recourse to my phænomenon of vapours, afcending from the lower faculties to overfhadow the brain, and there distilling into conceptions, for which the narrowness of our mother tongue has not yet affigned any other name, befides that of madness or phrenzy. Let us therefore, now conjecture, how it comes to pass, that none of these great prescribers do ever fail providing themselves and their notions with a number of implicite difciples, And, I think, the reafon is eafy to be affigned; for, there is a peculiar Aring in the hạrmony of human understanding, which in feveral individuals is exactly of the fame tuning. This if you can dexterously screw up to its right key, and then ftrike gently upon it; whenever you have the good fortune to light among thofe of the fame pitch, they will, by a fecret neceffary fympathy, ftrike exactly at the fame time, And in this one circumftance lies all the fkill or luck of the matter; for if you chance to jar the ftring among those, who are either above or below your own heighth, instead of fubfcribing to your doctrine, they will tie you faft, call you mad,

mad, and feed you with bread and water. It is therefore a point of the niceft conduct to diftinguish and adapt this noble talent with respect to the differences of perfons and of times. Cicero understood this very well, when writing to a friend in England, with a caution, among other matters, to beware of being cheated by our backneycoachmen (who, it seems, in those days were as errant rafcals as they are now) has these remarkable words: Eft quod gaudeas te in ifta loca veniffe, ubi aliquid fapere viderere. For, to speak a bold truth, it is a fatal miscarriage fo ill to order affairs, as to pass for a fool in one company, when in another you might be treated as a philo Sopher. Which I defire fome certain gentlemen of my acquaintance to lay up in their hearts, as a very feasonable innuendo.

с

This, indeed, was the fatal mistake of that worthy gentleman, my moft ingenious friend, Mr. Wotton: a perfon, in appearance, ordained for great defigns, as well as performances; whether you will confider his notions or his looks, furely no man ever advanced into the public with Epift. ad Fam. Trebatio, U 4

fitter

fitter qualifications of body and mind for the propagation of a new religion. Oh, had thofe happy talents, mifapplied to vain philofophy, been turned into their proper channels of dreams and vifions, where diftortion of mind and countenance are of fuch fovereign use; the base detracting world would not then have dared to report, that fomething is amifs, that his brain hath undergone an unlucky shake; which even his brother modernifts themselves, like ungrates, do whisper so loud, that it reaches up to the very garret I am now writing in.

Laftly, whofoever pleases to look into the fountains of enthufiafm, from whence in all ages have eternally proceeded fuch fattening streams, will find the spring head to have been as troubled and muddy as the current: of fuch great emolument is a tincture of this vapour, which the world calls madness, that without its help the world would not only be deprived of those two great bleffings, conquefts and fyftems, buteven all mankind would unhappily be reduced to the fame belief in things invifible. Now, the former poftulatum being held, that it is of no import from

what

what originals this vapour proceeds, but either in what angles it ftrikes and spreads over the understanding, or upon what Species of brain it afcends; it will be a very delicate point to cut the feather, and divide the feveral reafons to a nice and curious reader, how this numerical difference in the brain can produce effects of fo vaft a difference from the fame vapour, as to be the fole point of individuation between Alexander the Great, Jack of Leyden, and Monfieur Des Cartes. The prefent argument is the most abstracted, that ever I engaged in; it strains my faculties to their highest ftretch: and I defire the reader to attend with utmost perpenfity; for I now proceed to unravel this knotty point.

There is in mankind a certain

Hic multa

defiderantur.

And this I take to be a

clear folution of the matter.

Here is another defect in the manufcript; but I think the author did wifely, and that the matter, which thus ftrained his faculties, was not worth

a folution; and it were well if all metaphyfical cobweb problems were no otherwife anfwered.

في

Having therefore fo, narrowly paffed through this intricate difficulty, the reader will, I am fure, agree with me in the conclufion; that if the moderns mean by madness only a difturbance or tranfpofi tion of the brain, by force of certain va→ pours iffuing up from the lower faculties ; then has this madness been the parent of all those mighty revolutions, that have happened in empire, in philofophy, and in religion. For, the brain, in its natural pofition and state of ferenity, difpofeth its owner to pass his life in the common forms without any thoughts of fubduing multi→ tudes to his own power, his reafons, or his vifions; and the more he fhapes his understanding by the pattern of human learning, the lefs he is inclined to form parties after his particular notions; because that instructs him in his private infirmities, as well as in the stubborn ignorance of the people. But when a man's fancy gets aftride on his reafon; when imagination is at cuffs with the fenfes; and common un→ derstanding, as well as common fense, is kicked out of doors; the firft profelyte he makes, is himself; and when that is once compaffed,