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THE

British Apollo:

Containing Two Thousand

ANSWERS

TO CURIOUS

QUESTIONS

IN MOST

ARTS and SCIENCES, Serious, Comical, and Humorous, Approved of

By many of the Moft Learned and Ingenious of both Univerfities, and of the Royal-Society.

Perform'd by a Society of Gentlemen.

VOL. II.

THE THIRD EDITION.

LONDON:

Printed for THEODORE SANDERS, at the Bell in Little Britain, and Sold by ARTHUR BETTESWORTH, at the Red Lyon in Pater-nofter Row, M, DCC, XXVI.

Libr Black 4-10-42

[337]

44145

THE

BRITISH APOLLO.

& T

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HOU little curmudgin,
I bear it in dudgin,

My questions you do not regard;

You I must expose,

And pull by the nofe,

For your exceeding

Good manners and breeding,

Pray where were you bred, Mr. Bard?

Do you know who you flight,
Nothing less than a knight;
But after a kicking,

You'll be free'r of fpeaking,
Fit ufage for fuch a fad fellow s
You're at a fine pass,
Thus to play the fauce,
I know by the phix,
Well enough who it is,
Couch'd under the mask of Apollo.
Some bolts I will borrow,

of Jove, to your forrow,
And thunder your Oracles down ;
And then you must go,

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With a raree-fhow,

As the rate of a farthing a tune.

VOL. II.

Q

4. Right

4. Right worshipful knight,
Do you think we wou'd flight
The title fo fondly you boaft;
But all we believe,

From the language you give,
And your threatnings which came,
Without e'er a name,

That you're only a knight of the poft.
And thus without kicking,
We use our free-speaking,

For the lion was never,
"Till fick of a fever,
'Afraid of the kicks of an afs:
If you by the phiz,

Can tell who it is,

We know by the ears,
Who 'gainst us appears,
So that for the other may pass.
If with raree-show,

We're reduced to go,

We're affured no custom to lack,

For inftead of French toys,

To pleafe little boys,

We'll carry the knight on our back.

Q. Gentlemen, I find a very mean and contemptible character given of the Jews by the Egyptian writers, and thofe of other nations, men of as great authority as Jofephus, or any other Jewish historian. Manethos, a priest of Egypt, calls them a crew of leprous and nafty people, and fays they were expell'd the country by Amenophis then reigning, and driven into Syria, their captain being Mofes an Egyptian priest. A like relation we have from Charemon, an author of good credit among the Greeks, who tells us that in the reign of Amenophis, two hundred and fifty thousand lepers were banished out of Egypt, under the conduct of Tifithen and Petefeth, (i.e. Mofes and Aaron) and tho other writers differ in the name of the king then reigning in Egypt, yet all agree in afferting the Ifraelites to be a nafty fort of people, overrun with fcabs and infectious boils; and that they were eftermed

efteemed the very fcum and filth of the nation. Tacitus, a Roman writer of unquestionable authority, adds that Mofes one of the exiled lepers, being a man of wit and reputation among them, having the advantage to be educated in the College of the royal priests at Memphis (which none of his nation could boast of befides himself) where magick and aftrology were the only fciences then in vogue, he being perfectly vers'd in all the mysteries and fecrets of Egyptian wisdom, it was no hard task for him to poffefs the rude and ignorant fans of Jacob with a profound veneration for his perfon; and when he faw the griefs and confusion of his brethren, he bid them be of good cheer, and neither trust the gods or men of Egypt, but only confide in him, and obey his council, for that he was fent from heaven to be their conductor out of this calamity; upon which the people, not knowing what course to take, furrendered themselves wholly to his difpofal, from which time he became their captain and law-giver, leading them thro' Arabia and other parts, where they committed great rapine and (poil, putting man, woman and child to the fword, burning their cities, and laying all things defolate: what could be faid worse of a company of robbers or Banditi? The above is taken out from Hiftory, and fome that were in company at the reading are at a ftand what to think, whether thefe authors above quoted may be relied on? Defiring you would infert in your paper (with your conveniency) your opinions, and you will very much oblige, Gentlemen, your humble fervants

MR. L. 7.

A. We must sure be of very credulous tempers, if we can depend upon heathen authors in matters of fuch great antiquity, as the departure of the Ifraelites from Egypt. When we find them all fo uncertain, fo fabulous, fo inconsistent with one another, fo ridiculously abfurd in accounts of a far later date, we must renounce our very reason, before we can affent to them in more ancient occurrences. When the Romans had no certain records of their own nation before the regifugium, we have a wonderful reafon to believe a Tacitus, while difcourfing of foreign af

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fairs,

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