tion of, and which all the Philofophers, encourag'd by his Promises, endeavour'd to dig up.

BUT that which furpriz'd me moft was to read in his Work, in express Terms, the new Attraction, the Invention of which is afcrib'd to Sir Ifaac Newton.

WE must search, fays Lord Bacon, whether there may not be a kind of magnetic Power, which operates between the Earth and heavy Bodies, between the Moon and the Ocean, between the Planets, &c. In another Place he fays, either heavy Bodies must be carried towards the Center of the Earth, or must be reciprocally attracted by it; and in the latter Cafe 'tis evident, that the nearer Bodies, in their falling, draw towards the Earth, the ftronger they will attract one another. We muft, fays he, make an Experiment to fee whether the the fame Clock will go fafter on the Top of a Mountain or at the Bottom of a Mine. Whether the Strength of the Weights decreafes on the Mountain, and increafes in the Mine. "Tis

probable

probable that the Earth has a true attractive Power.

This Fore-runner in Philofophy was alfo an elegant Writer, an Hiftorian and a Wit.

His moral Effays are greatly esteem'd, but they were drawn up in the View of inftructing rather than of pleafing: And as they are not a Satyr upon Mankind, like Rochefoucaults's Maxims, nor written úpon a fceptical Plan, like Montagne's Effays, they are not fo much read as those two ingenious Authors.

HIS Hiftory of Henry the Seventh was look'd upon as a Mafter-Piece, but how is it poffible that fome Perfons can presume to compare fo little a Work with the History of our illuftrious Thuanus? SPEAKING about the famous Impoftor Perkin, Son to a converted Jew, who affum'd boldly the Name and Title of Richard the Fourth, King of England, at the Inftigation of the Duchefs of Burgundy; and who difputed the

• John Ofbeck.

Crown

Crown with Henry the Seventh, the Lord Bacon writes as follows:

"Ar this Time the King began aદ gain to be haunted with Sprites, by "the Magick and curious Arts of the

Lady Margaret; who raised up the "Ghoft of Richard Duke of York, sc"cond Son to King Edward the Fourth, "to walk and vex the King."*

"AFTER fuch Time as fhe (Marga"ret of Burgundy) thought he (Per"kin Warbeck) was perfect in his Lef"fon, fhe began to caft with her felf "from what Coaft this Blazing-Starre "fhould first appear, and at what Time "it must be upon the Horizon of Ire"land; for there had the like Meteor "ftrong Influence before." +

METHINKS our fagacious Thuanus does not give into fuch Fuftian, which formerly was look'd upon as Sublime, but in this Age is justly call'd Nonsense.

* The History of the Reign of King Henry the Seventh, page 112. London, printed in 1641. Folio.

Idem. p. 116.

LETTER XIII.

ΟΝ

Mr. LOCK E.

P

ERHAPS no Man ever had a more judicious or more methodical Genius, or was a more acute Logician than Mr. Locke, and yet he was not deeply skill'd in the Mathematicks. This great Man could never subject himself to the tedious Fatigue of Calculations, nor to the dry Purfuit of Mathematical Truths, which do not at firft prefent any fenfible Objects to the Mind; and no one has given better Proofs than he, that 'tis poffible for a Man to have a geometrical Head without the Affistance of Geometry. Before his Time, feveral great Philofophers had declar'd, in

the

the most pofitive Terms, what the Soul of Man is; but as these abfolutely knew nothing about it, they might very well be allow'd to differ entirely in opinion from one another.

IN Greece, the infant Seat of Arts and of Errors, and where the Grandeur as well as Folly of the human Mind went fuch prodigious Lengths, the People us'd to reafon about the Soul in the very fame Manner as we do.

THE divine Anaxagoras, in whose Honour an Altar was erected, for his having taught Mankind that the Sun was greater than Peloponnefus, that Snow was black, and that the Heavens were of Stone; affirm'd that the Soul was an aerial Spirit, but at the fame Time immortal. Diogenes, (not he who was a cynical Philosopher after having coyn'd bafe Money) declar'd that the Soul was a Portion of the Substance of God; an Idea which we must confefs was very fublime. Epicurus maintain'd that it was compos'd of Parts in the fame Manner as the Body.

ARISTOTLE