66 



EXCURSION 



TO THE REALMS BELOW. 



It is perfectly certain that time is as infinitely divilib.Ic 

 as fpace ; there 'may be beings to whom what we call a 

 moment may be a century, and others again to whom 

 a hundred years with us may be no more than fo many 

 moments : but I do not blufh to confefs, that I am ..not 

 one of thofe beings — though (to mention it by the 

 way) it is not unknown to me, that a certain degree in 

 the hermetical order of adepts, at which the renowned 

 Mifphragmutofiris was arrived at the time of the invi- 

 fible fuperior, (if I am not miftaken, it is the 777th 

 degree,) puts a man in poffeffionof the fecret, of regu- 

 lating the clock-work of his foul, fo as to make it go as 

 flow or as fan: as he will ; a fecret, by means of which 

 it only depends on him, at any time to vifit all the 

 ftars in the celeftial archipelago, which common mor- 

 tals call the Milky-way, and to fee every thing worthy 

 of obfervation in them, and to note it down in his 

 journal, in a frill fhorter time than Mohammed em- 

 ployed in performing his heavenly journey. 



If, however, I were to fpeak my opinion honeftly of 

 thefe and the like matters, I mould fay, that I firmly 

 believe a time will come, when not a fon of Adam, will 

 ftand in need of any more expence of time and pains, 

 to form himfelf a little world out of a lump of original 

 matter, materia prima, and furnifhed with all poffible 

 accommodations, than is requifite to a boy for erecling 

 a houfe of cards ; and when the meaneft of us will 

 make the journey round the whole univerfe, in juft as 

 many minutes, as, in our prefent reptile -ftate, (as 

 it is termed by the great Haller,) is neceffary for a 

 captain Cook to fail round the little world we creep 

 on, in his nutfhell ; nay, I am willing to allow, that 



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