[32] The difference in the degrees of danger between suffering a person to take the small pox in the natural way, and communicating it by innoculation, is upon the lowest computation estimated _thirty_ to _one_ in favor of innoculation. [33] Mr Blacklock may, in reality, be regarded as a prodigy--He is a man of a most amiable character, of singular ingenuity, and of very extraordinary attainments. [34] Both clergymen. [35] In compliment to the Queen, who has too much good sense to approve of what is ridiculous. [36] Witness the purchase of a collection of antique and Etruscan vases, by the public money--and their enacting a lottery for toys. [37] Thus do many women sacrifice their healths, without considering it is in vain to conquer nature. Man can subsist but for a determinate space only asleep or awake--by continual watching the incessant motion of the fibres would destroy their organic elasticity, and prevent their future reparation; and by continual sleeping, though the fibres are not fatigued, the nervous fluid would be gradually exhausted by the action of the organs of life, and would never be repaired. [38] All misdemeanors are punished, among the Danes, by servitude in chains a longer or shorter time. [39] Vol. I. Page 165. [40] Admiral Byng; on which occasion the following verses were made, which I now present to the reader. We the court-martial now begin to sicken, And find at last that we are conscience stricken. Sad suppliants in Byng's behalf we come, And humbly crave you would defer his doom! Bound by our oath, we cannot yet make clear What 'twas we meant, nor _never_ shall, we fear. We found him guilty, and we found him not; We wish'd him sav'd, yet wish'd him to be shot. But as at land, so did we find at sea: If we did one, the other could not be. Save him, great chief--your royal mercy show! Shoot him, dread chief--let royal justice flow! Relieve our consciences with pitying eye, And grant that Byng may neither live nor die! [41] See Vol. II. Page 52. [42] Elysium, Minos, Mercury, Charon, Styx, &c. are here necessarily introduced. If they should offend any pious or critical ears, I shall defend myself (as has been done before) by the solemn declaration which is always annexed by the Italian writers to works where they are obliged to use such expressions: '_Se havessi nomenato Fato, Fortuna, Destino, Elysio, Stigé, Etc. sono scarzi di penna poetica, non sentimenti di anema catolico._' If I have annexed Fate, Fortune, Destiny, Elysium, Styx, &c. they are only the sports of a poetical fancy, not the sentiments of a Catholic mind. [43] By Cicero. [44] According to the Abbé de Bos's hypothesis. [45] Those in the shades are supposed acquainted with the transactions in the world.