riter, and the new Art of Cookery."

To excite the curiosity of the pious, some writers employed artifices of
a very ludicrous nature. Some made their titles rhyming echoes; as this
one of a father, who has given his works under the title of _Scalae Alae
animi_; and _Jesus esus novus Orbis_. Some have distributed them
according to the measure of time, as one Father Nadasi, the greater part
of whose works are _years_, _months_, _weeks_, _days_, and _hours_. Some
have borrowed their titles from the parts of the body; and others have
used quaint expressions, such as--_Think before you leap_--_We must all
die_--_Compel them to enter_. Some of our pious authors appear not to
have been aware that they were burlesquing religion. One Massieu having
written a moral explanation of the solemn anthems sung in Advent, which
begin with the letter O, published this work under the punning title of
_La douce Moelle, et la Sauce friande des os Savoureux de l'Avent_.[81]

The Marquis of Carraccioli assumed the ambiguous title of _La Jouissance
de soi-meme_. Seduced by the epicurean title of self-enjoyment, the sale
of the work was continual with the libertines, who, however, found
nothing but very tedious essays on religion and morality. In the sixth
edition the marquis greatly exults in his successful contrivance; by
which means he had punished the vicious curiosity of certain persons,
and perhaps had persuaded some, whom otherwise his book might never have
reached.

If a title be obscure, it raises a prejudice against the author; we are
apt to suppose that an ambiguous title is the effect of an intricate or
confused mind. Baillet censures the Ocean Macromicrocosmic of one Sachs.
To understand this title, a grammarian would send an inquirer to a
geographer, and he to a natural philosopher; neither would probably
think of recurring to a physician, to inform one that this ambiguous
title signifies the connexion which exists between the motion of the
waters with that of the blood. He censures Leo Allatius for a title
which appears to me not inelegantly conceived. This writer has entitled
one of his books the _Urban Bees_; it is an account of those illustrious
writers who flourished during the pontificate of one of the Barberinis.
The allusion refers to the _bees_ which were the arms of this family,
and Urban VIII. is the Pope designed.

The false idea which a title conveys is alike prejudicial to the author
and the reader. Titles are gen