skin. Now about the time when the infant breaketh these coverings, it sometimes carrieth with it, about the head, a part of the amnois or nearest coat; which, saith Spigelius, either proceedeth from the toughness of the membrane, or weakness of the infant that cannot get clear thereof. And therefore, herein significations are natural and concluding upon the infant, but not to be extended unto magical signalities, or any other person.

16. That it is good to be drunk once a month, is a common flattery of sensuality, supporting itself upon physick, and the healthful effects of inebriation. This indeed seems plainly affirmed by Avicenna, a physician of great authority, and whose religion, prohibiting wine, could less extenuate ebriety. But Averroes, a man of his own faith, was of another belief; restraining his ebriety unto hilarity, and in effect making no more thereof than Seneca commendeth, and was allowable in Cato; that is, a sober incalescence and regulated æstuation from wine; or, what may be conceived between Joseph and his brethren, when the text expresseth they were merry, or drank largely; and whereby indeed the commodities set down by Avicenna, that is, alleviation of spirits, resolution of superfluities, provocation of sweat and urine, may also ensue. But as for dementation, sopition of reason and the diviner particle, from drink; though American religion approve, and Pagan piety of old hath practised it, even at their sacrifices, Christian morality and the doctrine of Christ will not allow. And surely that religion which excuseth the fact of Noah, in the aged surprisal of six hundred years, and unexpected inebriation from the unknown effects of wine,

De Formato Fœtu.

5 inebriation.] Noe man could more properlye inveighe against this beastly sinn, then a grave and learned physitian, were itt for noe more but the acquitting his noble faculty from the guilt of countenancinge a medicine soe lothsome and soe odious. Certainlye itt cannot but magnifie his sober spirit, that does make his own facultye (as Hagar to Sarah) vayle to divinity, the handmayd to her lady and mistresse: especially seeinge the naturall man cannot but confesse that itt is base, unworthye the

divine ofspring of the human soule, which is immortall, to put of itself for a moment, or to assume the shape, or much less the guise of (the uglyest beast) a swine, for any supposable benefit accruing therby to this outward carcasse, eɛ · pecially when itt may bee far better relieved by soe many excellent, easie, warrantable wayes of physick.-Wr.

"Drunkenness (methinks) can neither become a wise philosopher to prescribe, nor a virtuous man to practise."-Bp Hall, Heaven upon Earth, § 3.

will neither acquit ebriosity nor ebriety, in their known and intended perversions.

6

And indeed although sometimes effects succeed which may relieve the body, yet if they carry mischief or peril unto the soul, we are therein restrainable by divinity, which circumscribeth physick, and circumstantially determines the use thereof. From natural considerations physick commendeth the use of venery; and haply incest, adultery, or stupration, may prove as physically advantageous as conjugal copulation; which notwithstanding must not be drawn into practice. And truly effects, consequents, or events which we commend, arise ofttimes from ways which we all condemn. Thus from the fact of Lot we derive the generation of Ruth and blessed nativity of our Saviour; which notwithstanding did not extenuate the incestuous ebriety of the generator. And if, as is commonly urged, we think to extenuate ebriety from the benefit of vomit oft succeeding, Egyptian sobriety will condemn us, which purged both ways twice a month without this perturbation; and we foolishly contemn the liberal hand of God, and ample field of medicines which soberly produce that action.

17. A conceit there is, that the devil commonly appeareth with a cloven hoof: wherein, although it seem excessively ridiculous, there may be somewhat of truth; and the ground thereof at first might be his frequent appearing in the shape of a goat, which answers that description. This was the opinion of ancient Christians concerning the apparition of Panites, fauns, and satyrs; and in this form we read of one that appeared unto Antony in the wilderness. The same is also confirmed from expositions of Holy Scriptures; for whereas it is said, "Thou shalt not offer unto devils," the

Levit. xvii.

6 ebriosity.] Habitual drunkenness. 7 hoof.] 'Tis remarkable that of all creatures the devil chose the cloven-footed, wherein to appeare, as satyrs, and goatishe monsters: the swine whereon to worke his malice: and the calves wherein to bee worshiped as at Dan and Bethel. For which cause the Spirit of

God cald those calves (raised by Jeroboam for worship) devils: 2 Chron. xi, 15. And that he chose his priests of the lowest of the people was very suitable. For where their God was a calfe, 'twas not improper that a butcher should bee the preiste.-Wr.

original word is seghnirim, that is, rough and hairy goats, because in that shape the devil most often appeared; as is expounded by the Rabbins, and Tremellius hath also explained; and as the word Ascimah, the god of Emath, is by some conceived. Nor did he only assume this shape in elder times, but commonly in latter times, especially in the place of his worship, if there be any truth in the confession of witches, and as in many stories it stands confirmed by Bodinus.* And therefore a goat is not improperly made the hieroglyphick of the devil, as Pierius hath expressed it. So might it be the emblem of sin, as it was in the sin-offering; and so likewise of wicked and sinful men, according to the expression of Scripture in the method of the last distribution; when our Saviour shall separate the sheep from the goats, that is, the sons of the Lamb from the children of the devil.

* In his Dæmono mania.

CHAPTER XXIV.

Of Popular Customs, Opinions, &c.; of the Prediction of the Year ensuing from the Insects in Oak Apples; that Children would naturally speak Hebrew; of refraining to kill Swallows; of Lights burning dim at the Apparition of Spirits; of the wearing of Coral; of Moses' Rod in the Discovery of Mines; of discovering doubtful matters hy Book or Staff.

1. THAT temperamental dignotions, and conjecture of prevalent humours, may be collected from spots in our nails, we are not averse to concede; but yet not ready to admit sundry divinations vulgarly raised upon them. Nor do we observe it verified in others, what Cardan* discovered as a property in himself; to have found therein some signs of most events that ever happened unto him. Or that there is much considerable in that doctrine of cheiromancy, that spots in the top of the nails do signify things past; in the middle, things present; and at the bottom, events to come. That white specks presage our felicity; blue ones our misfortunes. That those in the nail of the thumb have significations of honour; those in the forefinger of riches; and so respectively in other fingers, (according to planetical relations, from whence they receive their names,) as Tricassus† hath taken up, and Picciolus well rejecteth.8

We shall not proceed to query, what truth there is in palmistry, or divination from those lines in our hands, of high denomination. Although if any thing be therein, it seems not confinable unto man; but other creatures are also con

De Varietate Rerum.

8 spots, &c.] This saying has remained to the present day. Such superstitions will only cease when the ignorance of the lower orders, through whom they

De Inspectione Manús.

find their way into the nursery, shall have given place to the general diffusion of knowledge-especially of religious knowledge.

siderable; as is the forefoot of the mole, and especially of the monkey, wherein we have observed the table-line, that of life and of the liver.

2. That children committed unto the school of nature, without institution, would naturally speak the primitive language of the world, was the opinion of ancient heathens, and continued since by Christians; who will have it our Hebrew tongue, as being the language of Adam. That this were true, were much to be desired, not only for the easy attainment of that useful tongue, but to determine the true and primitive Hebrew. For whether the present Hebrew be the unconfounded language of Babel, and that which, remaining in Heber, was continued by Abraham and his posterity; 9 or

9 For whether the present Hebrew, &c.] On the subject of this passage, patient and learned ingenuity has been exercised in successive ages to afford us-only hypothesis and conjectures. And though it must be admitted that nothing more satisfactory can, in the nature of things, be expected, yet is it certain, that in order to constitute a thorough competency to propose even these, nothing less would suffice than the most profound acquaintance with history and geography from their remotest traces; and an erudition competent to the analysis and classification, not only of the languages of antiquity, but of those living tongues and dialects which now cover the earth, and to which modern discoveries are daily making additions. On the question, whether the confusion of tongues left one section or family of the existing population in possession of the pure and unadulterated antediluvian language, I cannot perceive the materials for constructing even a conjecture. As to the theory here proposed, on which Abraham might understand those nations among whom he sojourned, by his own means of philological approximation, I cannot help fceling that it is almost like claiming for the patriarch an exemption from the operation of the confusion of tongues. Among the most recent works on this general class of questions, is Mr. Beke's Origines Biblice, a work in which some novel hypotheses have called down on their author the criticism of those who differ from him; while at the same time the tribute of praise has not been denied to the ability he has displayed, and especially

to that spirit of reverence for scriptural authority which pervades his work.

Mr. Beke first states his opinion,-in opposition to the more usual hypothesis which considers the languages of the Jews, Arabians, and other nations of similar character, to be the Semitic or Shemitish family of languages,-that this origin may more probably be assigned to those of Tibet, China, and all those nations of the east and south-east of Asia, which are manifestly distinct from the Japhthitish Hindoos and Tartars; including the islands of the Indian Archipelago and the South Seas. He subsequently gives the following reasons for attributing to the usually-called Semitic languages (namely, Hebrew, Chaldee, Syriac, Arabic, and Ethiopic of Abyssinia,) "a Mitzrite, and therefore Hamitish origin." "When the Almighty was pleased to call Abraham from his native country, the land of the Arphaxidites, or Chaldees, first into the country of Aram, and afterwards into that of Canaan, one of two things must necessarily have had place; either that the inhabitants of these latter countries spoke the same language as himself, or else that he acquired the knowledge of the foreign tongues spoken by these people during his residence in the countries in which they were vernacular. That they all made use of the same language cannot be imagined. Even if it be assumed that the descendants of Arphaxad, Abraham's ancestor, and the Aramites, in whose territories Terah and his family first took up their residence, spoke the same language, or, at the furthest, merely dialects of the same original