them contagious matter is lodged in goods of a soft, loose texture, which, being packed up and carried into other countries, let out, when opened, the imprisoned seeds of the contagion, and produce the disease whenever the air is disposed to give them force; otherwise they may be dissipated without any considerable ill effects. The air of our climate is so far from being ever the original of the true plague, that most probably it never produces those milder infectious distempers, the small pox and measles. For these diseases were not heard of in Europe before the Moors had entered Spain; and, as already observed, they were afterwards propagated and spread through all nations, chiefly by means of the wars with the Saracens. The sweating sickness was most probably of foreign original. It began in the army with which king Henry VII came from France, and landed in Wales; and it has been supposed by some to have been brought from the famous siege of Rhodes, three or four years before, as may be collected from one place of what Dr. Keyes says in his treatise on the disease. We had here the same kind of fever in 1713, about the month of September, which was called the _Dunkirk fever_, is being brought by our soldiers from that place. This, probably, had its original from the plague which broke out at Dantzick a few years before, and continued some time among the cities of the north.” I now take leave, for the present, of this subject, which exhibits the conduct of mankind in such a disagreeable view. Some, like M. Millot above quoted, may be apt to suppose that many of the accounts are exaggerated. But it is evident, that in our days it is impossible to determine any thing to be a falsehood, said to have happened in former ages, which is not absolutely contradictory to reason. Every one of the accounts inserted in this section has found a place in the works of historians reckoned authentic, particularly in the Universal History. All who believe the New Testament must certainly believe, from the words of our Saviour, that extraordinary things were to happen in the ages subsequent to his appearance. Can we then discredit the relations of those historians who inform us that extraordinary things have happened? Modern historians, making their own judgments the infallible measure of wisdom, and the strength of nations now existing the ultimate measure of human power, have endeavoured to turn into ridicule every thing which does not precisely accord with these two. In this the French are particularly culpable; accounting every thing to be incredible which exceeds the power of modern France to accomplish, though they certainly do not know even the extent of this power. Of such scandalous vanity we have a notable instance in the works of president Goguet, who positively determines that the walls of ancient Babylon, the pyramids of Egypt, and all the wonderful works of Semiramis, Nebuchadnezzar, &c. were not equal to the canal of Languedoc made by Louis XIV!