making themselues exceeding merry with the musike the cans niade, being as brimfull of beere, as mine heart was of melancholly, or theirs of mirth, some hauing their pipes neuer out of their mouthes, who puft more smoake out of their noses, then euer came out of Cole-harbar chimneyes, or any brew-house in Saint Katherines: some againe singing as merrily, as if they had beene as free as the mountaine aire: 1 seeing them in these Bacchanaliall rages, faine would haue slipt by them, but one that sat at the vpper end of the table (hauing a can in one hand and a pipe in the other) desired me to approach and bee one of their society (protesting more kindnesse to me, then a Dutch-man will when he is drunke) so proffered me halfe a can; I tolde him I could not pledge him so much, but I would drinke a whole one in conceit; why quoth he, not drinke, Foot, man it is the soule of good Fellowship, the marrow of a poet's Minerua, it makes a man as valiant as Hercules, though he were as cowardly as a Frenchman when he is sober; besides I will prooue it necessary for a man to be drunke sometimes, for suppose you should kill a man when you are drunke, you should neuer be hanged for it while you are sober, therfore I thinke it is good for you to be alwaies drunk. Againe, it is the kindest companion and friendliest sin of all the seauen, for whereas most sinnes leaue a man (by some accident) before his death, this trusty Trojan Drunkennesse will neuer forsake him while the breath is out of his body; and lastly, a full bowle of sacke or clarret, or a can of strong beere, will drownd all sorrowes: indeed sir, said I, whether it will drownd all sorrowes or no, I am not greatly experienct in, but I am sure it will drownd our soules; yet sir, for your kindnesse I will bestow the curtesie of

the

the cellar vpon you, and so I called for halfe a dozen, and dranke a little to them all; another that was opposite against mee, askt me if I would drink tobacco, so proffered me the pipe, which I denied, telling him that I would not be conuersant with that Indian whore, that not only the lords and gentry of the land had committed adultery with, but also every tinker, cobler and dray-man of the citty. Why, said he, it is an excellent purge for the head; true, sayd I, but it is a vilde purge for the purse, and that for mine owne part, I had rather have a peece of pudding of an inch long for mine owne eating, then twenty yards of pudding tobacco for my drinking: they seeing my fixt and sollid resolution, let me alone to haue myne owne humour as they had theirs; so that we sat exceeding merry without any melancholly fit, and at the last I began to giue them a touch of my quality; but after we began to bee more familiar together, he that first entertained me, whispered me in the eare, and tolde mee, if hee thought I would bee secret, hee would reneale that to me, which should not onely for euer gaine me a neuer-dying memory, but also would be an vnknowen profit to the Common-wealth; I promised him to be as secret as any surgeon: then hee called me aside from the rest of our company, and tolde me, if I would repaire to him in the morning, he would vnbowell the hugest bulke of villany, that euer was burthensome to the world, that hee would anatomise vice, and lay the vlcers and sores of this corrupted age, so apparent to the sight of this kingdom, that the most ospray, and owle-eyed spectator should not chuse but confesse, there neuer was a more necessary and commodious discouery reuealed. Why sir, sayd I, there

is

is a booke called Greene's Ghost haunts Cony-catchers; another called Legerdemaine, and the Blacke Dog of Newgate, but the most wittiest, elegantest and eloquentest peece (Master Dekkers, the true heire of Apollo composed) called the Bell-man of London, haue already set foorth the vices of the time so viuely, that it is vnpossible the anchor of any other man's braine can sounde the sea of a more deepe and dreadfull mischeefe. These indeede, sayd he, haue done (especially the last) most exquisitely, both for their owne reputation, and their countreyes good, but I haue that lockt vp in the closet of my brest, that when it is opened and made apparent to you will amaze you. Therefore I admire that the fabricke of the earth is not continually shaken with earth-quakes, that the earth itselfe (as she is a mother to beare all kinde of fruit) doth not ingender all kinde of murthering and killing creatures, as harpies, cockatrices, wolues and hyenas. to destroy those that are continually trampling on her teeming wombe; that the aire is not choaked with fogs, and that blacke pitchy mists doth not perpetually masque the face of heauen, and leaue the world in obscurity, putting vs in minde of our sinnes, a thousand times blacker then that eclipse; and lastly, that the sea is not turnd all to blood to put vs in minde of the cruelty and vnconscionable vsage of one man toward another, for there are vices in this sinne drownd age, that are able to pull the two edged sword of vengeance on our heads, and plucke fire from the forge of heauen, I admire that we haue not leane-faced farnine, meager mortality, pale sicknesse, and grim-faced warre tyrannizing in this land, as once it did in Jerusalem, in the time

VOL. X.

X

time of Titus and Vespasian, when the glorious sancium sanctorum was set on fire; when the fields were filled with slaughtered carkasses, and when the mother for want of food, was driuen to kill her owne child, to quench her owne hunger."

J. H.

ART. VIII. The displaying of supposed Witchcraft. Wherein it is affirmed that there are many sorts of deceivers and imposters, and divers persons under a passive delusion of melancholy and fancy. But that there is a corporeal league made betwixt the Devil and the Witch, or that he sucks on the Witches body, has carnal copulation, or that Witches are turned into cats, dogs, raise tempests, or the like, is utterly denied and disproved. Wherein also is handled, the existence of angels and spirits, the truth of apparitions, the nature of astral and sydereal spirits, the force of charms and philters; with other abstruse matiers. By John Webster, Practitioner in Physick. False etenim opiniones hominum præoccupantes, non solum surdos, sed & cæcos faciunt, ita ut videre nequeant, quæ aliis perspicua apparent. Galen. Lib. 8. De Comp. Med. London: Printed by J. M. and are to be sold by the Booksellers in London. 1677. Fol. PP. 346.

This work is dedicated to "his worshipful and honoured friends Thomas Parker of Brusholme, John Asheton of the Lower-Hall, William Drake of Barnoldswick coat, William Johnson of the Grays,

Henry

Henry Marsdon of Gisborne, Esquires, and his Majesties Justices of Peace and Quorum in the West-Riding of Yorkshire." This is followed by a Preface or Introduction. In these the author states that he had for many years lived a solitary and sedentary life" mihi et Musis," excepting his physical practice which age and infirmities would not suffer him much to attend. And he affirms that he was induced to write upon this abstruse subject to counteract the effects of Dr. Casaubon's "Treatise proving spirits and witches," &c. (Dr. Dee's Conferences with Spirits) and Mr. Glanvil's "Sadducismus triumphatus, or a blow at modern Sadducism," &c.

The work is written with much piety, learning,. acuteness and strength of argument, and particularly examines all those passages of scripture which have been thought to countenance the vulgar idea of the power of witches and evil spirits. He inquires with. especial minuteness into all the circumstances of the apparition of Samuel to Saul at Endor, and concludes, with strong appearance of reason, that there was no reality in the fancied vision; that the devil had nothing to do with it; and that the whole was an imposture of the supposed witch, "either alone or with a confederate," aided by the fears and superstition of the royal inquirer.

But Webster himself holds some opinions to which the philosophers of the present day will not be inclined to assent; though, in our own times, they seem to have been revived by the now exploded practice of animal magnetism. He asserts that "the force of imagination" accompanied with any strong passion "can at distance work upon another body;" and this