THE

LIFE AND ADVENTURES

OF

PAUL PLAINTIVE, Esq.

An Author.

COMPILED FROM ORIGINAL DOCUMENTS,

AND INTERSPERSED WITH

SPECIMENS OF HIS GENIUS,

IN PROSE AND POETRY.

BY MARTIN GRIBALDUS SWAMMERDAM,

(HIS NEPHEW AND EXECUTOR.)

"The chief glory of every people arises from its authors."

VOL. II.

JOHNSON.

LONDON:

Printed by W. Flint, Old Bailey,

FOR SHERWOOD, NEELY, AND JONES,

PATERNOSTER-ROW.

1811.

249.5.474.

THE

LIFE AND ADVENTURES

OF

PAUL PLAINTIVE, Esq.

&c. &c.

CHAPTER I.

Death often comes unexpected and generally unasked-A slow, sudden death dreadful, (YOUNG.)--The power of imagination exercised upon a pair of breeches-A country apothe

cary.

WHAT is there in life more uncertain than life? Nothing, say the philosophers and moralists of every age. "All men," observes Young, "think all men mortal but themselves;" and Cowley, with some quaintness, calls life, the younger brother of nothing." But it were endless to shew in what contempt

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