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rious Specimen, being the Collection of my much honoured Friend and Kinsman, Jeffery Piddle, Efq; who has been many Years employed in picking up whatever was curious and valuable in every Branch of Literature. I fpeak with the more Confidence of this ineftimable Work, because one of the most extraordinary Pieces was communicated to him through my Hands; of which I beg Leave to give your Lordfhip a fhort Hiftory.

The learned and worthy Dr. Trimeter was a Profeffor, and Head of a learned Society; from whom, as a Friend and Relation, I had often received diftinguishing Marks of Affection and Efteem. In a dangerous Illness, that he fent for me, and told me, he had a Secret of great Importance to communicate to me; that he was in Poffeffion of a Piece of Learning, the Labour of fourteen Years, which, he mo→ deftly believed, no Man in Europe was Mafter of but himself; and that he had long determined to put it into my Hands, that it might not die with him, and be irrecoverably loft to Pofterity. The Knowledge I had of his great Abilities and ferious Turn of Mind, and the great Gravity with which he expreffed himself, made me conceive, it was fome Raficrucian Mystery, in which Society he had been initiated many Years ago. Sometimes I fancied, he had discovered the Grand Elixir, or fome other Chymical Secret- But he delivered me a little Roll of Paper, with this remarkable Speech. Coufin, (faid he) you are now in Possession of a great Secret, which, when I am dead, you will possess without a Rival. It is not eafy to conceive the Gratitude and Transport

with which I received this inestimable Depofitum. I
made all the Hafte I decently could, to my Study,
in order to examine the Contents. I double-locked
my Door, fhut up my Windows, lighted up two
large Candles, washed my Hands, and compofed
myself with all the Gravity required of a Philofopher,
and a Student in the Occult Sciences, and then
opened my Packet; and, to my unspeakable Sur-
prize, found it to be nothing lefs than a Critic upon
Wafes Senarius, fhewing, to a Demonftration, that
that Great Man, who was in the highest Reputation
for his critical Knowledge in the Metre of Plautus
and Terence, had fallen into the common Mistakes of
vulgar Critics and Grammarians; that he had fre-
quently confounded the Anapaftus with the Tribrachus,
and in no less than five several Places, had mistaken
the Bacchius for the Antibacchius, with feveral other
unpardonable Miftakes in the Rules of Scanfion:
Shewing alfo, at the fame time, that the true Scan-
fion is the only infallible Way of ascertaining the true
Reading. A noble Discovery! But as my Head was
not violently turned to this Sort of Erudition, and I
was unwilling that the Labour of fo many Years
fhould be loft to the learned World, by falling into
vulgar Hands, I made a Present of it to my learned
Kinsman, who will foon make a Present of it, and
fome other Rarities, to the Public, with the fame
Generofity, that I did to him.

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The fame great Genius has compofed feveral other
Pieces of equal Ufe and Value, which I hope to re-
cover, and convey to the Public by the fame Canal.
The firft was a little Treatife De Tripode, or, The
Ufes and Antiquity of three-legged Stools; hewing them

to

to be much more useful and antient than the fourlegged or Joint-ftool, in which many curious Points both in History and Philosophy are occafionally dif cuffed. Another, De Mufcipulis; or, A Differtation upon Moufe-Traps; intended as a Kind of Critic upon Mr. Holdfworth's celebrated Poem, fhewing the an tient Use of them among the Greeks and Romans ; and that he was intirely mistaken as to the Occafion and Manner of their Invention.-I have also seen two Theological Differtations (as he calls them): 1. Upon Gehazi's Leprofy. 2. Upon Judas's Thirty Pieces of Silver. In order to make the firft quite a complete Work, he wrote to a Friend of his, who was travelling in the Levant, to make all the Inquiry he could, whether any Branch of Gehazi's leprous Family were living; and, if poffible, to procure a Twig or two to be fent over at his Expence, which he intended to make a Present of to the College of Phyficians, to be fhewn among their exotic Curiosities whilft living, and afterwards to be preferved in Spirits of Wine, as a perpetual Argument against Infidelity; and a Standing Admonition to Ministers of all Sorts, how they foul their Fingers with Gratuities, Jobbs, and Perquifites, for doing nothing more than the common Offices of Juftice and Humanity. As he was one Day gravely reading his MS. fo me, all of a fudden he stopped fhort, and threw himself back in his Chair; and, after a long Paufe, he began as follows: Coufin, (fays he) I have been confidering the Character of this fame Gehazi, and the Office he fuftained under his Mafter. He feems to have been his prime, if not his fole, Minister; for it does not appear, that he fuffered any body to fhare with him in that pretty

Per

Perquifite he received from the generous Syrian. Why then, may not this whole Story be an Allegory, after the Eaftern Way of Writing? Why may we not understand by his Seed or Pofterity, bis Succeffors, in that or any other Family. For, from his conftant Attendance on his Mafter, he must needs have been a fingle Man, and therefore could have no Seed or natural Pofterity, to inberit either his Curfe or his Fortune; and then by the Leprofy, we may understand an hereditary Itch in the Fingers, or fome Scrophulous Disorder (only to be cured by Touching). The Thought is pretty. What think you of it? As I was ftudying for an Anfwer, after another long Paufe, he recollected himself in this Manner: But upon fecond Thoughts, this will not do, the Parallel will not hold; the Text tells us, that this Gehazi went out of his Office as white as Snow; whereas most of those that went out fince, are faid to have been of a quite different Complexion.--The other was an occafional Meditation upon Good-Friday. Being hindered by a Cold from going to Church, I went to vifit him after the Service was over. I found him very bufy in Calculation; he told me he had been employing his Thoughts upon the Subject of the Day, that he had computed the Sterling Value of the Thirty Pieces, and what it would have amounted to by this Time, Intereft upon Intereft, at 5 per Cent. Upon my Word, fays he, it would have been a noble Sum; a fine Thing for his Family, believe me, Coufin; many a Great Man, whom I could name, would have done the fame Thing for half the Money. I hope these invaluable Pieces may be recovered for the Good of the Public.

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There will be alfo in the fame Collection fome choice Anecdotes of a reverend Member of our Family. As he is ftill living in a good Degree of Splendor and Reputation, I fhall conceal his Name, and fave his Blushes for the Honour I am doing him. He was early distinguished in the University for his fingular Modefty, and invincible Affection for Solitude and Custard; he walked much, faid little, and read lefs; but, doubtless, paid it off with Thinking. His Tutor, a Stranger to the Genius of our Family, imputed this Behaviour to Stupidity and Idleness; and therefore, meeting him one Day in his Walks, accofted him as follows: T. Sir, I am forry to meet you so often walking abroad, I wish you would keep at home, and ftudy. P. Study, Sir, why so I do I read the Claffics. T. Pray, which of them? read Terence. T. How much have you read? have read fourteen Plays. The good Man lifted up his Hands and Eyes with Admiration, and said, Sir, I would have you read Virgil. Aye, indeed, Virgil (faid he) I know him too well. Too well! (faid the Tutor) Sir, what do you mean? Why, Sir, (faid he) I know that he ftole the very first Verfe of his Book out of the Grammar. This furprizing Discovery threw the poor Gentleman into fuch immoderate Convulfions, as had like to have destroyed all his retentive Faculties at once; but when he had a little recovered himself, he confidered, that, as my good Coufin certainly was an Original-an exalted Genius far above Ordinances, and the vulgar Methods of Education, he determined to leave him to his own Inventions, in which he profited beyond measure. In short, he took his Degrees, entered into Orders,

and

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