Here dwells strong conviction--of Logic the glory, When applied with precision _à posteriori_. I've known a short lecture most strangely prevail, When duly convey'd to the head through the tail; Like an electrical shock, in an instant 'tis spread, And flies with a jerk from the tail to the head; Promotes circulation, and thrills through each vein, The faculties quickens, and purges the brain. By sympathy thus, and consent of the parts, We are taught, _fundamentally_, classics and arts. The Birch, _à priori_, applied to the palm, Can settle disputes and a passion becalm. Whatever disorders prevail in the blood The birch can correct them, like guaiacum wood: It sweetens the juices, corrects our ill humours, Bad habits removes, and disperses foul tumours. When applied to the hand it can cure with a switch, Like the salve of old Molyneux, used in the itch! As the famed rod of Circe to brutes could turn men, So the twigs of the Birch can unbrute them again. Like the wand of the Sybil, that branch of pure gold, These sprays can the gates of Elysium unfold-- The Elysium of learning, where pleasures abound, Those sweets that still flourish on classical ground. Prometheus's rod, which, mythologists say, Fetch'd fire from the sun to give life to his clay, Was a rod well applied his men to inspire With a taste for the arts, and their genius to fire. This bundle of rods may suggest one reflection, That the arts with each other maintain a connexion. Another good moral this bundle of switches Points out to our notice and silently teaches; Of peace and good fellowship these are a token, For the twigs, well united, can scarcely be broken. Then, if such are its virtues, we'll bow to the tree, And THE BIRCH, like the Muses, immortal shall be. I copy from a MS. extract-book, and shall be glad of a reference to any place in which these lines have appeared in print. BALLIOLENSIS. * * * * * THE DUTCH EAST-INDIA COMPANY. (Vol. vi., p. 316.) These folio volumes appeared in 1646, without name or place of either author or printer, under the title--