wise men a power beyond the stars; and Ptolemy encourageth us, that by foreknowledge we may evade their actions; for, being but universal causes, they are determined by particular agents; which being inclined not constrained, contain within themselves the casting act, and a power to command the conclusion.

Lastly, if all be conceded, and were there in this aphorism an unrestrained truth, yet were it not reasonable from a caution to infer a non-usance or abolition, from a thing to be used with discretion, not to be used at all. Because the apostle bids us beware of philosophy, heads of extremity will have none at all; an usual fallacy in vulgar and less distinctive brains, who having once overshot the mean, run violently on, and find no rest but in the extremes.*

Now hereon we have the longer insisted, because the error is material, and concerns ofttimes the life of man; an error, to be taken notice of by state, and provided against by princes who are of the opinion of Solomon, that their riches consist in the multitude of their subjects. An error worse than some reputed heresies; and of greater danger to the body, than they unto the soul; which whosoever is able to reclaim, he shall save more in one summer, than Themison* destroyed in any autumn; he shall introduce a new way of cure, preserving by theory, as well as practice, and men not only from death, but from destroying themselves.

• A physician. Quot Themison ægros autumno occiderit uno.—Juvenal.

Dr. Lawrence Van Derveer, of New Jersey, who used it successfully in hydrophobia, as early as 1773. From him the remedy was communicated through his son to other practitioners: and was very extensively used at the date of Dr. Spalding's pamphlet. It is taken in a decoction of the dried plant; a tea-spoonful and an half to a quart of boiling water:-the patient taking half-a-pint of this infusion, morning and night.

Dr. S. states that the scutellaria has been given to more than 850 persons bitten by animals believed to be rabid, and that in only three instances had hydrophobic symptoms supervened, and

in each of these cases the quantity of the plant actually taken had been very inconsiderable. It had also been given to more than 1,100 animals under similar circumstances, and with nearly equal

success.

extremes.] This censure fitlye reaches all clymats of the worlde and all times for a prudent caution. For as in the state of corrupted nature, this fallacy is (more then epidemical, that is) universall: soe (to the comforte of the worlde) being once swalowed, and put in practise, itt never failes to pay the practisers in fine with their owne coigne, viz. destruction and ruin.-Wr.

THE FIFTH BOOK.

THE PARTICULAR PART CONTINUED.

OF MANY THINGS QUESTIONABLE AS THEY ARE COMMONLY DESCRIBED IN PICTURES; OF MANY POPULAR CUSTOMS, &c.

CHAPTER I.

Of the Picture of the Pelican.

AND first, in every place we meet with the picture of the pelican, opening her breast with her bill, and feeding her young ones with the blood distilled from her. Thus is it set forth not only in common signs, but in the crest and scutcheon of many noble families; hath been asserted by many holy writers, and was an hieroglyphick of piety and pity among the Egyptians; on which consideration they spared them at their tables.5

Notwithstanding, upon inquiry we find no mention hereof in ancient zoographers, and such as have particularly dis

And first, &c.] These singular birds are said to fish in companies; they form a circle on the water, and having by the flapping of their huge wings, driven the terrified fish towards the centre, they suddenly dive all at once as by consent, and soon fill their immense pouches with their prey. In order subsequently to disgorge the contents, in feeding their young, they have only to press the pouch on their breast. This operation may very probably have given rise to the fable, that the pelican opens her breast to nourish her young.

As to its hieroglyphical import, Horapollo says that it was used among the Egyptians as an emblem of folly; on account of the little care it takes to deposit its eggs in a safe place. He relates that it buries them in a hole; that the natives, observing the place, cover it with dry cow's dung, to which they set fire. The old birds immediately endeavouring to extinguish the fire with their wings, get them burnt and so are easily caught.

Horap. Hierogl. cura Pauw, 4to. Traj. ad Rh. 1727, pp. 67, 68.

coursed upon animals, as Aristotle, Ælian, Pliny, Solinus, and many more; who seldom forget proprieties of such a nature, and have been very punctual in less considerable records. Some ground hereof I confess we may allow, nor need we deny a remarkable affection in pelicans toward their young; for Ælian discoursing of storks, and their affection toward their brood, whom they instruct to fly, and unto whom they redeliver up the provision of their bellies, concludeth at last, that herons and pelicans do the like.

As for the testimonies of ancient fathers, and ecclesiastical writers, we may more safely conceive therein some emblematical, than any real, story: so doth Eucherius confess it to be the emblem of Christ. And we are unwilling literally to receive that account of Jerom, that perceiving her young ones destroyed by serpents, she openeth her side with her bill, by the blood whereof they revive and return unto life again. By which relation they might indeed illustrate the destruction of man by the old serpent, and his restorement by the blood of Christ: and in this sense we shall not dispute the like relations of Austin, Isidore, Albertus, and many more; and under an emblematical intention, we accept it in

coat-armour.

As for the hieroglyphick of the Egyptians, they erected the same upon another consideration, which was parental affection; manifested in the protection of her young ones, when her nest was set on fire. For as for letting out her blood, it was not the assertion of the Egyptians, but seems translated unto the pelican from the vulture, as Pierius hath plainly delivered. Sed quòd pelicanum (ut etiam aliis plerisque persuasum est) rostro pectus dissecantem pingunt, ita ut suo sanguine filios alat, ab Ægyptiorum historia valde alienum est, illi enim vulturem tantùm id facere tradiderunt.

And lastly, as concerning the picture, if naturally examined, and not hieroglyphically conceived, it containeth many improprieties, disagreeing almost in all things from the true and proper description. For, whereas it is commonly set forth green or yellow, in its proper colour it is inclining to white, excepting the extremities or tops of the wing feathers, which are brown. It is described in the bigness of a hen, whereas

it approacheth and sometimes exceedeth the magnitude of a swan. It is commonly painted with a short bill; whereas that of the pelican' attaineth sometimes the length of two spans. The bill is made acute or pointed at the end, whereas it is flat and broad, though somewhat inverted at the extreme. It is described like fissipedes, or birds which have their feet or claws divided: whereas it is palmipedous, or finfooted, like swans and geese, according to the method of nature, in latirostrous or flat-billed birds, which being generally swimmers, the organ is wisely contrived unto the action, and they are framed with fins or oars upon their feet, and therefore they neither light, nor build on trees, if we except cormorants, who make their nests like herons. Lastly, there is one part omitted more remarkable than any other; that is, the chowle or crop adhering unto the lower side of the bill, and so descending by the throat a bag or satchel very observable, and of a capacity almost beyond credit; which, notwithstanding, this animal could not want; for therein it receiveth oysters, cockles, scollops, and other testaceous animals, which being not able to break, it retains them until they open, and vomiting them up, takes out the meat contained. This is that part preserved for a rarity, and wherein (as Sanctius delivers) in one dissected, a negro child was found.

A possibility there may be of opening and bleeding their breast, for this may be done by the uncous and pointed extremity of their bill; and some probability also that they sometimes do it for their own relief, though not for their young ones; that is, by nibbling and biting themselves on their itching part of their breast, upon fulness or acrimony of

whereas it approacheth, &c.] This bird, says Buffon, would be the largest of water-birds, were not the body of the albatross more thick, and the legs of the flamingo so much longer. It is sometimes six feet long from point of bill to

end of tail, and twelve feet from wingtip to wing-tip.

that of the pelican.] This description of the authors agrees (per omnia) with that live pellican, which was to bec seen in King Street, Westminster, 1647,