yond the time that our Saviour's miracles are recorded to have been done, yet this, and the foregoing argument may fill be urg'd with the same advantage.

4. How came the Christians to obtrude so new a notion upon the Heathens, who would certainly have rejected it in opposition to Christianity, could they any ways have done it ? And yet, that they did not, we may gather from Plutarch and Lucian, (both Heathen Authors) and the whole stream of the ancient fathers and that not so much from their express affertions, but what is more convincing to fcepticism) from the very way of arguing.

5. Origen includes those very kinds of madness, which seem nearest to possession, within the miracles of healing diseases, and yet takes abundant notice of demoniacks too. Whence we fee, that he sufficiently distinguishes between madness and possession.

6. From Theophilus, Minucius, Tertullian, and St. Cyprian, we learn that devils, when adjur'd by Christi, ans, confess’d themselves to be infernal spirits, and that too in the presence of the very Heathens, tho' with great reluctancy. And he, who reads the confident appeals of Tertullian and St. Cyprian, the one to the magistrates and governours of the Roman empire, the other to Demetrianus, ( a bitter persecutor) cannot possibly doubt their testimonies.

This very argument of the scepticks naturally supposes, that Chrift head convulsions, the falling.fickness, and madness by a bare command, and yet

if

you urge it upon them, this is more than they are willing to admit; fo contradictory a thing is scepticism, fo unreasonable is infidelity! Q: I desire to know what the foul is, and you

will oblige an admirer of all those sciences Apollo is master of?

Yours Califta. A. The soul is an immortal substance, ondued with a power of thinking, and created for a state of probation. Since man is not sufficiently acquainted with the nature of the foul, and that of Angels, to assign any innate property, wberein the former, when in a

ftate

2

ftate of separate existence differs from the latter, we thought fit to distinguish the soul by one of the ends, (tho' not the ultimate one) of its creation.

Q. Is there an anastomosis, or inofculation of the arteries into the veins? If not, how doth the blood pass out. of the arteries into the veins ?

A. There is no anastomosis of the arteries with the veins, which being granted, doth necessarily prefuppofe a perforation of the artery into the vein, for the passage of the blood, out of one vessel immediately into the other, which contradictech sense and season ;, because if the blood did pass, by the inofcu, lation of the vessels of different kind, immediately into each other, and not by the extremities of the arteries into the interftices of the vessels and habits of the body, it would interdict all nutrition of parts : But on the other side, vefsels do inofculate with those of the same family, arteries with arteries, and veins with veins, so that one vessel being obstructed in the fame kind, another being open'd, may freely receive the blood, and preserve its circulation.

Q. Enquire of Apollo what those two numbers are, that have their properties ; they are in the proportion of 2:10 3, and the square of either number added with the other number will be a rational square ?

A. This question is one of Diophantus's, only 'ois here proposed with a determination that makes it more difficult, viz. that the two numbers shall be in the ratio 2 to 3, the numbers zz and zu will answer the question, the numbers

2 and

ozio will also answer it. If the Gentleman Querist will be pleas’d. 10 try if he can find two more, he may chance to · meet with some difficulty in the investigation ; if he does find 'em, we will congra:ulare him upon it, if he does not, ’ris but having his recourse to Apollo,

Q. What is your opinion of an Ignis Fatuus, or Jacka-Lantern?

A. An Ignis Fatuus is a meteor consisting of an oily exhalation, which is the reason, why it is of a

longer

2

3

longer duration, than those other meteors, that are compos'd of fulphurous or nitrous particles.

Q: Gentlemen, Pray tell us, which is the more nobla employment of a rational being, lave, or friendship ?

A. Friendship certainly is the most noble employa ment of a rational soul. Love seems only the diverfion of the mind, but friendship is its bufiness : The first, in some measure, leffens the dignity of human nature ; the latter raises and ennobles it, even to fimilitude of the Deity himself, for it gives us a taste of those joys which are only to be found in his prefence, namely, a mutual desire of pleasing and raising, the felicity of each other. But we ought to spend no time in the proof of this, if we did but rightly consider, that friendship is the child of reason, lovebut the fondling of the passions,

Q. Who were the firft inhabitants of America ?

A. Who they were, is a matter yet undiscover'd.. But we dare not therefore fay with fome, that America was not inhabited from any other part of the world, and fo consequently, not overwhelm'd with the flood ; since so bold an assertion is contrary to the Scripture account of an universal deluge ; gor are the arguments, which are brought to favour it, at all conclusive.

Q. What is the cause of little white spots, which fometimes grow under the nails of the fingers ? And what is the reason they say they are gifts ?

A. Those little spots are from white glittering particles, which are mix'd with red in the blood, and happen to remain there some time. The reason of their being called gifts, is as wise a one as that of letters, winding. sheets, Sc. in a candle.

Q. Why does a greater fire extinguish a leffer ?

À Because the greater fire extracts fo large a quantity of those fulphurous and nitrous particles, with which the circumambient air abounds, that it leaves not a sufficient quantity to supply the leffer fire..

Q. Whether in admiring and meditating the lives, hiSariesa humours and sayings of men the most excellent, me

a

don't run the hazard of losing our own natural advana tages ? For thinking to accord our humours to other mens examples, we forget, or fight all that is our own, and scarce ever do the other with a good Grace.

A. There is scarce an excellence but what must be guarded with wariness and caution. And therefore as imitation is excellent in its kind, so it must be manag‘d with wonderful circumspection. Too nearly to copy after the fayings of other persons, is to be parrots, and not men; to accommodate our selves to their bumours in the gross, is to ape, and not imitate. When therefore we set before us the most eminent examples, we must not be a servile berd, as the poet expresses it ; we must separate the ore from the dross ; we must not fuffer any coin to be current an mong us, merely because it bears the image of the person we admire : In the most excellent of men, we must diftinguish between their virtues and vices, their excellencies and defects; we must weigh the difference of conditions, of genius's, of times, of places, and those other accidental circumstances, which may entirely alter the nature of an action. We must endeavour accurately to know our felves, that we may be throughly sensible, whether that be not aukward in us, which is graceful in another. But above all, we must not overlook our own talents, but must exert our faculties in refining, in improving, in inventing And if we thus prudently direct our imitation, we shall make good that common fimile of a dwarf set upon a giant's shoulders.

Q. Apollo either hold your hand,
Or business will forsake the land,
I ask'd for cloth o'th' woollen draper,
Quoth he, as foon's I've read this paper.
of one for buttons then, to some on,
He cry'd, I'll only read this poem.
To th' tavern next, and callid for wine ;
These lines he answer'd are divine.
A friend for money, then I preft on;
Said be, I've here a wifer question.

BHE

a

But were it not I went on trast,
( And till I've money fo. I muft)

certainly had broke their sconces,
For giving me such damn'd responses.
Now tell me, since of all this mischief,
Your bantering Apollo is chief,
Having frustrated thus all my ends,
What good he'll do to make amends ?

A. Why this it is our thoughts to lose,
On one of less brains than a goose ;
When greatest friendship we have shown,
Your want of sense, still makes it none :
Had we not mercer thus attack'd,
By bailiffs you had foon been back'd;
Or had we not prevented wine,
You had been chang'd into a swine :
Your friend too we have kept more true,
Then if he'd money lent to you ;
For money lent where there's no chattles,
Turns friendship into fiercelt battles.

When Fove wou'd Danae's love command,
He purchas'd it with gold in hand :
Bring gold, and wine enough you'll swallow,
Whilft on the bar they lay Apollo ;
Or punk with gold, for silks to mount her,
Down

goes Apollo on the counter ;
Though I'm a God amongst the witty,
Lucre's a greater in the city.
Q. Great fons of Apollo,

whom multitudes follow,
For folution of difficult doubt ;

Pray tell me at pleasure,

When I've drank out of measure,
Why my words in such clusters come out.

When I'm free from grape's juice,

My tongue will produce,
Plain English as taught by the grammar ;

But a pint of that same,

Makes it falter and lame,
And speak thick, like a man that does stammer ?

A. Since

a