Chap. XXII.[1]
Compendiously of many questionable Customs, Opinions, Pictures, Practices, and Popular Observations.
IF an Hare crosse the high way, there are few above threescore years that are not perplexed thereat:[2] which notwithstanding is but an Augurial terror, according to that received expression, Inauspicatum dat iter oblatus Lepus. And the ground of the conceit was probably no greater then this, that a fearful animal passing by us, portended unto us some thing to be feared: as upon the like consideration the meeting of a Fox presaged some future imposture; which was a superstitious observation prohibited unto the Jews, as is expressed in the Idolatry of Maimonides, and is referred unto the sin of an observer of Fortunes, or one that abuseth events unto good or bad signs, forbidden by the Law of Moses;3 which notwithstanding sometimes succeeding, according to fears or desires, have left impressions and timerous expectations in credulous minds for ever.
2. That Owls and Ravens are ominous appearers, and pre-signifying unlucky events, as Christians yet conceit,[4] was also an Augurial conception. Because many Ravens were seen when Alexander entered Babylon, they were thought to pre-ominate his death; and because an Owl appeared before the battle, it presaged the ruin of Crassus. Which though decrepite superstitions, and such as had their nativity in times beyond all history, are fresh in the observation of many heads, and by the credulous and feminine party still in some Majesty among us. And therefore the Emblem of Superstition was well set out by Ripa,5 in the picture of an Owl, an Hare, and an Old Woman. And it no way confirmeth the Augurial consideration, that an Owl is a forbidden food in the Law of Moses; or that Jerusalem was threatned by the Raven and the Owl, in that expression of Esay 34. That it should be a court for Owls, that the Cormorant and the Bittern should possess it, and the Owl and the Raven dwell in it. For thereby was only implied their ensuing desolation, as is expounded in the words succeeding: He shall draw upon it the line of confusion, and the stones of emptiness.[6]
3. The falling of Salt is an authentick presagement of ill luck,[7] nor can every temper contemn it; from whence notwithstanding nothing can be naturally feared: nor was the same a generall prognostick of future evil among the Ancients, but a particular omination concerning the breach of friendship. For Salt as incorruptible, was the Symbole of friendship, and before the other service was offered unto their guests; which if it casually fell, was accounted ominous, and their amity of no duration. But whether Salt were not only a Symbole of friendship with man, but also a figure of amity and reconciliation with God, and was therefore observed in sacrifices; is an higher speculation.
4. To break the egg shell after the meat is out, we are taught in our childhood, and practise it all our lives; which neverthelesse is but a superstitious relict, according to the judgement of Pliny: Huc pertinet ovorum, ut exorbuerit quisque, calices protinus frangi, aut eosdem cochlearibus perforari, and the intent hereof was to prevent witchcraft; for lest witches[8] should draw or prick their names therein, and veneficiously mischiefe their persons, they broke the shell, as Dalecampius hath observed.
5. The true Lovers knot is very much magnified, and still retained in presents of Love among us;[9] which though in all points it doth not make it out, had perhaps its original from the Nodus Herculanus,[10] or that which was called Hercules his knot, resembling the snaky complication in the caduceus or rod of Hermes; and in which form the Zone or woolen girdle of the Bride was fastened, as Turnebus observeth in his Adversaria.
6. When our cheek burneth or ear tingleth,[11] we usually say that some body is talking of us, which is an ancient conceit, and ranked among superstitious opinions by Pliny.[12] Absentes tinnitu aurium præsentire sermones de se receptum est, according to that disticke noted by Dalecampius.
Garrula quid totis resonas mihi noctibus auris?
Nescio quem dicis nunc meminisse mei.
Which is a conceit hardly to be made out without the concession of a signifying Genius, or universal Mercury; conducting sounds unto their distant subjects, and teaching us to hear by touch.
7. When we desire to confine our words we commonly say they are spoken under the Rose;[13] which expression is commendable, if the Rose from any natural property may be the Symbole of silence, as Nazianzene seems to imply in these translated verses:
Utque latet Rosa Verna suo putamine clausa,
Sic os vincla ferat, validisque arctetur habenis,
Indicatque suis prolixa silentia labris:
And is also tolerable, if by desiring a secrecy to words spoke under the Rose, we only mean in society and compotation, from the ancient custom in Symposiack meetings, to wear chaplets of Roses about their heads: and so we condemn not the German custom, which over the Table describeth a Rose in the cieling. But more considerable it is, if the original were such as Lemnius, and others have recorded; that the Rose was the flower of Venus, which Cupid consecrated unto Harpocrates the God of silence, and was therefore an Emblem thereof, to conceal the pranks of Venery; as is declared in this Tetrastick:[14]
Est Rosa flos veneris, cujus quo facta laterent
Harpocrati matris, dona dicavit Amor;
Inde Rosam mensis hospes suspendit Amicis,
Convivæ ut sub ea dicta tacenda sciant.
8. That smoak doth follow the fairest[15] is an usual saying with us, and in many parts of Europe; whereof although there seem no natural ground, yet is it the continuation of a very ancient opinion, as Petrus Victorius and Casaubon have observed from a passage in Athenæus: wherein a Parasite thus describeth himselfe.
To every Table first I come,
Whence Porridge I am call'd by some:
A Capaneus[16] at Stares I am,
To enter any Room a Ram;
Like whips and thongs to all I ply,
Like smoake unto the Fair I fly.
9. To set cross leg'd,[17] or with our fingers pectinated or shut together is accounted bad, and friends will perswade us from it. The same conceit religiously possessed the Ancients, as is observable from Pliny. Poplites alternis genibus imponere nefas olim; and also from Athenæus, that it was an old veneficious practice, and Juno is made in this posture to hinder the delivery of Alcmæna. And therefore, as Pierius observeth, in the Medal of Julia Pia, the right hand of Venus was made extended with the inscription of Venus, Genetrix; for the complication or pectination of the fingers was an Hieroglyphick of impediment, as in that place he declareth.
10. The set and statary times of pairing of nails, and cutting of hair, is thought by many a point of consideration;[18] which is perhaps but the continuation of an ancient superstition. For piaculous[19] it was unto the Romans to pare their nails upon the Nundinæ, observed every ninth day; and was also feared by others in certain daies of the week; according to that of Ausonius, Ungues Mercurio, Barbam Jove, Cypride Crines; and was one part of the wickedness that filled up the measure of Manasses, when 'tis delivered, that he observed times.20
11. A common fashion it is to nourish hair upon the mouls of the face; which is the perpetuation of a very ancient custom; and though innocently practised among us, may have a superstitious original, according to that of Pliny. Nævos in facie tondere religiosum habent nunc multi.[21] From the like might proceed the fears of poling Elvelocks[22] or complicated hairs of the head, and also of locks longer than the other hair; they being votary at first, and dedicated upon occasion; preserved with great care, and accordingly esteemed by others, as appears by that of Apuleius, Adjuro per dulcem capilli tui nodulum.
12. A custom there is in most parts of Europe to adorn Aqueducts, spouts and Cisterns with Lions head: which though no illaudable ornament, is of an Egyptian geneology, who practised the same under a symbolical illation. For because the Sun being in Leo, the flood of Nilus was at the full, and water became conveyed into every part, they made the spouts of their Aqueducts through the head of a Lion.[23] And upon some cœlestial respects it is not improbable the great Mogul or Indian King doth bear for his Arms a Lion and the Sun.
13. Many conceive there is somewhat amiss, and that as we usually say, they are unblest until they put on their girdle. Wherein (although most know not what they say) there are involved unknown considerations. For by a girdle or cincture are symbolically implied Truth, Resolution, and Readiness unto action, which are parts and vertues required in the service of God. According whereto we find that the Israelites did eat the Paschal Lamb[24] with their loins girded; and the Almighty challenging Job, bids him gird up his loins like a man. So runneth the expression of Peter, Gird up the loins of your minds, be sober and hope to the end: so the high Priest was girt with the girdle of fine linnen: so is it part of the holy habit to have our loins girt about with truth; and so is it also said concerning our Saviour,25 Righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins, and faithfulness the girdle of his reines.
Moreover by the girdle, the heart and parts which God requires are divided from the inferiour and concupiscential organs; implying thereby a memento unto purification and cleanness of heart, which is commonly defiled from the concupiscence and affection of those parts; and therefore unto this day the Jews do bless themselves when they put on their zone or cincture. And thus may we make out the doctrin of Pythagoras, to offer sacrifice with our feet naked, that is, that our inferiour parts and farthest removed from Reason might be free, and of no impediment unto us. Thus Achilles, though dipped in Styx, yet having his heel untouched by that water; although he were fortified elsewhere, he was slain in that part, as only vulnerable in the inferiour and brutal part of Man. This is that part of Eve and her posterity the devil still doth bruise, that is, that part of the soul which adhereth unto earth, and walks in the paths thereof. And in this secondary and symbolical sense it may be also understood, when the Priests in the Law washed their feet before the sacrifice; when our Saviour washed the feet of his Disciples, and said unto Peter, If I wash not thy feet thou hast no part in me. And thus is it symbollically explainable and implyeth purification and cleanness, when in the burnt offerings the Priest is commanded to wash the inwards and legs thereof in water; and in the peace and sin-offerings, to burn the two kidneys, the fat which is about the flanks, and as we translate it, the Caul above the Liver. But whether the Jews when they blessed themselves, had any eye unto the words of Jeremy,26 wherein God makes them his Girdle; or had therein any reference unto the Girdle, which the Prophet was commanded to hide in the hole of the rock of Euphrates, and which was the type of their captivity, we leave unto higher conjecture.
14. The Picture of the Creator, or God the Father in the shape of an old Man, is a dangerous piece, and in this Fecundity of sects may revive the Anthropomorphites.27 Which although maintained from the expression of Daniel, I beheld where the Ancient of dayes did sit, whose hair of his head was like the pure wool; yet may it be also derivative from the Hieroglyphical description of the Ægyptians; who to express their Eneph, or Creator of the world, described an old man in a blew mantle, with an egge in his mouth; which was the Emblem of the world. Surely those heathens, that notwithstanding the exemplary advantage in heaven, would endure no pictures of Sun or Moon, as being visible unto all the world, and needing no representation; do evidently accuse the practise of those pencils, that will describe invisibles. And he that challenged the boldest hand unto the picture of an Echo, must laugh at this attempt, not only in the description of invisibility, but circumscription of Ubiquity, and fetching under lines incomprehensible circularity.
The Pictures of the Ægyptians were more tolerable, and in their sacred letters more veniably expressed the apprehension of Divinity. For though they implied the same by an eye upon a Scepter, by an Æagles head, a Crocodile, and the like: yet did these manual descriptions pretend no corporal representations; nor could the people misconceive the same unto real correspondencies. So though the Cherub carried some apprehension of Divinity, yet was it not conceived to be the shape thereof: and so perhaps because it is metaphorically predicated of God, that he is a consuming fire, he may be harmlessly described by a flaming representation; Yet if, as some will have it, all mediocrity of folly is foolish, and because an unrequitable evil may ensue, an indifferent convenience must be omitted; we shall not urge such representments; we could spare the holy Lamb for the picture of our Saviour, and the Dove or fiery Tongues to represent the holy Ghost.
15. The Sun and Moon are usually described with humane faces; whether herein there be not a Pagan imitation, and those visages at first implied Apollo and Diana, we may make some doubt; and we find the statua of the Sun was framed with raies about the head, which were the indeciduous and unshaven locks of Apollo. We should be too Iconomical28 to question the pictures of the winds, as commonly drawne in humane heads, and with their cheeks distended; which notwithstanding we find condemned by Minutius, as answering poetical fancies, and the gentile discription of Æolus, Boreas, and the feigned Deities of winds.
16. We shall not, I hope, disparage the Resurrection of our Redeemer, if we say the Sun doth not dance on Easter day. And though we would willingly assent unto any sympathetical exultation, yet cannot conceive therein any more then a Tropical expression. Whether any such motion there were in that day wherein Christ arised, Scripture hath not revealed, which hath been punctual in other records concerning solary miracles: and the Areopagite that was amazed at the Eclipse,29 took no notice of this. And if metaphorical expressions go so far, we may be bold to affirm, not only that one Sun danced, but two arose that day: That light appeared at his nativity, and darkenesse at his death, and yet a light at both; for even that darkness was a light unto the Gentiles, illuminated by that obscurity. That 'twas the first time the Sun set above the Horizon; that although there were darkness above the earth, there was light beneath it, nor dare we say that hell was dark if he were in it.
17. Great conceits are raised of the involution or membranous covering, commonly called the Silly-how, that sometimes is found about the heads of children upon their birth; and is therefore preserved with great care, not onely as medical in diseases, but effectual in success, concerning the Infant and others; which is surely no more than a continued superstition. For hereof we read in the life of Antoninus delivered by Spartianus, that children are born sometimes with this natural cap; which Midwives were wont to sell unto credulous Lawyers, who had an opinion it advantaged their promotion.[30]
But to speake strictly the effect is natural, and thus may be conceived; Animal conceptions have largely taken three teguments, or membranous films which cover them in the womb, that is, the Corion, Amnios, and Allantois; the Corion is the outward membrane wherein are implanted the Veins, Arteries, and umbilical vessels, whereby its nourishment is conveyed: the Allantois a thin coat seated under the Corion, wherein are received the watery separations conveyed by the Urachus, that the acrimony thereof should not offend the skin. The Amnios is a general investment, containing the sudorus or thin serosity perspirable through the skin. Now about the time when the Infant breaketh these coverings, it sometime carrieth with it about the head a part of the Amnios or nearest coat; which saith Spiegelius,31 either proceedeth from the toughness of the membrane or weakeness of the Infant that cannot get clear thereof. And therefore herein significations are natural and concluding upon the Infant, but not to be extended unto magical signalities, or any other person.
18. That 'tis good to be drunk once a month, is a common flattery of sensuality, supporting it self upon Physick, and the healthful effects of inebriation.[32] This indeed seems plainly affirmed by Avicenna, a Physitian of great authority, and whose religion prohibiting Wine, could less extenuate ebriety. But Averroes a man of his own faith was of another belief; restraining his ebriety unto hilarity, and in effect making no more thereof than Seneca commendeth, and was allowable in Cato; that is, a sober incalescence and regulated æstuation from wine; or what may be conceived between Joseph and his brethren, when the text expresseth they were merry, or drank largely, and whereby indeed the commodities set down by Avicenna, that is, alleviation of spirits, resolution of superfluities, provocation of sweat and urine may also ensue. But as for dementation, sopition of reason, and the diviner particle from drink; though American religion approve, and Pagan piety of old hath practised it, even at their sacrifices; Christian morality and the doctrine of Christ will not allow. And surely that religion which excuseth the fact of Noah, in the aged surprisal of six hundred years, and unexpected inebriation from the unknown effects of wine, will neither acquit ebriosity nor ebriety, in their known and intended perversions.
And indeed, although sometimes effects succeed which may relieve the body, yet if they carry mischief or peril unto the soul, we are therein restrainable by Divinity, which circumscribeth Physick, and circumstantially determines the use thereof. From natural considerations, Physick commendeth the use of venery; and happily, incest, adultery, or stupration may prove as Physically advantagious, as conjugal copulation; which notwithstanding must not be drawn into practise. And truly effects, consequents, or events which we commend, arise oft-times from wayes which we all condemn. Thus from the fact of Lot, we derive the generation of Ruth, and blessed Nativity of our Saviour; which notwithstanding did not extenuate the incestuous ebriety of the generator. And if, as is commonly urged, we think to extenuate ebriety from the benefit of vomit oft succeeding, Egyptian sobriety will condemn us, who purged both wayes twice a month, without this perturbation: and we foolishly contemn the liberal hand of God, and ample field of medicines which soberly produce that action.
19. A conceit there is, that the Devil commonly appeareth with a cloven hoof; wherein although it seem excessively ridiculous, there may be somewhat of truth; and the ground thereof at first might be his frequent appearing in the shape of a Goat, which answers that description.[33] This was the opinion of ancient Christians concerning the apparition of Panites, Fauns and Satyres; and in this form we read of one that appeared unto Antony in the wildernesse. The same is also confirmed from expositions of holy Scripture; for whereas is it said,34 Thou shalt not offer unto Devils, the Original word is Seghnirim, that is, rough and hairy Goats, because in that shape the Devil most often appeared; as is expounded by the Rabbins, as Tremellius hath also explained; and as the word Ascimah, the god of Emath is by some conceived. Nor did he only assume this shape in elder times, but commonly in later dayes, especially in the place of his worship: If there be any truth in the confession of Witches, and as in many stories it stands confirmed by Bodinus.35 And therefore a Goat is not improperly made the Hieroglyphick of the devil, as Pierius hath expressed it. So might it be the Emblem of sin, as it was in the sin-offering; and so likewise of wicked and sinful men, according to the expression of Scripture in the method of the last distribution; when our Saviour shall separate the Sheep from the Goats, that is, the Sons of the Lamb from the children of the devil.
NOTES
My notes (and other people's) are in square brackets [ ]; addenda from manuscripts are in curly braces { }; Browne's own marginalia are unmarked. Ross addresses the question of the Hebrew language in Arcana Microcosmi, II.12.4.
1 [Wilkin, objecting to the published version of this chapter, reorganizes it, adding material from Sloane manuscript 1827 to two sections of the former Chapter XXII to form a new Chapter XXII, making the XXIV Chapter XXIII, and renumbering the former Chapter XXIII as Chapter XXIIII.]
2 [Wren, whose appetite on this occasion seems to have overcome his reason: When a hare crosseth us, wee think itt ill lucke shee should soe neerly escape us, and we had not a dog as neere to catch her.]
3 Deut. 18.
4 [Wren: The raven by his acute sense of smelling, discernes the savour of the dying bodyes at the tops of chimnies, and that makes them flutter about the windows, as they use to doe in the searche of a carcasse. Now bycause wherever they doe this, itt is an evident signe that the sick party seldome escapes deathe: thence ignorant people counte them ominous, as foreboding deathe, and in some kind as causing deathe, whereof they have a sense indeed, but are noe cause at all. Of owles there is not the same opinion, especially in country-men, who thinke as well of them in the barne as of the cat in the house: but in great cityes where they are not frequent, their shriking and horrid note in the night is offensive to women and children, and such as are weake and sicklye.]
5 Iconologia de Cæsare Ripa.
6 [Isa 34:11, in the KJV: "But the cormorant and the bittern shall possess it; the owl also and the raven shall dwell in it: and he shall stretch out upon it the line of confusion, and the stones of emptiness."
Jefferson, quoted by Wilkin, not content with the profusion of folklore presented in the chapter, adds "It is rather singular that the cuckoo is not honoured with a place here. 'Plinie writeth that if, when you first hear the cuckoo, you mark well where your right foot standeth, and take up of that earth, the fleas will by no means breed, either in your house or chamber, where any of the same earth is thrown or scattered.' Hill's Natural and Artificial Conclusions, 1650. In the North, and perhaps all over England, it is vulgarly accounted an unlucky omen, if you have no money in your pocket, when you hear the cuckoo for the first time in a season. Queen Bee, ii, 20."
To which Wilkin adds, "It would perhaps be rather difficult to say under what circumstances most people would not consider such a state of pocket an 'unlucky omen'.
"It is a still more common popular divination, for those who are unmarried to count the number of years yet allotted to them of single blessedness, by the number of the cuckoo's notes which they count when they first hear it in the spring."]
7 [Wren: Where salt is deare, tis as ill caste on the ground as bread. And soe itt is in France, where they pay for every bushel 40s. to the King; and cannot have itt elsewhere: and soe when a glass is spilt tis ill lucke to loose a good cup of wine.
Jefferson points out in notes to this paragraph that the Leonardo Last Supper represents Judas as having spilt the salt. He points as as well that "among the regalia used at the king's coronation is the salt of state, to be placed in the centre of the dinner table.... This, it is said, was presented to King Charles II by the City of Exeter."]
8 [Pliny xxviii.19. Wren adds to the nonsense: "Least they perchance might use them, for boates (as they thought) to sayle in by night." (Why, we might ask, would anyone want to sail in an egg-shell, by day or night; and if anyone did, why could they not provide their own?)]
9 [Wren: The true lovers knot, is magnified for the moral signification, not esily untyed: and for the naturall, bycause itt is a knot both wayes, that is two knots in one.]
10 [Pliny, NH xxviii(67)]
11 [Wren: The singing of the eare is frequent upon the least cold seizing on the braine; but to make construction hereof, as yf itt were the silent humme of some absent friendly soule (especially falling most to bee observed in the night, when few friends are awake) is one of the dotages of the heathen.]
12 [NH, xxviii(24)]
13 [Wren: Of those that commonlye use this proverb few, besides the learned, can give a reason why they use itt: itt is sufficient that all men knowe what we meane by that old forme of speeche, thoughe (as of manye other such like) they know not the originall.
To which Jefferson adds: In Pegge's Anonymiana, the symbol of silence is referred to the rose on a clergyman's hat, and derived from the silence which popish priests kept as to the confessions of their people.]
14 ["facta" sc. "furta"; Wren: The discourses of the table among true loving freindes require as stricte silence, as those of the bed between the married.]
15 [Wren: The fairest and tenderest complexions are soonest offended with itt: and therefore when they complain, men use this suppling Proverbe.]
16 [Who scaled the walls of Thebes.]
17 [Wren: There is more incivilitye in this forme of sitting, then malice or superstition; and may sooner move our spleen to a smile then a chafe.
Pliny NH xxviii(59), whence the word "pectinated". That word in this exact meaning is not recorded in the OED (and the use here predates the examples given in the OED).]
18 [Wren: They that would encrease the Haire, maye doe well to observe the Increasing Moone, at all times, but especially in Taurus or Cancer; they that would hinder the growthe, in the decrese of the moone, especially in Capricornus or Scorpio: and this is soe far from superstitious folly that it savours of one guided by the rules of the wise in physic. And what is sayd of the haire may bee as fitly applied to the nayles.]
19 [An act of religion or of piety; from Pliny. Browne may have misconstrued the word, as does Wilkin, to mean "requiring expiation"; his argument is not affected either way.]
20 2. Chron. 35. [In fact, 33.6: And he caused his children to pass through the fire in the valley of the son of Hinnom: also he observed times, and used enchantments, and used witchcraft, and dealt with a familiar spirit, and with wizards: he wrought much evil in the sight of the Lord, to provoke him to anger.]
21 [NH xxviii(34).]
22 [Wren: Such is the danger of cutting a haire in the Hungarian knot, that the Bloud will flow out of itt; as by a quill, and will not bee stanched. And thence perhaps the custome first sprange, though since abused.
Shakespeare also mentions elflocks; e.g., Lear II.iii.10: "my face I'll grime with filth,/Blanket my loins, elf all my hair in knots"; Romeo and Juliet, I.iv.91: "This is that very Mab/That plats the manes of horses in the night:/And bakes the elf-locks in foul sluttish hairs".]
23 [Wren: Architects practise this forme still, for noe other reason then the beautye of itt.]
24 [Wren: I suppose this innocent custome is most comely and most Christian, partly in observation of the old precept of St. Paule [Ephes. 6.14] and partly in imitation of him in the first of the revelation, who is described doubly girt, about the paps, and about the loyns. See the Icon of St. Paul before his Epistles, in the Italian Testament, at Lions, 1556.]
25 Isa. 11
26 Jer. 13.
27 Certain Hereticks, who ascribed humane figure unto God, after which they conceived he created man in his likenesse. [Wren: This is a very just and worthy censure, and well followed with scorne in the close of this paragraph. St. Paul saw things in a vision which himself could not utter: and therefore they are verye bold with God, who dare to picture him in any shape visible to the eye of mortality, which Daniel himself behelde not, but in a rapture and an extatical vision; unlesse they can answere that staggering question, "To what will you liken me?"]
28 Or quarelsome with pictures. [A word not in the OED. Cf. iconomach.]
29 Dion. Ep. 7a ad Policar, & Pet. Hall not. in vit. S. Dionys.
30 [Wren: By making them gracious in pleadinge: to whom I thinke itt was sufficient punishment, that they bought not wit, but folly so deare.
Wilkin continues: Even till recently the opinion has been held, that a child's caul (silly-how) would preserve a person from drowning! In the Times of May 6th, 1814, were three advertisements of fine cauls to be sold at considerable prices specified. The following appear at subsequent dates:— "To voyagers. A child's caul to be sold for 15 guineas. Apply, &c." Times, Dec. 8th, 1819.
Another for 16 guineas: Times, Dec. 16th, 1829.
"A child's caul to be disposed of. The efficacy of this wonderful production of nature, in preserving the possessor from all accidents by sea and land, has long been experienced, and is universally acknowledged: the present phenomenon was produced on the 4th of March inst. and covered not only the head, but the whole body and limbs of a fine female infant, the daughter of a respectable master tradesman. Apply at No. 49, Gee Street, Goswell Street, where a reference will be given to the eminent physician who officiated at the birth of the child." Times, March 9th, 1820. Another adverrtised, £6, Times, Sept. 5th, 1820. Another for 12 guineas, ditto, Jan. 23rd, 1824. See New Monthly Mag. May, July, Aug. 1814.
Intellect, surely, was not yet in full march at this period.]
31 De formato foetu.
32 [Wren: Noe man could more properlye inveighe against this beastly sin, then a grave and learned physitian, were itt for noe more but the acquitting his noble faculty from the guilt of countenancing a medicine soe loathsome and soe odious. Certainlye itt cannot but magnifye his sober spirit, that does make his own facultye (as Hagar to Sarah) vayle to divinity, the handmayd to her lady and mistresse: especially seeinge the naturall man cannot but confesse that itt is base, unworthye the divine ofspring of the human soule, which is immortall, to put of itself for a moment, or to assume the shape, or much the guise of (the uglyest bast) a swine, for any supposable benefit accruing thereby to this outward carcasse, especially when itt may be far better relieved by so many excellent, easie, warrantable wayes of physick.
See also Pseudodoxia Book II, chapter VI, part 7 for more on inebriation.]
33 [Wren: Tis remarkable that of all creatures the devil chose the cloven-footed, wherein to appeare, as satyrs, and goatish monsters: the swine whereon to work his malice: and the calves wherein to be worshipped as at Dan and Bethel. For which cause the Spirit of God cald those calves (raised by Jeroboam for worship) devils: 2 Chron. xi, 15. And that he chose his priests of the lowest of the people was very suitable. For where their God was a calfe, twas not improper that a butcher should be the preiste.]
34 Levit. 17.
35 In his Dæmonomania. [J. Bodin, De Magorum Daemonomania]
This page is dedicated to the memory of Boo the Cat.
