erected it in the parish-church; and this piece of notorious and
expensive villany had actually succeeded, had I not used my
utmost interest with the vestry, where it was carried at last but
by two voices, that I am still alive. That stratagem failing, out
comes a long sable elegy, bedeck'd with hour-glasses, mattocks,
sculls, spades, and skeletons, with an epitaph as confidently
written to abuse me, and my profession, as if I had been under
ground these twenty years.

And, after such barbarous treatment as this, can the world blame
me, when I ask, What is become of the freedom of an Englishman?
And where is the liberty and property that my old glorious friend
came over to assert? We have drove popery out of the nation, and
sent slavery to foreign climes. The arts only remain in bondage,
when a man of science and character shall be openly insulted in
the midst of the many useful services he is daily paying to the
publick. Was it ever heard, even in Turkey or Algiers, that a
state-astrologer was banter'd out of his life by an ignorant
impostor, or bawl'd out of the world by a pack of villanous,
deep-mouth'd hawkers? Though I print almanacks, and publish
advertisements; though I produce certificates under the ministers
and church-wardens hands I am alive, and attest the same on oath
at quarter-sessions, out comes a full and true relation of the
death and interment of John Partridge; Truth is bore down,
attestations neglected, the testimony of sober persons despised,
and a man is looked upon by his neighbours as if he had been
seven years dead, and is buried alive in the midst of his friends
and acquaintance.

Now can any man of common sense think it consistent with the