fome Apprehenfions of Fear; and my Friend himself, tho' he ftill continued his Civilities to me, did not feem altogether eafy: I took Notice that the Butler was never after this Accident ordered to leave the Bottle upon ⚫ the Table after Dinner. Add to this that I frequently ⚫ overheard the Servants mention me by the Name of the ⚫ crazed Gentleman, the Gentleman a little touched, the • mad Londoner, and the like. This made me think it high Time for me to shift my Quarters, which I re⚫ folved to do the first handfome Opportunity; and was ⚫ confirmed in this Refolution by a young Lady in the • Neighbourhood who frequently vifited us, and who one Day having heard all the fine Things I was able to fay, was pleased with a scornful Smile to bid me go ⚫ to fleep.

THE firft Minute I got to my Lodgings in Town I ⚫fet Pen to Paper to defire your Opinion, whether, upon the Evidence before you, I am mad or not. I can bring • Certificates that I behave myself foberly before Company, and I hope there is at least some Merit in withdrawing to be mad. Look, you, Sir, I am conten⚫ted to be efteemed a little touched, as they phrase it, but should be forry to be madder than my Neighbours; therefore, pray let me be as much in my Senfes as you · can afford. I know I could bring your felf as an Inftance ⚫ of a Man who has confeffed talking to himself; but · yours is a particular Cafe, and cannot justify me, who ⚫ have not kept Silence any Part of my Life. What if I • should own myself in Love? You know Lovers are always allowed the Comfort of Soliloquy. But I ⚫ will fay no more upon this Subject, because I have long ⚫ fince obferved, the ready Way to be thought mad is to ⚫ contend that you are not fo; as we generally conclude that Man drunk, who takes Pains to be thought fober. I will therefore leave myself to your Determination; but am the more defirous to be thought in my Senfes, that it may be no Difcredit to you when I affure ⚫ that I have always been very much.

you

Your Admirer.

P. S. If I must be mad, I defire the young Lady may

believe it is for her.

The

The humble Petition of John a Nokes and John a Stiles.

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6

Sherweth,

ΤΗ

'HAT your Petitioners have had Caufes depending in Westminster-Hallabove five hundred Years, and that we despair of ever seeing them brought to an Iffue: That your Petitioners have not been involved in thefe Law Suits out of any litigious Temper of their own, but by the Inftigation of contenticus Perfons; that the young Lawyers in our Inns of Court are continually fetting us together by the Ears, and think they do us no Hurt, becaufe they plead for us without a Fee; That many of the Gentlemen of the Robe have no other Clients in the World befides us two; That when they have nothing else to do, they • make us Plaintiffs and Defendants, tho' they were never retained by either of us; That they traduce, condemn, or acquit us, without any manner of Regard to 6 our Reputations and good Names in the World. Your • Petitioners therefore (being thereunto encouraged by the favourable Reception which you lately gave to our • Kinfman Blank) do humbly pray, that will put End to the Controverfies which have been so long depending between us your faid Petitioners, and that our Enmity may not endure from Generation to Generation; it being our Refolution to live hereafter as it becometh Men of peaceable Difpofitions.

you

an

And your Petitioners (as in Duty bound) ball ever
Pray, &c.

Monday

No. 578. Monday, August 9.

Eque feris humana in corpora tranfit, Inque feras Noftra

T

Ovid.

HERE has been very great Reafon, on feveral Accounts, for the learned World to endeavour at fettling what it was that might be faid to compofe perfonal Identity.

Mr. LOCK, after having premised that the Word Perfon properly fignifies a thinking intelligent Being that has Reafon and Reflection, and can confider itfelf as it felf; concludes, that it is Confcioufnefs alone, and not an Identity of Subftance, which makes this perfonal Identity of Sameness. Had I the fame Confcioufnefs (fays that Author) that I faw the Ark and Noah's Flood, as that I faw an Overflowing of the Thames laft Winter; or as that I now write; I could no more doubt that I who write this now, that faw the Thames overflow last Winter, and that viewed the Flood at the general Deluge, was the fame Self, place that Self in what Subftance you pleafe, than that I who write this am the fame My felf now whilft I write, (whether I confist of all the fame Subftance material or immaterial or no) that I was Yesterday; For as to this Point of being the fame Self, it matters not whether this present Self be made up of the fame or other Substances.

I was mightily pleafed with a Story in fome measure applicable to this Piece of Philofophy, which I read the other Day in the Perfian Tales, as they are lately very well tranflated by Mr. Philips; and with an Abridg'ment whereof I fhall here prefent my Readers.

I fhall only premife that thefe Stories are writ after the Eastern Manner, but fomewhat more correct.

FAD

FADLALLAH, a Prince of great Virtues, fuc⚫ceeded his Father Bin-Ortoc, in the Kingdom of Moufel. He reigned over his faithful Subjects for fome Time, and lived in great Happiness with his beauteous Confort Queen Zemroud; when there appeared at his Court a young Dervis of fo lively and entertaining a Turn of Wit as won upon the Affections of every one he converfed with. His Reputation grew fo faft every Day, that it at last raised a curiofity in the Prince himself to fee and talk with him. He did fo, and far from finding that common Fame had flatter'd him, he was foon convinced that every Thing he had heard of him fell fhort of the Truth.

FADLALLAH immediately loft all manner of Relifh for the Converfation of other Men; and as he was every Day more and more satisfied of the Abilities of this Stranger, offered him the firft Pofts in his King'dom. The young Dervis, after having thanked him with a very fingular Modefty, defired to be excufed, as having made a Vow never to accept of any Employment, and preferring a free and independent State of 'Life to all other Conditions.

THE King was infinitely charmed with fo great an Example of Moderation; and tho' he could not get him to engage in a Life of Bufinefs, made him however his chief Companion and first Favourite.

As they were one Day hunting together, and happened to be feparated from the rest of the Company, the Dervis, entertained Fadlallah with an Account of his Travels and Adventures. After having related to him feveral Curiofities which he had seen in the Indies, It was in this Place, fays he, that I contracted an Acquaintance with an old Brachman, who was skilled in the most hidden Powers of Nature: He died within my Arms, and with his parting Breath communicated to me one of the most valuable of his Secrets, on Condition I fhould never reveal it to any Man. The King immediately reflecting on his young Favourite's having refufed the late Offers of Greatnefs he had • made him, told him he prefumed it was the Power ⚫ of making Gold. No Sir, fays the Dervis, it is fome3 • what

• what more wonderful than that; it is the Power of re'animating a dead Body, by flinging my own Soul into it.

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WHILE he was yet speaking a Doe came bounding by them; and the King who had his Bow ready, 'fhot her through the Heart; telling the Dervis, that a fair Opportunity now offered for him to fhew his Art. The young Man immediately left his own Body breathless on the Ground, while at the fame Inftant that of the Doe was re-animated, fhe came to the King, fawned upon him, and after having play'd fe⚫ veral wanton Tricks, fell again upon the Grafs; at the fame Inftant the Body of the Dervis recovered its • Life. The King was infinitely pleafed at fo uncommon an Operation, and conjured his Friend by every Thing that was facred to communicate it to him. The Dervis at first made fome Scruple of violating his Promise to the dying Brachman; but told him at laft that he found he could conceal nothing from fo ⚫ excellent a Prince; after having obliged him there⚫fore by an Oath to Secrecy, he taught him to repeat two Cabalistick Words, in pronouncing of which the whole Secret confifted. The King impatient to try the Experiment, immediately repeated them as he had been taught, and in an Inftant found himself in the Body of the Doe. He had but little Time to contemplate himself in this new Being; for the treacherous Dervis fhooting his own Soul into the Royal Corpfe, and bending the Prince's own Bow against him, had laid him dead on the Spot, had not the King, who perceived his Intent, fled fwiftly to ⚫ the Woods.

THE Dervis, now triumphant in his Villany, re• turned to Moufel, and filled the Throne and Bed of the unhappy Fadlallah.

THE first Thing he took care of, in order to fecure himself in the Pofeffion of his new-acquired Kingdom, was to iffue out a Proclamation, ordering his Subjects to deftroy all the Deer in the Realm. The King had perifhed among the rest, had he not avoided his Purfuers by re-animating the Body of a Nightin

gale