As therefore we must leave the death-bed penitent to that God, who is a fearcher of the heart, fo we fhould do well to fufpect the very worst of fo fallacious, fo treacherous a repentance. We fhould do well to be afraid (for we have reafon enough to be fo) left our injur'd mafter, when in our laft hour he fhall behold the anguifh of our fouls, fhould upbraid us in these bitter, but deferv'd, expreffions; Because I have called, and ye refufed, I have stretched out my hand, and ye regarded not; it is reafon good, that I fhould laugh at your calamity, and mock, now your fear cometh. Tho' ye call upon me, yet I will not answer; fince ye feek me fo LATE, ye fhall not find me.

Q. Understanding by one of your answers, that you hold with modern aftronomers, that the fun remains fixt, and that the different feafons of the year are produced by the annual motion of the earth, I defire you to give a brief definition of its performance. For to me, the opinion of the more ancient aftronomers, that afcribe only a diurnal mosion to the earth, and the zodiacal to the fun, appears much more plain and demonftrable. For if we allow the former, how comes it to pass, that we fee fome northern fars at their fetting (as we commonly call it) always but just touch the horizon, and that the earth is not either Sometimes fo depreffed as to reprefent thofe ftars at their Lowest defcent higher than the horizon, or fometimes fo elevated as to obfcure them. Or, to explain my meaning better, why do thefe people that live under the poles always fee the fame ftars in their zenith: and those under the equinoctial line, fill find themselves precifely under that circle, as well when the fun is in Cancer or Capricorn, aš in Aries or Libra, which feemeth to evince, that the earth hath no other motion than that upon its axis?

A. Sir, we wonder, that you should think the new Copernican fyftem of the earth's annual motion lefs intelligible than the old Ptolemaick fyftem, which contains fuch manifold unimaginable chimera's: namely, thofe of folid fpheres, epicycles, stations and retrogradations of the planets. As for the feafons of the year, we own, that they would be inconfiftent with

the

the annual motion of the earth, were it not for the third motion, or motion of inclination or declination, tho' indeed the motion of inclination is not fo properly a third or diftinct motion from the second or annual one, as a peculiar modification of it. But as that peculiar modification continually deflects the axis. of the earth from a parallefifm with the axis of the equator, it occafions the fame variety of seasons, as the annual motion of the fun would do. !

As for what you alledge of those who always fee the fame ftars at their zenith, we may confider, that the whole plane of the circle, which the earth annually defcribes, is fo inconfiderable in respect to the vaftly diftant fphere of the fixt ftars, that if it be fuppos'd continued thither, it will appear no other than a point. And if fo, it can make no fenfible difference with regard to the seeming zenith or other pofition of the stars. And the fame notion accounts for your other inftances, which are of the fame nature with the preceding one.

Q. Pray favour me with the virtues of tobacco: to what conftitution it is beneficial, and to what inju

rious?

4. Tobacco is by nature hot and dry; it discusses, refolves and cleanfes, is purging, emetick, anodyne and vulnerary, and is chiefly beneficial in cold and moift conftitutions, and hurtful in the contrary.

any

Q. What makes Thames water flink, and then turn fweet upon a voyage, more than other water? A. If your obfervation be true, it may probably be caufed by a greater plenty of fulphur and falt in that, than in other waters.

Q Te facred friends of just and virtuous love,

Tell a defpairing wretch, how to remove

His anxious cares, oppreft with double woe,
For fook by Julia, and by Strephon too.
The fair I thought perfect in every part,
Had long indulg'd my fond tranfported heart:
The youth all virtues in his breast confin'd,
Was fecret, witty, generous, just and kind.

In their lov'd converfe years I did employ,
Bleft as I thought with more than mortal jog:
But fee the effect of fublunary blifs,
Deluding Julia rob'd me of my rest.
The dear unkind, unmindful of my love,
Blafted my hopes and did unconftant prove;
But ftill my Strephon conftant did remain,
His balmy friendship did affuage my pain.
At length the charms of an engaging maid,
(Bane to my joys) his noble heart engag'd,
With folemn vows fhe has the youth ingroft,
Thus love, and happy friendship both I've loft;
If eloquence has charms to footh to reft,
And fuch it has as well your works exprest,
o Phoebus, o'er a wretch reflect your rays,
Difpel the difmal gloom, that clouds his youthful days.

4. Unhappy fwain, your trouble's great, 'tis true,
To lofe your dearest friend, and mistress too.
Nought more than fcorn can make a lover grieve,
And who, alas! can lofe his friend, and live?
But fince (thro' providential means) you grant,
That all fublunar joys duration want,

A preparation for this change declare,
And let your breaft ferene, and calm appear.
So fhall your wond'ring fair her flames return,

So fhall th' enamour'd youth with former friendship burn.

Q. Hail bright Apollo of our British Isle,
Whofe charming Lyre does all our hours beguile,
With bumble rev'rence at your fhrine I kneel,
Timplore your Godfhip wou'd the cause reveal.
Why, amongst all the num'rous feather'd throng,
The cocks have ftill the most harmonious fong?
A. The feather'd choir, who ftretch their warbling
throats,

And fill the woods with fweet harmonious notes,
Have by ftrong heat their mellow'd voice refin'd,
Which only warms the cocks of all the kind;
Cramp'd by chill cold, each hen attends her mate,
And, unlike London wives, is feldom known to prate.

Q. I defire to know, if the return from the captivity mentioned in the ivth chap. of Judith and the 3d verse, was that of Manaffes, if not, to what time must we afSign that action of hers, or is it wholly fabulous?

4. The captivity mentioned in the paffage you alledge, was that under Antiochus Epiphanes, reprefented at large in the first chapter of the firft book of the Maccabees.

Q. I have taken out a dog's fpleen, and he is alive, and I perceive no alteration in the leaft in him: pray, what is the ufe of the Spleen?

4. Authors difagree very much in this point. The ancients held it to be the receptacle of the melancholick humour: fome of the moderns will have it to be, either a blood-making or a blood-perfecting bowel: others look upon it as the elaboratory of the nervous juice: others again, that it only promotes the action of the liver, by farthering the feparation of the bile, nor is the true use of it as yet fully difce-vered.

Q. What is the cause of fnoring in ones fleep?

A. Snoring we take to be nothing elfe, but a noify and troublesome kind of breathing thro' the nofe, occafion'd by fome impediment, either within or without the noftrils.

Q. I would defire to know why the fea is falt, and the Thames fresh, and where it is that the water goes at low tide?

A. The faltnefs of the fea, moft probably derives its original from the falt rocks (of which there are many in and about the fea) and the great abundance of falt contain'd in the earth, thro' which the waters of the fea pafs in fubterraneous caverns.

The Thames is falt, till mingled with fo great a quantity of fresh water, as to make fo proportionably diminutive a quantity of falt to be impercep

tible.

The water at ebbing flows down to that part of the fea, which lies between the tropick of Cancer and the Equator.

On

On the taking of the citadel of LISLE, &c.
Riumphant heroes, MARLBOROUGH and EU-
GENE,

T

When will you terminate the glorious scene?
Not winter with its inaufpicious forms,

Dark, fullen brows, cold damps and threatning ftorms,
Your thirst of glory can allay, whilft

you

Thro' all obftructions, your great end pursue:
In vain the gallick pow'rs your force withstand,
When over nature you extend command.

Juftly that people's term'd a dancing nation,
And luckily they brought the knack in fashion.
Since now their heels ftand them in far more ftead,
Than Lewis his, or Maint'non's greater head.
In vain they toil, in vain they fortify,
In vain intrench, (refolv'd before to fly.)
Cou'd provocations, threats, or fcorn prevail,
Or any thing, prevent their turning tail,
E'er this, by one decifive blow you'd laid
The tyrant flat, and all his shame display'd.
Howe'er at laft you have him in the toyl,
Now force him to difgorge his ill got spoil,
Whilft the propitious heav'ns on your brave actions
fmi e.

Q. Whether that place of Scripture that fays. If thy right hand offend thee, &c. does not intimate that we fhall enter our eternal ftate, with the imperfections we may have had in our bodies, whilft living in this world, tho' I am not ignorant of the meaning of the former part of the words; but it is this part I confider, where our Saviour fays, For it is better to enter into heaven halt or maimed, than having, &c.

A. Your conclufion would be true, if our Saviour intended thefe expreffions in a literal fenfe. But the figurative meaning of the paffage is, that if any predominant luft, any prevailing paffion be as dear, be as ufeful to us, as a right eye, a right hand, c. we must bid adieu to fo dear a luft, to fo useful a paffion, fince it is more profitable for us to enter in at the