with prodigies: He hin.felf has often told me, that, on the night before he was born, Mrs. Seriblerus dreamed the was brought to bed of huge inkhorn, out of which iffued feveral large ftreams of ink, as it had been a fountain. This dream was by her husband thought to fignify, that the childfhould prove a very voluminous writer. Likewife a crab tree *, that had been hitherto barren, appeared on a fudden laden with a vast quantity of crabs. This fign alfo the old gentleman imagined to be a prognoftic of the acutenefs of his wit. great fwarm of Wafps †, played round his cradle without hurting him, but were very troublefome to all in the room befides. This feemed a certain prefage of the effects of his fatire. A dunghill was feen within the space of one night covered all over with Mushrooms. This fome interpreted to promife the infant great fertility of fancy, but no long duration to his works; but the father was of another opinion.

but what was of all moft wonderful, was a thing that feemed a monftrous fowl, which juft then fell through the fky-light near his wife's apartment: It had a large body, two little difproportioned wings, a prodigious tail, but no head. As its colour was white, he took it at firft fight for a fwan, and was concluding his fon would be a poet: But on a rearer view, perceived it to be fpeckled with black, ind the form of letters; and that it was indeed a paperkite which had broke its leafh by the impetuofity of the wind. His back was armed with the artmilitary, his belly was filled with phyfic, his wings were the wings of Quarles and Withers, the feve-" rai nodes of his voluminous tail were diverfified with feveral branches of fcience; where the Doctor beheld, with great joy, a knot of logic, a

Virgil's Laurel Donat. Pope,

+ Pato, Lucan, &c. Pope.

knot

knot of metaphyfic, a knot of cafuistry, a knot of polemical divinity, and a knot of common law, with a lanthorn of Jacob Behmen.

There went a report in the family, that, as foon as he was born, he uttered the voice of nine several animals: He cried like a calf, bleated like a fheep, chattered like a mag-pye, grunted like a hog, neighed like a foal, croaked like a raven, mewed like a cat, gabbled like a goofe, and brayed like an afs: And the next morning he was found playing in his bed with two owls, which came down the chimney. His father greatly rejoiced at all these figns, which betokened the variety of his eloquence, and the extent of his learning; but he was particularly pleafed with the laft, as it nearly refembled what happened at the birth of Homer*.

more

С НА Р. 11.

The speech of Cornelius over his fon, at the hour of

bis birth.

O fooner was the cry of the infant heard, but

fnatching it in his arms, examined every limb with attention. He was infinitely pleafed to find, that the child had the wart of Cicero, the wry neck of Alexander, knots upon his legs like Marius, and one of them fhorter than the other like Agefilaus. The good Cornelius alfo hoped he would come to ftammer like Demofthenes, in order to be as eloquent and in time arrive at many other defects of famous men. He held the child fo long, that the

Vid. Euftath, in Odyff. 1. xii, ex Alex. Paphio, & Leo. Allat. de patr, Hom. p. 45. Pipe.

midwife

midwife, grown out of all patience, fnatched it from his arms, in order to fwaddle it." Swaddle "him "quoth he, " far be it from me to fubnit "to fuch a pernicious custom! Is not my fon a "man? and is not man the lord of the universe ? "Is it thus you use this monarch at his first arrival "in his dominions, to manacle and fhackle him "hand and foot? Is this what you call to be free. "born: If you have no regard to his natural libertr ty, at least have fome to his natural faculties. "Behold with what agility he spreadeth his toes, " and moveth them with as great variety as his fingers! a power, which, in the small circle of a year, may be totally abolished, by the enormous "confinement of fhoes and ftockings. His cars "(which other animals turn with great advantage "towards the fonorous object) may, by the mini!

try of fome accurfed nurse, for ever lie flat and "immoveable. Not fo the ancients; they could. "move them at pleasure, and accordingly are "often described arrecis auribus." What a devil," quoth the midwife, "would you have your fon 166 move his ears like a drill ?" "Yes, fool, (faid

he)," why fhould he not have the perfection of a drill, or of any other animal?" Mrs. Scriblerus "who lay all this while fretting at her husband's discourse, at last broke out to this purpofe; "My "dear, I have had many disputes with you upon "this fubject before I was a month gone: we have "but one child, and cannot afford to throw him a"way upon experiments, I will have my boy bred up "like other gentlemen, at home and always under "mine own eye." All the goffips, with one voice, cried, Ay, ay; but Cornelius broke out in this man. ner: "What! bred at home! Have I taken all "this pains for a creature that is to lead the inglo. "rious life of a cabbage, to fuck the nutritious juices from the fpot where he was first planted? "No, to perambulate this terraqucous globe is too VOL. VI.

B

fmall

"fmall a range; were it permitted, he should at "leaft make the tour of the whole fyftem of the fun. "Let other mortals pore upon maps, and swallow "the legends of lying travellers, the fon of Cornelius fhall make his own legs his compaffes; with "those he fhall measure continents, islands, capes,

66

"cal fictions.

bays, ftreights, and ifthmus's: he fhall himself "take the altitude of the highest mountains, from "the peak of Derby to the peak of Teneriff: when " he has vifited the top of Taurus, Imaus, Cauca"cafus, and the famous Ararat, where Noah's "ark first moored, he may take a flight view of "the fnowy Riphæans; nor would I have him ne"glect Athos and Olympus, renowned for poetiThofe that vomit fire will deferve a more particular attention: I will therefore have "him obferve, with great care, Vefuvius, Etna, "the burning mountain of Java, but chiefly Hecla "the greatest rarity in the northern regions. Then "he may likewife contemplate the wonders of the "Mephitic cave. When he has dived into the "bowels of the earth, and furveyed the works of "Nature under ground, and inftructed himself

fully in the nature of vulcanos, earthquakes, "thunders, tempefts, and hurricanes, I hope he "will blefs the world with a more exact furvey of "the defarts of Arabia and Tartary, than as yet we are able to obtain. Then will I have him "crofs the feven gulphs, measure the currents in "the fifteen famous ftreights, and fearch for those "fountains of fresh water that are at the bottom of "the ocean.". -At thefe laft words Mrs. Scriblerus fell into a trembling: the defcription of this terrible fcene made too violent an impreffion upon a woman in her condition, and threw her into a ftrong hyfteric fit; which might have proved dangerous, if Cornelius had not been pushed out of the room by the united force of the women.

CHAP

CHA P. III.

Shewing what befell the Doctor's fon and his shield, on the day of chriftening.

HE day of the chriftening being come, and the houfe filled with goffips, the levity of whose converfation fuited but ill with the gravity of Dr. Cornelius, he caft about how to pafs this day more agreeably to his character; that is to fay, not without fome profitable conference, nor wholly without obfervance of fome antient cuftom.

He remembered to have read in Theocritus, that the cradle of Hercules was a fhield; and being poffeffed of an antique buckler, which he held as a moft ineftimable relick, he determined to have the infant laid therein, and in that manner brought into the study, to be fhewn to certain learned men of his acquaintance.

The regard he had for this fhield, had caufed him formerly to compile a differtation concerning it*, proving, from the feveral properties, and particularly the colour of the ruft, the exact chronolgy. thereof.

With this treatise, and a moderate fupper, he propofed to entertain his guefts: though he had also another defign, to have their affiftance in the calculation of his fon's nativity.

He therefore took the buckler out of a cafe (in which he always kept it, left it might contract any modern rust), and entrusted it to his housemaid, with orders, that, when the company was come, the should lay the child carefully in it, covered with a mantle of blue fattin.

See the differtation on Dr. Woodward's fhield.

B 2

The