He foon after performed his promife, and left me the Commentaries, giving me alfo further light by many conferences; when he was unfortunately fnatched away, as I before related, by the jealousy of the queen's miniftry. men. Though I was thus, to my eternal grief, deprived of his converfation, he, for fome years, continued his correfpondence, and communicated to me many of his projects for the benefit of mankind. He fent me fome of his writings, and recommended to my care the recovery of others, ftraggling about the world and affumed by other The last time I heard from him, was on occafion of his ftrictures on the Dunciad; fince when, feveral years being elapfed, I have reafon to believe this excellent perfon is either dead, or carried by his vehement thirst for knowledge, into fome remote, or perhaps undi covered region of the world. In either cafe, I think it a debt no longer to be delayed, to reveal what I know of this prodigy of fcience, and to give the hiftory of his life, and of his extenfive merits, to mankind; in which I dare promise the reader, that, whenever he begins to think any one chapter dull, the ftile will be immediately changed in the pext. MEMOIRS MEMOIRS of MARTINUS SCRIBLERUS*. ΒΟΟΚ Ι. CHAP. I. Of the parentage and family of Scriblerus, how he was begot, what care was taken of him before he was born, and what prodigies attended his birth. I N the city of Munfter in Germany, lived a grave and learned Gentleman, by profeflion an antiquary; who, among all his invaluable curiofities, efteemed none more highly than a skin of the true Pergamenian parchment, which hung at the upper end of his hall. * Mr Pope, Dr. Arbuthnot, and Dr. Swift projected to write a fatire in conjunction, on the abufes of human learning; and to make it the better received, they proposed to do it in the manner of Cervantes (the original author of this fpecies of fatire), under the history of fome feigned adventures. They had obferved thofe abuses fill kept their ground against all that the ablest and gravest authors could fay to difcredit them; they concluded therefore, the force of ridicule was wanting to quicken their difgrace; which was here in its place, when the abufes had been already detected by fober reafening; and truth in no danger to fuffer by the premature use of so powerful an inftrument. But the feparation of Mr Pope's friends, which foon after happened, with the death of one and the infirmities of the other, put a small stop to their project, when they had only drawn out on imperfect effay towards it, under the title of The first back of the Memoirs of Scriblerus. Polite Letters never loft more than in the defeat of this fcheme, in which, each of this illuftrious triumvirate would have found exercife for his own peculiar talent; befides conftant employment for that they all had in common. Dr Arbuthnot was skilled in every thing which related to frience; Mr Pope was a master in the fine arts; and Dr Swift excelled in the knowledge of the world. WIT they had all in equal measure; and this fo large, as no age perhaps ever produced thire men, to whom Nature had more bountifully beftowed it, op Art brought it to higher perfection. Warburton. On this was curiously traced the ancient pedigree of the Scribleri, with all their alliances and collateral relations, (among which were reckoned Albertus Magnus, Paracelfus Bombaftus, and the famous Scaligers, in old time Princes of Verona), and deduced even from the times of the Elder Pliny to Cornelius Scriblerus: for fuch was the name of this venerable perfonage; whofe glory it was, that, by the fingular virtue of the women, not one had a head of a different caft from his family. His wife was a lady of fingular beauty, whom not for that reafon only he efpouled, but becaufe fhe was undoubted daughter either of the great Scriverius, or of Gafpar Barthius. It happened on a time, the faid Gafpar made a visit to Scriverius at Harlem, taking with him a comely lady of his acquaintance, who was killed in the Greek tongue, of whom the learned Scriverius became fo enamoured, as to inebriate his friend, and be familiar with his mistress. I am not ignorant of what Columefius * affirms, that the learned Barthius was not so overtaken, but he perceived it; and in revenge fuffered this unfortunate gentlewoman to be drowned in the Rhine at her return. But Mrs Scriblerus (the iffae of that amour) was a living proof of the falfhood of this report. Dr. Cornelius was farther induced to his marriage, from the certain information that the aforefaid lady, the mother of his wife, was related to Cardan on the father's fide, and to Aldrovandus on the mother's: befides which, her ancestors had been profeffors of phyfic, aftrology, or chemistry, in German univerfities, from generation to generation. With this fair gentlewoman had our Doctor lived in a comfortable union for about ten years: but this our fober and orderly pair, without any natural infirmity, and with a conftant and frequent compliance to the chief duty of conjugal life, were yet unhappy, in that heaven had not bleffed them with any iffue. This was the utmost grief to the good man; ep cially confidering what exact precautions and methods he had ufed to procure that blef fing: for he never had cohabitation with his fpouse, but he pondered on the rules of the ancients, for the genera *Columelius relates this from Ifaac Voffius, in his Opufcula Pope. p. 102. tion of children of wit. He ordered his diet according to the prescription of Galen, confining himfelf and his wife, for almost the whole first year, to goats milk and honey It unfortunately befel her, when he was about four months gone with child, to long for fomewhat, which that author inveighs against as prejudicial to the understanding of the infant. This her husband thought fit to deny her, affirming, it was better to be childless, than to become the parent of a fool. His wife mifcarried; but as the abortion proved only a female fœtus, he comforted himself, that, had it arrived to perfection, it would not have answered his account; his heart being wholly fixed upon the learned fex. However he difdained not to treasure up the embryo in a vial, among the curiofities of his family. Having discovered that Galen's prefcription could not determine the fex, he forthwith betook himself to Ariftotle. Accordingly he with-held the nuptial embrace when the wind was in any point of the fouth; this author afferting, that the groffness and moisture of the foutherly winds occafion the procreation of females, and not of males. But he redoubled his diligence when the wind was at weft; a wind on which the great philofopher bestowed the encomiums of father of the earth, breath of the Elyfian fields, and other glorious eulogies. For our learned man was clearly of opinion, that the femina out of which animals are produced, are animalcula ready formed, and received in with the air . Under thefe regulations, his wife, to his, inexpressible joy, grew pregnant a fecond time; and (what was no fall addition to his happines), he just then came to the poffeffion of a confiderable eftate by the death of her uncle, a wealthy Jew who refided at Loudon. This inade it ne. ceffary for him to take a journey to England; nor would the care of his pofterity let him fuffer his wife to remain *Galen. Lib. de Cibis boni et mali fucci, cap. 3. Pope. Religion of Nature, fect. 5. parag. 15. The ferioufnefs with which this ftrange opinion, on fo myfterious a point, is advanced, very well deferved this ftroke of ridicule. Pope and Warburton. behind him. During the voyage, he was perpetually taken up, on the one hand, how to employ his great riches; and, on the other, how to educate his child. He had already determined to fet apart iveral annual fums, for the recovery of Manufcripts, the effolion of Coins, the procuring of Mummies; and for all thofe curious difcoveries, by which he hoped to become (as himfelt was wont to fay) a fecond Peirefkius *. He had already chalked out all poffible fchemes for the improvement of a male child; yet was fo far prepared for the worst that could happen, that, before the nine months were expired, he had compofed two treatifes of education; the one he called, A daughter's mirrour, and the other, Afon's monitor. This is all we can find relating to Martinus, while he was in his mother's womb, excepting that he was enter. tained there with a concert of mufic once in twenty-four hours, according to the cuftom of the Magi: and that ona particular day t, he was obferved to leap and kick exceedingly, which was on the first of April, the birth-day of the great Bafilius Valentinus. The truth of this, and every preceeding fact, may be depended upon, being taken literally from the Memoirs. But I must be so ingenuous as to own, that the accounts are not fo certain of the exact time and place of his birth. As to the firft, he had the common frailty of old men, to conceal his age: as to the fecond, Ionly remember to have heard him fay, that he firft faw the light in St Giles's parish. But in the investigation of this point, Fortune hath favoured our diligence. For one day, as I was paffing by the Seven Dials, I overheard a difpute concerning the place of nativity of a great aftrologer, which each man alledged to have been in his own street. cumftances of the time, and the defeription of the perfon, The er * There was a great deal of trifling pedantry and curiofity in that great man's character. Warburton. † Ramlay's Cyrus. It was with judgment, that the authors chofe rather to ridicule the modern relator of this ridiculous practice, than the ancients from whence he took it; as it is a fure inftance of folly, when, amongst the many excellent things which may be learned from antiquity, we find a modern writer only picking out their abfurdities. Pope and Warburton, inade |