Class IIL TOAD. 15 



feems that Shake/pear alludes, when he makes hi.? 

 Juliet remark. 



Some fay the lark and loathed toad change eyes. 



As if they would have been better beftowed on fa 

 charming a fongfter than on this raucous reptile. 



But the hideous appearance of the toad is fuch 

 as to make this one advantageous feature over- 

 looked, and to have rendered it in all ages an objed 

 of horor, and the origin of mod tremendous inven- 

 tions. jElian^ makes its venom fo potent, that 

 Baftlifk-\\kt^ it conveyed death by its very look and 

 breath , but Juvenal is content with making the 

 Roman ladies, who were weary of their hufbands, 

 form a potion from its intrails -f, in order to get 

 rid of the good man. 



Occurrit Matrona potens, quae molle Calcnutn 

 Porredura viro mifcct fitiente rubetam. Sat, I. 6d:. 



To quench the hufband's parching thirfl, h brought 



By the great Dame, a moft deceitful draught ; 



In rich Calenian wine Ihe does infufe, 



^To eafe his pains) the toad's envenomed juice. 



This opinion begat others of a more dreadful 

 nature ; for in after-times fuperdition gave it pre- 

 ternatural powers, and made it a principal ingre- 

 dient in the incantations of nodurnal hags : 



* Hljl, an, lib, ix. c. ii, 



t ^au vi. 658. Vide Man Hijl. m* Uh. xvii c. iz, and 15. 



Toad- 



