*

And, the wind in breaking forth deals with his face as it does with that of the fea, firft blackening, then wrinkling, and, at last, bursting it into a foam. It is in this guife, the facred Eolift delivers his oracular belches to his panting difciples; of whom, fome are greedily gaping after the fanctified breath; others are all the while hymning out the praises of the winds; and, gently wafted to and fro by their own humming, do thus reprefent the foft breezes of their deities appeased.

It is from this cuftom of the priests, that some authors maintain thefe Eolifts to have been very antient in the world. Because the delivery of their myfteries, which I have juft now mentioned, appears exactly the fame with that of other antient oracles, whofe infpirations were owing to certain fubteraneous effluviums of wind, delivered with the fame pain to the priest, and much about the fame influence on the people. It is true indeed, that these were frequently managed and directed by female officers, whofe organs were understood to be better difpofed for the admiffion of thofe oracular gufts, as entering and paffing up through a receptacle of greater capacity, and caufing alfo a pruriency by the way, fuch as, with due management, hath been refined from carnal into a fpiritual extafy. And, to ftrengthen this profound conjecture, it is further infifted, that this cuftom of + female priests is kept up still in certain refined colleges of our modern Eolifts, who are agreed to receive their infpiration derived through the receptacle aforefaid, like their ancestors, the fibyls.

And, whereas, the mind of man, when he gives the fpur and bridle to his thoughts, doth never ftop, but naturally fallies out into both extreams of high and low, of good and evil; his firft flight of fancy commonly tranfports him to ideas of what is moft perfect, finished, and exalted; till having foared out of his own reach and fight, not well perceiving how near the

*This is an exact defcription of the changes made in the face by enthufiaftic preachers,

Quakers, who fuffer their women to preach and pray.

frontiers

frontiers of heighth and depth border upon each other; with the fame courfe and wing, he falls down plum into the lowest bottom of things; like one who travels the eaft into the weft; or like a ftrait line drawn by its own length into a circle. Whether a tincture of malice in our natures makes us fond of furnishing every bright idea with its reverfe; or, whether reason, reflecting upon the fum of things, can like the fun ferve only to enlighten one half of the globe, leaving the other half by neceffity under shade and darkness; or, whether fancy, flying up to the imagination of what is higheft and beft, becomes over-fhort, and spent, and weary, and fuddenly falls, like a dead bird of paradife, to the ground: or whether, after all these metaphyfical conjectures, I have not intirely miffed the true reason; the propofition however, which hath ftood me in fo much circumstance, is altogether true; that, as the most uncivilized parts of mankind have fome way or other climbed up into the conception of a god, or fupreme power, fo they have feldom forgot to provide their fears with certain ghaftly notions, which, instead of better, have ferved them pretty tolerably for a devil. And this proceeding feems to be natural enough; for it is with men, whofe imaginations are lifted up very high, after the fame rate, as with those, whose bodies. are fo; that, as they are delighted with the advantage of a nearer contemplation upwards, fo they are equally terrified with the difmal profpect of the precipice below. Thus, in the choice of a devil, it hath been the ufual method of mankind to fingle out fome being, either in act, or in vifion, which was in most antipathy to the god they had framed. Thus alfo the fect of Eolifts poffefled themselves with a dread, and horror, and hatred of two malignant natures, betwixt whom, and the deities they adored, perpetual enmity was eftablished. The first of these was the * camelion, fworn

I do not well underftand what the author aims at here, any more than by the terrible monfier, mentioned in the fol

lowing lines, called Moulin à int, which is the French name for a windmill.

foe

foe to infpiration, who in fcorn devoured large influences of their god, without refunding the fmallest blaft by eructation. The other was a huge terrible monfter, called Moulinavent, who, with four strong arms, waged eternal battle with all their divinities, dexterously turning to avoid their blows, and repay them with intereft.

Thus furnished, and fet out with gods, as well as devils, was the renowned fect of Eolifts, which makes at this day fo illuftrious a figure in the world, and whereof, that polite nation of Laplanders are, beyond all doubt, a moft authentic branch; of whom I therefore cannot, without injuftice, here omit to make honourable mention; fince they appear to be fo closely allied in point of intereft, as well as inclinations, with their brother Eolifts among us, as not only to buy their winds by wholesale from the fame merchants, but also to retail them after the fame rate and method, and to customers much alike.

Now, whether the system here delivered was wholly compiled by Jack; or, as fome writers believe, rather copied from the original at Delphos, with certain additions and emendations, fuited to the times and circumftances; 1 fhall not abfolutely determine. This I may affirm, that Jack gave it at least a new turn, and formed it into the fame drefs and model, as it lies deduced by me.

I have long fought after this opportunity of doing juftice to a fociety of men, for whom I have a peculiar honour; and whofe opinions, as well as practices, have been extremely mifreprefented, and traduced, by the malice or ignorance of their adverfaries. For, I think it one of the greatest, and best of human actions to remove prejudices, and place things in their truest and faireft light; which I therefore boldly undertake, without any regards of my own, befide the confcience, the honour, and the thanks.

SECT

SECT. IX.

A digreffion concerning the original, the ufe, and improvement of madness in a commonwealth.

OR fhall it any ways detract from the juft repu

tution are owing to fuch an author, as I have described Jack to be; a perfon whofe intellectuals were overturned, and his brain fhaken out of its natural pofition; which we commonly fuppofe to be a diftemper, and call by the name of madness or phrenzy. For, if we take a furvey of the greatest actions, that have been performed in the world under the influence of fingle men; which are, the establishment of new empires by conqueft; the advance and progrefs of new Schemes in philofophy; and the contriving, as well as the propagating of new religions; we fhall find the authors of them all to have been perfons, whose natural reafon had admitted great revolutions from their diet, their education, the prevalency of fome certain temper, together with the parti cular influence of air and climate. Befides, there is fomething individual in human minds, that eafily kindles at the accidental approach and collifion of certain circumstances, which, though of paultry and mean appearance, do often flame out into the greatest emergencies of life. For great turns are not always given by ftrong hands, but by lucky adaption, and at proper feafons; and it is of no import, where the fire was kindled, if the vapour has once got up into the brain. For, the upper region of man is furnished like the middle region of the air; the materials are formed from causes of the wideft difference, yet produce at laft the fame fubftance and effect. Mifts arise from the earth, fteams from dunghills, exhalations from the fea, and fmoke from fire; yet all clouds are the fame in compofition, as well as confequences; and the fumes iffuing from a jakes will furnish as comely and ufual a vapour, as incenfe from an altar. Thus far, I fuppofe, will eafily

be

be granted me; and then it will follow, that as the face of nature never produces rain, but when it is overcast and disturbed, fo human understanding, feated in the brain, muft be troubled and overfpread by vapours, afcending from the lower faculties to water the invention, and render it fruitful. Now, although thefe vapours (as it hath been already faid) are of as various original, as thofe of the skies; yet the crops they produce, differ both in kind and degree, merely according to the foil. I will produce two inftances to prove and explain what I am now advancing.

A certain great prince raised a mighty army, filled his coffers with infinite treafures, provided an invincible fleet, and all this, without giving the least part of his defign to his greateft minifters, or his neareft favourites. Immediately the whole world was alarmed; the neighbouring crowns in trembling expectations, sowards what point the ftorm would burft; the small politicians every-where forming profound conjectures. Some believed, he had laid a scheme for universal momarchy; others, after much infight, determined the matter to be a project for pulling down the pope, and fetting up the reformed religion, which had once been his own. Some again, of a deeper fagacity, fent him into Afia to fubdue the Turk, and recover Palestine. In the midst of all these projects and preparations, a certain ftate-furgeon, gathering the nature of the difcafe by thefe fymptoms, attempted the cure, at one blow performed the operation, broke the bag, and out flew the vapour; nor did any thing want to render it a compleat remedy, only, that the prince unfortunately happened to die in the performance. Now is the reader exceeding curious to learn, from whence this vapour took its rife which had fo long fet the nations at a gaze, what fecret wheel, what hidden fpring could put into motion fo wonderful an engine? It was afterwards dif covered, that the movement of this whole machine had This was Harry the Great +Ravilliac,who ftabbed Henry the Great in his coach.

of France.

been