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several curiosities which he had seen in the | that, instead of being pitied, he only moved Indies, "It was in this place," says he, the mirth of his princess, and of a young "that I contracted an acquaintance with female slave who was with her. He conan old brachman, who was skilled in the most hidden powers of nature: he died within my arms, and with his parting breath communicated to me one of the most valuable secrets, on condition I should never reveal it to any man. The king immediately, reflecting on his young favourite's having refused the late offers of greatness he had made him, told him he presumed it was the power of making gold. "No, sir," says the dervis, "it is somewhat more wonderful than that; it is the power of reanimating a dead body, by flinging my own soul into it."

'While he was yet speaking, a doe came bounding by them, and the king who had his bow ready, shot her through the heart; telling the dervis, that a fair opportunity now offered for him to show his art. The young man immediately left his own body breathless on the ground, while at the same instant that of the doe was reanimated. She came to the king, fawned upon him, and, after having played several wanton tricks, fell again upon the grass; at the same instant the body of the dervis recovered its life. The king was infinitely pleased at so uncommon an operation, and conjured his friend by every thing that was sacred to communicate it to him. The dervis at first made some scruple of violating his promise to the dying brachman; but told him at last that he found he could conceal nothing from so excellent a prince; after having obliged him therefore by an oath to secrecy, he taught him to repeat two cabalistic words, in pronouncing of which the whole secret consisted. The king, impatient to try the experiment, immediately repeated them as he had been taught, and in an instant found himself in the body of the doe. He had but a little time to contemplate himself in this new being; for the treacherous dervis, shooting his own soul into the royal corpse, and bending the princes own bow against him, had laid him dead on the spot, had not the king, who perceived his intent, fled swiftly to the woods.

'The dervis, now triumphing in his villany, returned to Mousel, and filled the throne and bed of the unhappy Fadlallah.

'The first thing he took care of, in order to secure himself in the possession of his new acquired kingdom, was to issue out a proclamation, ordering his subjects to destroy all the deer in the realm. The king had perished among the rest had he not avoided his pursuers by reanimating the body of a nightingale which he saw lie dead at the foot of a tree. In this new shape he winged his way in safety to the palace; where, perching on a tree which stood near the queen's apartment, he filled the whole place with so many melodious and melancholy notes as drew her to the window. He had the mortification to see

tinued however to serenade her every morning, until at last the queen, charmed with his harmony, sent for the birdcatchers, and ordered them to employ their utmost skill to put that little creature in her possession. The king, pleased with an opportunity of being once more near his beloved consort, easily suffered himself to be taken: and when he was presented to her, though he showed a fearfulness to be touched by any of the other ladies, flew of his own accord, and hid himself in the queen's bosom. Zemroude was highly pleased at the unexpected fondness of her new favourite, and ordered him to be kept in an open cage in her own apartment. He had there an opportunity of making his court to her every morning, by a thousand little actions which his shape allowed him. The queen passed away whole hours every day, in hearing and playing with him. Fadlallah could even have thought himself happy in this state of life, had he not frequently endured the inexpressible torment of seeing the dervis enter the apartment and caress his queen even in his presence.

The usurper, amidst his toying with his princess, would often endeavour to ingratiate himself with her nightingale; and while the enraged Fadlallah pecked at him with his bill, beat his wings, and showed all the marks of an impotent rage, it only afforded his rival and the queen new matter for their diversion.

"Zemroude was likewise fond of a little lap-dog which she kept in her apartment, and which one night happened to die.

It

'The king immediately found himself inclined to quit the shape of the nightingale, and enliven his new body. He did so, and the next morning Zemroude saw her favourite bird lie dead in the cage. is impossible to express her grief on this occasion: and when she called to mind all its little actions, which even appeared to have somewhat in them like reason, she was inconsolable for her loss.

'Her women immediately sent for the dervis to come and comfort her, who after having in vain represented to her the weakness of being grieved at such an accident, touched at last by her repeated complaints, "Well, madam," says he, "I will exert the utmost of my art to please you. Your nightingale shall again revive every morning, and serenade you as before." The queen beheld him with a look which easily showed she did not believe him; when, laying himself down on a sofa, he shot his soul into the nightingale, and Zemroude was amazed to see her bird revive.

The king, who was a spectator of all that passed, lying under the shape of a lapdog in one corner of the room, immedi

ately recovered his own body, and running | into my hands, and which pretends to to the cage with the utmost indignation, great antiquity; though by reason of some twisted off the neck of the false nightingale. modern phrases, and other particulars in "Zemroude was more than ever amazed it, I can by no means allow it to be genuine, and concerned at this second accident, until but rather the production of a modern the king, entreating her to hear him, re- sophist. lated to her his whole adventure.

The body of the dervis, which was found dead in the wood, and his edict for killing all the deer, left her no room to doubt of the truth of it: but the story adds, that out of an extreme delicacy, peculiar to the oriental ladies, she was so highly afflicted at the innocent adultery in which she had for some time lived with the dervis, that no arguments, even from Fadlallah himself, could compose her mind. She shortly after died with grief, begging his pardon with her last breath for what the most rigid justice could not have interpreted as a crime.

The king was so afflicted with her death, that he left his kingdom to one of his nearest relations, and passed the rest of his days in solitude and retirement.'

No. 579.] Wednesday, August 11, 1714.

-Odora canum vis.-Virg. Æn. iv. 132.
Sagacious hounds.

IN the reign of king Charles the First, the company of stationers, into whose hands the printing of the bible is committed by patent, made a very remarkable erratum or blunder in one of the editions: for instead of Thou shalt not commit adultery,' they printed off several thousands of copies with Thou shalt commit adultery.' Archbishop Laud, to punish this their negligence, laid a considerable fine upon that company in the star-chamber.

By the practice of the world, which prevails in this degenerate age, I am afraid that very many young profligates of both sexes are possessed of this spurious edition of the bible, and observe the commandment according to that faulty reading.

It is well known by the learned, that there was a temple upon Mount Etna dedicated to Vulcan, which was guarded by dogs of so exquisite a smell, say the historians, that they could discern whether the persons who came thither were chaste or otherwise. They used to meet and fawn upon such who were chaste, caressing them as the friends of their master Vulcan; but flew at those who were polluted, and never ceased barking at them till they had driven them from the temple.

My manuscript gives the following account of these dogs, and was probably designed as a comment upon this story.

These dogs were given to Vulcan by his sister Diana, the goddess of hunting and of chastity, having bred them out of some of her hounds, in which she had observed this natural instinct and sagacity. It was thought she did it in spite of Venus, who, upon her return home, always found her husband in a good or bad humour, according to the reception which she met with from his dogs. They lived in the temple several years, but were such snappish curs, that they frighted away most of the votaries. The women of Sicily made a solemn deputation to the priest, by which they acquainted him, that they would not come up to the temple with their annual offerings unless he muzzled his mastiffs; and at last compromised the matter with him, that the offering should always be brought by a chorus of young girls, who were none of them above seven years old. It was wonderful, says the author, to see how different the treatment was which the dogs gave to these little misses, from that which they had shown to their mothers. It is said that the prince of Syracuse, having married a young lady, and being naturally of a jealous temper, made such an interest with the priests of this temple, that he procured a whelp from them of this famous breed. The young puppy was very troublesome to the fair lady at first,

Adulterers, in the first ages of the church, were excommunicated for ever, and unqualified all their lives for bearing a part in Christian assemblies, notwith-insomuch that she solicited her husband to standing they might seek it with tears, and all the appearances of the most unfeigned repentance.

I might here mention some ancient laws among the heathens, which punished this crime with death: and others of the same kind, which are now in force among several governments that have embraced the reformed religion. But, because a subject of this nature may be too serious for my ordinary readers, who are very apt to throw by my papers when they are not enlivened with something that is diverting uncommon, I shall here publish the tents of a little manuscript lately fallen

or

send him away; but the good man cut her short with the old Sicilian proverb, “Love me, love my dog;" from which time she lived very peaceably with both of them. The ladies of Syracuse were very much annoyed with him, and several of very good reputation refused to come to court until he was discarded. There were indeed some of them that defied his sagacity; but it was observed, though he did not actually bite them, he would growl at them most confoundedly. To return to the dogs of the temple: after they had lived here in great repute for several years, it so happened, that as one of the priests, who had

been making a charitable visit to a widow | singing incessantly about his throne. Who who lived on the promontory of Lilybeum, does not here see the main strokes and outreturned home pretty late in the evening, the dogs flew at him with so much fury, that they would have worried him if his brethren had not come in to his assistance: upon which, says my author, the dogs were all of them hanged, as having lost their original instinct.'

I cannot conclude this paper without wishing that we had some of this breed of dogs in Great Britain, which would certainly do justice, I should say honour, to the ladies of our country, and show the world the difference between pagan women and those who are instructed in sounder principles of virtue and religion.

No. 580.] Friday, August 13, 1714.

lines of this great truth we are speaking of?
The same doctrine is shadowed out in many
other heathen authors, though at the same
time, like several other revealed truths,
dashed and adulterated with a mixture of
fables and human inventions.
But to pass
over the notions of the Greeks and Romans,
those more enlightened parts of the pagan
world, we find there is scarce a people
among the late discovered nations who are
not trained up in an opinion that heaven is
the habitation of the divinity whom they
worship.

'As in Solomon's temple there was the Sanctum Sanctorum, in which a visible glory appeared among the figures of the cherubims, and into which none but the high priest himself was permitted to enter, after having made an atonement for the sins of the people; so, if we consider the whole creation as one great temple, there is in it this Holy of holies, into which the High priest of our salvation entered, and took his place among angels and arch-angels, after having made a propitiation for the sins of mankind.

-Si verbo audacia detur, Non metuam magni dixisse palatia coli. Ovid, Met. Lib. i. 175. This place, the brightest mansion of the sky I'll call the palace of the Deity.-Dryden. 'SIR,-I considered in my two last letters that awful and tremendous subject, the ubiquity or omnipresence of the Divine With how much skill must the throne Being. I have shown that he is equally of God be erected! With what glorious present in all places throughout the whole designs is that habitation beautified, which extent of infinite space. This doctrine is is contrived and built by him who inspired so agreeable to reason, that we meet with Hiram with wisdom! How great must be it in the writings of the enlightened hea-the majesty of that place, where the whole thens, as I might show at large, were it art of creation has been employed, and not already done by other hands. But where God has chosen to show himself in though the Deity be thus essentially pre- the most magnificent manner? What must sent through all the immensity of space, be the architecture of infinite power under there is one part of it in which he discovers the direction of infinite wisdom? A spirit himself in a most transcendent and visible cannot but be transported, after an ineffaglory; this is that place which is marked ble manner, with the sight of those obout in scripture under the different appel-jects, which were made to effect him by lations of "Paradise, the third heaven, that Being who knows the inward frame the throne of God, and the habitation of of a soul, and how to please and ravish it in his glory. It is here where the glorified all its most secret powers and faculties. It body of our Saviour resides, and where all is to this majestic presence of God we may the celestial hierarchies, and the innume-apply those beautiful expressions in holy rable hosts of angels, are represented as perpetually surrounding the seat of God with hallelujahs and hymns of praise. This is that presence of God which some of the divines call his glorious, and others his majestic, presence. He is indeed as essentially present in all other places as in this; but it is here where he resides in a sensible magnificence, and in the midst of all those splendours which can effect the imagination of created beings.

writ: Behold even to the moon and it shineth not; yea the stars are not pure in his sight.' The light of the sun, and all the glories of the world in which we live, are but as weak and sickly glimmerings, or rather darkness itself, in comparison of those splendours which encompass the throne of God.

'As the glory of this place is transcendent beyond imagination, so probably is the extent of it. There is light behind light, It is very remarkable that this opinion and glory within glory. How far that space of God Almighty's presence in heaven, may reach, in which God appears in perwhether discovered by the light of nature, fect majesty, we cannot possibly conceive. or by a general tradition from our first pa- Though it is not infinite, it may be indefirents, prevails among all the nations of the nite; and, though not immeasurable in itworld, whatsoever different notions they en- self, it may be so with regard to any created. tertain of the Godhead. If you look into Ho-eye or imagination. If he has made these mer, the most ancient of the Greek writers, lower regions of matter so inconceivably you see the supreme power seated in the hea-wide and magnificent for the habitation of vens, and encompassed with inferior deities, mortal and perishable beings, how great may among whom the Muses are represented as we suppose the courts of his house to be VOL. II. 47

where he makes his residence in a more especial manner, and displays himself in the fulness of his glory, among an innumerable company of angels and spirits of just men made perfect?

words, as might convey a notion of it to his hearers.

It is very natural for us to take delight in inquiries concerning any foreign country, where we are some time or other to make our abode; and as we all hope to be admitted into this glorious place, it is both a laudable and useful curiosity to get what informations we can of it, whilst we make use of revelation for our guide. When these everlasting doors shall be open to us, we may be sure that the pleasures and beauties of this place will infinitely transcend our present hopes and expectations, and that the glorious appearance of the throne of God will rise infinitely beyond whatever we are able to conceive of it. We might here entertain ourselves with many other speculations on this subject, from those several hints which we find of it in the holy scriptures; as, whether there may not be different mansions and apartments of glory

This is certain, that our imaginations cannot be raised too high, when we think on a place where omnipotence and omniscience have so signally exerted themselves, because that they are able to produce a scene infinitely more great and glorious than what we are able to imagine. It is not impossible but at the consummation of all things, these outward apartments of nature, which are now suited to those beings who inhabit them, may be taken in and added to that glorious place of which I am here speaking, and by that means made a proper habitation for beings who are exempt from mortality, and cleared of their imperfections: for so the scripture seems to intimate when it speaks of "new heavens and of a new earth, wherein dwell-to beings of different natures; whether, as eth righteousness.

I have only considered this glorious place with regard to the sight and imagination, though it is highly probable that our other senses may here likewise enjoy their highest gratifications. There is nothing which more ravishes and transports the soul than harmony; and we have great reason to believe, from the descriptions of this place in holy scripture, that this is one of the entertainments of it. And if the soul of man can be so wonderfully affected with those strains of music which human art is capable of producing, how much more will it be raised and elevated by those in which is exerted the whole power of harmony! The senses are faculties of the human soul, though they cannot be employed, during this our vital union, without proper instruments in the body. Why therefore should we exclude the satisfaction of these faculties, which we find by experience are inlets of great pleasure to the soul, from among those entertainments which are to make up our happiness hereafter! Why should we suppose that our hearing and seeing will not be gratified with those objects which are most agreeable to them, and which they cannot meet with in these lower regions of nature; objects, "which neither eye hath seen, nor ear heard, nor can it enter into the heart of man to conceive? I knew a man in Christ (says Saint Paul, speaking of himself) above fourteen years ago, (whether in the body I cannot tell, or whether out of the body I cannot tell: God knoweth) such a one caught up to the third heaven. And I knew such a man (whether in the body or out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth) how that he was caught up into Paradise, and heard unspeakable words, which it is not possible for a man to utter. By this is meant that what he heard was so infinitely different from any *hing which he had heard in this world, it was impossible to express it in such

they excel one another in perfection, they
are not admitted nearer to the throne of the
Almighty, and enjoy greater manifestations
of his presence; whether there are not
solemn times and occasions, when all the
multitude of heaven celebrate the presence
of their Maker in more extraordinary
forms of praise and adoration; as Adam,
though he had continued in a state of inno-
cence, would, in the opinion of our divines,
have kept holy the Sabbath-day in a more
particular manner than any other of the
seven. These, and the like speculations we
may very innocently indulge, so long as we
make use of them to inspire us with a de-
sire of becoming inhabitants of this delight-
ful
place.

I have in this, and in two foregoing letters, treated on the most serious subject that can employ the mind of man-the omnipresence of the Deity; a subject which, if possible, should never depart from our meditations. We have considered the Divine Being as he inhabits infinitude, as he dwells among his works, as he is present to the mind of man, and as he discovers himself in a more glorious manner among the regions of the Blest. Such a consideration should be kept awake in us at all times, and in all places, and possess our minds with a perpetual awe and reverence. It should be interwoven with all our thoughts and perceptions, and become one with the consciousness of our own being. It is not to be reflected on in the coldness of philosophy, but ought to sink us into the lowest prostration before him, who is so astonishingly great, wonderful, and holy.'

When the lady who wrote me a letter, No. 582.] Wednesday, August 18, 1714.

dated July the 20th, in relation to some passages in a lover, will be more particular in her directions, I shall be so in my answer.

The poor gentleman who fancies my writings could reclaim a husband who can abuse such a wife as he describes, has, I am afraid, too great an opinion of my skill. I mentioned neither by Galen nor Hippo