Quicquid homo est, istud Tumulis, ast istud Abyssô._

Prudent.

[Greek: Phthenxomai hois themis osti, thuras d' epithesthe
bebêlois.]

Orpheus.

Saturday, _April 16. 1720._


The Person, who confines himself to the Task of writing a Paper of
Entertainment, is not thereby obliged to be continually ludicrous in his
Composition, or to expect that his Readers should always be upon the broad
Grin. The _rational_, as well as _risible_, Faculties are to be exercised;
and if I think fit to be too precisely serious to Day, my good-natur'd
Customers will give me an Indulgence, and believe that I will make it up to
them with Mirth on _Tuesday_.

As I devoted the spare Hours of yesterday to Meditation, I could not help
reflecting, what little Notion we have at this Time of _Prodigies_ and
_Phenomena_, that are not in the common Course of Nature. We are grown
_Epicureans_ in our Principles, and force our selves to believe, that it is
Fear, Superstition, or Ignorance, to fancy that Providence sends the World
a Warning in extraordinary Appearances: We buoy our selves up, that we only
want such a Portion of Philosophy to account for what startles the
Grossness of Sense, and to know that such Appearances must have their Cause
in Nature, tho' we cannot readily determine where to fix it. This brings to
my Mind, when _Glendour_ was boasting in the Play, that at his Nativity the