e equally
heavy, and exact counterpoises to one another; a few of them I tried, as
avarice and poverty, riches and content, with some others.

There were likewise several weights that were of the same figure, and
seemed to correspond with each other, but were entirely different when
thrown into the scales, as religion and hypocrisy, pedantry and
learning, wit and vivacity, superstition and devotion, gravity and
wisdom, with many others.

I observed one particular weight lettered on both sides, and upon
applying myself to the reading of it, I found on one side written "_In
the dialect of men_," and underneath it, "CALAMITIES;" on the other side
was written, "_In the language of the gods_," and underneath,
"BLESSINGS." I found the intrinsic value of this weight to be much
greater than I imagined, for it overpowered health, wealth,
good-fortune, and many other weights, which were much more ponderous in
my hand than the other.

There is a saying among the Scotch, that "an ounce of mother is worth a
pound of clergy;" I was sensible of the truth of this saying, when I saw
the difference between the weight of natural parts and that of learning.
The observation which I made upon these two weights opened to me a new
field of discoveries, for notwithstanding the weight of natural parts
was much heavier than that of learning, I observed that it weighed an
hundred times heavier than it did before, when I put learning into the
same scale with it. I made the same observation upon faith and morality;
for notwithstanding the latter outweighed the former separately, it
received a thousand times more additional weight from its conjunction
with the former, than what it had by itself. This odd phenomenon showed
itself in other particulars, as in wit and judgment, philosophy and
religion, justice and humanity, zeal and charity, depth of sense and
perspicuity of style, with innumerable other particulars, too long to be
mentioned in this paper.

As a dream seldom fails of dashing seriousness with impertinence, mirth
with gravity, methought I made several other experiments of a more
ludicrous nature, by one of which I found that an English octavo was
very often heavier than a French folio; and by another, that an old
Greek or Latin author weighed down a whole library of moderns. Seeing
one of my _Spectators_ lying by me, I laid it into one of the scales,
and flung a twopenny piece in the other. The reader will not inquire
into the event,