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mined to have revenge on Martin-whom he looked upon merely as a rival showman anxious to secure an attractive exhibit-commenced a suit against him for bigamy and incest. He even contrived to alienate Indamora's affection from him, and enticed her into an intrigue with a negro prince," another of his exhibits, to whom she was married while her sister Lindamira was asleep. Martin now required to turn, plaintiff, and commenced a suit in the Spiritual Court against the. black prince for cohabitation with his wife. He was advised to insist on the point " that Lindamira and Indamora together made but one lawful wife." Randal, the showman, then forced Lindamira to petition for aliment, which was no sooner allowed her by the Court than he obliged her to allege that "it was not sufficient to maintain both herself and her sister, and if her sister perished she could not live with a dead body about her." Martin was now ordered by the Court to allow aliment to both, the black prince appearing insolvent. The Court then proceeded to try the main issue. Dr. Pennyfeather appeared for the plaintiff Martin. He made a long speech in which he maintained the propositions (1) that Lindamira and Indamora made but one individual person; (2) that if they made two indi

ment.

vidual persons, yet they constituted but one wife. He also maintained there were anatomical disabilities for the acceptance of two husbands. Finally, the judge was besought not to "let a few heads, legs, or arms extraordinary" bias his judgDr. Leatherhead replied at some length also, and insisted that Lindamira and Indamora were not anatomically debarred from having a duality of husbands, and craved that a jury of matrons be asked to determine the point. The matrons having made their report, which was in support of Dr. Leatherhead's contention, the judge took time to deliberate, and next day delivered the following verdict :

"I am of opinion that Lindamira and Indamora are distinct persons, and that both the marriages are good and valid. Therefore I order you, Martinus Scriblerus, Batchelor in Physick, and you, Ebn-Hai-Paw-Waw, Prince of Monomotapa, to cohabit with your wives, and to lie in bed each on the side of his own wife. I hope, Gentlemen, you will seriously consider......that being, as it were, joint Proprietors of one common Tenement, you will so behave as good fellow-lodgers ought to do." This sentence pleased neither party, and Martin appealed from the Consistory to the Court of

Arches, but the verdict was confirmed.

It was

next brought before a Commission of Delegates, who reversed the verdict of the inferior courts and disannulled both marriages.

While there is some probability that an author who had visited and written about the Twins in the British Apollo might feel inclined to write further on the subject, it must be admitted that it cannot be conclusively asserted that the writer of the Apollo articles and the writer of the satire were the same individual.

One of the authors of the British Apollo is more directly indicated in the following answer to a correspondent; but otherwise he does not show his personality in any other part of the volume. Asked, "Who was the best author that ever treated of painting?" he replied:

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Signior Paulinus, an Italian, writ the best treatise on that art which hath come to our know

ledge, but 'tis a very scarce book. In English a gentleman of our Society writ one some years since. All we shall say of it is that had he seen one before it in English, which discovered that the author so well understood the art, he had not writ his."

In discussing what was then the vexed question whether cochineal was a fungus, the berry of a plant, or an insect, it is stated that a member of Apollo's Society believed it to be a berry (in which he was wrong), as he found it growing on a shrub on the Isle of Tenedos in the Ægan Sea. It was the same gentleman presumably who visited the Dead Sea, and corrected the popular error that

any bird is immediately struck dead if it attempts to fly over the Dead Sea......Which is so far from the truth that it has been proved by the ocular demonstration of a Gentleman of our Society, that birds do not only fly in great numbers over, but will often perch on such parts of the lake as can afford 'em reeds, timber, sea weed, or any other float enough to stand upon " (vol. ii. p. 452).

It is hoped these few hints may have the effect of eliciting more definite information concerning the authorship of the British Apollo than the writer has been able to obtain.

CHAPTER IV.

THE VIRTUOSO IN THE REIGN OF QUEEN ANNE.

"Who greedily pursue

Things that are rather wonderful than true,
And, in their nicest speculations, choose
To make their own discoveries strange news,
And nat❜ral hist'ry rather a gazette

Of rarities stupendous, and far-fet :

Believe no truths are worthy to be known,

That are not strongly vast, and overgrown."
-Samuel Butler.

WRITING of the state of science during the reign of Queen Anne, Mr. John Ashton says: "The Royal Society was an absolute laughing-stock, and men called virtuosi pottered about looking (and, doubtless, thinking they were) mighty wise. Any man who investigated nature after his lights, and with the imperfect materials which were at his command, was looked upon as a fool." That much satire and ridicule was directed against all those who evinced a partiality for a knowledge of natural science is undoubtedly true, but that does not