y, (that it returns once after five
centuries, and goes to the altar and city of the sun, and is there
burnt; and another arises out of its ashes, and carries away the
remains of the former; &c.) be not an allegorical representation of
this comet, which returns once after five centuries, and goes down to
the sun, and is there vehemently heated, and its outward regions
dissolved; yet that it flies off again, and carries away what remains
after that terrible burning; &c. and whether the _conflagration_ and
renovation of things, which some such comet may bring on the earth, be
not hereby prefigured, I will not here be positive: but I own, that I
do not know of any solution of this famous piece of mythology and
hieroglyphics, as this seems to be, that can be compared with it."
_Ibid._ p. 196.

[41] "'Tis here foretold [by Esdras] that there should be _signs in
the woman_; and before all others this prediction has been verified in
the famous _rabbet-woman of Surrey_, in the days of King George
I.--This story has been so unjustly laughed out of countenance, that I
must distinctly give my reasons for believing it to be true, and
alleging it here as the fulfilling of this ancient prophecy before
us.--1st. The man-midwife, Mr. Howard of Godalmin in Surrey, a person
of very great honesty, skill and reputation in his profession,
attested it.--It was believed by King George to be real; and it was
also believed by my old friends the Speaker and Mr. Samuel Collet, as
they told me themselves, and was generally by sober persons in the
neighbourhood. Nay Mr. Molyneux, the Prince's Secretary, a very
inquisitive person, and my very worthy friend, assured me he had at
first so great a diffidence in the truth of the fact, and was so
little biassed by the other believers, even by the King himself, that
he would not be satisfied till he was permitted both to see and feel
the rabbet, _in that very passage, whence we all come into this
world_."
Whiston's _Memoirs_, vol. ii. p. 110.

[42] "The incumbrances of fortune were shaken from his mind as
_dew-drops from the lion's mane_." Johnson's _Preface to his edition
of Shakespeare_.

[43] Every reader of sensibility must be strongly affected by the
following pathetick passages:--"Much of my life has been lost under
the pressures of disease; much has been trifled away; and much has
always been spent in provision for the day that was passing over me;
but I shall not think my employment