accessory to the punning of others, by consent, by provocation, by connivance, and by defence of the evil committed; for which the Lord mercifully spared his neck, but as a mark of reprobation wryed his nose.

Another nobleman of great hopes, no less guilty of the same crime, was made the punisher of himself with his own hand, in the loss of five hundred pounds at box and dice; whereby this unfortunate young gentleman incurred the heavy displeasure of his aged grandmother.

A third of no less illustrious extraction, for the same vice, was permitted to fall into the arms of a Dalilah, who may one day cut off his curious hair and deliver him up to the Philistines.

Colonel F, an ancient gentleman of grave deportment, gave in to this sin so early in his youth, that whenever his tongue endeavours to speak common sense, he hesitates so, as not to be understood. Thomas Pickle, gentleman, for the same crime banished to Minorca.

Muley Hamet, from a healthy and hopeful officer in the army, turned a miserable invalid at Tilbury fort.

Eustace, Esq.; for the murder of much of the king's English in Ireland is quite deprived of his reason, and now remains a lively instance of emptiness and vivacity.

Poor Daniel Button * for the same offence deprived of his wits.

One Samuel an Irishman, for his forward attempt to pun, was stunted in his stature, and hath been visited all his life after with bulls and blunders. George Simmons, shoemaker at Turnstile in Hol

*The keeper of the celebrated wits' Coffee-house.

born, was so given to this custom, and did it with so much success, that his neighbours gave out he was a wit. Which report coming among his creditors, nobody would trust him; so that he is now a bankrupt, and his family in a miserable condition.

Divers eminent clergymen of the university of Cambridge, for having propagated this vice, became great drunkards and tories.

A Devonshire man of wit, for only saying in a jesting manner I get up pun a horse, instantly fell down, and broke his snuff-box and neck, and lost the horse.

"From which calamities, the Lord in his mercy defend us all, &c. &c." So prayeth the punless and pennyless J. Baker, knight.

* Sir James Baker, as he was nicknamed, or the Knight of the Peak, as he was sometimes called by way of variety, was a noted character about the city of London at this time. He sub. sisted chiefly by gambling.

A TRUE AND FAITHFUL NARRATIVE

OF WHAT PASSED IN LONDON,

DURING THE

GENERAL CONSTERNATION

ALL RANKS AND DEGREES OF MANKIND,

ON

TUESDAY, WEDNESDAY, THURSDAY, AND FRIDAY LAST.

A TRUE AND FAITHFUL NARRATIVE, &c.

THE learned and ingenious William Whiston, in an unavail. ing, perhaps a presumptuous attempt to explain the more mys. terious passages of Scripture, was unfortunate enough to study himself into heretical opinion. In consequence of announcing himself to be an Unitarian, he was deprived of his preferments in the church, and betook himself to giving public lectures upon the creed which he had adopted. He procured, at great expence, a model of the tabernacle of Moses, made after his own direc. tions, and another of the temple of Jerusalem, calculated (according to his ideas of the matter), to explain not only the various alterations which had taken place on that edifice, from the time of Solomon unto its demolition by the Romans, but also its mystical structure, as described by the Prophet Ezekiel. These lectures he considered as preparatory to the second coming of the Messiah, when the Temple was to be restored, according to the model which he exhibited. As this crazy system of mystical divinity originated in a departure from the orthodox opinions of the church, Swift was not deterred by the good intentions of the lecturer, or his high character for learning and mathematical knowledge, from making it the subject of ridicule, in the following fugitive pamphlet.

Mr Whiston died on 22d August 1752, a striking example, that neither learning nor zeal will save their owner from falling into absurdity, if he indulges in studies which Providence has in bis wisdom placed beyond the reach of our faculties.