_Published for_
THE EARLY ENGLISH TEXT SOCIETY
_by the_
OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS
LONDON · NEW YORK · TORONTO




FIRST PUBLISHED 1866
REVISED EDITION 1889
REPRINTED 1965


Original Series, No. 16
Reprinted in Great Britain by Richard Clay
(The Chaucer Press) Ltd., Bungay, Suffolk

* * * * *


The odd account of the origin of this Treatise--in its first
lines--caught my eye as I was turning over the leaves of the Sloane
Manuscript which contains it. I resolved to print it as a specimen of
the curious fancies our forefathers believed in (as I suppose) in
Natural Science, to go alongside of the equally curious notions they
put faith in in matters religious. And this I determined on with no idea
of scoffing, or pride in modern wisdom; for I believe that as great
fallacies now prevail in both the great branches of knowledge and