attained without any of thofe helps? And if it may, the method how, will extreamly oblige yours, &c. A. As our English tongue has fo much of the ftamp of those three languages, fo it may be neceffary to be mafters of them all, if we wou'd arrive at what we may call abfolute perfection. Q. Gentlemen, The following wager by mediation of friends is fubmitted to your determination; therefore you are requested to infert it into your next, because thereby you will prevent great differences between two intimate friends. Upon the 20th of April laft A. lays 60 guineas with B. that C. did not ride that day to D. before night. 'Tis admitted on both fides that C. did ride to D. by 33 minutes after 8 in the evening. The question to be determined is, whether that was before night or not? 4. Since 'tis likely, that the Gentleman who accepted the wager understood by the word night, in the queftion, no more than the deprivation of daylight, 'tis our opinion, that if C. arriv'd at his journey's end before it was dark, the Gentleman reprefented under the letter B. has won the wager. Q. Whether did moft, Anchises for Æneas, or Æneas for Anchifes? 4. Tho' each ow'd his life to the other, we should yet confider, that what the one did, was previous to any obligations receiv'd, that what the other did, was but an act of gratitude, but a payment of the debt. That the one was oblig'd for his most valuable time, the other for his moft unprofitable days; the one for his whole life, the other but for a remnant of his life. That Anchifes gave being and education to Eneas, while Troy flourished in its most profperous eftate, but Æneas prolong'd Anchifes's life, when he could do nothing but bewail his country's ruin, when death would have been a welcome gueft, a bleffed afylum from impending mifery. Though yet we must acknowledge, that Æneas has eminently the advantage in one particular, namely, that he ventured his 1 his own life to preferve his father's; whereas Anchifes by begetting, by educating his fon, rather extended, nay immortalized his own life, inafmuch as deceased parents live in their furviving children. Q. The other day I saw a beast that was both horse and mare, I defire to know whether that beast be capable of getting and conceiving? A. Some hermaphrodites have been capable of getting, and fome of conceiving, but we have not read that the fame hermaphrodite hath been capable of both. Q. Gentlemen, I defire to know why men wear breeches, and women petticoats, fince the breeches are more proper for the defence of the female fex? 4. We do not fuppofe that petticoats became fashionable, as being more or lefs defenfive to the fair fex, but rather out of a regard to their modefty, that being a fort of apparel entirely covering the lower parts, as legs, feet, &c. But that which feems moft accountable for it, is the cuftom of the country. Q. Is it a greater fin to break a bare promife for matrimony, than in any other part of friendship? 4. As a promife to matrimony is a pretenfion to the most intimate friendship, a breach of that promife must confequently receive fome aggravation thence. But if the perfon you deceive has been fo unhappy as to fettle her affections upon fo inconftant a lover, the injury you do her may be irreparable. But, fuppofing that the may retrieve a heart fo very ill beftow'd, upon what affurance can you depend that you have not hinder'd her of a better match? And in cafe you have, this fure muft aggravate her prefent misfortune, if you are at once fo unkind and falfe, as to forfeit your engagement to one, whom you had defigned for your fecond felf. Q. I defire your opinion concerning the witch of Endor and Saul whether it was the real fpirit of Samuel, or the devil in his shape, that the witch raifed; for he feemeth to be afrighted when she faw the fpirit, which She might not have been, had it been one of her famili R 2 ars; and what she meaneth, when she said to Saul,, I fee gods afcending out of the earth; the whole hiftory you will find in the 28th chapter of the first book of Samuel? 4. Not to affume an air of affurance in fo controverted a point; we are rather inclined to think, that the appearance was of a perfonated, not of a real Samuel. And this opinion we ground upon the following reasons, 1. We are apt to think with Tertullian (notwithstanding that Juftin Martyr is againft us) that God would not fuffer the fpirit of fo good a man, and fo great a prophet, to be at the difpofal of a notorious witch. 2 Since God had fo entirely forfaken Saul, that (as we read in 1 Sam. 28. 6.) he answer'd him not, neither by dreams, nor by Urim, nor by prophets, we cannot readily perfuade our felves, that he would favour him with so extraordinary a messenger from the dead. 3. We cannot think that God would give fuch feeming countenance to thofe abominations he had with fo much feverity forbid. 4. The apparition is faid to come out of the earth, whereas (agreeable to our opinion of feparate exiftence) he mould have defcended from above. To the objection, how the devil could foretel the iffue of the battle, fome think that God might acquaint him with it in order to punish Saul with forebodings of fo terrible an event. But if this be too harfh a fuppofition, the devil by his natural fagacity might fee a more than ordinary tendency to fuch an iffue, and thence venture to pronounce his oracle with a confident affurance. By the fight of the apparition, as representing Sa muel, the witch might gather, that it was Saul fhe had been communing with; for her fright proceeded from a dread of Saul's difpleasure, who had been fo fevere to fuch abominable wretches. Nor need we to wonder that the devil fhould affume fo pious a ftile, fince he was then acting the part part of a very pious man, and is fo ready to transform himself into an angel of light, whenever it will promote his malicious enterprizes. And it was then his defign to confound Saul with the fury of despair. Some may perhaps expect that we fhould have drawn a two-fold argument from that prediction of the apparitions, To morrow, thou and thy sons shall be with me; but we think it proper to pass it by, becaufe to morrow may fignifie no more than very fhortly and to be with Samuel may imply no farther than to be in a ftate of death. As judges and grandees are in Scripture called gods,, fo the meaning of that expreffion, I fee gods afcending out of the earth, may import, that fhe faw apparitions under the form of uncommon perfonages. Q. Gentlemen, Since you fo much infifted on an eternal effence to be drawn from the words I am, I have used he little skill in Hebrew I am mafter of, and find there is no imperfect tenfe of the verb, but that the prefent tenfe is ftill used for it, which made either the heedlefs or defigning tranflators render it I am, but the more ingenuous or ingenious tranflators, I mentioned to you, render it. I was A. Sir, you feem to act two contrary parts at once, while you modeftly infinuate, that you are mafter of but little skill in the Hebrew tongue, and yet fo far prefume upon that little skill, as to make. your infinuation good. For as there is no imperfect, fo neither is there any present tense of the verb, thot of the participle there is. And I am in Exodus is expreft by a future tenfe, which the Hebrews fometimes ufe for a prefent. But were your remark true, yet. what were this to that expreffion, before Abraham was, I am, in the Evangelift St. John, who wrote in Greek. For fure the Greek language will be allow'd to have an imperfect tense. Q. Since the twins have fome parts in common to both,. how can they rife from the dead with the fame individual bodies 3 4. It must be acknowledg'd, that fome of the ar guments made ufe of in confutation of the objection drawn from cannibals (or man-eaters) are of no force in the cafe before us: But yet there are two. arguments, which equally hold good in the prefent query. 1. To conftitute the fame individual body, there is no neceffity of accurately reftoring every fingle part. If moft of the parts are individually the fame, we never demur to its fufficiency in our own works, why then fhould we difpute it in the works of God? 2. As every grain of corn includes an infenfible feminal principle, which is both blade and ear entire, tho' it do not vifibly disclose it felf, till the reft of the grain be corrupted; fo this prefent body may be but the exuviæ, or caft-coat of fome imperceptible principle, which, at the general refurrection fhall exhibit its felf in its genuine form. And therefore the twins may have thefe infenfible principles entirely feparate and diftin&t, notwithstanding that they havepart of their exuviæ in common to them both. And this notion may the more readily be embraced, in that it is not only agreeable to the principles of philofophy, but alfo feems as it were included in those expreffions of St. Paul, to be met with in 1 Cor. xv, 35, 36, 37, 38. Q. Te men of profound fagacity, to me it feems firange, that falt, hot in its own nature, fhould condenfe and congeal water, even before the fire. A. Salt cannot be properly faid to congeal water, as being (according to your obfervation) naturally hot, but through its coagulating quality may condenfe it, which is rather by infpiffation than congelation. Q. Meffieurs, Pray inftruct your petitioner how he shall away with the enfuing long vocation, having little liberty, and less money. Yours folitary. 4. Study the virtues of patience and abftinence; a right judgment in the theory may render the practice more agreeable. Q. Whe |