The common opinion of the Welsh Rabbit conceits that it is a species of _Cuniculus_ indigenous to Wales; of which assertion, if Prescription of time and Numerosity of assertors were a sufficient Demonstration, we might sit down herein as an orthodoxical Truth, nor should there need ulterior Disquisition. _Pliny_ discourseth of it under the Head of _De Animalibus Walliœ_. _Seneca_ describeth it as an exosseous Animal, or one of the invertebrated or boneless kind. _Claudian_ saith that it delighteth to burrow underground in Coal Holes and Cyder Cellars. _Scaliger_ affirmeth it to be like to the Hyena, incapable of Domitation or taming, for the cause that he never heard of one being domesticated in a Hutch. _Sarenus Sammonicus_ determineth it to be like unto the Salamander, moist in the third degree, and to have a mucous Humidity above and under the Epidermis, or outer skin, by virtue whereof it endureth the Fire for a time. Nor are such conceits held by Humane authors only, for the holy Fathers of the Church have likewise similarly opinioned. _St. Augustine_ declareth it to be an unclean Animal; insomuch that like to the Polecat it is Graveolent, emitting a strong Murine, or Micy Effluvium. _The Venerable Bede_ averreth that it is Noctiparent, as the Bat or Owl, and seldom quitteth its Warrenne until Midnight, for food; for the reason that being Cœcigenous, or possessing no organs of Vision, it loveth Tenebrosity. All which notwithstanding, upon strict inquiry, we find the Matter controvertible. _Diodorus_, in his Eleventh Book, affirmeth the Welsh Rabbit to be a creature of Figment, like unto the Sphinx and Snap-Dragon. _Mathiolus_, in his Comment on _Dioscorides_, treateth it not as an Animal, but as a Lark. _Sextius_, a Physitian, saith that having well digested the matter, he was compulsed to reject it; whilest _Salmuth_, the Commentator of _Pancirollus_, averreth that one _Podocaterus_, a Cyprian, kept one for Months in a Cage, without ever having attained the sight of the remotest Manifestation of Vitality. Now, besides Authority against it, Experience doth in no way confirm the existence of the Welsh Rabbit as an Animant Entity. But, contrariwise, the principles of Sense and Reason conspire to asseverate it to be, like unto the Myths of Paganism, an Inanimant Body, vivificated by the Ignoration and Superstitiosity of men. For had they but inquired into the Etymon, or true meaning of the name of the Entity in question, they would have experienced that it was originally merely the Synonyme for a British Dainty, or Cymric Scitamentum; insomuch as it was primitively appellated, "The Welsh Tid, or Rare-Bit;" which, by elision, becoming Metamorphosed into Ra'bit, was, from its Homophony, vulgarly supposed to have respect to the _Cuniculus_ rather than to the _Scitamentum_ of Wales.