Spot, as the Enfign of a Diadem: She drives away all other Serpents with her Hifling: She doth not roll up her felf, as others do; but bears her Body upright: She burns Herbs, kills Fruit, and breaks Stones by her approaching near them. Q. What is the swifteft Thing in the World? A. One answered the Sun, because his Speed is fuch that in a Day he compaffeth the whole Circuit of the Earth; but another faid, that Thought was swifter than that, and can travel the World in a Moment.

Q. What is the ftrongest of all things?

A. One answered, Woman; another, Wine; a third, a King: All these are very powerful; but Truth is the strongest of all things, and overcomes all things in the end. Read i Efdras iv. Q. How many are the Properties of good Wine?

A. As many as there are Senfes in a Man's Body for to every Senfe good Wine ought to have a Relation. First, to the Sight, good Colour, Pureness and Clearnefs: Secondly, to the Hearing; being poured forth, a sparkling, or fpeaking Noife: Thirdly, to the Tafte, good Relish: Fourthly, to the touching, Coldness. Fifthly, to the Smell, Sweetnefs.

Q. Who first brought that Ufe of pledging one another, being drank unto?

A. This Cuftom took its Original at fuch Times as the Danes ruled in England, who ufed, when the English drank, to flab them, or cut their Throats; to avoid which Villainy, the Party then drinking would request fome of the next Sittersby to be his Surety, or Pledge, while he paid Nature her due, and hence have we our Cuftom of pledging one another, now grown a Compli

ment among us.

Q. How many Sorts of Fafts are there in ufe? A. Six: The fick Man's faft; the poor Mans

Fall

Faft; the Mifer's Faft; the Glutton's Faft; the Hypocrite's Faft; the righteous Man's Faft.

Experience out of Obfervation fays,

Six Sorts of People keep their Fafting Days.
Which, if you will in order have them fhewn,
Then thus they are diftinguifh'd ev'ry one:
The fick Man fafls, because he cannot eat;
The poor Man fafts, because he wanteth Meat;
The Mifer fafts, with greedy Mind to fpare;
The Glutton fafts, to eat a greater Share ;
The Hypocrite, he fafts to feem more holy;
The righteous Man, to punish finful Folly.

Q. What Place is that which is accounted the Middle, or Center of the Earth?

A. Some fay Paleftine; but in particular, the Valley of Jehofaphat; of which Opinion are many of our ancient and modern Divines. Our Hiftorians allot the fame to Pythia, a Town in Greece, of which they fay, Jupiter defirous once to know the exact Middle of the Earth, let fly two Eagles, the one from the Eaft, and the other from the Weft; thefe Eagles, meeting in this Place, fhewed plainly that it was the Navel, or mid Part of the Earth.

Q. How many Colours are there in the Rain. bow?

A. Various Colours; but two efpecially moft apparent, a watry and fiery Colour, which two Colours exprefs two Judgments; the one of Water, in the Beginning of the World, and the other of Fire, in the End thereof.

Q. What Trees are most lasting ?

A. Moft Trees are very ftrong and durable to withstand the Violence of Wind and Weather: The Oak Tree increaseth an hundred Years, and decreaseth longer. Some Trees will laft fix hundred Years: The Cedar and Box Tree are thought

to

to be of an everlafting Continuance; after whofe Example one thus moralizeth, as no Fruit can be expected from that Tree which doth not first bring forth Leaves and Bloffoms; fo no Honour can accrew to that Age, that Youth doth not bud in Difcipline and Labour.

Q. Why do young Men many Times fay that they are younger than they are, and old Men, that they are older than they are ?

A. This doth Youth, that he may seem to preferve the Flower of Youth the longer: This doth Age, that he may gain more Reverence and Authority; but either foolishly.

Q. Whom doth he refemble that draws his Precepts from ancient learned Men?

A. He that cats old Grapes and drinks old Wine; for they whofe Studies are more painful in Youth, their Pleafures are more perfect in Age; for in the Fullness of Knowledge is the Sweetness of Life, and therefore, neither in Youth nor Age ought we to think ourselves either too old or too young to learn; but with the Refolution of a certain Father fay:

Learning would I defire, and Knowledge crave,
Tho' I were half fepulchred in my Grave.

Q. How many, and what Creatures are they that live without Meat?.

A. Four: The Camelion, by the Air; the Ant or Mole, by the Earth; the Sea-Herring, by Water; the Salamander, by Fire. To which may be added, the Dormouse, which lives partly by Sleep.

Q. There are three Things memorable which Spain boafts of, and what are they?

A. Firft a Bridge, over which the Water flows, that is used to run under all other Bridges. Secondly, a City, that is encompass'd with Fire,

which is called Madrid, by Reafon of the Walls which are all of Flint. Thirdly, another Bridge, on which continually ten thoufand Cattle are fed, under which the Water runs feven Miles under Ground: Befides a great Mountain of Salt, from which whatsoever is taken, it presently encreaseth to the fame quantity again.

Q. What are thofe three Things which are very ftrange or rather miraculous, in the Country of -Scotland?

A. Firft the Lake of Mirton, part of which congeals, part not. Secondly, the Lake of Lenox, twentyfour Miles round, in which are thirty Islands, one of which is driven to and fro in every Tempest. Thirdly, the Deaf Stone, which is twelve Feet high, 33 Cubits thick, and is of this rare Quality, that a Musket fhot off at one Side, cannot be heard by a Man ftanding on the other.

Q. What did our Ancients hold to be the greateft Wonders in the World?

A. The Pyramids of Egypt, built by the Ifraelites under the Oppreffion of Pharoah, which were forty Cubits high, fifty Cubits thick, and in Compafs twelve German Miles; the Tower of Pharoab; the Walls of Babylon: the Coloffus of the Sun at Rhodes; the Temple of Diana at Ephesus; the Tomb of Maufolus, and others.

Q What Stone, of all other, is of the greateft Wonder?

A. The Flint Stone which contains Fire within, it is a wonderful Secret and Benefit to Man.

Q. What Stone is that will yield neither to the Fire nor Hammer?

A. 'The Adamant; which, as our Naturalifts obferve, can be diffolved only in Goat's Blood: Yet St. Chryfoftom writeth," Tho' the Heart of ་ a Sinner, be more hard than an Adamant, yet "will the Blood of Chrift mollify it.

Q

Q. There are three Things unhappy in the Law of the Lord, and what are they?

A. First, he that knoweth and teacheth not; he that teacheth and doeth not; he that is ignorant and learneth not.

Q. What Language, according to the Conjectures of fome Learned, shall we speak in the World

to come?

A. Hebrew: A Language fpoke by Chrift himfelf in this World, and is molt facred and antient of all, and was fpoken by Adam and Eve, and was not changed at the Confufion of Babel.

Q. Where should a Man travel to learn the Languages?

A. To Orleans for the French; to Florence for the Italian; to Leipfick for the Dutch, and to London for the English.

Q. Three Things often move Debate among Friends, and what are they?

A. First to talk with him that is angry, to fend him of an Errand that is weary, and to awake a Man out of his Sleep.

Q. Who were the most noted for early Parts?

A. Auguftus Cæfar began at nineteen Years to manage Affairs; Cofmo Medici, at the Age of feventeen, took upon him the Government; Michael Angelo, when a Child, began to draw Figures; Jofeph Pious, Earl of Mirandola, at twenty-one Years of Age, defended nine hundred Conclufions against all Oppofers hua Scaliger, at the Age of feventeen, took upon him the Government; Oedipus Grotius, when eight Years old, made. Verfes, and Cowley at thirteen; Calvin printed his Inftitutions at twenty-five Years old; Sir Philip Sidney, Mr. Oughted, and many more of the Englib Nation.

Q. What is the greatest Wonder in the Art of Navigation?

A. The Needle of the Compafs, which touched.