THE VISIONS OF THE SOUL, Before it comes into the BODY. In Several DIALOGUES.  
Written by a MEMBER OF THE Athenian Society.  
There 's an innumerable Company of Pre-existent Souls; those that transgress, are sent down into Bodies, so as being purified by such Discipline, they may return again to their own Places. Pythagoras.  
LONDON, Printed for john Dunton, at the Raven in the Poultry, 1692.   

The PREFACE to the Reader.  
THE Occasion of this following Treatise, was the extravagant Doctrine of Pre-existence; which of lay hath been so warmly managed, that it wants but a l●ttle more to be made a 13th. Article in the Creed of some persons. I have pursued the humour, but yet as Comedians do, when they dress up an Ape, to make it appear more ridiculous: The Ingenious will discern it at first sight.  
To such as inquire the real Design of this Publication, I answer, the graver Conferences carry their meaning in their Frontispiece; and the more jocose are not without their most solid Morals; which perhaps may be more taking to some Readers, than if they had appeared in a common Dress.  
In the whole Discourse I have advanced many things wholly new and unblown upon, more especially in the 14 th'. Dialogue, where the Nature, Conceptions, and Actions of unbodyed Spirits are distinctly treated of. If I am asked for my Authorities, I answer, What appears reasonable, wants no other Recommendation than being so; and as to what appears over strange, Let the Reader consider, that Philosophy had never been improved had it not been for new Opinions; which afterwards were rectified by abler Pens, and so the first Notions were lost and nameless, under new Superstructures; but such a Fate is too agreeable for my judgement to repine at, or my Vanity to hope for.  
Perhaps I have more reason to beg pardon of my Brethren, the Members of the Athenian Society, than of the World, in that I have only ●●●tion'd the Subject to them, without taking the●● advice in the Composure; but my Impatient Bookseller, alleging the nearness of the Term, occasioned the hurrying it into the Press; some of our Members being just now gone out of Town, & some retired at present to their Estates in the Country.  
However, to make amends for any thing of Errors which have happened by haste, and want of review, (which are many) I think fit to promise the World Two more Pieces, which shall have the inspection of the whole Society.— As this only pretends to Uisions of the Soul, before it comes into the Body; so the other two will treat of the Sentiments of the Soul when in the Body, viz. in Infancy, Dreams, Trances, Dotage. etc. and the manner of its Existence in a separate state, till it is joined again to the Body.  
The First Treatise is Matter of Ridicule, and a Dream; (see the last Dialogue.) The Two following will bear more grave Discourses, being certain Truths; and perhaps the deepest Mysteries that Revelation or Natural Philosophy can treat of; and we hope they may be so managed as not to be a little welcome to the world, both as to removing many false Notions, and advancing something new.  
One thing more I have to offer, that wherever the Reader meets with such Terms as Time, Place, or Matter attributed 〈◊〉 Spirits, he take 'em not according to the common acceptation, but as something that bears such proportion to Spirits, as Time, Place and Matter do to Bodies.  
I have done, and doubt not but to meet with both Applauses and Hissing, and in both Parties, from such as think themselves sufficient judges: But I beg their Pardon, if I'm concerned at neither; being resolved to continue as secret and invisible as the B●i●gs of Pre existent Spirits.   

The Contents of the Several DIALOGUES.  

A Prefatory Dialogue between the Secretary of Fate and the Author's Soul.  
1. Between the Spirits of a Poet and a Drunkard.  
2. Between the Spirits of a Jacobite and a Williamite, about the Royal Congress.  
3. Between the Spirits of a Bastard and a Necromancer.  
4. Between the Militia of Rational Souls.  
5. Between the Two Orders, Rational and Vegetable.  
6. Between Mercury, a Pre-existent Spirit, a Dead Man, Charon, and Hobbs.  
7. Between Two Spirits upon the Ramble, and the Spirit of an Usurer that had strangled himself, and walked in a Churchyard, about his own Tomb.  
8. Between Two Spirits, the Order of Vegetable Souls, and Cupid.  
9 Between an ginger and a Mountebank.  
10. Between Two Spirits, about the Retrogradation of the Dragon's-Head and Tail.  
11. Between a Spirit and his Friend, lately Embodied in an Infant.  
12. Between the whole Order of Rational Souls, and Two Intelligencers from the other World.  
13. Between the Spirits of an Emperor and a Beggar.  
14. Between Two Spirits that made a Contract to keep a Correspondence, whoever came to be Embodied first.  
15. Betwixt Two Spirits, about the Music of the Spheres.  
16. Between The Spirits of a poor Doctor and his Friend, and a modern Philosopher, alias Sharper,  
17. Between Two Spirits on the Ramble, and a Flight of Witches, with their Guides  
18. Between Two Spirits that are to be Mayor and Mayoress of a certain Corporation: when they come into their Bodies.  
19 Between the Parcaes, (viz. Clotho, Lachesis, and Atropos,) and a Bookseller.  
20. Between a Transmigrated Soul, and an Unbodied Spirit.  
21. Between the whole Consistory of Spirits, examining a Heretic Soul, about some new Doctrines held forth in opposition to the common received Opinions of the Aetherial Fraternity.  
22. Between the whole Consistory of Spirits, being a Discovery of Vulgar Errors, received by that supposed Heretic Spirit yet a Prisoner.  
23. Between the Spirit of one that is to be a Member of the ATHFNIAN SOCIETY, a Correspondent, and of some that are to be Querists.  
24. Between the Spirits of a General, a Midwife, and an Executioner.  
25. Between the Spirits of Two Projectors.  
26. Between Two Travelling Spirits.  
27. Between the Spirit that is to be last Embodied, and the Spirit that is to be first reunited to its Body at the Day of Judgement.  
28. Betwixt Two Spirits, one that pretends to dedeny Pre-existence, and the other, to prove it.    

PROPOSALS For Printing a Book, Entitled, The young Students LIBRARY;  
Containing Extracts and Abridgements of all the most Valuable Books Printed either in England, or in the Foreign journals, from the Year 65, to this present Time.— To which will be added an Introduction to the Use of Books, in A New Essay upon all sorts of Learning: Written by the Athenian Society. The Proposals are as follows.  

I. THat this Volume will contain (as is supposed) about One Hundred and Twenty Sheets, Printed in a very fair Letter, and of the same size with our several Mercuries and Supplements, that it may bind up with them, or be sold single to those who desire it.  
II. The Subscribers to give 10 s. for each Book in Quires, whereof 5 s. to be paid at the Time of Subscription, and 5 s. at the Delivery of the Book; which, considering the excessive Dearness of Paper, and Charge of procuring the Foreign journals, is not dear.  
III. To encourage all Persons that shall concontribute to the procuring of Subscriptions, he or they that shall procure Subscriptions for 6 Books, shall not only have a 7 th'. gratis, (which will reduce it to about 8 s. 7 d. per Book,) but shall also have given 'em in the New Essay upon Learning, and an Emblem of the whole Athenian Society, Drawn in a Folio P●ate.  
IV. That for a farther Encouragement to all Subscribers (and to render our Undertaking the more complete,) there shall also be a large Alphabetical Table given in to all those that subscribe; which shall comprehend the Contents of this Volume, and of all the Athenian Mercuries and Supplements Printed in the Year 1691.  
V. All who intent to assist in the Advancement of this Useful Work, are desired to send in their Subscriptions and Money with all speed unto the Person hereunder named, where Receipts will be given them: And if they arise to any Competent Number, the Book shall be finished by next Lady-Day, (that so it may be added as an Appendix to the Athenian Mercury for the Year 91, and be bound up with it, we designing an Appendix at the End of every Year, that shall comprehend all Books wanting in our several Supplements,) or otherwise, the Design must be let fall by the Undertaker.  
VI If any Obstruction for want of sufficient Subscriptions, or otherwise, should happen to hinder the Printing of this Work, the Money so received, shall be paid back upon giving up the Receipts.  
The Undertaker is john Dunton, at the Raven in the Poultry, where Proposals are to be had, and of most Booksellers in London, and in the Country.    

A Prefatory Dialogue BETWEEN The Secretary of Fate and the Author's Soul.  Author's Soul. 
PRay look over the Minutes of the Parcaes, and amongst those Eternal Volumes, see, when I am fated to commence Temporality.  Secret. Fate, 
In june, Anno Dominl, 1664. according to Humane Computation, in that part of the Globe which you are designed for.  A. S. 
Well, and what Fortune, what Post hath the Lottery of Fate assigned me? What Entertainment am I to expect in a new, Material Mansion?  S. F. 
Your Curiosity seems to argue a Desire of fixing there; but you'll be of another Mind when I tell you, that Incorporation is a Penalty inflicted upon Souls for their Extravagances in this World: That the Body is a Prison, a Clog, the most officious Enemy you can meet with in betraying you to false Perceptions, and irregular Conclusions. In short, you'll find no agreeable Object, but at such times as you withdraw, and converse with Being's as simply immaterial as yourself. Now you are an unconfined Agent, a Stranger to those grosser Terms of Body, Place and Time: As yet you know nothing of Magnitude, Quantity, or Motion, and those innumerable Errors that result from them, by false Notions of their Nature. And when you come into the other World, you'll be as great a Stranger to the Nature of Angels, Spirits, and Immaterial Being's, as now you are of those material ones.  A. S. 
What surprising Relations are these! Shall I ever forget this inorganical way of Converse? These immediate Conceptions, without the Assistance of Sense? This simple Particularity of Perception, without Composition or Division? In short, this Nature that I carry about me? If so (dear Minister of Fate) lay down some Rules for me to take along with me, which, after I am embodied, may restore this Knowledge to me, and the unhappy Tribe of Humanity: 'Twill be a great Office of Charity, if possible to be accomplished.—  S. F. 
'Tis utterly impossible.  A. S. 
— Why so?  S. F. 
Because that a finite Power and an infinite Subject are incompatible.  A. S. 
How far then is it possible for Humanity to conceive?  S. F. 
When the Infinite Eternal Mind was pleased to create Matter, Time and Place, he extended the 〈◊〉 Empyreum to confine 'em in. Whatever is beyond this vast Convex, this spacious 〈◊〉, is what has been from Eternity: Should I say really what that is, Mankind could not understand it, because of an Incongruity (as urged before) betwixt the Power and Subject: I might as well enjoin 'em to smell with their Eyes, or tune an Instrument by their Taste. But however, to speak as near as I can to their Capacities,— Quantity and Place, beyond the Coelum Empyreum, are swallowed up, as Time is, in Eternity. Before this Coelum Empyreum and its material Enclosures were created, all was, as now is, beyond it; and when the last Fire (a part of that material Fabric) shall burn up all the rest of Matter, and by the Fiat of its awful Creator consume itself, there shall be no more Matter, Time, or Place, but all return to the first Eternal Constitution: Not so much as Bodies immortallized shall be Matter, according to the Definition now made of it; but a new inexpressible Something, which cannot be translated out of the Language of Spirits, into that of Men: Matter is not so perfect as Immateriality, Time as Eternity, Place as Incircumscriptability.— And whatever Humane Philosophers would be at, I can experimentally assure 'em, that they come as near an Adequate Conception of these things— when they think not at all of them, as they do in their most Elevated Contemplations. However, not to leave 'em altogether in the dark, a Collection of what you now do in this pre-existent State will (if delivered according to their Capacities) not make 'em less ignorant, especially when they are put in mind of the Method of their own Living before they came into their Bodies.  A. S. 
Perhaps they will not believe they ever acted such things, but look upon all as a Dream or Fiction.— What think you of Pythagoras his Collections before he went into his Body? A Copy of such an Original must be authentic upon your Subscription, and consequently useful to Mankind.  S. F. 
I must attend the Destinies, who are now Sitting in Council; but when I return, I'll bring you the Original out of the Registry, which you may translate as near as the Language of Spirits can be adapted to the Language of Men.   

DIALOGUE I.  
Between the Spirits of a Poet, and a Drunkard.  D. 
WEll met, Brother: Which way is your Flight designed?  P. 
I have just left the Bosom of Causes, to take a Prospect of the lower World, to see if there be any Preparation for my Reception there: And yet I'm much troubled at the Apprehension of being clogged with that uneasy, restless Lump of Humanity, and the attending Consequences make me very impatient.  D. 
Why so? What Conjectures have ye?  P. 
'Tis the want of reasonable Conjectures; for by all the Observations I can make of my Temper, I cannot resolve myself whether I'm a Male, or a Female Spirit. But why do I thus busy myself about Sexes? Certainly 'tis ominous, and argues my Imbodying near at hand: But if after Six Thousand Years Expectation I should be tied to a Poet, I shall reckon it a Forestalling my Damnation, and had even as good commence Devil, without any more ado, and take up with one Hell.— See you not that Wretch in yonder Grove, with his Hat over his Eyes, scratching his Head, tearing his Nails, and sending his poor Hackney-Soul about, like a Spaniel Dog, to fetch and carry Similitudes, Rhimes, Composition, etc. I remember, about Thirty Years since, when he was our Companion, he would sometimes break off in the midst of a Discourse, without bidding God b'w'ye, and away to the Brooks, Groves and Fountains; which made me suspect the nearness of a Poetic Preferment.— But, hark!— The Humour of our late Companion in his new Lodging!  
When formless and inanimate I lay,  
Sleeping in Chaos with my Fellow-Clay,  
Or e'er those te●ming Particles had met,  
To make this wretched Composition so complete,  
Without my Knowledge or Concurrence, thou  
Bidst me awake and live.—  
Well, and what then?— Why the Sense is out before the Rhyme: Now 'twould be charitable to assume an Airy Organ, and help him out, viz.— I know not how.  
Poor Wretch! He knows not what to do, unless he undoes all, and begins again, which he'd as lief be hanged as attempt, having taken so much pains about it already. Oh, for Sysiphus' restless Stone, or Belides' leaking Tun! They are minute and pettite Tasks to his. Not Ixion's Wheel has half the Torture of an overhasty Period.— But this is not all: When he has undergone the bitter Throws and Pains of Rhimeship, than the Darling Offspring of his Brain turns prostitute to the Abuses of all the World: The Praises of wise Men are so few, that their Voice is lost in so large a Theatre; and the numerous Applauses of Fools are too loud a Scandal.— And after all this, Is't not pity the poor Rogue should take such pains to be damned? For there's not one Poet in Five Thousand that escapes. It had gone hard with Ouldham himself, if it had not been for the Penance of his own Satyrs. Say, Fellow-Immateriality: What shall I do? I can never look down upon a Couple of Lovers, but I'm afraid their Toying will end in making an Heliconian Prison for me; especially if the Innamorato is for Balls, Masquerading, and Love-Sonnets.  D. 
Alas, Brother! I'm all Resentment and Pity. Little do Mortals think what Plague we are at, about the Lodging and Entertainment we expect at their Hands:— But for my part, your Apprehensions of Incorporation are all Charms, and Sweetness, to the dismal Reception I look for.  P. 
— Why, what's the matter with you?  D. 
— I can never loave our happier Regions, to visit the lower Elements, but, before I am aware, I find myself amongst Sea Fowl, hover over Rivers, Ponds and Marshes, admiring the Scaly Shoals, and envying the Pastime of those ever thirsty Revelers. Now, What can this mean, but that I'm ordained to actuate a Drunkard? And if so, Hell is a Toy to such a Confinement: This Moment would I plunge into the boundless Depths, to be secured from such a Companion. But why that rash Thought? Is not Hell also crowded with 'em? And are not its Horrors doubled by their Confession? Yet, if Hell could be Hell without 'em, 'twould be a happy Place, and nothing in't of the Beast, Antic or Nonsense, but a rational Complaint of Despair. Wonder not, dear Brother, at my deeper Reflections, till you've considered yonder Figure at the Old D— l Tavern. What think you of their Motions, Converse and Passions? Suppose all their Discourse were taken in Shorthand, and the weakest Person amongst 'em should have a View of the whole when he's in a Mood of Thinking: Would not he blush at such Follies, at such an unaccountable Expense of Time; especially if he thought an Hour so spent was of equal length with any other Hour in the Line of Life, and must be equally accounted for? Alas! Who would suppose that Souls, cloistered up in these sensualizd, unthinking Statues, were ever our Companions! Come, let's retire towards our peaceful Regions, and not be Witnesses of what a Midnight Scene produces. A Poet's Structure! afraid of a Poetic Mansion! 'Tis a Paradise, to what I dread. Nor is there any Spirit in all our Order, that can be afraid of such a Body, but I must meet with it in this Epitome of all Plagues. A Drunkard can be Poet, Beggar, Cully, Buffoon, or any thing: So that I am like to meet with the most abject Slavery in Nature.   

DIALOGUE II.  
Between the Spirits of a Jacobite and a Williamite, about the Royal Congress.  W. 
UP, ye lazy Dog: Are not ye ashamed to kennel and snore in that Star, till it smells again of Drowsiness?  I. 
who's there?— Now, are not you a spiteful Spirit, to disturb my Rest, when you have taken yours?— You are just crept out of some fixed, idle Luminary, where you have had no jolting, nor disturbance, and come to perplex me, who am already Topsy-turvy with the swift Motion of my Erratic Mansion, which moves at least a Hundred Miles a Minute.— If I am out in my Computation, 'tis because I'm scarce awake.  W. 
Arise, prating, and let's away to the Assignation.  I. 
— What Assignation? What d'ye dream of? Have ye called in at Aquarius, for a Dram o'the Pitcher?  W. 
No, no: A Royal Congress of all the Princes in Christendom are met together, and Thousand Thousands of naked Souls are crowding for Commissions, to inspire the succeeding Generation of that illustrious Convention.  I. 
Well, I don't care, I wait for new Revolutions; but if I did not, I would not budge one Foot, for I'm sure we can't all speed; and 'twould vex me to the Heart to put in for a Prince's Offspring, and afterwards ride the Wooden Horse in St. James ' Park, or turn Cobbler.  W. 
Well, I'm loath to spoil the old Tenet in the other World, that All Souls are equal, and are only diversified by the Dispositions of their Organs; or I'd proclaim thee a mean; little Soul, scarce fit to animate Plants and Minerals.  I. 
— Pray, be gone about your Business: I tell you once more, I'm for a broad Sword and a Centry-Box at the End of the Canoll: And for your Proclamations, 'tis not good I catch ye transgressing upon the Grass, left I take the Forfeiture, and give you a Strappado or two into the bargain.  W. 
I believe you are a jacobite-soul, or you would not absent from the Congress.  I. 
— Perhaps I am,— and it may be I shall have a greater Commission than I tell you of: But this I can assure you, there are many jacobites that will come in for Commissions, with private Lewid'ores in their Fobs, in spite of all the Care and Diligence that can be used to the contrary.  W. 
— 'Tis possible: But what's the Issue of it?— You see jove has taken a particular Care of the British Monarch's Person and Concerns,— and every Sessions the Triangular Supporter preaches a late R●epentance to his Enemies.  I. 
— I don't value that; that can only discompose the Body which I shall be tied to, and so I shall be the sooner at liberty again for more Rambles.  W. 
— You're mistaken; you'll find other Obligations upon yourself when you come to be incorporate, than you now dream of. But turn and take th'other Nap,— whilst I attend, and know how to be happy, either in my own, or in my Companion's good Success.   

DIALOGUE III.  
Between the Spirits of a Bastard and a Necromancer.  B 
— PReach Patience to me!— O Hell and Fury! That I who was the great Comrade of Alexander, julius Caesar, Aristotle and Cato Uticans Souls, should now at length be cloistered up in an Oyster-Wench's Bastard! I saw the Saracen's-Head Porter and her at work, but I little thought the Teeming Embryo was designed for me. Alas, from how great Hopes am I fallen! The present Lewis and his Ally attended me like Lackeys, and if I had not been upon the Ramble at their first want of Motion, I had certainly had the Refusal of those Commissions; but now I must away, and into such a Body too, as humble Irus (were he now alive) would scorn the base Alliance, Now must I drudge about with Dandry-Comb●, and Small Coal-Betty, or else move a Thoughtless Lump, from Door to Door, and often meet, instead of Bread, the threatening Charity of Bridewell. Add yet to this, Kibed Heels, a Snotty Nose, and part of Egypt's Plagues.— Ah Constantine, when only thou and I were Candidates for the Roman Sceptre, I little thought of such an homely Cottage.— O Rage, Wretchedness!  N. 
— who's this that talks of Rage and Wretchedness, without comparing his with my hard Fate? A base born Embryo to enliven? 'Tis a happy Residence to mine! If Fate would but give me my Choice, I'd hug the Brat; nay, I'd give my Hopes of future Happiness to boot, and think't an easy, cheap Damnation to what I must of force endure.  B. 
— How!— Now my Impatience cools, and grows milder, to think that the Destinies have not left me the only Stigmatised Infortune. But how, in what great Instance am I thus outdone?  N. 
A young Ignatian just formed, when several of us pricking in the Lottery of Fate, he fell to my Share; whereupon I read in those Brazen Volumes and found that he will be a Necromancer: Alas, how shall I be treated from those Officious Imps of Darkness, (the Assisters of that Black Art,) which I have so often chased out of these purer Regions, when they have been upon their hasty Errands?— Or what can I expect from our own Society, when I myself shall hereafter come upon the same Account, mounted upon a drudging Fallen Angel, being tied to too great a Lump of Clay to soar aloft, as now I'm used to do, now I'm a pure Agent, unconstrained and free, obliged to truckle to no Humane Laws? But, alas! my Freedom is about to sink, Incorporation beckons me, (a Law severer than all the Ten to Mankind.— The first Choice I now expect, is to commence junior Devil, and wear th' Impostor's Badge. I sell myself, to buy Preferment in that holy Tribe. But, O the foppish Rules that I must use, to cheat myself and others! Such Words repeat, and such Characters draw; such antic Postures use, and such Familiars entertain: And then the Consequence of all this is only to please this Sense, or gratify that Malice; when all's a most egregious Cheat and Fiction, only the Insurance of Damnation is real. I remember Dr. Faustus' Spirit said as much to me, and boasted how he'd fool the Devil: But when he came to be enclosed in Flesh, he straight unactive grew, dull, and incapable to think, project, or judge of what he undertook; and when he dared to play about the fiery Ditch, he fell, and sunk for ever.  B. 
— Alas, hard Fate!— Well, since we must away, where is this jesuit to live?— Say,— that when our Bodies are asleep, we may meet, converse, and pity one another's Hardships.  N. 
— Within Ten Miles of London.— He that can play at Legerdemain with Hell, can easily Bilk an Act of Parliament.  B. 
— True:— I shall find you out.   

DIALOGUE IU.  
Between the Militia of Rational Souls.  Capt. 
WEll, Gentlemen, the Quarrel increases betwixt the Souls of our Order, and those of the Vegetable; I can't yet tell what will be the Event, but I think it Wisdom to discipline ourselves in the Art of War, which we have almost lost, 'tis so long since the Skirmish of Michael and his Angels, with the Devil and his. I was but Lieutenant then, and brought up the File next the lowest Rank of Angels, but we quickly did the Business when we came to engage; and I doubt not but we shall have the same Success against these turbulent Vegetable Spirits, if they do proceed to muster.  Lieut. 
1. But, pray Captain, what Remarks did the Astrologers and Virtuosos of the little, heavy Globe, called Earth, make on the Action?  Capt. 
Why, truly, (as one of our Order, that held Correspondence with 'em, told us,) they retired to their Closets, and were ready to crack their Brains; all the Pious went to Prayers, and not one amongst that Race, but were almost distracted. The Roaring of our Vehicles they called Thunder; our Balls they called Thunderbolts; and our Priming with the Antiperistasis of Snow and Spiritous Sulphur, that they called Lightning; and all this to such a Miracle, that 'twas put in their Chronicles. But another remarkable Passage was this; the Elements cleared up, and Men ventured out of their Houses again, to view the Heavens, when we had just routed the Rebels, and were in pursuit of 'em, leaping from Star to Star; which made the gazing World below us think 'twas a Shooting of Stars.— But to the Business in hand: Is our whole Number here?  Lieut. 
— Yes, Captain.  Capt. 
Very well.— Silence there.—  
To the Right, To the Right, To the Right: As ye were.  
To the Left, To the Left about: As ye were.  Lieut. 
— You make too great a Noise, the World below us will be alarmed again, and expect a Charge upon their Heads.  Capt. 
— who's there, that Catechises me? Set him upon Charles' Wain, with two Dozen of Thunderbolts at his Heels, and to abide the first Charge of our Infantry for his Sauciness. So, very well:— Mind that third File.— Keep in Order, or you shall ride with your Companion.— Silence there behind.— 

Exhale new Vapours.  
Condense new Clouds.  
Shape your Clouds into Vehicles.  
Prepare your Balls and Hailstones.  
Prime with Snow.  
Ram down.  
Advance.  
Present.  
Charge.    Lieut. 
— Oh, dear Captain, How am I pelted! See how the Region is scoured behind me for Three Hundred and Fifty Leagues together: Then what must I suffer, that am so near your roaring Muzzles.  Capt. 
— Enough: Let him down.— But who is yonder, that makes such haste towards us?  Messenger. 
— O Captain, Sad News! Your last Charge has overthrown three of the Planets Houses, and ruin'd all their Aspects, Conjunctions, Oppositions, etc. that they will never be habitable again: So that all the Astrologick Souls are up in Conspiracy, and swear a Revenge for spoiling their Trade.  Capt. 
How? How's that?  Messenger. 
Aries, Taurus and Gemini are no more, and the Astrologers are up in Arms.  Capt. 
Astrologers dare neither plot nor fight, unless they consult the Stars.— Now, if the Planets Houses are broke down, the Art is buried in the same Ruins: So that there's no danger of any thing but Noise, or Revolt to the Vegetable Souls.— Well, Lieutenant, for the future you'll learn to be more modest:— See that you take a List of Names, and call a Rendesvouz for Exercise once a Week, and remember to fill up the Places of such Souls as are sent into the other World: You need not trouble yourself about your Charge, it will last but till 1697. 'Tis said the Milennium begins then.   

DIALOGUE V.  
Between the two Orders, Rational and Vegetable.  Prolocutor, 
W●ll, Gentlemen, since we are all equal by Creation, and Inequality is only contingent by Actuation in different Organs, my Opinion is this, (though I'm willing to submit to the Judgement of this honourable Consistory) that a ●o●●tention about Superiority may, by a solemn Decree, be enacted Criminal, and a severe Penalty enjoined; or else, that the two Orders of Spirits may choose their several Champions for a friendly Dispute, and cast Lots who shall begin, that we may never hereafter be troubled to compose our continued Aetherial Wranglings.  Both Orders, 
— A Friendly Dispute, decisive by Plurality of Voices, is the best Method.  Prolocutor, 
— Choose your Champions then. Is't done?  Both Orders, 
Yes; and the first Lot ●alls upon the Vegetable.  

The Plea of Uegitable Souls for a Superiority ●ver the Rational Souls.  Vegit. 
— I cannot but think myself extremely happy, (Most Reverend Judges) in that I have this Opportunity, on the Behalf of our O●der, (whether designed for Trees, Herbs or Minerals,) to make my Public Defence against that imperious Order of Rational Souls, who daily subject us to their Abuses, and anticipate the Tyranny which their Brethren, now incorporate in the Lower World, usurp over us.  
But, not to tyre your Patience with remote Circumstances, I shall only apply myself to what's materially pertinent to the Business in hand, not doubting to prove, but that we ought to be equal, at least, if not preferred upon all Accounts that have ever yet been judged sufficient for a Distinction of Priority in other Cases.  
And First, An Appletree is an Existent in Nature, as well as Man, and much more observant of her Laws; is never drunk nor gluttonous, invades not the Right of its Neighbours, never lies, circumvents or quarrels, never cries nor laughs at Appearances of things, never▪ fools nor cheats itself, not is proud of its own Shame: But all this, and greater Irregularities than these, are committed by Mankind, against the juster Laws of Nature. Now the Consequence is plain, that Mankind being greater Aggressors upon the Privileges of Nature than we, we must be dearer to Nature than they; and we doubt not but the Preference was designed us, only they got the start by some Trick and Circumvention, and would now endeavour to perpetuate their Usurpations by Custom. Thus far to our purer Innocence, and exacter Observance of Nature's Laws; which is our first Argument for Preference.  
Next, To the Excellency of our Existence after Incorporation; in which, Nature shows a particular Care of us, by assuming us into her immediate Midwifery; but, as if she were afraid to be accessary to the monstrous Procreations of Man, leaves him to the Caprices and Whimsies of his own Lust, to beget, or not beget, as he pleases. And when he is begot, what Image bears he? Perhaps he'll tell ye, the Image of the God of Nature. But we beg his Pardon there, and shall take the Freedom to tell him, that his Vices have effaced that; and now, instead of his polluted Body, Legs, Arms, Feet, etc. we can show an innocent Trunk, Root, Branches, Fruit, etc. And as to his Immortality, we are not yet behind him; for we can't be annihilated, but are always somewhere, or in some thing. Nay, the last Fire itself shall beget in us (as well as in him) a more glorious Change, and not destroy us. But as to our Converse, or Knowledge in the Laws and Constitutions of Nature, he is far our linferior; and he might quickly discern it, if he would but use the same Measures for Trial, as he does with his Neighbours; who, if they can do well, he concludes they can say well. But when do we act irregularly? Are we not always just, temperate? etc. In Minerals, the Whispering and Embracements of the Load stone and Iron might convince proud Humanity of our Knowledge; As also the Love between the Stone Pantarbe and Gold is as noble as that single Instance of a Pylades and Orestes. Amongst Trees and Plants, the Friendship between the Olive and Myrtle, the Nature of Sensible Plants, (as your Pride condescends to call 'em,) which shrink at the sacrilegious Hands of Humanity; the Plant which ye call the Indian Lamb; the dropped Leaves of some Trees, which run away from you, and many more such Instances, might satisfy you of some hidden Worth and Knowledge in us, which ye pass over because ye can't conceive the Profundity of it, by reason of the weakness of your Organs, and Defectibility of Judgement: And yet, notwithstanding all this, you shall have an ingrateful, proud Man come into an Orchard, on the Back●side of a House he calls his own, (Fool that he is, to be so mistaken in Loans and Usurpations,) and with a threatening Axe how down some poor, helpless Tree, not considering all the time, that could he understand the Victim Vegitable's Dialect, he might hear himself thus 〈…〉:— Ingrateful Man! Where is my 〈◊〉? What have I done, thus to be wounded, and 〈…〉 my happy Society, into the revenging F●re? Is it because I yielded my Fruit Without a Grudge, and paid the Annual Rent of Nature without Acquittance? Because I kept the stormy Winds from ●ff thy House, 〈…〉 my hospitable Branches for hy 〈…〉 him, if he had sense and reason enough to do it. Thus much for the Excellency of our Nature when incorporate: and which we might urge as an Argument of Preference.  
But after all, we'll relinquish the Advantages of what has been said, on purpose (if possible) to gratify that Monster Humanity. and only insist upon the ensuing Topick, which has nothing in't of Accusation, Censure, or Pride, viz. 'Tis generally believed all Souls are equal in Entity; whereupon it follows, that we are not yet drained into the Posteriors of Immateriality, having not yet suffered any Change, or been included in Matter or Form; so that whatever Indignities have hitherto been cast upon us, it has been out of a Supposition of Degeneration by mingling with improper Organs in the lower world: Now either we are compelled to it or not; the last ye are sensible is not our choice, and the first there's no resisting; and if so, we ought not to be despised for what we can't avoid; for we being commanded into Organs that are only fit for Vegitati●n, do Vegitate, and the Rational finding a convenient Organ for Ratiocination, does ratiocinate. Whereas if the Rational had been cloistered in the Organs of Vegetables, or the Vegetable had been sent into the Organs of Rationals, we had changed our Offices, and commenced alternate Being's: Where is the difference then, or what reason is there for Rationals to pretend Priority overus? None at all; No more than when Three Novice-Dicers should cast 8, 1●, or 12, and he that throws most, should brag of his Nobility, for being a greater Debtor to Fortune than the others: Thus our degrees of Existence in the other world, will be owing not to our proper Choice, but a Despotic Impulse and Disposal of ●ate; so that we shall actuate there like exiled Kings, who are not less of the Blood-Royal, for Suffering or Confinement.   

The Defence of the Rational Order of Souls, against the Plea of the Uegitable Order.  Ratiional. 
— Our Vegetable Orator (most judicious Auditory) has been pleased to offer to relinquish the Advantages of the former part of his Harangue, when he found he had spent his Stock of Calumny, to raise a prejudice in your Unbyass'd Judgements against the Dignity of our Order, and afterwards, under pretence of Accommodation, being sensible of the weakness of his Cause, would insinuate one Topick void of Accusation, Censure, or Pride, (as he calls it,) we might add, or Reason.) But as we are not against any Overtures of Peace that shall be decreed by this Worthy Assembly; so we shall endeavour to show a deep resentment of any dishonouble Terms to attain it.  
Wherefore we restore our Antagonist all the Advantages he can make of the former part of his Discourse; which we shall discuss particularly.  
And first, We never treated these Vegetables as Non-Existences in Nature, nor have they proved one Act of Tyranny which we have exercised over 'em. And why they should boast of their not being, drunk, injurious, lying, quarrelling, circumventing, etc. is very ridiculous; since their Organs incapacitate them from such Functions. Suppose it were criminal to fly, should a Rock boast of its Virtue in refraining? Not, unless Nature had given it Wings, Power and Pleasure to fly: And they'll come off no better in accusing us of ●quarrelling, injustice, etc. It shows the great variety of Functions we are capable of. Besides, in doing so, we pursue an appearance of some Good, (for we can't will Evil as Evil,) and in doing so, we act naturally; so that at the same time as they accuse us of quarrellings etc. they accuse themselves of blooming, fructifying▪ etc. which is natural to them. As for that observation▪ of Natures assuming them into her immediate Midwifery and Care, and leaving us to our own pleasure in Generation, 'tis an argument of our prehemenence; for Nature deals with them as Parents do with Children and Fools; they must be fed, kept out of Fire and Water, and Provision made for 'em; but we being above such little usages, are able to procreate without compulsion, and are accordingly left to ourselves; Nature always employing most of her Care where her works are most weak and imperfect.  
As to the defacing our first image by our Vices, we have already answered it above; in showing how ridiculous and foreign it is to urge a Case out of their own Classis, altho' if they were capable to understand it, we could tell 'em of a remedy for our restoration. But what a wretched Argument they bring to make their Duration equal to our Immortality, upon supposition of Non-annihilation; for tho' we grant 'em to be always somewhere or in something after a specific dissolution by Motion, (or Fire, which is the same,) yet they come to be nameless,— indistinguishable, and as hard to find out, as when they lay in the bo●om of their Cha●s or first Matter, and 'tis as good to be nothing, as an undefinable Separation of unknown Particles. But we put off our Nature to receive it again more 〈◊〉 than before.  
The next Argument insisted on, was, Their excellency of Converse, and Knowledge of the Laws and Constitutions of Nature; which is all Aenigma and Riddle to our Order, nor can we suppose it, for all those Instances that they have brought to confirm it, without violence to Reason; but however, since we will not be behind ●em in Civility, for quietness sake, we'll 〈◊〉 an unknown Dialect and Converse, and see what will come out then.  
The 〈◊〉 of your Language, be it what it will, is not to be excused from Li●s, Slanders, Heresy, &c, For no doubt, but when a Learned Tree amongst ye, holds forth the Doctrine of Fructification, etc. you shall have its next Neighbour with secret subterranean Fibres, feloniously sucking away the Sap and Life of its Teacher; and the more audacious Wood-bine, not ashamed of a public Rape upon every Plant it meets with, and since ye yourselves agree that Words and Actions are Sympathetick, what Equivocations, private Cabals and Plots ye have together, when ye see an hopeful Embryo-Plant, without giving any affront, environed round, and strangled to death with an Ambush of malicious Thorns and Briars: And since ye give us two or three Instances of the Sympathy (which ye call Converse) between Plants and Minerals, ye must give us the Liberty to observe, that 'tis but them Instances, and a few more that are to be found in your whose Oeconomy, but that generally you are so suspicious, and afraid of one another's Tricks, and Circumventions, that ye keep no Correspondence at all. As to a man's Tyranny over his Appletree, in cutting it down when he pleases, the Imputation is lost, if we prove he has a right to do it, as we shall by and by, when we come to consider your last unanswerable T●pick: In the mean time, the fine Harangue you make the falling Tree to speak, is very different from the custom of other Trees, who in such a moment are rather studying revenge, than any thing else; as may be seen by their often falling upon, and killing the person that cuts 'em, down; nay, we could give you some Instances where your Revenge has been so unjust, as to destroy the Horses and Oxen, that only stood by to draw ye away, and that only in obedience to their Master's Command.  
And now to the last Topick; the only Pillar upon which ye boldly offered to lay the Structure of your whole Plea, in which you urge, That there's no reason of pre-eminence where the choice is not our own, but ●he despotic Impulse or Disposal of Fate; bringing the Instances of Dicers, and the Nobility of an Exiled King; to which, we answer, That Dignity is Dignity, whether acquired or conferred, to use your own Instance: Suppose A. B. C. equally skilful, throw, who should throw most for a certain Preferment, and C. accidentally, or by a secret Order of Fate, casts 12, when A. cast only 8, and B. 10, is not C. upon his Investiture into his Office, more honourable than A. and B. especially when they come bareheaded to petition such or such a Favour from him, they are mad if they don't believe it, and he deserves himself to be turned out of his Office that undervalues it, so far as not to execute it, and keep up its Privileges. To the last Instance, we answer, That Fate is not accountable to Persons, whether it prefers or debases 'em; but it expects in both conditions they make the best of its disposals: and thus we conclude, not at all doubting the favourable Suffrage of this Convention, to confirm our Privileges and Dignity above the Order of Vegetables.   Major Part. 
— The Rational, the Rational Order.  Prolocutor. 
— Well Gentlemen, withdraw, there shall be an effectual Care for a Regulation of what's amiss; and as near as may be, to a general Satisfaction, and so depart in Peace.   

DIALOGUE VI.  
Between Mercury, a Pre-existent Spirit, a Dead Man, Charon, and Hobbs.  Mercury 
— STand back there, I'm in great haste; a poor Wretch that lies struggling under the pangs of Separation, cannot be loosed till I hand him to Charon's Ferry.  Spirit 
— Pray good Mercury, hold a little, I have one request to beg of you.  Merc. 
— Speak— Speak quickly, What is't?  Sp. 
— Only be my Guardian, and let me wait upon you into the other World, thence to the Infernal Shades, and so back again.  Merc. 
— Indeed your Order has been very civil to me always when I passed these Regions, and tho' it will be some trouble to me, yet your Request is granted,— take hold of that end of my Wand, and keep close behind me.  Sp. 
— What strange—  Merc. 
— Hush, not a word, we are now at our first Journeys end.— Ay, that's the Object; see how Death has fixed his Eyes, and sits triumphant upon his Lips: So, now I have eased him, his Corpse must be left to be lamented and buried by his Friends, but he marches with us.  Sp. 
— Where is he?  Dedman's 
— Here, What do ye design to do with me?  Merc. 
— That last Office I do to all Mankind— Conduct you to your last Abode— Holo Charon, make haste, and take this Fare.  Charon 
— What is he? He smells of Parchment, Subpoena's Injunctions, etc. Was he not towards the Law?  Dead. 
— Yes, I have be●n a Barrister.  Ch. 
— Mercury, I dare not take him with all that Luggage about him; he'll sink the Wherry. Take away that Forgery— Very well, and that double Mortgage— So, and that Parcel of Replications, Writs of Error, etc.— Ay, now we are light enough, we'll be over presently.  Dead. 
Where am I now?  Merc. 
— Amongst your Predecessors; you are welcome to Shoar, and so farewell; Come along Comrade.  Sparke▪ 
— Tarry a little, he says something. I would fain know what Thoughts I shall entertain, when I have left my Body.  Dead. 
— Amongst my Predecessors? Then I'll go seek out for Mr. H●bbs, to know the reason why I am thus cruelly treated, when I followed his Rules, so exactly.— Yonder he goes— Hobbs, Mr. Hobbs.  Hobbs 
— How I am continually plagued, with my new Proselytes, that lay all their Damnation's at my door? But I believe some on 'em put upon me; I'll question this new Comers Principles— Do you know me?  Dead. 
— Yes to my Sorrow:— What think you now of your Doctrine of Fatality?  Hobbs 
— What Doctrine do ye mean?  Dead. 
— That every individual person is fated to all the Actions of his Life; yea, even the most minute and inconsiderable; as for instance, to get up at such a time of the Day, to feed himself precisely at such an Hour, and with such a certain number of bits, to go over the Streets at so many Steps, to Whore and be Drunk at such a time, to go to Prayers and be Melancholy at such a time, to dispute against his Principles at such a time: In short, that all that we think, say, and act, are necessarily predestined, and run as links in an inevitable Chain of Causes.— What think ye of the Reasons of this Hypothesis now? That we are made up of two parts, a Soul, and a Body; and that when these are conjoined we must live necessarily as long as we do live; and that so long as we do live, we must necessarily have a mind which has its perception by the Senses: That as this perception is necessary, so is the choice that we make by it: As for instance, Something that is good, or at least appears so to the perception, offers itself, and as such, 'tis impossible to refuse it, as a proper Object to the mind, as 'tis also impossible after perception, to choose an Evil as such; and thus we are 〈◊〉 to Whoring for those Arguments which our reason offers, that we should refrain, carry not along with 'em so great a good to our perception, as those other reasons that induce us to it, and as a great power necessarily commands a l●sser, so the will necessarily chooses it as most agreeable to it, and thus I refrain Whoring, when there appears a greater good to let it alone: Thus I am fated to make so many steps in walking the length of my Chamber, because to step so far at a step, appears more agreeable to my Constitution, Fancy, etc. than to step further or shorter, and therefore as most agreeable, it most inclines my will, which therefore is necessitated to act accordingly: As to the Body it depends necessarily upon the Mind, for my Hand cannot move of itself, unless I move it, and if I move it, it is necessitated to move; and can't help it; and thus, Mr. Hobbs, I'm necessitated to be Damned, because the way to it, had more appearance of good in it, than walking in another way, and therefore I could not but choose it. Oh! what an Unhappy Wretch was I, that was not fated to examine this Doctrine by the same Measures that I did all others; truth is only known by falsehood, and falsehood by truth; black by white, and white by black, and every thing by its contrary: What a Mysterious Riddle than is this, Which is both, and all one? viz. Do, or do not do, 'tis fated. If I would have done a thing, and examined it's contrary, viz. could not do it, or vice versa, then there had been fate in the case, otherwise Hobbism, or a new Riddle, whose Solution had been Ruin in one World, and Damnation in another. What's the meaning of Laws, Rewards, and Punishments? For if I act what I must act, Why am I bid to do so, or forbid to do so? If I rob my Neighbour, Why should a little superinduced Law take hold of me, and not that great Law of Fatality preserve me since I act agreeable to it? What injustice can I do when eternal Fate stands by me, and warrants all my Actions? Fool that I am, was I to live my Life over again, I would only believe, and warrantably too, that Fate, though it be like a Law, yet it speaks not in this manner; This Man shall do thus, and this thing shall befall that Man, but rather thus, whatsoever a Soul chooseth, such and such things shall certainly follow; for 'tis not the Action, but the Consequence of the Action, that is Fate.— If Fate had designed, that if Paris Ravished Helena, the Grecians should contend with Troy about it: But this was once in Paris' power to do, or not to do without Compulsion or Necessity. Thus Apollo foretold Caius, That if he begat a Son, that Son would kill him, which was conditional and not necessary, thus Plato; If it were not thus, the ill have a protection for their Vices, and the Good deserve no praise. To which I might add, That there are certain Moral Instincts, co essential with Humanity, eternally ●ixt and unchangeable, such as Love, justice, Religion, etc. not fitted to a private temper, or a particular Nation, to these instincts we are all really chained by a Fatality and necessity of Act, more or less, notwithstanding all our struggles to be rid of 'em, but to speak of Fatalities in opposition to these, is to charge the great eternal mind with Contradictions, Divisions, and at last with Nonentity; which now I can too late think of: Oh that I could, that I could.—  Sp. 
— Pray Mercury let's begun from this unhappy Subject of Fatality, and let's see something new among the Dead, I want to take a view of Alexander, Caesar, Hercules, Epimenondas, and the other brave Heroes, so much talked of, or the great Philosopher M●nippus, I know not which to ask for first.  Merc. 
— Men●ppus! He was the greatest Man the World ever bred, his life really Philosophised, whilst others Talked,— That is he there, you cannot vex him.  Sp. 
Lend me your Wand, I'll hit him one dab on's Pate for Trial.—  Merc. 
No, no, you must be civil to Strangers.— See that behind him is— Hercules.  Sp. 
— But where's his Club? Methinks he looks so like a silly I'uny, that I durst venture a foil with him: But where's fair Helen, and the ugly Thersites?  Merc. 
— They stand together there.  Sp. 
— Bless me! How the Dead equals all things? I have only one other Question to ask, and I have done; Pray Mercury, of what Quality or Calling are those generally, who are dignified for their Virtue.  Merc. 
— Ignorant poor Labourers of both Sexes, that have been the greatest Enemies to their Senses, those Nurses of all Vice.  Sp. 
— This will be strange News for our Aetherial Inhabitants, who are all gaping to be Lords, Dukes, Princes, and Emperors.  Merc. 
— Come, let's be gone, my business is never sleeping.  Sp. 
— I can't press upon you any longer,— pray lead the way— Strange! Where are we got already?— What fine Countries are yonder?—  Merc. 
— Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Bithynia, etc.— Well, Do you know where you are now?  Sp. 
— In my own Region. Thanks, kind Mercury for this Kindness.  Mer. 
I am glad I have gratified you. Fare well.  Sp. 
— Farewell.   

DIALOGUE VII.  
Between Two Spirits upon the Ramble, and the Spirit of an Usurer that had strangled himself, and walked in a Churchyard, about his own Tomb.  1. Sp. 
— MEthinks (tho' I know no reason for't) I tremble to come so near these Regions of Death and Horror. What should we do here, amongst the Graves and Tombs of the Deceased? Is it pleasant to view the Triumphs of that pale-faced Tyrant?  2. Sp. 
— No: But if we can find some of our old Acquaintance, hovering o'er the Prisons of their Bodies, it may be a Satisfaction to ask some Questions. There is one that often visits his Tomb, (and Body, which he left too hastily:) He can't be long absent, the Clock has struck Twelve.— Hush, here he comes:— Stand still, and put on Invisibility.  Suicide, 
— Hail, dear Tomb! the dear Repository of my other Part.— But why should I love and pardon the adulterous Lump, which left me, for the Embraces of Death; and being deaf to all Entreaties and Reasons, violently thrust me out of Possession. How am I then bewitched, to visit the old, ingrateful Mansion, and assume an Aerial Resemblance of what I once was!— Assist me, Fancy: What Hair had he?— Right. And what a Face?— That's exact.— Now, for a Body, Arms, Thighs, Legs and Feet? They are more easy.— So.— Now, for clothes?— That's truly imitated. Now methinks I am A.— B.— the very same throughout: How I hug myself in this Figure!— There's nothing wanting now, but to tell Moneys upon this Grave-stone, till the envious Cock proclaims a too too eager Flux of Time.— Very well: Now I am seated.— Perhaps some Fools may be frighted at me.  2. Spirit. 
— Why ha'now, old Comrade? What's the meaning of this wealthy Posture? Come, will ye give a Bag or two for old Acquaintance sake?  Suicide. 
— Why upon this Errand at such an unseasonable Hour? You are come on purpose to give me a Visit: Are ned ye?  2. Spirit. 
— Yes, we are so: And we hope your Entertainment will be suitable to Visitants; especially, since we expect no more from you, than the Solution of a few Questions.  Suicide. 
— Pray, What are they? I'll oblige ye, if I can.  2. Spirit. 
— What Apprehensions have Mankind, when they see this Airy Vehicle that you assume every Night? Whether is the Spectacle pleasant through the Novelty of it, or dismal for want of understanding it.  Suicide. 
Mankind has very different Apprehensions of me: Some, when they see me, run stark mad immediately. Others come on purpose swearing, all's Delusion, a Cheat, or an Imposition on the Senses; and when they see us, won't believe their Eyes; only sometimes we have particular Commissions to undeceive 'em, with a witness. A Third Sort, a little wiser than both, keep s● much Presence of Mind as to see us, and troop off quietly, with their Hair bolting up an end. But here and there are a very few that have more adequate Conceptions of us, and neither seek nor flee our Company, knowing that we Souls and Spirits have no more Power over 'em in Bodies, than we have out; and that whatever Power we have at any time is only lent us, and also limited, and not to be extended when and where we please. So that we are really no more in our own Nature and Power, than what their Fancy makes us. Thus Reason secures some against us; and Religion a very few, who can master all the little Suggestions of Fear by their Faith.  2. Spirit. 
— Very well.— Next, Why do ye thus hanker after a rotten, putrifying Body; choosing that Shape that it once bore, before all others?  Suicide. 
— Because I was turned out of doors by violence, without so much as taking my Leave of it, or its bidding me Farewell.— And could I quietly brook such an abrupt, hasty Separation from a Comrade, I had been so intimate with for near Seventy Years? What tho' it was deaf to my Counsels and Reasonings, yet it was my other Part; and as before Incorporation I found myself imperfect, but half an Entity, now I am so again, and shall be, till I am reunited to my old Companion. But this is all R●ddle to you, who have ●ot yet known how Souls act in Bodies, how the Intellect conceives Ideas of Material Objects by the Senses. Did you but know how the Visive Power conveys the Similitude of the Thing seen to the Soul, you'd wish to be incorporate, tho' it were in one single Eye: How much more when you'd have all the Senses to command? When you'd have a whole Microcosin to rule in, like a Deity? Now, after all this, Which of you would not love the Remembrance of such an Union, and imitate it, till the time of Reunion renders ye a perfect, complete Being again?  Quest. 
But what was the Reason of your sudden Separation from the Body?  Answ. 
The Body being part of myself, I was willing to gratify it as far as I could, even to a Weakness; which I continued so long, till it grew habitual, and I lost my Command, fixing my Happiness upon wrong Objects, viz. the little Concerns of the World; which bearing no Analogy or Proportion to the Greatness of a Soul, caused an Uneasiness. 'Tis incongruous to try Sounds by the Taste, they being the only proper Objects of the Ear. There is no Object for the Soul, but God; a● appears by its Rest when fixed on him, and Uneasiness every where else. And thus I, by the Importunity of my Body, and the Defectibility of just Perception, expecting Happiness where it was not to be had, grew impatient under the Disappointment, even to Strangling, to be rid of the Burden.  2. Spirit. 
— Alas, unfortunate Brother! We can do no more than pity thee, and own our Obligations for these Discoveries.— Farewell.   

DIALOGUE VIII.  
Between Two Spirits, the Order of Vegetable Souls, and Cupid.  1. Sp. 
— WEll, What News, Brother?  2. Sp. 
— The strangest Adventure you ever heard of. Cupid having Commission to distract some body in the other World, as he fled down he missed his Way, and rambled into our Regions; where the Order of Vegetables are pillaging the little Wag of his Bow and Quiver, and pretend to cure him of his Blindness.  1. Sp. 
— Let's away to see the Humour on't: I believe the arch Knave will put a Trick upon 'em all, and come off with flying Colours.  Cupid. 
— Nay, but, gentlemans Spirit's, pray be civil.— What's the meaning of this?  Vegit. 
— The meaning on't is, that since you have found the way into our Quarters, we have a Mind to hinder your Pranks here; we have no need to be fooled and plagued, as the Inhabitants are both in Heaven and Earth (if we may believe the Poets.)  Cupid. 
— By me?  Vegit. 
— Yes, by you. And what can we expect from one that bewitches his own Mother with Adenis, Anchises? etc. You know nothing (I'll warrant you) of Endymion, Hyacinthus, the Adulterous Net, and a Thousand more such things: Do you? Nor can jupiter himself escape you, but down goes his Target and Thunderbolts, and away to Taw and Push-Pin with Ganynede: Sometimes he's Metaphorized into Gold, now a Swan, than a Bull▪ anon a Shepherd, and so on, according as your Whimsies dictate, whilst the Government of the World lies at Six and Seven, and he that has the longest Nails and Teeth is the best Entity. And when your Caprices and Maggots are surfeited with Aetherial Amours, away ye troop to the Earth, where you ●ye a Prince to a Stage-player, and a Princess to a footboy, or else plague Equality by Desperation of Enjoyment; laughing at the poor Wretches, to see 'em covetous of their Misfortunes. Wherefore we conclude it necessary for our own Peace, and out of pity to our Neighbouring Worlds, to dis-arm you of your Power, and cure that Blindness which makes you shoot thus at all Adventures.  Cupid. 
'Tis a strange thing (Gentlemen Souls) why I, having a Bow and Quiver, (as if no Body else used neither,) must upon necessity be the God of Love, and sentenced so to be by those who confess they never saw me before. A great Rashness, certainly, for the Wisdom of your Order, to be guilty of! But, to put you out of all doubt, assure yourselves, I am a Spirit, as ye are; only with this disference, I have suffered a Dissolution from a Body, and ye are yet unbodied. Time was, I actuated that famous Scythian, Pomaxathres, that slew the great Roman, Marcus Crassus; and was accounted the best Archer that Scythia ever boasted of. Now, hearing that one Sagittarius, a Resident of these Regions, was famed in that Art, I came on purpose to create a Correspondence, and try the Skill of the Heavenly Archer.  Vegit. 
— Well, is this be so, and you are that Pomaxathres, we beg your Pardon for our Error, and think ourselves happy in the Mistake.— Sagit●ari●s sur passes in this Art, never making his Butts less than ten Degrees distant.— Do ye see that Milky Way there, so much talked on by the Poets? His Shafts have scoured that Road by their frequent Motion, and have kept that part of the Sky clear from dark Matter, and Excrements of Stars; which is the reason of its Albitude: But the Lower World, like Fools, not knowing so much, do fancy it to be the Way for the Souls of the Blessed to mount to Paradise.— Come, let's be gone; we'll quickly introduce ye into Sagitarius' Acquaintance.  Cupid. 
— I long to meet the Artist, that we might give you some Divertisement by our Skill.— But, pray, which is the Way to the Lower World?  Vegit. 
— You must leave Venus on the Left, and so to 19 Degrees, 30 Minutes of Capricorn; afterwards the Coast is clear, and divided into Right Lines to all parts of the Globe.  Cup. 
— Farewell, Gentlemen; I'm in haste now, I'll call again some other time.  Vegit. 
— And is the Impostor gone? Certainly he was Cupid. Why were we so bewitched as to believe him? Could we think the God of Love could speak Truth, when all his Subjects are given to Lying.   

DIALOGUE IX.  
Between an ginger and a Mountebank.  Mount.— 
WHich way with your Circumferences, Compasses, Figures: etc. Ha! What Project's on foot now?  Astr. 
— To survey the Stars, and take a Note on the Influences written on their Foreheads.  Mount. 
— Why so?  Astr. 
— I'm sure I shall be an ginger, and 'tis good to make Collections against I have need of 'em: I have a strong Fancy that I shall be the Prophet of Europe. If I'd been embodied but Twenty or Thirty Years since, I had been the Second Lily, or, at least, his Successor.— But if, after all, I should forget what I now do in this Pre existent State, I shall be hardly put to it, about the Fate of Great People, the Change of Wind and Wether, Sweethearts, Losses, Travels, Life, Death, and every thing else, unless you'll keep Correspondence with me.  Mount. 
— Ay indeed, such a Correspondence would make you famous; but I've just received a Commission to take Possession of an Embryo, fated for a Mountebank: So that I can serve you in nothing, but by giving you Information of the Death of those he designs to kill.  Astr. 
— That will be something: But what shall I do for the rest?  Mount. 
— As the rest of your Neighbours do: Guess at what's most probable.  Astr. 
— Then I shall be mistaken sometimes.  Mount. 
— 'Tis your Interest you should, or you'd be Arraigned for a Wizard.  Astr. 
— 'Tis hard such an exquisite Skill and Death should be Rivals. But is there no way else to escape the Faggot, and be famous?  Mount. 
— Yes, as Licenced Way, as we have to kill People.  Astr. 
Pray, what's that?  Mount. 
— Bring other Persons into a Confederacy with you, who design, near such a Time, to Plot, Fight, Marry, Sail, Masquerade, or any thing else that is to be done; and then fall on Prophesying: But you must be very confident, and remember a great many Author's Names, (no matter for their Works,) the pretended Influences of the Stars, and Examples of the Wonders you have performed, and other Measures suitable to the blind Side of the Enquirer. And if you can but Rhyme, like young Lily o'er his Pills, your Custom grows as thick as Hops, and you may lie in Bed and gather 'em.  Astr. 
— Now I'm stocked indeed, to 〈◊〉 three quarters o'th' Town. But won't my present Collections also be useful?  Mount. 
— Yes, if 'twere possible to remember; but the Clog of Humanity depresses the Vigour of our Faculties, and makes 〈◊〉 quite different Being's: So that what I've 〈◊〉 you now, must be repeated in the other World, and that will be sufficient, with goo● Management.  Astr. 
— I'm satisfied. But what will yo● do to be as famous as he that came lately (al● at one time, I think 'twas) from all the Cour● in Christendom, into this part of the Globe ju●● under us? You know who I mean, the Sta●● tell 〈◊〉; I can't forbear trying my Faculty.  Mount. 
— Right: I was a great Familiar with his Soul, before Adam and Eve went to Bed together. About 2593 Years since, he was for going into a young Crispin; and I very hardly dissuaded him, by telling him, his Mistress would be skilled in Palmistry, and read his Pass into another World through his own Styrrup-Leather.  Astr. 
— A kind Disappointment. But what's this to the Question I asked?  Mount. 
— Well, he's a famous Mountebank now, and cures every thing that he fails not in; and when he misses, he cannot lose his Reputation, for he lest that behind him in Italy, where it starved to death.  Astr. 
— How came he to be so famous then?  Mount. 
— Even as you must; by Confederacy, thus, The Liar that he makes use of, to roar about the Stage, and tie the unthinking Multitude together, having got a credulous Patient, takes the silly Thing by the Hand, to that Corner of the Stage where the Curtain hangs, and the listening Doctor behind it;— and then he begins to examine what Grievance? Where? How long? and such other like Questions as are for his purpose. Whereupon the Doctor draws off at a distance, and the Patient is introduced; to whom he tells every thing, like an Oracle, without any Questions, receives his Fees, and sets a little longer time (for such a desperate Cure) than he designs to tarry. And so he deals with the whole Generation of Adam, to the latter end of the Chapter.— There are a Thousand other handy Ways of kill People, and getting their Moneys for't, but 'tis not for my Interest to make 'em public, lest the World should be convinced against I set up, and stone me, amongst the rest of my honest Fellow Travellers.   

DIALOGUE X.  
Between Two Spirits, about the Retrogradation of the Dragon's Head and Tail.  1. Sp. 
— DID you he●● of the Dragon's Frolic?  2. Sp. 
— Not I: I have been upon the Ramble these three Days, I am but just now arrived in this Region, and am going to tell my Landlord Aquarius, that I have no design to bilk my Lodging. But, pray, what'is this Frolic you talk of?  1. Sp. 
— The Dragon's Tail taking it ill to come always behind, grew very importunate to lead the Head for one Day; and the Head being tired out with continual Solicitations, agreed to be led: According the Tail set forward, and began his Journey; but wanting Eyes. soon mistook his Course, and rambled to the Borders of his Regions, where he fell down, and light upon Aquarius' Water-pots; which flew with such a Noise, that the lower World thought it a Clap of Thunder. Pisces being the next Sign, (and peeping above Water, to learn what strange Motion that was) cried out to his two Fishes to secure themselves, for the Leviathan was upon the Scamper for Prey. The Dragon (which he thought to be the Leviathan) being so bruised with the Fall, began to repent of his Retrograde Journey; for his Head, by such a Motion, got the Vertigo, and dizzy Drunkenness, his Body was cut by the Pitchers, besides the Abuses the unfortunate Traveller light on from the Inhabitants of that Region; who taking him for a Monster, began to surround him, maulling him with the Beam of Libra, and the Fragments of the Pitchers, without ask Questions, or taking the Legal Procedure against him for the supposed Invasion.  2 Sp. 
This Account is surprising, especially being so near my Lodging. Methinks this would be very proper for Application, if the Story was told in the lower world, where Reason is postponed to Sense, and the ill Consequences seldom taken Notice of, till the whole Man is shipwrecked and lost;— But what became of the Dragon?  1 Sp. 
— Nature finding her work imperfect, without the reassumption of the fallen Wretch into his place, and that the whole Generation of Astrologers would be at a loss in their Observations, ordered the Dragon to be put into the one of Libra's Scales, and a Weight into the other, sufficient to mount him up into his own Region; which was accordingly done; where, being arrived, he set head foremost, and swore by all the Planets he would never be ruled by his Tail again.— The Tail being ashamed of its Miscarriage, hid itself betwixt the Legs, which is the Reason that the little Stars in't disappeared, when Archimedes thought to have found 'em at the end of his Telescope.   

DIALOGUE XI.  
Between a Spirit and his Friend, lately Embodied in an Infant.  Spir. 
— WHat have you forgot your old Companion? or are you asleep as well as your Body?  Friend. 
— Who's that?  Spi. 
— Your late Friend A;— when we parted, you desired me to pay you a Visit in your new Lodgings; and you knew I was always punctual at an Assignation, where Friendship was the Motive: I long to know what Entertainment you have light on, what Liberties you enjoy, or what Confinements you lie under, that I may take an Estimate thereby what I have to trust to when my Turn comes.  Fr. 
— To give a Journal of my Entertainment, will be just the same Satisfaction that a Criminal has when he is no longer perplexed betwixt Hope and Despair; but is assured he shall be hanged; but you are not denied the Criminal's Comfort, to wit, Company: But not to detain you from Particulars, when I parted with you, I immediately shot into the Embryo I told you of, as swift as a Falling Star, and before I was aware, I was dispersed through the whole Lump; not a Finger or Toe but I was busy in't, as the hasty Heir is amongst his Coffers and Leases when his Father's a dying; but as to my first Motion, I thought 'twas just like a half-drowned Fly, when the Sun begins to shine upon it, which first puts out a Leg, than a Wing, and so by degrees gathers Motion, till it presumes upon its own strength, and new Adventures; so I, first a Knee, than an Elbow, than a Heel, and so on, till I grew so troublesome a Guest, that my Mother cried out for help, to be shut on me; & so by a Writ of Ejection dispossessed me of my warm Tenement, and turned me out into the wide world, naked, helpless, and full of Tears: But than began the Plague of Dependence, and the Date my Misfortunes; for you will find when you come into a Body, that a Soul does sympathise, and receive an Impression of Pleasure or Pain, according to the resentment of the Senses, & vice versa, the Body participates in the Ease or Disturbance of the Soul. I am now but just six weeks old, and methinks 'tis longer than the Six Thousand Years of my Pre-Existence; for I'm horribly bused Night and Day. 'Tis said, The Ape is ●o very tender of her young ones, that she frequenty hugs them to death; but my Nurse only mocks me with such a Kindness; for when she has almost strangled me for want of Breath, she recovers me to strangle me again. And if I Itch or Smart, am swaddled too strait or too loose, am hungry, or over-crambed. 'tis all one; for I've no way to declare my grievance, but by sprawling, making a foul face, or exercising my treble Organs, and that does not avail me neither; for I'm only looked upon to be peevish, and out of humour whether this Usage will kill me, or whether I shall weather it out to abide worse, I know not: But this I know, That if I was to begin my Pre-existent State again, I'd take heed of such extravagant Rambles as could be attuned by no less a Penance than such an Incorporation.  Sp. 
— If you find such Penance for Pre-existent Extravagances, alas what will become of me, who am in ten times deeper than you; the foot of my Account will be amazing, when your small Debt has such sever●● Exactions.  Fr. 
— I don't know that, but pray withdraw; here comes the Nurse to beslabber 〈◊〉 with Caudle; if she finds the Body without me, and unactive, the House will be all in 〈◊〉 uproar, and my new Companion will be lai● out, and starved to death; and I dread ● second Change, remembering the old Pro● verb,— Seldom comes a better.   

DIALOGUE XII,  
Between the whole Order of Rational Souls, and Two Intelligencers from the other World.  Order. 
— WHat, more Complaints still? Shall we be for ever plagued with Repetitions of the harsh Reception our Fraternity find below?— Here,— Who are the Friends of the Parties incorporate? Stand forth, and declare your Grievance.  1 Intell. 
— A great Intimate of mine, and a Member of our Order, is unfortunately tied to a Fiddler, who runs eternal Divisions, to the great Curse of every Visitant's Ear; never considering, that what delights him, may be a great Mortification to another.— One of his Acquaintance the other Day, being tired with a Whimsy, on Green Sleeves and Pudding-Pyes, (an Air well known to the Musical Tribe in that Globe,) began to be free with him, telling him what he thought of his Entertainment; and in Conclusion, broke his Crowd and Fiddlestick.  Order. 
— Perhaps he might deserve it. But how could the Soul (your Friend) suffer by that Accident?  1. Intell. 
— I asked my Friend this very Question; and he answered,— That tho' by a Habitude of Incorporation he began to love the Body, yet he was so much afraid of Violence, (being a Party,) that he tried all the Windows of his Tenement, to make an Escape; but coming to the Ear, he heard the welcome Sound of Impose less on your Friends, and so farewell. My Friend thinking the Storm was over, began to love the Ear for the welcome News he heard in't, tho' indeed 'twas the most frequent part of Residence that my Friend had in the whole Material Fabric.— He had not tarried long there, but he was summoned to tune another Fiddle; but the Chamber-door was first locked, and no Fiddler was at home for more Visitants: So away they went to work; the Fiddler with his Fingers, Wry Mouth, and other antic Gestures; and my Friend, according to his Office of Perception, judged of Measure and Proportions. And having tuned that also into the usual Concordance, a Mournful Ditty was to be composed, and set, to bewail the unhappy Abuse of his Wooden Apollo; not considering that the bare Remembrance of a Disgrace is afflicting to any body, but one that carries his Soul in his Ears. Now, my Friend being ignorant what Distance lay between b flat and b sharp, or how much a Lesser Third differed from a Greater Sixth, was not so able as willing to assist his Comrade in the Composure: Who thereupon raged, swore, grew distracted, and out of Revenge, has cruelly confined my Friend to the cold Prison of his Fiddle, where he uses to visit him two or three times a Night; allowing no better Converse, than the doleful Accents of Mad Tom o'Bedlam.  Order. 
— This Account is Argument dismal enough to add to our Litany, From Fiddlers, Libera nos, Domine. But who's the second Complainant? What has he to say?  2. Intell. 
— A Race of—  Order. 
— Of what?  2. Intell. 
— Of— I dare not mention the ugly Name, for fear it brings a Distraction amongst us, and the very Malignity of the Sound infect us with the Fatality of its Heresies.— But if a general dark Character will satisfy, 'tis unwillingly ready.  Order. 
— Certainly it can't be much worse than the Accounts we have already. Let's have the full, particular Relation.  2. Intell. 
— Well, since ye are so covetous of what ye will repent, take it.— A Society of Virtuosoes, in which a Friend of mine has lately commen●'d, and for which I'm sure he'll be damned, has bewitched the other World with fruitless Discourses, unprofitable Disputes, needless Digressions, of Posse, Esse, Quiddity, Predicament, and a Thousand such Sounds; by which they have lost their own Reason, and despoiled their Followers of theirs too. They will make every thing disputable, so much as the Pre-Existence of Souls: Nay, they'll not believe the Existence of a Deity, if their Antagonist proves it not by a Syllogism, in Mood and Figure. Two and Three is not Five amongst them, without a Consequence from just Premises. A certain Heretic Pedant the other Day maintained a Vacuum, and proselyted a simple Country Gentleman by such seeming Reasons, as he wanted Sense to confute.— One of 'em, as I was informed, was this,— It would be ridiculous to think, that when a Gnat bushes back a parcel of Air with its Wings, that parcel drives another before it, and that another; and so the stirring of the Little Toe of a Flea should raise a Bunch upon the Back of the Universe. The unthinking Plebeian having long wished Suicide no Murder, because his Mistress' Unkindness made him weary of his Life, straightway retired out of the Assembly, and thanked his pitying Genius for providing a way to cure his Melancholy, viz. by the help of a Vacuum; resolving to lay the Fault upon Nature in the Day of Judgement, that he was accidentally in a place, where he could not live any longer, for want of Breath. Whereupon he immediately made and executed his Last Will and Testament, and took his Leave of all his Friends.— And, in order to find out a Vacuum, he caused all his Blunderbusses, Guns and Muskets to be laid over a Gate, ready to discharge; and behind 'em, two of his Servants, well mounted, with a hanging Carpet between 'em, with so much Lead at the bottom as to keep it tied and perpendicular; and thus, having wished Happiness to his fair Tormenter, he ordered the Pieces to be fired, and his Servants (to whom he had bequeathed his Horses for this last Office of Friendship) to set Spurs to their Legacies, and follow the scoured Road, he himself bringing up the Rear, and charging about for the Vacuum. But after he had almost run himself out of breath in a vain Pursuit of it, he retired to the Assembly of Virtu●s●●s, which was not yet broke up, saluting his Teacher by the Name of Madman, and Beggar of Questions. But the Virtuoso, to maintain his Credit, asserted that the Gentleman might have found the Vacuum if he had followed close up to the Carpet. Whereupon, another of the Gentleman's Acquaintance, resenting his Friend's Disgrace, ordered the same Trial again, resolving to keep up close to the windy Engine, to prove the Assertion a Falsity; but he, to keep Ground, ran himself out of breath, and fell down dead: Which Accident upheld the Credit of the Vacuum.  
Another would prove, That a small Thread, which was equally twisted, and all of the same Matter, would sustain a greater weight than a Cable Rope that was unequally twisted. To prove which, he offered this Reason, That being all of a strength, it had no place to break first. A little Schoolboy that stood by, wished his Father had known that Secret before his Ship-wreck. It had been all one, (replied another of his Form-fellows;) for▪ the Thread would have broke close by the Ship, by reason of the Additional Weight of the rest of the Thread. In like manner, if the Thread hanged in a perpendicular Line, with a Weight at the End of it, it would break at the Upper End, because the Lower End would not bear so much Weight as the Upper End, by the Weight of the Thread. Nay, Suppose the Thread laid upon a Level, and extended beyond its strength; having no place to break first, it must break in all places at once: For if Particulars cannot act beyond their Power, Generals cannot; both coming under one Predicament. Three Quarters of the Auditory could not understand the Boy, who therefore was whipped for his Sauciness and Interruption. So that that Orator also sat down with his Credit.  
A Third stood up, and, without pretending to prove any thing, drove all the Auditory out of the little Wit they had left, by ask, Whether there may not be an Infinity of Worlds, this Globe being not so big as those above? Whether this World might not be made out of the Ruins of a preceding Old One? Whether these Globes may not be the Excrements of the Sun? Whether it might not be better for the next Generation to be taught to go upon All Four, for several good Reasons that might be given? Whether the Representatives of Nature's Pudenda were not a more proper Badge of Honour to wear at a Cavalier's Girdle, than a Sword; since this is a Mark of Death, and that of Life? Whether this Tuft of Grass (pulling one out of his Pocket) may not be a Man within these Sixty Years? Whether, if it were possible for one Man to imitate another in all his Members, Motions and Gestures, that Imitator should not, by Equality of Organs, be susceptive of the other's Thoughts and Inclination? Whether an Eternity of Matter is disputable? Whether the Souls of Men are Pre-existent, or Contemporary with the Body? Whether it is not a great Absurdity to attribute to a Vacuity that Quality of Yielding to a Body, and that Space which are the Dependencies of an Extent, which can only agree to a Substance? Whether—  Order. 
— Hold: No more Whethering in Virtuocisin. Poor Earth! Alas, What Entertainment can we expect in thee? We shall be sweetly brought to Bed if Virtuocism finds encouragement, and propagates till there's no other Trade for us to take up with. Hasten our Spindle's, dear Parcae, whilst there are some Infidels, and Opposers of these Doctrines.   

DIALOGUE XIII.  
Between the Spirits of an Emperor and a Beggar.  Beggar. 
— 'TIS enough for Humanity, that knows no better, to be Noisy Querulous, and arraign the Justice of Fate, and the wise dispensation of Providence, who fits not the particular Chain of Causes to the private humour of this or that Party; but respects the universal Good at once: hence I am satisfied, the despicable Post assigned me, is wisely disposed, and aught to be accepted with gratitude, since 'tis inconsistent with the goodness of the Divine Being, to make a general Good incompatible with a particular one; whence it is also plain, that I may be happy in my Station. But was I to choose, and knew not what Fate had ordained me, I'd be an Emperor at least; How full of Charms is it to imitate the Divine Original of Being's, to see whole Kingdoms depend upon me, to be encompassed with eternal Heads of Nakedness; to have the power of exalting one, and debasing another; of rewarding Virtue, and punishing Vice; of disposing of Life and Death; in short, to be an Earthly God. Now must I suffer Affronts and Abuses, without the power of Revenge, to stoop, and acknowledge my dependence to almost every Being. Alas, what's the meaning of that Providential Riddle, That Man is the Lord of the world; That Beast, Fish and Fowl are his, when there's so many Rivals-that the Title is lost, and one part of Humanity can pretend so little to a propriety in Rule; That the same Predicament serves for us, and those things we are said to be Lords of? Man disposes of Man as he does of a Beast, even to exchanging, selling, and Slavery. Methinks it is unaccountable; since all are out of the same Dust, stamped with the same Impression, equal in their Nothingness, both à parte ante, and à parte post. Nay their very Souls which animate these grosser Vehicles, are also equal, only acting differently, by a more or less aptitude of Organs, or inequality of Education.  Emperor. 
— Tho' we Spirits fell not when the Angels did; yet we have certainly the same defectibility of Judgement; for two things (especially Opposites) cannot be both best. Call you a Beggar's Condition despicable and slavish? 'Tis certainly the happiest Post in the Creation; and were it possible for Fate to be guilty of a Caprice, and cast Lots once more about the Disposals of Emperors and Beggars, I'd petition to renew my Chance; possibly I might the second time alter my Condition, and come out a happy Beggar.  Beggar. 
— Why so?  Emperor. 
— Becasue there appears to me a greater happiness in an unenvied Cottage, than in the Noisy Crowds of Flatterers. Little does the Plebeian know how heavy a Crown weighs; how great the Trust is, and how hard to be managed. 'Tis the Court that's full of Treachery, Ambition, Pride, Bribes, and such a dreadful Catlaogue of Vices, that 'tis impossible for the best of Men to arrive to a greater degree of Goodness there, than a Negation of Evil. The Watch must be kept so strictly, that there's no time to act virtuously. But in the retired Solitudes of Poverty, one Third of our Temptations are lost, the uneasiness of the Sense, causes a search after the quiet of the Mind. We have nothing to resist in Solitude▪, but a few straggling Thoughts; nor nothing to seek after, but to be happy. There we are free from public Calamities: and private Enemies, unenvied in every thing but Happiness; and 'tis impossible to steal that from us, when we have nothing else to do but to keep it: Nay, if we should communicate it, we lose nothing, but have more by giving. I could reckon up Augustus, Dioclesian, Maximinian, Vatius, Emped●cles, etc. who laid by their Sceptres for Spades; and could also mention how happy the Change was; but the remembrance would make my Crown too uneasy, which now I must bear as well as I can.  Beggar. 
— 'Tis in vain to wish on either side what can't be avoided. But, say Brother, won't the Case be strangely altered by our different Stations in the other World?— Methinks I see you sometimes royally seated amongst the Representatives of your Kingdom, sometimes in private Council, turning over the Cabala, or darker Mysteries of State, but always looked upon as more than mortal. Methinks I also see myself injured and over-pow'rd by the Mint of Damnation, and my Addresses to your Highness, by Friends or Petition, in agitation; Methinks I see my cold reception, the Meanness of my Concerns lost amongst Matters of greater Moment, and my Importunity for a Dispatch, answered by the Insolences of a hundred subordinate Officers; one denies me admittance, another turns me out, and every one looks upon me an impertinent, worthless Thing, because I left all my Nobility and Attendance behind me among the Stars.  Emperor. 
— By this you may in some measure judge of the distracted Cares of a Crown; how amongst these numerous Complaints, Petitions, etc. 'tis impossible to hear and redress all, time won't permit, and Omnipresence is not conferred to Earthly Sceptres, to act every where, and every thing at once: Think●y ' it not afflicting to a Father to see many of his Children struggling under Unhappinesses, and whilst he relieves some, others perish; and also that he has many more under the same Circumstances, that he knows not of.  Beggar. 
— Enough; let's not think so much on the Evils of Humanity, as to lose the sense of that little Good of which it is capable; Not to be happy in some things, because we can't in every thing, is an unkind Theft to our selves. Compare the Distractions of other Crowns to yours, whilst I examine whose Cottage is meaner than mine; and this (with other like Inferences,) will divert the black Reflections we have made; An earthly Philosopher could say, Nemo Miser nisi comparatus. Come, let's not learn of the World below us, but give them Examples. We can't miss, if we retire to our Region; for there being nothing but Equality, 'tis impossible any one should pretend to be more happy or miserable than another.   

DIALOGUE XIV.  
Between Two Spirits that made a Contract to keep a Correspondence, whoever came to be Embodied first.  The Unbodied Spirit. 
— CErtainly he can understand now I have assumed this Body of Air.— Holo Brother— I have been calling these two hours to no purpose Do you hear me now?  Bodied Spirit. 
— Hear ye! Yes; who are ye? And what's your Business?  Unbodyed Sp. 
— What, Have you forgot me your old Comrade, and your Contract? Has this Lump of Humanity spoiled all your Faculties, or are you ungrateful, or over-proud of your new Lodging?  Bodied Sp. 
— I don't know what you mean by Forgetfulness, or Contract.  Unbodyed Sp. 
— That's very strange: I'm certain, This is the Body you were to animate, and by consequence, ●ou must be the same Individual that agreed with me to keep a Correspondence, when you came into this Body. I had forgot myself, and have been all this time speaking to you in the Language of Spirits, not knowing it was too fine for the Perceptions of an Organised Body.  Bodied Sp. 
— By this you'd make me believe a Pre-existent State of Souls before they come into the Body: But if there be such a State, I have wholly forgot it; only I have some dark Ideas of things when they are mentioned that I never saw nor heard of before; which probably may proceed from the Cognizance I took of 'em before I was embodied.  Unbodyed Sp. 
— That's no Argument at all; since that Idea gives you neither the Species, nor the Form of the Thing spoken of, if neither be mentioned; as for Instance, If I should tell you in general Terms, That at the West-end of the Vatican at Rome, there's a curious Picture; you would presently form an Idea of it in your Mind; but perhaps it may be a Saint, instead of a Landscape: but to pass over that, have you any Idea of the Language of Spirits?  Bodied Sp. 
— None but such as is Organical.  Unbodyed Sp. 
— By this you may see your Error again; for Spirits speak one to another, as Man does, when he speaks to God in his Mind. Again, Man's Voice is limited; I mean, when he speaks, he is not heard but at such a distance; but when one Spirit speaks, all the Thousand Millions of Spirits, wherever dispersed throughout the Creation, have a di●stinct perception of such Speech, if directed to them all at once; or if directed to any one Spirit, be he never so far off, he only hears; and not one of all those that are betwixt him and the Speaker; so that 'tis as ordinary a thing for Spirits to converse one with another at the most protracted distances, as 'tis face to face; but this is only to your Capacity; for there's no such a thing as distance amongst Spirits; for they are as near one another, when the whole Coelum Empyreum is betwixt 'em, as they are when both together, and yet they are not like God, every where at once, or omnipresent.  Bodied Sp. 
— This is strange Doctrine to Mortals;— pray how do Spiris move? whether locally by a Medium, or in an instant, or in Time, or how?  Unbodyed Sp. 
— None of all this— for what is impartible, is not movable; for, according to Humane Philosophy, (which holds in this Case,) any thing that is moving, whilst it is moving, is partly in termino a quo, and partly in termino ad quem; which is inconsistent with Impartibility. Nor can a Spirit move so, as to pass through a Medium: As for Instance, To go from London to Rome, or Constantinople, without passing over the distance, or places betwixt 'em: Now every thing that passes, passes through a place equal to itself, (as suppose through Air, Water, etc. the place that the Body is in, is equal to the Body which fills it.) But the place equal to an Indivisible Spirit, (speaking ad Humanum Captum) is a Point; and therefore if an Angel or Spirit, by his Motion, passes through a Medium, he must necessarily pass through or number many Points in termino ad quem; which is impossible. To speak yet nearer the Common Apprehension of Mortals, a Man may in his Mind think of France, and then immediately of Syria, without thinking of Italy, which is the Medium, betwixt both: And this comes nearest the Motion of Spirits; now whether this Motion is effected in Time, or in an Instant. (As thus, When God Almighty commissionated an Angel to go and appear to Manoah, whether in coming from Heaven he might be a Day, an Hour, or a Minute; or whether he was there in the same unsuccessive Moment wherein he received the Commission.) To this we answer in respect of Men, who are tied up to the gross Rules of Time, Place, Matter, etc. There was a Flux of Time betwixt the Receipt of the Commission, and the Execution of it: But in respect of the Nature of Angels, the Receipt of their Commission, the Execution of it, and a Thousand Years after the Execution of it, were all included in one Unsuccessive Now: The Reason of it is this, If there were a Time for the Beginning of an Action, and another Time for the Ending of it, than there would be Succession, and by consequence Partibility; but that's inconsistent (as above) with the Nature of an Indivisible Being, as an Angel or a Spirit are.  Bodied Spirit. 
But supposing Motion, Time, Place, etc. to be attributed to Angels and Spirits, in respect to Mankind, as really they are: As it may be said, A Spirit is in such a Place now, and was not two Hours since. Supposing (I say) such a way of speaking, in reference to Mankind, how is it feasible for a Spirit, a Witch, etc. to be so, orto go through the Keyhole of a Door?  Unbodyed Spirit. 
Well, allowing such a Condescension, ad Humanum Captum, yet 'tis a vulgar Error. First, As to Witches: They never do it, 'tis their Spirits, and they● (I mean ●heir Bodies and Animal Life) are all the while ●n an Examinated Trance, wherein the Devil ●oes make use of their Fancy, to inform them of what passes at a distance in those Aerial Bo●ies that resemble them, and in which their ●pirits really are: As Mankind want not ma●y Instances of such Truths. A Spirit's pas●●ng through a Keyhole is absurdly ridiculous; or since Matter is not determinative on Spi●●ts, 'tis all one to them to pass through Gold, ●lass, or the most Continuous Solidities in Na●●re, as to pass through Air only. So that ●hen a Spirit assumes an Aerial Body, since 〈◊〉 itself is Matter, or a Body, and since ●ere can't be Penetration of Bodies, it follows, at a Spirit which is to go through Glass, one, etc. leaves the Aerial Body which it 〈◊〉, and only passes through the Glass, Stone, etc. in its own Nature, and assumes a new● Body of Air on the other side; and here also may be a Solution of those strange Riddles, (for so they are to some Mortals,) how a Witch receives the Wound in the same Part, in which the Aerial Representation of her received it. As for Instance; A Fallen Angel prompts a Witch to afflict such a Person: She consents; and being under this Angel's power, he makes use of natural Methods, so as to invert the ordinary Operation of her Animal Powers, (as above,) that she falls into a Trance, insensible of Burns, Cuts, etc. Now this wicked Angel having a permissive Possession of her Spirit, forms a Body of Air for it, organised and fit for Perception, in which it assaults and afflicts th● Person designed: But in all the Instances that Mankind can bring of such Aerial Representations that have been struck at, whether in Humane or Brutal Shape, the Persons that struck never felt that they hit any thing but Air; which is a certain Evidence that 'twas not the true Body of what it represented. Now, this wicked Angel being present with the Witch's Spirit, and taking notice where, and what the Wound would have been, had it been a real Body, amongst other the Occurrences that he represents to the Witch's Fancy, he insinuates the Wound, and at the same time inflicts it himself upon the real Part of the Body which was representatively cut or wounded in the Phantasm; the Witch all the time believing the whole to be a real Truth, and acted personally.  Bodied Spirit. 
Possibly 'tis so. But, Pray, is there a Number of Spirits, or different Species amongst amongst?  Unbodyed Spirit. 
Humanely speaking, there's Thousands of Thousands; but in the Language of Spirits there's no such a gross Term as Number; for Number is a discrete Quantity, caused by a Division of Continuity: But this is inconsistent with the Nature of Spirits.— And as to Difference of Species, to which we might add Equality, or Inequality, they are Terms adapted to Matter; and therefore amongst Immaterial Being's, 'tis the most egregious Nonsense that can be imagined.  Bodied Spirit. 
What's the difference betwixt a Spirit's Perception, and ours?  Unbodyed Spirit. 
A great deal, Men think, by means of the Senses. Suppose the Eye: First, There must be an Union betwixt the Sight, and the thing seen; for Vision is not in Act, except the thing seen is after a certain manner in the thing seeing; and this not by an Assumption of the Substance, but of the Similitude of the thing seen, into the Eye. Now this Visive Power having assumed a Similitude of the thing seen into the Eye, the Intellect abstracts Universals from it; which Act is called the Perception, and according to this Perception we judge and act. But 'tis not so with Spirits, they have no Perception from divisible or sensible Objects; for what by our Senses we know of Material Objects, that they know from the Ef●luviums of the Deity. As for Instance, God is the Cause of every Substance, both as to its Matter and Form; therefore God, according to his Essence, (which is the Cause of all things) is the Similitude of all things. Hence Angels and Spirits, when they look upon God, do (as in a Glass) see and know all Material and Immaterial Objects and Things whatever, when he pleases to communicate a Knowledge: And thus it is that Departed Souls have Knowledge of things happening in this Life.  Bodied Spirit. 
What's the difference betwixt a Spirit's Thoughts and Language, since you say that their Language is like our Thoughts?  Vnbodyed Spirit. 
I have already told you, that as Men have their Perceptions by means of their Senses, so Spirits have theirs from the immediate Emanations and Ideas of all things which they see originally in God: This is the manner of their Perception, and the making known this Perception, by directing the Result of it to one another, as Men do their Minds to themselves, when they speak to themselves internally, without Lip or Voice. This, I say, is the Language of Spirits; which is as different from their Perceptions as the Act of Receiving and Communicating is amongst Men.  Bodied Spirit. 
Whether do Spirits and Angels love, 〈◊〉, are angry or pleased, etc. as Men are.  Unb●dy'd Spirit. 
Not at all, 'tis inconsistent with their Nature, these being Acts adapted to the Powers of the Sensitive Soul: So that when Speech, Love, Hate, Fear, Courage, Temperance, etc. are attributed to Angels or Spirits, 'tis an 〈◊〉, or a Condescension adapted to Humane Dialect. To Love amongst Spirits, is to wish Good to one another: To rejoice, is to rest the Will in some good Habit: Temperance is a Moderation of the Will, according to the Rule of the Divine Will: Fortitude is a firm and resolute Execution of the Divine Will: And so of all other Concupiscible Powers.  Bodied Spirit. 
Whether can several Spirits be in one plac● at the same time.  Unbodyed Spirit. 
I have already told you, that Spirits know no such a thing as Place; 'tis as incongruous a Term to their Nature, as Time is. So that, what you call Place, is the same thing to them as no place; and if so, Spirit's, according to that Notion you have of Place, may be Five Millions together in a Quart● Bottle, and yet never a one fe there; but 'tis impossible to make you understand the munner how, farther than by a dark Similitude. Suppose Five Millions of Persons should all desire at the same time to be upon the Top of the monument,, (erected in Remembrance of the 〈◊〉 of the Fire of London:) Now th●se Five Millions to be there at the 〈…〉), without justling one another for ●oom●▪ but thus only by Virtual Application of themselves thither.— I must be gone, there's a General Assignation of our Order to meet at the Music of the Spheres, and if my Place be found empty, my Name will be dashed out of the Catalogue, upon a Supposition that ● am embodied.  Bodied Spirit. 
Well, I acknowledge my Obligations for this Favour: Pray, let me converse with you as oft as you can. It won't be long but I shall put off this Clog, and change Circumstances with you; and then I'll be as kind in informing you of such things as you will also forget when you come into a Body.   

DIALOGUE XV.  
Betwixt Two Spirits, about the Music of the Spheres.  1. Sp. 
— I'M weary with that drumming sort of Noise; there's nothing but an Eternal Din of one Tune, over and over. There's better Music, ten to one, every Bartholomew-Fair.  2. Sp. 
— Pray, let me ask you one Question: Is there any Music better than the Original of all Music?  1. Sp. 
— No.  2. Sp. 
— Very well: Then since these Musical Diastems, and these harmonious Motions, which proceed from the different Positions and heights of the Planets, and the Correspondent Symmetry of the Heavens, are the first Original of Music, all other Harmony which the lower World pretends to, are but Imitations of this great Original. So that those little tickling Fancies of jonick, Doric, Phrygian, and other Measures, are but a different way of Trial to come the nearest ours; and if Mortality could find out the true Spherical Music, they would never seek farther, nor alter it for any other, because 'tis impossible to desire or choose an Imperfection, when Perfection stands by. But 'tis no wonder the World below us think the Music of the Spheres a Fable, when one of our own Order should undervalue it at such a rate. But perhaps you are of the same Opinion as Mankind, and these are only Words of Course, because you have a mind to be upon the Ramble.  1. Sp. 
Truly, I am not very well satisfied, whether I hear any thing, or no.  2. Sp. 
Yes, you hear, but without Concern; which makes me believe, that you belong not to ours, but to the Animal Order, and in that Order you are designed to animate an Ass, which, amongst all Creatures, never heeds Music. You, and all Mankind, must grant, that the Planets move, and that Sound necessarily proceeds from Motion, and that this Sound must either be sweet or harsh: Now, if a fixed Observation of Numbers moderate the Motion, it effects a Symphonous Harmony, consonant to such a Motion; but if it be not governed by Measures, there proceeds an unpleasant Noise. But in this admirable Structure of the Heavens, there is nothing but settled Rules and Proportions, curious Differences of Magnitude, Celerity, and Local Distances, which are constantly circumagitated through the Etherial Orbs; as in the following Figure.  
'Tis this Systeme that all Musicians imitate; and those that come the nearest it, have made their Calculations from Arithmetical Proportions, in which this last Age has exceeded all former ones, having now laid down Rules to reduce all Audibles into Visibles, or Visibles into Audibles; that is, can give Directions for Building a House, agreeable to the Measures of a Musical Composure; or can play the Proportions of any ●ouse now built, upon a Musical Instrument. If Mankind searches a little deeper in the Musical 〈◊〉, they will find out a Device to imi●●●● our 〈◊〉 Music by a voluntary Self-Motion, or frame Instruments that shall play themselves.  1. Sp. 
Say you so? Indeed, the Novelty of that would cost me many a Ramble.  2. Sp. 
But why love Music on Earth, more than here?  1. Sp. 
Because I find by my Heaviness, I am grown so like a Body, that I shall soon have such a Relation; and you know 'tis natural for all Being's to be affected with something like themselves: However, I'll be sure (if I can remember) to inform the Lower World of the Reasonableness of Spherical Music; and what Measures they ought to take, to come as near it as possible. In the mean time, Farewell.  2. Sp. 
— Hold: If you design to visit the Lower World, you may be serviceable to 'em, if you put 'em in mind of using less Physic, and more Music, since it altars all the Passions of the Mind, and is the readiest way to correct Grief, Anger, Pity, Love, Fears, Desires, and all other Passions of the Mind: And if the Mind may be thus regulated, their Physicians need not to be told how great an Influence it has upon the Body. Another Remark you may add, (if you are like to find Credit,) that 'tis only the Music of the Spheres that keeps Angels and Spirits in a perpetual Health.   

DIALOGUE XVI.  
Between Two Spirits of a poor Doctor, his Friend, and a modern Philosopher, alias, Sharper.  Debtor. 
BAnkrup●y! Oh the dreadful Sound is sufficiently confoundative without the thing itself; a Dun to my Breakfast every Morning, and to play at Hide all day long for fear of the Counter-Verm●n; and all this too, (if Fare knows what's what,) by the Prodigality of a hopeful Son, who, with Cocks, Houses, and half a dozen Misses, could thrust a dozen such Estates as mine, into the narrow Compass of a few Bonds, Bills, Mortgages, etc. Oh these unwelcome Lights of Heaven, how fast they number out Use-Mony-Days! Alas, what an unhappy Spirit am I! How gladly would I change Conditions with a Vegetable Soul, tho' it were to animate an humble Shrub!  Friend. 
— How Brother, animate Shrubs, and sleep in such a glorious Star as this, where you can have no disturbance at all; pray lie a little farther, and take the other Nap, and you'll be well.  Debt. 
— I cannot sleep for the Serivener, he bites me so; and if by chance I fall into a Slumber, I dream of the poor Man's Box, and the Quarter-day, or else that I see my Son on Horseback, riding into Quagmires.  Friend, 
— Why do you rave of Son, Quarter-day, etc. and are not yet got into the other world?  Debt. 
— But I'm a going; and my Misfortunes will be such there, as I have just now told you.  Friend. 
— Alas Poor wretch; and done't you know how to prevent all this? Arise, and follow me; there's a Company of Wits that inhabit the Planet Mercury, will certainly put you into some way to avoid your Misfortunes; nay, tho' they are such are inevitably fated to you.  Debt. 
— Alas, my Son's Horses have eaten me into a Consumption, that I can scarce get up; but however I'll try, since you talk of Remedies; Come, let's be going.  Friend. 
— Holo Mercurial Philosophers, open the Wicket there.  Philoph. 
— Who's that? His Bawling has made my Brain miscarry of a hopeful Notion.— However, come in.  Debt. 
— I'm sorry for that; I wish I could miscarry of mine too;— By'r where's the Philosopher? I can't see him.  Philosopher. 
— Look up, Friend, D'ye expect a Wit to lie groveling upon Thresholds.  Debt. 
— Bless me! he's hanged up in a Basket yonder.— Pray Mr. Philosopher. why so high?  Philosoph. 
— I walk i'th' Air, and gaze upon the Sun, and if my Intellect were not thus suspended, I should think as little Thoughts as you do.— But what's the occasion of your Visit?  Debt. 
— I'm going into the other World where I shall be torn ●n pieces with Debts and Usury; which to avoid, I would either pa● in current Money or Words. The first I shan't be able to raise; and the last I'm not Ma●●er of; therefore I'm come to ask your Coun●●l about it.  Philosoph. 
— There's no need of the first, if your 〈◊〉 were double, I'll teach you presently how to come off.— Stay a little;— Ay, that's right, Oh happy Art! This it is, not to 〈◊〉 Thoughts to a Threshold; but l●ke a ●ird ●etter'd in a ●●●ing, to allow 'em Liberty to play and 〈◊〉 in the Air.— In the first place, you must 〈◊〉 the Moon, and keep it unde● Lock and K●y Thirty days before your Day of Payment comes.  Debt. 
Why so?  Philosoph. 
— If you pay Use by the Months, and there be no Moon to measure out these Months, than no Use can be demanded.  Debt. 
— I don't know how to effect such a Task;— I think 'tis far better to hang myself before the Day of Payment, and then my Creditors will never prosecute me.  Philosoph. 
— No, no, Rou talk like one that was never hanged up in a Basket;— Don't you know the Law provides two days, one for Citation, or Demand of Payment, and the other for Payment?  Debt. 
— Well; and what then?  Philos. 
— 'Tis impossible they should come both at a time; so that one day is a warning to get ready, and run away the next. But this is not half; you are to learn the all-convincing Speech beside.  Debt. 
— Pray what's that?  Philos. 
— You must learn to Banter where you find your Creditor a little soft: As for instance; When they ask you for Money, fetch 'em out a Talisman, or any other thing, and ask 'em what it is?— If they say, they can't tell; reply, Do you ask Money, and are so very a Dunce? If they ask you for the Interest, ask 'em what they mean, or what kind of Creature that is? They'll answer, 'Tis an Increase of Money by Months, Days, etc. Ask whether the Sea grows bigger by an increase of all the Rivers that run into it? If they say, No; Ask 'em, With what a Conscience they can expect their Money should increase; and so you may treat 'em all to the End of the Chapter.  Debt. 
— I don't know what to say to't, for I believe these sham's won't take, especially since I have to deal with a Shoal of Horseleeches, called Scriveners, Bankers? 'twill pass with Tailors, Barber's, and a few Drapers: but— I must be going, Farewell Mr. Basketteer.  Philosopher 
— Pray as you go along, Remember the poor Prisoners.   

DIALOGUE XVII.  
Between Two Spirits on the Ramble, and a Flight of Witches, with their Guides.  1. Sp. 
hay day! What's the meaning of this? Yonder's Materiality flying in the Air: What can be the Supporter?  2. Sp. 
Necromancy, perhaps, or Sorcery, or Witchcraft. Come, Shall we put a Stop to't? I'm sure none of the Creation has any Business there with Tubs, Caldrons, etc.  1. Sp. 
There's a Colt, and a Calf too: Perhaps they are the People of the World in the Moon, and are going to some Fair.  2. Sp. 
What! Going to a Fair out of their Globes? No. Come, let's attack 'em; at the worst it can but be the Devil, and we are as strong as he, and less innocent.  1. Sp. Right: 
— Let's look big, and speak boldly.— Stand, there: What Commission have ye in these Quarters, you— Tub-man? What! Have ye young ones with ye? Ye shan't wag an Ace farther, till we know upon what E●rand ye are posting.  1. Fallen Sp. 
— Why, ye Etherial Stragglers: Are we bound to give you an Account?  1. Sp. 
Ye must do't, or disoblige your Hags, to defend yourselves.  2. Fallen Sp. 
— Don't prejudice my Cauldron, and I'll tell ye whither I'm marching with my Tribe.  1. Sp. 
— Say then.  2. Fallen Sp. 
— Into the French King's Cellar for two or three Hours, to treat my faithful Servants there, with every thing that's grateful to their Senes.  1. Sp. 
— Very well. And you, Mr. Tubvolant, say which Way bound,— quickly,— or we'll turn your Diddi-Birds out of their Nest; do you lend 'em Wings, if you can, to bear up their Garbage.  1. Fall. 
— Thus have I seen a laden Pinna●e braved by a meaner empty Vessel.— Well,— I also am upon the same Journey; and if ye will come along with us, you'll see such Entertainment as none of your Order ever saw before.  1. Sp. 
— No,— We must have no Society with Apostates.— Come, turn out of your Lodgings, we must have the Tub; mount your Servants upon that Colt.  Witches. 
We are a Dozen of us already, and therefore too many, unless we must ride upon the Main, and hang upon the Tail.  1. Sp. 
— Yes, yes; any how, according as you can agree; we give no Orders in that.— So, that's very well.— Come, turn out of the Cauldron, and bestride your Calf; he looks as if he wanted to suck you.— Very well:— Now, Lady-Haggs, jog on softly, that ye don't jade your Coursers before your Journey's End.  2. Fallen Sp. 
Remember this when you come to be Incorporate: Assure yourselves, we shall be equal with you then.  1. Sp. 
— Come, don't prate, for fear ye stumble, and lose a Bunch.— We know your Power well enough, that 'tis limited. No more:— Troop off, and show your Shapes.  2. Sp. 
— This Plunder will be extremely welcome to Aquarius: You heard of the Misfortune of his Water Pots being broken the other Day, by the Retrograde Dragon; Ha!— won't these serve in their Room as well as may be?  1. Sp. 
— If they had been both of a sort, it had been better; this Tub will be subject to leak. But perhaps Aries can hammer the Cauldron into Two with his Horns, and afterwards push it into the shape of the Pitchers: And if so, we'll make a Bone fire of the Tub, and laugh at the World below, who will shoot it with their Telescopes, for a prodigious Comet.  2. Sp. 
— Right, again.— But methinks, the Pleasantness of this Enterprise seems to be abated, by the Concern of getting unperceived into our Lodgings: Suppose we should be met with by the Watch, 'twill spoil the Humour on't.  1. Sp. 
— Pish, never trouble yourself about thate Leave the Management of it to me.   

DIALOGUE XVIII.  
Between Two Spirits that are to be Mayor and Mayoress of a certain Corporation: And when they come into their Bodies.  1. Sp. 
I Have just now been with the Secretary of Fate, to be resolved about some Corporal Questions, for I judged my Imbodying near at hand. But 'twas not that that pushed on my Curiosity so much, as to know why I had such an unaccountable Inclination to your Company.  2. Sp. 
And are you resolved now?  1. Sp. 
Yes: I'm to be Lord Mayor of— in 1740. and you are to be my Lady Mayoress.  2. Sp. 
I the Mayoress? Why sure! Am not I as fit to be my Lord Mayor as you?  1. Sp. 
I suppose you will always think so, or else you'll break the Custom; but Fate has designed your Mould different from 〈◊〉: You are to have a Body of a 〈◊〉, thin, 〈◊〉 sort of Clay; and, in short, you●ll be the weaker Vessel, and therefore designed for other Uses than the Burden of a Sword and Mace.  2. Sp. 
What Uses, (my Dear:) Methinks I begin to be in Love, before I know what it is.  1. Sp. 
Did you take notice of those three Souls that fled by just now?  2. Sp. 
Yes: Are they to be our Relations, when we come into the other World?  1. Sp. 
No nearer than your Son and two Daughters. There were two other Souls that used to be much in their Company about Twenty Years since, which in a little time will be your Father and Mother: But I shall spoil the Business, by reckoning up Genealogies. I'm told, you'll be very severe to me.  2. Sp. 
In what?  1. Sp. 
Unkind Prudence, and more cruel Custom will bind you to hard Laws, and teach you this Lesson; Starve yourself, to keep your Slave poor.  2. Sp. 
— That's a hard Lesson, indeed: But perhaps 'tis taught, to avoid harder.  1. Sp. 
— Right: For those that don't stand upon their Guard, are easily trepanned, and wheedled into a Thousand Misfortunes; especially, that great one of Rash Weddings. But to avoid all this, let you and I finish our Courtship here.  2. Sp. 
I'm afraid Pre-existent Contracts will be forgot, or, at least, raise Jealousies amongst our Rival-School fellows.  1. Sp. 
Never fear that: Assume one Body of Air, and I'll prepare another, and then we'll talk it once o'er again.  2. Sp. 
But what Dress is A-la-mode?  1. Sp. 
Ruffs and Commodes will be out of Fashion: But what need you take care of that? Any Dress is every Dress, if there's no other present to compare it by.— Ay, that will do.— O the Charms of the Petticoat!— Methinks I'm already got within the Influence of that Command, Increase and Multiply.  2. Sp. 
This is a near way of Wooing indeed. Where's your Billet-Deuxes, your Vows and Dying?—  1. Sp. 
Hold, no more of that Nonsensical Cant; 'tis all but an honest way of Fornication at a distance.  2. Sp. 
●ye upon this Doctrinal Part of Wooing: The World below would think this a strange Name for their Tendernesses  1. Sp. 
'Tis neither better nor worse; if I love a woman 'tis no more in other terms, than I would sleep with her; so that soveezing Hands, grasping Knees, kissing, hugging etc. are Infant-Offers on both sides at something else; 'tis the extremity of these Desires that sheds the Blood of Rivals, prompts to Suicide, and Tenants Bedlam;— when perhaps the Party all the while believed it to be pure Love, innocent Gratitude, harmless Esteem, refined Friendship, etc. Not considering that true Friendship increase by the multitude of Rivals, and that no Man was ever angry with his Neighbour for loving his Wife's Soul; when you come into the other world, you'll find no jilts nor Bullies in Bedlam for Love, no Affronts taken at the Encomiums of a Woman's Mind, no desperation for want of an Union of Souls, In short, all Languishments, Sighs, Vows. Protestations, and all the long Christ-Cross Row of Lovers is nothing else but the plain So, So, in another Dress. Friendship is another thing, and is too sacred to be mentioned at the same time as Love; it has no dependence at all on the Body, farther than that has a relation to the Mind, but Friendship is a Subject too foreign for monopolising Lovers, and may be discussed when we have nothing else to do; therefore in short, what Stomach have you to an honest Prolification? Am I yours now; or must I tarry till a real Naturalisation reads the same Lesson to you over again in another World?  2 Sp. 
I'll consider on't; and in the mean time, if I should consent, I hope you'll see me better rigged than the rest of my Neighbours.  1 Sp. 
Yes, yes, never fear that.  2 Sp. 
— Then I'm yours;— but I won't say, I love you, lest you should tell me again what Love is.   

DIALOGUE XIX.  
Between the Parcaes, (viz. Clotho, Lachesis, and Atropos,) and a Bookseller.  Parcae 
— UP Mr. Letter-monger, and prepare for your Body, we are drawing out the first Thread of your Temporality.  Bookseller. 
— What mine? Pray lay that Distaff by, and take another; do dear Lady, a●d let not me be a Prisoner these hundred years,— I'm afraid of Incorporation; for even Divinity-Books, are a mere Drug; but perhaps in a hundred years more, Times may be better: I never entreated before, deny me not now.  Parcae. 
— We'll grant your Request assoon as any Body's else; but the Dice are cast, and there's no resisting Fate; you must budge whether you will or no: Come, don't think to wheedle, and persuade us like Customers; you aren't got behind the Counter yet.  Bookseller. 
— I know it very well;— and since there's no Entreaty that can prevail I've done. Now must I stand Sentry seven years with my fingers in my mouth, and bareheaded, the better to receive the Impression of the cunning Mystery.— Methinks I have got it already;— Now for a fine Fetch with that Author about Supernumeraries, or Printing a greater Number secretly, than I contracted for; Can't I handsomely interlope with my Neighbour H—'s Copy, 'tis a very good one, and the Author is at work again. Suppose to get the next Copy, I go and outbid for this, now 'tis too late, and tell the Author he was Wheedled and Choosed out of his Labours.— I must squeeze that Book binder, 'twill help towards the loss of my late Impression.— This Copy-Money runs away with a great deal of my Gains, Can't I turn Plagiary, and with a handsome sleight of Hand, put a new Title upon that old Book; or were't not best to turn Author myself, by pillaging other men's Works— Right, that will do, I'll part with no more Copy-Money these seven years.— This Collection which I have already made, would pass, with a good Title Page.— M— R— and I, can invent some specious one for it. 'Tis not a Farthing matter whether 'tis agreeable to the Subject within treated of:— But how shall I come off with those Scandalous Pamphlets, I shall print under the Name of john a Nokes upon Tower-hill, Grub-street. the Strand, or any where else? Shall I suffer for another's Pamphletteering, for telling News before it happens, and sometimes such as always has, is, and will be a Notorious Lie? No I thank ye, so long as I know how to be in League with the Messenger of the Press, and some body else, I'll run the hazard.— Now for a Body! with all the satisfaction imaginable, for when I come into the other World, possibly I may attain to be as crafty as my Neighbours, and if so, I'll venture one step further, to get above 'em: I have only one Request to make, (Dear Mistress of Fate) that you will send but a few Booksellers, and a great many Authors into the World, for these Threescore and Ten Years.   

DIALOGUE XX.  
Betwixt a Transmigrated Soul, and an Unbodied Spirit.  Transmig. Spirit. 
WELL, how fare our Friends, Brother? I long to be a Member again of your Society, and to be freed from the strange Alliances I have contracted.  Unbodyed Spirit. 
Why, what Relations have you now?  Tr. Sp. 
My present Relations are a forward Crop of Beans, but what Kindred I shall meet with the next Harvest, I know not: I came out of a Sprat the last Year, having finished my Circuition and Change through all the Watery Inhabitants.  Unbodyed Sp. 
Pray, what sort of Fish gave you the most troublesome Entertainment?  Tr. Sp. 
The Porpus, by far, to be sure every Westerly Wind I was Drunk with tumbling over, and over, if it had not been for a pitying Collier, who by a lucky Shot made a hole just big enough to creep out of my Prison, I might have lain in Salt pickle these forty years longer; but 'tis all one, for I was turned out of one Prison, to be Chained in another; for I can't expect to cl●nge the Laws of Fate, and have my Transmigrations finished before another Thousand Years more are expired.  Unb. Sp. 
Why so?  Tr. Sp. 
Because I must run through all things Terrestrial, Marine, and Volatile, before I have finished my Task, and expiated the wickedness of my Pre-existent State, which expiation always lasts three thousand years; 'tis an unalterable Decree, that all Spirits are to be purified by such a Discipline, only here's the difference; that Spirits are to actuate mostly in those Creatures that are of the same Dispositions as they were; as for Instance: The Justice of Fate assigns such as are Angry and Malicious into Serpents, the Ravenous into Wolves, the Fraudulent into Foxes, and so of the rest; only here and there's a good Spirit, whose actions being most rational, transmigrates out of one Man into another, finishing most of the three Thousand years in humane Bodies, and as for other Creatures, the Fates take care that they speedily die, that that part of the Transmigration may be quickly over, and reason good for if by chance they should be unjustly confined beyond the three Thousand Years, there's no amends to be made, but some preferment amongst the Officers of Fate, who are always exempt from the Duties of Humanity.  Unb. Sp. 
Pray give an Instance of some Soul that has animated several Humane Bodies.  Tr. Sp. 
I myself was first infused into 〈◊〉, then passed into Euphorbus, then into 〈◊〉, than 〈◊〉 Pyrrhus, then into Pythagoras; then I left Humanity, and Transmigrated into an Elephant, and so on through every distinct Species in the Creation, and now at last I'm got into a Bean.  Unb. Sp. 
I can get into a Bean too, if I please: But here's the Question; Is this Bean, my proper Residence, and am I, by a Virtual Contact, confined more to it, than to any other Being, or Place whatever? I am rather of Opinion, that all this noise about Transmigration is no more than thus. That such as are of an equal Temper, Judgement, Inclination, etc. may be said to be unanimous, or acted by the same Spirit, especially if they live in different Ages. I can't conceive it to be any thing else, but, like Care, Motion, Study, etc. of some dead Person appearing in some living one; and thus you, if you acted Pythagoras, you were no more Euphorbus, Hermotinus, or Pyrrhus, than as you had an Inclination to the several Excellencies that appeared in those Persons, and thus a Transmigration into Fishes, Trees, Plants, etc. is nothing else but a study of their Nature.  Tr. Sp. 
You might have added, That 'tis a Doctrine that has not been received in the lower World these many Years; and that 'tis also believed, that 'twas a politic Juggle to make the Age Virtuous, by suggesting, that if Persons lived ill Lives, they should suffer such and such dreadful Transmigrations after Death; but you'll find to your Sorrow, when you come to put off your first Body, that all is matter of Fact, and no Politic Juggle.  Unb. Sp. 
When it comes to't, I'll believe it, but not before, since Pythagoras, who is affirmed to be the greatest Patron of this Doctrine, did also teach, That the Substantive Unity of one Number, is not the Unity of another, and if so, there's no Transmigration of one Animal into the Life of another different Animal, but a continuance (as long as there is a Being) under the Law of its own Nature, and particular Species; Species is not coincident with Species; and this is also employed by one of Pythagoras' Symbols, viz. We must not wear the Image of God in a Seal-Ring; that is, as God can't be resembled, or included in Corporeal matter, so a Humane Spirit (which is the Image of God) must not stoop so low as to actuate meaner Nature than the Rational.  Tr. Sp. 
Pythagoras held a Correspondence with Spirits, and could not be mistaken, what Ins●ances you have brought, are none of his, ●imon, Lenophanes, Cratinus, Aristophon, Her●ippus, and others, have ascribed many things to Pythagoras, which he never said nor wrote.— But you'll be better satisfied when you come to make an Experiment yourself.  Unb. Sp. 
'Tis no matter whether they are his or no, they are truth, and truth never clashes with truth, but is always the same: But I suppose you are in a Dream, instead of, in a Bean, or I would advise you to gape, for here's a shower of Rain, which will help on with your Germination, and haste your Change into a Cabbage.   

DIALOGUE XXI.  
Amongst the whole Consistory of Spirits, Examining a Heretic Soul, about some new Doctrines held forth in Opposition to the Common received Opinions of the Aetherial Fraternity.  Consistory. 
PRoduce the Prisoner, and his Pamphlet; and let's hear what he can say in proof of his new Doctrines; if we admit of one Innovation here, no wonder the World below us is all in Flames and Divisions.  Register of Fate. 
He is ready here, and his Pamphlet too— Will ye be pleased that I, or he read.  Consist. 
No, let him begin, and make his Defence to every particular Article as he goes along.  Prisoner. 
I accept the freedom of making my Defence to the Mysterious Truths that I have discovered, as a very great Favour, and shall without any Preface begin as follows.  
The First Cannon I ●ay down is, That the Sun and Moon are no Planets (as is vulgarly believed) but the two Eyes of the World, and that which you call Eclipses, is nothing else but the World's winking when 'tis sleepy.  Consist. 
How the World sleepy? Prove that.  Pr. 
You'll allow the World to be Matter, and as soon as it was created, to be sent of an Errand, and ride Post until this very Minute, without an● intermission whatever: You will also grant▪ that the whole is of the same nature as all its parts, and that motion wears away, and destroys what is material, unless it have some Reparations, 'tis impossible always to run, move, act, etc. I speak of particular parts of Matter, and the same also holds good concerning the whole. I know the great Objection that you'll make, and therefore will Obviate it, to save your labour, viz. 'Tis impossible to pretend to particular Functions in Nature, and at the same time to be asleep.— To which, I Answer.— That the Soul of the World is never sleepy, no more than the Spirit in Humane Bodies; but you can't deny it impossible for a Man in's Sleep, to Walk, Saddle Horses, Mow, Blow, etc. of which, there are Instances enough; just so the Soul of the World follows on its Task, tho' its material frame may be asleep; for if it did not it would break its Commission, by leaving some part of the World in too long a Darkness; but this is not a Position entertained only by me, take the Sentiments of the lower World upon it, some of which call the Eclipses 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, or the Labours of the Moon, some shot at it to keep it awake, some held up Torches, and sounded Instruments of Brass to ease it: Whence one of their Poets. Cum frustra resonant aera auxiliaria Lunae. Metam. Lib. 4.  
And another. Una laboranti peterit succurrere Lunae. Juven. Sat. 6. All which considered, perhaps may render the Doctrine as reasonable as 'tis new.  Consist. 
— Well, we shall weigh your Reasons by an●●y, what's your next Thesis.  Pr. 
Second Canon. That the Constellations in the Heavens, called the Dragon's-Head and Tail, are nothing else but pieces of a pickled Whale. To prove which, I have the Man in the Moon to be my Voucher, who is a person of so great Credit, and Reputation, that Noah made him the Boston of his Ark. His Relation is this, That one Morning, during the Flood, being very curious to take his leave of an old Neighbour or two that were got upon a Windmill, to secure themselves from Drowning as long as they could, the Moon being at Full, (that is broad awake) and according to her usual Method going to take a Draught of Sea Water, (which by the way, is the reason why Tides swell, on purpose for a full Draught) she sucked up a Whale, and the Boston of the Ark at once, with a bundle of Cable Ropes at his back, but being not used to such Victuals, she pickled the Fish, and presented it to the Astrologick Souls (who have eat up all but the Head and Tail,) but kept the Boston to be her Valet de Chamber.  Consist. 
A very strange Relation, but we shall know whether true or no, when we have sent a Messenger for the Man in the Moon: In the mean time proceed.  Pr. 
Third Cannon. That the Moon is drunk once a Mouth; I done't positively assert this, but am willing to recant if any of you can show me a better reason why her Face should be so red, when she takes a dose of the great Salt Bowl, alias the Sea.  Consist. 
We shall consider of that also— proceed.  Pr. 
Fourth Cannon. That the occasion of the Universal Deluge, was the Tears of the Devil and his Angels, who wept for grief to be routed and cast out of Heaven: They had two Designs by their Tears, for when they found they could not get in again, they hanged about the Concave and Battlements thereof, as Flies do upon the Ceiling of Houses, weeping as well to case themselves as to be revenged of Mankind, so finding themselves to be very many, they wept a numerous Company of Clouds, which were all that time in falling down upon the Earth, as is betwixt Adam and Noah; but I'm not so conceited and positive, as to believe this the reason, if you can give me a better.— But however I must beg the liberty to be positive in my next Cannon, viz.  Fifth Cannon. 
— That the cause of Winds flying backward and forward, is the breathing of the World, just as Mankind sucks breath in and out. To prove this (for I know you expect no less than a Demonstration) I need not say you must consider, (for you do,) That there can be no Effect without a Cause, no Motion without a Mover: The Opinions that pass in this, and the lower World too, have not been enough examined, viz. That the Sun, Moon, and Stars being Monstrous Bodies, and continually upon the hurry 'tis supposed, that they moving, drive the Winds, along with 'em, and that the difference of their Motions, causes different Winds, or an Agitation of the Air, this, and that way; which is impossible, because than we should have no Westerly Winds, most of the Erratic Stars moving Westward, which hinder the Winds from coming that way; besides, all Southern and Northern Winds would be unnatural, but we know that they are as common as Easterly Winds. Nor would the Rarification of Water (as the Philosophers in the lower World Dream) be enough to supply such great Winds, and Hurricanes, as sometimes happen, for they only proceed immediately from the lungs of the World, when it has catched cold, or is disposed to Laugh or Whistle▪ which makes the Air fly faster out. I might add here, instead of putting it into another Cannon.— That all Earthquakes proceed from the sighing of the World when 'tis in a melancholy Humour, for it raising up its Body (as Man does his Breast when he sighs) and being brittle where it has the fewest Ribs (I mean Mines, Quarries, etc. as vulgarly called) the Buildings, and Cities standing in those places, tumble in into's Bowels to secure themselves from a transport into the World of the Moon.— Well, Gentlemen, I hope 'tis your Silence that gives Consent unto these Truths, and not an Amazement at their Novelty. In Confidence whereof, I proceed to my  
Sixth Cannon, viz. That Stars are the Bubbies of the World, at which all Astrologers suck, and that all that don't love Astrology were put out to Nurse, and weaned with grosser Diet.— But I beg your Pardon (Gentlemen!) I turned over a wrong Leaf; this is your own received Principle, therefore no need to prove it, I meant thus— That 'tis as possible for an Ass to drink up the Moon, as to cure Wounds by Sympathy.  Consist. 
Ay, indeed now you say something, that is, as much as to say 'tis possible for an Ass to suck out one of the Eyes of the World; for so you called it but just now; but prav before you prove it, prove a possibility that it may be proved.  Pr. 
Pray, Gentlemen, let me have fair play, I mean the liberty of a Philosopher— If I prove it, I also prove a possibility of proving it: Don't?  Consist. 
Yes.  Pr. 
Very well. To proceed then. I am to tell you that my Correspondence from the other World is very good and creditable, and 'tis often found there, that the Man travels in pains of Childbirth, when the Woman her self is Delivered without pain: That if some sort of Leaves are rubbed (whilst growing) upon a Corn, Wart, etc. that Corn, or Wart shall die as the Leaf withers away:— Thus small ideal parts, or fancied Representatives of what is real, have the same Sympathetick Effect, that a true Cause would have, when you come into the other World, read Sir Kenelm Digbies Works in this kind. Now those that can deny an Ass to have no Fancy, deny themselves any: But to be short, and give you an Instance that is matter of Fact. One of my Correspondents (Ludou. vives) gave me an account of a certain People that did imprison an Ass for drinking up the Moon; the manner was thus:— The Ass being driven to the Water to drink, the Moon shined very bright, and reflected in the water just where the Ass drunk; the Ass fancied strongly, pulled hard to draw in the Moon, and it had the effect accordingly, tho' some were so silly as to believe the Moon being in danger, slipped out of sight behind a Cloud. Hereupon the Ass was brought to the Bar, to receive a Sentence according to his Deserts; and as the Senate were gravely debating the matter, one starts up, a little wiser perhaps than the rest, and made the short following Speech.— Gentlemen, 'Tis my private Opinion, (and I hope not unreasonably) that 'tis no trifling business for our Town to lose its Moon; and I know but of one way to recover it again, viz. by giving the Ass a strong Vomit, to weaken his Fancy, for 'tis that that keeps the Moon a Prisoner in his Maw.— No, says another, I think it much better that the Ass be cut up, and the Moon taken out of him; in short, they handled the Ass so severely, that he had forgot his Supper, and the Moon stole whole, and undigested again into its own place against the next Night, but ever after played at Bopeep, when she saw the Ass come near the Water.— Gentleman, 'tis all matter of Fact, and as great a truth as my next Position.  Seventh Cannon. 
That those Devils that were furthest pursued by Michael and his Angels, viz. as far as the middle Region of the Air, are all Tailors, and cut out the Clouds into Shapes of Hogs, Trees, Ships, Dromedaries, etc. on purpose to be talked on and wondered at by the ignorant Country People of the World below.  
To prove which, you may be pleased to remember, the Prince of Wicked Angels fell by Pride in endeavouring to be like his Maker; and when he was excluded, and chased out of Heaven, he could not forget the Notion, but would yet be imitating, and make the Representations of all Creatures in Clouds, and Condensed Bodies of Air, I might (if there was occasion, to strengthen this Argument) add, that he has also his Oracles, Miracles, Sacrifices, Priests, in short above one half of the World his true and faithful Servents, and all this because the old Notion of Imitation was so deeply rooted in his mind.— Now it being proved, that the Prince of fallen Spirits, does act so and so; it follows, that all the subordinate Mob have an Itch to imitate their Head, it being a great truth: Regis ad Exemplum totus Componitur Orbis. Subjects will be imitating their King, and Children their Parents, let 'em act good or bad. By Tailor, and cutting out Clouds, I mean only Metaphorically a shaping of Clouds, and I shall think none of you Heretics, if you call 'em Carpenters, or Statuaries.  Consist. 
— Well, and the next.  Pr. 
That never any Spirit was sent into a Humane Body, to join with it as its proper half, or as a convenient residence, but as into a Prison for Debt, purely for Debt; and not (as is pretended) for rambling, or other Extravagancies.  
To prove which, you need only to consult the Records of our Honourable Court of Equity, and you'll find the Decrees generally run thus: That having upon the humble Suit of the Plaintiff A, impartially weighed and considered the Defendant B's Charge, wherein is proved, that besides bilking his Lodging, he never paid for the cleansing his Wings, nor whitening his Wand; be it therefore Enacted by the Prerogative of this Honourable Court of Spirits, That the said B, be forthwith transported into the other World, and be kept close Prisoner in a Humane Body for Seventy two Years (or some other Number, proportioned to the nature of the Debt.)— And this is farther proved by my Correspondents in the other World, who tell me, they often get into the Ear to listen if there be any subject of dissolution, and sometimes mount up into the Eye, and take a view of the Skies, their old Lodgings; and when the Eye (that is to say, the Wicket door, or rather the Grate of the Prison) is closed up, 'tis more terrible to 'em, then Garnishing, or double Irons to a Criminal; and thus much for Incorpation Penalties.  Eighth Cannon. 
'Tis as easy a thing for Ships to sail in the Clouds of the Air, as in the Sea, and 'tis an Invention that will be found out when Mankind shall discover the way into the World of the Moon.  
This Cannon consists of two parts, viz. Hypothetick and Prophetic, to prove the Hypothesis.— Clouds are formed in the Air either ordinarily, or extraordinarily; ordinarily by the Exhalations of thin and moist Vapours, just as the steam of a boiling Cauldron ascends, which meeting together, and justling in the air, by little and little are condensed into thick Clouds, or airy Rivers, which by degrees empty themselves again into the Sea, as all other Rivers do upon the Earth. Extraordinarily, when several Winds meet together (as 'tis frequent in some Seas) the equal strife causes a whirling violent ascension of fight Particles, which form a Vacuum in the shape of a leaden Pipe, or Pump as high as the Clouds, but Nature abhorring a Vacuum, fills that vast Pipe with Water, by way of Suction or drawing up. So that presently there are form Clouds of many Millions of Tuns of Water, which can easily enough bear up a Ship, for water loses not its nature in being less▪ as is evident by a Ship swimming as well in Twenty Fathom deep, as Twenty thousand. Nor has it less power in the Air, than on the Earth; for a Tub of Water upon the top of a House, will bear up a Hat, Stick, etc. as easily as the Well in the Ground, from whence that water was taken. But though we have proved, that Ships may sail in the Air, we shan't promise prosperous Voyages, which brings me to the Prophetic part of my Cannon, viz. That Mankind shall discover the way into the World of the Moon, when they find out the way of Sailing in the Air; I could prove this also, but that it would lessen the Credit of Prophecies, which admit of no demonstration, but matter of fact: Therefore I shall wave it, not desiring to be believed, till it be fulfilled.  Consist. 
That's reasonable enough,— What else have you to offer?  Pr. 
Ninth Cannon. That Saturn is neither Base nor Ten●r, but Counter-Tenor in the Music of the Spheres.  
I have my own reasons for this Negative, and I expect the same liberty that the Philosophers have in the World below, that is, Not to prove Negatives. Let all the Musical Souls amongst ye, prove the affirmative, and I'll not only yield the Cause, but give 'em both my Ears for a demonstration so soon as I have 'em. But to proceed, if I may speak without offence, or particular Reflections on this Honourable Consistory, who are now my Judges, I have a great many more Negatives to offer in opposition to as many received Opinions amongst you, which ye have taken upon Trust, without examining the reasonableness of 'em; in which (provided I may be freed from my Confinement, and the Calumny of it,) I shall oblige all our Fraternity with my farther Discoveries.  Consist. 
— We'll do you justice, and upon performance of your promise, you shall have your Liberty.   

DIALOGUE XXII.  
Between the whole Consistory of Spirits, being a discovery of Vulgar Errors, received in that Society, by the late supposed Heretic Spirit yet a Prisoner.  Prisoner 
— THE Goodness of my Cause is to me instead of Questions; therefore I shall immediately begin to discover the vulgar Errors of our Society.— The Condition of my Releasement,  Secretary of Fate. 
— Hold a little; here's the Man in the Moon come now; let's hear what he can say about the Pickled Leviathan; if upon Oath he confirms not your Testimony already delivered, how shall we believe what you shall offer hereafter.— Swear him there, and Administer the Interrogatories already drawn up to that end.  Notary Public. 
'Tis done— Imprimis, do you know the Prisoner at the Bar? Have you ever held Correspondence with him? And if so, how long?  Man in the Moon. 
Yes, I do know the Prisoner at the Bar, and have held a particular Correspondence with him, ever since 35 Years before the Flood.  Not. Pub. 
Item, Was you the Boston of Noah 's Ark? Did the Moon suck a Whale and you up with a bundle of Cables at your Back, at full Tide in the Universal Deluge, declare the truth, and nothing but the truth.— You are upon your Oath.  Man in the Moon. 
The affirmative of every particular of this second Interrogatory is truth.  Not. Pub. Item 
— Are you now Valet de Chamber to the Moon?  Man in the Moon. 
— I am.  Consist. 
He's very positive, pray examine about his Humanity, Sustenance, etc. this looks very suspicious.  Not. Pub. 
— Item, Were you a Man, or a Spirit, when you were Boston of the Ark? If the first, How come you to live so long without putting ●ff the Body? If the last, was there any more Spirits with you there at the same time. Remember you are upon your Oath, and therefore speak the whole truth, and nothing but truth.  Man in the Moon. 
— I was then, and yet am of Humane Race, and possibly shall continue lively and well, till the day of Judgement, by reason of the agreeableness of that Aethar to my Stomach, I am never Sick, Hungry, Thirsty, nor Weary; for there's no crude Vapours, or gross matter to turn into Diseases. Nor is it at all strange, since the lower World tells you of one Epimendies (Viridiar. Lib. 4. prob. 24.) that slept Seventy Five Years without Meat and Drink, and of a whole Nation in India, that lives upon pleasing Odours, (Nat. Hist. lib. 7. c. 3.) and of Democritus that was fed divers days with the smell of hot Bread (Diog. Laert. lib. 1. cap. 9) why should it seem strange to you, that pure Aether should afford such a Nourishment, when your common, gross, vaporous Air nourishes Vegetables? Onions, and the Sempervive, shoot forth and germinate, when hanged in the open Air. What think ye of the Birds of Paradise, that have nothing else to feed upon but Air? Go and ask Rondoletius how it was possible for his Priest to live forty years upon nothing but Air? Or what he meant, when he said he was an Eye-witness of one that had lived Ten years without other Nourishment. From all which 'tis no wonder that the pure Aether should have such Effects upon me, as you now see; though if there were occasion for it, there's all sorts of Diet: but they are given only as Physic to new Comers into our World in the Moon, as preparatory to a prepetual Abstinence.— Gentlemen, I hope what I have said is satisfactory; and so I desire the liberty to withdraw: The Moon is awake, and ready to get up by this time, and if I miss my Attendance, I may be turned out of my Office.  Consistory. 
— Very well; discharge the Witness, and see him safe home in the Moon again.— In the mean time,— do you, Mr. Philosopher, proceed in your Discoveries; you shall have a very favourable Construction of what you offer.  Prisoner. 
— I acknowledge my Obligations, (most judicious Patrons) and shall impart what I have found out, with as much Humility and Modesty as Truth can stoop to.—  
First then, I shall presume to call this received Opinion a Vulgar Error. That Taurus has any Horns, or that he feeds of the Schems and Draughts of Astrologers in the lower World.  Astrol. Sp. 
— How's that? Blasphemy I protest: What will you make a sucking Calf of one of the great Supporters of the Stars!  Prisoner. 
— Pray, Mr. ginger, Not so fast, lest you should tyre; and then your Bull (I assure you) cannot carry you, tho' ye offer every day a Bundle of Schemes to him. Suppose there's no such a Being in all the Heavens as Taurus, but only a Nominal Division of the Heavens, what will become of Horns and Fodder then?  Astrol, Sp. 
— He raves certainly.— Prove what you say.  Prisoner. 
Nay hold there; what bid a Philosopher prove Negatives! Do you prove the Affirmative if you can; if not, tell this honourable Court why you believe it.  Astrol. Sp. 
— Let me consider a little.—  Prisoner. 
— Come never vex yourself to find out what is not; when the Sun goes through that Part or Division of the Heavens, (or if you will, when that part of the Heavens moves by the Sun,) it is said to be in Taurus, because it happens at the time of the Year when the Countryman tills, manures, and ploughs his Lands by the help of Oxen or Bulls; likewise when the Sun is in Gemini, 'tis said to be so, because of the Pairing and Copulation of most Creatures at time; and so of the rest of the Signs; which are only Appellations, and no real Being's. I could tell you, that there's some in the World below us, that know as much; but this would be too like one of their Proverbs, viz. If you would know what News at Court, you must inquire in the Country: And this puts me in mind of another false Opinion among us, viz. That the Devil is a Male Spirit.  
This is taken upon Trust too, without examination of his Testicles: if there be ever a Midwife-Spirit among you, that knew him out at Nurse, or that had any private Familiarity, or learned it by his own Confession before he fell, stand forth.  Midwife-Sp. 
— I knew him out at Nurse, but was never very curious in that particular; but he told me himself that he was a Male-Spirit.  Prisoner. 
He toll ye! If you have no better Evidence than that, it proves nothing. 'Tis well known The first Word he spoke was a Lie; and 'twas for lying that Michael chased him out of Heaven.— I'm persuaded he's an Hermophradite, my reasons are these; 'Twas a brave and Masculine sort of Impiety when he pretended himself to be a God, and gave Oracles, and Prophesied; but 'twas a Feminine sort of wickedness, to be afraid of the Pentangle of Solomon, the Liver of Tobias his Fish, the sound of Tetragrammaton, the Virtue of Hypericon, the Root of Baaras: Could any thing but a Feminine Devil, be Commanded by Charms, Spells, Conjurations, Lerters, Notes, and Dashes. In short, can the Devil be any thing else but a Rigil, that is, either Man or Woman, to gratify the Witches, and Wizards of the world below, Can he be any thing else but an Hermaphrodite, whose Language looks both ways at once, and is either true or false. Aio te Aeacidem Romanos vincere posse.  
No, no, the Case is plain; and I hope this Honourable Convention will order it to be registered accordingly. And so I shall proceed to take notice of another Vulgar Error amongst us, viz. That the Soul of the World is not subject to the Passions of Humane Spirits, or that it is not sometimes Merry, Sad, etc.  
I suppose, if I prove the contrary you'll look so wishfully upon one another, that you'll have an immediate Confirmation of it by the World's Laughing at you: 'Tis a certain truth, and if you will but peep out of the Wickets of your Stars, and view the Face of the Elements, you will just now see it look with a pair of Blubbered Eyes, the reason of it is this; Taking a view of the Creation, it casually fixed one of its Eyes upon the gallic Territories, and seeing so much Tyranny, Pride, Extortion, Blasphemies, etc. it could not refrain from Weeping, the Inhabitants of the World below us, call it Raining, not believing that the frequent showers of Tears that fall amongst 'em, are a bewailing their Irregularities; and thus, when it sees some good and virtuous Actions, it looks with a pleasant Air, and smiles upon 'em, and that they call Sunshine. The other Night, the World had got the Highcough, which is very often mistaken for Thunder.— We are in almost a hundred Mistakes about the World's Common Actions; when it Spits, 'tis erroneously supposed to be a Shooting of Stars; when it turns its Head on one side, either in a fit of Laughter, or by being ashamed at some unhandsome Actions it sees, presently 'tis concluded, there's an Eclipse of the Sun; and in this Opinion, the World below us are deeply rooted: Now since I am not stingy, or partial in Communicating my Observations, I would have some of you Astrologick Souls (when you come to have Bodies) to undeceive your Neighbours about that which they call an Eclipse of the Sun, for 'tis laid down as a Maxim amongst 'em, That the Sun being a greater Body than the Moon, can never be totally Eclipsed; which Error does so much affront the Harmonious Order, and make of the Universe, that the World, as unable to put up such Indignities, has been in the Humour sometimes to close both her Eyes at once, and leave Mankind muffled up in a perpetual Night; for you must believe, that if the Face of the World be proportioned to its Body, it must be pretty broad, at least some 100000 Miles.— So that the Eyes must stand a great distance one from another; nay, the Inhabitants of the lower World grant as much in effect when they say the Sun is in an Orb vastly higher than the Moon; now taking their Opinion for granted, the Sun may be totally Eclipsed according to their own Principles— as in the Figure annexed; for when the Face of the world stands sideway to the Earth, so that the Moon is betwixt the Earth and the Sun, 'tis plain, the Moon does not only Eclipse the whole Body of the Sun, but as far about as the Circle B, the Body of the Sun, although bigger than the Moon, extending no farther than A.  
Another Vulgar Error, which I have met with, is this. That there are no more Worlds habitable by Men, than the Earth, Moon, Sun, and the rest of the Planets, with a few fixed Stars.  
Now this I know, by my own Experience, to be a falsehood, for coming home late one Night by the Seven Stars, I peeped into the least amongst 'em (which you know is seldom visible to the lower world) and I saw Thousands of Little Men and Women going to a Fair, but they were no bigger than Rats; I could not forbear Philosophising upon it, and at last I satisfied myself with this Conclusion, that all Stars were Worlds, and the People in 'em were proportioned according to the bigness of 'em, and I was confirmed in my Opinion when I considered that the Inhabitants of the Earth were about two Yards high, that those in the Moon were as high as the largest Steeples, and that the People in the Sun would make nothing of stepping Seven Miles at a step in their common walking, had that an ordinary sucking Flea had a Trunk as big as an Elephant; now Gentlemen, that you may be satisfied as well as I, that the least Star is an Habitable World, 'tis but taking a little more notice of 'em in your Rambles.—  
Another Vulgar Error amongst us is, That there are some new Stars since the Creation, or at least old ones mended, as that in Cassopeia, that in Sagitarius, and many others.  
For First, (as introductive to what follows) I shall prove that Stars don't borrow their Light from the Sun, but have their own innate light, as Fish Scales, Rotten Wood, etc. notwithstanding all the plausible pretences of Earthly Philosophers; because, if they borrowed their Light from the Sun, or by Reflection, they would not always have the same appearance, since the World moves its face sometimes so, that both its Eyes are hindered from looking upon such and such Stars, and sometimes by reason of the Interposition of one anhther; but such and such Stars have always the same Lustre, provided the Clouds don't interpose or hinder the light from making a right Judgement.— Secondly, They are not matter solid and compact as the Earth is, for 'tis evident to every body's experience▪ that motion would in time wear 'em away, but they are only Globulous formations out of the first light, which finished the Circumrotation of Heaven and Earth, ere the Sun, Moon, or themselves were created; and if so, Light is not subject to attrition or wearing away, no more than Darkness, which in some sense is a quality rather than a body: Hence no Stars grow old, or wear away, and if so, no need either of mending 'em, or making new ones, for a convenient perfect number was at first created; besides, if they should be mended, what would have become of their Inhabitants the same time? or where must they have dwelled till their World had been new Rigged? Those Stars talked on, in Cassopeia, Sagitarius, etc. were nothing else but Meteors or Evaporations from the bodies of other Planets, caused by the Sun; and as the matter whereby they were ●ed ceased, they disappeared; and the truth of all this is well known by many of our Society, who were at the same time upon the Ramble in those Quarters.— The next vulgar Error I observe is this, That in a few Ages the People in the World below us will teach the Rucks in Madacassar to fly with 'em into the World in the Moon, and steal some of those Inhabitants to show 'em at Bartholomew Fair.  
By what wild Notion this Opinion came to be propogated I know not, but the Authors of it do also tell us, that a Ruck is a Bird with wings twelve foot long, and that they make no more of sooping up a Horse and his Rider▪ than a Kite does of a Mouse, so that they can easily carry a Man any whither between their Pinions, or in their Talons. But tho' I grant this to be truth, yet the Voyage is too long to undertake; for according to my last Calculation, the distance between the Earth and the Moon is one hundred seventy nine Thousand, seven hundred and twelve Miles; so that supposing it possible for a man and his winged Courser to fly half a year together, it would be 980 miles a day, (too violent a motion for breathing) before he could get to the Moon, which would be a very hard Task without Meat, Drink, or Sleep. And lastly, (for I'll mention but one more at present) 'tis an Erroneous Opinion, That a Spirit can't carry away the whole Universe at once, if he might be permitted to do it.  
If a Spirit can heave a Chair, a Stool, a Man, etc. he can also remove the World. The reason is, matter is not determinative upon Spirits, first, not as to place, for if a Spirit cannot be circumscribed, it follows that all Places are the same to him, and that if a Spirit moves a Chair from its first Station, he can also move it ten thousand Miles further, all the labour being only willing such a motion. Nor is it the Quality of matter that can hinder this motion, all matter being the same to him; we have daily instances of Spirits passing through Glass, and the most continuous matter as easily as through Air, which is a more extended Body. Nor is it Quantity that can hinder this motion, for 'tis granted that a Spirit can as easily move a man as a flea, and if so, he can as easily run away with a Star as a man, but this he is not permitted to do, since such a motion would spoil the harmonious and regular position of the Heavens: but to prove it possible to remove Sun, Moon, Stars, Earth, Sea, nay, and the whole Coelum Empyreum at once; I shall offer,— That a Spirit moves not matter by application of matter to the thing moving, (as when a man moves his Hat off his Head, he moves it with his hand, which is another body) but by a virtual Contact or Application of the Will, just as a man moves his own Body, which is only by willing a motion to it; just so when a man moves his hand, he moves it not by help of the other hand, but by the immediate act of his will. Now the Spirit in a man is limited by Incorporation, and can move nothing but only its members, or what it applies its members to; which also being matter are confined to Proportions in respect of that other matter which they are applied to, yet an unbodied Spirit being confined to no particular Matter can will a motion to any matter, which is effective upon matter, as greater Powers command lesser. Nay, I might yet further offer that a spirit might more all the Universe at once (I mean the Coelum Empyreum, and all the Globes within it) without displacing the particular parts; as the Wheels, Weights, etc. of a Clock, when the whole Clock is moved away at once; for a Clock will follow its regular motions in Italy as well as in England, so that (Gentlemen Spirits,) if you have a mind to examine matter of fact, there's no more to do than to make a trial, only I have this to tell you, that you cannot tell whether you move the whole or no, because you carry all matter and place with you, so that there will be left no place behind to measure from, and if so, no distance, and consequently no motion to be judged of; nor can we who are within the Globe perceive it, since we shall be always at the same distances, just as a fly would be in a house if the house were removed. This is all I have to offer at present, by which I hope I may have not only performed the Conditions of my Liberty, but deserve a Philosopher's body in the other World.  
Consistory, Very well, be it Enacted forthwith, that he supply the first vacancy in the Athenian Society.   

DIALOGUE XXIII.  
Between the Spirit of one that is to be a Member of the ATHENIAN SOCIETY, a Correspondent, and of some that are to be Querists.  Athenian Member. 
— HOW a Member of the Athenian Society! a privy Counsellor of the Stars? a Resolver of all Questions! very well,— Have at ye Physics and metaphysics, Methinks I long to begin the search, Nature lays open her hidden stores, the vegetable world courts my Inspection, the Spirits of animate Being's crowd to be treated on, and the Caelestal bodies stoop to my Embraces, as Luna did to her Endymion. Though other Spirits tremble at the thoughts of Incorporation, 'tis a great part of my happiness to think on't, and I'm uneasy in nothing but delays of commencement Pray. Gentlemen Spirits, if ye have any kind resentment of my expectations, begin and ask me some Questions, that I may try my faculty.  A Querist. 
— Very well,— I shall be one of your humble Querists in the other World, and to save us both some labour, pray answer beforehand, whether the Longitude at Sea can be found out so as to be made practicable; and also the reason of the flux and reflux of that unquiet Element.  Athe. Mem. 
— Yes, 'tis possible to find out a Practicable Longitude, but I shan't discover the Method how till I come into the other World, and am secure of the thousand pounds' Legacy, the promised reward; so that I shall entreat you, and all other my loving Querists, to let me take my own time for resolving Questions of Interest; but as to the flux and reflux of the Sea, I'll impart the discovery;— Know then that the whole mass of the Creation is one great vegetable Being, and that Water and Air are to it, as sap is to Trees, or as blood and serum are to animate Bodies; and that the universal Spirit which is dispersed through every individual Particle of Nature, and more eminently gathered together in the midst of that vast frame, is the Sun, which being placed in the Centre of the Earth resembles the spirit of man, which is also more particularly seated in the heart; this premised, I further add, That the Sun would expire if there were not an Element of Air to oppose and fight with; which I prove thus, particulars are of the same nature as their Generals, and a small fire closed up so that it can have no Air to oppose it, immediately grows unactive and expires. And thus, when a man ceases to breath, the vital heat or spirit within having nothing to sight with, grows idle, and dies. To which I shall yet add, as a resolution to the Question, That the strife betwixt the Sun and the Air thins and subtilizes the Sea, and causes the flux and swelling of the Tides as a small fire affects the bubbling water that is near it; and thus the strife betwixt the vital heat and the respiring Air in bodies, rarefies and stirs up the blood to a pulsation, or a diastole and systole, agreeable to the flux and reflux of the Sea, and as the pulse is easier discerned in the Arms and other extreme parts, than in the main bulk of the body; So Tides are most remarkable at the shores. Thus Life is maintained by opposition, and thus all compounded Existences are preserved by unnatural Wars. One difficulty more is to be resolved, and I've done, some Seas have their Titles every two hours, some every four, and some every six, which periods are caused by the different humours of the Sea, as some are more terren● and heavy than other, some more salt and sulphureous, some more thin and vaporous, and accordingly their respective qualities increase to such and such a degree before they are proper subjects for the Sun and Air to work upon, which being destroyed by agitation, they are so long before they 〈◊〉 to a proper head again; and this also 〈◊〉 with the Crisis, or fits of fevers in humane bodies, which also differ aecording of the body, the 〈◊〉 humowr mereases three days, the 〈…〉 and so the rest, before they can come to 〈◊〉 a degree or Crisis of the distemper, and thus I have considered the resemblance 〈…〉 great and little World by way of answer to this Question.— And now propose your next.  Querist. 
— Here's the Correspondent come from your Incorporate Brethren the Athenian Society in the other World, perhaps they may be puzzled by their Querists, and have therefore desired you and the rest of their Successors Assistance.  Correspondent. 
— Your Embodied Brethren below greet ye well, wishing ye all good organised bodies, & patient Querists, & entreat a continuance of Correspondence. They have by me sent you six Questions, desering you would communicate your thoughts upon 'em, and if ye will send to them what difficulties you meet with amongst your Etherial Querists they'll impart their Opinions to you. The following Questions are according to the quality of the several Members.  Divine. 
— Whether the Pope be Antichrist or no?  Mathematician. 
— Whether there may be found out a Cannon to measure a spherical Convoid?  Logician, 
— What's the proper definition of glorified matter?  Civilian. 
— What reasonable answer we can make when we are asked, Why upon Divorces we take penal Security that the Innocent party marrys not again during the Divorceds' Life, when the forfeiture and payment of such penal security ●ill not satisfy the Law.  Lawyer. 
— Whether Lazarus' Estate belonged to the next Heir or himself after he rose from the Dead?  Poet. 
— Pray assist me with two or three natural Rhimes to Chimney.  Merchant. 
— How to find out a way to give Intelligence in six hours, of Ships at 100 Leagues distance, in order to profitable Ensurances.  Surgeon. 
— Whether an Homunculus produced upon the Grounds that Paracelsus has laid down, would have been animated by Blood, or such white Matter as Vermin have that are also produced by unnatural heat?  
Their Bookseller, and Mr. Smith the Coffee-Man, want also to know whether there be any Cure for the Athenian Itch.  Member. 
— Here's nothing that is beyond the power of an immediate perception. Say, all ye Aethereal Querists, have you any doubt to send into the other World?— If ye have, propose 'em to our Correspondent, who is just now going thither.  1 Querist. 
— I am afraid I shall be a Poet; direct me by what measures I may be exempted from the Fate of the Old Proverb; Poets are podr by Lestiny.  2 Querist. 
— I have but one to offer.— How may I attain to an effectual Form of Courtship?— But pray, let it be answered in the very next Mercury; for Lovers are impatient.  3 Querist. 
— I have a very scrupulous Conscience. Pray, is it lawful to eat Black Puddings?  4 Querist. 
— I want to know the Reasons why those Questions I sent about six weeks since are not yet answered: I think my Questions deserve a Thought as well as any Bodies else.  5 Querist. 
— When comes out the next Volume?  6 Querist. 
— What curious Translations are designed for the next Supplement?  7 Querist. 
— I'm a little ashamed, or I would ask when I shall be Married? Pray, let me be answered the next Tuesday; which being the first in the Month, is the Day appointed by the Society for Love-Questions, and the Doubts of Ladies.  8 Querist. 
— Why many Questions are never answered? viz. jacohitish, Obscene, Scandalous● Riddlish, useless, & c? Since every Body would have their own Thoughts preferred to their Neighbour's,— let mine come the next.  9 Querist. 
— Why they pass over Questions of two or three Months standing, and take notice of Popular Subjects, Curious Accidents, and such as can't be passed over without great prejudice to the Querist; which looks a little partial.— I want a speedy Answer,  10 Querist. 
— Why the World below is so foolish as to expect one Paper to please every Body, since the variety of Educations, Constitutions, etc. create different Judgements, so that what pleases this Person, offends that; and what offends this, pleases that; Insomuch that 'tis a true Riddle, To please most, is the way to offend most; and to offend most, is the way to please most? Let the next Mercury treat of this Subject, it being a Matter of Consequence.  Correspondent. 
— Pray, dismiss me; the Society is set, a●d I shall lose a great part of the Conference.  Athenian Member. 
— Very well! Remember us to our Embodied Brethren, and tell 'em they shall have their Questions answered, and sent to 'em by their next Sessions, and we hope they will consider of these sent by our Aetherial Querists; tell 'em also, that a Continuation of this Correspondence is very agreeable to us, and shall never be broke off by our neglect.— One thing more,— You must remember to call in at Venus as you go along; there's a Female Spirit at a great loss in a certain soft Affair; she wants a Resolution of her Doubts as soon as possible.   

DIALOGUE XXIV.  
Between the Spirits of a General, a Midwife, and an Executioner.  General. 
— I Can't think myself to be of the same Species as other Spirits are.— How?— the disposal of so many thousand Souls!— Strange! what a spacious Manor am I Lord of? What a numerous Crowd of living Tenements are at my Command? Methinks I see my 〈◊〉 at the Head of 60000 Men, who act implicity, without questions: If I command, they fight, march, encamp, or what I please. Methinks I see my Enemy drawing near, and 〈◊〉 depends on a single Breath, whether Thousands fall or none: What signifies a Diadem, or Tyrian Robes, when the Sword commands them to be laid aside? Alexander was not feared as Philip's Successor; but as a General, and a Conqueror. Is there any Spirit that can pretend to such an absolute Power over its fellow-creatures as a General?  Midwife. 
— What Despotic Spirit is this that presumes to huff, and encroach upon my Privileges? A General! 'Tis a little noise, busy Thing, that is so far from having an absolute Disposal of its Fellow-Creatures: as to have its dependence purely from me, Is it not in my power to crush the Wretch, and bring it strangled into the World? And then where's the Disposer of Crowns, the single Breath, that was to determine the Life and Fate of Thousands? How small is that Power over others, that is not able to preserve itself? Besides, admit a General to have a dispensation for an uncommon entrance into the World; how would he do for proper Subjects of his Power, if he disowned his Obligations to me? Where would he have his Attendance, if I should deny to assist him by aiding humane Productions?  General 
— How, I depend upon a whining Female Midwifery! If the more hardy, and Masculine Being's obey me, what can the more helpless, brittle Clay, called Woman, do? If 'tis in a Commander's Power to put all to the Sword, by what Artifice can you plead an Immunity?—  Midwife, 
— By that of Gratitude; If Male Spirits are not wholly ignorant of such a Virtue; for 'tis a mean recompense to destroy-those by whom we live.— But to pass over that: The first Refusal of any thing is most noble; and than you can't deny but we have our power of disposing of Life and Death before you: Besides, Life being more noble than Death, we have yet the preference, since we dispose of that, and you of this:  Executioner. 
— What a vain Contest is here about a Pre-eminence that belongs to neither of you?  Gen. 
— What have we here, another Controller of Fate?  Execut. 
— Yes, very often of the Fate of Generals and Midwives too.  Gen. 
— Oh that I had but a Body, and this Insolent Gibbet Gazer another; that I might Cane him for his Sauciness.  Execut. 
— Not so passionate, g●od General.— If you know any other Reason besides your Sword, pray answer— whether 'tis not the End of an action that dignifies it?— Or, whether Actions in themselves are either good or ill otherwise than as they receive such denominations from the End which determines them?  Gen. 
— Right; What would you infer from hence, the honour of fixing a Criminal's Ear-knot, or piling up the expiating Faggot?  Execut. 
— No, but that my Office being the Execution of just and prudent Laws, is far more honourable than the murdering Ambition of Generals, or the Midwifery of vicious Humanity. The most just Wars that happen, are never without the injustice of destroying some Persons, that have no other fault but prejudiced Judgements; and Midwifery is so blind an Action, as to make no difference betwixt the Legitimate and Illegitimate, betwixt Fathers of Countries and Tyrants; betwixt the Prince and Beggar.— But in a due Administration of just Laws; there's an immediate distinction betwixt Merit and Demerit, Virtue and Vice: In short, 'tis so absolutely necessary, that neither the Body Politic, nor private Persons can be safe and happy without it; and therefore nobly great, and meritorious, as a Preserver of Nobility amongst other Conditions.  Gen. 
— I never decide Disputes any other way than by my Sword; therefore if you persist in these Heresies, prepare to end the Argument by force.—  Execut. 
— I never fence, nor resist till I tie up my Adversary; if you'll tarry till then, I'm sure I shall convince you.—  Midwife. 
— Dispute and quarrel as long as ye please, I shan't yield the pre-eminence to either of you;— Besides, 'tis unjust, (since we are all Proselytes to our own Conclusions,) to give Judgement decisive upon our own Cases.— If you think it convenient, we'll refer the Dispute to the Arbitration of the Athenian Mercury, who will do us all Justice.  Execut. 
— Agreed.  Gen. 
— March then; but, I will lead up the File thither.   

DIALOGUE XXV.  
Between the Spirits of Two Projectors.  1 Spirit. 
— HOW! A well fledged Cully, just come to Town, and brought along with him an unbawked Fancy, a strong Faith, and a deep Purse! Very well,— 'Tis no common Catch,— a handsome plausible Harangue; and he's mine; But yonder's one of my Comrades.— Holo Brother Projector, What Prospect have you of your Discoveries in the lower World; Are they like to succeed or not?— I'm upon the wings of an imaginative Faculty; and am fancying myself in pursuit of the Game.  2 Sp. 
— First let me see how I shall come off in what I'm now upon.  1 Sp. 
— Why have you not yet effected your Promise of recruiting the exhausted stores of Nature about Thunder and Lightning?  2 Sp. 
— What do you mean?  1 Sp. 
— When Nature was commanded to muster up all her Sulphury Stores, and Vengeance called for their disposal on the Cities of Sodom and Gomorah, 'twas you (if I mistake not) that offered to raise a new Supply without a Bankrupcy of any of the four Elements.  2 Sp. 
— That I have done long since; but the great business in hand is—  1 Sp. 
— Is what? I'll warrant you 'tis some Intriegue that you are for managing when you come into the Body: Come we'll suppose ourselves already there;— What would you be at?  2 Sp. 
— Twenty Thousand Pounds at least, and a Name to out live Monuments.— The Notion's 〈◊〉 and coming; and methinks I see a Coach and Six a little behind it, attending me as a small Testimony of such a useful Discovery.  1 Sp. 
— Then you'll forget me; Attendance and Ceremonies will prejudice your Eyes from looking upon your old Friends: In short, you'll be moulded into a new Nature.  2 Sp. 
— Well, since you will be fancying Incorporation, methinks I hear your Question urged in the Body, and myself making Excuses, and coming over you for a handsome Treat, on purpose to seek an opportunity of telling you how lasting my Friendship would be.— Methinks I also see you vex that you were prevented in the Question, and myself ask, What is become of all the auxiliary Magazines sent in by your credulous Disciples?  1 Sp. 
— Your Fancy's pretty near the Truth; but I could tell you that you'll be at a strange loss without an Apprenticeship of seven years held in the Subterranean Conclave, o'th' Southern side of the T—le.  2 Sp. 
— Why, what's to be learned there, more than Decoy or Wheedling in a Yo— re Squire or two?  1 Sp. 
— To come off handsomely after all, and manage the Concern so wisely, as never to fail bringing the useful Discovery to perfection; but for want of Two or Three Hundred Pounds more, which will oblige the Engagers either to resign their first Interest, rather than come in deeper, or force 'em to the last shift of paying their Footing, (which is, Breaking,) and commencing Projector themselves; which, in my Opinion, is a very fine Trade amongst soft Heirs, credulous Bankers; nay, amongst all that are Babes in Worldly Philosophy.— But to wave the Thoughts of the Body, and return to our first Subject.— You have supplied the exhausted Stores of Thunder and Lightning, etc. Pray which way are your labouring Thoughts employed now? And what farther Discovery have you to communicate to the Universe?  2 Sp. 
— 'T is a weakness to design before Projectors; and the surest way that can be found out to be supplanted; therefore I desire to be excused, farther than to tell you in general Terms: I am offering Proposals to the Register of Fate, for a regulation of the Solitices: I know no Reason the Sun should not be called to an Account for being idle twice a Year, when the Inconveniences of his loitering are so destructive to the whole Frame of Nature, by burning up its radical Moisture on one side, and suffering the other side to lie imprisoned in the Chains of Frost and Darkness, without the least demerit.  1 Sp. 
— Indeed this has not yet been considered; but won't it disoblige the Computation of the Astrologick Souls?  2 Sp. 
— Particular Interests must not come in competition with a general Good:— But admit such a small inconvenience; I can quickly redress that.  1 Sp. 
— Nay, than you'll encroach upon my Studies; for I have been drawing a Scheme of the Regulation of Time etc. for which I expect no small Recompense.  2 Sp. 
— Pray where does your Calculation begin?  1 Sp. 
— From the very Minute that the Deluge began; which, as I take it, was about Seven a Clock i'th' Morning, from the Creation of Souls 2193 Years, 6 days 3 9/10 Minutes.  2 Sp. 
— You pretend to great Exactness.  1 Sp. 
— 'Tis necessary; or I had changed Winter for Summer before now.  2 Sp. 
— Well, and have you any thing else to promote?  1 Sp. 
— Nothing at present, but to secure myself from being pumped out of my Project, till I am certain of my Reward.  2 Sp. 
Farewell then.  1 Sp. 
— If you had not been in haste, I could have told you how Noah's Compass and Sea-Card were the very first Enterprise I brought to perfection: But more of this the next Meeting.   

DIALOGUE XXVI.  
Between Two Travelling Spirits.  1 Spirit 
— WELL, met Brother; how far this way?  2 Spirit. 
— Into the Sphere of Saturn; I have only that part of the Universe to be acquainted with; and at my return home, I shall have a complete journal, with some Remarks, not a little curious and diverting.  2. Sp. 
— I am just come from thence, and am willing to give you a particular Relation of every thing there? But pray what are the most curious Remarks you have met with in this long Ramble.  2 Sp. 
— In the Region of the Moon I found some surprising Novelties; particularly, the manner of that Planet's Motion.— The Moon is generally believed to perform its Circuition by a Principle of Self-Motion, which Nature at first communicated to it; but 'tis an Error; for the Moon is a Lifeless inanimate Mass, and can no more move of itself than a Pewter-Dish can; nor is it (as some have concluded) bowled along by Spirits amongst the rest of the Stars; for then a swinging Gigantic Spirit would sometimes throw it out of its due Career, and make it rob, or fall soul upon some of the other Planets. No no, such Caprices in Nature are not to be met with.— 'Tis continually carried along by half a dozen Spirits in a large Lantern, half of it transparent, and the other half dark, and these half dozen Spirits are relieved by another half dozen, once in four and twenty hours: The reason of its seeming Increase and Decrease, is nothing else but the turning of the darker or brighter side of its Lantern more or less directly or obliquely towards the Globe of the Earth. I can also assure you, that there's not one Star in the Heavens that moves of itself; but what are carried along by Spirits (plain Spirits, not Intelligences, as some Philosopher's dream; for there's no such Being's.) There are many strange Opinions amongst Mankind about the Motion of the Heavenly Orbs: A Spirit that left its Body in a Dream, just when I came into the world of the Moon, gave us some merry Tenets about it; as, that the Elements were divided into Spheres, like the Films of an Onion, and that such and such Stars moved in such and such Films. Some again held, That Stars were put upon Strings like Beads, and pushed on by legions of Spirits. Some would have 'em half under and half over their Films, and Channels cut for 'em to roll along: Some believe that the Film is transparent, and that Stars are bowled along up 'em: Some, that they hang under their Films, and that there's a kind of a mucous Matter, which makes 'em stick like Flies with the feet upwards to a Ceiling: but some believe there's no such things as Spheres, Films, or Divisions of Elements; but that they hang in the Air upon their own Centre, whirling about like Boys Tops at Shrovetide. Thus far the humane Spirit discovered the wild Opinions of his Brethren.  1 Sp. 
— This is pleasant indeed; but I believe I light on some Passages as remarkable. You know that every Globe has its particular Aether, which moves along with it; and that there are indefinite Spaces, Vacuums, or Interstitiums betwixt the Planets, if not, the vertiginous motion of one Aether would justle with another. You are also satisfied, that the Globes of Mercury and Luna, have either of 'em a Republic of Philosophical Souls, that left their Bodies, and yet retain their old Notions.— It was my chance to travel that way when there was a public Dispute betwixt some late deceased Cartesians, and some Peripatetics; every Soul was armed Cap-a-pe with Dilemaes, Propositions, Objections, &c But the Dispute about Motion and innate Ideas, was managed so warmly, that they forgot their Footing, which was upon the extremity of the Vortex, and down they came sluttering into the indefinite Space or Vacuum I was telling you of.— Very well (says a Peripatetic Soul,) this Fall is no Motion, because there's no Continuity of Matter to measure by; and therefore I delie you all to prove a possibility of getting out again. A Cartesian Soul fell a laughing at such a Challenge, and told him, he ought to get a new Body, and make Experiments; and afterwards consider the Theory.— No, says the Peripatetic; it can't be done; and therefore I'll not offer to budge till I see a Demonstration of a possibility, in Mood and Figure. And as they were examining, a certain Minor which was proposed, comes a Comet, and with a Brush of its Tail scoured the Vacuum, and dashed the Disputants upon the Vortex again.  2 Sp. 
— And what became o'th' Cause then?  1 Sp. 
— It was put by till another Conference, by reason of a black deformed Spirit that had had the Misfortune to leave its Body for a worse Place, which came roaring and howling into the midst of the Cartesian Souls, crying out, Where's the Spirit of Des-Cartes, that pretended to prove a Deity by Innate Ideas, when he should have proved such Idea to be the Idea of a real Being; 'twas the weakness of this Argument that damned me: Besides, I'm continually choosed and hunted about by a company of snearing Devils, that stigmatize me with the scandalous Character of a Cartesian Spirit; pointing at me with their sooty Paws, as I pass along; Do ye see (says one) yonder Inhabitant of the Cartesian World: See (says another) the Artist that preaches of a subtle Matter which forms the Liquidity of Bodies. Pray (says a Third) will you go ask your Master what he means by the Sun's forming a great Vertex of sluid Matter for the Stars to swim in? And whether the Sun is both Agent and Patient in such a Formation? If not, of what pre-existent Matter he forms this fluid Matter? Or, whether he pretends to an immediate Creation of it out of nothing? with a thousand sand more such puzzling Questions, which doubles my damnation, to solve 'em.— Now Mr. Des Cartes, if you can keep up your Credit, and mollify my Plagues, do it quickly:— Don't trouble me yet, replied the Philosophical Spirit, lest you spoil a new Notion that I left unfinished upon my Deathbed. O (says the Black Disciple) that my Master should study to damn People when they are dead! I'll warrant you, 'tis to find out the reason why Mercury is sometimes nearer the Earth than the Sun: But pray, by the way, what's the Use of this, and a thousand more such Phaenomena's, if Virtue be the proper Task of the Intellect, & if the business of a wise Man be not Talking, but living? Thus the poor Spirit trooped off again without his Errand, ra●ling his invisible Chains, and calling Philosophy Beelzebubism.  1 Sp. 
— This was a very strange Passage indeed, and puts me in mind of half a dozen Philosophical Spirits, which were huddled together, and tied Muzzle to Muzzle in the Bastile of Mercury, for pretending to find out a way to appear visible to Mortals, without the assumption of Aerial Bodies, or any other Vehicle; as I passed by 'em, there was one that had his Notion too settled to remove it by such a Treatment— Courage (said he) Comrades; I'll procure a speedy Manumission from this Cage, by appearing in this posture to the Inhabitants of every Globe, and making 'em send Ambassadors to our Judges about us.— Say you so (says one of 'em) I pray make a Demonstration to us first how it may be done. Thus; (replied the other) The Representation of Things is not always confined to the ordinary Method of assuming the similitude of the thing seen into the Eye, which necessarily supposes a Subject to be assumed; but the visive power may exercise Ideas and Similitudes of things that are not, by indisposition or illusion. Thus by beating up the interior Organs, and acting briskly upon the Fancy, I can make the Patient to believe a resemblance of what I please, or I can deceive the Eye, by indisposing it, through the annoyance of internal Fumes, Vapours, etc.— Thus have I made Experiments on Persons, who, whilst they have been lying in Bed, would look upon the Windows, and see Curious Globes, and Figures of all shapes and colours, which would move before the Eye, i●● the Eye follows 'em, or would pursue the motion of the Eye, if it drew from 'em. I might add the possibility of accomplishing my end by ●alse Refractions of Light, Interpositions of Bodies, etc. But I'll let that alone till I come into a Body; when I'll take some pains to undeceive the World below about Apparitions of ill Spirits, which are as commonly formed in the Eye, as enclosed in Airy Vehicles. Hold, not a word more of their Customs (replied the other) lest we should be overheard, and so receive double Punishment for Correspondence with Apostates— Thus the poor muzzled wretches were confined for some time; but at their Trial, they; upon urging some such Arguments as I have now offered, convinced their Judges, and were again set at Liberty.  2. Sp. 
— I remember I was there at the same time, and there came in a Messenger Post-haste, saying, There are just now arrived a great number of Separate Souls upon the Confines of the Moon, that pretend to bring in Remonstrances against the whole Philosophical Academy of Souls; at which, the Spirit of Aristotle, who was always good at Subterfuges and By-holes, complained of Indisposition, and that he wanted to converse with the Spirit of Galen; but he was no sooner clear of the Crowd, but he mounts up through the Coelum Empyreum, and gets out of the Wicket into that vast indefinite Space, to be freed from the importunate clamour of his thousand thousand Disciples fluttering about him. I could not forbear following him, to see the humour on't; and amongst other things, I overheard him crying out, Oh that I had been Alexander's Horse, instead of he being my Pupil; then I had lived quietly in History, and had been only Curyetting, Pawing, or Neighing in the Fancy of the Learned: But now (Wretch that I am) I've dived so deep, that I have not only lost myself, but am also accessary to the Destruction of my Proselytes. Methinks I see myself catching at Impossibilities, and instead of 'em, grasp some strange bewitching Dream, that has either Blasphemy against the Gods in't, or is a sacrilegious Story of their Secrets, belying what I could not discover. Methinks I also see that in quisitive Race of Mankind listening to partake of the ●orbidden Notions, and rather than fail, they turn ●ver my Works so oft till they find something in 'em, that I myself never thought of, nor designed. Hereupon, they begin to explain Incomprehensibles, till they are served by succeeding Ages as they served me, but the whole Blame and Punishment retorts upon me, because I ●et 'em first at work. Oh that I had defined 〈◊〉 to have been Virtue; and Vice to have been Vice; I'd scaped the scouring of so many duplicated Damnation's, and might have walked quietly in the Battlements of the Moon, without Noise and Disurbance.  
But as I was intent upon the Philosopher's Expostulations, I saw at a distance three Millions of separated Spirits, all Females; they had been ridiculed, and chased out of all the Globes for their awkward Dresses, and brought along with 'em the Fashons of Two and Fifty Languages into the Indefinite Space above the Heavens. Some had got Ruffs about their Necks as big as Cart-wheels; some Head Dresses as large as the Tail of a Comet; some were in one Dress, and some in another; a few were rubbing and scouring the outside of Heaven, to make it transparent, that they might see to dress their whole Body by it; some were doing, some were uning; some were pleased, some in a Passion: some liked their own Mode the best, and some preferred that of another; and some were quarrelling with every particular Dress, and made up a jargon of all Dresses together: But to see the different Figures, Postures, Curtsies, Compliments, and Tittle-tattle amongst 'em, made me believe that they were some Generation of Spirits which I had never heard of: Whereupon, I applied myself to the Aristotelian Soul I told you of, to desire his Opinion; who told me, he had done Opinioning; but if I would ask the Spirit behind me, I might be informed: Upon which, I turned me round, & saw a Thing all hung with Clouds and Vapours, in an Airy Humane Shape, wring his Hands, and sighing at a wretched Rate; as I made up to him, I could hear him say,— Poor Heraclitus, Whither now! Hast thou searched the whole Universe, and every particular Globe of the Creation, to retire from new Objects of thy Over-pity, and all this, to find the greatest behind in this Indefinite Space? Alas, now I am desperate in my Search, and will give over, since Female Spirits are so wedded to Impertinencies, as not to leave 'em when dead.— Upon the mention of the Word Female Spirits, I trooped off with all the speed imaginable, for fear of being caught up for a Foot-Boy●Spirit, by one Madam C— in Exchange-Alley; who I well knew was as proud of a Livery-Boy, as Paint and Fucus: I had no sooner got within the heavenly Wicket again, but I stumbled upon a Disputation that was held upon the Verge of Saturn. But I came a little too late, and could only hear the latter part of the Conference; which by Plurality of Voices, fixed a Liberty of Conscience, and that the Spirits of jews, Pagans, and Christians, should all be free to believe themselves Children of Philosophy, and of the Number of the Elect. I passed on from thence without taking any Leave; (for there are no 〈◊〉 among the Stars, that use Ceremonies, but European Female Spirits, and they were most of them chased out of the Universe, as I noted before; and coming near, the Globe of jupiter, there was a great Concourse of Spirits about a Challenge between a Heathen and Christian Philosophic Soul, concerning the Burning up of the World: Here might Humanity if they'd had Eyes and Prospective Glasses strong enough, have seen their old Maxim confuted, which says, There's no penetration of Bodies; for here were at least ten Million of Spirits got together all into one Body to hear the Dispute; but there was such a fluttering Hubbub, that the Orators were fain to leave off a while, to see if the Noise would cease; tho' in vain, for every little Auditor would pretend to dictate, and give his Opinion: I could hear one something louder than the rest, crying out,— Alas, alas, if the World is to be burnt up, and all the Stars consumed, what shall I do for a Lodging; I shall ne'er away with the Converse of Feminine Spirits in the indefinite Space: Oh, says another, for my Master Aristotle, how gladly would I learn over again the Lesson of the World's Eternity, that I might be able to confute this Litigious Spirit, that pleads for an untenanting of the Stars. Another was for Bantering; and said, the Universe would make a prodigal Burnt-Offering. Thus one cries out one thing, and another another; so that the whole Assembly began to vote it penal to name such a Topick; and that there should be no more such Challenges for fear of a Tumult. You know I was always a mortal hater of Tumults and Quarrels; so that being in haste to get away, I made but one flight to the World in Venus; where I light upon a very high Mountain; but I had not tarried long there, but the Mountain was surrounded with Myriad of Female Spirits, Armed Cap a-pe with immaterial Javelins, Bows, Darts, and Colours of War; and one amongst the rest, comes up to me, giving me to understand in short, that I must either quit that Globe, or prepare to encounter all the Inhabitants; which were mostly Amazonians and Stoicesses, and had a Charter from the Secretary of Fate, to make that Globe their Retreat, to secure 'em from the Insolences of Male Spirits; and also, that they had the Privilege to chastise all intruding Male Spirits as they pleased, by a Court Martial; and therefore, believing me to be a Traveller, and a Stranger to their Customs, were so courteous, as to give me time and opportunity to dispose of myself as I pleased.— I viewed the soft Herald from Top to Toe, and considering her Air and Features, I remember that in my last Search in the Registry of Fate, I had seen her Character, with this Signature over against it.  
I had no need to ask Questions upon this Reflection, knowing the Riddle would be resolved in another Globe, Anno Dom. 1691. and so without any acknowledgement of the Obligation, or other compliment, than in thought, I stood off again; and in about two Seconds of a Minute, got to the Boundaries of the World in Mars: There I was up to the Ears at first dash, amongst Male-Spirits; (forgive the Expression, I'm to be embodied shortly,) and found 'em generally calling Counsels of War, which put me upon the Curiosity of enquiring what Religion they were of; and I was informed they were mostly Christian Spirits: and upon ask what their General was? I presently concluded, Nothing at all.— A strange kind of Exression, Brother, is not it? But 'tis not strange, when I add, That it was farther told me, they were to fight against, and destroy one another, for such mean Interests, as (when examined,) are not worth the exercising any Passion but Hate. Indeed this amazed me above whatever I met with in all my Rambles, altho' the next Encounter was not altogether unworthy my Reflections.— 'Twas thus:  
A little farther was a Nunnery of Spirits, wherein a certain Fault had been committed; but I dare not say what, for fear of prosecution the next time I travel that way, since the Law was satisfied, in giving up the Criminal to the Mob of Spirits; which handled her severely enough; and afterwards away they hurried her to a certain Meeting of Dissenting Spirits; and having pulled the Non-resisting Preacher off his Pedestal, (for they use neither Chairs nor Pulpits in that Globe,) one of the Ringleaders mounts, and begins as follows:  
Liberty, Boys, Liberty; away with these dull Canting Spirits, who, under pretence of being good, only meet to plot against our Freedom: Why do they tell us of hard Names and thinking, and not preach up Liberty, or something else that's new? For my part, I'm for Toleration of nothing but what suits my Humour. No matter who's uppermost, or what the last ot next Council decrees; 'tis all one to Mob; and whoever is of my Opinion, let him hold up the dirty end of his Wand, and cry Cluck.— Hereupon, they all clucked so loud that the Spirits which carried that Globe, ran away from their Commission, and down it fell betwixt Mercury and the Sun, and spoiled the Ptolomaick Systeme of the Heavens; for my part, I got out of it as soon as I could, and left the Rabble, who were going to pull a Pedant out of his School, for Tyrannising over one of their Brethren.  
I was no sooner got safe out of the Whirligigg-Planet, but I met with Charles' wain, laden with twenty dozen of Souls▪ bundled up close, and laid neatly upon Pillows of Snow; as I came near, to ask the meaning, up starts one of them, and called me Impertinent and Saucy, for not making my Honours before I asked Questions; whereupon, I made a very humble Grin, and called 'em worshipful Dons; thinking 'em to be Spanish Souls; upon which, one of 'em condescended to tell me, in answer to my first Question, That they were Gentlemen Souls, and scorning the Drudgery of walking into their Bodies, were accommodated with that Heavenly Calash to ride in, cautioning me for the future to be more exact in my Distinctions, and to observe a due Deference to the Honourable. It growing late, I stepped into the next Star; where the Inhabitants were very small, yet very courteous, and entertained me handsomely that night. The next Morning I set out upon my Ramble again, and met the Caravan, (alias Charles' wain,) the second time, laden with a new Shoal of Spirits, and bound for the other world; at which I began to make my Honours (as precautioned) but was laughed at by the Waggoner, who told me, they were a Company of Pickpocket, Highway, and Clipping-Spirits, (that is designed for Bodies of such Professions) and foreknowing the unkind Treatment they were to meet with in the other World, would not go into their Bodies; but were forced to be carried. I was a little vexed at the Mistake; but you know (Brother) that Travellers must comply with Customs, and put up Indignities on all hands.  1 Sp. 
— ●Tis very right; and without such compliance, 'tis better to tarry in ones own native Star, where there's freedom both to speak and act, without constraint.— But amongst all your Rambles, did you never make a Visit to the Globe of the Earth?  2 Sp. 
— Don't mention that Place, if you have any respect to my Ease; for as it is the very Settling and Dreg of the Creation, so have its Inhabitants proportionable Qualifications.  1 Sp. 
— Pray pardon my Inquisitiveness, and give me one Instance; I know not by what Fatality it comes about; but a new Theory of Pain is as bewitching to me, as a small Practic in Pleasure.  2 Sp. 
— Is it so? Why then Imagine yourself amongst a numerous Crowd of Mortals; every one a Bastile or Vatican to your old dear Acquaintance; Suppose you saw your Relations looking out of Mortal Eyes, (as the Grates of Prisons;) and now and then stealing a Glance at the Skies, the place of their old habitation: Suppose you also hear one calling out to you, Pray pay me a Visit at night, when the Body has little need of my Attendance, that I may give you an Account what an ambitious, restless Lump it is that I animate: Pray (says another) come see me when my Body's asleep, that I may have some vent to my Sorrows, by telling you the vast difference betwixt a Bodied and an unbodyed Spirit. No, (says a Third,) but if you'll come and see me, I'll preach the Doctrine of Humanity to you; possibly it may have such an effect upon you, as you may escape the first Damnation for three or four hundred Years longer. Suppose you hear five Thousand more beginning to make their Complaints, and the Body, like a Tip-staff, or Sergeant, hurrying 'em away into new experiments of Horror, before they can tell their Story out.  1 Sp. 
— Hold, pray no more;— I have enough of Humanity: Let's be gone; i● your way lies towards the World in Saturn, ●'ll bear you Company,  2 Sp. 
— I'm obliged to you: March then.   

DIALOGUE XXVII.  
Between the Spirit that is to be last embodied, and the Spirit that is to be first reunited to the Body at the Day of Judgement.  1 Spirit. 
— HOld, hold, Brother, don't leave me yet:— Alas, he's gone, and with him all the whole Society of Spiris! What have I to converse with now but inanimate Globes, and senseless Constellations? What signifies it that I am Lord of all, when I have no Subjects to reign over; no agreeable Mate (I mean, of the same Species,) to accompany me? Unkind Fate, to imbody all the Thousand Thousands of my Brethren, and to leave me to wander up and down the Universe by myself!— The World is to me a sort of Prison, not by Diminution, but by Deprivation; for a Prison is not properly called a Prison, for being so great, or so little; but being a Confinement from such and such Enjoyments.— Oh that I could cease to be, or transmigrate into any other Classis of Creatures! For what state is more unhappy than that which gives a power of enjoying Good, and denies a Subject to exercise his power upon?— But stay, why do I repine? Some Spirit must necessarily have been the last; and tho' it is I, yet it cannot be long but my Turn will quickly come.  2 Sp. 
Nine hundred ninety nine Millions of Millions,— Let me see again; possibly my Calculation may be false.— Suppose once more, that everry Man (computing one Man with another,) is composed of a handful of pure Earth, all the Particles of the other Elements being separated from it, than it follows, that just so many Handfuls of Earth as the Globe contains in it, may be made into Men; but no more, unless the God of Nature will make more Earthly Globes; for when every Man rises at the Day of Judgement, and assumes his own particular handful of Earth, if there should be more Men than Earth,— Ha,— Some Souls must go without Bodies; which is very absurd.— Nor is it very reasonable, that the Earth should not every Bit of it be made into Men, that when they come to take every one their own, there may be no Earth left; and then 'tis an easy thing for the last Fire to consume the other Elements. No,— that won't do neither;— for I'd forgot that Man is made of all the Elements; and therefore when all the Earth is spent in making Men, the Elements must be spent likewise, that is, the whole Earth, Air, Fire and Water, will (when every one takes their own,) be equally divided, and march up and down an Eternal Indefinite Space, or Vacuum, in living Glorified Humanity.— Very well,— now I have it; There were at first 9999999999 Spirits, and there's just so many handful of Dust in the Earth. Now if I could tell how many Spirits are yet unbodyed, 'tis but subtracting the Remainder from the first Number, and the difference is the Handfuls of Earth that are yet to be made into Men; and when I know this, I shall know how long it will be before I shall be reunited again to my Body, which I was separated from about 3000 Years since.— Methinks I long to renew the old Acquaintance.  1 Sp. 
— What Mathematical Soul is this thats computing the Day of judgement? It has always been too deep a Secret for Humanity to pry into.  2 Sp. 
— I have laid by that dull heavy Lump a great while since.  1 Sp. 
— But 'tis said, that Angels themselves are ignorant of that Day.  2 Sp. 
— Yes, they were so at that time, when such Words were spoken, because they knew not how fast Spirits would be unbodied, or how the Age of Man might shorten; nor consequently how long it would be before the World was made into Men; but if you can give me an Account how many Spirits are yet unbodyed, I will tell you just now how long it is till the Day of judgement.  1 Sp. 
— None of 'em but myself.  2 Sp. 
— How! are all the 999999999 Souls (which were made upon the same day that the Angels were) sent into Bodies, except you?  1 Sp. 
— Yes, all but myself; I've just now parted with my last Companion.  2 Sp. 
— If so, the date of your pre-existence is just at an end; perhaps within this quarter of a Minute; for there's always some young Body or other gaping for a Soul to actuate it.  1 Sp. 
— I shall be very glad of it; for 'tis afflicting to be the only remaining Creature of one Species.  2 Sp. 
— 'Tis so. But—  1 Sp. 
— Farewell; I am called away too, and with me the whole Race of unbodied Souls lose their Name, and change their very Nature.  2 Sp. 
— Is he gone?— I knew it could not be long that he had to tarry,— Let me see;— No,— That won't do;— That's right; upon a modest computation, the World must expire within these 70 Years; for it's great odds this last unbodied Soul will be separated again before that Period: Besides, there must be some left alive, which will undergo the same change without dying, as the Body and Soul will do at their Reunion; therefore perhaps within these 70 all will be over.— Now methinks I see that little share of Dust that belongs to me, receive its first Impression, and beckon to me to renew our old Acquaintance and Union; Methinks I see myself as eager in my Embraces of my old Comrade, and as busy in exercising my Offices of Perception, etc. as ever. But I'm at a loss as to the manner how, because of the inexpressible Change that my Organs must undergo. But I'll let that Thought alone. sinc● I'm satisfied, Experience will teach me, that and every thing else within a very small Revolution of Time.   

DIALOGUE XXIX.  
Betwixt Two Spirits; one that pretends to deny Pre-existence, and the other to prove it.  1 Spirit. 
— WHat am I? Whence is my Original? And to what end am I designed?  2 Sp. 
— You are a pre-existent Spirit, made upon the— Day of the Creation; Your Original is Nothingness, as to the Subject; but as to the Cause, it is the Eternal Mind.; who, when he sees fitting, will provide you a Body to act in.  1 Sp. 
— What do you mean? For my part, I believe you and I are both of us just now created; but if you are pre-existent, and it now is 5000 Years and more since the beginning of your Existence, pray answer me, How many Sons Adam had; what part of the Year the World was made in; but don't answer after the old Evasion, viz. at all times of the Year; but in what Sign the Sun was first placed?  2 Sp. 
— I have forgot now, 'tis so long since.  1 Sp. 
— I thought Reminiscence had been coessential with, or a part of the Nature of Spirits; for according to the best Definitions, the Soul is a Cogitative Faoulty. Now if Thinking, Disposing, Meditating, Examining, Compounding, Dividing, Apprehending, Joining the Subject and the Attribute, Affirming; Denying, Suspending, &c▪ be the Function and Natural Acts of the Soul, it is necessary that Memory be an essential Attribute of it; for how is it possible to compare two things together, unless we remember the First after we have examined the Second; for to think of two Things at once, is impossible, and it is so granted by all that make a due distinction between a Finite and an Infinite Being; being what comes nearest this Act, is the quick distinction of Letters in Reading, or the swift, yet regular Motion of the Fingers in Music. Now since Reminiscence is coessential with Souls, an Argument may be drawn from hence to prove you degenerate, if not a Non Existent.  2 Sp. 
— That I have a Being I'm certain, and this Converse with you, demonstrates it.  1 Sp. 
— Come, I'll grant you for once, that you are pre-existent, if you'll grant me, that my Body which I'm just now going into, is also pre-existent, and was created before Adam had a Being; but I'll ask for no Concessions, which I'll not first deserve by demonstration:— For I may prove my Body contemporary with Adam's altho' not visible till above 5000 Years after he was created.  2 Sp. 
— Pray how can that be?  1 Sp. 
— When Matter was created, 'twas a great Storehouse of all other Being's that were to be created from it, all which lay confusedly sleeping in their Chaos; but of this Lump was Adam created; and if so, he himself was potentially in it before he had a specific Being. After his Creation, he was maintained from the productions of Earth and Water, by a destruction of, or more properly, through a conversion of their Natures into his. Hence Adam's Children were only a Transmutation of other material Bodies, or the Effect of Meat and Drink in new Figures, which lay once in such and such Creatures, and before that in the material Chaos we first spoke of. Now since the Mechanism of Nature is ordered that it cannot be destroyed (unless by its Author,) but only transmuted or changed into other Matter; as a Fire that burns, part of it goes to Ashes, part into Soot, part into Air, but yet is always somewhere, or in some thing; so that all the visible Changes we see, are nothing else but a conversion of one Element into another backwards and forwards, according to the adaptness and modifications of Agents and Patients; This considered, it will plainly appear, that that Body which I am just now going into, was the last year part of it growing in such a Crop of Corn, part of it in such an Appletree, part of it in such a River, part of it in such an Ox, Sheep, Fowl, etc. and only by a proper Revolution of Particles under different Species, so adaptly disposited, that Nature found the Composition to fit one new distinct Species by itself; and according to its Commission, or first Settled Chain of Causes produced a humane Body, fit for the Actuation and Conjunction of a Spirit. Hence 'tis manifest my Body was as soon in the Bosom of its Causes as Adam's, and the last Body that shall be created, as soon as mine. Nay, to go farther, since from Eternity the great Creator did design to make a World, from which my Body was to be produced, I might say, that my Body was from all Eternity designedly and potentially, tho' actually in time,; which is the utmost that can be said of the Pre existence of Spirits. And I defy every Spirit in the Universe, to prove the least difference in Time betwixt the actual Commencement of the Existence of its Body, and its self, or that the Potentiality of both is not equal, to wit, eternal.  1 Sp. 
This Argument would hold, if it could be proved, That the Soul is not so clogged and incapacitated in its Act of Reminiscence by coming into the Body, but that it might easily recollect what has happened in its preexistent state, For we have innumerable Instances of the Soul's being more incapacitated in its Functions one time than another, in the same Body, and this by Fits, Distractions, Diseases, etc. Which to me appears demonstrative, that if the Indispositions of the Body, which are only accidental, hinder a regular operation of the Soul; much more may the Body itself, when first tied to, and made coessential with it.  2 Sp. 
We'll grant, much depends on the Body, as to the Mode of Perception and action, but not so very much as is supposed; To mention that leisure time of Dreams; When perhaps the Body and Soul have the least actual dependence one of another, we shall find the habit of Reminiscence fresh at awaking again; but to show for once, that the Soul does not forget what it acts when separate from the Body, by reason of the Body's indisposition. Consider the Cases of Trances, Examinations of Witches, etc. what think ye of a Soul that has rambled out of the Body for two or three days together, and when it has returned, and the Body revived, it has told of infallible Truths some hundred Miles distance, where itself actually was: This we have hundreds of creditable Instances to prove? which considered, does fully (from the first presupposed consequence of Reminiscence,) destroy the Doctrine of Pre-existence.  1 Sparke, 
— Well, I shall consider of it as soon as I have any leisure; in the mean time Farewell.  2 Sp. 
— Farewell.  
FINIS.