134 
THE RAT. 
heard of either man, bird, or beast being poisoned, or even 
made sick through swallowing a sermulot ! But I have met 
with numerous individuals who have eaten them ; and one 
and all, without an exception, have declared them to be most 
delicate and sweet eating ; and in many cases they have given 
them preference to rabbits. 
CHAPTER XVII. 
PREJUDICES AND ANTIPATHIES. 
Prejudice and antipathy, forsooth — certainly the veriest 
limping, blinking, one-eyed, one-sided bigots that can be- 
numb the heart, and poison the springs of human sensibility, 
but which shrivel into the shade before the light of truth 
and common sense. Nevertheless, there have been eminent 
individuals in all ages who have been the victims of some 
ungovernable antipathy, which was perhaps at first only a 
dislike ; but being fostered and cherished through a period 
of time, had grown into an aversion, and ultimately became 
incorporated with their very nature, so as to resolve itself 
into a deep-rooted antipathy, which nothing but the incidents 
of cruel misfortune, or the iron hand of necessity, could ever 
shake or overcome. 
Sir Nicholas Bacon, Keeper of the Great Seal and Privy 
Councillor to Queen Elizabeth, and who was the first Keeper 
that ranked as Lord Chancellor, with all his learning and 
dignity, would swoon away at each eclipse of the moon ; 
and the insolent but clever Scaliger, of the sixteenth century, 
is said to have trembled in every limb at the sight of water- 
cresses. 
The celebrated astronomer, Tycho Brahe, of the sixteenth 
century, nearly expired at the sight of a fox ; and the Duke 
d'Epernon would swoon on beholding a leveret, although a 
hare did not produce the same effect. Henry III. of France 
would also faint at the sight of a cat ; and Marshal d' Albert 
was affected in the same manner at the sight of a pig. 
Yladislaus of Poland would run from the sight of apples ; 
and Montaigne, remarking on this subject, said that there 
