name of a believer. He resembles a bat, which fome naturalifts reckon a bird, and others a beaft. Voltaire is our champion and favourite, and his writings prove that "ridicule is the test of truth." He has done us great service by his gibes and sarcasms, and gained many to our fide. Reasoning, you will fay, is not his talent! True; but he does much better without it. He strikes the fancy with wit and ridicule, turns mens heads, without giving them time for reflection, and fo draws them into his fyftem at once. He acts like the fox, who runs round with his tail in his mouth, to make the heads of fowl giddy, and decoy them from the rooft.

I am, fir, yours, &c.

Y

NUMBER VII.

ARISTIPUS.

IMITATION of the 25th Ode of the 1ft Book of HORACE.

Parcius jun&tas quatiunt feneftras,
laibus crebris juvenes protervi, &c.

To the right hon. JN PN BY:

I.

WOW fcarce a hack around thee waits,

Now

No pliant courtiers crowd thy gates,

Their rufty hinges peaceful lie :

C 4

All

All Townshend's rifing power purfue,
All caft a fcornful glance at you,
And eager to the Castle fly.

II.

No more, alas! you now fhall hear,
"Make me a bishop, me a peer,
"To me a finecure afford:

"Grant me a good fnug place for life,
"Grant me a pension for my wife,
"Or feat me at the linen board.

III.

"Firm to your intereft I remain, For you confiftency disdain,

My friendship then you cannot doubt: "As you change fides, fo I change ftill, Like you I pass the money bill,

"Like you, offended, throw it out."

IV.

O! P-n-by you toil in vain,
By partial arts, new dupes to gain,
Fallen, fallen, to rife no more :

Thy foes degraded to embrace,

To count the house with anxious face,
Or watch the members at the door.

V.

1

Now doom'd each corner to explore,
Of coffee-house, or Corredore,

1

To catch fome ftraggling patriot there': (Like old Magill unspoil'd by gin,) ·

Now

Now humbled to a whipper-in,

your

abdicated chair.

VI.

To Constitution club retreat,
There only you can now be great,
For liberty there loudly roar :
With Bch and Ag-in nightly fit;
Like Lucas hug each factious cit,
And rail at jobbs you plan'd before.

VII.

Your coach of state so long display'd,
Your golden gown for birth-days made,
No more to gaping crowds you'll fhew 'em ;;
No more these useless trophies keep,
To Pry fell them, foon and cheap,
Or down the rapid Liffey throw 'em..

NUMBER VIII,

Dein Gnatia lymphis

Iratis extructa dedit rifufque jocofque,
Dum flammis fine thura liquefcere limine facro
Perfuadere cupit. Credat Judæus Appella,
Non ego.-

UINCTILIAN recommends mathematics to the study of an orator, as the best means of teaching him to argue with precision and accuracy. A celebrated French philofopher alfo recommends

C 5

this

of

this noble science as the most effectual method of gradually eradicating every fpecies ** fuperftition. For the mind, by proceeding with certainty in each link of a propofition, till the demonstration is evident, acquires a habit of reasoning, and examining every principle, and not affenting to it without fufficient grounds. And, indeed, we may observe, that credulity and fuperftition, have least effect, where mathematical philofophy has made the greatest progrefs: witchcraft, particularly, is now almost totally banished, even from the Highlands, and is chiefly confined to Norway and Lapland. To take a comparative view, even of the manners of the feventeenth century, and our own, what an amazing change shall we find! This is the way to form a juft idea of our fuperior happiness in many refpects.

There is at prefent extant, the trial of fix perfons for witchcraft, at Lancaster, in the year 1636. They were all capitally convicted, and the judge in his charge to the jury, fays, "that the evidence against "them was fo clear, confiftent and pofitive, that "there could be no doubt of their guilt."

Bishop Jortin, in a fermon preached before Queen Elizabeth, laments the wickedness of the land, and prophetically exclaims, "that certainly the judge"ments of God would speedily be executed on it, in "an exemplary manner, for the heinous crimes of "many of the people în practifing witchcraft;" and then recommends the example of fome of the Kings of Ifrael to her Majefty, who did not fuffer a wizard to live. Yet the bifhop was a man of parts and

* Middleton on Miracles.

learning:

learning: claffical knowledge was never more cultivated, than at that period and it is well known, that Greek was no ftranger at court in those days, and many of the maids of honour were fo well fkilled in it, as to be fufficiently qualified for profeffors.

In the next session, the parliament, to avert the threatened judgement, paffed a fevere act against witchcraft. Here we fee the whole legislature, King, Lords, and Commons, floop to deftroy a few doating old women, fufpected of bewitching a bridegroom, riding to France on a broomstick, and spoiling a churning This act was only repeated in the reign of George the firft, tho' long obfolete, from the more enlightened manners of the age.

The memoirs of the Houfe of Brandenburgh men-tion one perfon, who was tried and executed for witchcraft at Leipfic in the year 1707. But the prejudice and folly of the judges, was fet in fo ridiculous a light, by the illuftrious Wolfe and Leibnitz, that it put a final stop to fuch ignorance and barbarity. Now, if we were only to regard human teftimony, what doubt could we have of facts so confidently afferted, proyed by oath in courts of justice, and believed by all Europe. But fome philofophers,. men of fuperior reafon and fagacity, found it neceffary to fix a stronger criterion than mere popular credulity, for things fo improbable in themselves. They required an internal proof, that is, a proof of the story drawn from its probability, and rejected the ftrongest human teftimony, without fuch evidence to confirm it for inftance, if a person in those days, fwore he faw another leap over a mountain, instead · of disbelieving the witness, they burnt the accufed, as they logically concluded, that he muft have per

formed.