the animal life, but (being wound up once a week) will perhaps reafon as well as moft of your Coun

try

Parfons.

We wait with the utmost impatience for the honour of having you a Member of our Society, and beg leave to affure you that we are, etc.

What return Martin made to this obliging Letter we must defer to another occafion : let it fuffice at present to tell, that Crambe was in a great rage at them, for stealing (as he thought) a hint from his Theory of Syllogifms, without doing him the honour fo much as to mention him. He advised his Master by no means to enter into their Society, unless they would give him fufficient fecurity, to bear him harmless from any thing that might happen after this prefent life.

CHA P. XIII.

Of the Seceffion of Martinus, and fome Hint of his Travels.

I

T was in the year 1699 that Martin set out on his Travels. Thou wilt certainly be very cu rious to know what they were. It is not yet time to inform thee. But what hints I am at liberty to give, I will.

Thou shalt know then, that in his first Voyage he was carried by a profperous Storm, to a Difcovery of the Remains of the ancient Pygmaan Empire.

That in his fecond, he was as happily fhipwreck'd on the Land of the Giants, now the most humane people in the World.

That

That in his third Voyage, he difcover'd a whole Kingdom of Philofophers, who govern by the Miathematicks; with whofe admirable Schemes and Projects he returned to benefit his own dear Country; but had the misfortune to find them rejected by the envious Minifters of Queen Anne, and himself fent treacherously away.

And hence it is, that in his fourth Voyage he discovers a Vein of Melancholy proceeding almost to a Difguft of his Species; but above all, a mortal Deteftation to the whole flagitious Race of Minifters, and a final Refolution not to give in any Memorial to the Secretary of State, in order to fubject the Lands he discovered to the Crown of Great Britain.

Now if, by thefe hints, the Reader can help himself to a farther discovery of the Nature and Contents of thefe Travels, he is welcome to as much light as they afford him; I am obliged, by all the tyes of honour, not to speak more openly.

But if any man fhall ever fee fuch very extraordinary Voyages, into fuch very extraordinary Nations, which manifeft the moft diftinguishing marks of a Philofopher, a Politician, and a Legiflator; and can imagine them to belong to a Surgeon of a Ship, or a Captain of a Merchantman, let him remain in his Ignorance.

And whoever he be, that fhall farther obferve, in every page of fuch a book, that cordial Love of Mankind, that inviolable Kegard to Truth, that Paffion for his dear Country, and that particular attachment to the excellent Princess Queen Anne ; furely that man deferves to be pitied, if by all those vifible Signs and Characters, he cannot diftinguish and acknowledge the Great Scriblerus *.

*Gulliver's Travels were first intended as a part of Scriblerus's Memoirs.

5

CHAP.

CHA P. XIV.

Of the Discoveries and Works of the Great Scriblerus, made and to be made, written and to be written, known and unknown.

H

ERE therefore, at this great Period, we end our firft Book. And here, O Reader, we entreat thee utterly to forget all thou haft hitherto read, and to caft thy eyes only forward, to that boundless Field the next fhall open unto thee; the fruits of which (if thine, or our fins do not prevent) are to spread and multiply over this our work, and over all the face of the Earth.

In the mean time, know what thou owest, and what thou yet may'ft owe, to this excellent Perfon, this Prodigy of our Age; who may well be called The Philofopher of Ultimate Caufes, fince by a Sagacity peculiar to himself, he hath difcover'd Effects in their very Cause; and without the trivial helps of Experimen s, or Obfervations, hath been the Inventor of moft of the modern Systems and Hypothefes.

He hath enriched Mathematicks with many precife and geometrical Quadratures of the Circle. He first discovered the Caufe of Gravity, and the inteftine Motion of Fluids.

To him we owe all the observations on the Parallax of the Pole-Star, and all the new Theories of the Deluge.

He it was, that first taught the right use sometimes of the Fuga Vacui, and sometimes of the Materia Subtilis, in refolving the grand Phænomena of Nature.

He it was that first found out the Palpability of Colours; and by the delicacy of his Touch, could diftinguifh

distinguish the different Vibrations of the heteroge neous Rays of Light.

His were the Projects of Perpetuum Mobiles, Flying Engines, and Pacing Saddles; the Method of difcovering the Longitude by Bomb-Veffels, and of increafing the Trade-Wind by vaft plantations of Reeds and Sedges.

I fhall mention only a few of his Philofophical and Mathematical Works.

1. A compleat Digeft of the Laws of Nature, with a Review of those that are obfolete or repealed, and of those that are ready to be renew'd and put in force.

2. A Mechanical Explication of the Formation of the Univerfe, according to the Epicurean Hypothefis.

3. An Investigation of the Quantity of real Matter in the Univerfe, with the proportion of the fpecifick Gravity of folid Matter to that of fluid.

4. Microfcopical Obfervations of the Figure and Bulk of the constituent Parts of all fluids. A Calculation of the proportion in which the Fluids of the earth decreafe, and of the period in which they will be totally exhausted.

5. A Computation of the Duration of the Sun, and how long it will laft before it be burn'd out. 6. A Method to apply the Force arifing from the immenfe Velocity of Light to mechanical purposes.

7. An answer to the question of a curious Gentleman; How long a New Star was lighted up before its appearance to the Inhabitants of our earth? To which is fubjoined a Calculation, how much the Inhabitants of the Moon eat for Supper, confidering that they pafs a. Night equal to fifteen of our natural days.

8. A Demonftration of the natural Dominion of the Inhabitants of the Earth over thofe of the Moon, if ever an intercourse should be opened between them. With a Propofal of a PartitionTreaty, among the earthly Potentates, in cafe of fuch discovery.

9. Tide-Tables, for a Comet, that is to approximate towards the Earth.

10. The Number of the Inhabitants of London determined by the Reports of the Gold-finders, and the Tonnage of their Carriages; with allowance for the extraordinary quantity of the Ingefla and Egefta of the people of England, and a deduction of what is left under dead walls, and dry ditches.

It will from hence be evident, how much all his Studies were directed to the univerfal Benefit of Mankind. Numerous have been his Projects to this end, of which Two alone will be fufficient to fhow the amazing Grandeur of his Genius. The firft was a Propofal, by a general contribution of all Princes, to pierce the firft cruft or Nucleus of this our Earth, quite through, to the next concentrical Sphere. The advantage he proposed from it was, to find the Parallax of the Fixt Stars ; but chiefly to refute Sir Ifaac Newton's Theory of Gravity, and Mr. Halley's of the Variations. The fecond was, to build Two Poles to the Meridian, with immenfe Light-houfes on the top of them; to fupply the defect of Nature, and to make the Longitude as eafy to be calculated as the Latitude. Both thefe he could not but think very practicable, by the Power of all the Potentates of the World.

May we prefume after thefe to mention, how he defcended from the fublime to the beneficial parts of Knowledge, and particularly his extraor