it. You may thank Sir John \nHawkins for having rendered it from tablature into the characters of \nmusical notation.\n\n[Illustration: music score.]\n\n[Footnote 1: SIR THOMAS WYAT.]\n\n\u201cThis Lesson,\u201d says Master Mace, \u201cI call my Mistress, and I shall not \nthink it impertinent to detain you here a little longer than ordinary \nin speaking something of it, the occasion of it, and why I give it \nthat name. And I doubt not, but the relation I shall give may conduce \nto your advantage in several respects, but chiefly in respect of \nInvention.\n\n\u201cYou must first know, That it is a lesson, though old; yet I never \nknew it disrelished by any, nor is there any one lesson in this Book \nof that age, as it is; yet I do esteem it (in its kind) with the best \nLesson in the Book, for several good reasons, which I shall here set \ndown.\n\n\u201cIt is, this very winter, just forty years since I made it\u2014and yet it \nis new, because all like it,\u2014and then when I was past being a suitor \nto my best beloved, dearest, and sweetest living Mistress, but not \nmarried, yet contriving the best, and readiest way towards it; And \nthus it was,\n\n\u201cThat very night, in which I was thus agitated in my mind concerning \nher, my living Mistress,\u2014she being in Yorkshire, and myself at \nCambridge, close shut up in my chamber, still and quiet, about ten or \neleven o'clock at night, musing and writing letters to her, her \nMother, and some other Friends, in summing up and determining the \nwhole matter concerning our Marriage. You may conceive I might have \nvery intent thoughts all that time, and might meet with some \ndifficulties, for as yet I had not gained her Mother's consent,\u2014so \nthat in my writings I was sometimes put to my studyings. At which \ntimes, my Lute lying upon my table, I sometimes took it up, and walked \nabout my chamber, letting my fancy drive which way it would, (for I \nstudied nothing, at that time, as to Music,)\u2014yet my secret genius or \nfancy, prompted my fingers, do what I could, into this very humour. So \nthat every time I walked, and took up my Lute, in the interim, betwixt \nwriting and studying, this Air would needs offer itself unto me \ncontinually; insomuch that, at the last, (liking it well, and lest it \nshould be lost,) I took paper and set it down, taking no further \nnotice of it at that time. But afterwards it passed abroad for a very \npleasant and delightful Air amongst all. Yet I gave it no name till a \nlong time after, nor taking more notice of it, in any particular kind, \nthan of any other my Composures of that nature.\n\n\u201cBut after I was married, and had brought my wife home to Cambridge, \nit so fell out that one rainy morning I stay'd within, and in my \nchamber my wife and I were all alone, she intent upon her needlework, \nand I playing upon my Lute, at the table by her. She sat very still \nand quiet, listening to all I played without a word a long time, till \nat last, I hapned to play this lesson; which, so soon as I had once \nplayed, she earnestly desired me to play it again, \u2018for,\u2019 said she, \n\u2018That shall be called my Lesson.\u2019\n\n\u201cFrom which words, so spoken, with emphasis and accent, it presently \ncame into my remembrance, the time when, and the occasion of its being \nproduced, and I returned her this answer, viz. That it may very \nproperly be called your Lesson, for when I composed it you were wholly \nin my fancy, and the chief object and ruler of my thoughts; telling \nher how, and when it was made. And therefore, ever after, I thus \ncalled it MY MISTRESS, and most of my scholars since call it MRS. \nMACE, to this day.\n\n\u201cThus I have detained you (I hope not too long,) with this short \nrelation; nor should I have been so seemingly vain, as to have \ninserted it, but that I have an intended purpose by it, to give some \nadvantage to the reader, and doubt not but to do it to those who will \nrightly consider what here I shall further set down concerning it.\n\n\u201cNow in reference to the occasion of it, &c. It is worth taking \nnotice, That there are times and particular seasons, in which the \nablest Master of his Art, shall not be able to command his Invention \nor produce things so to his content or liking, as he shall at other \ntimes; but he shall be (as it were,) stupid, dull, and shut up, as to \nany neat, spruce, or curious Invention.\n\n\u201cBut again, at other times, he will have Inventions come flowing in \nupon him, with so much ease and freedom, that his greatest trouble \nwill be to retain, remember, or set them down, in good order.\n\n\u201cYet more particularly, as to the occasion of this Lesson, I would \nhave you take notice, that as it was at such a time, when I was wholly \nand intimately possessed with the true and perfect idea of my living \nMistress, who was at that time, lovely, fair, comely, sweet, debonair, \nuniformly-neat, and every way compleat; how could, possibly, my fancy \nrun upon anything at that time, but upon the very simile, form, or \nlikeness, of the same substantial thing.\n\n\u201cAnd that this Lesson doth represent, and shadow forth such a true \nrelation, as here I have made, I desire you to take notice of it, in \nevery particular; which I assure myself, may be of benefit to any, who \nshall observe it well.\n\n\u201cFirst, therefore, observe the two first Bars of it, which will give \nyou the Fugue; which Fugue is maintained quite through the whole \nlesson.\n\n\u201cSecondly, observe the Form, and Shape of the whole lesson, which \nconsists of two uniform, and equal strains; both strains having the \nsame number of Bars.\n\n\u201cThirdly, observe the humour of it; which you may perceive (by the \nmarks and directions) is not common.\n\n\u201cThese three terms, or things, ought to be considered in all \ncompositions, and performances of this nature, viz. Ayres, or the \nlike.\n\n\u201cThe Fugue is lively, ayrey, neat, curious, and sweet, like my \nMistress.\n\n\u201cThe Form is uniform, comely, substantial, grave, and lovely, like my \nMistress.\n\n\u201cThe Humour is singularly spruce, amiable, pleasant, obliging, and \ninnocent, like my Mistress.\n\n\u201cThis relation to some may seem odd, strange, humorous, and \nimpertinent; but to others (I presume) it may be intelligible and \nuseful; in that I know, by good experience, that in Music, all these \nsignifications, (and vastly many more,) may, by an experienced and \nunderstanding Artist, be clearly, and most significantly expressed; \nyea, even as by language itself, if not much more effectually. And \nalso, in that I know, that as a person is affected or disposed in his \ntemper, or humour, by reason of what object of his mind soever, he \nshall at that time produce matter, (if he be put to it,) answerable to \nthat temper, disposition, or humour, in which he is.\n\n\u201cTherefore I would give this as a caveat, or caution, to any, who do \nattempt to exercise their fancies in such matters of Invention, that \nthey observe times, and seasons, and never force themselves to \nanything, when they perceive an indisposition; but wait for a fitter, \nand more hopeful season, for what comes most compleatly, comes most \nfamiliarly, naturally, and easily, without pumping for, as we use to \nsay.\n\n\u201cStrive therefore to be in a good, cheerful, and pleasant humour \nalways when you would compose or invent, and then, such will your \nproductions be; or, to say better, chuse for your time of Study, and \nInvention, if you may, that time wherein you are so disposed, as I \nhave declared. And doubtless, as it is in the study and productions of \nMusic, so must it needs be in all other studies, where the use and \nexercise of fancy is requirable.\n\n\u201cI will therefore, take a little more pains than ordinary, to give \nsuch directions, as you shall no ways wrong, or injure my Mistress, \nbut do her all the right you can, according to her true deserts.\n\n\u201cFirst, therefore, observe to play _soft_, and _loud_, as you see it \nmarked quite through the Lesson.\n\n\u201cSecondly, use _that Grace_, which I call the _Sting_, where you see \nit set, and the _Spinger_ after it.\n\n\u201cAnd then, in the last four strains, observe the _Slides_, and \n_Slurs_, and you cannot fail to know my _Mistress's Humour_, provided \nyou keep _true time_, which you must be extremely careful to do in all \nlessons: FOR TIME IS THE ONE HALF OF MUSIC.\n\n\u201cAnd now, I hope I shall not be very hard put to it, to obtain my \npardon for all this trouble I have thus put you to, in the exercise of \nyour patience; especially from those, who are so ingenious and \ngood-natured, as to prize, and value, such singular and choice \nendowments, as I have here made mention of in so absolute and compleat \na subject.\u201d\n\nMY MISTRESS OR MRS. MACE.\n\n[Illustration: musical score.]\n\nTHOMAS MACE.\n\nThere is no prettier story in the history of Music than this; and what \na loving, loveable, happy creature must he have been who could thus in \nhis old age have related it!\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER CXCV.\n\nANOTHER LESSON WITH THE STORY AND MANNER OF ITS PRODUCTION.\n\n  _\u039f\u1f50\u03b4\u03b5\u1f76\u03c2 \u1f10\u03c1\u03b5\u1fd6 \u03c0\u03bf\u03b8\u1fbd, \u1f61\u03c2 \u1f51\u03c0\u03cc\u03b2\u03bb\u03b7\u03c4\u03bf\u03bd \u03bb\u03cc\u03b3\u03bf\u03bd,\n   \u2014\u2014\u2014\u1f14\u03bb\u03b5\u03be\u03b1\u03c2, \u1f00\u03bb\u03bb\u1f70 \u03c4\u1fc6\u03c2 \u03c3\u03b1\u03c5\u03c4\u1fe6 \u03c6\u03c1\u03b5\u03bd\u03cc\u03c2._\n\nSOPHOCLES.\n\n\nMaster Mace has another lesson which he calls Hab-Nab; it \u201chas neither \nfugue, nor very good form,\u201d he says, \u201cyet a humour, although none of \nthe best;\u201d and his \u201cstory of the manner and occasion of Hab-Nab's \nproduction,\u201d affords a remarkable counterpart to that of his favourite \nlesson.\n\n\u201cView every bar in it,\u201d he says, \u201cand you will find not any one Bar \nlike another, nor any affinity in the least kind betwixt strain and \nstrain, yet the Air pleaseth some sort of people well enough; but for \nmy own part, I never was pleased with it; yet because some liked it, I \nretained it. Nor can I tell how it came to pass that I thus made it, \nonly I very well remember, the time, manner, and occasion of its \nproduction, (which was on a sudden,) without the least premeditation, \nor study, and merely accidentally; and, as we use to say, _ex \ntempore_, in the _tuning of a lute_.\n\n\u201cAnd the occasion, I conceive, might possibly contribute something \ntowards it, which was this.\n\n\u201cI had, at that very instant, when I made it, an agitation in hand, \nviz. The stringing up, and tuning of a Lute, for a person of an \nununiform, and inharmonical disposition, (as to Music,) yet in herself \nwell proportioned, comely, and handsome enough, and ingenious for \nother things, but to Music very unapt, and learned it only to please \nher friends, who had a great desire she should be brought to it, if \npossible, but never could, to the least good purpose; so that at the \nlast we both grew weary; _for there is no striving against such a \nstream_.\n\n\u201cI say, this occasion possibly might be the cause of this so \ninartificial a piece, in regard that that person, at that time, was \nthe chief object of my mind and thoughts. I call it inartificial, \nbecause the chief observation (as to good performance,) is wholly \nwanting. Yet it is true Music, and has such a form and humour, as may \npass, and give content to many. Yet I shall never advise any to make \nthings thus by hab-nab,[1] without any design, as was this. And \ntherefore I give it that name.\u201d\n\n[Footnote 1: _Hab-Nab_ is a good old English word, derived from the \nAnglo-Saxon. Skinner is correct enough. \u201cTemer\u00e8, sine consilio _ab_ \nAS. _Habban_ Habere, _Nabban_, non Habere, addito scilicet _na_, non, \ncum apostropho.\u201d Will-nill, i.e. Will ye, or will ye not, is a \nparallel form. Every one will recollect the lines of Hudibras, (Part \nii. Canto iii.)\n\n  With that he circles draws, and squares,\n  With cyphers, astral characters:\n  Then looks 'em o'er to understand 'em\n  Although set down, _hab nab_, at random.\n\nDr. Grey illustrates the expression from Don Quixote, \u201cLet every man,\u201d \nsays Sancho Pancha, \u201ctake care what he talks or how he writes of other \nmen, and not set down _at random_, _hab-nab_, _higgledy-piggledy_, \nwhat comes into his noddle.\u201d Part ii. c. iii.\n\nOn referring to the original it will be seen that the Translator has \nused three words for one. \u201cCada uno mire como habla o' como escriba de \nlas presonas, y no ponga _\u00e0 troche moche_ lo primero que le viene al \nmagin.\u201d]\n\n\u201cThere are abundance of such things to be met with, and from the hands \nof some, who fain would pass for good composers; yet most of them may \nbe traced, and upon examination, their things found only to be snaps \nand catches; which they,\u2014having been long conversant in Music, and can \ncommand an Instrument, through great and long practice, some of them \nvery well,\u2014have taken here and there (hab-nab,) from several airs and \nthings of other men's works, and put them handsomely together, which \nthen pass for their own compositions.\n\n\u201cYet I say, it is no affront, offence, or injury, to any Master, for \nanother to take his Fugue, or Point to work upon, nor dishonour for \nany Artist so to do, provided he shew by his Workmanship, a different \nDiscourse, Form, or Humour. But it is rather a credit and a repute for \nhim so to do; for by his works he shall be known. It being observable, \nThat great Master Composers may all along be as well known by their \nCompositions, or their own compositions known to be of them, as the \ngreat and learned writers may be known by their styles and works.\u201d\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER CXCVI.\n\nFURTHER ACCOUNT OF MASTER THOMAS MACE,\u2014HIS LIGHT HEART, HIS SORROWS, \nAND HIS POVERTY,\u2014POORLY, POOR MAN, HE LIVED, POORLY, POOR MAN, HE \nDIED\u2014PHINEAS FLETCHER.\n\n  The sweet and the sour,\n  The nettle and the flower,\n  The thorn and the rose,\n  This garland compose.\n\nSMALL GARLAND OF PIOUS AND GODLY SONGS.\n\n\nLittle more is known of Thomas Mace than can be gathered from his \nbook. By a good portrait of him in his sixty-third year, it appears \nthat he was born in 1613, and by his arms that he was of gentle blood. \nAnd as he had more subscribers to his book in York than in any other \nplace, (Cambridge excepted) and the name of Henry Mace, Clerk, occurs \namong them, it may be presumed that he was a native of that city, or \nof that county. This is the more likely, because when he was \nestablished at Cambridge in his youth, his true love was in Yorkshire; \nand at that time his travels are likely to have been confined between \nthe place of his birth and of his residence.\n\nThe price of his book was twelve shillings in sheets; and as he \nobtained about three hundred subscribers, he considered this fair \nencouragement to publish. But when the work was compleated and the \naccounts cast up, he discovered that \u201cin regard of his unexpected \ngreat charge, besides his unconceivable care and pains to have it \ncompleatly done, it could not be well afforded at that price, to \nrender him any tolerable or reasonable requital.\u201d He gave notice \ntherefore, that after it should have been published three months, the \nprice must be raised; \u201cadding thus much, (as being bold to say) that \nthere were several pages, yea several lessons in this book, (according \nto the ordinary value, esteem, or way of procuring such things) which \nwere every one of them of more value than the price of the whole book \nby far.\u201d\n\nIt might be truly said of him, that\n\n  Poorly, poor man, he lived, poorly, poor man he died.[1]\n\nfor he never attained to any higher preferment than that of being \u201cone \nof the Clerks of Trinity College.\u201d But it may be doubted whether any \nof those who partook more largely of the endowment of that noble \nestablishment, enjoyed so large a portion of real happiness. We find \nhim in the sixty-third year of his age, and the fortieth of his \nmarriage, not rich, not what the world calls fortunate, but a \ncontented, cheerful old man; even though \u201cTime had done to him this \nwrong\u201d that it had half deprived him of his highest gratification, for \nhe had become so deaf that he could not hear his own lute. When Homer \nsays of his own blind bard that the Muse gave him good and evil, \ndepriving him of his eyes, but giving him the gift of song, we \nunderstand the compensation;\n\n  _\u03a4\u1f78\u03bd \u03c0\u03ad\u03c1\u03b9 \u039c\u03bf\u1fe6\u03c3\u1fbd \u1f10\u03c6\u03af\u03bb\u03b7\u03c3\u03b5, \u03b4\u03af\u03b4\u03bf\u03c5 \u03b4\u1fbd \u1f00\u03b3\u03b1\u03b8\u03cc\u03bd \u03c4\u03b5 \u03ba\u03b1\u03ba\u03cc\u03bd \u03c4\u03b5,\n   \u1f48\u03c6\u03b8\u03b1\u03bb\u03bc\u1ff6\u03bd \u03bc\u1f72\u03bd \u1f04\u03bc\u03b5\u03c1\u03c3\u03b5, \u03b4\u03af\u03b4\u03bf\u03c5 \u03b4\u1fbd \u1f21\u03b4\u03b5\u1fd6\u03b1\u03bd \u1f00\u03bf\u03b9\u03b4\u03ae\u03bd\u00b7_\n\nbut what can compensate a musician for the loss of hearing! There is \nno inward ear to be the bliss of solitude. He could not like \nPythagoras _\u1f00\u1fe4\u1fe5\u03ae\u03c4\u1ff3 \u03c4\u03b9\u03bd\u1f76 \u03ba\u03b1\u1f76 \u03b4\u03c5\u03c3\u03b5\u03c0\u03b9\u03bd\u03bf\u03ae\u03c4\u1ff3 \u03b8\u03b5\u03b9\u03cc\u03c4\u03b7\u03c4\u03b9 \u03c7\u03c1\u03ce\u03bc\u03b5\u03bd\u03bf\u03c2_, by an \neffort of ineffable and hardly conceivable divinity retire into the \ndepths of his own being, and there listen to that heavenly harmony of \nthe spheres which to him alone of all the human race was made audible; \n_\u1f11\u03b1\u03c5\u03c4\u1ff7 \u03b3\u1f70\u03c1 \u03bc\u03cc\u03bd\u1ff3 \u03c4\u1ff6\u03bd \u1f10\u03c0\u1f76 \u03b3\u1fc6\u03c2 \u1f00\u03c0\u03ac\u03bd\u03c4\u03c9\u03bd \u03c3\u03c5\u03bd\u03b5\u03c4\u1f70 \u03ba\u03b1\u1f76 \u1f10\u03c0\u03ae\u03ba\u03bf\u03b1 \u03c4\u1f70 \u03ba\u03bf\u03c3\u03bc\u03b9\u03ba\u1f70 \n\u03c6\u03b8\u03ad\u03b3\u03bc\u03b1\u03c4\u03b1 \u1f10\u03bd\u03cc\u03bc\u03b9\u03b6\u03b5\u03bd \u1f00\u03c0\u1fbd \u03b1\u1f50\u03c4\u1fc6\u03c2 \u03c4\u1fc6\u03c2 \u03c6\u03c5\u03c3\u03b9\u03ba\u1fc6\u03c2 \u03c0\u03b7\u03b3\u1fc6\u03c2 \u03ba\u03b1\u1f76 \u1fe5\u03af\u03b6\u1fc6\u03c2._[2] Master \nMace had no such supernatural faculty, and no such opinion of himself. \nBut the happy old man devises a means of overcoming to a certain \ndegree his defect by inventing what he called a Dyphone, or Double \nLute of fifty strings, a representation of which is given in his book, \nas \u201cthe one only instrument in being of that kind, then lately \ninvented by himself, and made with his own hands in the year 1672.\u201d\n\n[Footnote 1: PHINEAS FLETCHER.]\n\n[Footnote 2: IAMBLICHI Liber de Pythagoric\u00e2, Vit\u00e2 c. xv.]\n\n\u201cThe occasion of its production was my necessity; viz. my great defect \nin hearing; adjoined with my unsatiable love and desire after the \nLute. It being an instrument so soft, and past my reach of hearing, I \ndid imagine it was possible to contrive a louder Lute, than ever any \nyet had been; whereupon, after divers casts and contrivances, I \npitched upon this order, the which has (in a great degree) answered my \nexpectation, it being absolutely the lustiest or loudest Lute that I \never yet heard. For although I cannot hear the least twang of any \nother Lute, when I play upon it, yet I can hear this in a very good \nmeasure, yet not so loud as to distinguish every thing I play, without \nthe help of my teeth, which when I lay close to the edge of it, \n(there, where the lace is fixed,) I hear all I play distinctly. So \nthat it is to me (I thank God!) one of the principal refreshments and \ncontentments I enjoy in this world. What it may prove to others in its \nuse and service, (if any shall think fit to make the like,) I know \nnot, but I conceive it may be very useful, because of the several \nconveniences and advantages it has of all other Lutes.\u201d\n\nThis instrument was on the one side a theorbo, on the other lute, \nhaving on the former part twenty-six strings, twenty-four on the \nlatter. It had a fuller, plumper and lustier sound, he said, than any \nother lute, because the concave was almost as long again, being hollow \nfrom neck to mouth. \u201cThis is one augmentation of sound; there is yet \nanother; which is from the strange and wonderful secret, which lies in \nthe nature of sympathy, in unities, or the uniting of harmonical \nsounds, the one always augmenting the other. For let two several \ninstruments lie asunder at any reasonable distance, when you play upon \none, the other shall sound, provided they be both exactly tuned in \nunisons to each other; otherwise not. This is known to all curious \ninspectors into such mysteries. If this therefore be true, it must \nneeds be granted, that when the strings of these two twins, \naccordingly put on, are tuned in unities and set up to a stiff lusty \npitch, they cannot but more augment and advantage one the other.\u201d\n\nSome allowances he begged for it, because it was a new-made instrument \nand could not yet speak so well as it would do, when it came to age \nand ripeness, though it already gave forth \u201ca very free, brisk, \ntrouling, plump and sweet sound,\u201d and because it was made by a hand \nthat never before attempted the making of any instrument. He concludes \nhis description of it, with what he calls a Recreative Fancy: saying, \n\u201cbecause it is my beloved darling, I seemed, like an old doting body, \nto be fond of it; so that when I finished it, I bedecked it with these \nfive rhymes following, fairly written upon each belly.\n\n\u201cFirst, round the Theorboe knot, thus,\n\n  I am of old, and of Great Britain's fame,\n    Theorboe was my name.\n\nThen next, about the French Lute knot, thus,\n\n  I'm not so old; yet grave, and much acute;\n    My name was the French lute.\n\nThen from thence along the sides, from one knot to the other, thus,\n\n  But since we are thus joined both in one,\n    Henceforth our name shall be the Lute Dyphone.\n\nThen again cross-wise under the Theorboe-knot, thus,\n\n  Lo here a perfect emblem seen in me,\n  Of England and of France, their unity;\n  Likewise that year they did each other aid,\n  I was contrived, and thus compleatly made.\n\nviz. When they united both against the Dutch and beat them soundly, \nA.D. 1672.\n\n\u201cThen lastly, under the French Lute knot, thus,\n\n  Long have we been divided, now made one,\n  We sang in sevenths; now in full unison.\n  In this firm union, long may we agree,\n  No unison is like Lute's harmony.\n\n  Thus in its body, tis trim, spruce and fine\n  But in its sp'rit, tis like a thing divine.\u201d\n\nPoor Mace formed the plan of a Music-room, and hoped to have erected \nit himself; \u201cbut it pleased God,\u201d says he, \u201cto disappoint and \ndiscourage me several ways, for such a work; as chiefly by the loss of \nmy hearing, and by that means the emptiness of my purse, (my meaning \nmay easily be guessed at,) I only wanted money enough but no good will \nthereunto.\u201d However he engraved his plan, and annexed a description of \nit, \u201cin hopes that at one time or other, there might arise some \nhonourable and truly nobly-spirited person, or persons, who may \nconsider the great good use and benefit of such a necessary \nconvenience, and also find in his heart to become a benefactor to such \nan eminent good work,\u2014for the promotion of the art and encouragement \nof the true lovers of it; there being great need of such a thing, in \nreference to the compleating and illustrating of the University \nSchools.\u201d\n\nWhat he designed was a room six yards square, having on each side \nthree galleries for spectators, each something more than three yards \ndeep. These were to be one story from the ground, \u201cboth for advantage \nof sound, and also to avoid the moisture of the earth, which is very \nbad, both for instrument and strings;\u201d and the building was to be \u201cin \na clear and very delightful dry place, both free from water, the \noverhanging of trees, and common noises.\u201d The room was for the \nperformers, and it was to be \u201cone step higher on the floor than the \ngalleries the better to convey the sound to the auditors:\u201d\u2014\u201cbeing thus \nclear and free from company, all inconvenience of talking, crowding, \nsweating and blustering, &c. are taken away; the sound has its free \nand uninterrupted passage; the performers are no ways hindered; and \nthe instruments will stand more steadily in tune, (for no lutes, \nviols, pedals, harpsicons, &c. will stand in tune at such a time; no, \nnor voices themselves;) For I have known,\u201d says he, \u201can excellent \nvoice, well prepared for a solemn performance, who has been put up in \na crowd, that when he has been to perform his part, could hardly \nspeak, and by no other cause but the very distemper received by that \ncrowd and overheat.\u201d\n\nThe twelve galleries, though but little, would hold two hundred \npersons very well; and thus the uneasy and unhandsome accommodation, \nwhich has often happened to persons of quality, being crowded up, \nsqueezed and sweated among persons of an inferior rank, might be \navoided, \u201cwhich thing alone, having such distinct reception for \npersons of different qualities, must needs be accounted a great \nconveniency.\u201d But there was a scientific convenience included in the \narrangement; for the lower walls were to be \u201cwainscoted, hollow from \nthe wall, and without any kind of carved, bossed, or rugged work, so \nthat the sound might run glib and smooth all about, without the least \ninterruption. And through that wainscot there must be several \nconveyances all out of the room\u2014by grooves, or pipes to certain \nauditor's seats, where the hearer, as he sate, might at a small \npassage, or little hole, receive the pent-up sound, which let it be \nnever so weak in the music-room, he, (though at the furthest end of \nthe gallery) should hear as distinctly as any who were close by it.\u201d \nThe inlets into these pipes should be pretty large, a foot square at \nleast, yet the larger the better, without all doubt, and so the \nconveyance to run proportionably narrower, till it came to the ear of \nthe auditor, where it need not be above the wideness of one's finger \nend. \u201cIt cannot,\u201d says he, \u201cbe easily imagined, what a wonderful \nadvantage such a contrivance must needs be, for the exact and distinct \nhearing of music; without doubt far beyond all that ever has yet been \nused. For there is no instrument of touch, be it never so sweet, and \ntouched with the most curious hand that can be, but in the very touch, \nif you be near unto it, you may perceive the touch to be heard; \nespecially of viols and violins: but if you be at a distance, that \nharshness is lost, and conveyed unto the air, and you receive nothing \nbut the pure sweetness of the instrument; so as I may properly say, \nyou lose the body, but enjoy the soul or spirit thereof.\u201d\n\nSuch a necessary, ample and most convenient erection would become, he \nthought, any nobleman, or gentleman's house; and there might be built \ntogether with it as convenient rooms for all services of a family, as \nby any other contrivance whatever, and as magnificently stately. Were \nit but once experienced, he doubted not, but that the advantages would \napparently show themselves, and be esteemed far beyond what he had \nwritten, or that others could conceive.\n\nThe last notice which we have of good Master Mace is an advertisement, \ndated London, 1690, fourteen years after the publication of his book. \nDr. Burney found it in the British Museum, in a collection of \ntitle-pages, devices and advertisements. It is addressed \u201cto all \nLovers of the best sort of Music.\u201d\n\n  Men say the times are strange;\u2014tis true;\n    'Cause many strange things hap to be.\n  Let it not then seem strange to you\n    That here one strange thing more you see.\n\nThat is, in Devereux Court, next the Grecian Coffee House, at the \nTemple back gate, there is a deaf person teacheth music to perfection; \nwho by reason of his great age, viz. seventy-seven, is come to town, \nwith his whole stock of rich musical furniture; viz. instruments and \nbooks, to put off, to whomsoever delights in such choice things; for \nhe has nothing light or vain, but all substantial and solid MUSIC. \nSome particulars do here follow.\n\n\u201cFirst, There is a late invented Organ, which, for private use, \nexceeds all other fashioned organs whatever; and for which, \nsubstantial artificial reasons will be given; and, for its beauty, it \nmay become a nobleman's dining-room.\n\n\u201cSecond, There belongs to it a pair of fair, large-sized consort \nviols, chiefly fitted and suited for that, or consort use; and 'tis \ngreat pity they should be parted.\n\n\u201cThird, There is a pedal harpsicon, (the absolute best sort of consort \nharpsicon that has been invented; there being in it more than twenty \nvarieties, most of them to come in with the foot of the player; \nwithout the least hindrance of play,) exceedingly pleasant.\n\n\u201cFourth, Is a single harpsicon.\n\n\u201cFifth. A new invented instrument, called a Dyphone, viz. a double \nlute; it is both theorboe and French lute compleat; and as easy to \nplay upon as any other lute.\n\n\u201cSixth, Several other theorboes, lutes and viols, very good.\n\n\u201cSeventh, Great store of choice collections of the works of the most \nfamous composers that have lived in these last hundred years, as \nLatin, English, Italian and some French.\n\n\u201cEighth, There is the publishers own Music's Monument; some few copies \nthereof he has still by him to put off, it being a subscribed book, \nand not exposed to common sale. All these will be sold at very easy \nrates, for the reasons aforesaid; and because, indeed, he cannot stay \nin town longer than four months, exactly.\u201d\n\nHe further adds, \u201cif any be desirous to partake of his experimental \nskill in this high noble art, during his stay in town, he is ready to \nassist them; and haply, they may obtain that from him, which they may \nnot meet withal elsewhere. He teacheth these five things; viz. the \ntheorboe, the French lute, and the viol, in all their excellent ways \nand uses; as also composition, together with the knack of procuring \ninvention to young composers, (the general and greatest difficulty \nthey meet withal;) this last thing not being attempted by any author, \n(as he knows of,) yet may be done, though some have been so wise, or \notherwise to contradict it:\n\n  _Sed experientia docuit._\n\n\u201cAny of these five things may be learned so understandingly, in this \nlittle time he stays, by such general rules as he gives, together with \nMusic's Monument, (written principally to such purposes,) as that any, \naptly inclined, may, for the future, teach themselves, without any \nother help.\u201d\n\nThis is the last notice of poor Mace: poor he may be called, when at \nthe age of seventy-seven he is found in London upon the forlorn hope \nof selling his instruments and his books, and getting pupils during \nthis stay. It may be inferred that he had lost the son of whose \nmusical proficiency he formerly spoke with so much pleasure; for \notherwise this professional collection and stock in trade would hardly \nhave been exposed to sale, but it appears that the good old man \nretained his mental faculties, and his happy and contented spirit.\n\nDr. Burney recommends the perusal of what he calls his matchless book \n\u201cto all who have taste for excessive simplicity and quaintness, and \ncan extract pleasure from the sincere and undissembled happiness of an \nauthor, who with exalted notions of his subject and abilities, \ndiscloses to his readers every inward working of self-approbation in \nas undisguised a manner, as if he were communing with himself in all \nthe plenitude of mental comfort and privacy.\u201d\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER CXCVII.\n\nQUESTION PROPOSED, WHETHER A MAN BE MAGNIFIED OR MINIFIED BY \nCONSIDERING HIMSELF UNDER THE INFLUENCE OF THE HEAVENLY BODIES, AND \nANSWERED WITH LEARNING AND DISCRETION.\n\nI find by experience that Writing is like Building, wherein the \nundertaker, to supply some defect, or serve some convenience which at \nfirst he foresaw not, is usually forced to exceed his first model and \nproposal, and many times to double the charge and expence of it.\n\nDR. JOHN SCOTT.\n\n\nIs man magnified or minified by considering himself as under the \ninfluence of the heavenly bodies,\u2014not simply as being\n\n  Moved round in earth's dismal course\n    With rocks and stones and trees;[1]\n\nbut as affected by them in his constitution bodily and mental, and \ndependent on them for weal or woe, for good or evil fortune; as \nsubjected, that is, according to astrological belief to\n\n  The Stars, who, by I know not what strange right,\n  Preside o'er mortals in their own despite,\n  Who without reason, govern those who most,\n  (How truly, judge from thence!) of reason boast;\n  And by some mighty magic, yet unknown,\n  Our actions guide, yet cannot guide their own.[2]\n\nApart from what one of our Platonic divines calls \u201cthe power of astral \nnecessity, and uncontrollable impressions arising from the \nsubordination and mental sympathy and dependence of all mundane \ncauses,\u201d which is the Platonist's and Stoic's \u201cproper notion of \nfate;\u201d[3] apart, I say, from this, and from the Calvinist's doctrine \nof predestination, is it a humiliating, or an elevating consideration, \nthat the same celestial movements which cause the flux and reflux of \nthe ocean, should be felt in the pulse of a patient suffering with a \nfever: and that the eternal laws which regulate the stars in their \ncourses, should decide the lot of an individual?\n\n[Footnote 1: WORDSWORTH.]\n\n[Footnote 2: CHURCHILL.]\n\n[Footnote 3: JOHN SMITH.]\n\nHere again a distinction must be made,\u2014between the physical theory and \nthe pseudo-science. The former is but a question of more or less; for \nthat men are affected by atmospherical influence is proved by every \nendemic disease; and invalids feel in themselves a change of weather \nas decidedly as they perceive its effect upon the weather-glass, the \nhygrometer, or the strings of a musical instrument. The sense of our \nweakness in this respect,\u2014of our dependence upon causes over which we \nhave no controul, and which in their operation and nature are \ninexplicable by us, must have a humbling and therefore a beneficial \ntendency in every mind disposed to goodness. It is in the order of \nProvidence that we should learn from sickness and adversity lessons \nwhich health and prosperity never teach.\n\nSome of the old theoretical physicians went far beyond this. Sachs von \nLewenheimb compared the microcosm of man with the macrocosm in which \nhe exists. The heart in the one, he said, is what the ocean is in the \nother, the blood has its ebbing and flowing like the tide, and as the \nocean receives its impulse from the moon and the winds, the brain and \nthe vital spirits act in like manner upon the heart. Baillet has \nnoticed for censure the title of his book in his chapter _Des prejug\u00e9s \ndes Titres des Livres_; it is _Oceanus Macro-Micro-cosmicus_. Peder \nSeverinsen carrying into his medical studies a fanciful habit of mind \nwhich he might better have indulged in his younger days when he was a \nProfessor of Poetry, found in the little world of the human body, \nantitypes of every thing in the great world, its mountains and its \nvallies, its rivers and its lakes, its minerals and its vegetables, \nits elements and its spheres. According to him the stars are living \ncreatures, subject to the same diseases as ourselves. Ours indeed are \nderived from them by sympathy, or astral influence, and can be \nremedied only by those medicines, the application of which is denoted \nby their apparent qualities, or by the authentic signature of nature.\n\nThis fancy concerning the origin of diseases is less intelligible than \nthe mythology of those Rosicrucians who held that they were caused by \nevil demons rulers of the respective planets, or by the Spirits of the \nFirmament and the Air. A mythology this may more properly be called \nthan a theory; and it would belong rather to the history of Manicheism \nthan of medicine, were it not that in all ages fanaticism and \nimposture have, in greater or less degree, connected themselves with \nthe art of healing.\n\nBut however dignified, or super-celestial the theoretical causes of \ndisease, its effect is always the same in bringing home, even to the \nproudest heart, a sense of mortal weakness: whereas the belief which \nplaces man in relation with the Stars, and links his petty concerns \nand fortunes of a day with the movements of the heavenly bodies, and \nthe great chain of events, tends to exalt him in his own conceit. The \nthriftless man in middle or low life who says, in common phrase, that \nhe was born under a threepenny planet, and therefore shall never be \nworth a groat, finds some satisfaction in imputing his unprosperity to \nthe Stars, and casting upon them the blame which he ought to take upon \nhimself. In vain did an old Almanack-maker say to such men of the \nCreator, in a better strain than was often attained by the professors \nof his craft.\n\n  He made the Stars to be an aid unto us,\n  Not (as is fondly dream'd) to help undo us;\n  Much less without our fault to ruinate\n  By doom of irrecoverable Fate.\n  And if our best endeavours use we will,\n  These glorious Creatures will be helpful still\n  In all our honest ways: for they do stand\n  To help, not hinder us, in God's command,\n  Who doth not only rule them by his powers\n  But makes their glory servant unto ours.\n  Be wise in Him, and if just cause there be\n  The Sun and Moon shall stand and wait on thee.\n\nOn the other hand the lucky adventurer proceeds with superstitious \nconfidence in his Fortune; and the ambitious in many instances have \ndevoted themselves, or been deceived to their own destruction. It is \nfound accordingly that the professors of astrology generally in their \nprivate practice addressed themselves to the cupidity or the vanity of \nthose by whom they were employed. Honest professors there were who \nframed their schemes faithfully upon their own rules; but the greater \nnumber were those who consulted their own advantage only, and these \nmen being well acquainted with human nature in its ordinary character, \nalways took this course.\u2014Their character has changed as little as \nhuman nature itself in the course of two thousand years since Ennius \nexpressed his contempt for them, in a passage preserved by Cicero.\n\n  _Non habeo denique nauci Marsum augurem,\n   Non vicanos haruspices, non de circo astrologos,\n   Non Isiacos conjectores, non interpretes somnium.\n   Non enim sunt ii aut scienti\u00e2 aut arte, divini,\n   Sed superstitiosi vates, impudentesque harioli,\n   Aut inertes, aut insani, aut quibus egestas imperat:\n   Qui sibi semitam non sapiunt, alteri monstrant viam.\n   Quibus divitias pollicentur, ab iis drachmam ipsi petunt.\n   De his divitiis sibi deducant drachmam, reddant c\u00e6tera._\n\nPompey, Crassus, and C\u00e6sar were each assured by the Chaldeans that he \nshould die in his own house, in prosperity, and in a good old age. \nCicero tells us this upon his own knowledge: _Quam multa ego Pompeio, \nquam multa Crasso, quam multa huic ipsi C\u00e6sari \u00e0 Chaldeis dicta \nmemini, neminem eorum nisi senectute, nisi domi, nisi cum claritate \nesse moriturum! ut mihi permirum videatur, quemquam extare, qui etiam \nnunc credat iis, quorum pr\u00e6dicta quotidie videat re et eventis \nrefelli._\n\nAnd before the age of Ennius, Euripides had in the person of Tiresias \nshewn how surely any such profession, if the professor believed in his \nown art, must lead to martyrdom, or falsehood. When the blind old \nProphet turns away from Creon, he says, in words worthy of Milton's \nfavourite poet,\n\n  _\u03a4\u1f70 \u03bc\u1f72\u03bd \u03c0\u03b1\u03c1\u1fbd \u1f21\u03bc\u1ff6\u03bd \u03c0\u03ac\u03bd\u03c4\u1fbd \u1f14\u03c7\u03b5\u03b9\u03c2\u00b7 \u1f21\u03b3\u03bf\u1fe6, \u03c4\u03ad\u03ba\u03bd\u03bf\u03bd,\n   \u03a0\u03c1\u1f78\u03c2 \u03bf\u1f36\u03ba\u03bf\u03bd\u00b7 \u1f45\u03c3\u03c4\u03b9\u03c2 \u03b4\u1fbd \u1f10\u03bc\u03c0\u03cd\u03c1\u1ff3 \u03c7\u03c1\u1fc6\u03c4\u03b1\u03b9 \u03c4\u03ad\u03c7\u03bd\u1fc3,\n   \u039c\u03ac\u03c4\u03b1\u03b9\u03bf\u03c2\u1fbd \u1f22\u03bd \u03bc\u1f72\u03bd \u1f10\u03c7\u03b8\u03c1\u1f70 \u03c3\u03b7\u03bc\u03ae\u03bd\u03b1\u03c2 \u03c4\u03cd\u03c7\u1fc3,\n   \u03a0\u03b9\u03ba\u03c1\u1f78\u03c2 \u03ba\u03b1\u03b8\u03ad\u03c3\u03c4\u03b7\u03c7\u1fbd, \u03bf\u1f37\u03c2 \u1f02\u03bd \u03bf\u1f30\u03c9\u03bd\u03bf\u03c3\u03ba\u03bf\u03c0\u1fc7,\n   \u03a8\u03b5\u03c5\u03b4\u1fc6 \u03b4\u1fbd \u1f51\u03c0\u1fbd \u03bf\u1f34\u03ba\u03c4\u03bf\u03c5 \u03c4\u03bf\u1fd6\u03c3\u03b9 \u03c7\u03c1\u03c9\u03bc\u03ad\u03bd\u03bf\u03b9\u03c2 \u03bb\u03ad\u03b3\u03c9\u03bd,\n   \u1f08\u03b4\u03b9\u03ba\u03b5\u1fd6 \u03c4\u1f70 \u03c4\u1ff6\u03bd \u03b8\u03b5\u1ff6\u03bd. \u03a6\u03bf\u1fd6\u03b2\u03bf\u03bd \u1f00\u03bd\u03b8\u03c1\u03ce\u03c0\u03bf\u03b9\u03c2 \u03bc\u03cc\u03bd\u03bf\u03bd\n   \u03a7\u03c1\u1fc6\u03bd \u03b8\u03b5\u03c3\u03c0\u03b9\u03c9\u03b4\u03b5\u1fd6\u03bd, \u1f43\u03c2 \u03b4\u03ad\u03b4\u03bf\u03b9\u03ba\u03b5\u03bd \u03bf\u1f50\u03b4\u03ad\u03bd\u03b1._\n\nThe sagacity of the poet will be seen by those who are versed in the \nhistory of the Old Testament; and for those who are not versed in it, \nthe sooner they cease to be ignorant in what so nearly concerns them, \nthe better it may be for themselves.\n\nJeremy Taylor says that he reproves those who practised judicial \nastrology, and pretended to deliver genethliacal predictions, \u201cnot \nbecause their reason is against religion, for certainly, said he, it \ncannot be; but because they have not reason enough in what they say; \nthey go upon weak principles which they cannot prove; they reduce them \nto practice by impossible mediums; they argue about things with which \nthey have little conversation. Although the art may be very lawful if \nthe stars were upon the earth, or the men were in heaven, if they had \nskill in what they profess, and reason in all their pretences, and \nafter all that their principles were certain, and that the stars did \nreally signify future events, and that those events were not overruled \nby every thing in heaven and in earth, by God, and by our own will and \nwisdom,\u2014yet because here is so little reason and less certainty, and \nnothing but confidence and illusion, therefore it is that religion \npermits them not; and it is not the reason in this art that is against \nreligion, but the folly or the knavery of it; and the dangerous and \nhorrid consequents which they feel that run a-whoring after such idols \nof imagination.\u201d\n\nIn our days most of those persons who can afford to employ the greater \npart of their thoughts upon themselves, fall at a certain age under \nthe influence either of a physical or a spiritual director, for \nProtestantism has its _Directeurs_ as well as Popery, less to its \nadvantage and as little to its credit. The spiritual professors have \nthe most extensive practice, because they like their patients are of \nall grades, and are employed quite as much among the sound as the \nsick. The astrologer no longer contests the ascendancy with either. \nThat calling is now followed by none but such low impostors, that they \nare only heard of when one of them is brought before a magistrate for \ndefrauding some poor credulous creature in the humblest walks of life. \nSo low has that cunning fallen, which in the seventeenth century \nintroduced its professors into the cabinets of kings, and more \npowerful ministers. An astrologer was present at the birth of Louis \nXIV, that he might mark with all possible precision the exact moment \nof his nativity. After the massacre of St. Bartholomew's day, \nCatherine de Medici, deep in blood as she was, hesitated about putting \nto death the king of Navarre and the prince of Cond\u00e9, and the person \nof whom she took counsel was an astrologer,\u2014had she gone to her \nConfessor their death would have been certain. Cosmo Ruggieri was an \nunprincipled adventurer, but on this occasion he made a pious use of \nhis craft, and when the Queen enquired of him what the nativities of \nthese Princes prognosticated, he assured her that he had calculated \nthem with the utmost exactness, and that according to the principles \nof his art, the State had nothing to apprehend from either of them. He \nlet them know this as soon as he could, and told them that he had \ngiven this answer purely from regard for them, not from any result of \nhis schemes, the matter being in its nature undiscoverable by \nastrology.\n\nThe Imperial astrologers in China excused themselves once for a \nnotable failure in their art, with more notable address. The error \nindeed was harmless, except in its probable consequences to \nthemselves; they had predicted an eclipse, and no eclipse took place. \nBut instead of being abashed at this proof of their incapacity the \nready rogues complimented the Emperor, and congratulated him upon so \nwonderful and auspicious an event. The eclipse they said portended \nevil, and therefore in regard to him the Gods had put it by.\n\nAn Asiatic Emperor who calls himself Brother to the Sun and Moon, \nmight well believe that his relations would go a little out of their \nway to oblige him, if the Queen of Navarre could with apparent \nsincerity declare her belief that special revelations are made to the \nGreat, as one of the privileges of their high estate, and that her \nmother, that Catherine de Medici, whose name is for ever infamous, was \nthus miraculously forewarned of every remarkable event that befell her \nhusband and her children, nor was she herself, without her share in \nthis privilege, though her character was not more spotless in one \npoint than her mother's in another. _De ces divins advertissemens_, \nshe says, _je ne me veux estimer digne, toutesfois pour ne me taire \ncomme ingrate des graces que j'ay rece\u00fces de Dieu, que je dois et veux \nconfesser toute ma vie, pour luy en rendre grace, et que chacun le \nloue aux merveilles des effets de sa puissance, bont\u00e9, et misericorde, \nqu'il luy a pl\u00fb faire en moy, j'advoueray n'avoir jamais est\u00e9 proche \nde quelques signalez accidens, ou sinistres, ou heureux, que j'en aye \neu quelque advertissement ou en songe, ou autrement; et puis bien dire \nce vers,_\n\n  _De mon bien ou mon mal, mon esprit m'est oracle._\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER CXCVIII.\n\nPETER HOPKINS' VIEWS OF ASTROLOGY. HIS SKILL IN CHIROMANCY, PALMISTRY, \nOR MANUAL DIVINATION WISELY TEMPERED.\u2014SPANISH PROVERB AND SONNET BY \nBARTOLOME LEONARDO DE ARGENSOLA.\u2014TIPPOO SULTAN.\u2014MAHOMETAN \nSUPERSTITION.\u2014W. Y. PLAYTES' PROSPECTUS FOR THE HORN BOOK FOR THE \nREMEMBRANCE OF THE SIGNS OF SALVATION.\n\n  _Seguite dunque con la mente lieta,\n   Seguite, Monsignor, che com' io dico,\n   Presto presto sarete in su la meta._\n\nLUDOVICO DOLCE.\n\n\nPeter Hopkins had believed in astrology when he studied it in early \nlife with his friend Grey; his faith in it had been overthrown by \nobservation and reflection, and the unperceived influence of the \nopinions of the learned and scientific public; but there was more \nlatent doubt in his incredulity than had ever lurked at the root of \nhis belief.\n\nHe was not less skilled in the kindred, though more trivial art of \nChiromancy, Palmistry, or Manual Divination, for the divine origin of \nwhich a verse in the Book of Job was adduced as scriptural proof; \u201cHe \nsealeth up the hand of every man, that all men may know his work.\u201d The \ntext appears more chiromantical in the Vulgate. _Qui in manu omnium \nhominum signa posuit._ Who has placed signs in the hand of all men. \nThe uses of the science were represented to be such, as to justify \nthis opinion of its origination: \u201cFor hereby,\u201d says Fabian Withers, \n\u201cthou shalt perceive and see the secret works of Nature, how aptly and \nnecessarily she hath compounded and knit each member with other, \ngiving unto the hand, as unto a table, certain signs and tokens \nwhereby to discern and know the inward motions and affections of the \nmind and heart, with the inward state of the whole body; as also our \ninclination and aptness to all our external actions and doings. For \nwhat more profitable thing may be supposed or thought, than when a man \nin himself may foresee and know his proper and fatal accidents, and \nthereby to embrace and follow that which is good, and to avoid and \neschew the evils which are imminent unto him, for the better \nunderstanding and knowledge thereof?\u201d\n\nBut cautioning his readers against the error of those who perverted \ntheir belief in palmistry and astrology, and used it as a refuge or \nsanctuary for all their evil deeds, \u201cwe ought,\u201d said he, \u201cto know and \nunderstand that the Stars do not provoke or force us to anything, but \nonly make us apt and prone; and being so disposed, allure as it were, \nand draw us forward to our natural inclination. In the which if we \nfollow the rule of Reason, taking it to be our only guide and \ngovernor, they lose all the force, power and effect which they by any \nmeans may have in and upon us: contrariwise, if we give ourselves over \nto follow our own sensuality and natural dispositions, they work even \nthe same effect on us\u2014that they do in brute beasts.\u201d\n\nFarther he admonishes all \u201cwhich should read or take any fruit of his \nsmall treatise, to use such moderation in perusing of the same that \nthey do not by and by take in hand to give judgement either of their \nown, or other men's estates or nativities, without diligent \ncircumspection and taking heed; weighing and considering how many ways \na man may be deceived; as by the providence and discretion of the \nperson on whom he gives judgement, also, the dispensation of God, and \nour fallible and uncertain speculation.\u201d \u201cWherefore,\u201d he continues, \n\u201clet all men in seeking hereby to foresee their own fortune, take heed \nthat by the promise of good, they be not elate, or high-minded, giving \nthemselves over to otiosity or idleness, and trusting altogether to \nthe Natural Influences; neither yet by any signs or tokens of \nadversity, to be dejected or cast down, but to take and weigh all \nthings with such equality and moderation, directing their state of \nlife and living to all perfectness and goodness, that they may be \nready to embrace and follow all that which is good and profitable; and \nalso not only to eschew and avoid, but to withstand and set at nought \nall evil and adverse fortune, whensoever it may happen unto them.\u201d\n\nWhoever studies the history of opinions, that is, of the aberrations, \ncaprices and extravagancies of the human mind, may find some \nconsolation in reflecting upon the practical morality which has been \npreached not only by men of the most erroneous faith, but even by \nfanatics, impostors and hypocrites, as if it were in the order of \nProvidence that there should be no poison which had not also some \nmedicinal virtue. The books of palmistry have been so worn by perusal \nthat one in decent preservation is now among the rarities of \nliterature; and it may be hoped that of the credulous numbers who have \npored over them, many have derived more benefit from the wholesome \nlessons which were thus unexpectedly brought home to them, than they \nsuffered detriment from giving ear to the profession of a fallacious \nart.\n\nThe lesson was so obvious that the Spaniards expressed it in one of \ntheir pithy proverbs, _es nuestra alma en nuestra palma._ The thought \nhas been expanded into a sonnet by Bartolome Leonardo de Argensola, a \npoet whose strains of manly morality have not been exceeded in that \nlanguage.\n\n  _Fabio, pensar que el Padre soberano\n     En esas rayas de la palma diestra\n     (Que son arrugas de la piel) te muestra\n   Los accidentes del discurso humano;\n   Es beber con el vulgo el error vano\n     De la ignorancia, su comun maestra.\n     Bien te confieso, que la suerte nuestra,\n   Mala, o buena, la puso en nuestra mano.\n   Di, qui\u00e9n te estorvar\u00e1 el ser Rey, si vives\n     Sin envidiar la suerte de los Reyes,\n   Tan contento y pacifico en la tuya,\n     Que est\u00e9n ociosas para ti sus leyes;\n   Y qualquier novedad que el Cielo influya,\n     Como cosa ordinaria la recibes?_\n\n   Fabius, to think that God hath interlined\n     The human hand like some prophetic page,\n   And in the wrinkles of the palm defined\n     As in a map, our mortal pilgrimage,\n   This is to follow, with the multitude\n     Error and Ignorance, their common guides,\n   Yet Heaven hath placed, for evil or for good,\n     Our fate in our own hands, whate'er betides\n   Being as we make it. Art thou not a king\n     Thyself my friend, when envying not the lot\n   Of thrones, ambition hath for thee no sting,\n     Laws are to thee as they existed not,\n   And in thy harmless station no event\n     Can shake the calm of its assured content.\n\n\u201cNature\u201d says a Cheirologist, \u201cwas a careful workman in the creation \nof the human body. She hath set in the hand of man certain signs and \ntokens of the heart, brain and liver, because in them it is that the \nlife of man chiefly consists, but she hath not done so of the eyes, \nears, mouth, hands and feet, because those parts of the body seem \nrather to be made for a comeliness or beauty, than for any necessity.\u201d \nWhat he meant to say was that any accident which threatened the three \nvital parts was betokened in the lines of the palm, but that the same \nfashioning was not necessary in relation to parts which might be \ninjured without inducing the loss of life. Therefore every man's palm \nhas in it the lines relating to the three noble parts, the more minute \nlines are only found on subjects of finer texture, and if they \noriginally existed in husbandmen and others whose hands are rendered \ncallous by their employments, they are effaced.\n\nIt was only cheirologically speaking that he disparaged what sailors \nin their emphatic language so truly call our precious eyes and limbs, \nnot that he estimated them like Tippoo Sultan, who in one of his \nletters says, that if people persisted in visiting a certain person \nwho was under his displeasure, \u201ctheir ears and noses should be \ndispensed with.\u201d This strange tyrant wrote odes in praise of himself, \nand describes the effect of his just government to be such, that in \nthe security of his protection \u201cthe deer of the forest made their \npillow of the lion and the tyger, and their mattress of the leopard \nand the panther.\u201d\n\nTippoo did not consider ears and noses to be superfluities when in \nthat wanton wickedness which seldom fails to accompany the possession \nof irresponsible power he spoke of dispensing with them. But in one \ninstance arms and legs were regarded as worse than superfluous. Some \nyears ago a man was exhibited who was born without either, and in that \ncondition had found a woman base enough to marry him. Having got some \nmoney together, she one day set this wretched creature upon a \nchimney-piece, from whence he could not move, and went off with \nanother man, stripping him of every thing that she could carry away. \nThe first words he uttered, when some one came into the room and took \nhim down, were an imprecation upon those people who had legs and arms, \nbecause, he said they were always in mischief!\n\nThe Mahommedans believe that every man's fate is written on his \nforehead, but that it can be read by those only whose eyes have been \nopened. The Brahmins say that the sutures of the skull describe in \nlike manner the owner's destined fortune, but neither can this \nmysterious writing be seen by any one during his life, nor decyphered \nafter his death. Both these notions are mere fancies which afford a \nfoundation for nothing worse than fable. Something more extraordinary \nhas been excogitated by W. Y. Playtes, Lecturer upon the Signs of the \nlight of the Understanding. He announces to mankind that the prints of \nthe nails of the Cross which our Lord shewed Thomas, are printed in \nthe roots of the nails of the hands and feet of every man that is born \ninto the world, for witnesses, and for leading us to believe in the \ntruth of all the signs, and graven images and pictures that are seen \nin the Heavenly Looking Glass of Reflection, in the Sun and the Moon \nand the Stars. This Theosophist has published a short Prospectus of \nhis intended work entitled the Horn Book for the remembrance of the \nSigns of Salvation, which Horn Book is (should subscriptions be \nforthcoming) to be published in one hundred and forty-four numbers, \nforming twelve octavo volumes of six hundred pages each, with fifty \nplates, maps and tables, and 365,000 marginal references,\u2014being one \nthousand for every day in the year. Wonder not reader at the extent of \nthis projected work; for, says the author, \u201cthe Cow of the Church of \nTruth giveth abundance of milk, for the Babes of Knowledge.\u201d But for \npalmistry there was a plausible theory which made it applicable to the \npurposes of fraud.\n\nAmong the odd persons with whom Peter Hopkins had become acquainted in \nthe course of his earlier pursuits, was a sincere student of the \noccult sciences, who, being a more refined and curious artist, \nwhenever he cast the nativity of any one, took an impression from the \npalm of the hand, as from an engraved plate, or block. He had thus a \nfac-simile of what he wanted. According to Sir Thomas Browne, the \nvariety in the lines is so great, that there is almost no strict \nconformity. Bewick in one of his works has in this manner printed his \nown thumb. There are French deeds of the 15th century which are signed \nby the imprint of five fingers dipt in ink, underwritten _Ce est la \ngriffe de monseigneur._[1]\n\n[Footnote 1: The Reader, who is curious in such matters, may turn to \nAmes and Herbert, (Dibdin, ii. 380.) for the hands in Holt's Lac \nPuerorum, emprynted at London by Wynkyn de Worde.]\n\nHopkins himself did not retain any lurking inclination to believe in \nthis art. You could know without it, he said, whether a person were \nopen-handed, or close-fisted, and this was a more useful knowledge \nthan palmistry could give us. But the Doctor sometimes made use of it \nto amuse children, and gave them at the same time playful admonition, \nand wholesome encouragement.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER CXCIX.\n\nCONCERNING THE GREAT HONOURS TO WHICH CERTAIN HORSES HAVE ATTAINED, \nAND THE ROYAL MERITS OF NOBS.\n\n  _Siento para contarlas que me llama\n   El \u00e1 mi, yo \u00e1 mi pluma, ella \u00e1 la fama._\n\nBALBUENA.\n\n\nThere have been great and good horses whose merits have been recorded \nin history and in immortal song as they well deserved to be. Who has \nnot heard of Bucephalus? of whom Pulteney said that he questioned \nwhether Alexander himself had pushed his conquests half so far, if \nBucephalus had not stooped to take him on his back. Statius hath sung \nof Arion who when he carried Neptune left the winds panting behind \nhim, and who was the best horse that ever has been heard of for taking \nthe water,\n\n  _S\u00e6pe per Ionium Libycumque natantibus ire\n   Interjunctus equis, omnesque assuetus in oras\n   C\u00e6ruleum deferre patrem._\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n   Tramp, tramp across the land he went,\n       Splash, splash across the sea.\n\nBut he was a dangerous horse in a gig. Hercules found it difficult to \nhold him in, and Polynices when he attempted to drive him made almost \nas bad a figure as the Taylor upon his ever memorable excursion to \nBrentford.\n\nThe virtues of Caligula's horse, whom that Emperor invited to sup with \nhim, whom he made a Priest, and whom he intended to make Consul, have \nnot been described by those historians who have transmitted to us the \naccount of his extraordinary fortune; and when we consider of what \nmaterials, even in our days, both Priests and Senators are sometimes \nmade, we may be allowed to demur at any proposition which might \ninclude an admission that dignity is to be considered an unequivocal \nmark of desert. More certain it is that Borysthenes was a good horse, \nfor the Emperor Adrian erected a monument to his memory, and it was \nrecorded in his epitaph that he used to fly over the plains and \nmarshes and Etrurian hills, hunting Pannonian boars; he appears by his \nname to have been like Nobs, of Tartaric race.\n\nBavieca was a holy and happy horse,\u2014I borrow the epithets from the \nBishop of Chalons's sermon upon the Bells. Gil Diaz deserved to be \nburied in the same grave with him. And there is an anonymous Horse, of \nwhom honorable mention is made in the Roman Catholic Breviary, for his \nreligious merits, because after a Pope had once ridden him, he never \nwould suffer himself to be unhallowed by carrying a woman on his back. \nThese latter are both Roman Catholic Houyhnhnms, but among the \nMahometans also, quadrupedism is not considered an obstacle to a \ncertain kind of canonization. Seven of the Emperor of Morocco's horses \nhave been Saints, or Marabouts as the Moors would call it; and some \nthere were who enjoyed that honour in the year 1721 when Windus was at \nMequinez. One had been thus distinguished for saving the Emperor's \nlife: \u201cand if a man,\u201d says the Traveller, \u201cshould kill one of his \nchildren, and lay hold of this horse, he is safe. This horse has saved \nthe lives of some of the captives, and is fed with _cuscuru_ and \ncamel's milk. After the Emperor has drank, and the horse after him, \nsome of his favourites are suffered to drink out of the same bowl.\u201d \nThis was probably the horse who had a Christian slave appointed to \nhold up his tail when he was led abroad, and to carry a vessel and \ntowel\u2014\u201cfor use unmeet to tell.\u201d\n\nI have discovered only one Houyhnhnm who was a martyr, excepting those \nwho are sometimes burnt with the rest of the family by Captain Rock's \npeople in Ireland. This was poor Morocco, the learned horse of Queen \nElizabeth's days: he and his master Banks, having been in some danger \nof being put to death at Orleans, were both burnt alive by the \nInquisition at Rome, as magicians.\u2014The word martyr is here used in its \nreligious acceptation: for the victims of avarice and barbarity who \nare destroyed by hard driving and cruel usage are numerous enough to \nmake a frightful account among the sins of this nation.\n\nFabretti the antiquary had a horse who when he carried his master on \nan antiquarian excursion, assisted him in his researches; for this \nsagacious horse had been so much accustomed to stop where there were \nruins, and probably had found so much satisfaction in grazing, or \ncropping the boughs among them at his pleasure, that he was become a \nsort of antiquary himself; and sometimes by stopping and as it were \npointing like a setter, gave his master notice of some curious and \nhalf-hidden objects which he might otherwise have past by unperceived.\n\nHow often has a drunken rider been carried to his own door by a \nsure-footed beast, sensible enough to understand that his master was \nin no condition either to guide him, or to take care of himself. How \noften has a stage coach been brought safely to its inn after the \ncoachman had fallen from the box. Nay was there not a mare at Ennis \nraces in Ireland (Atalanta was her name) who having thrown her rider, \nkept the course with a perfect understanding of what was expected from \nher, looked back and quickened her speed as the other horses \napproached her, won the race, trotted a few paces beyond the post, \nthen wheeled round, and came up to the scale as usual? And did not \nHurleyburley do the same thing at the Goodwood races?\n\nThat Nobs was the best horse in the world I will not affirm. Best is \nindeed a bold word to whatever it be applied, and yet in the \nshopkeeper's vocabulary it is at the bottom of his scale of \nsuperlatives. A haberdasher in a certain great city is still \nremembered, whose lowest priced gloves were what he called Best, but \nthen he had five degrees of optimism; Best, Better than Best, Best of \nall, Better than Best of all, and the Real Best. It may be said of \nNobs then that he was one of the Real Best: equal to any that Spain \ncould have produced to compare with him, though concerning Spanish \nhorses, the antiquary and historian Morales, (properly and as it were \nprophetically baptized Ambrosio, because his name ought ever to be in \nambrosial odour among his countrymen) concerning Spanish horses, I \nsay, that judicious author has said, _la estima que agora se hace en \ntodo el mundo de un caballo Espa\u00f1ol es la mas solemne cosa que puede \nhaber en animales._\n\nNeither will I assert that there could not have been a better horse \nthan Nobs, because I remember how Roger Williams tells us, \u201cone of the \nchiefest Doctors of England was wont to say concerning strawberries, \nthat God could have made a better berry, but he never did.\u201d Calling \nthis to mind, I venture to say as that chiefest Doctor might, and we \nmay believe would have said upon the present occasion, that a better \nhorse than Nobs there might have been,\u2014but there never was.\n\nThe Duchess of Newcastle tells us that her Lord, than whom no man \ncould be a more competent judge, preferred barbs and Spanish to all \nothers, for barbs, he said, were like gentlemen in their kind, and \nSpanish horses like Princes. This saying would have pleased the \nDoctor, as coinciding entirely with his own opinions. He was no \nbeliever in equality either among men or beasts; and he used to say, \nthat in a state of nature Nobs would have been the king of his kind.\n\nAnd why not? if I do not show you sufficient precedents for it call me \nFIMBUL FAMBI.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER CC.\n\nA CHAPTER OF KINGS.\n\n   FIMBUL-FAMBI _heitr\n   S\u00e1 er fatt kann segia,\n   That er \u00f3snotvrs athal._\n\n  _Fimbul-fambi (fatuus) vocatur\n   Qui pauca novit narrare:\n   Ea est hominis insciti proprietas._\n\nEDDA, _H\u00e1va M\u00e1l_.\n\n\nThere are other monarchies in the inferior world, besides that of the \nBees, though they have not been registered by Naturalists, nor studied \nby them.\n\nFor example, the King of the Fleas keeps his court at Tiberias, as Dr. \nClarke discovered to his cost, and as Mr. Cripps will testify for him.\n\nThe King of the Crocodiles resides in Upper Egypt; he has no tail, but \nDr. Southey has made one for him.\n\nThe Queen Muscle may be found at the Falkland Islands.\n\nThe Oysters also have their King, according to Pliny. Theirs seems to \nbe a sort of patriarchical monarchy, the King, or peradventure the \nQueen, Oyster being distinguished by its size and age, perhaps \ntherefore the parent of the bed; for every bed, if Pliny err not, has \nits sovereign. In Pliny's time the diver made it his first business to \ncatch the royal Oyster, because his or her Majesty being of great age \nand experience, was also possessed of marvellous sagacity, which was \nexercised for the safety of the commonweal; but if this were taken the \nothers might be caught without difficulty, just as a swarm of Bees may \nbe secured after the Queen is made prisoner. Seeing, however, that his \nOyster Majesty is not to be heard of now at any of the Oyster shops in \nLondon, nor known at Colchester or Milton, it may be that liberal \nopinions have, in the march of intellect, extended to the race of \nOysters, that monarchy has been abolished among them, and that \nrepublicanism prevails at this day throughout all Oysterdom, or at \nleast in those parts of it which be near the British shores. It has \nbeen observed also by a judicious author that no such King of the \nOysters has been found in the West Indian Pearl fisheries.\n\nThe King of the Bears rules over a territory which is on the way to \nthe desert of Hawaida, and Hatim Tai married his daughter, though the \nsaid Hatim was long unwilling to become a Mac Mahon by marriage.\n\n\u201cI was told by the Sheikh Othman and his son, two pious and credible \npersons,\u201d says the traveller Ibn Batista, \u201cthat the monkies have a \nleader whom they follow as if he were their King, (this was in \nCeylon). About his head is tied a turban composed of the leaves of \ntrees, (for a crown;) and he reclines upon a staff, (which is his \nsceptre). At his right and left hand are four Monkies with rods in \ntheir hands, (gold sticks), all of which stand at his head whenever \nthe leading Monkey, (his Majesty) sits. His wives and children are \ndaily brought in on these occasions, and sit down before him; then \ncomes a number of Monkies (his privy council) which sit and form an \nassembly about him. After this each of them comes with a nut, a lemon \nor some of the mountain fruit, which he throws down before the leader. \nHe then eats (dining in public, like the King of France) together with \nhis wives, and children, and the four principal Monkies: they then all \ndisperse. One of the Jogres also told me, that he once saw the four \nMonkies standing in the presence of the leader, and beating another \nMonkey with rods; after which they plucked off all his hair.\u201d\n\nThe Lion is the King of Beasts. Hutchinson, however, opines that Bulls \nmay be ranked in a higher class; for helmets are fortified with their \nhorns, which is a symbol of pre-eminence. Certainly he says, both the \nBull and Lion discover the King, but the Bull is a better and more \nsignificant representative of a King than the Lion. But neither Bull \nnor Lion is King of all Beasts, for a certain person whose name being \nanagrammatized rendereth Johnny the Bear, is notoriously the King of \nthe Bears at this time: even Ursa Major would not dispute his title. \nAnd a certain honourable member of the House of Commons would by the \ntottle of that whole House be voted King of the Bores.\n\nThe King of the Codfish frequents the shores of Finmark. He has a sort \nof chubbed head, rising in the shape of a crown, his forehead is \nbroad, and the lower jaw bone projects a little, in other parts he \nresembles his subjects, whom he leads and directs in their migrations. \nThe Laplanders believe that the fisherman who takes him, will from \nthat time forth be fortunate, especially in fishing; and they shew \ntheir respect for his Cod-Majesty when he is taken, by hanging him up \nwhole to dry, instead of cutting off his head as they do to the common \nfish.\n\nIn Japan the Tai, which the Dutch call Steenbrassem, is the King of \nFish, because it is sacred to their sea-god Jebis, and because of its \nsplendid colours, and also, perhaps, because of its exorbitant price, \nit being so scarce, that for a court entertainment, or on other \nextraordinary occasions, one is not to be had under a thousand \ncobangs.\n\nAmong the Gangas or Priests of Congo, is one whose official title is \nMutuin, and who calls himself King of the Water, for by water alone he \nprofesses to heal all diseases. At certain times all who need his aid \nare assembled on the banks of a river. He throws an empty vessel in, \nrepeats some mysterious words, then takes it out full and distributes \nthe water as an universal medicine.\n\nThe Herring has been called the King of Fish, because of its \nexcellence, the Herring, as all Dutchmen know, and as all other men \nought to know, exceeding every other fish in goodness. Therefore it \nmay have been that the first dish which used to be brought to table in \nthis country on Easter Day, was a Red Herring on horseback, set in a \ncorn sallad.\n\nOthers have called the Whale, King of Fish. But Abraham Rees, D.D. and \nF.R.S. of Cyclopedian celebrity, assures us that the whale \nnotwithstanding its piscine appearance, and its residence in the \nwaters, has no claim to a place among fishes. Uncle Toby would have \nwhistled Lillabullero at being told that the Whale was not a fish. The \nsaid Abraham Rees, however, of the double Dees, who is, as the \nadvertisement on the cover of his own Cyclopedia, informs us, \u201cof \nacknowledged learning and industry, and of unquestionable experience \nin this (the Cyclopedian) department of literary labour,\u201d candidly \nadmits that the Ancients may surely be excused for thinking Whales \nwere fish. But how can Abraham Rees be excused for denying the Whale's \nclaim to a place among the inhabitants of the Great Deep,\u2014which was \nappointed for him at the Creation.\n\nBut the Great Fish who is undoubtedly the King of Fish, and of all \ncreatures that exist in the sea, Whales, Mermen-and-Maids included, is \nthe fish Arez, which Ormuzd created, and placed in the water that \nsurrounds Hom, the King of Trees, to protect that sacred arboreal \nMajesty against the Great Toad sent there by Ahriman to destroy it.\n\nIt is related in the same archives of cosmogony that the King of the \nGoats is a White Goat, who carries his head in a melancholy and \ncogitabund position, regarding the ground,\u2014weighed down perhaps by the \ncares of royalty; that the King of the Sheep has his left ear \nwhite,\u2014from whence it may appear that the Royal Mutton is a black \nsheep, which the Royal Ram of the Fairy Tales is not: that the King of \nthe Camels has two white ears: and that the King of the Bulls is \nneither Apis, nor John Bull, but a Black Bull with yellow ears. \nAccording to the same archives, a White Horse with yellow ears and \nfull eyes is King of the Horses;\u2014doubtless the Mythological Horse King \nwould acknowledge Nobs for his Vicegerent. The Ass King is also white: \nhis Asinine Majesty has no Vicegerent. The number of competitors being \nso great that he has appointed a regency.\n\nThe King of Dogs is yellow. The King of Hares red.\n\nThere are Kings among the Otters in the Highland waters, and also \namong their relations the Sea Otters. The royal Otter is larger than \nhis subjects, and has a white spot upon the breast. He shuns \nobservation, which it is sometimes provident for Kings to do, \nespecially under such circumstances as his, for his skin is in great \nrequest, among soldiers and sailors; it is supposed to ensure victory, \nto secure the wearer from being wounded, to be a prophylactic in times \nof contagious sickness, and a preservative in shipwreck. But it is not \neasy to find an Otter King, and when found there is danger in the act \nof regicide, for he bears a charmed life. The moment in which he is \nkilled proves fatal to some other creature, either man or beast, whose \nmortal existence is mysteriously linked with his. The nature of the \nOtter monarchy has not been described, it is evident, however, that \nhis ministers have no loaves to dispose of,\u2014but then they have plenty \nof fishes.\n\nThe Ant, who, when Solomon entered the Valley of Ants with his armies \nof Genii and men and birds, spoke to the nation of Ants, saying, O \nAnts, enter ye not your habitations, lest Solomon and his host tread \nyou under foot, and perceive it not,\u2014that wise pismire is said by \ncertain commentators upon the Koran to have been the Queen of the \nAnts.\n\nMen have held the Eagle to be the King of Birds; but notwithstanding \nthe authority of Horace, the Gods know otherwise, for they appointed \nthe Tchamrosch to that dignity, at the beginning. Some writers indeed \nwould have the Eagle to be Queen, upon the extraordinary ground that \nall Eagles are hens; though in what manner the species is perpetuated \nthese persons have not attempted to shew.\n\nThe Carrion Crows of Guiana have their King, who is a White Crow \n_(rara avis in terris)_ and has wings tipt with black. When a flight \nof these birds arrive at the prey which they have scented from afar, \nhowever ravenous they may be, they keep at a respectful distance from \nthe banquet, till his Carrion Majesty has satisfied himself. But there \nis another Bird, in South America, whom all the Birds of prey of every \nspecies acknowledge for their natural sovereign, and carry food to him \nin his nest, as their tribute.\n\nThe King of the Elks is so huge an elk that other elks look like \npismires beside him. His legs are so long, and his strength withal \nsuch, that when the snow lies eight feet deep it does not in the least \nimpede his pace. He has an arm growing out of his shoulder, and a \nlarge suite who attend upon him wherever he goes, and render him all \nthe service he requires.\n\nI have never heard anything concerning the King of the Crickets except \nin a rodomontade of Matthew Merrygreeks, who, said Ralph Roister \nDoister,\n\n        bet him on Christmas day\n  That he crept in a hole, and had not a word to say.\n\nAmong the many images of Baal, one was the form or representation of a \nFly, and hence, says Master Perkins, he is called Baalzebub the Lord \nof Flies, because he was thought to be the chiefest Fly in the world. \nThat is he was held to be the King of the Flies. I wish the King of \nthe Spiders would catch him.\n\nThe King of the Peacocks may be read of in the Fairy Tales. The \nJapanese name for a crane is Tsuri and the common people in that \ncountry always give that bird the same title which is given to their \nfirst secular Emperor, Tsiri-sama\u2014my great Lord Crane.\n\nThe Basilisk, or crowned Cockatrice, who is the chick of a Cock's egg, \nis accounted the King of Serpents. And as it has been said that there \nis no Cock Eagle, so upon more probable cause it is affirmed that \nthere is no female Basilisk, that is no Henatrice, the Cock laying \nonly male eggs. But the most venomous of this kind is only an earthly \nand mortal vicegerent, for the true King of Serpents is named \nSanc-ha-naga, and formerly held his court in Chacragiri, a mountain in \nthe remote parts of the East, where he and his serpentine subjects \nwere oppressed by the Rational Eagle Garuda. In the spirit of an \nimperial Eagle, Garuda required from them a serpent every day for his \ndinner, which was regarded by the serpents as a most unpleasant \ntribute, especially by such as were full grown and in good condition; \nfor the Rational Eagle being large and strong enough to carry Vishnu \non his back, expected always a good substantial snake sufficient for a \nmeal. Sanc-ha-naga, like a Patriot King endeavoured to deliver his \nliege subjects from this consuming tyranny; the attempt drew upon him \nthe wrath of Garuda, which would soon have been followed by his \nvengeance, and the King of Serpents must have been devoured himself, \nif he and all the snakes had not retired, as fast as they could \nwriggle to Sanc-ha-vana, in Sanc-ha-dwip, which is between Cali and \nthe Sea; there they found an asylum near the palace of Carticeya, son \nof the mountain goddess Parvats, and Commander of the Celestial \nArmies. Carticeya is more powerful than Garuda, and therefore the \ndivine Eagle is too rational to invade them while they are under his \nprotection. It would have been more fortunate for the world if the \nKing of Serpents had not found any one to protect him; for whatever \nhis merits may be towards his subjects, he is a most pestilent \nPotentate, the breath of his nostrils is a fiery wind which destroys \nand consumes all creatures and all herbs within an hundred _yojanas_ \nof his abode, and which in fact is the Simoom, so fatal to those who \ntravel in the deserts. The sage Agastya for a time put a stop to this \nevil, for he, by the virtue of his self-inflection, obtained such \npower, that he caught Sanc-ha-naga, and carried him about in an \nearthen vessel. That vessel however must have been broken in some \nunhappy hour, for the fiery and poisonous wind is now as frequent as \never in the deserts.\n\nThe Hindoos say that whoever performs yearly and daily rites in honour \nof the King of the Serpents, will acquire immense riches. _This_ King \nof the Serpents, I say, to wit Sanc'-ha-naga,\u2014(or Sanc' ha-mucha, as \nhe is also called from the shape of his mouth resembling that of a \nshell)\u2014because there is another King of the Serpents, Karkotaka by \nname, whom the sage Narada for deceiving him, punished once by casting \nhim into a great fire, and confining him there by a curse till he was \ndelivered in the manner which the reader may find related in the 14th \nbook of Nela and Damarante, as translated by Mr. Milman from the \nSanscrit.\n\nThe Locusts according to Agur in the Book of Proverbs have no King, \nalthough they go forth all of them by bands. Perhaps their form of \ngovernment has changed, for the Moors of Morocco inform us that they \nhave a sovereign, who leads forth their innumerable armies; and as his \nnation belongs to the Mahometan world, his title is Sultan Jereed.\n\nThe Rose is the Queen of the Garden\n\n           _plebei cedite flores;\n  Hortorum regina suos ostendit honores._[1]\n\n[Footnote 1: RAPIN.]\n\nBampfield Moore Carew was King of the Beggars; and James Bosvill, was \nKing of the Gypsies. He lies buried in Rossington Churchyard, near \nDoncaster, and for many years the gypsies from the south visited his \ngrave annually, and among other rites poured a flagon of ale upon it.\n\nThere was a personage at Oxford who bore in that University the \ndistinguished title of Rex Rafforum. After taking his degree he \nexchanged it for that of the Reverend.\n\nThe _Scurr\u00e6_,\u2014(we have no word in our language which designates men \nwho profess and delight in indulging an ill-mannered and worse-minded \nbuffoonery,)\u2014the _Scurr\u00e6_ also have their King. He bears a Baron's \ncoronet.\n\nThe throne of the Dandies has been vacant since the resignation of the \npersonage dignified and distinguished by the title of Beau Brummel.\n\nBy an advertisement in the Times of Friday, June 18, 1830, I learn \nthat the beautiful and stupendous Bradwell Ox, is at present the \n\u201ctruly wonderful King of the Pastures,\u201d the said King Ox measuring \nfourteen feet in girth, and sixteen feet in length, being eighteen \nhands high, and five years and a half old, and weighing four thousand \nfive hundred pounds, or more than five hundred and sixty stone, which \nis nearly double the size of large oxen in general.\n\nUnder the Twelve C\u00e6sars, (and probably it might deserve the title long \nafter them,) the Via Appia was called the Queen of Roads. That from \nHyde Park Corner is _Regina viarum_ in the 19th century.\n\nEaster Sunday has been called the King of Days, though Christmas Day \nmight dispute the sovereignty, being in Greek the Queen day of the \nKalendar. _\u1f29 \u03b2\u03b1\u03c3\u03b9\u03bb\u03af\u03c3\u03c3\u03b1 \u1f21\u03bc\u03ad\u03c1\u03b1_ Justin Martyr calls it.\n\nWho is King of the Booksellers? There is no King among them at this \ntime, but there is a Directory of five Members, Longman, Rees, Orme, \nBrown and Green in the East; the Emperor Murraylemagne, whom Byron \nused to call the Grand Murray, reigned alone in the West, till Henry \nColburn divided his empire, and supported the station which he had \nassumed by an army of trumpeters which he keeps in constant pay.\n\nIf the Books had a King that monarchy must needs be an elective one, \nand the reader of these volumes knows where the election would fall. \nBut literature being a Republic, this cannot be the King of Books. \nSuffice it that it is a BOOK FOR A KING, or, for our SOVEREIGN LADY \nTHE QUEEN.\n\n\n\n\nINTERCHAPTER XXI.\n\nMEASURE FOR MEASURE.\n\n           _Le Plebe \u00e8 bestia\n  Di cento teste, e non rinchiude in loro\n  Pur oncia di saper._\n\nCHIABRERA.\n\n\nThe Public, will, I very well know, make free with me _more suo_, as \nit thinks it has a right to do with any one who comes before it with \nanything designed for its service, whether it be for its amusement, \nits use, or its instruction. Now my Public, I will _more meo_ make \nfree with you\u2014that we may be so far upon equal terms.\n\n  _\u03bf\u1f50\u03b4\u1f72\u03bd \u03b4\u03b5\u1fd6 \u03c0\u03b1\u03c1\u03b1\u03bc\u03c0\u03ad\u03c7\u03b5\u03b9\u03bd \u03bb\u03cc\u03b3\u03bf\u03c5\u03c2._[1]\n\nYou have seldom or never had the truth spoken to you when you have \nbeen directly addressed. You have been called the enlightened Public, \nthe generous Public, the judicious Public, the liberal Public, the \ndiscerning Public, and so forth. Nay your bare title THE PUBLIC, \noftentimes stands alone _par excellence_ in its plain majesty like \nthat of the king, as if needing no affix to denote its inherent and \npre-eminent importance. But I will speak truth to you my Public.\n\n  Be not deceived! I have no bended knees,\n  No supple tongue, no speeches steep'd in oil,\n  No candied flattery, nor honied words![2]\n\n[Footnote 1: EURIPIDES.]\n\n[Footnote 2: RANDOLPH'S ARISTIPPUS.]\n\nI must speak the truth to you my Public,\n\n  _Sincera verit\u00e0 non vuol tacersi._[3]\n\nWhere your enlightenedness (if there be such a word) consists and your \ngenerosity, and your judgement, and your liberality, and your \ndiscernment, and your majesty to boot,\u2014to express myself as Whitfield \nor Rowland Hill would have done in such a case (for they knew the \nforce of language)\u2014I must say, it would puzzle the Devil to tell. _Il \nfaut librement avec verit\u00e9 francher ce mot, sans en estre repris; ou \nsi l'on est, c'est tr\u00e8s-mal \u00e0 propos._[4]\n\n[Footnote 3: CHIABRERA.]\n\n[Footnote 4: BRANTOME.]\n\nI will tell you what you are; you are a great, ugly, many headed \nbeast, with a great many ears which are long, hairy, ticklish, \nmoveable, erect and never at rest.\n\nLook at your picture in Southey's Hexameters,\u2014that poem in which his \nlaureated Doctorship writes verses by the yard instead of the foot,\u2014he \ndescribes you as \u201cmany headed and monstrous,\u201d\n\n                      with numberless faces,\n  Numberless bestial ears, erect to all rumours, and restless,\n  And with numberless mouths which are fill'd with lies as with\n    arrows.\n\nLook at that Picture my Public!\u2014It is very like you!\n\nFor individual readers I profess just as much respect as they \nindividually deserve. There are a few persons in every generation for \nwhose approbation,\u2014rather let it be said for whose gratitude and \nlove,\u2014it is worth while \u201cto live laborious days,\u201d and for these \nreaders of this generation and the generations that are to follow,\u2014for \nthese\n\n  Such as will join their profit with their pleasure,\n  And come to feed their understanding parts;\u2014\n  For these I'll prodigally spend myself,\n  And speak away my spirit into air;\n  For these I'll melt my brain into invention,\n  Coin new conceits, and hang my richest words\n  As polished jewels in their bounteous ears.[5]\n\n[Footnote 5: BEN JONSON.]\n\nSuch readers, they who to their learning add knowledge, and to their \nknowledge wisdom and to their wisdom benevolence, will say to me\n\n  _\u1f66 \u03ba\u03b1\u03bb\u1f70 \u03bb\u03ad\u03b3\u03c9\u03bd, \u03c0\u03bf\u03bb\u1f7a \u03b4\u1fbd \u1f04\u03bc\u03b5\u03b9\u03bd\u03bf\u03bd\u1fbd \u1f14\u03c4\u03b9 \u03c4\u1ff6\u03bd \u03bb\u03cc\u03b3\u03c9\u03bd\n             \u1f10\u03c1\u03b3\u03b1\u03c3\u03ac\u03bc\u03b5\u03bd\u1fbd, \u03b5\u1f34\u03b8\u1fbd \u1f10\u03c0\u03ad\u03bb\u2014\n             \u03b8\u03bf\u03b9\u03c2 \u1f05\u03c0\u03b1\u03bd\u03c4\u03ac \u03bc\u03bf\u03b9 \u03c3\u03b1\u03c6\u1ff6\u03c2\u00b7\n             \u1f61\u03c2 \u1f10\u03b3\u03ce \u03bc\u03bf\u03b9 \u03b4\u03bf\u03ba\u1ff6\n   \u03ba\u1f02\u03bd \u03bc\u03b1\u03ba\u03c1\u1f70\u03bd \u1f41\u03b4\u1f78\u03bd \u03b4\u03b9\u03b5\u03bb\u03b8\u03b5\u1fd6\u03bd \u1f65\u03c2\u1fbd \u1f00\u03ba\u03bf\u1fe6\u03c3\u03b1\u03b9.\n   \u03c0\u03c1\u1f78\u03c2 \u03c4\u03ac\u03b4\u1fbd \u1f66 \u03b2\u03ad\u03bb\u03c4\u03b9\u03c3\u03c4\u03b5 \u03b8\u03b1\u1fe4\u1fe5\u03ae\u03c3\u03b1\u03c2 \u03bb\u03ad\u03b3\u1fbd, \u1f61\u03c2 \u1f03\u2014\n             \u03c0\u03b1\u03bd\u03c4\u03b5\u03c2 \u1f21\u03b4\u03cc\u03bc\u03b5\u03c3\u03b8\u03ac \u03c3\u03bf\u03b9._[6]\n\nBut such readers are very few. Walter Landor said that if ten such \npersons should approve his writings, he would call for a division and \ncount a majority. To please them is to obtain an earnest of enduring \nfame; for which, if it be worth any thing, no price can be too great. \nBut for the aggregate any thing is good enough. Yes my Public, Mr. \nHume's arithmetic and Mr. Brougham's logic, Lord Castlereagh's syntax, \nMr. Irving's religion and Mr. Carlisle's irreligion, the politics of \nthe Edinburgh Review and the criticism of the Quarterly, Thames water, \nBrewer's beer, Spanish loans, old jokes, new constitutions, Irish \neloquence, Scotch metaphysics, Tom and Jerry, Zimmerman on Solitude, \nChancery Equity and Old Bailey Law, Parliamentary wit, the patriotism \nof a Whig Borough-monger, and the consistency of a British cabinet; \n_Et s'il y a encore quelque chose \u00e0 dire, je le tiens pour dit;_\u2014\n\n[Footnote 6: ARISTOPHANES.]\n\nYes my Public,\n\n  Nor would I you should look for other looks,\n  Gesture, or compliment from me.[7]\n\n[Footnote 7: BEN JONSON.]\n\n_Minus dico quam vellem, et verba omnin\u00f2 frigidiora h\u00e6c quam ut satis \nexprimant quod concipio:_[8] these and any thing worse than these,\u2014if \nworse than what is worst can be imagined, will do for you. If there be \nany thing in infinite possibility more worthless than these, more \nfloccical-naucical, nihilish-pilish, assisal-teruncial, more good for \nnothing than good for nothingness itself, it is good enough for you.\n\n[Footnote 8: PICUS MIRANDULA.]\n\n\n\n\nINTERCHAPTER XXII.\n\nVARIETY OF STILES.\n\n  _Qualis vir, talis oratio._\n\nERASMI ADAGIA.\n\n\nAuthors are often classed, like painters, according to the school, in \nwhich they have been trained, or to which they have attached \nthemselves. But it is not so easy to ascertain this in literature as \nit is in painting; and if some of the critics who have thus \nendeavoured to class them, were sent to school themselves and there \nwhipt into a little more learning, so many silly classifications of \nthis kind would not mislead those readers who suppose in the \nsimplicity of their own good faith, that no man presumes to write upon \na subject which he does not understand.\n\nStiles may with more accuracy be classed, and for this purpose metals \nmight be used in literature as they are in heraldry. We might speak of \nthe golden stile, the silver, the iron, the leaden, the pinchbeck and \nthe bronze.\n\nOthers there are which cannot be brought under any of these \nappellations. There is the Cyclopean stile, of which Johnson is the \ngreat example; the sparkling, or micacious, possessed by Hazlitt, and \nmuch affected in Reviews and Magazines; the oleaginous, in which Mr. \nCharles Butler bears the palm, or more appropriately the olive branch: \nthe fulminating\u2014which is Walter Landor's, whose conversation has been \ncompared to thunder and lightning; the impenetrable\u2014which is sometimes \nused by Mr. Coleridge; and the Jeremy-Benthamite, which cannot with \npropriety be distinguished by any other name than one derived from its \nunparellelled and unparallellable author.\n\n_Ex stilo,_ says Erasmus, _perpendimus ingenium cujusque, omnemque \nmentis habitum ex ips\u00e2 dictionis ratione conjectamus. Est enim tumidi, \nstilus turgidus; abjecti, humilis, exanguis; asperi, scaber; \namarulenti, tristis ac maledicus; deliciis affluentis, picturatus ac \ndissolutus; Breviter, omne vit\u00e6 simulacrum, omnis animi vis, in \noratione perinde ut in speculo repr\u00e6sentatur, ac vel intima pectoris, \narcanis quibusdam vestigiis, deprehenduntur._\n\nThere is the lean stile, of which Nathaniel Lardner, and William Coxe \nmay be held up as examples; and there is the larded one, exemplified \nin Bishop Andrews, and in Burton, the Anatomist of Melancholy; Jeremy \nTaylor's is both a flowery and a fruitful stile: Harvey the \nMeditationist's a weedy one. There are the hard and dry; the weak and \nwatery; the manly and the womanly; the juvenile and the anile; the \nround and the pointed; the flashy and the fiery; the lucid and the \nopaque; the luminous and the tenebrous; the continuous and the \ndisjointed. The washy and the slap-dash are both much in vogue, \nespecially in magazines and reviews; so are the barbed and the \nvenomed. The High-Slang stile is exhibited in the Court Journal and in \nMr. Colburn's novels; the Low Slang in Tom and Jerry, Bell's Life in \nLondon, and most Magazines, those especially which are of most \npretensions.\n\nThe flatulent stile, the feverish, the aguish, and the atrabilious are \nall as common as the diseases of body from which they take their name, \nand of mind in which they originate; and not less common than either \nis the dyspeptic stile, proceeding from a weakness in the digestive \nfaculty.\n\nLearned, or if not learned, Dear Reader, I had much to say of stile, \nbut the under written passage from that beautiful book, Xenophon's \nMemorabilia Socratis, has induced me, as the Latins say, _stilum \nvertere_, and to erase a paragraph written with ink in which the gall \npredominated.\n\n_\u1f18\u03b3\u1f7c \u03b4\u1fbd \u03bf\u1f56\u03bd \u03ba\u03b1\u1f76 \u03b1\u1f50\u03c4\u1f78\u03c2, \u1f66 \u0391\u03bd\u03c4\u03b9\u03c6\u1ff6\u03bd, \u1f65\u03c3\u03c0\u03b5\u03c1 \u1f04\u03bb\u03bb\u03cc\u03c2 \u03c4\u03b9\u03c2 \u1f22 \u1f35\u03c0\u03c0\u1ff3 \u1f00\u03b3\u03b1\u03b8\u1ff7 \u1f22 \u03ba\u03c5\u03bd\u1f76 \n\u1f22 \u1f42\u03c1\u03bd\u03b9\u03b8\u03b9 \u1f25\u03b4\u03b5\u03c4\u03b1\u03b9, \u03bf\u1f55\u03c4\u03c9 \u03ba\u03b1\u1f76 \u1f12\u03c4\u03b9 \u03bc\u1fb6\u03bb\u03bb\u03bf\u03bd \u1f25\u03b4\u03bf\u03bc\u03b1\u03b9 \u03c4\u03bf\u1fd6\u03c2 \u03c6\u03af\u03bb\u03bf\u03b9\u03c2 \u1f00\u03b3\u03b1\u03b8\u03bf\u1fd6\u03c2\u00b7 \u03ba\u03b1\u1f76, \n\u1f10\u03ac\u03bd \u03c4\u03b9 \u03c3\u03c7\u1ff6 \u1f00\u03b3\u03b1\u03b8\u1f78\u03bd \u03b4\u03b9\u03b4\u03ac\u03c3\u03ba\u03c9, \u03ba\u03b1\u1f76 \u1f04\u03bb\u03bb\u03bf\u03b9\u03c2 \u03c3\u03cd\u03bd\u03b9\u03c3\u03c4\u03b7\u03bc\u03b9, \u03c0\u03b1\u03c1\u1fbd \u1f67\u03bd \u1f02\u03bd \u1f21\u03b3\u1ff6\u03bc\u03b1\u03b9 \n\u1f60\u03c6\u03b5\u03bb\u03ae\u03c3\u03b5\u03c3\u03b8\u03b1\u03af \u03c4\u03b9 \u03b1\u1f50\u03c4\u03bf\u1f7a\u03c2 \u03b5\u1f30\u03c2 \u1f00\u03c1\u03b5\u03c4\u03ae\u03bd\u1fbd \u03ba\u03b1\u1f76, \u03c4\u03bf\u1f7a\u03c2 \u03b8\u03b7\u03c3\u03b1\u03c5\u03c1\u03bf\u1f7a\u03c2 \u03c4\u1ff6\u03bd \u03c0\u03ac\u03bb\u03b9 \u03c3\u03bf\u03c6\u1ff6\u03bd \n\u1f00\u03bd\u03b4\u03c1\u1ff6\u03bd, \u03bf\u1f55\u03c2 \u1f10\u03ba\u03b5\u1fd6\u03bd\u03bf\u03b9 \u03ba\u03b1\u03c4\u03ad\u03bb\u03b9\u03c0\u03bf\u03bd \u1f10\u03bd \u03b2\u03b9\u03b2\u03bb\u03af\u03bf\u03b9\u03c2 \u03b3\u03c1\u03ac\u03c6\u03b5\u03bd\u03c4\u03b5\u03c2, \u1f00\u03bd\u03b5\u03bb\u03af\u03c4\u03c4\u03c9\u03bd \u03ba\u03bf\u03b9\u03bd\u1fc6 \n\u03c3\u1f7a\u03bd \u03c4\u03bf\u1fd6\u03c2 \u03c6\u03af\u03bb\u03bf\u03b9\u03c2 \u03b4\u03b9\u03ad\u03c1\u03c7\u03bf\u03bc\u03b1\u03b9\u00b7 \u03ba\u03b1\u1f76 \u1f04\u03bd \u03c4\u03b9 \u1f41\u03c1\u1ff6\u03bc\u03b5\u03bd \u1f00\u03b3\u03b1\u03b8\u1f78\u03bd, \u1f10\u03ba\u03bb\u03b5\u03b3\u03cc\u03bc\u03b5\u03b8\u03b1, \u03ba\u03b1\u1f76 \n\u03bc\u03ad\u03b3\u03b1 \u03bd\u03bf\u03bc\u03af\u03b6\u03bf\u03bc\u03b5\u03bd \u03ba\u03ad\u03c1\u03b4\u03bf\u03c2, \u1f10\u1f70\u03bd \u1f00\u03bb\u03bb\u03ae\u03bb\u03bf\u03b9\u03c2 \u1f60\u03c6\u03ad\u03bb\u03b9\u03bc\u03bf\u03b9 \u03b3\u03b9\u03b3\u03bd\u03ce\u03bc\u03b5\u03b8\u03b1._\n\n\n\n\nINTERCHAPTER XXIII.\n\nA LITTLE ADVICE BESTOWED UPON THE SCORNFUL READER IN A SHORT \nINTERCHAPTER.\n\nNo man is so foolish, but may give another good counsel sometimes; and \nno man is so wise, but may easily err, if he will take no other's \ncounsel but his own.\n\nBEN JONSON.\n\n\nI will now bestow a little advice upon the scornful reader.\n\nAnd who, the Devil, are you exclaims that reader, who are impertinent \nenough to offer your advice, and fool enough to suppose that I shall \nlisten to it?\n\nWhatever your opinion may be, Sir, concerning an Evil Principle, \nwhether you hold with the thorough-paced Liberals, that there is no \nPrinciple at all, (and in one sense, exemplify this in your own \nconduct,) or with the Unitarians that there is no Evil one; or whether \nyou incline to the Manichean scheme of Two Principles, which is said \nto have its advocates,\u2014in either case the diabolical expletive in your \nspeech is alike reprehensible: you deserve a reprimand for it; and you \nare hereby reprimanded accordingly.\u2014Having discharged this duty, I \nanswer your question in the words of Terence, with which I doubt not \nyou are acquainted, because they are to be found in the Eton grammar: \n_Homo sum, nihil humani \u00e0 me alienum puto._\n\nAnd what the Devil have the words of Terence to do with my query?\n\nYou are again reprimanded Sir. If it be a bad thing to have the Devil \nat one's elbow, it cannot be a good one to have him at ones tongue's \nend. The sentence is sufficiently applicable. It is a humane thing to \noffer advice where it is wanted, and a very humane thing to write and \npublish a book which is intended to be either useful or delightful to \nthose who read it.\n\nA humane thing to write a book!\u2014Martin of Galway's humanity is not a \nbetter joke than that!\n\nMartin of Galway's humanity is no joke, Sir. He has began a good work, \nand will be remembered for it with that honour which is due to all who \nhave endeavoured to lessen the sum of suffering and wickedness in this \nwicked world.\n\nAnswer me one question, Mr. Author, if you please. If your book is \nintended to be either useful or delightful, why have you filled it \nwith such a parcel of nonsense?\n\nWhat you are pleased to call by that name, Mr. Reader, may be either \nsense or nonsense according to the understanding which it meets with. \n_Quicquid recipitur, recipitur in modum recipientis._ Look in the \nseventh Chapter of the second book of Esdras, and at the twenty-fifth \nverse you will find the solution of your demand.\n\nAnd do you suppose I shall take the trouble of looking into the Bible \nto please the humour of such a fellow as you?\n\nIf you do not, Sir, there are others who will; and more good may arise \nfrom looking into that book,\u2014even upon such an occasion,\u2014than either \nthey or I can anticipate.\n\nAnd so, scornful reader, wishing thee a better mind, and an \nenlightened understanding, I bid thee gladly and heartily farewell!\n\n\n\n\nEND OF VOL. VI.\n\n\n\n\nW. Nicol, 60, Pall Mall.","title":"The doctor, &c., vol. 6 (of 7)","tradition":"philosophy-ethics","translated_text":null,"word_count":71009}