Story in particular is well attested, being told by the Man himself, who was a great and a learned Man, and who, if we may believe himself, seems to be as sure that he had his Eyes open, as the Commentator can be of the contrary.

But whatever Truth there may be in it, it is certain that in the Church of Rome they are persuaded of the Truth of it, to a Fault. For they are so sure of it, that they have particular Forms of exorcising such Houses; which because they have often been heard of, but seldom seen; and are those very Things which raised, in the Vulgar formerly, such an Opinion of their ignorant Priests, as to make them be esteemed Men of the greatest Faith and Learning; and because also the Opinion has reached even our Days, and 'tis common for the present Vulgar to say, none can lay a Spirit but a Popish Priest; it shall be the Business of the next Chapter, to give one of those Forms of exorcising an House; not that they are envied for their Art of conjuring, but that it may be seen, how well they deserve the Character they go under.

OBSER

OBSERVATIONS ON CHAP. X.

Or such a Winter-Evening's Confabulation as our Author speaks of, Dr. Akenside (the Boast of our Newcastle*) has left us a fine poetical Descrip

tion

* Dr. Akenside was born at Newcastle-upon-Tyne, and received the first Principles of his Education at the very respectable Grammar School there; his Father a reputable Butcher of the Town. A Halt in his Gait, occasioned when a Boy, by the falling of a Cleaver from his Father's Stall, must have been a perpetual Remembrancer of his humble Origin. I mention this, because, from the Biographical Account of him prefixed to the posthumnous Edition of his Works, (an Outline with which he himself must have furnished his Friends) one is inclined to believe that he was ashamed of his Birth.

-We regret, on perusing it, the Omission of those pleasing and interesting little Anecdotes usually given of the first Indications of Genius. His Townsmen have many other Reasons that lead to the Confirmation of this Suspicion.-Taking this for granted, it was a great and unpardonable Foible in one of so exalted an Understand. ing. False Shame was perhaps never more strongly exemplified. The learned World will forgive me for attempting in this Note to defeat his very narrow Purpose, (for I can call by no softer Name) the wishing to conceal from Posterity a Circumstance, that would by no means have lessened his Fame with them. I flatter myself it is compatible with the Respect we owe to the Dead, and even to the Memory of him, who on other Accounts deserved so highly of his Country.

The Distinction of Family is honourable: It is the transmitted Inheritance of great Deserts. But let it be remembered, that Selfcreation by personal Merit is the pure Fountain, of which that is too often no more than the polluted Stream. Accidents must always be light, when put in the Scales against Qualities; and they who pique themselves on the Possession of a few Links, of what is at best but a broken Chain, must have the "Stemmata quid "faciunt ?" of Juvenal suggested to them, and be told, that the utmost Kings can do is to confer Titles, they cannot make Men deserve them!

The Propriety of this Reasoning can only be felt by philosophical Spirits: The World (wisely, on its own Account) reprobates such

Doctrine:

tion in his Pleasures of Imagination, a Performance, the greatest Part of which is said to have been written on the Banks of the Tyne, where per, haps nothing was ever produced before of true classical Inspiration.

He is speaking of the restless Curiosity of the human Mind-the Desire of Objects new and strange:

Hence (he proceeds) by Night

The Village Matron, round the blazing Hearth,
Suspends the Infant Audience with her Tales,
Breathing Astonishment! Of witching Rhymes,
And evil Spirits: Of the Death-Bed Call

To him who robb'd the Widow, and devour'd
The Orphan's Portion: Of unquiet Souls
Ris'n from the Grave to ease the heavy Guilt
Of Deeds in Life conceal'd: Of Shapes that walk
At Dead of Night, and clank their Chains and wave
The Torch of Hell around the Murd'rer's Bed.

At ev'ry solemn Pause the Crowd recoil,
Gazing each other speechless, and congeal'd'
With shiv'ring Sighs; till eager for th' Event,
Around the Beldame all erect they hang,

Each trembling Heart with grateful Terrors quell'd!

Book I.

Little can be added to what our Author has ad

Doctrine: Yet while others are boasting with the Roman Governor of old, that with large Sums they obtained this Freedom, let those in the same Predicament with our Poet, conscious of having been" honoured by the GOOD BEING with the first Distinctions of Nature, the rare Gifts of Genius and of the Understanding, which they have not abused, call to Mind, in supporting themselves against the Envy of the great Vulgar and of the small, a Consideration, which is of the strictest philosophical Truth, THE AKENSIDES are FREE BORN!

vanced concerning the popular Notions of the Devil.-Old Nick is the vulgar Name of this evil Being in the North, and is of great Antiquity. There is a great deal of Learning concerning it in Olaus Wormius' Danish Monuments. We borrowed it from the Title of an evil Genius among the antient Danes. They say he has often appeared on the Sea and on deep Rivers in the Shape of a Sea Monster, presaging immediate Shipwreck and Drowning to Seamen. See Lye's Junii Etymolog. in verbo, Nick.-I have heard also the Name of Old Harry on the same. Occasion; perhaps from the verb To harrie to lay waste, destroy, &c.

To the Account of Fairies may be added that of the Brownies, a Kind of Ghosts, of whom, says the Author of the Glossary to Douglas' Virgil, the ignorant common People and old Wives in Scotland tell many ridiculous Stories, and represent to have been not only harmless, but useful-Spirits possest of a Servility of Temper that made them, provided they were civilly used, submit to do the meanest Offices of Drudgery. They are now extinct as well as the Fairies.-It was supposed that from their hard Labour and mean Employment they became of a swarthy or tawny Colour; whence their Name of Brownics*, as the other, who moved

in

* Dr. Johnson, in his Journey to the western Islands, observes, "that of Browny, mentioned by Martin, nothing has been heard "for many Years. Browny was a sturdy Fairy, who if he was fed

" and

in a higher Sphere, are called Fairies, from their Fairness*.

Perhaps Mr. Bourne's Account of the Origin of Fairies may be controverted: They are rather of Eastern than of Roman Extraction, and are said to have been invented by the Persians and Arabs, whose Religion and History abound with Relations concerning them. They have assigned them a peculiar Country to inhabit, and call it Fairy Land.

A respectable old Woman of our Nation, Mr. Lilly, in his Life and Times, tells us "Fairies love "the southern Side of Hills, Mountains, Groves.—

"and kindly treated, would, as they said, do a great deal of Work. "They now pay him no Wages, and are content to labour for them"selves." p. 171.

Junius gives the following Etymon of Hobgoblin: Casaubon, he says, derives Goblin from the Greek Kobaλos, a Kind of Spirit that was supposed to lurk about Houses. The Hobgoblins were a Species of them, so called, because their Motion was fabled to have been effected not so much by walking as hopping on one Leg!

See Lye's Junii Etymolog. &c.

Boggle-Boe is said to be derived from the Welch bwgwly, to ter rify, and Boe, a frightful Sound invented by Nurses to intimidate their Children into good Behaviour, with the idea of some Monster about to take them away. Skinner seems to fetch it from Buculus, i. e. Bos boans !

See Lye's Junii Etymolog. in verbo, &c. Well has Etymology been called the Eruditio ad libitum!

"

* The Account of them by Moresin favours this Etymology: Papatus (says he) credit albatas mulieres, et id genus larvas, 'pueros integros auferre, aliosque suggerere monstruosos & debiles "multis partibus: aut ad baptisterium cum aliis commutare, aut aḍ "Templi Introitum." Deprav. Rel. Orig. p. 139.

This Note illustrates Mr. Bourne's Account of Persons, who were stolen away by the Fairies, and confined seven Years. Thus also Mr. Pennant tells us, that the Notion or Belief of Fairies still prevails in the Highlands of Scotland, and Children are watched till the Christening is over, lest they should be stolen or changed.

K

Tour in Scotland, p. 94. "Neatness