For had you such strife

As we judg'd, with your wife,
You had thank'd our advices for hanging.

You scruple in conseience,

And think it but nonsense
The gallows to cheat of its right ;.

Now if we e'er knew
It had been

your

due, It had alter'd our sentiments quite..

We know your haranguing,

To save you from hanging, And all your fine reasons to bar. it,

Have no other end,

Whate'er you pretend,
But only for saving your claret..

Q. Apollo, 'tis to you I come,
And pray. Sir don't deride me; .

I tell you the truth,

I love a fine youth;
But because I am old, and have never a toork;

He swears be can't abide me:
Then Jay, you British wit-dispenser,
What I shall do; your speedy answer,
'Twill much obligerour fervant Nan Sir?

A. Since Nan is. ftruck so deep in years,
That she's arriv'd to doting,

Tho' now she's quite fpoild,

She'll again be a child,
Let her stay till she grows, and a tall maid is ftyldj.
And she may be worth his noting.

We hope you're not so old, but can see
We've done our bet to please your fancy, -
And chear the heart of mouldy Nancy.

On a physician turn'd officer.
He sovereign hand that nature first design'd,

To salve the tote'ring frame of human kind;
To raise his vitals, and prolong his breath,
And guard his

feeble fort from storming death:

T

In arts reverse practitioner appears,
Delights to brandish swords, and handle fpears ;
Propounds a profit from destructive ftrife,
And proves as great a foe, as friend to life.
Prodigious change! no change at all, for more
He kill'd with doses, than be cur'd before.

Q. Pray, Gentlemen, what do ye think of the departed fouls of good men, between the time of their death, and that of the last judgment ? are they admitted into henven, or kept in some other regions of less bliss and happines?

4. Of the ancient fathers, fome thought, that the souls of good men did not pass into heaven till our Saviour's resurrection. The arguments, which are brought in favour of this opinion, seem to us abundantly over-ba. lanc'd by the translations of Enoch and Elias into heaven. And fince Mofes appear'd with Elias, at the transfiguration of our blessed Lord, we may (probably at least) suppose them both to have come from the same place. But as others of the fathers were of opioion, that the souls of good men will not be admitted into heaven till the general resurrection, fo this is a notion more precarious than the former. For as no Scripture proof can be alledg'd in its behalf, fo those expreffions of St. Paul, of defiring to be diffolv'd, and be with Chrift; of being abfent from the body, and prefent with the Lord, import an immediate advance from earth to heaven. But fince Polycarp, bishop of Smyrna, and disciple to St. John bimself, is appeald to on the other side, we think it proper to observe, that whereas that pious father says of departed faints, that they were arriv'd εις τον οφειλόμενον αυτούς τόπου, at the place that was due to them, this may as naturally signifie heaven, as any other receptacle.

As for what you' mention concerning other segions of less bliss and happinefs ; as our happiness cannot be compleat till the general refurrection, because cill then, one part of us, namely, our bodies, will continue in a state of insensibility, fo, if God think fit to bestow upon the foul it self but a portion of that happiness before the day of judgment

:

which he intends it afterwards, yet this no ways excludes us from heaven till that time, fince even there will be different degrees of bliss : for as onc ftar differeth from another star in glory, so alfo is the refurrection of the dead.

Q. Hath time any affinity with eternity, and how may A ratimal notion of eternity be fram'd?

A. What affinity there is between time and eternity consists in these particulars. 1. They both agree in one common term, duration. 2. We can have no idea of eternity but what we borrow from our idea of time. 3. Time sis a portion of eternity. and therefore bears the relation of a part to the whole. 4. As the notion we conceive of time is drawn from the succession of our ideas, fo there will:be such a fuccession to all eternity, · When therefore it is faid, that time will be no more, the meaning is, that there will not be such revolutions of time, as now are estimated by the heavenly luminaries. But if we consider eternity in its felf, we : can say no more of it, than that it is an endlefs duration. If we consider it with respect to God, it is an eternal moment.

In answer to your second queftion, the only rational notion we can frame of eternity is deduc'd from a removal of those boundaries, which are naturally prefcribd to our idea of time.

Q. The entire fatisfaction you gave me, by your bandfome and judicious acquittal of Sampfon, encourages me once more to address your ingenious fociety for the folution of the following quesóion, namely, whether the immortality of the soul proceeds from a natural principle of neceffary and unavoidable existence incapable of diffolution or annihilation, or from the good will and pleasure of God conly. upon which it entirely depends ? I am, Gentlemen, your oblig'd Lucinda.

A. Madam,' we beg-leave to tell you, that you have not rightly stated the question, fince you join together, tho' by a disjunctive particle, two very incompatible terms, diffolution and annihilation. For

POʻL LO. they (of the learned we mean) who maintain the natural immortality of the soul, intend no more, than that it is incapable of diffolution. Whereas all created beings- so. sublift in God, that they are not only capable of annihilation, but must immediately relapse into their primitive nothing, if God but barely lubtract his sustaining influence. And this is not only agreeable to true philosophy, which cannot separate dependency of being from the notion of a creature, but is clearly represented in those words of the Apoftle, who upholdeth all things by the word of his power. Now the true state of the question is, whether the soul be fo.conftituted, that on supposition of such a constitution, immortality naturally results from it: whereas the body is so constituted as to be a proper subject of mortality fince it is of its very ef. Tence to be so acted upon by external agents as at length to be dissolv'd. The question then comes at last to this, whether incorruptibility be a property of the soul : and if the foul be immaterial, it is consequently incorruptible, fince corruption is nothing else than a separation of parts, of which immaterial substances are entirely deftitute. To satisfie the question therefore, we have nothing more to do than to prove the immateriality of the foul ; which we gather from its power of thinking, a faculty aot only no natural result of matter, but incommunicable to it. For since all matter is divisible, and the least particle consists of parts, it follows, that in thinking matter there are many consciousnesses, from whence one individual consciousness cannot possibly arise. Nor will the sweetness of a flower, proceeding from the imperceptible sweetnesses of its various effluviums, help the matter, since those many consciousnesses must be as the constituent parts of that one individual consciousness, whereas the sweetness of these various effluviums are no other than the occafions of our sensation of sweetness from the application of the flower, And, thus, Madam, the soul is at once naturally immortal, as incapable of diffo

lution; and yet its immortality depends on the pleafure of that God who can annihilate it in a mog 2ment.

If, Madam, you cannot acquiesce in what has here been offer'd, be pleas'd to propose your doubts, and we shall endeavour to give the utmost satisfaction we are able to fo candid and ingenious a quexift.

Q. Suppose 48 pieces be worth 1121. 6 s. there being four several forts, at these following prices 3 l. 55. 21. 15 s. 1l. 9.5. Il. 6 s. per piece ; be pleased to find the respective number of pieces of each fort, and to infert how you work the question ?

A. 4 Pieces of the first fort, 28 of the second, 10 of the third, 6 of the fourth, will answer the question. Other answers may be given, which we do not set down supposing this may be satisfactory. As for the manner of working this, we hope you will dispense with it, if you consider that an algebraical calculation would too much perplex our paper, require too much room, and perhaps be offensive to the Ladies eyes; but to shew you our willingness to oblige you,

if you please to meet us at any time, we Ihall be ready to comply with your desire.

Q. Why is blood of a red colour ?

A. The colour of the blood proceeds from the admixtion of the nitrous air with it, as it passeth through the lungs, or from the mixture of salt and subacid juices with fulphureous ones, because from fuch a mixture there arises a red colour, as appears by common observation.

Q. I have been long in love with a pretty, young Lady, but she's very coy to me. Pray instruct me how to obtain ber?

A. Talk as wittily to her as you write to Apollo, and the muft have a heart of adamant to stand the fhock of your addresses.

Q. If there be never so many stringed inftruments in fe room, and you touch any one note on any of these in

Aruments