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mortal, if Fortune had not made it so; and to attempt to shoot on Horseback, and at a great Distance, and at one whose Body was in Motion by the moving of his Horse, was the Attempt of a Man who had rather miss his Blow, than fail of saving himself, as was apparent by what followed after; for he was so aftonished and stupified with the Thought of so desperate an Execution, that he totally loft his Judgment, both to find his Way to escape, and how to govern his Tongue in his Answers. What needed he to have done more than to fly back to his Friends cross a River? 'Tis what I have done in less Dangers, and what I think of very little Hazard, how broad foever the River may be, provided your Horse have good going in, and that you fee, on the other Side, good landing, according to the Stream. The other, (viz. the Prince of Orange's Assassin) when they pronounced his dreadful Sentence: • I was prepared for this, faid he, beforehand, and I will • make you wonder at my Patience.'

A People who believe Affassination the fureft Path to Paradise.

The Affaffins, a Nation dependant upon Phanicia, are reputed, amongst the Mahometans, a People of great Devotion, and Purity of Manners. They hold, That the nearest Way to gain Paradise, is to kill some one of a contrary Religion; which is the Reason they have often been seen, being but one or two, without Arms, to run madly against powerful Enemies, at the Price of certain Death, and without any Confideration of their own Danger. So was our Count Raimond, of Tripoli, assassinated (which Word is derived from their Name) in the Heart of his City, during our Enterprises of the Holy War; and likewise Conrade, Marquis of Montferrat, the Murderers going to their Exetion with great Pride and Glory, that they had performed so brave an Exploit.

VOL. II.

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CHAP.

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Of a monstrous CHILD.

SHALL tell the Story simply, and leave it

1 Physicians to reafon upon imply to the

a Child, which two Men and a Nurse, who called themselves the Father, the Uncle, and the Aunt of it, carried about to get Money by shewing it, because it was so strange a Creature. It was, as to all the rest, of a common Form, and could stand upon its Feet, walk and gabble much likę other Children of the same Age; it had never, as yet, taken any other Nourishment but from the Nurse's Breasts, and what, in my Prefence, they tried to put into the Mouth of it, it only chewed a little, and spit out again without swallowing; the Cry of it feemed, indeed, a little odd and particular, and it was just fourteen Months old. Under the Breast it was joined to another Child, that had no Head, and that had the Spine of the Back stopped up, the rest intire; it had one Arm shorter than the other, because it had been broken, by Accident, at their Birth; they were joined Breast to Breaft, as if a leffer Child was to clasp its Arms about the Neck of one fomething bigger. The Part where they were joined together, was not above four Fingers broad, or thereabouts, **To that if you turn up the imperfect Child, you might fee the Navel of the other below it, and the joining was betwixt the Paps and the Navel. The Navel of the imperfect Child could not be seen, but all the rest of the Belly; so that all the rest that was not joined of the imperfect one, as Arms, Buttocks, Thighs, and Legs, hung dangling upon the other, and might reach to the Mid-leg. The Nurse, moreover, told us, that it urined at both Bodies, and alfo that the Members of the other were nourished, fenfible, and in the same Plight with that she gave fuck to, excepting that they were shorter, and less. This double Body, and the several Limbs relating to one Head, might be interpreted as a favourable Prognostic to the

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King, of maintaining those various Parts of our State under the Union of his Laws; but, left the Event should prove otherwise, 'tis better to let it alone, for in Things already paft, there is no Divination; Ut quum facta funt, tum ad conjecturam aliqua interpretatione revocantur. • as when they are come to pass, they should then, by • some Interpretation, be recalled to conjecture:' As 'tis faid of Epimenides, that he always prophefied of Things ' past. I have lately seen a Herdsman, in Medoc, of about thirty Years of Age, who has no Sign A Man who of any genital Parts; he has three Holes by had no Geniwhich he incessantly voids his Water; he is tals. Bearded, has Defire, and loves to stroke the Women. Those that we call Monsters, are not so to God, who sees, in the Immensity of his Work, the infinite Forms that he has therein comprehended: : And it is to be believed, that this Figure, which does astonish us, has relation to fome other of the same kind, unknown to Man. From a God of all Wisdom, nothing but good, common, and regular proceeds; but we do not difcern the Disposition and Relation of Things. Quod crebro videt, non miratur, etiamfi, cur fiat, nefcit : Quod antè non videt, id, fi evenerit, oftentum effe cenfet. • What Man often fees, he does ' not admire, tho' he be ignorant how it comes to pass : • But, when a Thing happens he never faw before, that • he looks upon as a Prodigy.' What falls out contrary to Custom, we say is contrary to Nature; but nothing, whatever it be, is contrary to her. Let, therefore, this universal and natural Reason expel the Error and Astonishment from us, that Novelty brings along with it.

a

Whether there are Monsters properly so called.

y Cic. de Divin. lib. ii. c. 31.

• Ariftotle's Rhetoric, lib. iii. c. 12.

• Cic. de Divin. lib. ii. c. 22.

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CHAP,

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Children in

CHAP. ΧΧΧΙ.

Of ANGER.

LUTARCH is admirable throughout, but especially where he judges of human Actions: What fine Things does he say in the Comparison of Lycurgus and Numa, upon the Subject of our great Folly in abandoning Children to the Care and Government of their Fathers !

difcreetly aban

doned to the

Government of their Parents.

• The most of our Civil Governments, as • Aristotle says, leave, to every one, after the manner of • the Cyclops, the ordering of their Wives and Children, ' according to their own foolish and indiscreet Fancy; • and the Lacedæmonian and Cretenfian are almost the on• ly Governments that have committed the Discipline of • Children to the Laws.' Who does not fee, that, in a State, all depends upon their Nurture and Education? And yet they are indifcreetly left to the Mercy of the Parents, let them be as foolish and ill-natured as they will.

Of the Indifcretion of Parents, who punish their Chil

Amongst other Things, how oft have I, as I have passed along the Streets, had a good mind to write a Farce, to revenge the poor Boys, whom I have seen flead, knocked down, and almost murdered, by some Father or Mother, when in their Fury, and mad with Rage? You fee them come out with Fire and Fury fparkling in their Eyes.

dren in the

Madness of

Paffion.

- rabie jecur incendente feruntur
Præcipites, ut faxa jugis abrupta, quibus mons
Subtrahitur, clivoque latus pendente recedit.

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With burning Fury they are headlong borne,
As when great Stones are from the Mountains torn,
By which the Clifts depriv'd and lessen'd are,
And their steep Sides are naked left, and bare.

▸ Juvenal. Sat. vi. v. 548. &c.

(and, (and, acording to Hippocrates, 'the most dangerous Ma• ladies are they that disfigure the Countenance') with a sharp and roaring Voice, very often against those that are but newly come from Nurse, and there they are lamed and stunned with Blows, whilst our Justice takes no Cognizance of it; as if these were not the Maims and Dislocations of the Members of our Commonwealth.

Gratum eft quòd patriæ civem, populoque dedisti,
Si facies ut Patriæ fit idoneus, utilis agris,
Utilis et bellorum et pacis rebus agendis .

i. e.

It is a Gift most acceptable, when
Thou to thy Country giv'st a Citizen,
Provided thou hast had the Knack of it,
To make him for his Country's Service fit;
Useful t'assift the Earth in her Increase,

And useful in Affairs of War and Peace.

There is no Passion that so much perverts Men's true Judgment, as Anger. No one would demur upon punishing a Judge with Death, who should condemn a Criminal from a Motive of Anger; why then should Fathers and School-masters be any more allowed to whip and chaftise Children in their Anger? This is not Correction, but Revenge. Chastisement is instead of Physic to Children; and should we bear with a Physician, that was animated against, and enraged at his Patient ?

The Faults of the Person whom we punish in Anger, Seem to us different from what they are in Reality.

If we would do well, we should never lay a Hand upon our Servants whilft our Anger lasts; whilft the Pulse beats high, and that we feel an Emotion in ourselves, let us defer the Business ; for 'tis Passion that commands, and Paffion that speaks then, not we: But Faults seen through Paffion, appear much greater to us than they really are, as Bodies do, being seen through a Mist. He that is hungry, uses Meat, but he that will make Use of Correction, should have no Appetite, neither of Hunger or Thirst, to it. And, more

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• Juvenal. Sat. xiv. v. 60, 5.

over,

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