mon, fhe courses round the plain from fide to fide, compelling here and there the ftragglers to the flock; they cackle loud, and flutter o'er the champion : fo Boyle purfued, fo fled this pair of friends. Finding at length their flight was vain, they bravely joined, and drew them felves in phalanx. Firft, B-ent-y threw a spear with all his force, hoping to pierce the enemy's breaft. But Pallas came unfeen, and in the air took off the point, and clapped on one of lead, which, after a dead bang against the enemy's fhield, fell blunted to the ground. Then Boyle, obferving well his time, took a lance, of wondrous length and fharpnefs; and as this pair of friends compacted stood clofe fide to fide, he wheeled him to the right, and with unufual force darted the weapon. B-ntly faw his fate approach; and flanking down his arms close to his ribs, hoping to fave his body; in went the point, paffing through arm and fide: nor ftopt, or spent its force, till it had alfo pierced the valiant W-tt-n; who, going to sustain his dying friend, fhared his fate. As when a fkilful cook has truffed a brace of wood-cocks, he, with iron fkewer, pierces the tender fides of both, their legs and wings clofe pinioned to their ribs; fo was this pair of friends transfixed, down they fell, joined in their lives, joined in their deaths; fo clofely joined, that Charon would miftake them both for one, and waft them over Styx for half his fare. Farewel, beloved, loving pair; few equals have you left behind and happy and immortal fhall you be, if all my wit and eloquence can make you fo.

And now,

till

* Defunt Cætera

with the fimilitude, nor would be excufable without fuch an authority.

END OF THE BATTLE OF THE BOOKS.

A

DISCOURSE

CONCERNING THE

Mechanical Operation of the Spirit.

IN A LETTER TO A FRIEND.

A FRAGMENT.

For T. H.* Efq; at his Chambers in the Academy of the Beaux-Efprits in New Holland.

Sir,

IT is now a good while fince I have had in my

head

fomething, not only. very material, but abfolutely neceffary to my health, that the world fhould be informed in. For, to tell you a fecret, 1 am able to contain it no longer. However, I have been perplexed for fome time, to refolve what would be the moft proper form to fend it abroad in. To which end, I have been three days courfing through Westminster-hall, and St. Paul's church-yard, and Fleet ftreet, to peruse titles; and I do not find any which holds fo general a vogue, as that of A letter to a friend. Nothing is more common than to meet with long epiftles addreffed to perfons and places, where, at first thinking, one would be apt to imagine it not altogether fo neceffary or convenient; fuch as, a neighbour at next door, a mortal enemy, a perfect ftranger, or a perfon of quality in the clouds; and these upon fubjects, in appearance, the leaft proper for conveyance by the poft; as, long fchemes in philofophy, dark and

*Suppofed to be Col. Hunter, author of the Letter of Enthufiafm, mentioned in the Apology for the Tale of aTub,

This difcourfe is not altogether equal to the two former, the best parts of it being omitted. Whether the bookfeller's account be true, that he durft not print the reft, I know not : nor indeed is it eafy to determine, whether he may be relied on in any thing he fays of this, or the former treatifes, only as to the time they were written in; which, however, appears more from the difcourfes themfelves than his relation.

wonderful

wonderful myfteries of ftate, laborious differtations incriticifm and philofophy, advice to parliaments, and the like.

Now, Sir, to proceed after the method in present wear: (for, let me fay what I will to the contrary, I am afraid you will publifh this letter, as foon as ever it comes to your hands :) I defire you will be my witness to the world, how carelefs and fudden a fcribble it has been that it was but yesterday, when you and I began accidentally to fall into difcourfe on this matter; that I was not very well when we parted; that the poft is in fuch hafte, I have had no manner of time to digelt it into order, or correct the ftyle: and if any other modern excufes, for hafte and negligence, fhall occur to you in reading, I beg you to infert them, faithfully promifing they shall be thankfully acknowledged.

Pray, Sir, in your next letter to the Iroquois virtuofi, do me the favour to prefent ny humble fervice to that illuftrious body; and affure them, I shall send an account of thofe phænomena, as foon as we can determine them at Grefham.

I have not had a line from the literati of Tobinambou thefe three laft ordinaries.

And now, Sir, having dispatched what I had to say of forms, or of business, let me intreat, you will fuffer me to proceed upon my fubject; and to pardon me if I make no farther ufe of the epistolary style, till I come toconclude. SECT I.

IT is recorded of Mahomet, that upon a vifit he was going to pay in Paradife, he had an offer of feveral vehicles to conduct him upwards; as, fiery chariots, winged horfes, and celeftial fedans : but he refufed them all, and would be borne to heaven upon nothing but his ass. Now, this inclination of Mahomet, as fingular as it feems, hath been fince taken up by a great number of devout Chriftians; and doubtlefs with good reason. For, fince that Arabian is known to have borrowed a moiety of his religious fyftem from the Chriftian faith, it is but juft he should pay reprisals to fuch as would challenge them; wherein the good people of England,

to

For

to do them all right, have not been backward. though there is not any other nation in the world fo plentifully provided with carriages for that journey, either as to fafety or eafe: yet there are abundance of us, who will not be fatisfied with any other machine, befides this of Mahomet.

For my own part, I must confess to bear a very fingular refpect to this animal, by whom I take human nature to be most admirably held forth in all its qualities as well as operations: and therefore, whatever in my fmall reading occurs concerning this our fellow-creature, I do never fail to fet it down, by way of common place; and when I have occafion to write upon human reason, politics, eloquence, or knowledge, I lay my memoran dums before me, and infert them with a wonderful facility of application. However, among all the qualifications afcribed to this diftinguished brute, by ancient or modern authors, I cannot remember this talent of bearing his rider to heaven, has been recorded for a part of his character, except in the two examples mentioned already; therefore I conceive the methods of this art to be a point of useful knowledge in very few hands, and which the learned world would gladly be better informed in this is what I have undertaken to perform in the following difcourfe. For towards the operations, already mentioned, many peculiar properties are required, both in the rider and the afs; which I fhall endeavour to fet in as clear a light as I can.

But, because I am refolved, by all means to avoid giving offence to any party whatever, I will leave off difcourfing fo clofely to the letter as I have hitherto done, and go on for the future by way of allegory, though in fuch a manner, that the judicious reader may, without much training, make his applications as often as he fhall think fit. Therefore, if you please, from hence forward, inftead of the term afs, we fhall make ufe of gifted or enlightened teacher; and the word rider, we will exchange for that of Fanatic auditory, or any other denomination of the like import. Having fettled

this

this weighty point, the great fubject of inquiry before. us is, to examine, by what methods this teacher arrives at his gifts, or fpirit, or light; and by what intercourse between him and his affembly it is cultivated and fupported.

In all my writings, I have had constant regard to this great end, not to fuit and apply them to particular occafions and circumstances of time, of place, or of perfon; but to calculate them for univerfal nature, and mankind in general. And of fuch catholic ufe I efteem this prefent difquifition: for I do not remember any other temper of body, or quality of mind, wherein all nations and ages of the world have fo unanimously agreed, as that of a Fanatic ftrain, or tincture of enthusiasm; which, improved by certain perfons or focieties of men, and by them practised upon the rest, has been able to produce revolutions of the greatest figure in hiftory; as will foon appear to those who know any thing of Arabia, Perfia, India, or China, of Morocco and Peru. Farther, it has poffeffed as great a power in the kingdom of knowledge, where it is hard to affign one art or science, which has not annexed to it fome Fanatic branch: Such are the philofopher's ftone, the grand elixir*, the planetary worlds, the fquaring of the circle, the fummum bonum, Utopian common-wealths, with fome others of lets or fubordinate note; which all ferve for nothing else, but to employ or amuse this grain of enthusiasm, dealt into every compofition.

But if this plant has found a root in the fields of empire and of knowledge, it has fixed deeper, and fpread yet farther upon holy ground: wherein, though it hath paffed under the general name of enthusiasm, and perhaps arifen from the fame original; yet hath it produced certain branches of a very different nature, however of ten mistaken for each other. The word, in its univerfal acceptation, may be defined, a lifting up of the foul, or its faculties, above matter. This defcription will hold good in general: but I am only to understand it as ap *Some writers hold them for the fame, others not.