Q. Whether the Humours, Vices, or Vertue of a Man, may be guest at by his Phyfiognomy? fides the Aborigines of his own Carcafs; a few black and dappled Fleas, which out of the A. They may be gueft at, and Superfluity of their Humours, that's all; we mean as to his are generally very intimate with Vertues and Vices, tho' his Hu- Philofophers, making no more mour, and Natural Inclination of Diogenes than he did of 4may with more certainty be delexander. termin'd; whether fubtle, foolifh, brave or cowardly, wicked or otherwife: Though, after all, a Custom or Habit of Life does frequently alter the Natu tal Inclination either to Good or Evil. Q. Whether 'tis not a Sin to be a Pawn-broker? A. So far from it, that a Man may be very Honeft and Charitable in it, if he pleases; and o'r other hand, a Knave, in the most inoffenfive, and honourable Employment in the World. Q. It has been obferved, that the Failings of Good Men are commonly more published in the World than their good Deeds; and that one Crime of a good Man shall bring him more Reproaches, than all his Virtues, Praife; and be longer remembred. Qu. The Reason? Q.I de fire your Opinion in this (hort Question, Whether the Fall of Lucifer and his Rebellious Crew, were not the occafion of the Crea tion of the World? And why be fell? In which you will much oblige your Humble Servant. A. We fee no Reafon for fuch a Suggeftion; but very great ones to believe the Devil fell not till the World was created. The Occafion of his Fall does not (upon very ftria Enquiry into all fuch Places as intima e his Fall) appear to be Pride, or aspiring to be like God, which a great many Di vines continually Reason, as ofc as they have occafion to fpeak of his Fall; but rather from our Saviours Words, Tre Devil was a Lyar from the begin ning, it seems very probable that his Sin was lying to Et, and contradicting the Veracity of God, who had faid we fhould be Mortal, (or die the Death, upon eating of the Forbidden Fruit. ) Doubtless there was a great deal of Malice at the bottom of the Tempration; and perhaps what occafion dit in the Devil and his Affociares, might be the great Care and Goodness that God began to fhew to the new torm'd Man, A The Proud Ill-natur'd Dog' whofe Extraction was fo mean chofe it, because he'd be trou as the Duft of the Earth. Perbled with no bad Inmates, be- haps the Devil, whilft an An A. The chiefeft Reasons are, Envy, Guilt, and Ill-nature, which as long as the world lafts, will have a ftrong Party in it. But we may add, That a Blot in fuch a Perfon is more confpicuous, like a Mole in a fair Face, or an Eclipse of the Heavenly Bodies. Q: Was it Humility or Pride that made Diogenes the Cynick chufe to live in a Tub? gel which he afferts, if we, by Grace helping us, be not able to per form fully and perfectly the Righ gel, might think Adam too honoured a Rival, and therefore did what he could to throw him out of the Almighty's Fa-teousness of the Law, then were vour. But these Inquifitions are of more Curiofity than Ufe, and may well be omitted; not only out of Prudence, being not properly our Concern; but alfo for fear of being guilty of a Criminal Curiofity. 1 Q. I pray you to resolve me: A Relation of mine bath a Child, that without any applied Cause, or Provocation, every Day after Dinner falls a Crying; now it being Natural to all Humanity, that a Re paft rather pacifies than aggravates a great many Difcompofures and Turbulencies in us; from whence then doth this diffonant Difpofition proceed, and what is the Caufe, that upon this Child it bath fuch contrary Effects and Operations? And you will oblige, &c. A. Perhaps (for in this Cafe we dare advance no more) the Mother of it us'd to be call'd to account for her Mifcarriages whilft a Girl, and always whipt after Dinner; a continued Course of any Troublesome Exercife after Dinner, would certainly contract fuch a Habit in the Paffions, as would act pow. erfully enough upon fo weak and tender a thing as a Child in the Womb; we want not infinite Examples that are prodigious enough, which have been the Effect of the Mothers Imagination. Q. I have latley had fome Difpute with a Quaker about the Principles of Christianity in God unjust in commanding things impoffiole, and unmerciful in condemning the Servant for what be cannot avoid; but that, faith he, were Blafphemy to say: Therefore faith he, it must be concluded, that it is not impoffible for a Faftified Man, fo by God's Grace, to perform the perfect fullfilling of the Law, A. You may answer your Quaker thus: That under the Law the Priefts were commanded to offer for their own Sins and the Sin of the People; That under the Gospel now, the great and laft Offering for Sin has been made; we mean, our Sa❤ viour; we are commanded co pray Forgive us our Trefpaffes, Sec. and the Scripture is exprefs in feveral Places in this Matter that all have finned; that if we fay, we have no fan, we deceive our felves. If it be faid in other Places, Thafe that are born of God fin not, this must not admit of fuch an Expofition as will contradi& other plain Scriptures; but fuch as will reconcile both; and even St. John himself, who was the Author of this Text Those that are born of God fin not, does a little after explain himfelf, and diftinguish betwixt fuch Sins as are to Death, and fuch as are not unto Death, So that the whole meaning is thus much, That the beft of Men (for fuch are meant above) have fo much Frailty and Corruption left unmortified, whilft they live here, as to keep 'em humble, and U3 exercise their Graces ; and there Q. Some Friends of mine were lately told by a cunning Woman 1. Whether is it lawful to enquire ones Fortune, or what is to come of any one? 2. Whether you believe any one on Earth can either by Aftrology Palmistry, or otherwise, foretel what will happen to any one? are fo many Temptations to which they are liable, by all their Senfes, fuch converfe in the World, fuch Prejudices of Cuftom, Education, &c. that it's impoffible for 'em not to Sin. But the e Perfons Sin not anto Death, or their Sin is not imputed to 'em, who are truly Sincere and Upright, who when they find they have done amifs, repent, and ftrive againft their Weakneffes for the future, their Sincerity is accepted with God, and the Righteousness of Chrift makes up in what they are deficient, and is imputed to 'em. So that they may be truly faid to be without Sin, and exactly fullfil the Law; but 'tis by Proxy, and not in their own Perfons. If this is not fo, to what end did Chrift die? If any live without Sin, let 'em ftand forth, and profefs it openly, that their Actions may be throughly weighed, that fo they may be juftified, or found Liars; but if there never was, nor at prefent is any Perfon, that did live without actual Sin, not- Q. I defire you tell me, as foon withstanding the greatest Con- as your Occafions will permit, which currence of God's Grace, why is the best way of forming and polish then does any one plead againfting Hyperbolical Concave and the Experience of fix thoufand Convex Glaffes? Years, of the whole Race of Mankind, againft the exprefs Revelation of facred Writ; in fhort against himself at the fame time he speaks; for he that fays, he Sins not, lies (if we may believe St. John) and confequently Sins in barely afferting it; how much more in living and juftifying fuch a courfe of Life? A. 1. It's Idolatry, a very foolish and very wicked thing? A. 2. There's nothing at all in the Thing; all that pretend to give Judgment, as to the afore-mentioned Things, and make a Living by it, are Fools or Cheats, or both. A. We are none of us Glassgrinders, and therefore underftand not the Polifhing Work fo well; but as to the forming, we know no better a way than a Semitryperbola turn about its Axis. The great ufe of fuch Glaffes we fee not; Parabolical Convex Glaffes, it poffible to make 'em, would be of infinite more ufe than any Glaffes we have yet, or can expect of any other Form. Q. What Q What is the Wind, and! whence it proceedeth? A. We know what the Wind is, as much as we know what Water is; for both are eafily felt, and one is found to be made up of much more thin and fluid Particles than the other. Q. Why is not the Motion of the Wind right upward and downward, as well as always fide-long? A. Because the Motion of the Earth, in whofe Vortex it is, and with which it makes one Body, is circular. Q. Does a peevish ill Hnmour in any Person, proceed from Ambition, Enzy, or Dif content? A. The two laft will certainly produce fomething of it, and very often the firft; tho' ill Nature generally proceeds from Pride, and a too good Opinion of our felves. Q. My Father contracts a great many Debts, of which some part. in my Education, and dies: Now, by Law, I am not oblig'd to the Payment of one Farthing; however, I willingly engag'd for the Payment of as -much, or more than my Education caft: There is yet a great Summ behind, and I think I have discharg'd my Duty; and in truth, I cannot do more, without felling the best part of my Estate; and if I do that, I shall deprive my felf of a Subfiftence: Now, I would fain krow, how far one may be oblig'd, in Foro Confcientiæ, in fuch a cafe. This, with your Adrice and Opinion on the whole, I earnestly brg. ог A. Juftice obliges us to repay fuch Debts as we contract our felves, which fhall reasonably be contracted upon our Accounts; but we are no ways engaged to an. fwer for all the Extravagan cies of our Predeceffors; what we do in that cafe, is left to our Goodness; but those that are in a Condition to pay fuch Debrs, or part of them, without any prejudice to themfelves or Families, would do very well to discharge them, fince they are always a Disgrace to them. Q. Is the Story of the Syrens a Fable, or not? If it be not, I defire you will give fome Account, what they were, where they dwelt, and in what Num ber they were, and what became of them: But if it be falfe from whence it proceeded, and what Form they were suppos'd to be of? A. There's no great doubt to be made, but it was a Fiction of the Poets: And as to their Form, we shall not be very critical in determining it, fince the Poets could not agree upon it, but fhall content our felves with relating the Account they They have given of them. make them to be the Daughters of a River. Homer fays, there was but Two of them, altho' fome will have their Number to be Five. Nor is their abode very well known; Virgil places them upon Rocks where Veffels were often split. Pliny will have them to dwell in the Promontory of Minerva very near the Ifle of Caprio. Some have afU 4 fijn d unhappy Songs of the Syrens, and not to fuffer themselves to be enchanted by the Sweetness of their Melody: Thefe are terrible Rocks where Wisdom was Shipwreckt. Sirenes ufque in exitium dulces. For the fame fign'd them their Habitation in Sicily, hard by the Cape of Pelorus. They have given them Wings, and a Plume of very beautiful and various coloured Feathers. But Ovid makes SeaMonsters of them, reprefents them with the Face of a Wo-realon, they have made them a man, and attributes an Humane Symbol of Eloquence, because Voice to them. Claudius fpeaks one cannot refift the feducing of them yet more fully; he fays, of their perfwafive Discourses, they dwelt upon Harmonious Cato, the Grammarian, was Rocks, that they were charm- call'd, Latina Syren, the Latin ing Monsters, and pleafant Syren. Thus they have com Rocks, where Voyagers were pared whatever flattered the Shipwreckt without any regret; Ear, or could engage the Heart; and expired in the Enchant- to the Harmony and melodious ment, in the midst of Plea- Voice of the Syrens. Wherefures. fore the Greeks have taken the Etymology of the Syrens from the Greek Word ire, which fignifies a Chain: By which they meant, That it was impoffible to difengage our selves from their invincible Charms. Dulce Malum Pelago, Siren, Volu Neither is their Destiny any better agreed upon, than their This Defcription is, without Number and Form, &c. Some doubt, founded upon the Lite-fay, they were metamorphos'd ral Explanation that has been into Rocks; which made fome made of the Fable; That they Perfons, who were not over were Women which dwelt up. curious to fearch into the Faon the Borders of the Sicilian ble, to maintain, That the SySea; who, by all manner of rens were nothing else but cerVoluptuous Attractives, drew tain Places in the Sea, where in and ftopt the Paffengers, and Veffels that went too near 'em made them forget their inten- were fwallow'd up; and, acded Courfe, by affording them cording to fome Authors, there all forts of Delicacies and Plea- was no other Ground for the fures. Some even pretend that Fable. Others pretend, that their Number and Name had they were Birds originally, and their firft Rife from the triple were turned into Fifh; and Pleasure of Senfes, Wine, Love, thefe two Conditions have been and Mufick, which are the fo little diftinguished, that Painmoft powerful Attractives to ters have reprefented them only Men. And 'tis very probable, under the beft Form. In fome that from thence proceeded fo ancient Morals, indeed, they many Exhortations, to fhus the have appear'd with the upper Party |