fired Cornelius to be comforted, affuring him it was a fconce, and no other. But this, instead of comforting, threw the Doctor into fuch a violent fit of paffion, that he was carried off groaning and fpeechlefs to bed; where, being quite fpeat, he fell into a kind of slumber.

Of the fuction and nutrition of the great Scriblerus in his infancy, and of the first rudiments of his learning.

A

S foon as Cornelius awaked, he raised himself on his elbow, and cafting his eye on Mrs Scriblerus, fpoke as follows. "Wifely was it faid by Homer, that in the cellar of Jupiter are two barrels, the one of good, the other of evil, which he never bestows on mortals feparately, but conftantly mingles them together. Thus at the fame time hath Heaven bleffed me with the birth of a fon, and afflicted me with the fcouring of my shield. Yet let us not repine at his difpenfations, who gives, and who takes away; but rather join in prayer, that the ruft of antiquity which he hath been pleased to take from my shield, may be added to my fon; and that fo much of it as it is my purpofe he fhall contract in his education, may never be destroyed by any modern polishing."

He could no longer bear the fight of the fhield, but ordered it fhould be removed for ever from his eyes. It was not long after purchased by Dr Woodward, who, by the affiftance of Mr Kemp, incrusted it with a new ruft, and is the fame where

of a cut hath been ingraved, and exhibited to the great contentation of the learned.

Cornelius now began to regulate the fuction of his child. Seldom did there pafs a day without disputes between him and the mother, or the nurse, concerning the nature of aliment. The poor wo, man never dined but he denied her fome dish or o ther, which he judged prejudical to her milk. One day fhe had a longing defire to a piece of beef; and as the ftretched her hand towards it, the old gentleman drew it away, and spoke to this effect. "Hadft thou read the ancients, O nurfe, thou wouldft prefer the welfare of the infant which thou nourishest, to the indulging of an irregular and voracious appetite. Beef, it is true, may confer a robustness on the limbs of my fon, but will hebetate and clog his intellectuals." While he fpoke this, the nurse looked upon him with much anger, and now and then caft a wishful eye upon the beef." Paffion" (continued the Doctor, ftill holding the dish) "throws the mind into tooviolent a fermentation; it is a kind of fever of the foul; or, as Horace expreffes it, a fhort madness. Confider, woman, that this day's fuction of my fon may cause him to imbibe many ungovernable pasfions, and, in a manner, fpoil him for the temper of a philofopher. Romulus, by fucking a wolf, became of a fierce and favage difpofitions and were I to breed fome Ottoman emperor, or foumter of a military commonwealth, perhaps might i dulge thee in this carnivorous appetite." at, interrupted the nurse, beef fpoil the undealing? that's fine indeed----how then could preach as he does upon beef, and pudding too, if

Derfon

you

1

you go to that? Don't tell me of your ancients; had not you almost killed the poor babe with a dith of dæmonial black broth ?---"Lacedæmonean black broth, thou wouldst fay," (replied Cornelius); "but I cannot allow the furfeit to have been occafioned by that diet, fince it was recommended by the divine Lycurgus. No, nurse, thou must certainly have eaten fome meats of ill digeftion the day before, and that was the real caufe of his disorder. Confider, woman, the different temperaments of different nations. What makes the English phlegmatic and melancholy, but beef? what renders the Welch fo hot and choleric, but cheese and leeks ? the French derive their levity from their foups, frogs, and mushrooms: I would not let my fon dine like an Italian, left, like an Italian, he should be jealous and revengeful: The warm, and folid diet of Spain may be more beneficial, as it might endue him with a profound gravity, but at the fame time he might fuck in with their food their intolerable vice of pride. Therefore, nurse, in fhort, I hold it requifite to deny you at prefent, not only beef, but likewise whatfoever any of those nations eat." During this fpeech, the nurse remained pouting and marking her plate with the knife, nor would the touch a bit during the whole dinner. This the old gentleman obferving, ordered that the child, to avoid the risk of imbibing ill humours, fhould be kept from her breast all that day, and be fed with butter mixed with honey, according to a prescription he had met with fomewhere in Euftathius upon Homer. This indeed gave the child a great loofenefs; but he was not concerned at it, in the opinion, that whatever harm

it

it might do his body, would be amply recompenfed by the improvements of his understanding. But from thenceforth he infisted every day upon a particular diet to be obferved by the nurfe; under which having been long uneasy, she at last parted from the family, on his ordering her for dinner the paps of a fow with pigs; taking it as the highest indignity, and a direct infult upon her fex and calling. Four

Martin's life paffed away years of young in fquabbles of this nature. Mrs Scriblerus confidered it was now time to inftruct him in the fundamentals of religion, and to that end took no small pains in teaching him his catechism. But Cornelius looked upon this as a tedious way of inftruction, and therefore employed his head to find out more pleafing methods, the better to induce him to be fond of learning. He would frequently carry him to the puppet-how of the creation of the world, where the child, with exceeding delight, gained a notion of the hiftory of the Bible. His first rudiments in profane hiftory were acquired by feeing of raree-fhows, where he was brought acquainted with all the princes of Europe. In fhort, the old gentleman fo contrived it, to make every thing contribute to the improvement of his knowledge, even to his very drefs. He invented for him a geographical fuit of cloaths, which might give him fome hints of that fcience, and likewise fome knowledge of the commerce of different nations. He had a French hat with an African feather, Holland fhirts and Flanders lace, English. cloth lined with Indian filk; his gloves were Italian, and his shoes were Spanish. He was made to

obferve

obferve this, and daily catechised thereupon, which his father was wont to call travelling at home. He never gave him a fig or an orange, but he obliged him to give an account from what country it came. In natural history he was much affifted by his curiofity in fign-pofts, infomuch that he hath often confelfed he owed to them the knowledge of many creatures which he never found fince in any author, fuch as white lions, golden dragons, &c. He once thought the fame of green men, but had fince found them mentioned by Kercherus, and verified in the history of William of Newbury *.

His difpofition to the mathematics was difcovered very early, by his drawing parallel lines † on his bread and butter, and interfecting them at equal angles, fo as to form the whole fuperfices into fquares. But, in the midst of all these improvements, a stop was put to his learning the alphabet; nor would he let him proceed to letter D, till he could truly and diftinctly pronounce C in the an¬ cient manner, at which the child unhappily boggled for near three months. He was also obliged to delay his learning to write, having turned away the writing-malter, because he knew nothing of Fabius's waxen tables.

Cornelius having read, and seriously weighed the methods by which the famous Montaigne was

*Gul. Neubrig, book 1. chap. 27.

+ Pafcal's life----Locke of educat. etc.----There are fome extravagant lies told of the excellent Pafcal's amazing genius for mathematics in his early youth; and fome trifling directions given for the introduction to the elements of icience, in Mr Locke's book of education.

educated