EXCURSION TO THE REALMS BELOW. 67 



this time is not fo remote by far as the unbelievers and 

 the epicureans may imagine : in the mean time, I 

 would give them this piece of well-meant advice, not 

 to ftretch the chords too high at once. All in due 

 gradation, and in its proper time ! I think we may 

 repofe a little on our laurels at prefent, and be con- 

 tented with having already brought matters to fuch a 

 pafs in fo Ihort a time ! To fail about in the air ; to 

 walk upon the water ; to fmell a fpring thirty feet under 

 ground ; to look into the ftomach of a lick perfon, 

 with one's eyes fhut ; and there to fee what ails him 

 and how he is to be relieved ; to make gold out of fait 

 of urine, and even children out of I know not what 

 fait, without the help of women, to fmell with the 

 ears, to hear with the eyes, to behold infinitude at the 

 tip of one's nofe. — All thefe things are, by Hercules ! 

 no trifles. And all thefe things have been difcovered 

 within thefe few years ; are the portion of a number 

 of elect fons of earth ; who, as all good people are free 

 of communication, are ready to initiate their brethren 

 and lifters into thefe glorious myfteries, at the fmall 

 expence of a few louis d'ors or guineas. From fuch a 

 beginning, we have ail the reafon in the world to in- 

 dulge the moll luxuriant expectations ; and, in fact, 

 I fee no caufe why we fhould not be able, even before 

 the clofe of this eighteenth century, (which fome fa- 

 mous authors, for what reafon, I know not, chufe to 

 call the feventeenth,) to aftume any form at pleafure : 

 to ride aloft through the air, on broomfticks or on 

 winged rams, like Phryxus and Helle ; to live in the 

 water and in the fire among onclines and falamanders, 

 in one word, to realize all the mythological miracles, 



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