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Here it may not be amiss to add a few words upon the laudable practice of wearing quilted caps; which is not a matter of mere cuftom, humour, or fashion, as fome would pretend, but an institution of great fagacity and ufe. Thefe, when moistened with fweat, ftop all perfpiration; and, by reverberating the heat, prevent the spirit from evaporating any way but at the mouth; even as a fkilful house-wife, that covers her ftill with a wet clout for the same reason, and finds the fame effect. For it is the opinion of choice virtuof, that the brain is only a crowd of little animals, but with teeth and claws extremely fharp, and therefore cling together in the contexture we béhold, like the picture of Hobbes's Leviathan, or like bees in perpendicular fwarm upon a tree, or like a carrion corrupted into vermin, ftill preferving the shape and figure of the mother animal: that all invention is formed by the morfure of two or more of these animals, upon certain capillary nerves, which proceed from thence; whereof three branches fpread into the tongue, and two into the right hand. They hold also, that thefe animals are of a conftitution extremely cold; that their food is the air we attract, their excrement phlegm; and that what we vulgarly call rheums, and colds, and diftillations, is nothing else but an epidemical loofenefs, to which that little commonwealth is very fubject, from the climate it lies under: farther, that nothing less than a violent heat can difintangle these crea

tures

tures from their hamated station of life, or give them vigour and humour to imprint the marks of their little teeth: that if the morfure be hexagonal, it produces poetry; the circular gives eloquence; if the bite hath been conical, the perfon, whofe nerve is fo affected, fhall be difpofed to write upon politics; and fo of the rest.

I fhall now difcourfe briefly, by what kind of practices the voice is best governed, towards the composition and improvement of the Spirit; for without a competent skill in tuning and toning each word, and syllable, and letter, to their due cadence, the whole operation is incomplete, miffes entirely of its effect on the hearers, and puts the workman himself to continual pains for new fupplies without fuccefs. For it is to be understood, that, in the language of the fpirit, cant and droning supply the place of fenfe and reason, in the language of men; because, in spiritual harangues, the difpofition of the words according to the art of grammar, hath not the leaft ufe, but the skill and influence wholly lie in the choice and cadence of the fyllables; even as a difcreet compofer, who, in fetting a fong, changes the words and order so often, that he is forced to make it nonfenfe, before he can make it mufic. For this reafon it hath been held by fome, that the art of canting is ever in greatest perfection, when managed by ignorance; which is thought to be enigmatically meant by Plutarch, when he tell us, that the beft mufical inftruments

ftruments were made from the bones of an afs. And the profounder critics upon that paffage are of opinion, the word, in its genuine fignification, means no other than a jaw-bone; though fome rather think it to have been the os facrum. But in fo nice a cafe I fhall not take upon me to decide; the curious are at liberty to pick from it whatever they please.

The first ingredient towards the art of canting, is a competent fhare of inward light; that is to fay, a large memory, plentifully fraught with theological polysyllables, and mysterious texts from holy writ, applied and digefted by thofe methods and mechanical operations already related; the bearers of this light refembling lanterns, compact of leaves from old Geneva Bibles: which invention, Sir Humphrey Edwin, during his mayoralty, of happy memory, highly approved and advanced; affirming the fcripture to be now fulfilled, where it fays, Thy word is a lantern to my feet, and a light to my paths.

Now, the art of canting confifts in skilfully adapting the voice to whatever words the fpirit delivers, that each may strike the ears of the audience with its moft fignificant cadence. The force or energy of this eloquence is not to be found, as among ancient orators, in the difpofition of words to a sentence, or the turning of long periods; but, agreeable to the modern refinements in mufic, is taken up wholly in dwelling and dilating upon fyllables and letters.

Thus,

Thus, it is frequent for a fingle vowel to draw fighs from a multitude; and for a whole affembly of faints, to fob to the mufic of one folitary liquid. But these are trifles, when even founds inarticulate are observed to produce as forcible effects. A mafler-workman fhall blow his nose fo powerfully, as to pierce the hearts of his people, who are difpofed to receive the excrements of his brain, with the fame reverence as the issue of it. Hawking, fpitting, and belching, the defects of other mens rhetoric, are the flowers, and figures, and ornaments of his. For, the fpirit being the fame in all, it is of no import through what vehicle it is conveyed.

It is a point of too much difficulty, to draw the principles of this famous art within the compafs of certain adequate rules. However, perhaps I may one day oblige the world with my critical effay upon the art of canting, philofophically, phyfically, and mufically confidered.

But, among all improvements of the Spirit wherein the voice hath borne a part, there is none to be compared with that of conveying the found through the nose, which, under the denomination of fnuffling, hath paffed with fo great applaufe in the world. The originals of this inftitution are very dark; but having been initiated into the mystery of it, and leave being given

me

* The snuffling of men, who have lost their noses by lewd courfes, is faid to have given rife to that tone, which our Diffenters did too much affect. W. Wetton.

me to publish it to the world, I fhall deliver as direct a relation as I can.

This art, like many other famous inventions, owed its birth, or at leaft improvement and perfection, to an effect of chance; but was established upon folid reafons, and hath flourished in this island ever fince, with great luftre. All agree, that it first appeared upon the decay and discouragement of bagpipes; which, having long fuffered under the mortal hatred of the brethren, tottered for a time, and at last fell with monarchy. The ftory is thus related.

As yet, fnuffling was not; when the following adventure happened to a Banbury faint. Upon a certain day, while he was far engaged among the tabernacles of the wicked, he felt the outward man put into odd commotions, and ftrangely pricked forward by the inward: An effect very ufual among the modern infpired. For fome think, that the Spirit is apt to feed on the flesh, like hungry wines upon raw beef. Others rather believe, there is a perpetual game at leapfrog between both; and fometimes the flesh is uppermoft, and fometimes the spirit adding, that the former, while it is in the state of a rider, wears huge Rippon fpurs, and, when it comes to the turn of being bearer, is wonderfully headftrong and hard-mouthed. However it came about, the faint felt his veel full extended in every part, (a very natural effect of strong infpiration;) and the place and time falling out fo un

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