publifh his effay, nor to proceed farther in so useful an attempt; which is very much to be lamented, because the discovery he made, and communicated with his friends, is now univerfally received; nor do I think, any of the learned will dispute that famous treatise to be a compleat body of civil knowledge, and the revelation, or rather the apocalypfe of all ftate arcana. But the progrefs I have made is much greater, having already finished my annotations upon feveral dozens; from fome of which, I fhall impart a few hints to the candid reader, as far as will be neceffary to the conclufion, at which I aim.

The first piece I have handled, is that of Tom Thumb, whose author was a Pythagorean philofopher. This dark treatise contains the whole scheme of the Metempfychofis, deducing the progrefs of the foul through all her stages.

The next is Dr. Fauftus, penned by Artephius, an author bonæ notæ, and an adeptus; he published it in the nine-hundred-eighty-fourth year of his age; this writer proceeds wholly by reincrudation, or in the via humida: and the marriage between Fauftus and Helen, does moft confpicuously dilucidate the fermenting of the male and female dragon.

Whittington and his cat is the work of that myfterious rabbi, Jehuda Hannafi, containing a defence of the gemara of the Jerufalem mifna, and its juft

The chymifts fay of him in their books, that he prolonged his life to a thousand years, and then died voluntarily.

+ The gemara is the decifion, explanation, or interpretation of the Jewish rabbis and the mifna is properly the code or body of the Jewish civil or common law.

prefer

preference to that of Babylon, contrary to the vulgar

opinion.

*

The hind and panther. This is the master-piece of a famous writer now living, intended for a compleat abstract of fixteen thousand school-men, from Scotus to Bellarmin.

Tommy Pots. Another piece supposed by the fame hand, by way of supplement to the former.

The wife men of Goatham, cum appendice. This is a treatise of immenfe erudition, being the great original and fountain of those arguments, bandied about both in France and England, for a just defence of the moderns learning and wit, against the prefumption, the pride, and ignorance of the ancients. This unknown author has fo exhausted the fubject, that a penetrating reader will easily discover whatever has been written fince upon that difpute, to be little more than repetition. An abstract of this treatise has been lately published by a worthy member of our fociety.

These notices may serve to give the learned reader an idea, as well as a tafte, of what the whole work is likely to produce; wherein I have now altogether circumfcribed my thoughts and my studies; and, if I can bring it to a perfection before I die, fhall reckon I have well employed the ‡ poor remains of an un

Viz. In the year 1698.

+ This I fuppofe to be understood of Mr. Wotton's discourse of ancient and modern learning.

Here the author feems to perfonate L'Eftrange, Dryden, and fome others, who, after having past their lives in vices, faction, and falfehood, have the impudence to talk of merit, and innocence, and fufferings.

fortunate

fortunate life. This indeed is more than I can justly expect, from a quill worn to the pith in the service of the ftate, in pro's and con's upon popish plots, and * meal tubs, and exclufion bills, and paffive obedience, and addresses of lives and fortunes; and prerogative, and property, and liberty of confcience, and letters to a friend: from an understanding and a conscience thread-bare and ragged with perpetual turning; from a head broken in a hundred places by the malignants of the oppofite factions; and from a body spent with poxes ill cured, by trufting to bawds and furgeons, who, as it afterwards appeared, were profeffed enemies to me and the government, and revenged their party's quarrel upon my nose and fhins. Fourfcore and eleven pamphlets have I written under three reigns, and for the fervice of fix and thirty factions. But, finding the ftate has no farther occafion for me and my ink, I retire willingly to draw it out into fpeculations more becoming a philofopher; having, to my unspeakable comfort, paffed a long life with a confcience void of offence.

But to return. I am affured from the reader's candor, that the brief specimen I have given, will easily clear all the reft of our fociety's productions, from an afperfion grown, as it is manifeft, out of envy and ignorance; that they are of little farther use or value to mankind, beyond the common entertainments of their wit and their ftyle; for these I am fure have never yet been difputed by our keenest adverfaries:

In king Charles the Second's time, there was an account of 2 prefbyterian plot, found in a tub, which then made much noise.

in both which, as well as the more profound and myftical part, I have, throughout this treatise, closely followed the most applauded originals. And to render all complete, I have, with much thought and application of mind, fo ordered, that the chief title prefixed to it, I mean, that under which I design it fhall pass in the common converfations of court and town, is modelled exactly after the manner peculiar to our fociety.

I confefs to have been somewhat liberal in the business of * titles, having obferved the humour of multiplying them, to bear great vogue among certain writers, whom I exceedingly reverence. And indeed it seems not unreasonable, that books, the children of the brain, fhould have the honour to be christened with variety of names, as well as other infants of quality. Our famous Dryden has ventured to proceed a point farther, endeavouring to introduce also a multiplicity of god-fathers; which is an improvement of much more advantage upon a very obvious account. It is a pity this admirable invention has not been better cultivated, fo as to grow by this time into general imitation, when fuch an authority serves it for a precedent. Nor have my endeavours been wanting to fecond fo useful an example: but it seems, there is an unhappy expence ufually annexed to the calling of a god-father, which was clearly out of my head, as it is very reasonable

The title-page in the original was fo torn, that it was not possible

to recover several titles, which the author here fpeaks of.

+ See Virgil tranflated, &c. he dedicated the different parts of Virgil to different patrons.

to believe. Where the pinch lay, I cannot certainly affirm; but having employed a world of thoughts and pains to split my treatise into forty fections, and having intreated forty lords of my acquaintance, that they would do me the honour to ftand, they all made it a matter of confcience, and fent me their excuses.

NCE upon a time, there was a man who had three* fons by one wife, and all at a birth, neither could the midwife tell certainly, which was the eldest. Their father died while they were young; and upon his death-bed, calling the lads to him, fpoke thus:

"Sons; because I have purchased no eftate, nor was born to any, I have long confidered of fome good legacies to bequeath you; and at last, with much care as well as expence, (here they are) a new

have provided each of you coat. Now, you are to

understand, that these coats have two virtues contained in them one is, that with good wearing, they will last you fresh and found as long as you live the other is, that they will grow in the fame proportion with your bodies, lengthening and widen

By these three fons, Peter, Martin, and Jack, Popery, the Church of England, and our Proteftant Diffenters, are defigned. W. Wotton.

By his coats, which he gave his fons, are meant the garment of the Ifraelites. W. Wotton.

An error (with fubmiffion) of the learned commentator; for by the coats are meant the doctrine and faith of chriftianity, by the wisdom of the divine founder fitted to all times, places, and circumftances. Lambin.