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THE NOVELS
AND MISC ELL AN E O U S W OR KS
OF DANIEL DIE FOE.
VOLUME THE NINTH.
HISTORY OF THE PLAGUE IN LONDON.
THE CONSOLIDATOR.
THE NOVELS
AND
MISCELLANEOUS WORKS
OF
DANIEL DE FOE.
witH A BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIR OF THE AUTHOR, LITERARY
PREFACES TO THE WARIOUS PIECES, ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES, ETC.
INCLUIDING ALL CONTAINED IN THE EDITION ATTRIBUTED TO
THE LATE SIR, WALTER SCOTT,
WITH CONSIDERABLE AIDI) ITIONS.
WOL. IX.
HISTORY OF THE PLAGUE IN LONDON.
THE CONSOLIDATOR.
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OXFORD :
PRINTED BY D. A. TALBOYS, -
FOR THOMAS TEGG, 73, CHEAPSIDE, LONDON.
& 1840.

3°23'
D3/4
| 340
V, 1
HISTORY OF THE PLAGUE
IN LONDON, IN 1665.
AND
THE CONSOLIDATOR.
IN ONE VOLUME.
OXFORD :
PRINTED BY D. A. TALBOYS,
FOR THOMAS TEGG, 73, CHEAPSIDE, LONDON.
1840.
HISTORY OF
THE PLAGUE IN LONDON.
—6–
IT was about the beginning of September, 1664,
that I, among the rest of my neighbours, heard, in
ordinary discourse, that the plague was returned
again in Holland; for it had been very violent there,
and particularly at Amsterdam and Rotterdam, in
the year 1663, whither they say, it was brought,
some said from Italy, others from the Levant, among
some goods which were brought home by their
Turkey fleet; others said it was brought from
Candia; others from Cyprus. It mattered not from
whence it came ; but all agreed it was come into
Holland again. g
We had no such thing as printed newspapers in
those days, to spread rumours and reports of things,
and to improve them by the invention of men, as I
have lived to see practised since. But such things
as those were gathered from the letters of merchants,
and others, who corresponded abroad, and from them
was handed about by word of mouth only; so that
things did not spread instantly over the whole
nation, as they do now. But it seems that the go-
vernment had a true account of it, and several
councils were held about ways to prevent its coming
over, but all was kept very private. Hence it was,
that this rumour died off again, and people began
to forget it, as a thing we were very little concerned
in, and that we hoped was not true; till the latter
PLAGUE. B
J
2 THE HISTORY OF
end of November, or the beginning of December,
1664, when two men, said to be Frenchmen, died
of the plague in Long-acre, or rather at the upper
end of Drury-lane. The family they were in, en-
deavoured to conceal it as much as possible; but as
it had gotten some vent in the discourse of the
neighbourhood, the secretaries of state got know-
ledge of it. And concerning themselves to inquire
about it, in order to be certain of the truth, two
physicians and a surgeon were ordered to go to the
house, and make inspection. This they did, and
finding evident tokens of the sickness upon both the
bodies that were dead, they gave their opinions
publicly, that they died of the plague. Whereupon
it was given in to the parish clerk, and he also re-
turned them to the hall; and it was printed in the
weekly bill of mortality in the usual manner, thus: .
PLAGUE, 2. PARISHES INFECTED, 1.
The people showed a great concern at this, and
began to be alarmed all over the town, and the
more, because in the last week in December, 1664,
another man died in the same house, and of the
same distemper : and then we were easy again for
about six weeks, when none having died with any
marks of infection, it was said the distemper was
gone; but after that, I think it was about the 12th
of February, another died in another house, but in
the same parish, and in the same manner.
This turned the people's eyes pretty much towards
that end of the town; and the weekly bills showing
an increase of burials in St. Giles's parish more
than usual, it began to be suspected that the plague
was among the people at that end of the town; and
that many had died of it, though they had taken
care to keep it as much from the knowledge of the
public as possible. This possessed the heads of the
THE PLAGUE IN LONDON. 3
people very much, and few cared to go through
Drury-lane, or the other streets suspected, unless
they had extraordinary business, that obliged them
to It. -
This increase of the bills stood thus; the usual
number of burials in a week, in the parishes of St.
Giles's in the Fields, and St. Andrew’s, Holborn,
were from twelve to seventeen or nineteen each,
few more or less; but from the time that the plague
first began in St. Giles's parish, it was observed
that the ordinary burials increased in number con-
siderably. For example: - -
From Dec. 27th to Jan. 3rd, St. Giles's 16
St. Andrew's 17
Jan. 3rd to Jan. 10th, St. Giles's 12
St. Andrew's 25
Jan. 10th to Jan. 17th, St. Giles's 18
St. Andrew's 18
Jan. 17th to Jan. 24th, St. Giles's 23
St. Andrew's 16
Jan. 24th to Jan. 31st, St. Giles's 24
. St. Andrew’s 15
Jan. 31st to Feb. 7th, St. Giles's 21.
St. Andrew's 23
Feb. 7th to Feb. 14th, St. Giles's 24
Whereof one of the plague.
The like increase of the bills was observed in the
parishes of St. Bride's, adjoining on one side of
Holborn parish, and in the parish of St. James's,
Clerkenwell, adjoining on the other side of Holborn;
in both which parishes the usual numbers that died
weekly, were from four to six or eight, whereas at
that time they were increased as follows:
B 2
4 , THE HISTORY OF
From Dec. 20th to Dec. 27th, St.
St.
Dec. 27th to Jan. 3rd, St.
- 3. St.
Jan. 3rd to Jan. 10th, St.
St.
Jan. 10th to Jan. 17th, St.
St.
Jan. 17th to Jan. 24th, St.
~. St.
Jan. 24th, to Jan. 31st, St.
St.
Jan. 31st to Feb. 7th, St.
- - St.
Feb. 7th to Feb. 14th, St.
St.
Bride's
James
Bride's
James
Bride’s.
James
|Bride's
James
Bride's
James
Bride's
James
|Bride's
James
Bride's
James
J.
1
1
1
I
O
8
6
9
I
7
2
9
9
5
8
2
3
5
12
6
Besides this, it was observed with great uneasi-
ness by the people, that the weekly bills in general
increased very much during these weeks, although
it was at a time of the year when usually the bills
are very moderate.
The usual number of burials within the bills of
mortality for a week, was from about two hundred-
and-forty, or thereabouts, to three hundred. The last
was esteemed a pretty high bill; but after this we
found the bills successively increasing, as follows:
December 20, to the 27th, Buried 291
27, to the 3rd Jan.
January 3, to the 10th,
10, to the 17th,
17, to the 24th,
Increased.
349 58
394 45
415 21
474 59
THE PLAGUE IN LONDON {).
*4.
This last bill was really frightful, being a higher
number than had been known to have been buried
in one week, since the preceding visitation of 1656.
However, all this went off again, and the weather
proving cold, and the frost, which began in Decem-
ber, still continuing very severe, even till near the
end of February, attended with sharp though
moderate winds, the bills decreased again, and the
city grew healthy, and everybody began to look
upon the danger as good as over; only that still the
burials in St. Giles's continued high. From the be-
ginning of April, especially, they stood at twenty-
five each week, till the week from the 18th to the
25th, when there was buried in St. Giles's parish
thirty, whereof two of the plague, and eight of the
spotted fever, which was looked upon as the same
thing; likewise the number that died of the spotted
fever in the whole increased, being eight the week
before, and twelve the week above named. . .
This alarmed us all again, and terrible apprehen-
sions were among the people, especially the weather
being now changed and growing warm, and the
summer being at hand: however, the next week there
seemed to be some hopes again, the bills were low,
the number of the dead in all was but 388, there
was none of the plague, and but four of the spotted
fever. - . .
But the following week it returned again, and the
distemper was spread into two or three other
parishes, viz. St. Andrew's, Holborn, St. Clement's-
Danes, and, to the great affliction of the city, one
died within the walls, in the parish of St. Mary-
Wool-Church, that is to say, in Bearbinder-lane,
near Stocks-market; in all there were nine of the
plague, and six of the spotted fever. It was, how-
ever, upon inquiry, found, that this Frenchman who
died in Bearbinder-lane, was one who, having lived
6 - THE HISTORY OF
in Long-acre, near the infected houses, had removed
for fear of the distemper, not knowing that he was
already infected.
This was the beginning of May, yet the weather
was temperate, variable, and cool enough, and peo-
ple had still some hopes: that which encouraged them
was, that the city was healthy, the whole ninety-
seven parishes buried but fifty-four, and we began
to hope, that as it was chiefly among the people at
that end of the town, it might go no further; and
the rather, because the next week, which was from
the 9th of May to the 16th, there died but three,
of which not one within the whole city or liberties,
and St. Andrew’s buried but fifteen, which was very
low. It is true, St. Giles's buried two-and-thirty,
but still as there was but one of the plague, people
began to be easy; the whole bill also was very low,
for the week before, the bill was but 347, and the
week above mentioned but 343. We continued in
these hopes for a few days. But it was but for a
few, for the people were no more to be deceived
thus; they searched the houses, and found that the
plague was really spread every way, and that many
died of it every day, so that now all our extenua-
tions abated, and it was no more to be concealed,
'nay, it quickly appeared that the infection had
spread itself beyond all hopes of abatement; that in
the parish of St. Giles's, it was gotten into several
streets, and several families lay all sick together;
and, accordingly, in the weekly bill for the next
week, the thing began to show itself; there was in-
deed but fourteen set down of the plague, but this
was all knavery and collusion; for St. Giles's parish,
they buried forty in all, whereof it was certain most
of them died of the plague, though they were set
down of other distempers; and though the number
of all the burials were not increased above thirty-
THE PLAGUE IN LONDON. 7
two, and the whole bill being but 385, yet there
was fourteen of the spotted fever, as well as fourteen
of the plague; and we took it for granted upon the
whole, that there were fifty died that week of the
plague. - -
The next bill was from the 23rd of May, to the
30th, when the number of the plague was seventeen;
but the burials in St. Giles's were fifty-three, a
frightful number 1 of whom they set down but nine
of the plague: but on an examination more strictly
by the justices of the peace, and at the lord mayor's
request, it was found there were twenty more who
were really dead of the plague in that parish, but
had been set down of the spotted fever, or other dis-
tempers, besides others concealed.
But those were trifling things to what followed
immediately after ; for now the weather set in hot,
and, from the first week in June, the infection spread
in a dreadful manner, and the bills rise high, the
articles of the fever, spotted fever, and teeth, began
to swell: for all that could conceal their distempers,
did it to prevent their neighbours shunning and re-
fusing to converse with them; and also to prevent
authority shutting up their houses, which though
it was not yet practised, yet was threatened, and
people were extremely terrified at the thoughts of
it.
The second weekin June, the parish of St. Giles’s,
where still the weight of the infection lay, buried
120, whereof, though the bills said but sixty-eight of
the plague everybody said there had been a hundred
at least, calculating it from the usual number of
funerals in that parish as above.
Till this week the city continued free, there
having never any died except that one Frenchman,
who I mentioned before, within the whole ninety-
seven parishes. Now there died four within the
8 THE HISTORY OF
city, one in Wood-street, one in Fenchurch-street,
and two in Crooked-lane: Southwark was entirely
free, having not one yet died on that side of the
Water. - - - .
I lived without Aldgate, about midway between
Aldgate church and Whitechapel Bars, on the left
hand or north side of the street; and as the dis-
temper had not reached to that side of the city, our
neighbourhood continued very easy: but at the
other end of the town their consternation was very
great, and the richer sort of people, especially the
nobility and gentry, from the west part of the city,
thronged out of town, with their families and servants
in an unusual manner; and this was more particu-
larly seen in Whitechapel; that is to say, the
Broad-street where I lived: indeed nothing was to
be seen, but waggons and carts, with goods, women;
servants, children, &c.; coaches filled with people of
the better sort, and horsemen attending them, and
all hurrying away; then empty waggons and carts
appeared, and spare horses with servants, who it
was apparent were returning, or sent from the country
to fetch more people: besides innumerable numbers
of men on horseback, some alone, others with ser-
vants, and generally speaking, all loaded with baggage
and fitted out for travelling, as any one might
perceive by their appearance. .
This was a very terrible and melancholy thing to
see, and as it was a sight which I could not but look
on from morning to night (for indeed there was
nothing else of moment to be seen,) it filled me with
very serious thoughts of the misery that was coming
upon the city, and the unhappy condition of those
that would be left in it. -
This hurry of the people was such for some weeks,
that there was no getting at the lord mayor’s door
without exceeding difficulty; there was such pressing
THE PLAGUE IN LONDON. 9
and crowding there to get passes and certificates of
health, for such as travelled abroad ; for, without
these, there was no being admitted to pass through
the towns upon the road, or to lodge in any inn.
Now as there had none died in the city for all this
time, my lord mayor gave certificates of health
without any difficulty to all those who lived in the
ninety-seven parishes, and to those within the li-
berties too for awhile. -
This hurry, I say, continued some weeks, that is
to say, all the months of May and June, and the more
because it was rumoured that an order of the govern-
ment was to be issued out, to place turnpikes and
barriers on the road, to prevent people's travelling;
and that the towns on theroad would not suffer people
from London to pass, for fear of bringing the infec-
tion along with them, though neither of these
rumours had any foundation, but in the imagina-
tion, especially at first. !
I now began to consider seriously with myself,
concerning my own case, and how I should dispose
of myself; that is to say, whether I should resolve
to stay in London, or shut up my house and flee, as
many of my neighbours did. I have set this particular
down so fully, because I know not but it may be of
moment to those who come after me, if they come
to be brought to the same distress, and to the same
manner of making their choice, and therefore I
desire this account may pass with them rather for
a direction to themselves to act by, than a history
of my actings, seeing it may not be of one farthing
value to them to note what became of me. -
I had two important things before me; the one
was the carrying on my business and shop; which
was considerable, and in which was embarked all
my effects in the world; and the other was the pre-
servation of my life in so dismal a calamity, as I saw
10 THE HISTORY OF
apparently was coming upon the whole city; and
which, however great it was, my fears perhaps, as
well as other people's, represented to be much
greater than it could be. - - -
The first consideration was of great moment to
me; my trade was a saddler, and as my dealings were
chiefly not by a shop or chance trade, but among
the merchants, trading to the English colonies in
America, so my effects lay very much in the hands
of such. I was a single man it is true, but I had a
family of servants, who I kept at my business; had
a house, shop, and warehouses filled with goods;
and, in short, to leave them all as things in such a
case must be left, that is to say, without any over-
seer or person fit to be trusted with them, had been
to hazard the loss not only of my trade, but of my
goods, and indeed of all I had in the world.
I had an elder brother at the same time in
London, and not many years before come over
from Portugal; and, advising with him, his answer
was in three words, the same that was given in
another case quite different, viz. Master, save thy-
self. In a word, he was for my retiring into the
country, as he resolved to do himself, with his
family; telling me, what he had, it seems, heard
abroad, that the best preparation for the plague was
to run away from it. As to my argument of losing
my trade, my goods, or debts, he quite confuted me:
he told me the same thing, which I argued for my
staying, viz. That I would trust God with my safety
and health, was the strongest repulse to my pre-
tensions of losing my trade and my goods; For, says
he, is it not as reasonable that you should trust
God with the chance or risk of losing your trade, as
that you should stay in so eminent a point of danger,
and trust him with your life? . .
I could not argue that I was in any strait, as to
THE PLAGUE IN LONDON. 11
a place where to go, having several friends and re-
lations in Northamptonshire, whence our family first
came from ; and particularly, I had an only sister in
Lincolnshire, very willing to receive and entertain
Iſle.
My brother, who had already sent his wife and
two children into Bedfordshire, and resolved to
follow them, pressed my going very earnestly ; and
I had once resolved to comply with his desires, but
at that time could get no horse: for though it is
true, all the people did not go out of the city of
London; yet I may venture to say, that in a manner
all the horses did; for there was hardly a horse to
be bought or hired in the whole city, for some weeks.
Once I resolved to travel on foot with one servant;
and as many did, lie at no inn, but carry a soldier's
tent with us, and so lie in the fields, the weather
being very warm, and no danger from taking cold.
I say, as many did, because several did so at last,
especially those who had been in the armies, in the
war which had not been many years past; and I
must needs say, that, speaking of second causes, had
most of the people that travelled, done so, the
plague had not been carried into so many country
towns and houses, as it was, to the great damage,
and indeed to the ruin of abundance of people.
But then my servant, who I had intended to take
down with me, deceived me, and being frighted at
the increase of the distemper, and not knowing
when I should go, he took other measures, and left
me, so I was put off for that time; and one way or
other, I always found that to appoint to go away,
was always crossed by some accident or other, so
as to disappoint and put it off again; and this brings
in a story which otherwise might be thought a
needless digression, viz. about these disappoint-
ments being from heaven. i , 3 y
12 . THE HISTORY OF
It came very warmly into my mind, one morning;
as I was musing on this particular thing, that as
nothing attended us without the direction or per-
mission of Divine Power, so these disappointments
must have something in them extraordinary; and
I ought to consider whether it did not evidently
point out, or intimate to me, that it was the will of
Heaven I should not go. It immediately followed
in my thoughts, that if it really was from God, that
I should stay ; he was able effectually to preserve
me in the midst of all the death and danger that
would surround me ; and that if I attempted to
secure myself by fleeing from my habitation, and
acted contrary to these intimations, which I believed
to be divine, it was a kind of flying from God, and
that he could cause his justice to overtake me when
and where he thought fit.
These thoughts quite turned my resolutions again,
and when I came to discourse with my brother
again, I told him, that I inclined to stay and take
my lot in that station, in which God had placed
me; and that it seemed to be made more espe-
cially my duty, on the account of what I have
said. -
My brother, though a very religious man him-
self, laughed at all I had suggested about its being
an intimation from heaven, and told me several
stories of such foolhardy people, as he called them,
as I was ; that I ought indeed to submit to it as a
work of heaven, if I had been any way disabled
by distempers or diseases, and that then not being
able to go, I ought to acquiesce in the direction of
Him, who, having been my Maker, had an undis-
puted right of sovereignty in disposing of me; and
that then there had been no difficulty to determine
which was the call of his providence, and which
was not : but that I should take it as an intimation
THE PLAGUE IN LONDON. 13
from heaven, that I should not go out of town,
only because I could not hire a horse to go, or my
fellow was run away that was to attend me, was
ridiculous, since at the same time I had my health
and limbs, and other servants, and might with
ease travel a day or two on foot, and having a
good certificate of being in perfect health, might
either hire a horse, or take post on the road, as I
thought fit.
Then he proceeded to tell me of the mischievous
consequences which attended the presumption of
the Turks and Mahometans in Asia, and in other
places, where he had been (for my brother being
a merchant, was a few years before, as I have al-
ready observed, returned from abroad, coming last
from Lisbon), and how, presuming upon their pro-
fessed predestinating notions, and of every man's
end being predetermined, and unalterably before-
hand decreed, they would go unconcerned into
infected places, and converse with infected persons,
by which means they died at the rate of ten or fif-
teen thousand a week, whereas the Europeans, or
Christian merchants, who kept themselves retired
and reserved, generally escaped the contagion.
Upon these arguments my brother changed my
resolutions again, and I began to resolve to go,
and accordingly made all things ready ; for, in short,
the infection increased round me, and the bills
were risen to almost seven hundred a week, and
my brother told me, he would venture to stay no
longer. I desired him to let me consider of it but
till the next day, and I would resolve; and as I had
already prepared everything as well as I could, as
to my business, and who to intrust my affairs with,
I had little to do but to resolve.
I went home that evening greatly oppressed in
my mind, irresolute, and not knowing what to do,
J 4 - THE HISTORY OF
I had set the evening wholly apart to consider
seriously about it, and was all alone; for already
people had, as it were by a general consent, taken
up the custom of not going out of doors after sun-
set, the reasons I shall have occasion to say more of
by and by.
In the retirement of this evening I endeavoured
to resolve first, what was my duty to do, and I
stated the arguments with which my brother had
pressed me to go into the country, and I set against
them the strong impressions which I had on my
mind for staying; the visible call I seemed to have
from the particular circumstance of my calling,
and the care due from me for the preservation of
my effects, which were, as I might say, my estate :
also the intimations which I thought I had from
heaven, that to me signified a kind of direction to
venture, and it occured to me, that if I had what
I call a direction to stay, I ought to suppose it con-
tained a promise of being preserved, if I obeyed.
This lay close to me, and my mind seemed more
and more encouraged to stay than ever, and sup-
ported with a secret satisfaction, that I should be
kept. Add to this, that turning over the Bible,
which lay before me, and while my thoughts were
more than ordinary serious upon the question, I
cried out, Well, I know not what to do, Lord di-
rect me ! and the like; and that juncture I hap-
pened to stop turning over the book, at the 91st
Psalm, and casting my eye on the second verse, I
read to the seventh verse exclusive ; and after that,
included the 10th, as follows:– “I will say of the
Lord, he is my refuge, and my fortress, my God,
in him will I trust. Surely he shall deliver thee
from the snare of the fowler, and from the noisome
pestilence. He shall cover thee with his feathers,
and under his wings shalt thou trust : his truth
THE PLAGUE IN LONDON. 15
shall be thy shield and buckler. Thou shalt not
be afraid for the terror by night, nor for the arrow
that flieth by day: nor for the pestilence that
walketh in darkness, nor for the destruction that
wasteth at noon-day. A thousand shall fall at thy
side, and ten thousand at thy right hand; but it
shall not come nigh thee. Only with thine eyes
shalt thou behold and see the reward of the wicked.
Because thou hast made the Lord which is my
refuge, even the most high, thy habitation: there
shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague
come nigh thy dwelling,” &c. -
I scarce need tell the reader, that from that
moment I resolved that I would stay in the town,
and casting myself entirely upon the goodness and
protection of the Almighty, would not seek any
other shelter whatever; and that as my times were
in his hands, he was as able to keep me in a time of
the infection, as in a time of health ; and if he did
not think fit to deliver me, still I was in his hands,
and it was meet he should do with me as should
seem good to him.
With this resolution I went to bed; and I was
further confirmed in it the next day, by the woman
being taken ill with whom I had intended to in-
trust my house and all my affairs. But I had a
further obligation laid on me on the same side, for
the next day I found myself very much out of order
also ; so that if I would have gone away, I could
not, and I continued ill three or four days, and this
entirely determined my stay ; so I took my leave
of my brother, who went away to Dorking, in
Surry, and afterwards fetched a round further into
Buckinghamshire, or Bedfordshire, to a retreat he
had found out there for his family.
It was a very ill time to be sick in, for if any
one complained, it was immediately said he had the
16 . THE HISTORY OF
plague ; and though I had indeed no symptoms of
that distemper, yet being very ill, both in my head
and in my stomach, I was not without apprehen-
sion, that I really was infected, but in about three
days I grew better, the third night I rested well,
sweated a little, and was much refreshed; the ap-
prehensions of its being the infection went also
quite away with my illness, and I went about my
business as usual. -
These things however put off all my thoughts of
going into the country; and my brother also being
gone, I had no more debate either with him, or
with myself, on that subject.
It was now mid July, and the plague, which had
chiefly raged at the other end of the town, and as
I said before, in the parishes of St. Giles's, St.
Andrew’s, Holborn, and towards Westminster, be-
gan now to come eastward, towards the part where
I lived. It was to be observed indeed, that it did
not come straight on towards us ; for the city,
that is to say within the walls, was indifferent
healthy still ; nor was it got then very much over
the water into Southwark; for though there died
that week 1268 of all distempers, whereof it might
be supposed above nine hundred died of the plague;
yet there was but twenty-eight in the whole city,
within the walls, and but nineteen in Southwark,
Lambeth parish included ; whereas in the parishes
of St Giles, and St Martin’s in the Fields alone,
there died four hundred and twenty-one.
But we perceived the infection kept chiefly in
the out parishes, which being very populous, and
fuller also of poor, the distemper found more to
prey upon than in the city, as I shall observe after-
ward ; we perceived, I say, the distemper to draw
our way, viz. by the parishes of Clerkenwell,
Cripplegate, Shoreditch, and Bishopsgate; which
THE PLAGUE IN LONDON. 17
last two parishes joining to Aldgate, Whitechapel,
and Stepney, the infection came at length to spread
its utmost rage and violence in those parts, even
when it abated at the western parishes where it
began.
It was very strange to observe, that in this par-
ticular week, from the 4th to the 11th of July,
when, as I have observed, there died near four
hundred of the plague in the two parishes of St.
Martin's, and St. Giles's in the Fields only, there
died in the parish of Aldgate but four, in the parish
of Whitechapel three, in the parish of Stepney but
Orlé.
Likewise in the next week, from the 11th of
July to the 18th, when the week's bill was 1761, yet
there died no more of the plague, on the whole
Southwark side of the water, than sixteen.
But this face of things soon changed, and it
began to thicken in Cripplegate parish especially,
and in Clerkenwell; so that by the second week in
August, Cripplegate parish alone, buried eight hun-
dred and eighty-six, and Clerkenwell one hundred
and fifty-five; of the first, eight hundred and fifty
might well be reckoned to die of the plague; and
of the last, the bill itself said, one hundred and
forty-five were of the plague. º
During the month of July, and while, as I have
observed, our part of the town seemed to be spared
in comparison of the west part, I went ordinarily
about the streets, as my business required, and par-
ticularly went generally once in a day, or in two
days, into the city, to my brother's house, which he
had given me charge of, and to see it was safe; and
having the key in my pocket, I used to go into the
house, and over most of the rooms, to see that all
was well; for though it be something wonderful to
tell, that any should have hearts so hardened, in
PLAGUE. C
18 THE HISTORY OF
the midst of such a calamity, as to rob and steal;
yet certain it is, that all sorts of villanies, and even
levities and debaucheries, were then practised in the
town, as openly as ever, I will not say quite as fre-
quently, because the number of people were many
ways lessened. -
But the city itself began now to be visited too, I
mean within the walls; but the number of people
there were, indeed, extremely lessened, by so great
a multitude having been gone into the country;
and even all this month of July, they continued to
flee, though not in such multitudes as formerly. In
August indeed, they fled in such a manner, that I
began to think there would be really none but
magistrates and servants left in the city.
As they fled now out of the city, so I should ob-
serve, that the court removed early, viz. in the
month of June, and went to Oxford, where it pleased
God to preserve them; and the distemper did not,
as I heard of, so much as touch them ; for which I
cannot say, that I ever saw they showed any great.
token of thankfulness, and hardly anything of re-
formation, though they did not want being told that
their crying vices might, without breach of charity,
be said to have gone far, in bringing that terrible
judgment upon the whole nation.
The face of London was now indeed strangely
altered, I mean the whole mass of buildings, city,
liberties, suburbs, Westminster, Southwark, and
altogether; for, as to the particular part called the
city, or within the walls, that was not yet much
infected; but in the whole, the face of things, I say,
was much altered; sorrow and sadness sat upon
every face, and though some part were not yet
overwhelmed, yet all looked deeply concerned; and
as we saw it apparently coming on, so every one
looked on himself, and his family, as in the utmost
THE PLAGUE IN LONDON. 19
danger: were it possible to represent those times
exactly, to those that did not see them, and give
the reader due ideas of the horror that everywhere
presented itself, it must make just impressions upon
their minds, and fill them with surprise. London
might well be said to be all in tears; the mourners
did not go about the streets indeed, for nobody put
on black, or made a formal dress of mourning for
their nearest friends; but the voice of mourning
was truly heard in the streets; the shrieks of
women and children at the windows and doors of
their houses, where their nearest relations were,
perhaps dying, or just dead, were so frequent to be
heard, as we passed the streets, that it was enough
to pierce the stoutest heart in the world to hear
them. Tears and lamentations were seen almost
in every house, especially in the first part of the
visitation; for towards the latter end, men's hearts
were hardened, and death was so always before
their eyes, that they did not so much concern them-
selves for the loss of their friends, expecting that
themselves should be summoned the next hour.
Business led me out sometimes to the other end
of the town, even when the sickness was chiefly
there; and as the thing was new to me, as well as
to everybody else, it was a most surprising thing
to see those streets, which were usually so thronged,
now grown desolate, and so few people to be seen
in them, that if I had been a stranger, and at a loss
for my way, I might sometimes have gone the
length of a whole street, I mean of the by-streets,
and see nobody to direct me, except watchmen set
at the doors of such houses as were shut up ; of
which I shall speak presently.
One day, being at that part of the town, on some
special business, curiosity led me to observe things
more than usually; and indeed I walked a great
C 2
20 - THE HISTORY OF
way where I had no business; I went up Holborn,
and there the street was full of people; but they
walked in the middle of the great street, neither on
one side or other, because, as I suppose, they would
not mingle with anybody that came out of houses,
or meet with smells and scents from houses that
might be infected. - -
The inns of court were all shut up, nor were very
many of the lawyers in the Temple, or Lincoln’s-
inn, or Gray’s-inn, to be seen there. Everybody
was at peace, there was no occasion for lawyers;
besides, it being in the time of the vacation too,
they were generally gone into the country. Whole
rows of houses in some places, were shut close up,
the inhabitants all fled, and only a watchman or two
left. -
When I speak of rows of houses being shut up, I
do not mean shut up by the magistrates; but that
great numbers of persons followed the court, by the
necessity of their employments, and other depen-
dencies; and as others retired, really frighted with
the distemper, it was a mere desolating of some of
the streets: but the fright was not yet near so great
in the city, abstractedly so called; and particularly
because, though they were at first in a most inex-
pressible consternation, yet, as I have observed, that
the distemper intermitted often at first, so they
were as it were alarmed, and unalarmed again, and
this several times, till it began to be familiar to
them ; and that even when it appeared violent, yet
seeing it did not presently spread into the city, or
the east or south parts, the people began to take
courage, and to be, as I may say, a little hardened.
It is true, a vast many people fled, as I have ob-
served, yet they were chiefly from the west end of
the town, and from that we call the heart of the
city, that is to say, among the wealthiest of the
THE PLAGUE IN LONDON. 21
people; and such persons as were unincumbered
with trades and business. But of the rest, the
generality stayed, and seemed to abide the worst;
so that in the place we call the liberties, and in the
suburbs, in Southwark, and in the east part, such
as Wapping, Ratcliff, Stepney, Rotherhithe, and the
like, the people generally stayed, except here and
there a few wealthy families, who, as above, did not
depend upon their business.
It must not be forgot here, that the city and
suburbs were prodigiously full of people at the time
of this visitation, I mean at the time that it began;
for though I have lived to see a further increase,
and mighty throngs of people settling in London,
more than ever; yet we had always a notion that
numbers of people, which, the wars being over, the
armies disbanded, and the royal family and the
monarchy being restored, had flocked to London to
settle in business, or to depend upon, and attend
the court for rewards of services, preferments, and
the like, was such, that the town was computed to
have in it above a hundred thousand people more
than ever it held before; nay, some took upon them
to say, it had twice as many, because all the ruined
families of the royal party flocked hither; all the
soldiers set up trades here, and abundance of families
settled here; again, the court brought with it a
great flux of pride and new fashions; all people
were gay and luxurious, and the joy of the restora-
tion had brought a vast many families to London.
But I must go back again to the beginning of this
surprising time; while the fears of the people were
young, they were increased strangely by several odd
accidents, which put altogether, it was really a
wonder the whole body of the people did not rise
as one man and abandon their dwellings, leaving
the place as a space of ground designed by heaven
22 THE HISTORY OF
for an Akeldama, doomed to be destroyed from the
face of the earth, and that all that would be found
in it would perish with it. I shall name but a few
of these things; but sure they were so many, and
so many wizards and cunning people propagating
them, that I have often wondered there was any
(women especially) left behind.
In the first place, a blazing star or comet ap-
peared for several months before the plague, as
there did the year after another, a little before the
fire; the old women, and the phlegmatic hypocon-
driac part of the other sex, whom I could almost
call old women too, remarked, especially afterward,
though not till both those judgments were over,
that those two comets passed directly over the city,
and that so very near the houses, that it was plain
they imported something peculiar to the city alone.
That the comet before the pestilence was of a faint,
dull, languid colour, and its motion very heavy,
solemn, and slow ; but, that the comet before the
fire, was bright and sparkling, or, as others said,
flaming, and its motion swift and furious, and that,
accordingly, one foretold a heavy judgment slow
but severe, terrible, and frightful, as was the plague.
But the other foretold a stroke, sudden, swift, and
fiery, as was the conflagration; nay, so particular
some people were, that as they looked upon that
comet preceding the fire, they fancied that they not
only saw it pass swiftly and fiercely, and could per-
ceive the motion with their eye, but even they
heard it, that it made a rushing mighty noise, fierce
and terrible, though at a distance, and but just per-
ceivable.
I saw both these stars, and I must confess, had
had so much of the common notion of such things
in my head, that I was apt to look upon them as
the forerunners and warnings of God’s judgments,
THE PLAGUE IN LONDON. 23
and especially when the plague had followed the
first, I yet saw another of the like kind, I could not
but say, God had not yet sufficiently scourged the
city. -
The apprehensions of the people were likewise
strangely increased by the error of the times, in
which, I think, the people, from what principle I
cannot imagine, were more addicted to prophecies,
and astrological conjurations, dreams, and old wives’.
tales, than ever they were before or since: whether
this unhappy temper was originally raised by the
follies of some people who got money by it, that is
to say, by printing predictions and prognostications,
I know not; but certain it is, books frighted them
terribly; such as Lily's Almanack, Gadbury's Astro-
logical Predictions, Poor Robin's Almanack, and the
like; also several pretended religious books, one
entitled, Come out of Her my People, lest ye be
partaker of her Plagues; another called, Fair
Warning; another, Britain's Remembrancer, and
many such ; all, or most part of which, foretold
directly or covertly, the ruin of the city: nay, some
were so enthusiastically bold, as to run about the
streets with their oral predictions, pretending they
were sent to preach to the city; and one in parti-
cular, who like Jonah to Nineveh, cried in the
streets, Yet forty days, and London shall be
destroyed. I will not be positive, whether he said
yet forty days, or yet a few days. Another ran
about naked, except a pair of drawers about his
waist, crying day and night, like a man that Jose-
phus mentions, who cried, Woe to Jerusalem 1 a
little before the destruction of that city: so this
poor naked creature cried, O! the great, and the
dreadful God! and said no more, but repeated those
words continually, with a voice and countenance
full of horror, a swift pace, and nobody could ever
24 , THE HISTORY OF
find him to stop, or rest, or take any sustenance, at
least that ever I could hear of. I met this poor
creature several times in the streets, and would
have spoke to him, but he would not enter into
speech with me, or any one else; but kept on his
dismal cries continually. .
These things terrified the people to the last de-
gree ; and especially when two or three times, as I
have mentioned already, they found one or two in
the bills, dead of the plague at St. Giles's.
Next to these public things, were the dreams of
old women; or, I should say, the interpretation of
old women upon other people's dreams; and these
put abundance of people even out of their wits.
Some heard voices warning them to be gone, for
that there would be such a plague in London, so
that the living would not be able to bury the dead;
others saw apparitions in the air, and I must be
allowed to say of both, I hope without breach of
charity, that they heard voices that never spake,
and saw sights that never appeared; but the ima-
gination of the people was really turned wayward
and possessed; and no wonder if they who were
poring continually at the clouds, saw shapes and
figures, representations and appearances, which
had nothing in them but air and vapour. Here
they told us they saw a flaming sword held in a
hand, coming out of a cloud, with a point hanging
directly over the city. There they saw hearses
and coffins in the air carrying to be buried. And
there again, heaps of dead bodies lying unburied
and the like; just as the imagination of the poor
terrified people furnished them with matter to work
upon.
So hypocondriac fancies represent
Ships, armies, battles, in the firmament;
THE PLAGUE IN LONDON. 25
Till steady eyes the exhalations solve,
And all to its first matter, cloud, resolve.
I could fill this account with the strange rela-
tions such people give every day of what they have
seen; and every one was so positive of their hav-
ing seen what they pretended to see, that there
was no contradicting them, without breach of friend-
ship, or being accounted rude and unmannerly on
the one hand, and profane and impenetrable on
the other. One time before the plague was begun,
otherwise than as I have said in St. Giles's, I think
it was in March, seeing a crowd of people in the
street, I joined with them to satisfy my curiosity,
and found them all staring up into the air to see
what a woman told them appeared plain to her,
which was an angel clothed in white, with a fiery
sword in his hand, waving it or brandishing it over
his head. She described every part of the figure to
the life, showed them the motion and the form, and
the poor people came into it so eagerly and with so
much readiness: Yes! I see it all plainly, says one,
there's the sword as plain as can be ; another saw
the angel; one saw his very face, and cried out,
What a glorious creature he was One saw one
thing, and one another. I looked as earnestly as
the rest, but, perhaps, not with so much willingness
to be imposed upon; and I said indeed, that I
could see nothing but a white cloud, bright on one
side, by the shining of the sun upon the other part.
The woman endeavoured to show it me, but could
not make me confess that I saw it, which, indeed,
if I had, I must have lied: but the woman turning
to me looked me in the face and fancied I laughed,
in which her imagination deceived her too, for I
really did not laugh, but was seriously reflecting.
how the poor people were terrified by the force
26 THE HISTORY OF
of their own imagination. However, she turned
to me, called me profane fellow, and a scoffer,
told me that it was a time of God’s anger, and
dreadful judgments were approaching, and that
despisers, such as I, should wander and perish.
The people about her seemed disgusted as well as
she, and I found there was no persuading them that
I did not laugh at them, and that I should be rather
mobbed by them than be able to undeceive them.
So I left them, and this appearance passed for as
real as the blazing star itself.
Another encounter I had in the open day also ;
and this was in going through a narrow passage
from Petty-France into Bishopsgate churchyard,
by a row of almshouses; there are two church-
yards to Bishopsgate church or parish, one we go
over to pass from the place called Petty-France
into Bishopsgate-street, coming out just by the
church door, the other is on the side of the narrow
passage where the almshouses are on the left, and
a dwarf wall with a palisade on it on the right
hand, and the city wall on the other side more to
the right. -
In this narrow passage stands a man looking
through the palisades into the burying-place, and
as many people as the narrowness of the place
would admit to stop without hindering the passage
of others, and he was talking mighty eagerly to
them, and pointing now to one place, then to ano-
ther, and affirming that he saw a ghost walking
upon such a gravestone there; he described the
shape, the posture, and the movement of it so ex-
actly, that it was the greatest amazement to him in
the world that everybody did not see it as well as
he. On a sudden he would cry, There it is Now
it comes this way! then, 'Tis turned back! till at
length he persuaded the people into so firm a be-

THE PLAGUE IN LONDON. 27
lief of it, that one fancied he saw it; and thus he
came every day making a strange hubbub, consi-
dering it was so narrow a passage, till Bishopsgate
clock struck eleven, and then the ghost would seem
to start, and, as if he were called away, disappeared
on a sudden. -
I looked earnestly every way and at the very mo-
ment that this man directed, but could not see the
least appearance of anything, but so positive was '
this poor man that he gave them vapours in abun-
dance, and sent them away trembling and frightened,
till at length few people that knew of it cared to go
through that passage, and hardly anybody by night
on any account whatever.
This ghost, as the poor man affirmed, made signs
to the houses, and to the ground, and to the peo-
ple, plainly intimating, or else they so understand-
ing it, that abundance of people should come to
be buried in that churchyard, as indeed happened,
but then he saw such aspects, I must acknowledge
I never believed, nor could I see anything of it
myself, though I looked most earnestly to see it if
possible.
Some endeavours were used to suppress the
printing of such books as terrified the people, and
to frighten the dispersers of them, some of whom
were taken up, but nothing done in it, as I am in-
formed, the government being unwilling to exaspe-
rate the people, who were, as I may say, all out of
their wits already. -
Neither can I acquit those ministers, that, in their
sermons, rather sunk than lifted up the hearts of
their hearers, many of them I doubt not did it for
the strengthening the resolution of the people, and
especially for quickening them to repentance; but
it certainly answered not their end, at least not in
proportion to the injury it did another way.
28 . THE HISTORY OF
One mischief always introduces another; these
terrors and apprehensions of the people led them to
a thousand weak, foolish, and wicked things, which
they wanted not a sort of people really wicked to
encourage them to, and this was running about to
fortune-tellers, cunning men, and astrologers, to
know their fortunes, or, as it is vulgarly expressed,
to have their fortunes told them, their nativities
calculated, and the like, and this folly presently
made the town swarm with a wicked generation of
pretenders to magic, to the black art, as they
called it, and I know not what ; nay, to a thousand
worse dealings with the devil than they were really
guilty of, and this trade grew so open and so gene-
rally practised that it became common to have signs
and inscriptions set up at doors, Here lives a fortune-
teller; Here lives an astrologer; Here you may have
your nativity calculated; and the like; and friar
Bacon's brazen-head, which was the usual sign of
these people's dwellings, was to be seen almost in
every street, or else the sign of Mother Shipton, or
of Merlin’s head, and the like. .
With what blind, absurd, and ridiculous stuff
these oracles of the devil pleased and satisfied the
people, I really know not, but certain it is, that in-
numerable attendants crowded about their doors
every day; and if but a grave fellow in a velvet
jacket, a band, and a black cloak, which was the
habit those quack-conjurors generally went in, was
but seen in the streets, the people would follow them
in crowds and ask them questions as they went
along. . . .
The case of poor servants was very dismal, as I
shall have occasion to mention again, by and by:
for it was apparent a prodigious number of them
would be turned away, and it was so, and of them
abundance perished, and particularly those whom
THE PLAGUE IN LONDON. 29
these false prophets flattered with hopes that they
should be kept in their services and carried with
their masters and mistresses into the country; and
had not public charity provided for these poor crea-
tures, whose number was exceeding great, and in all
cases of this nature must be so, they would have
been in the worst condition of any people in the
city. -
These things agitated the minds of the common
people for many months while the first apprehen-
sions were upon them, and while the plague was
not, as I may say, yet broken out: but I must also
not forget that the more serious part of the inhabit-
ants behaved after another manner; the govern-
ment encouraged their devotion, and appointed
public prayers and days of fasting and humiliation,
to make public confession of sin, and implore the
mercy of God, to avert the dreadful judgment
which hangs over their heads; and, it is not to be
expressed with what alacrity the people of all per-
Suasions embraced the occasion, how they flocked
to the churches and meetings, and they were all so
thronged that there was often no coming near, even
to the very doors of the largest churches: also,
there were daily prayers appointed morning and
evening at several churches, and days of private
praying at other places, at all which, the people at-
tended, I say, with an uncommon devotion; several
private families also, as well of one opinion as ano-
ther, kept family fasts, to which they admitted their
near relations only ; so that, in a word, those peo-
ple who were really serious and religious, applied
themselves in a truly Christian manner to the pro-
per work of repentance and humiliation, as a Chris-
tian people ought to do.
Again, the public showed that they would bear
their share in these things; the very court, which
30 - THE HISTORY OF
was then gay and luxurious, put on a face of just
concern for the public danger. All the plays and
interludes, which, after the manner of the French
court, had been set up and began to increase among
us, were forbid to act; the gaming-tables, public
dancing rooms, and music houses, which multiplied.
and began to debauch the manners of the people,
were shut up and suppressed; and the jack-puddings,
merry-andrews, puppet-shows, rope-dancers, and
such-like doings, which had bewitched the common
people, shut their shops, finding indeed no trade,
for the minds of the people were agitated with other
things, and a kind of sadness and horror at these
things sat upon the countenances even of the
common people; death was before their eyes, and
everybody began to think of their graves, not of
mirth and diversions.
But even these wholesome reflections, which,
rightly managed, would have most happily led the
people to fall upon their knees, make confession of
their sins, and look up to their merciful Saviour for
pardon, imploring his compassion on them in such
a time of their distress, by which we might have
been as a second Nineveh, had a quite contrary ex-
treme in the common people; who, ignorant and
stupid in their reflections, as they were brutishly
wicked and thoughtless before, were now led by
their fright to extremes of folly; and, as Isaid before,
that they ran to conjurers and witches and all sorts
of deceivers, to know what should become of them,
who fed their fears and kept them always alarmed
and awake, on purpose to delude them and pick
their pockets, so they were as mad upon their
running after quacks and mountebanks, and every
practising old woman for medicines and remedies,
storing themselves with such multitudes of pills,
potions, and preservatives, as they were called, that
THE PLAGUE IN LONDON, 31.
they not only spent their money but poisoned them-
selves beforehand for fear of the poison of the in-
fection, and prepared their bodies for the plague
instead of preserving them against it. On the
other hand, it was incredible, and scarce to be
imagined, how the posts of houses and corners of
streets were plastered over with doctors’ bills, and
papers of ignorant fellows quacking and tampering
in physic, and inviting people to come to them for
remedies, which was generally set off with such
flourishes as these, viz. INFALLIBLE preventitive pills
against the plague. NEVER-FAILING preservatives
against theinfection. SovieREIGN cordials against the
corruption of air. ExACT regulations for the conduct
of the body in case of infection. Antipestilential
pills. INCOMPARABLE drink against the plague, never
found out before. An UNIVERSAL remedy for the
plague. The ONLY TRUE plague-water. The ROYAL
ANTIDOTE against all kinds of infection: and such
a number more that I cannot reckon up, and if I
could, would fill a book of themselves to set them
down.
Others set up bills to summon people to their
lodgings for direction and advice in the case of in-
fection; these had specious titles also, such as
these :
An eminent High-Dutch physician, newly come
over from Holland, where he resided during all
the time of the great plague, last year, in
Amsterdam, and cured multitudes of people
that actually had the plague upon them. -
An Italian gentlewoman just arrived from Naples,
having a choice secret to prevent infection,
which she found out by her great experience,
and did wonderful cures with it in the late
32 THE HISTORY OF
plague there, wherein there died 20,000 in one
day. - r
An ancient gentlewoman having practised with
great success in the late plague in this city,
anno 1636, gives her advice only to the female
sex. To be spoken with, &c.
An experienced physician, who has long studied
the doctrine of antidotes against all sorts of
poison and infection, has, after forty years'
practice, arrived at such skill as may, with
God’s blessing, direct persons how to prevent
being touched by any contagious distemper
whatsoever. He directs the poor gratis.
I take notice of these by way of specimen; I
could give you two or three dozen of the like, and
yet have abundance left behind. It is sufficient
from these to apprise any one of the humour of
those times, and how a set of thieves and pick-
pockets not only robbed and cheated the poor
people of their money, but poisoned their bodies
with odious and fatal preparations; some with
mercury, and some with other things as bad, per-
fectly remote from the thing pretended to, and
rather hurtful than serviceable to the body in case
an infection followed. :
I cannot omit a subtlety of one of those quack-
operators with which he gulled the poor people to
crowd about him, but did nothing for them without
money. He had, it seems, added to his bills, which
he gave out in the streets, this advertisement in
capital letters, viz. He gives advice to the poor for
nothing. A -
Abundance of people came to him accordingly,
to whom he made a great many fine speeches, ex-
amined them of the state of their health, and of the
THE PLAGUE IN LONDON. 33
constitution of their bodies, and told them many
good things to do which were of no great moment;
but the issue and conclusion of all was, that he had
a preparation, which, if they took such a quantity
of, every morning, he would pawn his life that they
should never have the plague, no, though they lived
in the house with people that were infected. This
made the people all resolve to have it, but then, the
price of that was so much, I think it was half-
a-crown ; But, sir, says one poor woman, I am a
poor almswoman, and am kept by the parish, and
your bills say, you give the poor your help for
nothing. Ay, good woman, says the doctor, so I
do, as I published there, I give my advice, but not
my physic! Alas, sir, says she, that is a snare laid
for the poor then, for you give them your advice for
nothing; that is to say, you advise them gratis, to
buy your physic for their money, so does every
shopkeeper , with his wares. Here the woman
began to give him ill words, and stood at his door
all that day, telling her tale to all the people that
came, till the doctor, finding she turned away his
customers, was obliged to call her up stairs again
and give her his box of physic for nothing, which,
perhaps too, was good for nothing when she had it.
But, to return to the people, whose confusions
fitted them to be imposed upon by all sorts of pre-
tenders and by every mountebank. There is no
doubt but these quacking sort of fellows raised great
gains out of the miserable people, for we daily found
the crowds that ran after them were infinitely greater,
and their doors were more thronged than those of
Dr. Brooks, Dr. Upton, Dr. Hodges, Dr. Berwick, or
any, though the most famous men of the time; and
I was told that some of them got 5l. a day by their
physic.
But there was still another madness beyond all
PLAGUE. ID
34 THE HISTORY OF
this, which may serve to give an idea of the dis-
tracted humour of the poor people at that time, and
this was their following a worse sort of deceivers
than any of these, for these petty thieves only de-
luded them to pick their pockets and get their
money, in which their wickedness, whatever it was,
lay chiefly on the side of the deceiver's deceiving,
not upon the deceived; but in this part I am going
to mention, it lay chiefly in the people deceived, or
equally in both ; and this was in wearing charms,
philters, exorcisms, amulets, and I know not what
preparations to fortify the body against the plague,
as if the plague was not the hand of God, but a
kind of a possession of an evil spirit, and it was to
be kept off with crossings, signs of the zodiac, papers
tied up with so many knots, and certain words or .
figures written on them, as particularly, the word
Abracadabra, formed in triangle or pyramid, thus:
ABRAC ADABRA
ABRAC ADABR Others had the Jesuits’
ABRAC ADAB mark in a cross:
ABRACADA * I H
ABRACAD S
ABRACA
ABRAC
ABRA Others had nothing but this
ABR mark, thus: -
AB +
A
I might spend a great deal of my time in excla-
mations against the follies, and indeed the wicked-
nesses of those things, in a time of such danger, in
a matter of such consequence as this of a national
infection; but my memorandums of these things
relate rather to take notice of the fact, and mention
THE PLAGUE IN LONDON. 35
only that it was so. How the poor people found the
insufficiency of those things, and how many of them
were afterwards carried away in the dead-carts,
and thrown into the common graves of every parish
with these hellish charms and trumpery hanging
about their necks, remains to be spoken of as we go
along. I
All this was the effect of the hurry the people
were in, after the first notion of the plague being at
hand, was among them, and which may be said to
be from about Michaelmas, 1664, but more parti-
cularly after the two men died in St. Giles's in the
beginning of December; and again after another
alarm in February, for when the plague evidently
spread itself, they soon began to see the folly of
trusting to these unperforming creatures, who had
gulled them of their money, and then their fears
worked another way, namely, to amazement and
stupidity, not knowing what course to take or what
to do, either to help or to relieve themselves, but
they ran about from one neighbour's house to
another, and even in the streets, from one door to
another with repeated cries of Lord have mercy
upon us, what shall we do?
I am supposing now, the plague to have begun, as I
have said, and that the magistrates began to take the
condition of the people into their serious considera-
tion; what they did as to the regulation of the in-
habitants, and of infected families I shall speak to
by itself; but, as to the affair of health, it is proper
to mention here, my having seen the foolish humour
of the people in running after quacks, mountebanks,
wizards, and fortune-tellers, which they did as
above even to madness. The lord mayor, a very
sober and religious gentleman, appointed physicians
and surgeons for the relief of the poor, I mean the
D 2
36 THE HISTORY OF
diseased poor, and, in particular, ordered the col-
lege of physicians to publish directions for cheap
remedies for the poor in all the circumstances of
the distemper. This indeed was one of the most
charitable and judicious things that could be done
at that time, for this drove the people from haunt-
ing the doors of every disperser of bills, and from
taking down blindly and without consideration,
poison for physic, and death instead of life.
This direction of the physicians was done by a
consultation of the whole college, and as it was
particularly calculated for the use of the poor, and
for cheap medicines, it was made public, so that
everybody might see it, and copies were given
gratis to all that desired it: but as it is public and
to be seen on all occasions, I need not give the
reader of this the trouble of it. r
It remains to be mentioned now, what public
measures were taken by the magistrates for the ge-
neral safety, and to prevent the spreading of the
distemper when it broke out; I shall have frequent
occasion to speak of the prudence of the magistrates,
their charity, their vigilance for the poor, and for
preserving good order, furnishing provisions, and
the like, when the plague was increased as it after-
wards was. But I am now upon the order and re-
gulations which they published for the government
of infected families.
I mentiond above shutting of houses up, and it is
needful to say something, particularly to that; for
this part of the history of the plague is very melan-
choly ; but the most grievous story must be told.
About June, the lord mayor of London, and the
court of aldermen, as I have said, began more par-
ticularly to concern themselves for the regulation of
the city. .

THE PLAGUE IN LONDON. 37.
The justices of the peace for Middlesex, by di-
rection of the secretary of state, had begun to shut
up houses in the parishes of St. Giles's in the Fields,
St. Martin’s, St. Clement's Danes, &c., and it was
with good success, for in several streets where the
plague broke out, upon strict guarding the houses
that were infected, and taking care to bury those
that died as soon as they were known to be dead,
the plague ceased in those streets. It was also ob-
served that the plague decreased sooner in those
parishes after they had been visited to the full, than
it did in the parishes of Bishopsgate, Shoreditch,
Aldgate, Whitechapel, Stepney, and others; the
early care taken in that manner being a great means
to the putting a check to it.
This shutting up of the houses was a method first
taken, as I understand, in the plague which hap-
pened in 1603, at the coming of king James I. to
the crown, and the power of shutting people up in
their own houses was granted by act of parliament,
entitled, An act for the charitable relief and order-
ing of persons infected with plague. On which act
of parliament, the lord mayor and aldermen of the
city of London, founded the order they made at
this time, and which took place the 1st of July, 1665,
when the numbers of infected within the city were
but few, the last bill for the ninety-two parishes
being but four, and some houses having been shut
up in the city, and some people being removed to
the pesthouse beyond Bunhill-fields, in the way to
Islington; I say, by these means, when there died
near one thousand a week in the whole, the num-
ber in the city was but twenty-eight; and the city
was preserved more healthy in proportion, than any
other place all the time of the infection.
These orders of my lord mayor's were published,
38 THE History of
as I have said, the latter end of June, and took place
from the 1st of July, and were as follow, viz.
ORDERs concerVED AND PUBLISHED BY THE LORD
MAYOR AND ALDERMEN OF THE CITY OF LONDON,
CoNCERNING THE INFECTION OF THE PLAGUE ;
1665.
WHEREAs in the reign of our late sovereign king
James, of happy memory, an act was made for the
charitable relief and ordering of persons infected
with the plague; whereby authority was given to
justices of the peace, mayors, bailiffs, and other
head officers, to appoint within their several limits
examiners, searchers, watchmen, keepers, and bu-
riers, for the persons and places infected, and to
minister unto them oaths for the performance of
their offices; and the same statute did also
authorise the giving of their directions, as unto
them for other present necessity should seem good
in their discretions. It is now upon special con-
sideration, thought very expedient for preventing
and avoiding of infection of sickness, (if it shall
please Almighty God,) that these officers following
be appointed, and these orders hereafter duly ob-
served.
Ea'aminers to be appointed to every Parish.
First, it is thought requisite, and so ordered, that
in every parish there be one, two, or more persons
of good sort and credit chosen by the alderman, his
deputy, and common-council of every ward, by the
name of examiners, to continue in that office for the
space of two months at least: and, if any fit person
THE PLAGUE IN LONDON, 39
so appointed, shall refuse to undertake the same,
the said parties so refusing to be committed to
prison until they shall conform themselves accord-
ingly.
The Examiner's office.
That these examiners be sworn by the aldermen
to inquire and learn from time to time what houses
in every parish be visited, and what persons be
sick, and of what diseases, as near as they can in-
form themselves, and, upon doubt in that case, to
command restraint of access until it appear what
the disease shall prove; and if they find any person
sick of the infection, to give order to the constable
that the house be shut up ; and if the constable
shall be found remiss and negligent, to give notice
thereof to the alderman of the ward.
Watchmen.
That to every infected house there be appointed .
two watchmen, one for every day and the other for
the night, and that these watchmen have a special
care that no person go in or out of such infected
houses whereof they have the charge, upon pain of
severe punishment. And the said watchmen to do
such further offices as the sick house shall need
and require; and if the watchman be sent upon any
business, to lock up the house and take the key
with him ; and the watchman by day to attend un-
til ten o’clock at night, and the watchman by night
until six in the morning.
Searchers.
That there be a special care to appoint women-
40 THE HISTORY OF
searchers in every parish, such as are of honest re-
putation, and of the best sort as can be got in this
kind; and these to be sworn to make due search
and true report to the utmost of their knowledge,
whether the persons whose bodies they are ap-
pointed to search do die of the infection, or of what
other diseases, as near as they can ; and that the
physicians who shall be appointed for the cure and
prevention of the infection, do call before them the
said searchers, who are, or shall be appointed for
the several parishes under their respective cares,
to the end they may consider whether they be fitly
qualified for that employment, and charge them
from time to time, as they shall see cause, if they ap-
pear defective in their duties. -
That no searcher during this time of visitation,
be permitted to use any public work or employ-
ment, or keep a shop or stall, or be employed as a
laundress, or in any other common employment
whatsoever.
Chirurgeons.
For better assistance of the searchers, forasmuch
as there has been heretofore great abuse in misre-
porting the disease, to the further spreading of the
infection, it is therefore ordered that there be cho-
sen and appointed able and discreet chirurgeons be-
sides those that do already belong to the pesthouse;
amongst whom the city and liberties to be quartered
as they lie most apt and convenient, and every of
these to have one quarter for his limit; and the
said chirurgeons in every of their limits to join with
the searchers for the view of the body, to the end
there may be a true report made of the disease.
And further, that the said chirurgeons shall visit
and search such like persons as shall either send for
THE PLAGUE IN LONDON. 41
them, or be named and directed unto them by the
examiners of every parish, and inform themselves
of the disease of the said parties.
And, forasmuch as the said chirurgeons are to be
sequestered from all other cures, and kept only to
this disease of the infection, it is ordered that
every of the said chirurgeons shall have twelvepence
a body searched by them, to be paid-out of the goods
of the party searched, if he be able, or otherwise by
the parish.

Nurse-keepers.
If any nurse-keeper shall remove herself out of
any infected house before twenty-eight days after
the decease of any person dying of the infection,
the house to which the said nurse-keeper doth so re-
move herself, shall be shut up until the said twenty-
eight days shall be expired.
ORDERs concBRNING INFECTED Houses, AND PER-
SONs SICK OF THE PLAGUE.
Notice to be given of the Sickness.
THE master of every house as soon as any one in his
house complaineth, either of botch, or purple, or
swelling in any part of his body, or falleth otherwise
dangerously sick without apparent cause of some
other disease, shall give notice thereof to the exa-
miner of health, within two hours after the said sign
shall appear.
Sequestration of the Sick.
As soon as any man shall be found by this exa-
42 THE HISTORY OF
miner, chirurgeon, or searcher, to be sick of the
plague, he shall the same night be sequestered in
the same house, and in case he be so sequestered,
then, though he die not, the house wherein he
sickened, shall be shut up for a month after the
use of the due preservatives taken by the rest.
Airing the Stuff.
For sequestration of the goods and stuff of the in-
fection, their bedding, and apparel, and hangings
of chambers, must be well aired with fire, and such
perfumes as are requisite, within the infected house,
before they be taken again to use. This to be done
by the appointment of the examiner.
Shutting up of the House.
If any person shall visit any man known to be in-
fected of the plague, or entereth willingly into any
known infected house, being not allowed, the house
wherein he inhabiteth shall be shut up for certain
days by the examiner's direction.
Mone to be removed out of Infected Houses but, &c.
Item, That none be removed out of the house
where he falleth sick of the infection, into any other
house in the city, (except it be to the pesthouse or
a tent, or unto some such house, which the owner of
the said house holdeth in his own hands, and occu-
pieth by his own servants,) and so as security be
given to the said parish whither such remove is made,
that the attendance and charge about the said vi-
sited persons shall be observed and charged in all the
particularities before expressed, without any cost of
that parish to which any such remove shall happen
THE PLAGUE IN LONDON. 43
to be made, and this remove to be done by night;
and it shall be lawful to any person that hath two
houses, to remove either his sound or his infected
people to his spare house at his choice, so as if he
send away first his sound, he do not after send
thither the sick; nor again unto the sick, the sound:
and that the same which he sendeth, be for one
week, at the least, shut up, and secluded from com-
pany, for the fear of some infection at first not ap-
pearing.
Burial of the Dead.
That the burial of the dead by this visitation be
at most convenient hours, always before sun-rising,
or after sun-setting, with the privity of the church-
wardens, or constable, and not otherwise; and that
no neighbours nor friends be suffered to accompany
the corpse to church, or to enter the house visited,
upon pain of having his house shut up, or be impri-
soned. -
And, that no corpse dying of the infection shall
be buried, or remain in any church in time of com-
mon-prayer, sermon, or lecture. And, that no chil-
dren be suffered at time of burial of any corpse, in
any church, churchyard, or burying-place, to come
near the corpse, coffin, or grave; and, that all
graves shall be at least six feet deep,
And further, all public assemblies at other burials
are to be forborne during the continuance of this vi-
sitation.
No Infected Stuff to be uttered.
That no clothes, stuff, bedding, or garments, be
suffered to be carried or conveyed out of any in-
fected houses, and that the criers and carriers
44 THE HISTORY OF
abroad of bedding or old apparel to be sold or
pawned, be utterly prohibited and restrained, and
no brokers of bedding or old apparel be permitted
to make any public show, or hang forth on their
stalls, shop-boards, or windows towards any street,
lane, common way, or passage, any old bedding or
apparel to be sold, upon pain of imprisonment.
And if any broker or other person shall buy any
bedding, apparel, or other stuff out of any infected
house, within two months after the infection hath
been there, his house shall be shut up as infected,
and so shall continue shut up twenty days at the
least.
No Person to be conveyed out of any Infected
House. -
If any person visited do fortune by negligent
looking unto, or by any other means, to come or be
conveyed from a place infected to any other place,
the parish from whence such party hath come, or
been conveyed, upon notice thereof given, shall, at
their charge, cause the said party so visited and es-
caped, to be carried and brought back again by night,
and the parties in this case offending, to be punished
at the direction of the alderman of the ward, and
the house of the receiver of such visited person, to
be shut up for twenty days.
Every Visited House to be marked.
That every house visited be marked with a red
cross of a foot long, in the middle of the door, evi-
dent to be seen, and with these usual printed words,
that is to say, “Lord have mercy upon us,” to be
set close over the same cross, there to continue until
lawful opening of the same house. . -
THE PLAGUE IN LONDON. 45
Every Visited House to be watched.
That the constables see every house shut up, and
to be attended with watchmen, which may keep in,
and minister necessaries to them at their own charges,
if they be able, or at the common charge if they be
unable. The shutting up to be for the space of
four weeks after all be whole.
That precise order be taken that the searchers,
chirurgeons, keepers, and buriers, are not to pass
the streets without holding a red rod or wand of
three foot in length in their hands, open and evi-
dent to be seen, and are not to go into any other
house than into their own, or into that whereunto
they are directed or sent for, but to forbear and
abstain from company, especially when they have
been lately used in any such business or attend-
àIłC62.
Inmates.
That where several inmates are in one and the
same house, and any person in that house happens
to be infected, no other person or family of such
house shall be suffered to remove him or themselves
without a certificate from the examiners of the
health of that parish, or in default thereof, the house
whither she or they remove, shall be shut up as is
in case of visitation.
Hackney-Coaches.
That care be taken of hackney-coachmen, that
they may not, as some of them have been observed
to do after carrying of infected persons to the pest-
house, and other places, be admitted to common use
46 - THE HISTORY OF
till their coaches be well aired, and have stood un-
employed by the space of five or six days after such
service. - . . . -
ORDERs For CLEANSING AND KEEPING OF THE
STREETs swept.
The Streets to be kept clean.
FIRST, it is thought necessary and so ordered, that
every householder do cause the street to be daily
prepared before his door, and so to keep it clean
swept all the week long. •4-4
That Rakers take it from out the Houses.
That the sweeping and filth of houses be daily
carried away by the rakers, and that the raker
shall give notice of his coming by the blowing of a
horn, as hitherto hath been done.
Lay-stalls to be made far off from the City.
That the lay-stalls be removed as far as may be
out of the city and common passages, and that no
nightman or other be suffered to empty a vault into
any vault or garden near about the city.
Care to be had of unwholesome Fish or Flesh, and
of musty Corn.
That special care be taken that no stinking fish,
or unwholesome flesh, or musty corn, or other cor-
rupt fruits, of what sort soever, be suffered to be
sold about the city, or any part of the same. .
THE PLAGUE IN LONDON. 47
That the brewers and tippling-houses be looked
unto for musty and unwholesome casks. .
That no hogs, dogs, or cats, or tame pigeons, or
conies, be suffered to be kept within any part of the
city, or any swine to be or stray in the streets or
lanes, but that such swine be impounded by the bea-
dle or any other officer, and the owner punished ac-
cording to the act of common-council, and that the
dogs be killed by the dog-killers appointed for that
purpose.
ORDERs conCERNING LOOSE PERSONS AND IDLE AS-
-. . SEMBLIES.
Beggars.
For ASMUCH as nothing is more complained of
than the multitude of rogues and wandering beg-
gars that swarm about in every place about the
city, being a great cause of the spreading of the in-
fection, and will not be avoided notwithstanding
any orders that have been given to the contrary:
it is therefore now ordered that such constables
and others, whom this matter may any way con-
cern, take special care that no wandering beggars
be suffered in the streets of this city, in any fashion
or manner whatsoever, upon the penalty provided
'by law to be duly and severely executed upon
them.
Plays.
That all plays, bear-baitings, games, singing of
ballads, buckler-play, or such like causes of assem-
blies of people be utterly prohibited, and the parties
offending severely punished by every alderman in
his ward.
48 THE HISTORY OF
Feasting prohibited.
That all public feasting, and particularly by the
companies of this city, and dinners in taverns, ale-
houses, and other places of public entertainment,
be forborne till further order and allowance, and
that the money thereby spared be preserved, and
employed for the benefit and relief of the poor
visited with the infection.
Tippling-Houses.
That disorderly tippling in taverns, ale-houses,
coffee-houses, and cellars, be severely looked unto
as the common sin of the time, and greatest occasion
of dispersing the plague. And that no company or
person be suffered to remain or come into any
tavern, ale-house, or coffee-house, to drink, after
nine of the clock in the evening, according to the
ancient law and custom of this city, upon the penal-
ties ordained by law.
And for the better execution of these orders,
and such other rules and directions as upon further
consideration shall be found needful, it is ordered
and enjoined that the aldermen, deputies, and com-
mon-council-men shall meet together weekly, once,
twice, thrice, or oftener, as cause shall require, at
some one general place accustomed in their re-
spective wards, being clear from infection of the
plague, to consult how the said orders may be put
in execution, not intending that any, dwelling in
or near places infected, shall come to the said
meeting while their coming may be doubtful. And
the said aldermen deputies, and common-council-
men, in their several wards, may put in execution
any other orders, that by them, at their said meet-
THE PLAGUE IN LONDON. 49
ings, shall be conceived and devised for the
preservation of his majesty's subjects from the infec-
tlOn.
Sir JoHN LAWRENCE, Lord Mayor.
Sir GEORGE WATERMAN, *
Sir CHARLES DOE, } Sheriffs.
I need not say, that these orders extended only
to such places as were within the Lord Mayor's
jurisdiction; so it is requisite to observe, that the
justices of peace, within those parishes and places"
as were called the hamlets and out-parts, took the
same method: as I remember, the orders for shut-
ting up of houses did not take place so soon on our
side, because, as I said before, the plague did not
reach to this eastern part of the town at least, nor
begin to be violent till the beginning of August.—
For example, the whole bill from the 11th to the
18th of July, was 1761, yet there died but seventy-
one of the plague in all those parishes we call the
Tower-hamlets; and they were as follows:
Aldgate, 14 34 65
Stepney, 33 the next 58 and to the 76
Whitechapel, 21 week was 48 1st of Aug. 79
St Kath. Tower, 2 thus: 4 thus: 4
Trin. Minories, 1 I 4
71 145 228
It was indeed coming on amain, for the burials
that same week were, in the next adjoining parishes,
thus: -
St. L. Shoreditch 64 the next week 84 to the 1st 110
St. Bot. Bishopsg.65 prodigiously 105 of Aug. 116
St. Giles's Crippl. 213 increased, as 431 thus: 554
ſºmeºmºsº
342 610 780
PLAGUE. E
50 THE HISTORY OF
This shutting up of houses was at first counted a
very cruel and unchristian method, and the poor
people so confined made bitter lamentations; com-
plaints of the severity of it were also daily brought
to my lord mayor, of houses causelessly, and some
maliciously, shut up ; I cannot say, but upon in-
quiry, many that complained so loudly were found
in a condition to be continued ; and others again,
inspection being made upon the sick person, and
the sickness not appearing infectious; or, if uncer-
tain, yet, on his being content to be carried to the
pesthouse, was released. . -
As I went along Houndsditch one morning about
eight o'clock, there was a great noise; it is true, in-
deed, there was not much crowd, because the
people were not very free to gather together, or to
stay long together when they were there, nor did I
stay long there; but the outcry was loud enough
to prompt my curiosity, and I called to one, who
looked out of a window, and asked what was the
matter P ..
A watchman, it seems, had been employed to
keep his post at the door of a house which was in-
fected, or said to be infected, and was shut up ; he
had been there all night, for two nights together,
as he told his story, and the day-watchman had
been there one day, and was now come to relieve
him ; all this while no noise had been heard in the
house, no light had been seen, they called for
nothing, sent him of no errands, which used to be
the chief business of the watchmen, neither had
they given him any disturbance, as he said, from
Monday afternoon, when he heard a great crying
and screaming in the house, which, as he supposed,
was occasioned by some of the family dying just at
that time. It seems the night before, the dead-cart,
as it was called, had been stopt there, and a servant-
THE PLAGUE IN LONDON. 51
maid had been brought down to the door dead, and
the buriers or bearers, as they were called, put her
into the cart, wrapped only in a green rug, and
carried her away. -
The watchman had knocked at the door, it seems,
when he heard that noise and crying, as above, and
nobody answered a great while, but at last one
looked out, and said, with an angry quick tone, and
yet a kind of crying voice, or a voice of one that
was crying, What d'ye want, that you make such a
knocking? He answered, I am the watchman, how
do you do? What is the matter? The person
answered, What is that to you? Stop the dead-
cart. This, it seems, was about one o'clock; soon
after, as the fellow said, he stopped the dead-cart,
and then knocked again, but nobody answered; he
continued knocking, and the bellman called out
several times, Bring out your dead; but nobody
answered, till the man that drove the cart being
called to other houses, would stay no longer, and
drove away.
The watchman knew not what to make of all
this, so he let them alone till the morning-man, or
day-watchman, as they called him, came to relieve
him. Giving him an account of the particulars,
they knocked at the door a great while, but nobody
answered, and they observed that the window or
casement, at which the person looked out who
had answered before, continued open, being up two
pair of stairs.
Upon this, the two men, to satisfy their curiosity,
got a long ladder, and one of them went up to the
window, and looked into the room, where he saw a
woman lying dead upon the floor, in a dismal man-
ner, having no clothes on her but her shift ; but
though he called aloud, and putting in his long
staff, knocked hard on the floor, yet nobody stirred
E 2
52 THE HISTORY OF
or answered, neither could he hear any noise in the
house. - .
He came down again upon this, and acquainted
his fellow, who went up also, and finding it just so,
they resolved to acquaint either the lord mayor, or
some other magistrate of it, but did not offer to go
in at the window. The magistrate, it seems, upon
the information of the two men, ordered the house
to be broke open, a constable and other persons
being appointed to be present, that nothing might
be plundered, and accordingly it was so done, when
nobody was found in the house but that young
woman, who, having been infected, and past re-
covery, the rest had left her to die by herself, and
every one gone, having found some way to delude
the watchman, and to get open the door, or get out
at some back-door, or over the tops of the houses,
so that he knew nothing of it; and, as to those
cries and shrieks which he heard, it was supposed
they were the passionate cries of the family at this
bitter parting, which, to be sure, it was to them all,
'this being the sister to the mistress of the family.
The man of the house, his wife, several children and
servants, being all gone and fled, whether sick or
sound, that I could never learn, nor, indeed, did I
make much inquiry after it.
At another house, as I was informed, in the street
next within Aldgate, a whole family was shut up
and locked in, because the maid-servant was taken
sick; the master of the house had complained by his
friends to the next alderman, and to the lord mayor,
and had consented to have the maid carried to the
pesthouse, but was refused ; so the door was marked
with a red cross, a padlock on the outside, as above,
and a watchman set to keep the door, according to
public order. -
After the master of the house found there was
THE PLAGUE IN LONDON. 53
no remedy, but that he, his wife and his children
were locked up with this poor distempered servant,
he called to the watchman, and told him he must
go then and fetch a nurse for them to attend this
poor girl, for that it would be certain death to them
all to oblige them to nurse her, and told him plain-
ly that, if he would not do this, the maid would
perish either of the distemper, or be starved for
want of food, for he was resolved none of his family
should go near her, and she lay in the garret, four
story high, where she could not cry out, or call to
anybody for help.
The watchman consented to that, and went and
fetched a nurse, as he was appointed, and brought
her to them the same evening; during this inter-
val, the master of the house took his opportunity
to break a large hole through his shop into a bulk
or stall, where formerly a cobbler had sat before or
under his shop window ; but the tenant, as may
be supposed, at such a dismal time as that, was
dead or removed, and so he had the key in his own
keeping; having made his way into this stall,
which he could not have done if the man had been
at the door, the noise he was obliged to make being
such as would have alarmed the watchman; I say,
having made his way into this stall, he sat still till
the watchman returned with the nurse, and all the
next day also ; but the night following, having con-
trived to send the watchman of another trifling
errand, which, as I take it, was to an apothecary’s
for a plaster for the maid, which he was to stay for
the making up, or some other such errand, that
might secure his staying some time; in that time
he conveyed himself and all his family out of the
house, and left the nurse and the watchman to bury
the poor wench, that is, throw her into the cart,
and take care of the house.
54 THE HISTORY OF
Not far from the same place they blowed up a
watchman with gunpowder, and burnt the poor
fellow dreadfully; and, while he made hideous cries,
and nobody would venture to come near to help
him, the whole family that were able to stir got
out at the windows, one story high, two that were
left sick, calling out for help. Care was taken to
give them nurses to look after them, but the per-
sons fled were never found, till after the plague was
abated they returned; but, as nothing could be
proved, so nothing could be done to them.
In other cases, some had gardens and walls, or
pales between them and their neighbours; or yards
and back-houses; and these, by friendship and en-
treaties, would get leave to get over those walls or
pales, and so go out at their neighbours' doors; or,
by giving money to their servants, get them to let
them through in the night; so that, in short, the
shutting up of houses was in nowise to be depended
upon; neither did it answer the end at all; serving
more to make the people desperate, and drive them
to such extremities, as that they would break out
at all adventures.
And that which was still worse, those that did
thus break out, spread the infection further by their
wandering about with the distemper upon them, in
their desperate circumstances, than they would
otherwise have done: for, whoever considers all
the particulars in such cases, must acknowledge, and
cannot doubt but the severity of those confinements
made many people desperate, and made them run
out of their houses at all hazards, and with the
plague visibly upon them, not knowing either
whither to go, or what to do, or, indeed, what they
did ; and many that did so were driven to dreadful
exigencies and extremities, and perished in the
streets or fields for mere want, or dropped down,
THE PLAGUE IN LONDON. 55
by the raging violence of the fever upon them.
Others wandered into the country, and went for-
ward any way, as their desperation guided them,
not knowing whither they went or would go, till,
faint and tired, and not getting any relief, the houses
and villages on the road refusing to admit them to
lodge, whether infected or no, they have perished
by the road side, or gotten into barns, and died
there, none daring to come to them, or relieve
them, though perhaps not infected, for nobody
would believe them.
On the other hand, when the plague at first
seized a family, that is to say, when any one body
of the family had gone out, and unwarily or other-
wise catched the distemper and brought it home, it
was certainly known by the family before it was
known to the officers, who, as you will see by the
order, were appointed to examine into the circum-
stances of all sick persons, when they heard of their
being sick.
In this interval, between their being taken sick,
and the examiners coming, the master of the house
had leisure and liberty to remove himself, or all his
family, if he knew whither to go, and many did so.
But the great disaster was, that many did thus after
they were really infected themselves, and so carried
the disease into the houses of those who were so
hospitable as to receive them, which, it must be
confessed, was very cruel and ungrateful.
I am speaking now of people made desperate by
the apprehensions of their being shut up, and their
breaking out by stratagem or force, either before
or after they were shut up, whose misery was not
lessened when they were out, but sadly increased.
On the other hand, many who thus got away had
retreats to go to, and other houses, where they
locked themselves up, and kept hid till the plague
56 THE HISTORY OF
was over; and many families, foreseeing the ap-
proach of the distemper, laid up stores of provi-
sions, sufficient for their whole families, and shut
themselves up, and that so entirely, that they were
neither seen or heard of till the infection was quite
ceased, and then came abroad sound and well. I
might recollect several such as these, and give you
the particulars of their management; for, doubtless,
it was the most effectual secure step that could be
taken for such, whose circumstances would not ad-
mit them to remove, or who had not retreats abroad
proper for the case; for, in being thus shut up, they
were as if they had been a hundred miles off. Nor
do I remember, that any one of those families mis-
carried. Among these, several Dutch merchants
were particularly remarkable, who kept their houses
like little garrisons besieged, suffering none to go in
or out, or come near them; particularly one in a
court in Throckmorton-street, whose house looked
into Drapers' garden.
But I come back to the case of families infected,
and shut up by the magistrates. The misery of
those families is not to be expressed; and it was
generally in such houses that we heard the most
dismal shrieks and outcries of the poor people, ter-
rified, and even frightened to death, by the sight of
the condition of their dearest relations, and by the
terror of being imprisoned as they were. -
I remember, and, while I am writing this story,
I think I hear the very sound of it: a certain lady
had an only daughter, a young maiden about
nineteen years old, and who was possessed of a very
considerable fortune; they were only lodgers in the
house where they were. The young woman, her
mother, and the maid, had been abroad on some
occasion, I do not remember what, for the house
was not shut up; but, about two hours after they
THE PLAGUE IN LONDON. 57
came home, the young lady complained she was
not well, in a quarter of an hour more she vomited,
and had a violent pain in her head. Pray God,
says her mother, in a terrible fright, my child has
not the distemper! The pain in her head increas-
ing, her mother ordered the bed to be warmed, and
resolved to put her to bed; and prepared to give
her things to sweat, which was the ordinary remedy
to be taken, when the first apprehensions of the
distemper began.
While the bed was airing, the mother undressed
the young woman, and just as she was laid down in
the bed, she, looking upon her body with a candle,
immediately discovered the fatal tokens on the in-
side of her thighs. Her mother, not being able to
contain herself, threw down her candle, and screeched
out in such a frightful manner, that it was enough
to place horror upon the stoutest heart in the
world; nor was it one scream, or one cry, but the
fright having seized her spirits, she fainted first,
then recovered, then ran all over the house, up the
stairs and down the stairs, like one distracted, and
indeed really was distracted, and continued screech-
ing and crying out for several hours, void of all
sense, or, at least, government of her senses, and,
as I was told, never came thoroughly to herself
again. As to the young maiden, she was a dead
corpse from that moment; for the gangrene, which
occasions the spots, had spread over her whole body,
and she died in less than two hours. But still the
mother continued crying out, not knowing any
thing more of her child, several hours after she was
dead. It is so long ago, that I am not certain,
but I think the mother never recovered, but died
in two or three weeks after.
I have by me a story of two brothers and their
58 THE HISTORY OF
kinsman, who, being single men, but that had stayed
in the city too long to get away, and, indeed, not
knowing where to go to have any retreat, nor
having wherewith to travel far, took a course for
their own preservation, which, though in itself at
first desperate, yet was so natural, that it may be
wondered that no more did so at that time. They
were but of mean condition, and yet not so very
poor, as that they could not furnish themselves
with some little conveniences, such as might serve
to keep life and soul together; and, finding the
distemper increasing in a terrible manner, they re-
solved to shift as well as they could, and to be
gone.
One of them had been a soldier in the late wars,
and before that in the Low Countries; and, having
been bred to no particular employment but his
arms, and, besides, being wounded, and not able to
work very hard, had for some time been employed
at a baker's of sea-biscuit in Wapping.
The brother of this man was a seaman too, but,
somehow or other, had been hurt of one leg, that
he could not go to sea, but had worked for his
living at a sailmaker's in Wapping, or thereabouts;
and being a good husband, had laid up some money,
and was the richest of the three.
The third man was a joiner or carpenter by
trade, a handy fellow ; and he had no wealth, but
his box, or basket of tools, with the help of which
he could at any time get his living, such a time as
this excepted, wherever he went, and he lived near
Shadwell.
They all lived in Stepney parish, which, as I
have said, being the last that was infected, or at
least violently, they stayed there till they evidently
saw the plague was abating at the west part of the
THE PLAGUE IN LONDON. 59
town, and coming towards the east, where they
lived.
The story of those three men, if the reader will
be content to have me give it in their own persons,
without taking upon me to either vouch the parti-
culars, or answer for any mistakes, I shall give as
distinctly as I can ; believing the history will be a
very good pattern for any poor man to follow, in
case the like public desolation should happen here;
and if there may be no such occasion, which God of
his infinite mercy grant us, still the story may have
its uses so many ways, as that it will, I hope, never
be said that the relating has been unprofitable.
I say all this previous to the history, having yet,
for the present, much more to say before I quit my
own part.
I went all the first part of the time freely about
the streets, though not so freely as to run myself
into apparent danger, except when they dug the
great pit in the churchyard of our parish of Ald-
gate. A terrible pit it was, and I could not resist
my curiosity to go and see it; as near as I may
judge, it was about forty feet in length, and about
fifteen or sixteen feet broad; and, at the time I first
looked at it, about nine feet deep ; but it was said,
they dug it near twenty feet deep afterwards, in
one part of it, till they could go no deeper for the
water; for they had, it seems, dug several large
pits before this; for, though the plague was long
a coming to our parish, yet, when it did come,
there was no parish in or about London where it
raged with such violence as in the two parishes of
Aldgate and Whitechapel.
I say they had dug several pits in another ground,
when the distemper began to spread in our parish,
and especially when the dead-carts began to go
about, which was not in our parish, till the begin-
6O THE HISTORY OF
ning of August. Into these pits they had put per-
haps fifty or sixty bodies each, then they made larger
holes, wherein they buried all that the cart brought
in a week, which, by the middle to the end of Au-
gust, came to from two hundred to four hundred
a week; and they could not well dig them larger,
because of the order of the magistrates, confining
them to leave no bodies within six feet of the sur-
face; and the water coming on at about seventeen
or eighteen feet, they could not well, I say, put
more in one pit; but now, at the beginning of
September, the plague raging in a dreadful manner,
and the number of burials in our parish increasing
to more than was ever buried in any parish about
London, of no larger extent, they ordered this
dreadful gulf to be dug, for such it was rather
than a pit.
They had supposed this pit would have supplied
them for a month or more, when they dug it, and
some blamed the churchwardens for suffering such
a frightful thing, telling them they were making
preparations to bury the whole parish, and the like ;
but time made it appear the churchwardens knew the
condition of the parish better than they did; for the
pit being finished the 4th of September, I think
they began to bury in it the 6th, and, by the 20th,
which was just two weeks, they had thrown into it
1114 bodies, when they were obliged to fill it up,
the bodies being then come to lie within six feet of
the surface. I doubt not but there may be some
ancient persons alive in the parish, who can justify
the fact of this, and are able to show even in what
place of the churchyard the pit lay better than I
can ; the mark of it also was many years to be seen
in the churchyard on the surface, lying in length,
parallel with the passage which goes by the west
wall of the churchyard, out of Houndsditch, and
THE PLAGUE IN LONDON. 61
turns east again into Whitechapel, coming out near
the Three-Nuns inn. -
It was about the 10th of September, that my
cüriosity led, or rather drove me to go and see this
pit again, when there had been near four hundred
people buried in it; and I was not content to see it
in the day-time, as I had done before, for then there
would have been nothing to have been seen but the
loose earth; for all the bodies that were thrown in
were immediately covered with earth, by those they
called the buriers, which at other times were called
bearers; but I resolved to go in the night, and see
some of them thrown in.
There was a strict order to prevent people coming
to those pits, and that was only to prevent infection;
but, after some time, that order was more necessary,
for people that were infected, and near their end,
and delirious also, would run to those pits wrapt in
blankets, or rugs, and throw themselves in, and, as
they said, bury themselves. I cannot say that the
officers suffered any willingly to lie there; but I
have heard, that in a great pit in Finsbury, in the
parish of Cripplegate, it lying open then to the fields,
for it was not then walled about, many came and threw
themselves in, and expired there, before they threw
any earth upon them ; and that when they came to
bury others, and found them there, they were quite
dead, though not cold.
This may serve a little to describe the dreadful
condition of that day, though it is impossible to say
anything that is able to give a true idea of it to those
who did not see it, other than this; that it was
indeed, very, very, very dreadful, and such as no
tongue can express. -
I got admittance into the churchyard by being
acquainted with the sexton who attended, who,
62 , THE HISTORY OF
though he did not refuse me at all, yet earnestly
persuaded me not to go: telling me very seriously,
for he was a good religious and sensible man, that
it was, indeed, their business and duty to venture,
and to run all hazards, and that in it they might
hope to be preserved; but that I had no apparent
call to it but my own curiosity, which, he said, he
believed I would not pretend, was sufficient to
justify my running that hazard. I told him I had
been pressed in my mind to go, and that, perhaps,
it might be an instructing sight, that might not be
without its uses. Nay, says the good man, if you
will venture upon that score, 'Name of God, go in ;
for, depend upon it, it will be a sermon to you, it
may be, the best that ever you heard in your life.
It is a speaking sight, says he, and has a voice with
it, and a loud one, to call us all to repentance; and
with that he opened the door, and said, Go, if you
will.
His discourse had shocked my resolution a little,
and I stood wavering for a good while, but, just at
that interval, I saw two links come over from the
end of the Minories, and heard the bellman, and
then appeared a dead cart, as they called it, coming
over the streets; so I could no longer resist my
desire of seeing it, and went in. There was nobody
as I could perceive at first, in the churchyard, or
going into it, but the buriers, and the fellow that
drove the cart, or rather led the horse and cart, but
when they came up to the pit, they saw a man go to
and again, muffled up in a brown cloak, and making
motions with his hands, under his cloak, as if he
was in great agony; and the buriers immediately
gathered about him, supposing he was one of those
poor delirious, or desperate creatures, that used to
pretend, as I have said, to bury themselves; he said
THE PLAGUE IN LONDON. 63
nothing as he walked about, but two or three times
groaned very deeply, and loud, and sighed as he
would break his heart.
When the buriers came up to him, they soon
found he was neither a person infected and desperate,
as I have observed above, or a person distempered
in mind, but one oppressed with a dreadful weight
of grief indeed, having his wife and several of his
children, all in the cart, that was just come in with
him, and he followed in an agony and excess of
sorrow. He mourned heartily, as it was easy to see,
but with a kind of masculine grief, that could not
give itself vent by tears; and, calmly desiring the
buriers to let him alone, said he would only see the
bodies thrown in, and go away, so they left impor-
tuning him ; but no sooner was the cart turned
round, and the bodies shot into the pit promis-
cuously, which was a surprise to him, for he at least
expected they would have been decently laid in,
though, indeed, he was afterwards convinced that
was impracticable; I say, no sooner did he see the
sight, but he cried out aloud, unable to contain him-
self. I could not hear what he said, but he went
backward two or three steps, and fell down in a
swoon; the buriers ran to him and took him up,
and in a little while he came to himself, and they
led him away to the Pye-tavern, over-against the
end of Houndsditch, where, it seems, the man was
known, and where they took care of him. He looked
into the pit again, as he went away, but the buriers
had covered the bodies so immediately with throwing
in earth, that, though there was light enough, for
there were lantherns and candles in them, placed
all night round the sides of the pit, upon the heaps
of earth, seven or eight, or perhaps more, yet nothing
could be seen. ~.
This was a mournful scene indeed, and affected
64 THE HISTORY OF
me almost as much as the rest; but the other was
awful, and full of terror; the cart had in it sixteen
or seventeen bodies, some were wrapt up in linen
sheets, some in rugs, some little other than naked,
or so loose, that what covering they had fell from
them, in the shooting out of the cart, and they fell
quite naked among the rest; but the matter was
not much to them, or the indecency much to any
one else, seeing they were all dead, and were to be
huddled together into the common grave of mankind,
as we may call it, for here was no difference made,
but poor and rich went together; there was no
other way of burials, neither was it possible there
should, for coffins were not to be had for the pro-
digious numbers that fell in such a calamity as
this.
It was reported, by way of scandal upon the
buriers, that if any corpse was delivered to them,
decently wound up, as we called it then, in a wind-
ing sheet tied over the head and feet, which some
did, and which was generally of good linen; I say,
it was reported, that the buriers were so wicked as
to strip them in the cart, and carry them quite
naked to the ground; but, as I cannot credit any-
thing so vile among Christians, and at a time so
filled with terrors as that was, I can only relate it,
and leave it undetermined.
Innumerable stories also went about of the cruel
behaviour and practices of nurses, who attended the
sick, and of their hastening on the fate of those they
attended in their sickness. But I shall say more
of this in its place.
I was indeed shocked with this sight, it almost
overwhelmed me; and I went away with my heart
most afflicted, and full of afflicting thoughts, such as
I cannot describe; just at my going out of the
church, and turning up the street towards my own
THE PLAGUE IN LONDON. 65
house, I saw another cart with links, and a bellman
going before, coming out of Harrow-alley, in the
Butcher-row, on the other side of the way, and
being, as I perceived, very full of dead bodies, it
went directly over the street also toward the church.
I stood awhile, but I had no stomach to go back
again to see the same dismal scene over again; so
I went directly home, where I could not but consider
with thankfulness, the risk I had run, believing I
had gotten no injury; as indeed I had not.
Here the poor unhappy gentleman's grief came
into my head again, and, indeed, I could not but
shed tears in the reflection upon it, perhaps more
than he did himself; but his case lay so heavy upon
my mind, that I could not prevail with myself but
that I must go out again into the street, and go to
the Pye-tavern, resolving to inquire what became
of him.
It was by this time one o'clock in the morning,
and yet the poor gentleman was there; the truth
was, the people of the house knowing him, had en-
tertained him, and kept him there all the night, not-
withstanding the danger of being infected by him,
though it appeared the man was perfectly sound
himself.
It is with regret that I take notice of this tavern.
The people were civil, mannerly, and an obliging
sort of folks enough, and had till this time kept their
house open, and their trade going on, though not so
very publicly as formerly; but there was a dreadful
set of fellows that used their house, and who, in the
middle of all this horror, met there every night, be-
having with all the revelling and roaring extrava-
gances as is usual for such people to do at other
times, and indeed to such an offensive degree, that
the very master and mistress of the house grew first
ashamed, and then terrified, at them.
PLAGUE. F
66 THE HISTORY OF
They sat generally in a room next the street; and,
as they always kept late hours, so when the dead-
cart came across the street end to go into Hounds-
ditch, which was in view of the tavern windows, they
would frequently open the windows, as soon as they
heard the bell, and look out at them; and, as they
might often hear sad lamentations of people in the
streets, or at their windows, as the carts went along,
they would make their impudent mocks and jeers at
them, especially if they heard the poor people call
upon God to have mercy upon them, as many would
do at those times, in their ordinary passing along
the streets. - -
These gentlemen being something disturbed with
the clutter of bringing the poor gentleman into the
house, as above, were first angry and very high with
the master of the house, for suffering such a fellow,
as they called him, to be brought out of the grave
into their house ; but, being answered, that the
man was a neighbour, and that he was sound, but
overwhelmed with the calamity of his family, and
the like, they turned their anger into ridiculing the
man, and his sorrow for his wife and children;
taunting him with want of courage to leap into the
great pit, and go to heaven, as they jeeringly ex-
pressed it, along with them ; adding some very
profane, and even blasphemous expressions.
They were at this vile work when I came back to
the house, and, as far as I could see, though the
man sat still, mute, and disconsolate, and their
affronts could not divert his sorrow, yet he was
both grieved and offended at their discourse. Upon
this, I gently reproved them, being well enough ac-
quainted with their characters, and not unknown in
person to two of them.
They immediately fell upon me with ill language
and oaths; asked me what I did out of my grave,
THE PLAGUE IN TONIDO.N. 67
at such a time, when so many homester men were
carried into the churchyard ; and why I was not at
home saying my prayers, against the dead-cart came
for me; and the like. -
I was indeed astonished at the impudence of the
men, though not at all discomposed at their treat-
ment of me; however, I kept my temper. I told
them, that though I defied them, or any man in
the world, to tax me with any dishonesty, yet I
acknowledged, that, in this terrible judgment of
God, many better than I were swept away, and
carried to their grave; but, to answer their ques-
tion directly, the case was, that I was mercifully
preserved by that great God, whose name they had
blasphemed and taken in vain, by cursing and
swearing in a dreadful manner; and that I believed
I was preserved in particular, among other ends of
his goodness, that I might reprove them for their
audacious boldness, in behaving in such a manner,
and in such an awful time as this was, especially
for their jeering and mocking at an honest gentle-
man, and a neighbour, for some of them knew him,
who they saw was overwhelmed with sorrow, for
the breaches which it had pleased God to make
upon his family. º
. I cannot call exactly to mind the hellish abomi-
nable raillery, which was the return they made to
that talk of mine, being provoked, it seems, that I
was not at all afraid to be free with them ; nor, if I
could remember, would I fill my account with any
of the words, the horrid oaths, curses, and vile ex-
pressions, such as, at that time of the day, even the
worst and ordinariest people in the street would
not use; for, except such hardened creatures as
these, the most wicked wretches that could be
found, had at that time some terror upon their
F 2
68 | THE HISTORY OF
mind, of the hand of that Power which could thus,
in a moment destroy them.
But that which was the worst in all their devilish
language was, that they were not afraid to blas-
pheme God, and talk atheistically; making a jest
at my calling the plague the hand of God, mocking,
and even laughing at the word judgment, as if the
providence of God had no concern in the inflicting
such a desolating stroke; and that the people call-
ing upon God, as they saw the carts carrying away
the dead bodies, was all enthusiastic, absurd, and
impertinent.
I made them some reply, such as I thought pro-
per, but which I found was so far from putting a
check to their horrid way of speaking, that it made
them rail the more; so that I confess it filled me
with horror, and a kind of rage, and I came away,
as I told them, lest the hand of that judgment
which had visited the whole city, should glorify his
vengeance upon them, and all that were near them.
They received all reproof with the utmost con-
tempt, and made the greatest mockery that was
possible for them to do at me, giving me all the op-
probrious insolent scoffs that they could think of for
preaching to them, as they called it, which indeed
grieved me, rather than angered me; and I went
away blessing God, however, in my mind, that I
had not spared them, though they had insulted me
so much.
They continued this wretched course three or
four days after this, continually mocking and jeer-
ing at all that showed themselves religious, or se-
rious, or that were any way touched with the sense
of the terrible judgment of God upon us, and I was
informed they flouted in the same manner, at the
good people, who, notwithstanding the contagion,
THE PLAGUE IN LONDON. 69
met at the church, fasted and prayed to God to re-
move his hand from them.
I say, they continued this dreadful course three
or four days, I think it was no more, when one of
them, particularly he who asked the poor gentleman
what he did out of his grave, was struck from
heaven with the plague, and died in a most deplor-
able manner; and, in a word, they were every one
of them carried into the great pit, which I have
mentioned above, before it was quite filled up, which
was not above a fortnight, or thereabout.
These men were guilty of many extravagances,
such as one would think human nature should have
trembled at the thoughts of, at such a time of ge-
neral terror as was then upon us; and, particularly,
scoffing and mocking at everything which they
happened to see that was religious among the peo-
ple, especially at their thronging zealously to the
place of public worship, to implore mercy from
heaven in such a time of distress; and this tavern,
where they held their club, being within view of
the church door, they had the more particular oc-
casion for their atheistical profane mirth.
But this began to abate a little with them before
the accident, which I have related, happened; for
the infection increased so violently, at this part of
the town now, that people began to be afraid to
come to the church, at least such numbers did not
resort thither as was usual; many of the clergymen
likewise were dead, and others gone into the coun-
try; for it really required a steady courage, and a
strong faith, for a man not only to venture being in
town at such a time as this, but likewise to venture
to come to church and perform the office of a
minister to a congregation, of whom he had reason
to believe many of them were actually infected with
70 THE HISTORY OF
the plague, and to do this every day, or twice a day,
as in some places was done. -
It seems they had been checked for their open
insulting religion in this manner, by several good
people of every persuasion, and that and the violent
raging of the infection, I suppose, was the occasion
that they had abated much of their rudeness for
some time before, and were only roused by the
spirit of ribaldry and atheism at the clamour which
was made, when the gentleman was first brought in
there, and, perhaps, were agitated by the same
devil, when I took upon me to reprove them ;
though I did it at first with all the calmness, temper,
and good manners that I could, which, for awhile,
they insulted me the more for, thinking it had been
in fear of their resentment, though afterwards they
found the contrary. .
These things lay upon my mind; and I went
home very much grieved and oppressed with the
horror of these men's wickedness, and to think that
anything could be so vile, so hardened, and so no-
toriously wicked, as to insult God and his servants,
and his worship, in such a manner, and at such a
time as this was ; when he had, as it were, his
sword drawn in his hand, on purpose to take ven-
geance, not on them only, but on the whole nation.
I had, indeed, been in some passion, at first, with
them, though it was really raised, not by any affront,
they had offered me personally, but by the horror,
their blaspheming tongues filled me with; however,
I was doubtful in my thoughts, whether the resent-
ment I retained, was not all upon my own private
account, for they had given me a great deal of ill
language too, I mean personally ; but after some
pause, and having a weight of grief upon my mind,
I retired myself, as soon as I came home, for I
THE PLAGUE IN LONDON. 71
slept not that night, and giving God most humble
thanks for my preservation in the imminent danger
I had been in, I set my mind seriously, and with
the utmost earnestness, to pray for those desperate
wretches, that God would pardon them, open their
eyes, and effectually humble them. -
By this I not only did my duty, namely, to pray
for those who despitefully used me, but I fully tried
my own heart, to my full satisfaction, that it was
not filled with any spirit of resentment as they had
offended me in particular; and I humbly recom-
mend the method to all those that would know, or
be certain, how to distinguish between their zeal
for the honour of God, and the effects of their pri-
vate passions and resentment.
I remember a citizen, who, having broken out of
his house in Aldersgate-street, or thereabout, went
along the road to Islington; he attempted to have
gone in at the Angel-Inn, and after that at the
White-Horse, two inns, known still by the same
signs; but was refused; after which he came to
the Pyed-Bull, an inn also still continuing the same
sign; he asked them for lodging for one night only,
pretending to be going into Lincolnshire, and as-
suring them of his being very sound, and free from
the infection, which also, at that time, had not
reached much that way. -
They told him, they had no lodging that they
could spare, but one bed up in the garret, and that
they could spare that bed but for one night, some
drovers being expected the next day with cattle ;
so, if he would accept of that lodging, he might
have it, which he did; so a servant was sent up
with a candle with him, to show him the room. He
was very well dressed, and looked like a person not
used to lie in a garret, and when he came to the
room he fetched a deep sigh, and said to the ser-
72 THE HISTORY OF
vant, I have seldom lain in such a lodging as this ;
however the servant assured him again, that they
had no better: Well, says he, I must make shift,
this is a dreadful time, but it is but for one night;
so he sat down upon the bed-side, and bade the
maid, I think it was, fetch him a pint of warm ale;
accordingly the servant went for the ale, but some
hurry in the house, which, perhaps, employed her
otherways, put it out of her head; and she went
up no more to him.
The next morning, seeing no appearance of the
gentleman, somebody in the house asked the ser-
vant that had showed him up stairs, what was be-
come of him 2 she started ; Alas, says she, I never
thought more of him : he bade me carry him some
warm ale, but I forgot: upon which, not the maid,
but some other person, was sent up to see after
him, who coming into the room, found him stark
dead, and almost cold, stretched out across the bed;
his clothes were pulled off, his jaw fallen, his eyes
open in a most frightful posture, the rug of the bed
being grasped hard in one of his hands, so that it
was plain he died soon after the maid left him, and
it is probable, had she gone up with the ale, she
had found him dead in a few minutes after he had
sat down upon the bed. The alarm was great in the
house, as any one may suppose, they having been
free from the distemper, till that disaster, which
bringing the infection to the house, spread it im-
mediately to other houses round about it. I do
not remember how many died in the house itself,
but I think the maid-servant, who went up first
with him, fell presently ill by the fright, and several
others; for, whereas there died but two in Isling-
ton of the plague, the week before, there died nine-
teen the week after, whereof fourteen were of the
THE PLAGUE IN LONDON. 73
plague, this was in the week from the 11th of July
to the 18th.
There was one shift, that some families had, and
that not a few, when their houses happened to be
infected, and that was this; the families, who, in
the first breaking out of the distemper, fled away
into the country, and had retreats among their
friends, generally found some or other, of their
neighbours or relations, to commit the charge of
those houses to, for the safety of the goods, and the
like. Some houses were indeed entirely locked up,
the doors padlocked, the windows and doors having
deal boards nailed over them, and only the inspec-
tion of them committed to the ordinary watchmen
and parish officers, but these were but few.
It was thought, that there were not less than a
thousand houses forsaken of the inhabitants, in the
city and suburbs, including what was in the out-
parishes, and in Surry, or the side of the water
they called Southwark. This was besides the num-
bers of lodgers, and of particular persons, who were
fled out of other families, so that in all it was com-
puted, that about two hundred thousand people were
fled and gone in all. But of this I shall speak again:
but I mention it here on this account, namely, that
it was a rule with those, who had thus two houses in
their keeping or care, that if anybody was taken sick
in a family, before the master of the family let the
examiners, or any other officer know of it, he imme-
diately would send all the rest of his family, whether
children or servants, as it fell out to be, to such
other house which he had not in charge, and then
giving notice of the sick person to the examiner,
have a nurse, or nurses, appointed, and having
another person to be shut up in the house with
them, (which many for money would do,) so to
74 THE HISTORY OF
take charge of the house, in case the person should
die.
This was, in many cases, the saving a whole
family, who, if they had been shut up with the sick
person, would inevitably have perished; but on the
other hand, this was another of the inconveniences
of shutting up houses; for the apprehensions and
terror of being shut up, made many run away with
the rest of the family, who, though it was not pub-
licly known, and they were not quite sick, had yet
the distemper upon them; and who, by having an
uninterrupted liberty to go about, but being obliged
still to conceal their circumstances, or, perhaps, not
knowing it themselves, gave the distemper to others,
and spread the infection in a dreadful manner, as I
shall explain further hereafter. .
I had in my family, only an ancient woman, that
managed the house, a maid-servant, two apprentices,
and myself, and the plague beginning to increase
about us, I had many sad thoughts about what course
I should take, and how I should act; the many
dismal objects, which happened everywhere, as Iwent
about the streets, had filled my mind with a great
deal of horror, for fear of the distemper itself, which
was indeed very horrible in itself, and in some more
than others; the swellings, which were generally in
the neck or groin, when they grew hard, and would
not break, grew so painful, that it was equal to the
most exquisite torture; and some not able to bear
the torment, threw themselves out at windows, or
shot themselves, or otherwise made themselves away,
and I saw several dismal objects of that kind: others,
unable to contain themselves, vented their pain by
incessant roarings, and such loud and lamentable
cries were to be heard, as we walked along the
streets, that would pierce the very heart to think of,
THE PLAGUE IN LONDON. 75
especially when it was to be considered that the
same dreadful scourge might be expected every
moment to seize upon ourselves.
I cannot say, but that now I began to faint in my
resolutions; my heart failed me very much, and
Sorely I repented of my rashness, when I had been
out, and met with such terrible things as these I
have talked of; I say, I repented my rashness in
venturing to abide in town, and I wished, often,
that I had not taken upon me to stay, but had gon
away with my brother and his family. - * .
Terrified by those frightful objects, I would retire
home sometimes, and resolve to go out no more, and
perhaps I would keep those resolutions for three or
four days, which time I spent in the most serious
thankfulness for my preservation, and the preserva-
tion of my family, and the constant confession of my
sins, giving myself up to God every day, and apply-
ing to him with fasting and humiliation, and medita-
tion. Such intervals as I had, I employed in reading
books, and in writing down my memorandums of
what occurred to me every day, and out of which,
afterwards, I took most of this work, as it relates to
my observations without doors; what I wrote of my
private meditations I reserve for private use, and
desire it may not be made public on any account
whatever. -
I also wrote other meditations upon divine sub-
jects, such as occurred to me at that time, and were
profitable to myself, but not fit for any other view
and therefore I say no more of that. .
I had a very good friend a physician, whose name
was Heath, whom I frequently visited during this
dismal time, and to whose advice I was very much
obliged for many things which he directed me to
take, by way of preventing the infection when I
went out, as he found I frequently did, and to hold
76 THE HISTORY OF
in my mouth, when I was in the streets; he also
came very often to see me, and as he was a good
Christian, as well as a good physician, his agreeable
conversation was a very great support to me, in the
worst of this terrible time.
It was now the beginning of August, and the
plague grew very violent and terrible in the place
where I lived, and Dr. Heath coming to visit me,
and finding that I ventured so often out in the
streets, earnestly persuaded me to lock myself up,
and my family, and not to suffer any of us to go out
of doors; to keep all our windows fast, shutters and
curtains close, and never to open them ; but first,
to make a very strong smoke in the room, where
the window or door was to be opened, with rosin
and pitch, brimstone and gunpowder, and the like,
and we did this for some time, but as I had not laid
in a store of provision for such a retreat, it was im-
possible that we could keep within doors entirely;
however, I attempted, though it was so very late,
to do something towards it; and first, as I had con-
venience both for brewing and baking, I went and
bought two sacks of meal, and for several weeks,
having an oven, we baked all our own bread; also
I bought malt, and brewed as much beer, as all the
casks I had would hold, and which seemed enough
to serve my house for five or six weeks; also, I laid
in a quantity of salt-butter and Cheshire cheese;
but I had no flesh meat, and the plague raged so
violently among the butchers and slaughter-houses,
on the other side of our street, where they are known
to dwell in great numbers, that it was not advisable
so much as to go over the street among them.
And here I must observe again, that this necessity
of going out of our houses to buy provisions, was in
a great measure the ruin of the whole city, for the
people catched the distemper, on these occasions,
THE PLAGUE IN LONDON. 77
one of another, and even the provisions themselves
were often tainted, at least I have great reason to
believe so; and, therefore, I cannot say with satis-
faction, what I know is repeated with great assu-
rance, that the market people, and such as brought
provisions to town, were never infected. I am
certain, the butchers of Whitechapel, where the
greatest part of the flesh meat was killed, were
dreadfully visited, and that at last to such a degree,
that few of their shops were kept open, and those
that remained of them killed their meat at Mile-End
and that way, and brought it to market upon horses.
However, the poor people could not lay up pro-
visions, and there was a necessity, that they must
go to market to buy, and others to send servants,
or their children; and, as this was a necessity which
renewed itself daily, it brought abundance of un-
sound people to the markets, and a great many that
went thither sound, brought death home with them.
It is true, people used all possible precaution;
when any one bought a joint of meat in the market,
they would not take it out of the butcher's hand,
but took it off the hooks themselves. On the other
hand, the butcher would not touch the money, but
have it put into a pot full of vinegar, which he kept
for that purpose. The buyer carried always small
money to make up any odd sum, that they might
take no change. They carried bottles for scents
and perfumes in their hands, and all the means that
could be used were employed; but then the poor
could not do even these things, and they went at
all hazards.
Innumerable dismal stories we heard every day
on this very account. Sometimes a man or woman
dropt down dead in the very markets; for many
people that had the plague upon them knew nothing
of it till the inward gangrene had affected their
78 THE HISTORY OF
vitals, and they died in a few moments; this caused
that many died frequently in that manner in the
street suddenly, without any warning; others per-
haps, had time to go to the next bulk or stall, or to
any door or porch, and just sit down and die, as I
have said before. - -
These objects were so frequent in the streets,
that, when the plague came to be very raging on
one side, there was scarce any passing by the streets,
but that several dead bodies would be lying here
and there upon the ground; on the other hand, it
is observable, that though, at first, the people would
stop as they went along, and call to the neighbours
to come out on such an occasion, yet, afterward, no
notice was taken of them; but that, if at any time
we found a corpse lying, go across the way and not
come near it; or if in a narrow lane or passage, go
back again, and seek some other way to go on the
business we were upon ; and, in those cases, the
corpse was always left, till the officers had notice to
come and take them away; or till night, when the
bearers attending the dead-cart would take them
up, and carry them away. Nor did those undaunted
creatures, who performed these offices, fail to search
their pockets, and sometimes strip off their clothes
if they were well dressed, as sometimes they were,
and carry off what they could get. .
But, to return to the markets; the butchers took
that care, that, if any person died in the market,
they had the officers always at hand, to take them
up upon hand-barrows, and carry them to the next
churchyard; and this was so frequent, that such
were not entered in the weekly bill, found dead in
the streets or fields, as is the case now, but they
went into the general articles of the great dis-
temper. .
But now the fury of the distemper increased to
THE PLAGUE IN LONDON. 79
such a degree, that even the markets were but very
thinly furnished with provisions, or frequented with
buyers, compared to what they were before ; and
the lord mayor caused the country people who
brought provisions, to be stopped in the streets
leading into the town, and to sit down there with
their goods, where they sold what they brought, and
went immediately away; and this encouraged the
country people greatly to do so, for they sold their
provisions at the very entrances into the town, and
even in the fields; as, particularly, in the fields
beyond Whitechapel in Spittlefields. Note, those
streets, now called Spittlefields, were then indeed
open fields; also, in St. George's-fields, in South-
wark, in Bunhill-fields, and in a great field, called
Wood's Close, near Islington; thither the lord
mayor, aldermen, and magistrates, sent their of
ficers and servants to buy for their families, them-
selves keeping within doors as much as possible,
and the like did many other people; and after this
method was taken, the country people came with
great cheerfulness, and brought provisions of all
sorts, and very seldom got any harm; which I sup-
pose added also to that report, of their being mira-
culously preserved. *
As for my little family, having thus, as I have
said, laid in a store of bread, butter, cheese, and
beer, I took my friend and physician’s advice, and
locked myself up, and my family, and resolved to
suffer the hardship of living a few months without
flesh meat, rather than to purchase it at the hazard
of our lives.
But, though I confined my family, I could not
prevail upon my unsatisfied curiosity to stay within
entirely myself; and, though I generally came
frighted and terrified home, yet I could not restrain;
80 THE HISTORY OF
only that indeed I did not do it so frequently as at
first.
I had some little obligations indeed upon me, to
go to my brother's house, which was in Coleman-
street parish, and which he had left to my care;
and I went at first every day, but afterwards only
once or twice a week.
In these walks I had many dismal scenes before
my eyes; as, particularly, of persons falling dead
in the streets, terrible shrieks and screechings of
women, who, in their agonies, would throw open
their chamber windows, and cry out in a dismal sur-
prising manner. It is impossible to describe the va-
riety of postures in which the passions of the poor
people would express themselves.
Passing through Token-House-yard in Lothbury,
of a sudden a casement violently opened just over my
head, and a woman gave three frightful screeches,
and then cried, Oh! death, death, death ! in a most
inimitable tone, and which struck me with horror,
and a chilness in my very blood. There was nobody
to be seen in the whole street, neither did any other
window open, for people had no curiosity now in
any case, nor could anybody help one another; so
I went on to pass into Bell-alley.
Just in Bell-alley, on the right hand of the pas-
sage, there was a more terrible cry than that, though
it was not so directed out at the window, but the
whole family was in a terrible fright, and I could
hear women and children run screaming about the
rooms like distracted, when a garret window opened,
and somebody from a window on the other side the
alley called and asked, What is the matter | Upon
which, from the first window it was answered,
O Lord, my old master has hanged himself! The
other asked again, Is he quite dead? and the first
answered, Ay, ay, quite dead: quite dead and cold!
THE PLAGUE IN I.ONDON. 81
This person was a merchant, and a deputy alder-
man, and very rich. I care not to mention his
name, though I knew his name too; but that would
be a hardship to the family, which is now flourish-
ing again.
But this is but one. It is scarce credible what
dreadful cases happened in particular families every
day; people, in the rage of the distemper, or in the
torment of their swellings, which was indeed intol-
erable, running out of their own government, raving
and distracted, and oftentimes laying violent hands
upon themselves, throwing themselves out at their
windows, shooting themselves, &c. Mothers mur-
dering their own children, in their lunacy; some
dying of mere grief, as a passion; some of mere
fright and surprise, without any infection at all;
others frighted into idiotism and foolish distractions;
some into despair and lunacy; others into melan-
choly madness.
The pain of the swelling was in particular very
violent, and to some intolerable; the physicians and
surgeons may be said to have tortured many poor
creatures even to death. The swellings in some
grew hard, and they applied violent drawing plasters
or poultices to break them; and, if these did not do,
they cut and scarified them in a terrible manner.
In some, those swellings were made hard, partly by
the force of the distemper, and partly by their being
too violently drawn, and were so hard, that no in-
strument could cut them, and then they burnt them
with caustics, so that many died raving mad with the
torment, and some in the very operation. In these
distresses, some, for want of help to hold them down
in their beds, or to look to them, laid hands upon
themselves, as above; some broke out into the
streets, perhaps naked, and would run directly down
to the river, if they were not stopped by the watch-
FLAGUE. G.
82. THE HISTORY OF
men, or other officers, and plunge themselves into
the water, wherever they found it.
It often pierced my very soul to hear the groans
and cries of those who were thus tormented: but of
the two this was counted the most promising par-
ticular in the whole infection; for, if these swellings
could be brought to a head, and to break and run, or,
as the surgeons call it, to digest, the patient gene-
rally recovered; whereas those who, like the gen-
tlewoman's daughter, were struck with death at the
beginning, and had the tokens come out upon them,
often went about indifferently easy, till a little before
they died, and some till the moment they dropt
down, as, in apoplexies and epilepsies, is often the
case. Such would be taken suddenly very sick, and
would run to a bench or bulk, or any convenient
place that offered itself, or to their own houses, if
possible, as I mentioned before, and there sit down,
grow faint, and die. This kind of dying was much
the same as it was with those who die of common
mortifications, who die swooning, and, as it were,
go away in a dream ; such as died thus had very
little notice of their being infected at all, till the
gangrene was spread through their whole body; nor
could physicians themselves know certainly how it
was with them, till they opened their breasts, or
other parts of their body, and saw the tokens.
We had at this time a great many frightful stories
told us of nurses and watchmen, who looked after
the dying people, that is to say, hired nurses, who
attended infected people, using them barbarously,
starving them, smothering them, or, by other wicked
means, hastening their end; that is to say, murder-
ing of them. And watchmen being set to guard
houses that were shut up, when there has been but
one person left, and perhaps that one lying sick,
that they have broke in and murdered that body,
THE PLAGUE IN LONDON. 83
and immediately thrown them out into the dead
cart; and so they have gone scarce cold to the
grave.
I cannot say but that some such murders were
committed, and I think two were sent to prison for
it, but died before they could be tried; and I have
heard that three others, at several times, were exe-
cuted for murders of that kind. But, I must say, I
believe nothing of its being so common a crime as
some have since been pleased to say ; nor did it seem
to be so rational, where the people were brought so
low as not to be able to help themselves, for such
seldom recovered, and there was no temptation to
commit a murder; at least, none equal to the fact,
where they were sure persons would die in so short
a time, and could not live.
That there were a great many robberies and
wicked practices committed even in this dreadful
time, I do not deny; the power of avarice was so
strong in some, that they would run any hazard to
steal and to plunder; and, particularly, in houses
where all the families or inhabitants have been dead
and carried out, they would break in at all hazards,
and, without regard to the danger of infection, take
even the clothes off the dead bodies, and the bed-
clothes from others, where they lay dead.
This, I suppose, must be the case of a family in
Houndsditch, where a man and his daughter, the
rest of the family being, as I suppose, carried away
before by the dead cart, were found stark naked,
one in one chamber, and one in another, lying dead
on the floor, and the clothes of the beds, from
whence, it is supposed, they were rolled off by
thieves, stolen, and carried quite away.
It is, indeed, to be observed, that the women
were, in all this calamity, the most rash, fearless,
and desperate creatures; and, as there were vast
G 2
84 THE HISTORY OF
numbers that went about as nurses, to tend those
that were sick, they committed a great many petty
thieveries in the houses where they were employed ;
and some of them were publicly whipt for it, when,
perhaps, they ought rather to have been hanged for
examples, for numbers of houses were robbed on
these occasions; till, at length, the parish officers
were sent to recommend nurses to the sick, and al-
ways took an account who it was they sent, so as
that they might call them to account, if the house
had been abused where they were placed.
But these robberies extended chiefly to wearing
clothes, linen, and what rings or money they could
come at, when the person died who was under their
care, but not to a general plunder of the houses;
and I could give you an account of one of these
nurses, who, several years after, being on her
death-bed, confessed, with the utmost horror, the
robberies she had committed at the time of her
being a nurse, and by which she had enriched her-
self to a great degree; but as for murders, I do
not find that there was ever any proof of the facts,
in the manner as it has been reported, except as
above.
They did tell me, indeed, of a nurse in one place,
that laid a wet cloth upon the face of a dying patient
whom she tended, and so put an end to his life, who
was just expiring before; and another that smothered
a young woman she was looking to, when she was
in a fainting fit, and would have come to herself;
some that killed them by giving them one thing,
some another, and some starved them by giving them
nothing at all. But these stories had two marks of
suspicion that always attended them, which caused
me always to slight them, and to look on them as
mere stories, that people continually frighted one
another with. (1.) That, wherever it was that we
THE PLAGUE IN LONDON. 85
heard it, they always placed the scene at the fur-
ther end of the town, opposite, or most remote
from where you were to hear it. If you heard it in
Whitechapel, it had happened at St. Giles's, or at
Westminster, or Holborn, or that end of the
town; if you heard it at that end of the town, then
it was done in Whitechapel, or the Minories, or
about Cripplegate parish ; if you heard of it in the
city, why then, it happened in Southwark; and if
you heard of it in Southwark, then it was done in
the city, and the like. -
In the next place, of whatsoever part you heard
the story, the particulars were always the same, es-
pecially that of laying a wet double clout on a dying
man's face, and that of smothering a young gentle-
woman; so that it was apparent, at least to my judg-
ment, that there was more of tale than of truth in
those things.
A neighbour and acquaintance of mine, having
some money owing to him from a shopkeeper in
Whitecross-street, or thereabouts, sent his appren-
tice, a youth about eighteen years of age, to endea-
vour to get the money. He came to the door, and
finding it shut, knocked pretty hard, and, as he
thought, heard somebody answer within, but was
not sure, so he waited, and, after some stay, knocked
again, and then a third time, when he heard some-
body coming down stairs.
At length the man of the house came to the
door; he had on his breeches or drawers, and a
yellow flannel waistcoat, no stockings, a pair of
slipt shoes, a white cap on his head, and, as the
young man said, death in his face.
When he opened the door, says he, What do you
disturb me thus for 2 The boy, though a little sur-
prised, replied, I come from such-a-one, and my
master sent me for the money which he says you
86 THE HISTORY OF
know of Very well, child, returns the living ghost,
call, as you go by, at Cripplegate church, and bid
them ring the bell; and, with these words, shut the
door again, and went up again and died the same
day, nay, perhaps the same hour. This the young
man told me himself, and I have reason to believe
it. This was while the plague was not come to a
height ; I think it was in June, towards the latter
end of the month; it must have been before the dead
carts came about, and while they used the ceremony
of ringing the bell for the dead, which was over
for certain in that parish, at least, before the month
of July ; for, by the 25th of July, there died five
hundred and fifty and upwards in a week, and
then they could no more bury, in form, rich or
poor.
I have mentioned above, that notwithstanding
this dreadful calamity, yet that numbers of thieves
were abroad upon all occasions, where they had
found any prey; and that these were generally
women. It was one morning about eleven o’clock,
I had walked out to my brother's house in Cole-
man-street parish, as I often did, to see that all
was safe.
My brother's house had a little court before it,
and a brick wall and a gate in it; and within that,
several warehouses, where his goods of several
sorts lay. It happened, that in one of these ware-
houses were several packs of women's high-crowned
hats, which came out of the country, and were,
as I suppose, for exportation; whither I know
In Ot.
I was surprised, that when I came near my
brother's door, which was in a place they called
Swan-alley, I met three or four women with high-
crowned hats on their heads, and, as I remembered
afterwards, one, if not more, had some hats likewise
THE PLAGUE IN LONDON. 87
in their hands; but as I did not see them come
out at my brother's door, and not knowing that my
brother had any such goods in his warehouse, I did
not offer to say anything to them, but went across
the way to shun meeting them, as was usual to do
at that time, for fear of the plague; but, when I
came nearer to the gate, I met another woman with
more hats come out of the gate. What business,
mistress, said. I, have you had there 2 There are
more people there, said she ; I have had no more
business there than they. I was hasty to get to the
gate then, and said no more to her; by which means
she got away. But, just as I came to the gate, I
saw two more coming across the yard, to come out,
with hats also on their heads and under their arms;
at which I threw the gate to behind me, which,
having a spring-lock, fastened itself; and, turning
to the women, Forsooth, said I, what are you doing
here 2 and seized upon the hats, and took them from
them. One of them, who, I confess, did not look
like a thief, Indeed, says she, we are wrong; but
we were told they were goods that had no owner;
be pleased to take them again, and look yonder,
there are more such customers as we. She cried,
and looked pitifully; so I took the hats from her,
and opened the gate, and bade them be gone ; for
I pitied the women indeed : but when I looked
towards the warehouse, as she directed, there were
six or seven more, all women, fitting themselves
with hats, as unconcerned and quiet as if they had
been at a hatter's shop, buying for their money.
I was surprised, not at the sight of so many
thieves only, but at the circumstances I was in ;
being now to thrust myself in among so many
people, who, for some weeks, I had been so shy of
myself, that if I met anybody in the street, I would
cross the way from them. .
88 * THE HISTORY OF
They were equally surprised, though on another
account. They all told me they were neighbours,
that they had heard any one might take them, that
they were nobody's goods, and the like. I talked
big to them at first, went back to the gate, and
took out the key, so that they were all my prison-
ers; threatened to lock them all into the warehouse,
and go and fetch my lord mayor's officers for
them.
They begged heartily, protested they found the
gate open, and the warehouse door open, and that
it had no doubt been broken open by some who ex-
pected to find goods of greater value; which,
indeed, was reasonable to believe, because the lock
was broke, and a padlock that hung to the door on
the outside also loose, and not abundance of th
hats carried away. -
At length I considered, that this was not a time
to be cruel and rigorous; and besides that, it
would necessarily oblige me to go much about, to
have several people come to me, and I go to
several, whose circumstances of health I knew
nothing of; and that, even at this time, the plague
was so high, as that there died, four thousand a
week; so that, in showing my resentment, or even
in seeking justice for my brother's goods, I might
lose my own life; so I contented myself with taking
the names and places where some of them lived,
who were really inhabitants in the neighbourhood,
and threatening, that my brother should call them
to an account for it when he returned to his habita-
tLOn. 4.
Then I talked a little upon another footing with
them ; and asked them how they could do such
things as these, in a time of such general calamity,
and, as it were, in the face of God’s most dreadful
judgments, when the plague was at their very
THE PLAGUE IN LONDON. 89
doors, and, it may be, in their very houses; and
they did not know but that the dead cart might
stop at their doors in a few hours, to carry them
to their graves.
I could not perceive that my discourse made
much impression upon them all that while, till it
happened that there came two men of the neigh-
bourhood, hearing of the disturbance, and knowing
my brother, (for they had been both dependants
upon his family,) and they came to my assistance.
These being, as I said, neighbours, presently knew
three of the women, and told me who they were,
and where they lived ; and, it seems, they had given
me a true account of themselves before.
This brings these two men to a further remem-
brance. The name of one was John Hayward, who
was at that time under-sexton of the parish of St.
Stephen, Coleman-street; by under-sexton was un-
derstood at that time grave-digger and bearer of
the dead. This man carried, or assisted to carry,
all the dead to their graves, which were buried in
that large parish, and who were carried in form ;
and after that form of burying was stopt, went with
the dead cart and the bell, to fetch the dead bodies
from the houses where they lay, and fetched many
of them out of the chambers and houses; for the
parish was, and is, still remarkable, particularly,
above all the parishes in London, for a great num-
ber of alleys and thoroughfares, very long, into
which no carts could come, and where they were
obliged to go and fetch the bodies a very long way,
which alleys now remain to witness it ; such as
White's-alley, Cross-Keys-court, Swan-alley, Bell-
alley, White-Horse-alley, and many more. Here
they went with a kind of handbarrow, and laid the
dead bodies on, and carried them out to the carts;
which work he performed, and never had the dis-
90 THE HISTORY OF
temper at all, but lived about twenty years after it,
and was sexton of the parish to the time of his death.
His wife at the same time was a nurse to infected
people, and tended many that died in the parish,
being for her honesty recommended by the parish
officers; yet she never was infected neither.
He never used any preservative against the in-
fection other than holding garlic and rue in his
mouth, and smoking tobacco; this I also had from
his own mouth; and his wife's remedy was washing
her head in vinegar, and sprinkling her head-clothes
so with vinegar, as to keep them always moist; and
if the smell of any of those she waited on was more
than ordinary offensive, she snuffed vinegar up her
nose, and sprinkled vinegar upon her head-clothes,
and held a handkerchief wetted with vinegar to her
mouth. -
It must be confessed, that, though the plague
was chiefly among the poor, yet were the poor the
most venturous and fearless of it, and went about
their employment with a sort of brutal courage.
I must call it so, for it was founded neither on
religion or prudence; scarce did they use any cau-
tion, but run into any business which they could
get any employment in, though it was the most
hazardous; such was that of tending the sick, watch-
ing houses shut up, carrying infected persons to the
pest-house, and, which was still worse, carrying the
dead away to their graves.
It was under this John Hayward’s care, and
Within his bounds, that the story of the piper, with
which people have made themselves so merry, hap-
peried, and he assured me that it was true. It is
said that it was a blind piper; but, as John told
me, the fellow was not blind, but an ignorant, weak,
poor man, and usually went his rounds about ten
o'clock at night, and went piping along from door
&
THE PLAGUE IN LONDON. 91
to door, and the people usually took him in at
public houses where they knew him, and would
give him drink and victuals, and sometimes far-
things; and he in return would pipe and sing, and
talk simply, which diverted the people, and thus he
lived. It was but a very bad time for this diver-
sion, while things were as I have told, yet the poor
fellow went about as usual, but was almost starved ;
and when anybody asked how he did, he would
answer, the dead cart had not taken him yet, but
that they had promised to call for him next week.
It happened one night, that this poor fellow,
whether somebody had given him too much drink
or no, (John Hayward said he had not drink in his
house, but that they had given him a little more
victuals than ordinary at a public house in Cole-
man-street,) and the poor fellow having not usually
had a bellyfull, or, perhaps, not a good while, was
laid all along upon the top of a bulk or stall, and
fast asleep at a door, in the street near London-
wall, towards Cripplegate, and that, upon the
same bulk or stall, the people of some house, in
the alley of which the house was a corner, hearing
a bell, which they always rung before the cart came,
had laid a body really dead of the plague just by
him, thinking too that this poor fellow had been a
dead body as the other was, and laid there by some
of the neighbours.
Accordingly, when John Hayward with his bell
and the cart came along, finding two dead bodies
lie upon the stall, they took them up with the
instrument they used, and threw them into the
cart; and all this while the piper slept soundly.”
From hence they passed along, and took in other
dead bodies, till, as honest John Hayward told me,
they almost buried him alive in the cart, yet all
this while he slept soundly; at length the cart came
92 THE HISTORY OF
to the place where the bodies were to be thrown
into the ground, which, as I do remember, was at
Mountmill; and, as the cart usually stopt some
time before they were ready to shoot out the me-
lancholy load they had in it, as soon as the cart
stopped, the fellow awaked, and struggled a little
to get his head out from among the dead bodies,
when, raising himself up in the cart, he called out,
Hey, where am I? This frighted the fellow that
attended about the work, but, after some pause,
John Hayward recovering himself, said, Lord bless
us ! there's somebody in the cart not quite dead
So another called to him, and said, Who are you?
The fellow answered, I am the poor piper: Where
am I? Where are you! says Hayward; why, you
are in the dead cart, and we are going to bury you.
But I an’t dead though, am I?’ says the piper;
which made them laugh a little, though, as John
said, they were heartily frightened at first ; so they
helped the poor fellow down, and he went about
his business. -
I know the story goes, he set up his pipes in the
cart, , and frighted the bearers and others, so that
they ran away; but John Hayward did not tell the
story so, nor say anything of his piping at all ; but
that he was a poor piper, and that he was carried
away as above, I am fully satisfied of the truth of
It is to be noted here, that the dead carts in the
city were not confined to particular parishes, but
one cart went through several parishes, according
as the number of dead presented ; nor were they
tied to carry the dead to their respective parishes,
but many of the dead taken up in the city were
carried to the burying-ground in the out-parts for
want of room.
At the beginning of the plague, when there was
now no more hope but that the whole city would
THE PLAGUE IN LONDON. 93
be visited; when, as I have said, all that had
friends or estates in the country retired with their
families, and when, indeed, one would have thought
the very city itself was running out of the gates,
and that there would be nobody left behind, you
may be sure, from that hour, all trade except such
as related to immediate subsistence, was, as it were,
at a full stop.
This is so lively a case, and contains in it so
much of the real condition of the people, that I
think I cannot be too particular in it ; and, there-
fore, I descend to the several arrangements or
classes of people who fell into immediate distress
upon this occasion. For example,
1. All master workmen in manufactures; espe-
cially such as belonged to ornament, and the less
necessary parts of the people's dress, clothes, and
furniture for houses ; such as ribband weavers and
other weavers, gold and silver lace makers, and
gold and silver wire drawers, sempstresses, milli-
ners, shoemakers, hat-makers,” and glove-makers;
also upholsterers, joiners, cabinet-makers, looking-
glass-makers, and innumerable trades which depend
upon such as these. I say the master workmen in
such, stopped their work, dismissed their journey-
men and workmen, and all their dependents.
2. As merchandizing was at a full stop, (for very
few ships ventured to come up the river, and none
at all went out,) so all the extraordinary officers of
the customs, likewise the watermen, carmen, por-
ters, and all the poor whose labour depended upon
the merchants, were at once dismissed, and put out
of business. -
3. All the tradesmen usually employed in build-
ing or repairing of houses were at a full stop, for
the people were far from wanting to build houses,
when so many thousand houses were at once stript
94 THE HISTORY OF
of their inhabitants; so that this one article turned
out all the ordinary workmen of that kind of busi-
mess, such as bricklayers, masons, carpenters, joiners,
plasterers, painters, glaziers, Smiths, plumbers, and
all the labourers depending on such.
4. As navigation was at a stop, our ships neither
coming in or going out as before, so the seamen
were all out of employment, and many of them in
the last and lowest degree of distress; and with the
seamen, were all the several tradesmen and work-
men belonging to and depending upon the building
and fitting out of ships; such as ship-carpenters,
calkers, rope-makers, dry coopers, sail-makers,
anchor-Smiths, and other Smiths; block-makers,
carvers, gun-smiths, ship-chandlers, ship-carvers,
and the like. The masters of those, perhaps, might
live upon their substance, but the traders were
universally at a stop, and consequently all their
workmen discharged. Add to these, that the river
was in a manner without boats, and all or most
part of the watermen, lightermen, boat-builders,
and lighter-builders, in like manner idle, and laid
by -
5. All families retrenched their living as much
as possible, as well those that fled as those that
stayed; so that an innumerable multitude of foot-
men, serving men, shopkeepers, journeymen, mer-
chants’ book-keepers, and such sort of people, and
especially poor maid-servants, were turned off, and
left friendless and helpless without employment and
without habitation; and this was really a dismal
article.
I might be more particular as to this part, but it
may suffice to mention in general, all trades being
stopt, employment ceased, the labour, and, by that,
the bread of the poor, were cut off; and at first,
indeed, the cries of the poor were most lamentable
THE IPLAGUE IN LONDON. 95
to hear; though, by the distribution of charity,
their misery that way was gently abated. Many,
indeed, fled into the country; but thousands of
them having stayed in London, till nothing but des-
peration sent them away, death overtook them on
the road, and they served for no better than the
messengers of death ; indeed, others carrying the
infection along with them, spread it very unhappily
into the remotest parts of the kingdom.
The women and servants that were turned off
from their places were employed as nurses to tend
the sick in all places; and this took off a very great
number of them.
And which, though a melancholy article in itself,
yet was a deliverance in its kind, namely, the
plague, which raged in a dreadful manner from the
middle of August to the middle of October, carried
off in that time thirty or forty thousand of these
very people, which, had they been left, would
certainly have been an insufferable burden, by
their poverty; that is to say, the whole city could
not have supported the expense of them, or have
provided food for them ; and they would, in time,
have been even driven to the necessity of plunder-
ing either the city itself, or the country adjacent, to
have subsisted themselves, which would, first or
last, have put the whole nation, as well as the city,
into the utmost terror and confusion.
It was observable then, that this calamity of the
people made them very humble ; for now, for
about nine weeks together, there died near a thou-
sand a day, one day with another; even by the
account of the weekly bills, which yet, I have rea-
son to be assured, never gave a full account by
many thousands; the confusion being such, and
the carts working in the dark when they carried
the dead, that in some places no account at all was
96 THE HISTORY OF
kept, but they worked on ; the clerks and sextons
not attending for weeks together, and not knowing
what number they carried. This account is verified
by the following bills of mortality.
Of all Diseases. Of the Plague.
(Aug. 8 to Aug. 15....... 5319......... 3880
to 22...... 5668......... 4237
– to 29...... 7496......... 6102
Aug. 29 to Sept. 5...... 8252......... 6988
From 4 to 12...... 7690......... 6544
*º-º-º-º-º- to 19......8297......... 71.65
to 30...... 6400......... 5533
Sept. 27 to Oct. 3......5728......... 4929
l to 10...... 5068......... 4227
59,870 49,705
So that the gross of the people were carried off
in these two months; for, as the whole number
which was brought in to die of the plague was but
68,590, here is fifty thousand of them, within a
trifle, in two months; I say fifty thousand, because,
as there wants 295 in the number above, so there
wants two days of two months in the account of
time. *
Now, when I say that the parish officers did not
give in a full account, or were not to be depended
upon for their account, let any one but consider
how men could be exact in such a time of dread-
ful distress, and when many of them were taken
sick themselves, and perhaps died in the very time
when their accounts were to be given in ; I mean
the parish-clerks, besides inferior officers; for
though these poor men ventured at all hazards,
yet they were far from being exempt from the com-
mon calamity; especially if it be true that the
THE PLAGUE IN LONDON. 97
parish of Stepney had, within the year, 116 sex-
tons, grave-diggers, and their assistants; that is to
say, bearers, bell-men, and drivers of carts, for
carrying off the dead bodies.
Indeed the work was not of such a nature as to
allow them leisure to take an exact tale of the
dead bodies, which were all huddled together, in
the dark, into a pit; which pit, or trench, no man
could come nigh but at the utmost peril. I have
observed often, that in the parishes of Aldgate,
Cripplegate, Whitechapel, and Stepney, there were
five, six, seven, and eight hundred in a week in the
bills; whereas, if we may believe the opinion of
those that lived in the city all the time, as well as
I, there died sometimes two thousand a week in
those parishes; and I saw it under the hand of one
that made as strict an examination as he could,
that there really died a hundred thousand people
of the plague in it that one year; whereas, in the
bills, the article of the plague was but 68,590.
If I may be allowed to give my opinion, by what
I saw with my eyes, and heard from other people
that were eyewitnesses, I do verily believe the same,
viz. that there died, at least, a hundred thousand of
the plague only, besides other distempers; and be-
sides those which died in the fields and highways,
and secret places, out of the compass of the com-
munication, as it was called, and who were not
put down in the bills, though they really belonged
to the body of the inhabitants. It was known to
us all, that abundance of poor despairing creatures,
who had the distemper upon them, and were grown
stupid or melancholy by their misery, as many
were, wandered away into the fields and woods,
and into secret uncouth places, almost anywhere,
to creep into a bush or hedge, and die. -
The inhabitants of the villages adjacent, would,
PLAGUE. H
98 * THE HISTORY OF
in pity, carry them food, and set it at a distance,
that they might fetch it if they were able, and
sometimes they were not able; and the next time
they went, they would find the poor wretches lie
dead, and the food untouched. The number of
these miserable objects were many; and I know
so many that perished thus, and so exactly where,
that I believe I could go to the very place and dig
their bones up still ; for the country people would
go and dig a hole at a distance from them, and
then, with long poles and hooks at the end of them,
drag the bodies into these pits, and then throw
the earth in form, as far as they could cast it, to
cover them ; taking notice how the wind blew, and
so come on that side which the seamen call to
windward, that the scent of the bodies might blow
from them. And thus great numbers went out of
the world who were never known, or any account
of them taken, as well within the bills of mortality
as without. & - -
This, indeed, I had, in the main, only from the
relation of others; for I seldom walked into the
fields, except towards Bethnal-green and Hackney;
or as hereafter. But when I did walk, I always
saw a great many poor wanderers at a distance, but
I could know little of their cases; for, whether it
were in the street or in the fields, if we had seen
anybody coming, it was a general method to walk
away; yet I believe the account is exactly true.
As this puts me upon mentioning my walking the
streets and fields, I cannot omit taking notice what
a desolate place the city was at that time. The
great street I lived in, which is known to be one of
the broadest of all the streets of London, I mean of
the suburbs as well as the liberties, all the side
where the butchers lived, especially without the
bars, was more like a green field than a paved
THE PLAGUE IN LONDON. 99
street, and the people generally went in the middle
with the horses and carts. It is true, that the far-
thest end, towards Whitechapel church, was not all
paved, but even the part that was paved was full of
grass also ; but this need not seem strange, since
the great streets within the city, such as Leaden-
hall-street, Bishopsgate-street, Cornhill, and even
the Exchange itself, had grass growing in them in
several places; neither cart nor coach was seen in
the streets from morning to evening, except some
country carts to bring roots and beans, or pease,
hay, and straw, to the market, and those but very
few compared to what was usual. As for coaches,
they were scarce used but to carry sick people to
the pesthouse and to other hospitals, and some few
to carry physicians to such places as they thought
fit to venture to visit ; for really coaches were dan-
gerous things, and people did not care to venture
into them, because they did not know who might
have been carried in them last ; and sick infected
people were, as I have said, ordinarily carried in
them to the pesthouses, and sometimes people ex-
pired in them as they went along. -
It is true, when the infection came to such a .
height as I have now mentioned, there were very
few physicians who cared to stir abroad to sick
houses, and very many of the most eminent of the
faculty were dead, as well as the surgeons also; for
now it was indeed a dismal time, and, for about a
month together, not taking any notice of the bills
of mortality, I believe there did not die less than
fifteen or seventeen hundred a day, one day with
another.
One of the worst days we had in the whole time,
as I thought, was in the beginning of Septem-
ber; when, indeed, good people were beginning to
think that God was resolved to make a full end of
H 2
100 THE HISTORY OF
the people in this miserable city. This was at that
time when the plague was fully come into the
eastern parishes. The parish of Aldgate, if I may
give my opinion, buried above one thousand a week
for two weeks, though the bills did not say so
many; but it surrounded me at so dismal a rate,
that there was not a house in twenty uninfected.
In the Minories, in Houndsditch, and in those parts
of Aldgate parish about the Butcher-row, and the
alleys over-against me, I say, in those places death
reigned in every corner. Whitechapel parish was
in the same condition, and though much less than
the parish I lived in, yet buried near six hundred
a week, by the bills, and in my opinion, near
twice as many; whole families, and, indeed, whole
streets of families, were swept away together; .
insomuch, that it was frequent for neighbours to
call to the bellman to go to such and such houses
and fetch out the people, for that they were all
dead. -
And indeed, the work of removing the dead
bodies by carts was now grown so very odious and
dangerous, that it was complained of that the
bearers did not take care to clear such houses
where all the inhabitants were dead, but that some
of the bodies lay unburied, till the neighbouring
families were offended by the stench, and conse-
quently, infected. And this neglect of the officers
was such, that the churchwardens and constables
were summoned to look after it; and even the jus-
tices of the hamlets were obliged to venture their
lives among them, to quicken and encourage them;
for innumerable of the bearers died of the distem-
per, infected by the bodies they were obliged to
come so near ; and had it not been that the num-
ber of people who wanted employment, and wanted
bread, as I have said before, was so great, that ne-
THE PLAGUE IN LONDON. 101.
cessity drove them to undertake anything, and
venture anything, they would never have found
people to be employed; and then the bodies of the
dead would have lain above ground and have pe-
rished and rotted in a dreadful manner. -
But the magistrates cannot be enough com-
mended in this, that they kept such good order for
the burying of the dead, that as fast as any of those
they employed to carry off and bury the dead, fell
sick or died, as was many times the case, they im-
mediately supplied the places with others, which,
by reason of the great number of poor that was left
out of business, as above, was not hard to do. This
occasioned that, notwithstanding the infinite num-
ber of people which died, and were sick, almost all
together, yet they were always cleared away, and
carried off every night; so that it was never to be
said of London, that the living were not able to
bury the dead.
As the desolation was greater during those ter-
rible times, so the amazement of the people in-
creased; and a thousand unaccountable things they
would do in the violence of their fright, as others
did the same in the agonies of their distemper; and
this part was very affecting. Some went roaring,
and crying, and wringing their hands along the
street; some would go praying and lifting up their
hands to heaven, calling upon God for mercy. I
cannot say, indeed, whether this was not in their
distraction ; but, be it so, it was still an indication
of a more serious mind, when they had the use of
their senses, and was much better, even as it was,
than the frightful yellings and cryings that every
day, and especially in the evenings, were heard in
some streets. I suppose the world has heard of the
famous Solomon Eagle, an enthusiast; he, though
not infected at all, but in his head, went about de-
102 THE HISTORY OF
nouncing of judgment upon the city in a frightful
manner; sometimes quite naked, and with a pan of
burning charcoal on his head. What he said or
pretended, indeed, I could not learn. .
I will not say whether that clergyman was dis-
tracted or not, or whether he did it out of pure
zeal for the poor people, who went every evening
through the streets of Whitechapel, and, with his
hands lifted up, repeated that part of the liturgy of
the church, continually, Spare us, good Lord, spare
thy people, whom thou hast redeemed with thy
most precious blood; I say, I cannot speak positively
of these things, because these were only the disma!
objects which represented themselves to me as I
looked through my chamber windows, for I seldom
opened the casements, while I confined myself
within doors during that most violent raging of the
pestilence, when, indeed, many began to think,
and even to say, that there would none escape; and
indeed, I began to think so too, and, therefore, kept
within doors for about a fortnight, and never stirred
out. But I could not hold it. Besides, there were
some people, who, notwithstanding the danger, did
not omit publicly to attend the worship of God,
even in the most dangerous times. And though it
is true that a great many of the clergy did shut up
their churches and fled, as other people did, for the
safety of their lives, yet all did not do so; some
ventured to officiate, and to keep up the assemblies
of the people by constant prayers, and sometimes
sermons or brief exhortations to repentance and
reformation ; and this as long as they would hear
them. And dissenters did the like also, and even
in the very churches where the parish ministers
were either dead or fled; nor was there any room
for making any difference at such a time as this
*Wä.S. . -
THE PLAGUE IN LONDON, 103
It pleased God that I was still spared, and very
hearty and sound in health, but very impatient of
being pent up within doors without air, as I had
been for fourteen days or thereabouts; and I could
not restrain myself, but I would go and carry a
letter for my brother to the post-house ; then it
was, indeed, that I observed a profound silence in
the streets. When I came to the post-house, as I
went to put in my letter, I saw a man stand in one
corner of the yard, and talking to another at a
window, and a third had opened a door belonging
to the office. In the middle of the yard lay a small
leather purse, with two keys hanging at it, with
money in it, but nobody would meddle with it. I
asked how long it had lain there; the man at the
window said it had lain almost an hour, but they
had not meddled with it, because they did not know
but the person who dropt it might come back to
look for it. I had no such need of money, nor was
the sum so big, that I had any inclination to meddle
with it, or to get the money at the hazard it might
be attended with ; so I seemed to go away, when
the man who had opened the door said he would
take it up; but so, that if the right owner came for
it he should be sure to have it. So he went in and
fetched a pail of water, and set it down hard by the
purse, then went again and fetched some gun-
powder, and cast a good deal of powder upon the
purse, and then made a train from that which he
had thrown loose upon the purse, the train reached
about two yards; after this he goes in a third time,
and fetches out a pair of tongs red-hot, and which
he had prepared, I suppose, on purpose; and first
setting fire to the train of powder, that singed the
purse, and also smoked the air sufficiently. But
he was not content with that, but he then takes up
the purse with the tongs, holding it so long till the
104 ‘. THE HISTORY OF
tongs burnt through the purse, and then he shook
the money out into the pail of water, so he carried
it in. The money, as I remember, was about thir-
teen shillings, and some smooth groats and brass
farthings. - -
Much about the same time, I walked out into the
fields towards Bow; for I had a great mind to see
how things were managed in the river, and among
the ships; and as I had some concern in shipping,
I had a notion that it had been one of the best ways
of securing one's self from the infection to have re-
tired into a ship; and musing how to satisfy my
curiosity in that point, I turned away over the fields,
from Bow to Bromley and down to Blackwall, to
the stairs that are there for landing or taking water.
Here I saw a poor man walking on the bank or
sea-wall, as they call it, by himself. I walked
awhile also about, seeing the houses all shut up; at
last I fell into some talk, at a distance with this
poor man. First I asked him how people did there-
abouts? Alas! sir, say he, almost desolate, all dead
or sick: here are very few families in this part, or
in that village, pointing at Poplar, where half of
them are not dead already, and the rest sick. Then
he pointing to one house, There they are all dead,
said he, and the house stands open, nobody dares
go into it. A poor thief, says he, ventured in to
steal something, but he paid dear for his theft, for
he was carried to the churchyard too, last night.
Then he pointed to several other houses. There,
says he, they are all dead, the man and his wife and
five children. There, says he, they are shut up,
you see a watchman at the door; and so of other
houses. Why, says I, what do you here all alone?
Why, says he, I am a poor desolate man; it hath
pleased God I am not yet visited, though my family
is, and one of my children dead. How do you mean
THE PLAGUE IN LONDON. 105
then, said I, that you are not visited? Why, says
he, that is my house, pointing to a very little low
boarded house, and there my poor wife and two
children live, said he, if they may be said to live;
for my wife and one of the children are visited, but
I do not come at them. And with that word I saw
the tears run very plentifully down his face; and so
they did down mine too, I assure you.
But, said I, why do you not come at them P How
can you abandon your own flesh and blood? Oh,
sir, says he, the Lord forbid; I do not abandon
them, I work for them as much as I am able; and,
blessed be the Lord, I keep them from want. And
with that I observed he lifted up his eyes to heaven
with a countenance that presently told me I had
happened on a man that was no hypocrite, but a
serious, religious, good man; and his ejaculation
was an expression of thankfulness, that, in such a
condition as he was in, he should be able to say his
family did not want. Well, says I, honest man,
that is a great mercy, as things go now with the
poor. But how do you live then, and how are you
kept from the dreadful calamity that is now upon
us all? Why, sir, says he, I am a waterman, and
there is my boat, says he, and the boat serves me
for a house; I work in it in the day, and I sleep in
it in the night, and what I get I lay it down upon
that stone, says he, showing me a broad stone on
the other side of the street, a good way from his
house; and then, says he, I halloo and call to them
till I make them hear, and they come and fetch it.
Well, friend, says I, but how can you get money
as, a waterman 2 Does anybody go by water these
times? Yes, sir, says he, in the way I am employed
there does. Do you see there, says he, five ships
lie at anchor, pointing down the river a good way
below the town; and do you see, says he, eight or
106 THE HISTORY OF
ten ships lie at the chain there, and at anchor
yonder, pointing above the town. All those ships
have families on board, of their merchants and
owners, and such-like, who have locked themselves
up, and live on board, close shut in, for fear of the
infection; and I tend on them to fetch things for
them, carry letters, and do what is absolutely neces-
sary, that they may not be obliged to come on shore;
and every night I fasten my boat on board one of
the ship's boats, and there I sleep by myself, and,
blessed be God, I am preserved hitherto.
Well, said I, friend, but will they let you come
on board after you have been on shore here, when
this has been such a terrible place, and so infected
as it is 2
Why, as to that, said he, I very seldom go up the
ship side, but deliver what I bring to their boat, or
lie by the side and they hoist it on board: if I did,
I think they are in no danger from me, for I never
go into any house on shore, or touch anybody, no,
not of my own family; but I fetch provisions for
them. -
Nay, says I, but that may be worse, for you must
have those provisions of somebody or other; and
since all this part of the town is so infected, it is
dangerous so much as to speak with anybody; for
the village, said I, is as it were the beginning of
London, though it be at some distance from it.
That is true, added he, but you do not under-
stand me right. I do not buy provisions for them
here, I row up to Greenwich, and buy fresh meat
there, and sometimes I row down the river to
Woolwich and buy there; then I go to single farm
houses on the Kentish side, where I am known, and
buy fowls, and eggs, and butter, and bring to the
ships, as they direct me, sometimes one sometimes
the other. I seldom come on shore here; and I
THE PLAGUE IN LONDON. 107
came only now to call my wife and hear how my
little family do, and give them a little money which
I received last night. -
Poor man I said I; and how much hast thou gotten
for them P
I have gotten four shillings, said he, which is a
great sum, as things go now with poor men; but
they have given me a bag of bread too, and a salt
fish, and some flesh; so all helps out.
Well, said I, and have you given it them yet?
No, said he, but I have called, and my wife has
answered that she cannot come out yet, but in half
an hour she hopes to come, and I am waiting for
her. Poor woman I says he, she is brought sadly
down; she has had a swelling, and it is broke, and
I hope she will recover, but I fear the child will
die; but it is the Lord!—Here he stopt, and wept
very much.
Well, honest friend, said I, thou hast a sure com-
forter, if thou hast brought thyself to be resigned to
the will of God; he is dealing with us all in
udgment. -
Oh, sir, says he, it is infinite mercy if any of us
are spared; and who am I to repine !
Say'st thou so, said I; and how much less is my
faith than thine? And here my heart smote me,
suggesting how much better this poor man's founda-
tion was, on which he stayed in the danger, than
mine; that he had nowhere to fly; that he had a
family to bind him to attendance, which I had not;
and mine was mere presumption, his a true depen-
dence, and a courage resting on God; and yet, that
he used all possible caution for his safety. -
I turned a little way from the man, while these
thoughts engaged me ; for, indeed, I could no more
refrain from tears than he. -
108 THE HISTORY OF
At length, after some further talk, the poor
woman opened the door, and called, Robert, Robert;
he answered, and bid her stay a few moments, and
he would come; so he ran down the common stairs
to his boat, and fetched up a sack in which was the
provisions he had brought from the ships; and
when he returned, he hallooed again; then he went
to the great stone which he showed me, and emptied
the sack, and laid all out, everything by themselves,
and then retired ; and his wife came with a little
boy to fetch them away; and he called, and said,
such a captain had sent such a thing, and such a
captain such a thing, and at the end adds, God
has sent it all, give thanks to him. When the poor
woman had taken up all, she was so weak she could
not carry it at once in, though the weight was not
much neither; so she left the biscuit which was in
a little bag, and left a little boy to watch it till she
came again. -
Well, but, says I to him, did you leave her the
four shillings too, which you said was your week's
ay? :
p Yes, yes, says he, you shall hear her own it. So
he calls again, Rachel, Rachel, which, it seems was
her name, did you take up the money P Yes, said
she How much was it? said he. Four shillings
and a groat, said she. Well, well, says he, the Lord
keep you all; and so he turned to go away. .
As I could not refrain contributing tears to this
man's story, so neither could I refrain my charity
for his assistance; so I called him, Hark thee,
friend, said I, come hither, for I believe thou art in
health, that I may venture thee; so I pulled out
my hand, which was in my pocket before, Here,
says I, go and call thy Rachel once more, and give
her a little more comfort from me. God will never
THE PLAGUE IN LONDON. 109
forsake a family that trust in him as thou dost; so
I gave him four other shillings, and bid him go lay
them on the stone, and call his wife.
I have not words to express the poor man's
thankfulness, neither could he express it himself,
but by tears running down his face. He called his
wife, and told her God had moved the heart of a
stranger, upon hearing their condition, to give them
all that money, and a great deal more such as that
he said to her. The woman too made signs of the
like thankfulness, as well to heaven as to me, and
joyfully picked it up; and I parted with no money
all that year that I thought better bestowed.
I then asked the poor man if the distemper had
not reached to Greenwich. He said it had not till
about a fortnight before, but that then he feared it
had ; but that it was only at that end of the town
which lay south towards Deptford bridge; that he
went only to a butcher's shop and a grocer's, where
he generally bought such things as they sent him
for, but was very careful.
I asked him then, how it came to pass, that those
people who had so shut themselves up in the ships
had not laid in sufficient stores of all things neces-
sary? He said some of them had, but, on the other
hand, some did not come on board till they were
frightened into it, and till it was too dangerous for
them to go to the proper people to lay in quantities
of things, and that he waited on two ships which he
showed me, that had laid in little or nothing but
biscuit-bread and ship-beer, and that he had bought
everything else almost for them. I asked him, if
there was any more ships that had separated them-
selves as those had done? He told me, Yes, all the
way up from the point, right against Greenwich, to
within the shore of Limehouse and Redriff, all the
ships that could have room to ride two and two in
1 10 - THE HISTORY OF
the middle of the stream; and that some of them
had several families on board. I asked him if the
distemper had not reached them? He said, he be-
lieved it had not, except two or three ships, whose
people had not been so watchful to keep the seamen
from going on shore as others had been ; and he
said it was a very fine sight to see how the ships la
up the pool.
When he said he was going over to Greenwich,
as soon as the tide began to come in, I asked if he
would let me go with him and bring me back; for
that I had a great mind to see how the ships were
ranged, as he had told me. He told me, if I would
assure him on the word of a Christian, and of an
honest man, that I had not the distemper, he would.
I assured him that I had not; that it had pleased
God to preserve me; that I lived in Whitechapel,
but was too impatient of being so long within doors,
and that I had ventured out so far for the refreshment
of a little air, but that none in my house had so
much as been touched with it.
Well, sir, says he, as your charity has been
moved to pity me and my poor family, sure you
cannot have so little pity left as to put yourself into
my boat if you were not sound in health, which
would be nothing less than killing me and ruining
my whole family. The poor man troubled me so
much, when he spoke of his family with such a sens-
ible concern, and in such an affectionate manner,
that I could not satisfy myself at first to go at all.
I told him, I would lay aside my curiosity rather
than make him uneasy ; though I was sure, and
very thankful for it, that I had no more distemper
upon me than the freshest man in the world. Well,
he would not have me put it off neither, but, to let
me see how confident he was, that I was just to him,
now importuned me to go; so, when the tide came
THE PLAGUE IN LONDON. 111
up to his boat, I went in, and he carried me to
Greenwich. While he bought the things which
he had in charge to buy, I walked up to the top of
the hill, under which the town stands, and on the
east side of the town, to get a prospect of the river;
but it was a surprising sight to see the number of
ships which lay in rows, two and two, and in some
places, two or three such lines in the breadth of the
river, and this not only up quite to the town, be-
tween the houses which we call Ratcliff and Redriff,
which they name the pool, but even down the whole
river, as far as the head of Long-Reach, which is as
far as the hills give us leave to see it. .
I cannot guess at the number of ships, but I think
there must have been several hundred sail, and I
could not but applaud the contrivance; for ten
thousand people and more, who attended ship affairs,
were certainly sheltered here from the violence of
the contagion, and lived very safe and very easy.
I returned to my own dwelling, very well satisfied
with my day's journey, and particularly with the
poor man; also, I rejoiced to see, that such little
sanctuaries were provided for so many families, in
a time of such desolation. I observed also, that, as
the violence of the plague had increased, so the
ships which had families on board removed and went
further off, till, as I was told, some went quite away
to sea, and put into such harbours and safe roads on
the north coast as they could best come at. -
But it was also true, that all the people who thus
left the land, and thus lived on board the ships, were
not entirely safe from the infection; for many died
and were thrown overboard into the river, some in
coffins, and some, as I heard, without coffins, whose
bodies were seen sometimes to drive up and down,
with the tide in the river.
But I believe, I may venture to say, that, in those
112 - THE HISTORY OF
ships which were thus infected, it either happened
where the people had recourse to them too late, and
did not fly to the ship till they had stayed too long
on shore, and had the distemper upon them, though
perhaps, they might not perceive it; and so the
distemper did not come to them on board the
ships, but they really carried it with them. Or, it
was in these ships, where the poor waterman said
they had not had time to furnish themselves with
provisions, but were obliged to send often on shore
to buy what they had occasion for, or suffered boats
to come to them from the shore; and so the dis-
temper was brought insensibly among them.
As the richer sort got into ships, so the lower
rank got into hoys, Smacks, lighters, and fishing-
boats; and many, especially watermen, lay in their
boats; but those made sad work of it, especially the
latter, for going about for provision, and perhaps
to get their subsistence, the infection got in among
them, and made a fearful havoc; many of the water-
men died alone in their wherries, as they lay at their
roads, as well above bridge as below, and were not
found sometimes till they were not in condition
for any one to come near them. -
Indeed, the distress of the people at this seafaring
end of the town was very deplorable, and deserved
the greatest commiseration; but, alas! this was a
time when every one's private safety lay so near
them, that they had no room to pity the distresses
of others; for every one had death, as it were, at
his door, and many even in their families; and knew
not what to do, or whither to fly. -
This, I say, took away all compassion; self-pre-
servation, indeed, appeared here to be the first law.
For the children ran away from their parents, as
they languished in the utmost distress; and, in some
cases, though not so frequent as the other, parents
THE PLAGUE IN LONDON. 113
did the like to their children; nay, some dreadful
examples there were, and particularly two in one
week, of distressed mothers, raving and distracted,
killing their own children; one whereof was not far
off from where I dwelt, the poor lunatic creature
not living herself long enough to be sensible of the
sin of what she had done, much less to be punished
for it. -
It is not, indeed, to be wondered at ; for the
danger of immediate death to ourselves, took away
all bowels of love, all concern for one another. I
speak in general; for there were many instances of
immoveable affection, pity, and duty, in many, and
some that came to my knowledge, that is to say, by
hearsay; for I shall not take upon me to vouch the
truth of the particulars.
To introduce one, let me first mention, that one
of the most deplorable cases, in all the present ca-
lamity, was that of women with child; who, when
they came to the hour of their sorrows, and their
pains came upon them, could neither have help of
one kind or another; neither midwife or neighbour-
ing women to come near them ; most of the mid-
wives were dead, especially of such as served the
poor; and many, if not all the midwives of note,
were fled into the country; so that it was next to
impossible for a poor woman, that could not pay an
immoderate price, to get any midwife to come to
her; and, if they did, those they could get were
generally unskilful and ignorant creatures; and the
consequence of this was, that a most unusual and
incredible number of women were reduced to the
utmost distress. Some were delivered and spoiled
by the rashness and ignorance of those who pre-
tended to lay them. Children without number, were,
I might say, murdered by the same, but a more
justifiable ignorance, pretending they would save
PLAGUE. I
114 THE HISTORY OF
the mother whatever became of the child; and many
times, both mother and child were lost in the same
manner; and, especially, where the mothers had the
distemper, then nobody would come near them, and
both sometimes perished. Sometimes the mother
has died of the plague; and the infant, it may be,
half born, or born, but not parted from the mother.
Some died in the very pains of their travail, and not
delivered at all; and so many were the cases of this
kind, that it is hard to judge of them.
Something of it will appearin the unusual numbers
which are put into the weekly bills, (though I am
far from allowing them to be able to give anything
of a full account,) under the articles of childbed,
abortive and stillborn, chrisoms and infants.
Take the weeks in which the plague was most
violent, and compare them with the weeks before
the distemper began, even in the same year. For
example:
Childbed. Ab. Still-b.
ſ Jan. 3 to Jan. 10...... 7...... 1...... 13
to 7......8... ...6......11
to 24...... 9...... 5...... 15
to 31...... 3...... 2...... 9
Erom 2 Jan. 31 to Feb. 7...... 3...... 3...... 8
to 14...... 6...... 2...... II
to 21...... 5...... 2...... J 3
to 28...... 2...... 2...... 10
Feb. 7 to Mar. 7...... 5...... 1...... IO
As
8
2
4
l
O
O
THE PLAGUE IN LONDON. 115
Childbed. Ab. Still-b.
T Aug. 1 to Aug. 8...... 25...... 5...... 11
to 15...... 23...... 6...... 8
to 22...... 28...... 4...... 4
to 29...... 40...... 6...... 10
From. 3 Sept. 1 to Sept. 5...... 38...... 2...... 11
to 12...... 39...... 23...... **º
to 19...... 42...... 5...... 17
to 26...... 42...... 6...... 10
L Oct. 1 to Oct. 3...... 14...... 4...... 9
To the disparity of these numbers, is to be con-
sidered and allowed for, that, according to our
usual opinion, who were then upon the spot, there
were not one-third of the people in the town during
the months of August and September, as were in
the months of January and February. In a word,
the usual number that used to die of these three
articles, and, as I hear, did die of them the year
before, was thus:
1664 Childbed, 189
Abortive and Stillborn, 458
647
Childbed, 625
*i Abortive and Stillborn, 617
}242
This inequality, I say, is exceedingly augmented,
when the numbers of people are considered. I
pretend not to make any exact calculation of the
numbers of people which were at this time in the
I 2
116. THE HISTORY OF
city; but I shall make a probable conjecture at
that part by and by. What I have said now is to
explain the misery of those poor creatures above ;
so that it might well be said, as in the Scripture,
“Woe be to those who are with child, and to those
which give suck in that day;” for, indeed, it was a
woe to them in particular.
I was not conversant in many particular families
where these things happened; but the outcries of
the miserable were heard afar off. As to those who
were with child, we have seen some calculation
made, 291 women dead in childbed in nine weeks;
out of one-third part of the number of whom there
usually died in that time but eighty-four of the
same disaster. Let the reader calculate the pro-
portion.
There is no room to doubt but the misery of
those that gave suck was, in proportion, as great.
Our bills of mortality could give but little light in
this; yet some it did; there were several more than
usual starved at nurse; but this was nothing. The
misery was, where they were (1.) starved for want
of a nurse, the mother dying, and all the family and
the infants found dead by them, merely for want;
and, if I may speak my opinion, I do believe, that
many poor helpless infants perished in this manner.
(2.) Not starved, but poisoned, by the nurse; nay,
even where the mother has been nurse, and, having
received the infection, has poisoned, that is, infected
the infant with her milk, even before they knew
they were infected themselves; nay, and the infant
has died in such a case before the mother. I can-
not but remember to leave this admonition upon
record, if ever such another dreadful visitation
should happen in this city; that all women that
are with child, or that give suck, should be gone,
if they have any possible means, out of the place ;
THE PLAGUE IN LONDON. j.17
because their misery, if infected, will so much ex-
ceed all other people's.
I could tell here dismal stories of living infants
being found sucking the breasts of their mothers,
or nurses, after they have been dead of the plague.
Of a mother, in the parish where I lived, who,
having a child that was not well, sent for an apo-
thecary to view the child, and when he came, as
the relation goes, was giving the child suck at her
breast, and to all appearance, was herself very well;
but when the apothecary came close to her, he saw
the tokens upon that breast with which she was
suckling the child. He was surprised enough to
be sure, but not willing to fright the poor woman
too much, he desired she would give the child into
his hand; so he takes the child, and, going to a
cradle in the room, lays it in, and, opening its
clothes, found the tokens upon the child too, and
both died before he could get home to send a pre-
ventative medicine to the father of the child, to
whom he had told their condition. Whether the
child infected the nurse-mother, or the mother the
child, was not certain, but the last most likely.
Likewise of a child brought home to the parents
from a nurse that had died of the plague; yet the
tender mother would not refuse to take in her
child, and laid it in her bosom, by which she was
infected, and died, with the child in her arms dead
also. -
It would make the hardest heart move at the in-
stances that were frequently to be found of tender
mothers, tending and watching with their dear
children, and even dying before them ; and some-
times taking the distemper from them, and dying,
when the child, for whom the affectionate heart
had been sacrificed, has got over it and escaped.
The like of a tradesman in East Smithfield,
118 THE HISTORY OF
whose wife was big with child of her first child,
and fell into labour, having the plague upon her.
He could neither get midwife to assist her, nor
nurse to tend her; and two servants which he
kept, fled both from her. He ran from house to
house like one distracted, but could get no help ;
the utmost he could get was, that a watchman,
who attended at an infected house shut up, pro-
mised to send a nurse in the morning. The poor
man, with his heart broke, went back, assisted his
wife what he could, acted the part of midwife,
brought the child dead into the world; and his
wife, in about an hour, died in his arms, where he
held the dead body fast till the morning, when the
watchman came and brought a nurse, as he had
promised ; and coming up the stairs, for he had
left the door open, or only latched, they found the
man sitting with his dead wife in his arms, and so
overwhelmed with grief, that he died in a few
hours after, without any sign of infection upon
him, but merely sunk under the weight of his
grief. º
I have heard also of some, who, on the death of
their relations, have grown stupid with the insup-
portable sorrow ; and of one in particular, who
was so absolutely overcome with the pressure upon
his spirits, that, by degrees, his head sunk into his
body so, between his shoulders, that the crown
of his head was very little seen above the bone
of his shoulders; and, by degrees, losing both
voice and sense, his face looking forward, lay
against his collar-bone, and could not be kept up.
unless held up by the hands of other people; and
the poor man never came to himself again, but
languished near a year in that condition, and died.
Nor was he ever seen once to lift up his eyes, or to
look upon any particular object. -
THE PLAGUE IN LONDON. 119
As I am now talking of the time when the plague
raged at the easternmost part of the town ; how
for a long time the people of those parts had
flattered themselves that they should escape, and
how they were surprised when it came upon them
as it did ; for, indeed, it came upon them like an
armed man when it did come ; I say, this brings
me back to the three poor men who wandered from
Wapping, not knowing whither to go, or what to
do, and who I mentioned before; one a biscuit-
baker, one a sail-maker, and the other a joiner; all
of Wapping, or thereabouts; two of them were
said to be brothers. Says John, the biscuit-baker,
one day to Thomas, his brother, the sail-maker,
Brother Tom, what will become of us? the plague
grows hot in the city, and increases this way:
what shall we do P
Truly, says Thomas, I am at a great loss what
to do, for, I find, if it comes down into Wapping,
I shall be turned out of my lodging. And thus
they began to talk of it beforehand. -
John. Turned out of your lodging, Tom 1 if you
are, I don’t know who will take you in ; for people
are so afraid of one another now, there is no getting
a lodging anywhere. .
Tho. Why, the people where I lodge are good
civil people, and have a kindness for me too ; but
they say I go abroad every day to my work, and it
will be dangerous; and they talk of locking them-
selves up, and letting nobody come near them.
John. Why, they are in the right, to be sure, if
they resolve to venture staying in town. -
Tho. Nay, I might even resolve to stay within
doors too for, except a suit of sails that my master
has in hand, and which I am just finishing, I am
like to get no more work a great while ; there is no
work stirs now, workmen and servants are turned
120 , THE HISTORY OF
off everywhere, so that I might be glad to be locked
up too. But I do not see they will be willing to
consent to that any more than to the other. .
John. Why, what will you do then, brother ?
and what shall I do P for I am almost as bad as
you. The people where I lodge are all gone into
the country, but a maid, and she is to go the next
week, and to shut the house quite up, so that I
shall be turned adrift to the wide world before you;
and I am resolved to go away too, if I knew but
where to go.
Tho. We were both distracted we did not go
away at the first, then we might have travelled
anywhere ; there is no stirring now ; we shall be
starved if we pretend to go out of town, they will
not let us have victuals, no, not for our money, nor
let us come into the towns, much less into their
houses. -
John. And that which is almost as bad, I have
but little money to help myself with neither.
Tho. As to that, we might make shift ; I have a
little, though not much ; but I tell you there is no
stirring on the road. I know a couple of poor
honest men in our street have attempted to travel;
and at Barnet, or Whetstone, or thereabout, the
people offered to fire at them, if they pretended to
go forward ; so they are come back again quite
discouraged. .
John. I would have ventured their fire, if I had
been there. If I had been denied food for my
money, they should have seen me take it before
their faces; and if I had tendered money for it,
they could not have taken any course with me by
the law. -
Tho. You talk your old soldier's language, as if
you were in the Low Countries now ; but this is a
serious thing. The people have good reason to
THE PLA GTUE IN LONDON. 121
keep anybody off that they are not satisfied are
sound, at such a time as this, and we must not
plunder them. - -
John. No, brother, you mistake the case, and
mistake me too, I would plunder nobody; but for
any town upon the road to deny me leave to pass
through the town, in the open highway, and deny
me provisions for my money, is to say the town
has a right to starve me to death, which cannot be
true. - -
Tho. But they do not deny you liberty to go
back again from whence you came, and therefore
they do not starve you. .
John. But the next town will, by the same rule,
deny me leave to go back, and so they do starve
me between them ; besides, there is no law to pro-
hibit my travelling wherever I will on the road.
Tho. But there will be so much difficulty in dis-
puting with them on the road, that it is not for poor
men to do it, or undertake it, at such a time as this
is especially."
John. Why, brother, our condition, at this rate,
is worse than anybody's else; for we can neither go
away nor stay here. I am of the same mind with
the lepers of Samaria, If we stay here, we are sure
to die. I mean, especially as you and I are stated,
without a dwelling-house of our own, and without
lodging in anybody's else; there is no lying in the
street at such a time as this, we had as good go
into the dead-cart at once. Therefore, I say, if we
stay here we are sure to die, and if we go away we
can but die; I am resolved to be gone.
Tho. You will go away. Whither will you go?
and what can you do? I would as willingly go away
as you, if I knew whither; but we have no ac-
quaintance, no friends. Here we were born, and
here we must die. r -
122 THE HISTORY OF
John. Look you, Tom, the whole kingdom is my
native country as well as this town. You may as
well say, I must not go out of my own house if it is
on fire, as that I am not to go out of the town I was
born in, when it is infected with the plague. I was
born in England, and have a right to live in it if I
C&Il. -
Tho. But you know every vagrant person may,
by the laws of England, be taken up, and passed
back to their last legal settlement.
John. But how shall they make me vagrant; I
desire only to travel on, upon my lawful occasions.
Tho. What lawful occasions can we pretend to
travel, or rather wander, upon? They will not be
put off with words.
John. Is not flying to save our lives a lawful oc-
casion ? and do they not all know that the fact is
true? we cannot be said to dissemble.
Tho. But, suppose they let us pass, whither shall
we go?
John. Any way to save our lives; it is time
enough to consider that when we are gone out of
this town. If I am once out of this dreadful place,
I care not where I go.
Tho. We shall be driven to great extremities. I
know not what to think of it.
John. Well, Tom, consider of it a little.
This was about the beginning of July; and
though the plague was come forward in the west
and north parts of the town, yet all Wapping, as I
have observed before, and Redriff, and Ratcliff, and
Limehouse, and Poplar, in short, Deptford and
Greenwich, all on both sides of the river from the
Hermitage, and from over-against it, quite down to
Blackwall, was entirely free; there had not one
person died of the plague in all Stepney parish, and
THE PLAGUE IN LONDON. 123
not one on the south side of Whitechapel-road, no,
not in any parish; and yet the weekly bill was that
very week risen up to 1006. -
It was a fortnight after this before the two bro-
thers met again, and then the case was a little
altered, and the plague was exceedingly advanced,
and the number greatly increased. The bill was
up at 2785, and prodigiously increasing ; though
still both sides of the river, as below, kept pretty
well. But some began to die in Redriff, and about
five or six in Redriff-highway, when the sail-maker
came to his brother John, express, and in some
fright; for he was absolutely warned out of his
lodging, and had only a week to provide himself.
His brother John was in as bad a case, for he was
quite out; and had only begged leave of his master,
the biscuit-baker, to lodge in an outhouse belong-
ing to his workhouse, where he only lay upon straw,
with some biscuit-sacks, or bread-sacks, as they
called them, laid upon it, and some of the same
sacks to cover him. r
Here they resolved, seeing all employment being
at an end, and no work or wages to be had, they
would make the best of their way to get out of the
reach of the dreadful infection ; and being as good
husbands as they could, would endeavour to live
upon what they had as long as it would last, and
then work for more, if they could get work any-
where of any kind, let it be what it would. … '
While they were considering to put this resolu-
tion in practice in the best manner they could, the
third man, who was acquainted very well with the
Sail-maker, came to know of the design, and got
leave to be one of the number ; and thus they pre-
pared to set out. -
It happened that they had not an equal share of
124 THE HISTORY OF
money; but as the sail-maker, who had the best
stock, was, besides his being lame, the most unfit
to expect anything by working in the country, so
he was content that what money they had should
all go into one public stock, on condition that what-
ever any one of them could gain more than another,
it should, without any grudging, be all added to the
public stock. ,
They resolved to load themselves with as little
baggage as possible, because they resolved at first
to travel on foot, and to go a great way, that they
might, if possible, be effectually safe. And a great
many consultations they had with themselves be-
fore they could agree about what way they should
travel; which they were so far from adjusting, that
even to the morning they set out, they were not
resolved on it.
. At last, the seaman put in a hint that determined
it. First, says he, the weather is very hot, and,
therefore, I am for travelling north, that we may
not have the sun in our faces and beating on our
breasts, which will heat and suffocate us; and I
have been told, says he, that it is not good to over-
heat our blood at a time when, for aught we know,
the infection may be in the very air. In the next
place, says he, I am for going the way that may be
contrary to the wind as it may blow when we set
out, that we may not have the wind blow the air of
the city on our backs as we go. These two cautions
were approved of, if it could be brought so to hit
that the wind might not be in the south when they
set out to go north. -
John, the baker, who had been a soldier, then
put in his opinion. First, says he, we none of us
expect to get any lodging on the road, and it will
be a little too hard to lie just in the open air ;
THE PLAGUE IN LONDON. 125
though it be warm weather, yet it may be wet and
damp, and we have a double reason to take care of
our healths at such a time as this ; and, therefore,
says he, you, brother Tom, that are a sail-maker,
might easily make us a little tent, and I will under-
take to set it up every night, and take it down in
the morning, and a fig for all the inns in England;
if we have a good tent over our heads, we shall do
well enough.
The joiner opposed this, and told them, let them
leave that to him; he would undertake to build
them a house every night with his hatchet and
mallet, though he had no other tools, which should
be fully to their satisfaction, and as good as a tent.
The soldier and the joiner disputed that point
some time, but, at last, the soldier carried it for a
tent; the only objection against it was, that it must
be carried with them, and that would increase their
baggage too much, the weather being hot. But the
sail-maker had a piece of good hap fell in, which
made that easy ; for his master who he worked for,
having a rope-walk as well as sail-making trade,
had a little poor horse that he made no use of then,
and being willing to assist the three honest men,
he gave them the horse for the carrying their bag-
gage; also, for a small matter of three days’ work
that his man did for him before he went, he let him
have an old top-gallant sail that was worn out, but
was sufficient, and more than enough, to make a
very good tent. The soldier showed how to shape
it, and they soon, by his direction, made their tent,
and fitted it with poles or staves for the purpose,
and thus they were furnished for their journey;
viz. three men, one tent, one horse, one gun for
the soldier, who would not go without arms, for
now he said he was no more a biscuit-baker but a
trooper. The joiner had a small bag of tools, such
T26 - THE HISTORY OF
as might be useful, if he should get any work
abroad, as well for their subsistence as his own.
What money they had, they brought all into one
public stock; and thus they began their journey.
It seems that in the morning when they set out, the
wind blew, as the sailor said, by his pocket-compass,
at N. W. by W.; so they directed, or rather re-
solved to direct, their course N. W.
But then a difficulty came in their way, that as
they set out from the hither end of Wapping, near
the Hermitage, and that the plague was now very
violent, especially on the north side of the city, as
in Shoreditch and Cripplegate parish, they did not
think it safe for them to go near those parts; so
they went away east through Ratcliff-highway, and
leaving Stepney church still on their left hand,
being afraid to come up from Ratcliff-cross to Mile-
end, because they must come just by the church-
yard; and because the wind, that seemed to blow
more from the west, blowed directly from the side
of the city where the plague was hottest. So, I
say, leaving Stepney, they fetched a long compass,
and going to Poplar and Bromley, came into the
great road just at Bow. &
Here the watch on Bow-bridge would have ques-
tioned them; but they, crossing the road into a
narrow way that turns out of the hither end of the
town of Bow to Oldford, avoided any inquiry there,
and travelled to Oldford. The constables, every-
where on their guard, not so much it seems to stop
people passing by, as to stop them from taking up
their abode in their towns; and, withal, because of
a report that was newly raised at that time, and
that indeed was not very improbable, viz., that the
poor people in London, being in distress, and starved
for want of work, and, by that means, for want of
bread, were up in arms, and had raised a tumult,
THE PLAGUE IN LONDON. 127
and that they would come out to all the towns round
to plunder for bread.
Here they were only examined, and as they
seemed rather coming from the country than from
the city, they found the people the easier with
them; that they talked to them, let them come into
a public house, where the constable and his warders
were, and gave them drink and some victuals,
which greatly refreshed and encouraged them; and
here it came into their heads to say, when they
should be inquired of afterwards, not that they
came from London, but that they came out of
Essex.
To forward this little fraud, they obtained so much
favour of the constable at Oldford, as to give them
a certificate of their passing from Essex through
that village, and that they had not been at London;
which, though false in the common acceptation of
London in the country, yet was literally true; Wap-
ping or Ratcliff being no part either of the city or
liberty. .
This certificate, directed to the next constable,
that was at Homerton, one of the hamlets of the
parish of Hackney, was so serviceable to them, that
it procured them not a free passage there only, but
a full certificate of health from a justice of the
peace; who, upon the constable's application, granted
it without much difficulty. And thus they passed
through the town of Hackney, (for it lay then in se-
veral separated hamlets,) and travelled on till they
came into the great north road on the top of Stam-
ford hill. . -
By this time they began to weary; and so, in the
back road from Hackney, a little before it opened
into the said great road, they resolved to set up their
tent and encamp for the night; which they did ac-
cordingly, with this addition, that finding a barn, or
128 - THE HISTORY OF
a building like a barn, and first searching as well as
they could to be sure there was nobody in it, they
set up their tent with the head of it against the
barn; this they did also because the wind blew
that night very high, and they were but young at
such a way of lodging, as well as at the managing
their tent.
Here they went to sleep; but the joiner, a grave
and sober man, and not pleased with their lying at
this loose rate the first night, could not sleep, and
resolved, after trying it to no purpose, that he
would get out, and taking the gun in his hand,
stand sentinel, and guard his companions. So,
with the gun in his hand, he walked to and again
before the barn, for that stood in the field near the
road, but within the hedge. He had not been long
upon the scout but he heard a noise of people
coming on as if it had been a great number, and
they came on, as he thought, directly towards the
barn. He did not presently awake his companions,
but in a few minutes more their noise growing
louder and louder, the biscuit-baker called to him
and asked him what was the matter, and quickly
started out too. The other being the lame sail-
maker, and the most weary, lay still in the tent.
As they expected, so the people whom they had
heard, came on directly to the barn; when one of
our travellers challenged, like soldiers upon the
guard, with, Who comes there 2 The people did not
answer immediately, but one of them speaking to
another that was behind him, Alas! alas ! we are
all disappointed, says he, here are some people
before us; the barn is taken up. -
They all stopped upon that, as under some sur-
prise; and, it seems, there were thirteen of them
in all, and some women among them. They con-
sulted together what they should do; and by their
THE PLAGUE IN LONDON. 129
discourse, our travellers soon found they were poor
distressed people too, like themselves, seeking shel-
ter and safety; and besides, our travellers had no
need to be afraid of their coming up to disturb
them, for as soon as they heard the words, Who
comes there? they could hear the women say, as if
frighted, Do not go near them; how do you know
but they may have the plague P And when one of
the men said, Let us but speak to them, the women
said, No, do not by any means; we have escaped
thus far, by the goodness of God; do not let us run
into danger now, we beseech you. • ,
Our travellers found by this, that they were a
good sort of sober people, and flying for their lives
as they were ; and as they were encouraged by it,
so John said to the joiner, his comrade, Let us en-
courage them too as much as we can. So he called
to them, Hark ye, good people, says the joiner, we
find by your talk that you are flying from the same
dreadful enemy as we are ; do not be afraid of us,
we are only three poor men of us; if you are free
from the distemper you shall not be hurt by us;
we are not in the barn, but in a little tent here in
the outside, and we will remove for you ; we can
set up our tent immediately anywhere else. And
upon this a parley began between the joiner, whose
name was Richard, and one of their men, whose
name was Ford. . -
Ford. And do you assure us that you are all
sound men P .
Rich. Nay, we are concerned to tell you of it,
that you may not be uneasy, or think yourselves in
danger; but you see we do not desire you should
put yourselves into any danger, and, therefore, I
tell you, that we have not made use of the barn, so
we will remove from it that you may be safe and we
also. . . . . . . . . . . . :... . . . . .
PLAGUE. K
130 ta THE HISTORY OF
Ford. That is very kind and charitable. But if
we have reason to be satisfied that you are sound
and free from the visitation, why should we make
you remove now you are settled in your lodging,
and it may be are laid down to rest ? we will go
into the barn, if you please, to rest ourselves a
while, and we need not disturb you.
Rich. Well, but you are more than we are ; I
hope you will assure us that you are all of you sound
too, for the danger is as great from you to us, as
from us to you.
Ford. Blessed be God that some do escape,
though it be but few ; what may be our portion
still, we know not, but hitherto we are preserved.
Rich. What part of the town do you come from ?
Was the plague come to the places where you
lived P
Ford. Ay, ay, in a most frightful and terrible
manner, or else we had not fled away as we do ;
but we believe there will be very few left alive be-
hind us.
Rich. What part do you come from ?
Ford. We are most of us from Cripplegate
parish, only two or three of Clerkenwell parish, but
on the hither side.
Rich. How then was it that you came away no
sooner P
Ford. We have been away some time, and kept
together as well as we could at the hither end of
Islington, where we got leave to lie in an old unin-
habited house, and had some bedding and conve-
niences of our own that we brought with us; but
the plague is come up into Islington too, and a
house next door to our poor dwelling was infected
and shut up, and we are come away in a fright.
Rich. And what way are you going
Ford. As our lot shall cast us, we know not
THE PLAGUE IN LONDON. 131
whither; but God will guide those that look up to
him. -
They parleyed no further at that time, but came
all up to the barn, and with some difficulty got
into it. There was nothing but hay in the barn,
but it was almost full of that, and they accom-
modated themselves as well as they could, and went
to rest; but our travellers observed, that before
they went to sleep, an ancient man, who it seems
was the father of one of the women, went to prayer
with all the company, recommending themselves
to the blessing and protection of providence before
they went to sleep. -
It was soon day at that time of the year; and as
Richard, the joiner, had kept guard the first part
of the night, so John, the soldier, relieved him,
and he had the post in the morning, and they be-
gan to be acquainted with one another. It seems,
when they left Islington, they intended to have
gone north away to Highgate, but were stopped at
Holloway, and there they would not let them pass;
so they crossed over the fields and hills to the east-
ward, and came out at the Boarded-river, and so
avoiding the towns, they left Hornsey on the left
hand, and Newington on the right hand, and came
into the great road about Stamford-hill on that
side, as the three travellers had done on the other
side. And now they had thoughts of going over
the river in the marshes, and making forward to
Epping forest, where they hoped they should get
leave to rest. It seems they were not poor, at least
not so poor as to be in want ; at least they had
enough to subsist them moderately for two or three
months, when, as they said, they were in hopes the
cold weather would check the infection, or at least
the violence of it would have spent itself; and
K 2
I32 - THE HISTORY OF
would abate, if it were only for want of people left
alive to be infected. • ‘
This was much the fate of our three travellers;
only that they seemed to be the better furnished
for travelling, and had it in their view to go further
off; for as to the first, they did not propose to go
further than one day's journey, that so they might
have intelligence every two or three days how things
were at London. :-
But here our travellers found themselves under
an unexpected inconvenience, namely, that of their
horse; for, by means of the horse to carry their
baggage, they were obliged to keep in the road,
whereas, the people of this other band went over
the fields or roads, path or no path, way or no way,
as they pleased ; neither had they any occasion to
pass through any town, or come near any town;
other than to buy such things as they wanted for
their necessary subsistence, and in that indeed
they were put to much difficulty; of which in its
place.
But our three travellers were obliged to keep the
road, or else they must commit spoil, and do the
country a great deal of damage, in breaking down
fences and gates, to go over inclosed fields, which
they were loath to do if they could help it.
Our three travellers, however, had a great mind
to join themselves to this company, and take their
lot with them ; and, after some discourse, they laid
aside their first design, which looked northward,
and resolved to follow the other into Essex; so in
the morning they took up their tent and loaded
their horse, and away they travelled all together.
They had some difficulty in passing the ferry at
the river-side, the ferryman being afraid of them ;
but, after some parley at a distance, the ferryman
THE PLAGUE IN LONDON. 133
was content to bring his boat to a place distant
from the usual ferry, and leave it there for them
to take it; so, putting themselves over, he directed
them to leave the boat, and, having another boat,
said he would fetch it again ; which it seems, how-
ever, he did not do for above eight days.
Here, giving the ferryman money beforehand,
they had a supply of victuals and drink, which he
brought and left in the boat for them, but not with-
out, as I said, having received the money before-
hand. But now our travellers were at a great loss
and difficulty how to get the horse over, the boat
being small and not fit for it; and at last could not
do it without unloading the baggage and making
him swim over.
From the river they travelled towards the forest;
but when they came to Walthamstow, the people
of that town denied to admit them, as was the case
everywhere; the constables and their watchmen
kept them off at a distance, and parleyed with them.
They gave the same account of themselves as before,
but these gave no credit to what they said, giving
it for a reason, that two or three companies had
already come that way and made the like pretences,
but that they had given several people the distemper
in the towns where they had passed, and had been
afterwards so hardly used by the country, though
with justice too, as they had deserved, that, about
Brentwood or that way, several of them perished in
the fields; whether of the plague, or of mere want
and distress, they could not tell.
This was a good reason, indeed, why the people
of Walthamstow should be very cautious, and why
they should resolve not to entertain anybody that
they were not well satisfied of; but, as Richard,
the joiner, and one of the other men, who parleyed
with them, told them, it was no reason why they
134 . THE HISTORY OF
should block up the roads, and refuse to let the
people pass through the town, and who asked
nothing of them, but to go through the street; that,
if their people were afraid of them, they might go
into their houses and shut their doors; they would
neither show them civility nor incivility, but go on
about their business.
The constables and attendants, not to be per-
suaded by reason, continued obstinate, and would
hearken to nothing, so the two men that talked
with them went back to their fellows, to consult
what was to be done. It was very discouraging in
the whole, and they knew not what to do for a good
while; but, at last, John, the soldier and biscuit-
baker, considering awhile, Come, says he, leave
the rest of the parley to me. He had not appeared
yet ; so he sets the joiner Richard to work to cut
some poles out of the trees, and shape them as like
guns as he could, and, in a little time, he had five
or six fair muskets, which at a distance would not
be known ; and about the part where the lock of a
gun is, he caused them to wrap cloth and rags,
such as they had, as soldiers do in wet weather to
preserve the locks of their pieces from rust; the rest
was discoloured with clay or mud, such as they
could get ; and all this while the rest of them sat
under the trees by his direction, in two or three
bodies, where they made fires at a good distance
from one another.
While this was doing, he advanced himself, and
two or three with him, and set up their tent in the
lane, within sight of the barrier which the towns-
men had made, and set a sentinel just by it with
the real gun, the only one they had, and who walked
to and fro with the gun on his shoulder, so as that
the people of the town might see them; also he tied
the horse to a gate in the hedge just by, and got
THE PLAGUE IN LONDON. 135
some dry sticks together, and kindled a fire on the
other side of the tent, so that the people of the town
could see the fire and the smoke, but could not see
what they were doing at it.
After the country people had looked upon them
very earnestly a great while, and by all that they
could see, could not but suppose that they were a
great many in company, they began to be uneasy,
not for their going away, but for staying where
they were: and above all, perceiving they had
horses and arms, for they had seen one horse and
One gun at the tent, and they had seen others of
them walk about the field on the inside of the hedge
by the side of the lane with their muskets, as they
took them to be, shouldered; I say, upon such a
sight as this, you may be assured they were alarmed
and terribly frightened; and it seems they went
to a justice of the peace, to know what they should
do. What the justice advised them to I know not,
but towards the evening, they called from the bar-
rier, as above, to the sentinel at the tent.
What do you want? says John.
Why, what do you intend to do? says the con-
stable.
d To do, says John, What would you have us to
of
Const. Why don't you be gone? What do you
stay there for 2
John. Why do you stop us on the king's high-
way, and pretend to refuse us leave to go on our
way?
Const. We are not bound to tell you the reason,
though we did let you know it was because of the
plague. -
John. We told you we were all sound and free
from the plague, which we were not bound to have
I 36 , THE HISTORY OF
satisfied you of; and yet you pretend to stop us on
the highway. :
Const. We have a right to stop it up, and our own
safety obliges us to it; besides, this is not the king's
highway, it is a way upon sufferance. You see here
is a gate, and, if we do let people pass here, we
make them pay toll. : -
John. We have a right to seek our own safety as
well as you, and you may see are flying for our
lives, and it is very unchristian and unjust in you
to stop us. -
Const. You may go back from whence you came;
we do not hinder you from that. .
John. No, it is a stronger enemy than you that
keeps us from doing that, or else we should not have
come hither. -
Const. Well, you may go any other way then.
John. No, no; I suppose you see we are able to
send you going and all the people of your parish,
and come through your town when we will, but,
since you have stopt us here, we are content; you
see we have encamped here, and here we will live;
we hope you will furnish us with victuals.
Const. We furnish you ! What mean you by that?
John. Why, you would not have us starve, would
you? If you stop us here, you must keep us.
Const. You will be ill kept at our maintenance.
John. If you stint us, we shall make ourselves the
better allowance. -
Const. Why, you will not pretend to quarter
upon us by force, will you? -
John. We have offered no violence to you yet,
why do you seem to oblige us to it 2 I am an old
soldier, and cannot starve; and if you think that
we shall be obliged to go back for want of provi-
sions, you are mistaken. -
THE PLAGUE IN LONDON. 137
Const. Since you threaten us, we shall take care
to be strong enough for you. I have orders to raise
the county upon you. - -
John. It is you that threaten, not we ; and, since
you are for mischief, you cannot blame us if we do
not give you time for it. We shall begin our march
in a few minutes. .
Const. What is it you demand of us? .
John. At first we desired nothing of you but leave
to go through the town. We should have offered
no injury to any of you, neither would you have
had any injury or loss by us; we are not thieves,
but poor people in distress, and flying from the
dreadful plague in London, which devours thousands
every week. We wonder how you could be so un-
merciful | *
Const. Self-preservation obliges us.
John. What! To shut up your compassion in a
case of such distress as this 2 :
Const. Well, if you will pass over the fields on
your left hand, and behind that part of the town, I
will endeavour to have gates opened for you.
John. Our horsemen cannot pass with our bag-
gage that way; it does not lead into the road that
we want to go, and why should you force us out of
the road P Besides, you have kept us here all day
without any provisions but such as we brought with
us; I think you ought to send us some provisions
for our relief.
Const. If you will go another way, we will send
you some provisions. g
John. That is the way to have all the towns in
the county stop up the ways against us. i
Const. If they all furnish you with food, what will
you be the worse ? I see you have tents, you want
no lodging. ,- - ... " , ,
138 TEIE HISTORY OF
John. Well; what quantity of provisions will you
send us 2 \ -
Const. How many are you?
John. Nay, we do not ask enough for all our
company; we are in three companies. If you will
send us bread for twenty men and about six or
seven women for three days, and show us the way
over the field you speak of, we desire not to put
your people into any fear for us; we will go out of
our way to oblige you, though we are as free from
infection as you are.
Const. And will you assure us that your other
people shall offer us no new disturbance?
John. No, no ; you may depend on it.
Const. You must oblige yourself too, that none
of your people shall come a step nearer than where
the provisions we send you shall be set down.
John. I answer for it we will not. -
Accordingly, they sent to the place twenty loaves
of bread and three or four large pieces of good beef,
and opened some gates, through which they passed,
but none of them had courage so much as to look
out to see them go; and, as it was evening, if they
had looked, they could not have seen them so as to
know how few they were.
This was John the soldier's management; but
this gave such an alarm to the county, that, had
they really been two or three hundred, the whole
county would have been raised upon them, and they
would have been sent to prison, or perhaps knocked
on the head. -
They were soon made sensible of this ; for two
days afterwards they found several parties of horse-
men and footmen also about, in pursuit of three
companies of men armed, as they said, with mus-
kets, who were broke out from London and had the
THE PLAGUE IN LONDON. 139
plague upon them ; and that were not only spreading
the distemper among the people, but plundering the
country.
As they saw now the consequence of their case,
they soon saw the danger they were in ; so they re-
solved, by the advice also of the old soldier, to divide
themselves again. John and his two comrades with
the horse went away as if towards Waltham; the
other in two companies, but all a little asunder, and
went towards Epping.
The first night they encamped all in the forest,
and not far off from one another, but not setting up
the tent for fear that should discover them. On
the other hand, Richard went to work with his
axe and his hatchet, and cutting down branches of
trees, he built three tents or hovels, in which they
all encamped with as much convenience as they
could expect. -
The provisions they had at Walthamstow served
them very plentifully this night, and as for the
next, they left it to providence. They had fared so
well with the old soldier's conduct, that they now
willingly made him their leader, and the first of his
conduct appeared to be very good. He told them,
that they were now at a proper distance enough
from London; that, as they need not be immediately
beholden to the country for relief, they ought to
be as careful the country did not infect them, as that
they did not infect the country; that what little
money they had, they must be as frugal of as they
could ; that as he would not have them think of
offering the country any violence, so they must en-
deavour to make the sense of their condition go as
far with the country as it could. They all referred
themselves to his direction; so they left their three
houses standing, and the next day went away to-
wards Epping; the captain also, for so they now
140 4. THE HISTORY OF
called him, and his two fellow-travellers, laid aside
their design of going to Waltham, and all went
together.
When they came near Epping, they halted,
choosing out a proper place in the open forest, not
very near the highway, but not far out of it, on the
north side, under a little cluster of low pollard trees.
Here they pitched their little camp, which consisted
of three large tents or huts made of poles, which
their carpenter, and such as were his assistants, cut
down and fixed in the ground in a circle, binding
all the small ends together at the top, and thickening
the sides with boughs of trees and bushes, so that
they were completely close and warm. They had
besides this, a little tent where the women lay by
themselves, and a hut to put the horse in. -
It happened, that the next day, or the next but
one, was market-day at Epping, when captain John
and one of the other men went to market, and
bought some provisions; that is to say, bread, and
some mutton and beef, and two of the women went
separately, as if they had not belonged to the rest,
and bought more. John took the horse to bring it
home, and the sack, which the carpenter carried his
tools in, to put it in ; the carpenter went to work,
and made them benches and stools to sit on, such
as the wood he could get would afford, and a kind of
a table to dine on. -
They were taken no notice of for two or three
days, but after that abundance of people ran out of
the town to look at them, and all the country was
alarmed about them. The people at first seemed
afraid to come near them ; and, on the other hand,
they desired the people to keep off, for there was a
rumour that the plague was at Waltham, and that
it had been in Epping two or three days; so John
called out to them not to come to them, For, says
THE PLAGUE IN LONDON. 141
he, we are all whole and sound people here, and we
would not have you bring the plague among us, nor
pretend we brought it among you. -
After this the parish officers came up to them, and
parleyed with them at a distance, and desired to know
who they were, and by what authority they pretend-
ed to fix their stand at that place? John answered
very frankly, they were poor distressed people from
London, who, foreseeing the misery they should be
reduced to, if the plague spread into the city, had
fled out in time for their lives, and, having no ac-
quaintance or relations to fly to, had first taken up
at Islington, but the plague being come into that
town, were fled further; and, as they supposed that
the people of Epping might have refused them
coming into their town, they had pitched their tents
thus in the open field, and in the forest, being
willing to bear all the hardships of such a disconso-
late lodging, rather than have any one think, or be
afraid, that they should receive injury by them.
At first the Epping people talked roughly to them,
and told them they must remove ; that this was no
place for them; and that they pretended to be sound
and well, but that they might be infected with the
plague for aught they knew, and might infect the
whole country, and they could not suffer them there.
John argued very calmly with them a great while,
and told them, that London was the place by which
they, that is, the townsmen of Epping and all the
country round them, subsisted; to whom they sold
the produce of their lands, and out of whom they
made the rents of their farms; and to be so cruel
to the inhabitants of London, or to any of those by
whom they gained so much, was very hard; and
they would be loath to have it remembered hereafter,
and have it told, how barbarous, how inhospitable,
and how unkind they were to the people of London,
*142 THE HISTORY OF
when they fled from the face of the most terrible
enemy in the world; that it would be enough to
make the name of an Epping man hateful through
all the city, and to have the rabble stone them in
the very streets, whenever they came so much as to
market; that they were not yet secure from being
visited themselves, and that, as he heard, Waltham
was already; that they would think it very hard,
that when any of them fled for fear before they were
touched, they should be denied the liberty of lying
so much as in the open fields.
The Epping men told them again, that they, in-
deed, said they were sound and free from the in-
fection, but that they had no assurance of it; and
that it was reported, that there had been a great
rabble of people at Walthamstow, who made such
pretences of being sound as they did, but that they
threatened to plunder the town, and force their way
whether the parish officers would or no; that there
were near two hundred of them, and had arms and
tents like Low Country soldiers; that they extorted
provisions from the town, by threatening them with
living upon them at free quarter, showing their
arms, and talking in the language of soldiers; and
that several of them having gone away towards
Rumford and Brentwood, the country had been in-
fected by them, and the plague spread into both
those large towns, so that they durst not go to
market there as usual; that it was very likely they
were some of that party; and if so, they deserved
to be sent to the county gaol, and be secured till
they had made satisfaction for the damage they had
done, and for the terror and fright they had put the
country into. . -
John answered, that what other people had done
was nothing to them; that they assured them they
were all of one company; that they had never been
THE PLAGUE IN LONDON. 143
more in number than they saw them at that time,
(which, by the way, was very true); that they came
out in two separate companies, but joined by the
way, their cases being the same; that they were
ready to give what account of themselves anybody
desired of them, and to give in their names and
places of abode, that so they might be called to an
account for any disorder that they might be guilty
of; that the townsmen might see they were content
to live hardly, and only desired a little room to
breathe in on the forest where it was wholesome ;
for where it was not, they could not stay, and would
decamp if they found it otherwise there. -
But, said the townsmen, we have a great charge
of poor upon our hands already, and we must take
care not to increase it; we suppose you can give us
no security against your being chargeable to our
parish and to the inhabitants, any more than you
can of being dangerous to us as to the infection.
Why, look you, says John, as to being chargeable
to you, we hope we shall not; if you will relieve us
with provisions for our present necessity, we will be
very thankful; as we all lived without charity when
we were at home, so we will oblige ourselves fully
to repay you, if God please to bring us back to our
own families and houses in safety, and to restore
health to the people of London.
As to our dying here, we assure you, if any of us
die, we that survive will bury them, and put you to
no expense, except it should be that we should all
die, and then, indeed, the last man, not being able
to bury himself, would put you to that single expense,
which, I am persuaded, says John, he would leave
enough behind him to pay you for the expense of
On the other hand, says John, if you will shut up
all bowels of compassion, and not relieve us at all,
we shall not extort anything by violence, or steal
i44 THE HISTORY OF
from anyone; but when that little we have is spent,
if we perish for want, God’s will be done. .
John wrought so upon the townsmen, by talking
thus rationally and smoothly to them, that they went
away; and though they did not give their consent
to their staying there, yet they did not molest them,
and the poor people continued there three or four
days longer without any disturbance. In this time
they had got some remote acquaintance with a vic-
tualling-house on the outskirts of the town, to whom
they called, at a distance, to bring some little things
that they wanted, and which they caused to be set
down at some distance, and always paid for very
honestly.
During this time, the younger people of the town
came frequently pretty near them, and would stand
and look at them, and would sometimes talk with
them at some space between ; and, particularly it
was observed, that the first Sabbath-day the poor
people kept retired, worshipped God together, and
were heard to sing psalms.
These things, and a quiet inoffensive behaviour,
began to get them the good opinion of the country,
and the people began to pity them and speak very
well of them ; the consequence of which was, that,
upon the occasion of a very wet rainy night, a
certain gentleman, who lived in the neighbourhood,
sent them a little cart with twelve trusses or bundles
of straw, as well for them to lodge upon as to cover
and thatch their huts, and to keep them dry. The
minister of a parish not far off, not knowing of the
other, sent them also two bushels of wheat and half
a bushel of white peas. -
They were very thankful, to be sure, for this re-
lief, and particularly the straw was a very great
comfort to them; for though the ingenious carpen-
ter had made them frames to lie in, like troughs,
THE PLAGUE IN LONDON. 145
and filled them with leaves of trees and such things
as they could get, and had cut all their tentcloth
out to make coverlids, yet they lay damp and hard,
and unwholesome till this straw came, which was to
them like feather-beds; and, as John said, more
than feather-beds would have been at another time.
This gentleman and the minister having thus be-
gun, and given an example of charity to these wan-
derers, others quickly followed, and they received
every day some benevolence or other from the peo-
ple, but chiefly from the gentlemen who dwelt in
the country round about ; some sent them chairs,
stools, tables, and such household things as they
gave notice they wanted; some sent them blankets,
rugs, and coverlids; some earthen ware, and some
kitchen ware for ordering their food.
Encouraged by this good usage, their carpenter,
in a few days, built them a large shed or house with
rafters, and a roof in form, and an upper floor, in
which they lodged warm, for the weather began to
be damp and cold in the beginning of September;
but this house being very well thatched, and the
sides and roof very thick, kept out the cold well
enough ; he made also an earthen wall at one end,
with a chimney in it; and another of the company,
with a vast deal of trouble and pains, made a funnel
to the chimney to carry out the smoke.
Here they lived comfortably, though coarsely, till
the beginning of September, when they had the bad
news to hear, whether true or not, that the plague,
which was very hot at Waltham-abbey on the one
side, and Rumford and Brentwood on the other
side, was also come to Epping, to Woodford, and to
most of the towns upon the forest; and which, as
they said, was brought down among them chiefly by
the higglers, and such people as went to and from
London with provisions.
PLAG-UE. L
146 | THE HISTORY OF
If this was true, it was an evident contradiction
to the report which was afterwards spread all over
England, but which, as I have said, I cannot confirm
of my own knowledge, namely, that the market-
people, carrying provisions to the city, never got
the infection, or carried it back into the country;
both which, I have been assured, has been false.
It might be that they were preserved even be-
yond expectation, though not to a miracle; that
abundance went and came and were not touched,
and that was much encouragement for the poor
people of London, who had been completely miser-
able if the people that brought provisions to the
markets had not been many times wonderfully pre-
served, or at least were preserved, than could be
reasonably expected.
But these new inmates began to be disturbed
more effectually ; for the towns about them were
really infected, and they began to be afraid to trust
one another so much as to go abroad for the things
as they wanted, and this pinched them very hard,
for now they had little or nothing but what the
charitable gentlemen of the country supplied them
with ; but, for their encouragement, it happened
that other gentlemen in the country, who had not
sent them anything before, began to hear of them
and supply them; and one sent them a large pig,
that is to say, a porker; another two sheep, and
another sent them a calf; in short, they had meat
enough, and sometimes had cheese and milk, and
such things. They were chiefly put to it for bread,
for when the gentlemen sent them corn, they had
nowhere to bake it or to grind it; this made them
eat the first two bushels of wheat that was sent
them in parched corn, as the Israelites of old did,
without grinding or making bread of it.
At last they found means to carry their corn to a
TEIE PLAGUE IN LONDON. 147
windmill near Woodford, where they had it ground;
and afterwards, the biscuit-baker made a hearth so
hollow and dry, that he could bake biscuit-cakes
tolerably well; and thus they came into a condition
to live without any assistance or supplies from the
towns; and it was well they did, for the country
was soon after fully infected, and about a hundred
and twenty were said to have died of the distemper
in the villages near them, which was a terrible thing
to them.
On this they called a new council, and now the
towns had no need to be afraid they should settle
near them; but, on the contrary, several families of
the poorer sort of the inhabitants quitted their
houses and built huts in the forest, after the same
manner as they had done. But it was observed,
that several of these poor people that had so re-
moved, had the sickness even, in their huts or
booths; the reason of which was plain, namely, not
because they removed into the air, but because they
did not remove time enough ; that is to say, not till
by openly conversing with other people their
neighbours, that had the distemper upon them, or,
as may be said, among them, and so carried it about
with them. whither they went. Or, (2.) Because
they were not careful enough after they were safely
removed out of the towns, not to come again and
mingle with the diseased people. &
But be it which of these it will, when our tra-
vellers began to perceive that the plague was not
only in the towns, but even in the tents and huts
on the forest near them, they began then not only
to be afraid, but to think of decamping and re-
moving; for had they stayed, they would have been
in manifest danger of their lives. .
It is not to be wondered that they were greatly
afflicted at being obliged to quit the place where
- 1, 2
148 THE HISTORY OF
they had been so kindly received, and where they
had been treated with so much humanity and
charity; but necessity, and the hazard of life, which
they came out so far to preserve, prevailed with
them, and they saw no remedy. John, however,
thought of a remedy for their present misfortune,
namely, that he would first acquaint that gentleman
who was their principal benefactor, with the distress
they were in ; and to crave his assistance and ad-
vice.
The good charitable gentleman encouraged them
to quit the place, for fear they should be cut off
from any retreat at all, by the violence of the dis-
temper; but whither they should go, that he found
very hard to direct them to. At last John asked
of him, whether he, being a justice of the peace,
would give them certificates of health to other
justices who they might come before, that so, what-
ever might be their lot, they might not be repulsed
now they had been also so long from London. This
his worship immediately granted, and gave them
proper letters of health; and from thence they were
at liberty to travel whither they pleased.
Accordingly, they had a full certificate of health,
intimating that they had resided in a village in the
county of Essex, so long; that being examined and
scrutinized sufficiently, and having been retired
from all conversation for above forty days, without
any appearance of sickness, they were, therefore,
certainly concluded to be sound men, and might be
safely entertained anywhere; having at last re-
moved rather for fear of the plague, which was come
into such a town, rather than for having any signal
of infection upon them, or upon any belonging to
them.
With this certificate they removed, though with
great reluctance; and John, inclining not to go far
THE PLAGUE IN LONDON. 149
from home, they removed toward the marshes on
the side of Waltham. But here they found a man
who, it seems, kept a weir or stop upon the river,
made to raise water for the barges which go up and
down the river, and he terrified them with dismal
stories of the sickness having been spread into all
the towns on the river, and near the river, on the
side of Middlesex and Hertfordshire; that is to say,
into Waltham, Waltham-cross, Enfield, and Ware,
and all the towns on the road, that they were afraid
to go that way; though, it seems, the man imposed
upon them, for that the thing was not really true.
However, it terrified them, and they resolved to
move across the forest towards Rumford and Brent-
wood; but they heard that there were numbers of
people fled out of London that way, who lay up and
down in the forest, reaching near Rumford; and
who, having no subsistence or habitation, not only
lived oddly, and suffered great extremities in the
woods and fields for want of relief, but were said to
be made so desperate by those extremities, as that
they offered many violences to the country, robbed,
and plundered, and killed cattle, and the like; and
others, building huts and hovels by the road-side,
begged, and that with an importunity next door to
demanding relief; so that the country was very un-
easy, and had been obliged to take some of them
U10.
This, in the first place, intimated to them, that
they would be sure to find the charity and kindness
of the county, which they had found here where
they were before, hardened and shut up against
them; and that, on the other hand, they would be
questioned wherever they came, and would be in
danger of violence from others in like cases with
themselves.
Upon all these considerations, John, their cap-
150 THE HISTORY OF
tain, in all their names, went back to their good
friend and benefactor, who had relieved them be-
fore, and laying their case truly before him, humbly
asked his advice; and he as kindly advised them to
take up their old quarters again, or, if not, to re-
move but a little further out of the road, and di-
rected them to a proper place for them; and as they
really wanted some house, rather than huts, to
shelter them at that time of the year, it growing on
towards Michaelmas, they found an old decayed
house, which had been formerly some cottage or
little habitation, but was so out of repair as scarce
habitable; and by consent of a farmer, to whose
farm it belonged, they got leave to make what use
of it they could.
The ingenious joiner, and all the rest by his di-
rections, went to work with it, and in a very few
days made it capable to shelter them all, in case of
bad weather; and in which there was an old
chimney and an old oven, though both lying in
ruins, yet they made them both fit for use; and
raising additions, sheds and leantoes on every side,
they soon made the house capable to hold them all.
They chiefly wanted boards to make window-
shutters, floors, doors, and several other things:
but as the gentleman above favoured them, and the
country was by that means made easy with them ;
and, above all, that they were known to be all sound
and in good health, everybody helped them with
what they could spare.
Here they encamped for good and all, and re-
solved to remove no more ; they saw plainly how
terribly alarmed that country was everywhere, at
anybody that came from London; and that they
should have no admittance anywhere but with the
utmost difficulty, at least no friendly reception and
assistance as they had received here.
THE PLAGUE IN LONDON. 151
Now, although they received great assistance and
encouragement from the country gentlemen, and
from the people round about them, yet they were
put to great straits, for the weather grew cold and
wet in October and November, and they had not
been used to so much hardship ; so that they got
colds in their limbs, and distempers, but never had
the infection. And thus, about December, they
came home to the city again.
I give this story at large, principally to give an
account what became of the great numbers of peo-
ple which appeared in the city as soon as the sick-
ness abated; for, as I have said, great numbers of
those that were able, and had retreats in the
country, fled to those retreats. So when it was
increased to such a dreadful extremity as I have
related, the middling people who had no friends,
fled to all parts of the country where they could get
shelter, as well those that had money to relieve
themselves, as those that had not. Those that had
money always fled furthest, because they were able
to subsist themselves; but those who were empty,
suffered, as I have said, great hardships, and were
often driven by necessity to relieve their wants at
the expense of the country. By that means the
country was made very uneasy at them, and some-
times took them up, though even then they scarce
knew what to do with them, and were always very
backward to punish them ; but often, too, they
forced them from place to place, till they were
obliged to come back again to London.
I have, since knowing this story of John and his
brother, inquired and found that there were a great
many of the poor disconsolate people, as above, fled
into the country every way; and some of them got
little sheds, and barns, and outhouses to live in,
where they could obtain so much kindness of the
152 THE HISTORY OF . . .
country; and especially where they had any the
least satisfactory account to give of themselves, and
particularly that they did not come out of London
too late. But others, and that in great numbers,
built themselves little huts and retreats in the fields
and woods, and lived like hermits in holes and
caves, or any place they could find; and where,
we may be sure, they suffered great extremities,
such that many of them were obliged to come back
again, whatever the danger was; and so those little
huts were often found empty, and the country peo-
ple supposed the inhabitants lay dead in them of
the plague, and would not go near them for fear, no
not in a great while ; nor is it unlikely but that
some of the unhappy wanderers might die so all alone,
even sometimes for want of help, as particularly in
one tent or hut, was found a man dead; and on the
gate of a field just by, was cut with his knife in un-
even letters, the following words, by which it may
be supposed the other man escaped, or that one
dying first, the other had buried him as well as he
could ; - -
O m Is Er Y! .
We Bo T H Sh a LL D y E,
Wo E, Wo E.
There was one unhappy citizen, within my know-
ledge, who had been visited in a dreadful manner,
so that his wife and all his children were dead, and
himself and two servants left only, with an elderly
woman, a near relation, who had nursed those that
were dead as well as she could. This disconsolate
man goes to a village near the town, though not
within the bills of mortality, and finding an empty.
house there, inquires out the owner, and took the
THE PLAGUE IN LONDON. 153
house. After a few days, he got a cart, and loaded
it with goods, and carries them down to the house;
the people of the village opposed his driving the
cart along, but with some arguings, and some force,
the men that drove the cart along, got through the
street up to the door of the house; there the constable
resisted them again, and would not let them be
brought in. The man caused the goods to be un-
loaded and laid at the door, and sent the cart away,
upon which they carried the man before a justice of
peace; that is to say, they commanded him to go,
which he did. The justice ordered him to cause
the cart to fetch away the goods again, which he
refused to do; upon which the justice ordered the
constable to pursue the carters and fetch them
back, and make them reload the goods and carry
them away, or to set them in the stocks till they
came for further orders; and if they could not find
them, nor the man would consent to carry them
away, they should cause them to be drawn with
hooks from the house door and burnt in the street.
The poor distressed man upon this fetched the
goods again, but with grievous cries and lamenta-
tions at the hardship of his case. But there was
no remedy, self-preservation obliged the people to
those severities, which they would no otherwise
have been concerned in. Whether this poor man.
lived or died I cannot tell, but it was reported he
had the plague upon him at that time, and perhaps
the people might report that to justify their usage
of him ; but it was not unlikely that either he or
his goods, or both, were dangerous, when his whole
family had been dead of the distemper so little a
while before.
A house in Whitechapel was shut up for the
sake of one infected maid, who had only spots, not
the tokens, come out upon her, and recovered ;
154 TEIE HISTORY OF
these people obtained no liberty to stir, neither for
air or exercise, for forty days; want of breath, fear,
anger, vexation, and all the other griefs attending
such an injurious treatment, cast the mistress of the
family into a fever; and visiters came into the
house and said it was the plague, though the physi-
cians declared it was not; however, the family
were obliged to begin their quarantine anew, on the
report of the visiter or examiner, though their for-
mer quarantine wanted but a few days of being
finished. This oppressed them so with anger and
grief, and, as before, straitened them also so much
as to room, and for want of breathing and free air,
that most of the family fell sick, one of one distem-
per, one of another, chiefly scorbutic ailments, only.
one a violent cholic, until after several prolonga-
tions of their confinement, some or other of those
that came in with the visiters to inspect the per-
sons that were ill, in hopes of releasing them,
brought the distemper along with them, and in-
fected the whole house, and all or most of them
died, not of the plague as really upon them before,
but of the plague that those people brought them,
who should have been careful to have protected
them from it; and this was a thing which frequently
happened, and was, indeed, one of the worst con-
sequences of shutting houses up.
I had about this time a little hardship put upon
me, which I was at first greatly afflicted at, and
very much disturbed about; though, as it proved,
it did not expose me to any disaster; and this was,
being appointed, by the alderman of Portsoken
ward, one of the examiners of the houses in the
precinct where I lived; we had a large parish,
and had no less than eighteen examiners, as the
order called us; the people called us visiters. I
endeavoured with all my might to be excused from
THE PLAGUE IN I.ONDON. 155
such an employment, and used many arguments
with the alderman's deputy to be excused ; par-
ticularly, I alleged, that I was against shutting up
of houses at all, and that it would be very hard to
oblige me to be an instrument in that which was
against my judgment, and which I did verily be-
lieve would not answer the end it was intended
for ; but all the abatement I could get was only,
that whereas the officer was appointed by my lord
mayor to continue two months, I should be obliged
to hold it but for three weeks, on condition, never-
theless, that I could then get some other sufficient
housekeeper to serve the rest of the time for me,
which was, in short, but a very small favour, it
being very difficult to get any man to accept of
such an employment, that was fit to be intrusted
with it.
It is true, that shutting up of houses had one
effect, which I am sensible was of moment, namely,
it confined the distempered people, who would
otherwise have been very troublesome and very
dangerous in their running about the streets with
the distemper upon them ; which, when they were
delirious, they would have done in a most frightful
manner, as, indeed, they began to do at first very
much, until they were restrained ; nay, so very
open they were, that the poor would go about and
beg at people's doors, and say they had the plague
upon them, and beg rags for their sores, or both,
or anything that delirious nature happened to think
of.
A poor unhappy gentlewoman, a substantial citi-
zen's wife, was, if the story be true, murdered by
one of these creatures in Aldersgate-street, or that
way. He was going along the street, raving mad
to be sure, and singing; the people only said he
was drunk, but he himself said he had the plague
156 THE HISTORY OF
upon him, which, it seems, was true; and meeting
this gentlewoman, he would kiss her; she was ter-
ribly frighted, as he was a rude fellow, and she run
from him ; but the street being very thin of people,
there was nobody near enough to help her. When
she saw he would overtake her, she turned and
gave him a thrust so forcibly, he being but weak,
as pushed him down backward; but very unhappily,
she being so near, he caught hold of her, and pulled
her down also ; and getting up first, mastered her,
and kissed her; and which was worst of all, when
he had done, told her he had the plague, and why
should she not have it as well as he? She was
frightened enough before, being also young with
child; but when she heard him say he had the plague,
she screamed out and fell down into a swoon, or in
a fit, which, though she recovered a little, yet killed
her in a very few days, and I never heard whether
she had the plague or no.
Another infected person came and knocked at
the door of a citizen's house, where they knew him
very well; the servant let him in, and being told
the master of the house was above, he ran up, and
came into the room to them as the whole family
were at supper. They began to rise up a little sur-
prised, not knowing what the matter was ; but he
bid them sit still, he only came to take his leave of
them. They asked him, Why Mr. — where are
you going? Going, says he, I have got the sickness,
and shall die to-morrow night. It is easy to be-
lieve, though not to describe, the consternation.
they were all in ; the women and the man's daugh-
ters, which were but little girls, were frightened
almost to death, and got up, all running out, one at
one door and one at another, some down stairs and
some up stairs, and getting together as well as they
could, locked themselves into their chambers, and
THE PLAGUE IN LONDON. 157
screamed out at the window for help, as if they had
been frighted out of their wits. The master, more
composed than they, though both frighted and pro-
voked, was going to lay hands on him and throw
him down stairs, being in a passion; but then con-
sidering a little the condition of the man, and the
danger of touching him, horror seized his mind,
and he stood still like one astonished. The poor
distempered man, all this while, being, as well, dis-
eased in his brain as in his body, stood still like
one amazed ; at length he turns round, Ay! says
he, with all the seeming calmness imaginable, is it
so with you all ! Are you all disturbed at me?
Why then I'll e'en go home and die there. And so
he goes immediately down stairs. The servant that
had let him in goes down after him with a candle,
but was afraid to go past him and open the door, so
he stood on the stairs to see what he would do; the
man went and opened the door, and went out and
flung the door after him. It was some while before
the family recovered their fright; but, as no ill
consequence attended, they have had occasion
since to speak of it, you may be sure, with great
satisfaction ; though the man was gone some
time, nay, as I heard, some days, before they re-
covered themselves from the hurry they were in:
nor did they go up and down the house with any
assurance till they had burnt a great variety of
fumes and perfumes in all the rooms, and made a
great many smokes of pitch, of gunpowder, and of
sulphur; all separately shifted, and washed their
clothes and the like. As to the poor man, whether
he lived or died I do not remember.
It is most certain, that if, by the shutting up of
houses, the sick had not been confined, multitudes,
who in the height of their fever were delirious and
distracted, would have been continually running up
158 THE HISTORY OF
and down the streets ; and, even as it was, a very
great number did so, and offered all sorts of violence
to those they met, even just as a mad dog runs on
and bites at every one he meets ; nor can I doubt
but that should one of those infected diseased crea-
tures have bitten any man or woman, while the
frenzy of the distemper was upon them, they, I
mean the person so wounded, would as certainly
have been incurably infected, as one that was sick
before, and had the tokens upon him.
I heard of one infected creature, who running
out of his bed in his shirt, in the anguish and agony
of his swellings, of which he had three upon him,
got his shoes on and went to put on his coat, but
the nurse resisting and snatching the coat from
him, he threw her down, run over her, run down
stairs, and into the street directly to the Thames,
in his shirt, the nurse running after him, and call-
ing to the watch to stop him; but the watchman,
frightened at the man, and afraid to touch him, let
him go on; upon which he ran down to the Still-yard
stairs, threw away his shirt, and plunged into the
Thames, and, being a good swimmer, swam quite
over the river; and the tide being coming in, as
they call it, that is, running westward, he reached
the land not till he came about the Falcon-stairs,
where landing, and finding no people there, it being
in the night, he ran about the streets there naked
as he was, for a good while, when, it being by that
time high water, he takes the river again, and swam
back to the Still-yard, landed, ran up the streets
again to his own house, knocking at the door, went
up the stairs, and into bed again; and that this
terrible experiment cured him of the plague, that is
to say, that the violent motion of his arms and legs
stretched the parts where the swellings he had upon
him were, that is to say, under his arms and in his
THE PLAGUE IN LONDON. 159
groin, and caused them to ripen and break; and that
the cold of the water abated the fever in his blood.
But notwithstanding such things, the murmur-
ings were very bitter against the shutting up.
It would pierce the hearts of all that came by to
hear the piteous cries of those infected people,
who, being thus out of their understandings by the
violence of their pain, or the heat of their blood,
were either shut in, or perhaps tied in their beds
and chairs, to prevent their doing themselves hurt,
and who would make a dreadful outcry at their
being confined, and at their being not permitted to
die at large, as they called it, and as they would
have done before.
This running of distempered people about the
streets was very dismal, and the magistrates did
their utmost to prevent it; but, as it was generally
in the night and always sudden, when such attempts
were made, the officers could not be at hand to
prevent it; and, even when any got out in the day,
the officers appointed did not care to meddle with
them, because, as they were all grievously infected
to be sure when they were come to that height, so
they were more than ordinarily infectious, and it
was one of the most dangerous things that could be
to touch them; on the other hand, they generally
ran on, not knowing what they did, till they drop-
ped down stark dead, or till they had exhausted
their spirits so, as that they would fall and then die
in perhaps half an hour or an hour ; and which was
most piteous to hear, they were sure to come to
themselves entirely in that half hour or hour, and
then to make most grievous and piercing cries and
lamentations, in the deep afflicting sense of the con-
dition they were in. This was much of it before
the order for shutting up of houses was strictly put
into execution; for, at first, the watchmen were not
160 THE HISTORY OF
so vigorous and severe as they were afterwards in
the keeping the people in ; that is to say, before
they were, I mean some of them, severely punished
for their neglect, failing in their duty, and letting
people who were under their care slip away, or con-
niving at their going abroad, whether sick or well.
But, after they saw the officers appointed to ex-
amine into their conduct were resolved to have
them do their duty, or be punished for the omission,
they were more exact, and the people were strictly
restrained; which was a thing they took so ill, and
bore so impatiently, that their discontents can
hardly be described ; but there was an absolute ne-
cessity for it, that must be confessed, unless some
other measures had been timely entered upon; and
it was too late for that.
Had not this particular of the sick's being re-
strained as above, been our case at that time, Lon-
don would have been the most dreadful place that
ever was in the world; there would, for aught I
know, have as many people died in the streets as
died in their houses; for, when the distemper was
at its height, it generally made them raving and
delirious, and when they were so, they would never
be persuaded to keep in their beds but by force ;
and many who were not tied, threw themselves out
of windows, when they found they could not get
leave to go out of their doors.
It was for want of people conversing one with
another in this time of calamity, that it was impos-
sible any particular person could come at the know-
ledge of all the extraordinary cases that occurred in
different families; and, particularly, I believe it
was never known to this day how many people
in their deliriums drowned themselves in the
Thames, and in the river which runs from the
marshes by Hackney, which we generally called
THE PLAGUE IN LONDON. 161
Ware river, or Hackney river. As to those which
were set down in the weekly bill, they were indeed
few, nor could it be known of any of those, whether
they drowned themselves by accident or not ; but
I believe I might reckon up more, who, within the
compass of my knowledge or observation, really
drowned themselves in that year, than are put
down in the bill of all put together, for many of the
bodies were never found, who yet were known to be
lost; and the like in other methods of self-destruc-
tion. There was also one man in or about White-
cross-street burnt himself to death in his bed; some
said it was done by himself, others, that it was by
the treachery of the nurse that attended him, but
that he had the plague upon him was agreed by all.
I got myself discharged of the dangerous office I
was in, as soon as I could get another admitted,
who I had obtained for a little money to accept of
it ; and so, instead of serving the two months,
which was directed, I was not above three weeks in
it ; and a great while too, considering it was in the
month of August, at which time the distemper
began to rage with great violence at our end of the
to Wn. -
In the execution of this office, I could not refrain
speaking my opinion among my neighbours, as to
this shutting up the people in their houses; in
which we saw most evidently the severities that
were used, though grievous in themselves, had also
this particular objection against them, namely, that
they did not answer the end, as I have said, but
that the distempered people went, day by day,
about the streets ; and it was our united opinion,
that a method to have removed the sound from the
sick, in case of a particular house being visited,
would have been much more reasonable, on many
accounts, leaving nobody with the sick persons, but
PLAG UE. tº M
162 THE HISTORY OF
such as should, on such occasions, request to stay,
and declare themselves content to be shut up with
them. :
Our scheme for removing those that were sound
from those that were sick, was only in such houses
as were infected, and confining the sick was no
confinement; those that could not stir would not
complain while they were in their senses, and while
they had the power of judging. Indeed, when they
came to be delirious and light-headed, then they
would cry out of the cruelty of being confined; but,
for the removal of those that were well, we thought
it highly reasonable and just, for their own sakes,
they should be removed from the sick, and that,
for other people's safety, they should keep retired
for awhile, to see that they were sound, and might
not infect others; and we thought twenty or thirty
days enough for this. -
Now, certainly, if houses had been provided on
purpose for those that were sound, to perform this
demi-quarantine in, they would have much less
reason to think themselves injured in such a re-
straint, than in being confined with infected people
in the houses where they lived.
It is here, however, to be observed, that after the
funerals became so many that people could not toll
the bell, mourn, or weep, or wear black for one
another, as they did before ; no, nor so much as
make coffins for those that died ; so, after a while,
the fury of the infection appeared to be so increased,
that, in short, they shut up no houses at all; it
seemed enough that all the remedies of that kind
had been used till they were found fruitless, and
that the plague spread itself with an irresistible
fury, so that as the fire the succeeding year spread
itself and burnt with such violence, that the citi-
zens, in despair, gave over their endeavours to ex-
THE PLAGUE IN LONDON. 163
tinguish it, so in the plague, it came at last to such
violence, that the people sat still looking at one
another, and seemed quite abandoned to despair.
Whole streets seemed to be desolated, and not to
be shut up only, but to be emptied of their inhabit-
ants; doors were left open, windows stood shatter-
ing with the wind in empty houses, for want of peo-
ple to shut them ; in a word, people began to give
up themselves to their fears, and so think that all
regulations and methods were in vain, and that
there was nothing to be hoped for but an universal
desolation ; and it was even in the height of this
general despair, that it pleased God to stay his
hand, and to slacken the fury of the contagion, in
such a manner as was even surprising, like its be-
ginning, and demonstrated it to be his own parti-
cular hand; and that above, if not without, the
agency of means, as I shall take notice of in its pro-
per place.
But I must still speak of the plague, as in its
height, raging even to desolation, and the people
under the most dreadful consternation, even, as I
have said, to despair. It is hardly credible to what
excesses the passions of men carried them in this
extremity of the distemper; and this part, I think,
was as moving as the rest. What could affect a
man in his full power of reflection, and what could
make deeper impressions on the soul, than to see a
man, almost naked, and got out of his house, or
perhaps out of his bed into the street, come out of
Harrow-alley, a populous conjunction or collection
of alleys, courts, and passages, in the Butcher-row in
Whitechapel; I say, what could be more affecting,
than to see this poor man come out into the open
street, run dancing and singing, and making a
thousand antic gestures, with five or six women
and children running after him, crying and calling
M 2
164 THE HISTORY OF
upon him, for the Lord's sake, to come back, and
entreating the help of others to bring him back,
but all in vain, nobody daring to lay a hand upon
him, or to come near him.
This was a most grievous and afflicting thing to
me, who saw it all from my own windows; for all
this while the poor afflicted man was, as I observed
it, even then in the utmost agony of pain, having,
as they said, two swellings upon him, which could
not be brought to break or to suppurate; but by
laying strong caustics on them, the surgeons had,
it seems, hopes to break them, which caustics were
then upon him, burning his flesh as with a hot iron.
I cannot say what became of this poor man, but I
think he continued roving about in that manner till
he fell down and died.
No wonder the aspect of the city itself was fright-
full the usual concourse of people in the streets,
and which used to be supplied from our end of the
town, was abated; the Exchange was not kept shut
indeed, but it was no more frequented; the fires
were lost; they had been almost extinguished for
some days, by a very smart and hasty rain; but
this was not all, some of the physicians insisted,
that they were not only no benefit, but injurious to
the health of the people. This they made a loud
clamour about, and complained to the lord mayor
about it. On the other hand, others of the same
faculty, and eminent too, opposed them, and gave
their reasons why the fires were, and must be,
useful, to assuage the violence of the distemper. I
cannot give a full account of their arguments on
both sides; only this I remember, that they cavilled
very much with one another. Some were for fires,
but that they must be made of wood, and not coal,
and of particular sorts of wood too, such as fir in
particular, or cedar, because of the strong effluvia
THE PLAGUE IN LONDON. 165
of turpentine; others were for coal and not wood,
because of the sulphur and bitumen; and others
were neither for one or other. Upon the whole,
the lord mayor ordered no more fires; and espe-
cially on this account, namely, that the plague was
so fierce, that they saw evidently it defied all
means, and rather seemed to increase than de-
crease, upon any application to check and abate it;
and yet this amazement of the magistrates pro-
ceeded rather from want of being able to apply any
means successfully, than from any unwillingness,
either to expose themselves, or undertake the care
and weight of business, for, to do them justice,
they neither spared their pains nor their persons;
but nothing answered, the infection raged, and the
people were now frighted and terrified to the last
degree; so that, as I may say, they gave them-
selves up, and as I mentioned above, abandoned
themselves to their despair.
But let me observe here, that, when I say the
people abandoned themselves to despair, I do not
mean to what men call a religious despair, or a
despair of their eternal state; but I mean a despair
of their being able to escape the infection, or to
outlive the plague, which they saw was so raging
and so irresistible in its force, that indeed few peo-
ple that were touched with it in its height, about
August and September, escaped; and, which is
very particular, contrary to its ordinary operation
in June and July, and the beginning of August,
when, as I have observed, many were infected, and
continued so many days, and then went off, after
having had the poison in their blood a long time;
but now, on the contrary, most of the people
who were taken during the two last weeks in
August, and in the three first weeks in September,
generally died in two or three days at furthest, and
166 THE HISTORY OF
many the very same day they were taken. Whe-
ther the dog-days, or, as our astrologers pretended
to express themselves, the influence of the dog-star
had that malignant effect, or all those who had the
seeds of infection before in them, brought it up to
a maturity at that time altogether, I know not; but
this was the time when it was reported, that above
three thousand people died in one night; and they
that would have us believe they more critically ob-
served it, pretend to say, that they all died within
the space of two hours; viz. between the hours of
one and three in the morning. -
As to the suddenness of people's dying at this
time, more than before, there were innumerable in-
stances of it, and I could name several in my neigh-
bourhood; one family without the bars, and not far
from me, were all seemingly well on the Monday,
being ten in family; that evening, one maid and one
apprentice were taken ill, and died the next morning,
when the other apprentice and two children were
touched, whereof one died the same evening, and
the other two on Wednesday; in a word, by Saturday
at noon, the master, mistress, four children, and
four servants, were all gone, and the house left
entirely empty, except an ancient woman, who came
in to take charge of the goods for the master of the
family's brother, who lived not far off, and who had
not been sick.
Many houses were then left desolate, all the
people being carried away dead, and especially in
an alley further on the same side beyond the bars,
going in at the sign of Moses and Aaron. There
were several houses together, which they said had
not one person left alive in them; and some that
died last in several of those houses, were left a little
too long before they were fetched out to be buried;
the reason of which was not, as some have written,
THE PLAGUE IN LONDON. 167
very untruly, that the living were not sufficient to
bury the dead, but that the mortality was so great
in the yard or alley, that there was nobody left to
give notice to the buriers or sextons that there were
any dead bodies there to be buried. It was said,
how true I know not, that some of those bodies were
so corrupted and so rotten, that it was with difficulty
they were carried; and, as the carts could not come
any nearer than to the alley gate in the High-street,
it was so much the more difficult to bring them along;
but I am not certain how many bodies were then
left. I am sure that ordinarily it was not so.
I must acknowledge that this time was so terrible
that I was sometimes at the end of all my resolutions,
and that I had not the courage that I had at the
beginning. As the extremity brought other people
abroad, it drove me home, and, except having made
my voyage down to Blackwall and Greenwich, as I
have related, which was an excursion, I kept after-
wards very much within doors, as I had for about
a fortnight before. I have said already, that I re-
pented several times that I had ventured to stay in
town, and had not gone away with my brother and his
family, but it was too late now ; and after I had re-
treated and stayed within doors a good while before
my impatience led me abroad, then they called me,
as I have said, to an ugly and dangerous office,
which brought me out again ; but as that was
expired, while the height of the distemper lasted, I
retired again, and continued close ten or twelve
days more, during which many dismal spectacles
represented themselves to my view, out of my own
windows, and in our own street, as that particularly
from Harrow-alley, of the poor outrageous creature
who danced and sung in his agony; and many others
there were. Scarce a day or a night passed over
but some dismal thing or other happened at the end
168 THE HISTORY OF
of that Harrow-alley, which was a place full of poor
people, most of them belonging to the butchers, or
to employments depending upon the butchery.
Sometimes heaps and throngs of people would
burst out of the alley, most of them women,
making a dreadful clamour, mixed or compounded
of screeches, cryings, and calling one another, that
we could not conceive what to make of it; almost
all the dead part of the night the dead cart stood at
the end of that alley, for if it went in, it could not
well turn again, and could go in but a little way.
There, I say, it stood to receive dead bodies; and,
as the church was but a little way off, if it went away
full it would soon be back again. It is impossible
to describe the most horrible cries and noise the
poor people would make at their bringing the dead
bodies of their children and friends out to the cart;
and, by the number, one would have thought there
had been none left behind, or that there were people
enough for a small city living in those places.
Several times they cried murder, sometimes fire;
but it was easy to perceive that it was all distraction,
and the complaints of distressed and distempered
people. -
I believe it was everywhere thus at that time, for
the plague raged for six or seven weeks beyond all
that I have expressed, and came even to such a
height, that, in the extremity, they began to break
into that excellent order, of which I have spoken so
much in behalf of the magistrates, namely, that no
dead bodies were seen in the streets, or burials in
the daytime; for there was a necessity, in this ex-
tremity, to bear with its being otherwise for a little
while.
One thing I cannot omit here, and, indeed, I
thought it was extraordinary, at least it seemed a
remarkable hand of divine justice; viz. that all the
THE PLAGUE IN LONDON. 169
predictors, astrologers, fortune-tellers, and what
they called cunning men, conjurors, and the like;
calculators of nativities, and dreamers of dreams,
and such people, were gone and vanished, not one
of them was to be found. I am verily persuaded,
that a great number of them fell in the heat of the
calamity, having ventured to stay upon the prospect
of getting great estates; and, indeed, their gain was
but too great for a time, through the madness and
folly of the people; but now they were silent, many
of them went to their long home, not able to foretell
their own fate, or to calculate their own nativities.
Some have been critical enough to say, that every
one of them died. I dare not affirm that ; but this
I must own, that I never heard of one of them that
ever appeared after the calamity was over.
But to return to my particular observations,
during this dreadful part of the visitation. I am
now come, as I have said, to the month of Septem-
ber, which was the most dreadful of its kind, I be-
lieve, that ever London saw; for, by all the accounts
which I have seen of the preceding visitations which
have been in London, nothing has been like it; the
number in the weekly bill amounting to almost
forty thousand, from the 22nd of August to the 26th
of September, being but five weeks. The particu-
lars of the bills are as follows; viz.
From August the 22nd to the 29th......... 7,496
To the 5th of September ..................... 8,252
To the 12th .................................... 7,690
To the 19th .................................... 8,297
To the 26th .................................... 6,460
38,195
This was a prodigious number of itself; but if I
should add the reasons which I have to believe, that
170 THE HISTORY OF
this account was deficient, and how deficient it was,
you would with me make no scruple to believe, that
there died above ten thousand a week for all those
weeks, one week with another, and a proportion for
several weeks, both before and after. The confusion
among the people, especially within the city, at that
time, was inexpressible; the terror was so great at
last, that the courage of the people appointed to
carry away the dead began to fail them; nay, seve-
ral of them died, although they had the distemper
before, and were recovered; and some of them
dropped down when they have been carrying the
bodies even at the pitside, and just ready to throw
them in ; and this confusion was greater in the city,
because they had flattered themselves with hopes of
escaping, and thought the bitterness of death was
past. One cart they told us, going up Shoreditch,
was forsaken by the drivers, or being left to one
man to drive, he died in the street, and the horses
going on, overthrew the cart, and left the bodies,
some thrown here, some there, in a dismal manner.
Another cart was, it seems, found in the great pit in
Finsbury-fields; the driver being dead, or having
been gone and abandoned it, and the horses run-
ning too near it, the cart fell in and drew the horses
in also. It was suggested that the driver was thrown
in with it, and that the cart fell upon him, by reason
his whip was seen to be in the pit among the bodies;
but that, I suppose, could not be certain.
In our parish of Aldgate, the dead carts were
several times, as I have heard, found standing at
the churchyard gate, full of dead bodies; but neither
bellman or driver, or any one else with it. Neither
in these, or many other cases, did they know what
bodies they had in their cart, for sometimes they
were let down with ropes out of balconies and out
of windows; and sometimes the bearers brought
.THE PLAGUE IN LONDON. 171
them to the cart, sometimes other people; nor, as
the men themselves said, did they trouble themselves
to keep any account of the numbers.
The vigilance of the magistrate was now put to
the utmost trial; and, it must be confessed, can
never be enough acknowledged on this occasion;
also, whatever expense or trouble they were at, two
things were never neglected in the city or suburbs
either.
1. Provisions were always to be had in full plenty,
and the price not much raised neither, hardly worth
speaking.
2. No dead bodies lay unburied or uncovered;
and if one walked from the one end of the city to
another, no funeral or sign of it was to be seen in
the daytime; except a little, as I have said, in the
three first weeks in September.
This last article, perhaps, will hardly be believed,
when some accounts which others have published
since that, shall be seen ; wherein they say, that the
dead lay unburied, which I am sure was utterly
false; at least, if it had been anywhere so, it must
have been in houses where the living were gone
from the dead, having found means, as I have ob-
served, to escape, and where no notice was given to
the officers. All which amounts to nothing at all
in the case in hand; for this I am positive in, having
been myself employed a little in the direction of that
part in the parish in which I lived, and where as
great a desolation was made, in proportion to the
number of inhabitants, as was anywhere. I say, I
am sure that there were no dead bodies remained
unburied ; that is to say, none that the proper
officers knew of none for want of people to carry
them off, and buriers to put them into the ground
and cover them; and this is sufficient for the argu-
ment; for what might lie in houses and holes, as in
172 THE HISTORY OF
Moses and Aaron-alley, is nothing, for it is most
certain they were buried as soon as they were found.
As to the first article, namely, of provisions, the
scarcity or dearness, though I have mentioned it
before, and shall speak of it again, yet I must ob-
serve here,
(1.) The price of bread, in particular, was not
raised ; for, in the beginning of the year, viz. in the
first week in March, the penny wheaten loaf was
ten ounces and a half; and in the height of the
contagion, it was to be had at nine ounces and a
half, and never dearer, no, not all that season. And
about the beginning of November, it was sold ten
ounces and a half again; the like of which, I be-
lieve, was never heard of in any city, under so
dreadful a visitation, before.
(2.) Neither was there, which I wondered much
at, any want of bakers or ovens kept open to sup-
ply the people with bread ; but this was indeed al-
leged by some families, viz. that their maid-
servants going to the bakehouses with their dough
to be baked, which was then the custom, sometimes
came home with the sickness upon them, that is to
say, the plague upon them.
In all this dreadful visitation, there were, as I
have said before, but two pesthouses made use of,
viz. one in the fields beyond Old-street, and one
in Westminster; neither was there any compulsion
used in carrying people thither. Indeed there was
no need of compulsion in the case, for there were
thousands of poor distressed people, who, having
no help, or conveniences, or supplies, but of charity,
would have been very glad to have been carried
thither, and been taken care of, which, indeed,
was the only thing that, I think, was wanting in
the whole public management of the city; seeing
nobody was here allowed to be brought to the
THE PLAGUE IN LONDON. 173
pesthouse, but where money was given, or security
for money, either at their introducing, or upon their
being cured and sent out; for many were sent out
again whole, and very good physicians were ap-
pointed to those places, so that many people did
very well there, of which I will make mention again.
The principal sort of people sent thither were, as I
have said, servants, who got the distemper by going
of errands to fetch necessaries for the families
where they lived; and who, in that case, if they
came home sick, were removed, to preserve the rest
of the house; and they were so well looked after
there, in all the time of the visitation, that there
was but 156 buried in all at the London pesthouse,
and 159 at that of Westminster.
The magistrates wisely caused the people to be
encouraged, made very good by-laws for the regu-
lating the citizens, keeping good order in the streets,
and making everything as eligible as possible to all
sorts of people.
In the first place, the lord mayor and the sheriffs,
the court of aldermen, and a certain number of the
common-council men, or their deputies, came to a
resolution, and published it, viz. that they would
not quit the city themselves, but that they would
be always at hand for the preserving good order in
every place, and for doing justice on all occasions;
as also for the distributing the public charity to the
poor; and, in a word, for the doing the duty and
discharging the trust reposed in them by the citizens,
to the utmost of their power.
In pursuance of these orders, the lord mayor,
sheriffs, &c., held councils every day, more or less,
for making such dispositions as they found needful
for preserving the civil peace; and though they
used the people with all possible gentleness and
174 THE HISTORY OF
clemency, yet all manner of presumptuous rogues,
such as thieves, housebreakers, plunderers of the
dead or of the sick, were duly punished, and seve-
ral declarations were continually published by the
lord mayor and court of aldermen against such.
Also, all constables and churchwardens were
enjoined to stay in the city upon severe penalties,
or to depute such able and sufficient housekeepers
as the deputy-aldermen, or common-council men
of the precinct should approve, and for whom they
should give security; and also security in case of
mortality, that they would forthwith constitute
other constables in their stead.
These things re-established the minds of the peo-
ple very much ; especially in the first of their fright,
when they talked of making so universal a flight,
that the city would have been in danger of being
entirely deserted of its inhabitants, except the poor,
and the country of being plundered and laid waste
by the multitude. Nor were the magistrates de-
ficient in performing their part as boldly as they
promised it; for my lord mayor and the sheriffs
were continually in the streets, and at places of the
greatest danger; and though they did not care for
having too great a resort of people crowding upon
them, yet, in emergent cases, they never denied the
people access to them, and heard with patience all
their grievances and complaints; my lord had a
low gallery, built on purpose in his hall, where he
stood, a little removed from the crowd, when any
complaint came to be heard, that he might appear
with as much safety as possible. -
Likewise, the proper officers, called my lord
mayor's officers, constantly attended in their turns,
as they were in waiting ; and if any of them were
sick or infected, as some of them were, others were
THE PLAGUE IN LONDON. 175
instantly employed to fill up and officiate in their
places, till it was known whether the other should
live or die.
In like manner the sheriffs and aldermen did, in
their several stations and wards, where they were
placed by office, and the sheriff's officers or ser-
jeants were appointed to receive orders from the
respective aldermen in their turn ; so that justice
was executed in all cases without interruption. In
the next place, it was one of their particular cares
to see the orders for the freedom of the markets ob-
served ; and in this part, either the lord mayor, or
one or both of the sheriffs, were every market-day
on horseback to see their orders executed, and to
see that the country people had all possible encou-
ragement and freedom in their coming to the mar-
kets, and going back again; and that no nuisance
or frightful object should be seen in the streets to
terrify them, or make them unwilling to come.
Also, the bakers were taken under particular order,
and the master of the Bakers’ Company was, with
his court of assistants, directed to see the order of
my lord mayor for their regulation put in exe-
cution, and the due assize of bread, which was
weekly appointed by my lord mayor, observed ;
and all the bakers were obliged to keep their ovens
going constantly, on pain of losing the privileges of
freeman of the city of London.
By this means, bread was always to be had in
plenty, and as cheap as usual, as I said above; and
provisions were never wanting in the markets, even
to such a degree that I often wondered at it, and
reproached myself with being so timorous and cau-
tious in stirring abroad, when the country people
came freely and boldly to market, as if there had
been no manner of infection in the city, or danger
of catching it.
I76 THE HISTORY OF
It was, indeed, one admirable piece of conduct
in the said magistrates, that the streets were kept
constantly clear and free from all manner of fright-
ful objects, dead bodies, or any such things as were
indecent or unpleasant; unless where anybody fell
down suddenly, or died in the streets, as I have
said above, and these were generally covered with
some cloth or blanket, or removed into the next
churchyard till night. All the needful works that
carried terror with them, that were both dismal
and dangerous, were done in the night; if any
diseased bodies were removed, or dead bodies
buried, or infected clothes burnt, it was done in the
night; and all the bodies which were thrown into
the great pits in the several churchyards or burying-
grounds, as has been observed, were so removed in
the night; and everything was covered and closed
before day. So that in the daytime, there was
not the least signal of the calamity to be seen or
heard of, except what was to be observed from the
emptiness of the streets, and sometimes from the
passionate cries and lamentations of the people, out
at their windows, and from the numbers of houses
and shops shut up.
Nor was the silence and emptiness of the streets
so much in the city as in the out-parts; except
just at one particular time, when, as I have men-
tioned, the plague came east, and spread over all
the city. It was indeed a merciful disposition of
God, that as the plague began at one end of the
town first, as has been observed at large, so it pro-
ceeded progressively to other parts, and did not
come on this way, or eastward, till it had spent its
fury in the west part of the town ; and so as it
come on one way, it abated another.
And here let me take leave to enter again,
though it may seem a repetition of circumstances,
THE PLAGUE IN LONDON. 177
into a description of the miserable condition of the
city itself, and of those parts where I lived, at this
particular time. The city, and those other parts,
notwithstanding the great numbers of people that
were gone into the country, was vastly full of peo-
ple; and perhaps the fuller, because people had, for
a long time, a strong belief that the plague would
not come into the city, nor into Southwark, no, nor
into Wapping or Ratcliff at all; nay, such was the
assurance of the people on that head, that many re-
moved from the suburbs on the west and north
sides, into those eastern and south sides as for
safety, and, as I verily believe, carried the plague
amongst them there, perhaps sooner than they
would otherwise have had it.
Here, also, I ought to leave a further remark for
the use of posterity, concerning the manner of
people's infecting one another; namely, that it was
not the sick people only from whom the plague was
immediately received by others that were sound,
but the well. To explain myself; by the sick
people, I mean those that were known to be sick,
had taken their beds, had been under cure, or had
swellings or tumours upon them, and the like :
these everybody could beware of they were either
in their beds, or in such condition as could not be
concealed.
By the well, I mean such as had received the
contagion, and had it really upon them, and in their
blood, yet did not show the consequences of it in
their countenances; nay, even were not sensible of
it themselves, as many were not for several days.
These breathed death in every place, and upon
everybody who came near them; nay, their very
clothes retained the infection, their hands would
infect the things they touched, especially if they
PLAGUE. N
178 THE HISTORY OF
were warm and sweaty ; and they were generally.
apt to sweat too.
Now it was impossible to know these people, nor
did they sometimes, as I have said, know them-
selves to be infected. These were the people that .
dropt down and fainted in the streets; for often-
times they would go about the streets to the last,
till on a sudden they would sweat, grow faint, sit
down at a door, and die. It is true, finding them-
selves thus, they would struggle hard to get home
to their own doors, or, at other times, would be
just able to go into their houses, and die instantly ;
other times they would go about till they had the
very tokens come out upon them, and yet not know
it, and would die in an hour or two after they came
home, but be well as long as they were abroad.
These were the dangerous people, these were the
people of whom the well people ought to have been
afraid; but then, on the other side, it was impos-
sible to know them.
Many persons, in the time of this visitation, never
perceived that they were infected, till they found,
to their unspeakable surprise, the tokens come out
upon them, after which they seldom lived six hours;
for those spots they called the tokens were really
gangrene spots, or mortified flesh, in small knobs
as broad as a little silver penny, and hard as a piece
of callus or horn ; so that when the disease was
come up to that length, there was nothing could
follow but certain death; and yet, as I said, they
knew nothing of their being infected, nor found
themselves so much as out of order, till those
mortal marks were upon them. But everybody
must allow that they were infected in a high
degree before, and must have been so some time ;
and, consequently, their breath, their sweat, their
THE PLAGUE IN LONDON. 179
very clothes were contagious for many days be-
fore. -
This occasioned a vast variety of cases, which
physicians would have much more opportunity to
remember than I; but some came within the com-
pass of my observation, or hearing, of which I shall
name a few. . -
A certain citizen, who had lived safe and
untouched till the month of September, when the
weight of the distemper lay more in the city than
it had done before, was mighty cheerful, and some-
thing too bold, as I think it was, in his talk of how
secure he was, how cautious he had been, and how
he had never come near any sick body. Says
another citizen, a neighbour of his, to him, one day,
Do not be too confident, Mr. ; it is hard to say
who is sick and who is well; for we see men alive
and well to outward appearance one hour, and
dead the next. That is true, says the first man,
(for he was not a man presumptuously secure, but
had escaped a long while ; and men, as I said above,
especially in the city, began to be over-easy upon
that score): That is true, says he, I do not think
myself secure, but I hope I have not been in com-
pany with any person that there has been any
danger in. No 1 says his neighbour; was not you
at the Bull-head tavern in Gracechurch-street, with
Mr. , the night before last 2 Yes, says the first,
I was, but there was nobody there that we had any
reason to think dangerous. Upon which his neigh-
bour said no more, being unwilling to surprise him;
but this made him more inquisitive, and, as his
neighbour appeared backward, he was the more
impatient; and, in a kind of warmth, says he aloud,
Why, he is not dead, is he Upon which his neigh-
bour still was silent, but cast up his eyes, and said
something to himself; at which the first citizen
&T.
N 2.
180 THE HISTORY OF
turned pale, and said no more than this, Then I am
a dead man too ! and went home immediately, and
sent for a neighbouring apothecary to give him
something preventive, for he had not yet found him-
self ill; but the apothecary opening his breast,
fetched a sigh, and said no more than this, Look
up to God; and the man died in a few hours.
The plague, like a great fire if a few houses only
are contiguous where it happens, can only burn a
few houses; or if it begins in a single, or, as we
call it, a lone house, can only burn that lone house
where it begins. But if it begins in a close town
or city, and gets ahead, there its fury increases,
it rages over the whole place, and consumes all it
can reach.
It is true, hundreds, yea thousands, of families
fled away at this last plague ; but then of them
many fled too late, and not only died in their flight,
but carried the distemper with them into the coun-
tries where they went, and infected those whom
they went among for safety; which confounded the
thing, and made that be a propagation of the dis-
temper which was the best means to prevent it ;
and this too, is evident of it, and brings me back
ſto what I only hinted at before, but must speak
more fully to here ; namely, that men went about
apparently well, many days after they had the taint
of the disease in their vitals, and after their spirits
were so seized as that they could never escape it :
and that all the while they did so they were dan-
gerous to others; I say, this proves that so it was ;
for such people infected the very towns they went
through, as well as the families they went among.
And it was by that means that almost all the great
towns in England had the distemper among them,
more or less; and always they would tell you such
a Londoner or such a Londoner brought it down.
THE PLAGUE IN LONDON. 18J
It must not be omitted, that when I speak of
those people who were really thus dangerous, I
suppose them to be utterly ignorant of their own
condition; for if they really knew their circum-
stances to be such as indeed they were, they must
have been a kind of wilful murderers, if they would
have gone abroad among healthy people, and it
would have verified the suggestion which I men-
tioned above, and which I thought untrue, viz.,
that the infected people were utterly careless as
to giving the infection to others, and rather for-
ward to do it than not ; and I believe it was partly
from this very thing that they raised that sugges-
tion, which I hope was not really true in fact.
I confess no particular case is sufficient to prove
a general, but I could name several people within
the knowledge of some of their neighbours and
families yet living, who showed the contrary to an
extreme. One man, a master of a family in my
neighbourhood, having had the distemper, he
thought he had it given him by a poor workman
whom he employed, and whom he went to his houses
to see, or went for some work that he wanted
to have finished ; and he had some apprehensions
even while he was at the poor workman's door, but
did not discover it fully, but the next day it dis-
covered itself, and he was taken very ill; upon
which he immediately caused himself to be carried
into an outbuilding which he had in his yard, and
where there was a chamber over a workhouse, the
man being a brazier. Here he lay, and here he died;
and would be tended by none of his neighbours, but
by a nurse from abroad; and would not suffer his
wife, nor children, nor servants, to come up into the
room, lest they should be infected, but sent them his
blessing and prayers for them by the nurse, who
spoke it to them at distance; and all this for fear
182 THE HISTORY OF
of giving them the distemper, and without which,
he knew, as they were kept up, they could not
have it.
And here I must observe also that the plague,
as I suppose all distempers do, operated in a dif-
ferent manner on different constitutions. Some
were immediately overwhelmed with it, and it came
to violent fevers, vomitings, insufferable headaches,
pains in the back ; and so up to ravings and rag-
ings with those pains: others with swellings and
tumours in the neck and groin, or armpits, which,
till they could be broke, put them into insufferable
agonies and torment; while others, as I have ob-
served, were silently infected, the fever preying
upon their spirits insensibly, and they seeing little
of it till they fell into swooning, and faintings, and
death without pain.
I am not physician enough to enter into the par-
ticular reasons and manner of these differing effects
of one and the same distemper, and of its differing
operation in several bodies; nor is it my business
here to record the observations which I really
made, because the doctors themselves have done
that part much more effectually than I can do,
and because my opinion may, in some things, differ
from theirs. I am only relating what I know, or
have heard, or believe of the particular cases, and
what fell within the compass of my view, and the
different nature of the infection, as it appeared in
the particular cases which I have related; but this
may be added, too, that though the former sort of
those cases, namely, those openly visited, were the
worst for themselves as to pain, I mean those that
had such fevers, vomitings, headaches, pains, and
swellings, because they died in such a dreadful
manner; yet the latter had the worst state of the
disease, for in the former they frequently recover-
THE PLAGUE IN LONDON. 183
ed, especially if the swellings broke ; but the latter
was inevitable death, no cure, no help could be
possible, nothing could follow but death ; and it
was worse also to others, because, as above, it
secretly, and unperceived by others or by themselves,
communicated death to those they conversed with,
the penetrating poison insinuating itself into their
blood in a manner which it was impossible to de-
scribe, or indeed conceive.
This infecting and being infected, without so
much as its being known to either person, is evident
from two sorts of cases, which frequently hap-
pened at that time; and there is hardly anybody
living, who was in London during the infection,
but must have known several of the cases of both
SOrtS.
1. Fathers and mothers have gone about as if
they had been well, and have believed themselves
to be so, till they have insensibly infected and been
the destruction of their whole families; which they
would have been far from doing, if they had had the
least apprehensions of their being dangerous them-
selves. A family, whose story I have heard, was
thus infected by the father, and the distemper be-
gan to appear upon some of them even before he
found it upon himself; but searching more nar-
rowly, it appeared he had been affected some time,
and as soon as he found that his family had been
poisoned by himself, he went distracted, and would
have laid violent hands upon himself, but was kept
from that by those who looked to him, and in a few
days died. .
2. The other particular is, that many people
having been well to the best of their own judgment,
or by the best observation which they could make
of themselves for several days, and only finding a
decay of appetite, or a light sickness upon their
184 THE HISTORY OF
stomachs; nay, some whose appetite has been
strong, and even craving, and only a light pain in
their heads, have sent for physicians to know what
ailed them, and have been found, to their great sur-
prise, at the brink of death, the tokens upon them,
or the plague grown up to an incurable height.
It was very sad to reflect, how such a person as
this last mentioned above, had been a walking de-
stroyer, perhaps for a week or fortnight before that ;
how he had ruined those that he would have
hazarded his life to save; and had been breathing
death upon them, even perhaps in his tender kissing
and embracings of his own children. Yet thus cer-
tainly it was, and often has been, and I could give
many particular cases where it has been so. If then
the blow is thus insensibly striking; if the arrow
flies thus unseen, and cannot be discovered; to what
purpose are all the schemes for shutting up or re-
moving the sick people? Those schemes cannot take
place but upon those that appear to be sick, or to
be infected; whereas there are among them, at the
same time, thousands of people who seem to be well,
but are all that while carrying death with them into
all companies which they come into. -
This frequently puzzled our physicians, and espe-
cially the apothecaries and surgeons, who knew not
how to discover the sick from the sound. They all
allowed that it was really so; that many people had
the plague in their very blood, and preying upon
their spirits, and were in themselves but walking
putrefied carcases, whose breath was infectious, and
their sweat poison, and yet were as well to look on
as other people, and even knew it not themselves;
I say, they all allowed that it was really true in fact,
but they knew not how to propose a discovery.
My friend Dr. Heath was of opinion, that it might
be known by the smell of their breath; but then, as
THE PLAGUE IN LONDON. 185
he said, who durst smell to that breath for his infor-
mation ? since, to know it, he must draw the stench
of the plague up into his own brain, in order to dis-
tinguish the smell! I have heard, it was the opinion
of others, that it might be distinguished by the
party's breathing upon a piece of glass, where, the
breath condensing, there might living creatures be
seen, by a microscope, of strange, monstrous, and
frightful shapes, such as dragons, snakes, serpents,
and devils, horrible to behold. But this I very
much question the truth of; and we had no mi-
croscopes at that time, as I remember, to make the
experiment with. - - -
It was the opinion also of another learned man,
that the breath of such a person would poison and
instantly kill a small bird; not only a small bird,
but even a cock or hen; and that, if it did not im-
mediately kill the latter, it would cause them to be
roupy, as they call it; particularly that if they had
laid any eggs at that time, they would be all rotten.
But those are opinions which I never found sup-
ported by any experiments, or heard of others that
had seen it; so I leave them as I find them, only
with this remark, namely, that I think the probabi-
lities are very strong for them. :
Some have proposed that such persons should
breathe hard upon warm water, and that they would
leave an unusual scum upon it, or upon several other
things; especially such as are of a glutinous sub-
stance, and are apt to receive a scum, and support
it. -
But, from the whole, I found that the nature of
this contagion was such, that it was impossible to
discover it at all, or to prevent it spreading from
one to another by any human skill. %
Great were the confusions at that time upon this
very account; and when people began to be con-
186 THE HISTORY OF .
vinced, that the infection was received in this sur-
prising manner from persons apparently well, they,
began to be exceeding shy and jealous of every one
that came near them. Once, in a public day,
whether a sabbath day or not, I do not remember,
in Aldgate church, in a pew full of people, on a
sudden one fancied she smelt an ill smell; imme-
diately she fancies the plague was in the pew,
whispers her notion or suspicion to the next, then
rises and goes out of the pew ; it immediately took
with the next, and so with them all, and every one,
of them and of the two adjoining pews, got up and
went out of the church, nobody knowing what it
was offended them, or from whom.
This immediately filled everybody's mouths with
one preparation or other, such as the old women
directed, and some perhaps as physicians directed,
in order to prevent infection by the breath of others;
insomuch, that if we came to go into a church, when
it was anything full of people, there would be such
a mixture of smells at the entrance, that it was much
more strong, though perhaps not so wholesome, than
if you were going into an apothecary’s or druggist's
shop. In a word, the whole church was like a
smelling bottle; in one corner it was all perfumes,
in another aromatics, balsamics, and variety of
drugs and herbs; in another, salts and spirits, as
every one was furnished for their own preservation;
yet I observed, that after people were possessed, as
I have said, with the belief, or rather assurance, of
the infection being thus carried on by persons ap-
rarently in health, the churches and meeting-houses
were much thinner of people than at other times,
before that, they used to be ; for this is to be said of
the people of London, that, during the whole time
of the pestilence, the churches or meetings were
never wholly shut up, nor did the people decline
THE PLAGUE IN LONDON. 187
coming out to the public worship of God, except.
only in some parishes, when the violence of the
distemper was more particularly in that parish at
that time; and even then no longer than it continued
to be so. -
Indeed, nothing was more strange than to see
with what courage the people went to the public
service of God, even at that time when they were
afraid to stir out of their own houses upon any other
occasion; this I mean before the time of desperation
which I have mentioned already. This was a proof
of the exceeding populousness of the city at the
time of the infection, notwithstanding the great
numbers that were gone into the country at the first
alarm, and that fled out into the forests and woods
when they were further terrified with the extraor-
dinary increase of it. -
It must be acknowledged, that when people began
to use these cautions, they were less exposed to
danger, and the infection did not break into such
houses so furiously as it did into others before, and
thousands of families were preserved, speaking with
due reserve to the direction of divine Providence,
by that means.
But it was impossible to beat anything into the
heads of the poor. They went on with the usual
impetuosity of their tempers, full of outcries and
lamentation when taken, but madly careless of them-
selves, foolhardy and obstinate, while they were
well. Where they could get employment they
pushed into any kind of business, the most danger-
ous and the most liable to infection; and, if they
were spoken to, their answer would be, I must trust
to God for that ; if I am taken, then I am provided
for, and there is an end of me; and the like. Or.
thus, Why what must I do? I cannot starve, I had
as good have the plague as perish for want; I have
188 THE HISTORY OF
no work; what could I do? I must do this, or beg.
Suppose it was burying the dead, or attending the
sick, or watching infected houses, which were all
terrible hazards; but their tale was generally the
same. It is true, necessity was a very justifiable,
warrantable plea, and nothing could be better; but
their way of talk was much the same, where the
necessities were not the same. This adventurous
conduct of the poor was that which brought the plague
among them in a most furious manner; and this,
joined to the distress of their circumstances, when
taken, was the reason why they died so by heaps;
for I cannot say I could observe one jot of better
husbandry among them, I mean the labouring poor,
while they were all well and getting money, than
there was before, but as lavish, as extravagant, and
as thoughtless for tomorrow as ever; so that, when
they came to be taken sick, they were immediately
in the utmost distress, as well for want as for sick-
ness, as well for lack of food as lack of health.
It must not be forgot here to take some notice of
the state of trade during the time of this common
calamity; and this with respect to foreign trade, as
also to our home trade.
As to foreign trade, there needs little to be said.
The trading nations of Europe were all afraid of us;
no port of France, or Holland, or Spain, or Italy,
would admit our ships or correspond with us; indeed
we stood on ill terms with the Dutch, and were in
a furious war with them, though in a bad condition
to fight abroad, who had such dreadful enemies to
struggle with at home.
Our merchants were accordingly at a full stop,
their ships could go nowhere, that is to say, to no
place abroad; their manufactures and merchandise,
that is to say, of our growth, would not be touched
abroad; they were as much afraid of our goods as
TIIE PLAGUE IN LONDON. 189
they were of our people; and, indeed, they had
reason, for our woollen manufactures are as retentive
of infection as human bodies, and, if packed up by
persons infected, would receive the infection and be
as dangerous to touch as a man would be that was
infected; and, therefore, when any English vessel
arrived in foreign countries, if they did take the
goods on shore, they always caused the bales to be
opened and aired in places appointed for that pur-
pose. But from London, they would not suffer them
to come into port, much less to unlade their goods
upon any terms whatever.
The inconveniences in Spain and Portugal were
still greater; for they would by no means suffer
our ships, especially those from London, to come
into any of their ports, much less to unlade. There
was a report, that one of our ships, having by stealth
delivered her cargo, among which was some English
cloth, cotton, kerseys, and such-like goods, the Spa-
niards caused all the goods to be burnt, and punished
the men with death who were concerned in carrying
them on shore. This I believe was in part true,
though I do not affirm it; but it is not at all unlikely,
seeing the danger was really very great, the infec-
tion being so violent in London.
It remains to give some account of the state of
trade at home in England, during this dreadful time;
and, particularly, as it relates to the manufactures
and the trade in the city. At the first breaking out
of the infection, there was, as it is easy to suppose,
a very great fright among the people, and conse-
quently a general stop of trade, except in provisions
and necessaries of life; and even in those things,
as there was a vast number of people fled, and a
very great number always sick, besides the number
which died, so there could not be above two-thirds,
190 THE HISTORY OF
if above one-half of the consumption of provisions
in the city as used to be.
It pleased God to send a very plentiful year of
corn and fruit, but not of hay or grass; by which
means bread was cheap, by reason of the plenty of
corn; flesh was cheap, by reason of the scarcity of
grass; but butter and cheese were dear for the
same reason; and hay in the market, just beyond
Whitechapel bars, was sold at 4l, per load; but
that affected not the poor. There was a most ex-
cessive plenty of all sorts of fruit, such as apples,
pears, plumbs, cherries, grapes, and they were the
cheaper, because of the wants of the people; but
this made the poor eat them to excess, and this
brought them into fluxes, griping of the guts, sur-
feits, and the like, which often precipitated them
into the plague.
But to come to matters of trade. First, foreign
exportation being stopped, or at least very much
interrupted, and rendered difficult, a general stop
of all those manufactures followed of course, which
were usually brought for exportation ; and, though
merchants abroad were importunate for goods, yet
little was sent, the passages being so generally
stopped that the English ships would not be ad-
mitted, as is said already, into their port.
This put a stop to the manufactures that were
for exportation in most parts of England, except in
some outports, and even that was soon stopped;
for they all had the plague in their turn. But,
though this was felt all over England, yet, what was
still, worse, all intercourse of trade for home con-
sumption of manufactures, especially those which
usually circulated through the Londoners’ hands,
was stopped at once, the trade of the city being
stopped. - -
THE PLAGUE IN LONDON. 191
All kinds of handicraft in the city, &c., trades-
men and mechanics, were, as I have said before,
out of employ, and this occasioned the putting off
and dismissing an innumerable number of journey-
men and workmen of all sorts, seeing nothing was
done relating to such trades, but what might be
said to be absolutely necessary.
This caused the multitude of single people in
London to be unprovided for ; as also of families,
whose living depended upon the labour of the heads
of those families; I say, this reduced them to ex-
treme misery; and I must confess, it is for the ho-
nour of the city of London, and will be for many
ages, as long as this is to be spoken of, that they
were able to supply with charitable provision the
wants of so many thousands as afterwards fell sick,
and were distressed; so that it may be safely averred,
that nobody perished for want, at least that the
magistrates had any notice given them of. -
It remains now, that I should say something of
the merciful part of this terrible judgment. The
last week in September, the plague being come to a
crisis, its fury began to assuage. I remember my
friend Dr. Heath, coming to see me the week be-
fore, told me, he was sure that the violence of it
would assuage in a few days; but, when I saw the
weekly bill of that week, which was the highest of
the whole year, being 8,297 of all diseases, I up-
braided him with it, and asked him, what he had
made his judgment from. His answer, however,
was not so much to seek as I thought it would have
been. Look you, says he ; by the number which
are at this time sick and infected, there should
have been twenty thousand dead the last week
instead of eight thousand, if the inveterate mortal
contagion had been as it was two weeks ago; for
192 THE HISTORY OF
then it ordinarily killed in two or three days, now
not under eight or ten; and then not above one in
five recovered, whereas, I have observed, that now
not above two in five miscarry; and observe it from
me, the next bill will decrease, and you will see
many more people recover than used to do ; for,
though a vast multitude are now everywhere in-
fected, and as many every day fall sick, yet there
will not so many die as there did, for the malignity
of the distemper is abated ; adding, that he began
now to hope, nay, more than hope, that the infec-
tion had passed its crisis, and was going off; and,
accordingly, so it was, for the next week being, as
I said, the last in September, the bill decreased al-
most two thousand. -
It is true, the plague was still at a frightful height,
and the next bill was no less than 6,460, and the
next to that 5,720; but still my friend’s observation
was just, and it did appear the people did recover
faster, and more in number, than they used to do;
and, indeed, if it had not been so, what had been
the condition of the city of London P for, according
to my friend, there were not fewer than sixty thou-
sand people at that time infected, whereof, as above,
20,477 died, and near forty thousand recovered;
whereas, had it been as it was before, fifty thousand
of that number would very probably have died, if not
more, and fifty thousand more would have sickened;
for, in a word, the whole mass of people began to
sicken, and it looked as if none would escape.
But this remark of my friend's appeared more
evident in a few weeks more; for the decrease went
on, and another week in October it decreased 1843,
so that the number dead of the plague was but
2,665; and the next week it decreased 1413 more,
and yet it was seen plainly, that there was abund-
THE PLAGUE IN LONDON. 193
ance of people sick, nay abundance more than or-
dinary, and abundance fell sick every day, but, as
above, the malignity of the disease abated.
Such is the precipitant disposition of our people,
whether it is so or not all over the world that is
none of my particular business to inquire, but I
saw it apparently here, that as, upon the first fright
of the infection, they shunned one another, and fled
from one another's houses, and from the city, with
an unaccountable, and, as I thought, unnecessary
fright ; so now, upon this notion spreading, viz.,
that the distemper was not so catching as formerly,
and that, if it was catched, it was not so mortal;
and seeing abundance of people who really fell sick
recover again daily, they took to such a precipitant
courage, and grew so entirely regardless of them-
selves and of the infection, that they made no more
of the plague than of an ordinary fever, nor indeed
so much. They not only went boldly into company
with those who had tumours and carbuncles upon
them that were running, and consequently conta-
gious, but eat and drank with them; nay, into their
houses to visit them ; and even, as I was told, into
their very chambers where they lay sick.
This I could not see rational. My friend Dr.
Heath allowed, and it was plain to experience, that
the distemper was as catching as ever, and as many
fell sick, but only he alleged that so many of those
that fell sick did not die; but I think, that, while
many did die, and that at best the distemper itself
was very terrible, the sores and swellings very tor-
menting, and the danger of death not left out of
the circumstance of sickness, though not so fre-
quent as before ; all those things together, with the
exceeding tediousness of the cure, the loathsome-
ness of the disease, and many other articles, were
enough to deter any man living from a dangerous
PLAGUE. - O
194 THE HISTORY OF
mixture with the sick people, and make them as
anxious almost to avoid the infection as before.
Nay, there was another thing which made the
mere catching of the distemper frightful, and that
was the terrible burning of the caustics which the
surgeons laid on the swellings, to bring them to
break and to run; without which, the danger of
death was very great, even to the last; also, the
insufferable torment of the swelling, which, though
it might not make people raving and distracted, as
they were before, and as I have given several in-
stances of already, yet they put the patient to in-
expressible torment ; and those that fell into it,
though they did escape with life, yet they made
bitter complaints of those that had told them there
was no danger, and sadly repented their rashness
and folly in venturing to run into the reach of it.
Nor did this unwary conduct of the people end
here; for a great many that thus cast off their cau-
tions, suffered more deeply still, and though many
escaped, yet many died; and at least, it had this
public mischief attending it, that it made the de-
crease of burials slower than it would otherwise
have been ; for, as this motion run like lightning
through the city, and people's heads were possessed
with it, even as soon as the first great decrease in
the bills appeared, we found that the two next bills
did not decrease in proportion; the reason I take
to be the people's running so rashly into danger,
giving up all their former cautions and care, and all
the shyness which they used to practise; depend-
ing that the sickness would not reach them, or
that, if it did, they should not die. *
The physicians opposed this thoughtless humour
of the people with all their might, and gave out
printed directions, spreading them all over the city
and suburbs, advising the people to continue re-
THE PLAGUE IN LONDON. 195
served, and to use still the utmost caution in their
ordinary conduct, notwithstanding the decrease of
the distemper; terrifying them with the danger of
bringing a relapse upon the whole city, and telling
them how such a relapse might be more fatal and
dangerous than the whole visitation that had been
already; with many arguments and reasons to ex-
plain and prove that part to them, and which are
too long to repeat here.
But it was all to no purpose; the audacious crea-
tures were so possessed with the first joy, and so
surprised with the satisfaction of seeing a vast de-
crease in the weekly bills, that they were impene-
trable by any new terrors, and would not be per-
suaded, but that the bitterness of death was passed;
and it was to no more purpose to talk to them, than
to an east wind; but they opened shops, went
about streets, did business, and conversed with any-
body that came in their way to converse with, whe-
ther with business or without ; neither inquiring of
their health, or so much as being apprehensive of
any danger from them, though they knew them not
to be sound. -
One John Cock, a barber in St. Martin's-le-
Grand, was an eminent example of this; I mean
of the hasty return of the people when the plague
was abated. This John Cock had left the town
with his whole family, and locked up his house,
and was gone into the country as many others did ;
and finding the plague so decreased in November,
that there died but 905 per week, of all diseases,
he ventured home again; he had in his family ten
persons, that is to say, himself and wife, five chil-
dren, two apprentices, and a maid-servant; he had
not been returned to his house above a week, and
began to open his shop, and carry on his trade, but
the distemper broke out in his family, and within
O 2
196 THE HISTORY OF
about five days they all died, except one; that is
to say, himself, his wife, all his five children, and
his two apprentices; and only the maid remained
alive. - * .
But the mercy of God was greater to the rest
than we had reason to expect; for the malignity,
as I have said, of the distemper was spent, the con-
tagion was exhausted, and also the winter weather
came on apace, and the air was clear and cold, with
some sharp frosts; and these increasing still, most
of those that had fallen sick recovered, and the
health of the city began to return. There was, in-
deed, some returns of the distemper, even in the
month of December, and the bills increased near a
hundred ; but it went off again, and so in a short
while things began to return to their own channel.
And wonderful it was to see how populous the city
was again all on a sudden ; so that a stranger
could not miss the numbers that were lost, neither
was there any miss of the inhabitants as to their
dwellings. Few or no empty houses were to be
seen, or if there were some, there was no want of
tenants for them. . -
The people being thus returned, as it were in
in general, it was very strange to find, that in their
inquiring after their friends, some whole families
were so entirely swept away, that there was no re-
membrance of them left; neither was anybody to
be found to possess or show any title to that little.
they had left; for in such cases, what was to be
found was generally embezzled and purloined, some
gone one way, some another. -
It was said such abandoned effects came to the
king as the universal heir ; upon which we are told,
and I suppose it was in part true, that the king
granted all such as deodands to the lord mayor and
court of aldermen of London, to be applied to the
THE PLAGUE IN LONDON. 197
use of the poor, of whom there were very many.
For it is to be observed, that though the occasions
of relief, and the objects of distress were very many
more in the time of the violence of the plague, than
now after all was over; yet the distress of the poor
was more now, a great deal than it was then, be-
cause all the sluices of general charity were shut :
people supposed the main occasion to be over, and
so stopped their hands; whereas, particular objects
were still very moving, and the distress of those
that were poor was very great indeed. . -
I should have mentioned, that the quakers had
at that time also a burying-ground set apart to
their use, and which they still make use of, and
they had also a particular dead-cart to fetch their
dead from their houses; and the famous Solomon
Eagle, who, as I mentioned before, had predicted
the plague as a judgment, and run naked through
the streets, telling the people that it was come upon
them to punish them for their sins, had his own
wife died the very next day of the plague, and was
carried, one of the first, in the quaker's dead-cart
to their new burying-ground. . . .
Great was the reproach thrown on physicians
who left their patients during the sickness; and
now they came to town again, nobody cared to em-
ploy them ; they were called deserters, and fre-
quently bills were set up upon their doors, and
written, Here is a doctor to be let So that seve-
ral of those physicians were fain for awhile to sit
still and look about them, or at least to remove
their dwellings and set up in new places, and among
new acquaintance. The like was the case with the
clergy, who the people were indeed very abusive
to, writing verses and scandalous reflections, upon
them; setting upon the church door, Here is a
198 - THE HISTORY OF
pulpit to be let; or sometimes, To be sold; which
WaS WOrse. .
On the other hand, the dissenters reproaching
those ministers of the Church with going away, and
deserting. their charge, abandoning the people in
their danger, and when they had most need of com-
fort, and the like ; this we could not approve ; for
all men have not the same faith, and the same
courage, and the scripture commands us to judge
the most favourably, and according to charity.
I was once making a list of all such, I mean of
all those professions and employments who thus
died, as I call it, in the way of their duty; but it
was impossible for a private man to come at a cer-
tainty in the particulars. I only remember, that
there died sixteen clergymen, two aldermen, five
physicians, thirteen surgeons, within the city and
liberties, before the beginning of September. But
this being, as I said before, the crisis and extremity
of the infection, it can be no complete list. As to
inferior people, I think there died six and forty con-
stables and headboroughs in the two parishes of
Stepney and Whitechapel; but I could not carry
my list on, for when the violent rage of the distem-
per, in September, came upon us, it drove us out of
all measure. Men did then no more die by tale
and by number ; they might put out a weekly bill,
and call them seven or eight thousand, or what
they pleased; it is certain they died by heaps, and
were buried by heaps; that is to say, without ac-
count. And, if I might believe some people, who
were more abroad and more conversant with those
things than I, though I was public enough for one
that had no more business to do than I had ; I say,
if we may believe them, there was no less than
twenty thousand per week; however the others
THE PLAGUE IN LONDON. 199
aver the truth of it, yet I rather choose to keep to
the public account; seven or eight thousand per
week is enough to make good all that I have said
of the terror of those times; and it is much to the
satisfaction of me that write, as well as those that
read, to be able to say that everything is set down
with moderation, and rather within compass than
beyond it. -
I cannot but leave it upon record, that the civil
officers, such as constables, headboroughs, lord-
mayor's and sheriff's-men, also parish officers, whose
business it was to take charge of the poor, did their
duties, in general, with as much courage as any,
and, perhaps, with more; because their work was
attended with more hazards, and lay more among
the poor, who were more subject to be infected,
and in the most pitiful plight when they were taken
with the infection. But then it must be added too,
that a great number of them died; indeed it was
scarce possible it should be otherwise.
I have not said one word here about the physic
or preparations that were ordinarily made use of on
this terrible occasion ; I mean we that went fre-
quently abroad up and down the streets, as I did ;
much of this was talked of in the books and bills of
our quack doctors, of whom I have said enough
already. It may, however, be added, that the
College of Physicians were daily publishing several
preparations, which they had considered of in the
process of their practice; and which, being to be
had in print, I avoid repeating them for that
Te2SOſl.
One thing I could not help observing, what befell
one of the quacks, who published that he had a .
most excellent preservative against the plague,
which whoever kept about them should never be
200 * THE HISTORY OF
infected, or liable to infection. This man, who, we
may reasonably suppose, did not go abroad without
some of this excellent preservative in his pocket,
yet was taken with the distemper, and carried off in
two or three days. - • ‘ .
I am not of the number of the physic-haters, or
physic-despisers; on the contrary, I have often
mentioned the regard I had to the dictates of my
particular friend Dr. Heath; but yet I must ac-
knowledge I made use of little or nothing, except,
as I have observed, to keep a preparation of strong
scent, to have ready in case I met with anything
of offensive smells, or went too near any burying-
place or dead body. -
There was still a question among the learned,
and at first perplexed the people a little ; and that
was, in what manner to purge the house and goods
where the plague had been, and how to render
them habitable again which had been left empty
during the time of the plague; abundance of per-
fumes and preparations were prescribed by physi-
cians, some of one kind, some of another ; in which
the people who listened to them put themselves to
a great, and, indeed, in my opinion, to an unneces-
sary expense; and the poorer people, who only set
open their windows night and day, burnt brimstone,
pitch, and gunpowder, and such things, in their
rooms, did as well as the best ; nay, the eager
people, who, as I said above, came home in haste,
and at all hazards, found little or no inconvenience
in their houses, nor in their goods, and did little or
nothing to them. - -
Though the poor came to town very precipi-
tantly as I have said, yet, I must say, the rich made
mo such haste. The men of business, indeed, came
up, but many of them did not bring their families
THE PLAGUE IN LONDON. 201
to town till the spring came on, and that they saw
reason to depend upon it that the plague would not
return. - , -
The court, indeed, came up soon after Christmas;
but the nobility and gentry, except such as de-
pended upon, and had employment under the ad-
ministration, did not come up so soon.
I should have taken notice here, that notwith-
standing the violence of the plague in London, and
other places, yet it was very observable that it was
never on board the fleet; and yet, for some time,
there was a strong press in the river, and even in
the streets, for seamen to man the fleet. But it
was in the beginning of the year, when the plague
was scarce begun, and not at all come down to that
part of the city where they usually press for seamen;
and though a war with the Dutch was not at all
grateful to the people at that time, and the seamen
went with a kind of reluctancy into the service,
and many complained of being dragged into it by
force, yet it proved, in the event, a happy violence
to several of them, who had probably perished in
the general calamity, and, who, after the summer
service was over, though they had cause to lament
the desolation of their families, who, when they
came back, were many of them in their graves; yet
they had room to be thankful that they were
carried out of the reach of it, though so much
against their wills. We, indeed, had a hot war
with the Dutch that year, and one very great en-
gagement at sea, in which the Dutch were worsted;
but we lost a great many men and some ships;
But, as I observed, the plague was not in the fleet,
and when they came to lay up the ships in the
river, the violent part of it began to abate.
I would be glad if I could close the account of
this melancholy year with some particular examples
202 THE HISTORY OF
historically; I mean of the thankfulness to God,
our Preserver, for our being delivered from this
dreadful calamity. Certainly the circumstances of
the deliverance, as well as the terrible enemy we
were delivered from, called upon the whole nation
for it; the circumstances of the deliverance were,
indeed, very remarkable, as I have in partmentioned
already ; and, particularly, the dreadful condition
which we were all in, when we were, to the surprise
of the whole town, made joyful with the hope of a
stop of the infection. - -
Nothing but the immediate finger of God, no-
thing but omnipotent power could have done it;
the contagion despised all medicine, death raged in
every corner; and had it gone on as it did then, a
few weeks more would have cleared the town of all
and everything that had a soul. Men everywhere
began to despair, every heart failed them for fear;
people were made desperate through the anguish of
their souls, and the terrors of death sat in the
countenances of the people. -
In that very moment, when we might very well
say, Vain was the help of man; I say, in that very
moment it pleased God, with a most agreeable sur-
prise, to cause the fury of it to abate, even of it-
self; and the malignity declining, as I have said,
though infinite numbers were sick, yet fewer died;
and the very first week's bill decreased 1843, a vast
number indeed. - -
It is impossible to express the change that ap-
peared in the very countenances of the people, that
Thursday morning when the weekly bill came out ;
it might have been perceived in their countenances,
that a secret surprise and smile of joy sat on every-
body's face; they shook one another by the hands
in the streets, who would hardly go on the same
side of the way with one another before; where the
THE PLAGUE IN LONDON. 2O3
streets were not too broad, they would open their
windows and call from one house to another, and
asked how they did, and if they had heard the good
news that the plague was abated; some would re-
turn, when they said good news, and ask, What
good news? And when they answered that the
plague was abated, and the bills decreased almost
two thousand, they would cry out, God be praised ;
and would weep aloud for joy, telling them they had
heard nothing of it; and such was the joy of the
people, that it was as it were life to them from the
grave. I could almost set down as many extrava-
gant things done in the excess of their joy as of
their grief; but that would be to lessen the value
of it.
It was now, as I said before, the people had cast
off all apprehensions, and that too fast; indeed, we
were no more afraid now to pass by a man with a
white cap upon his head, or with a cloth wrapt
round his neck, or with his leg limping, occasioned
by the sores in his groin, all which were frightful to
the last degree but the week before; but now the
street was full of them, and these poor recovering
creatures, give them their due, appeared very sen-
sible of their unexpected deliverance ; and I should
wrong them very much, if I should not acknow-
ledge, that I believe many of them were really
thankful; but I must own, that for the generality
of the people it might too justly be said of them, as
was said of the children of Israel, after their being
delivered from the host of Pharaoh, when they
passed the Red sea, and looked back and saw the
Egyptians overwhelmed in the water; viz. “That
they sang his praise, but they soon forgot his
works.”
I can go no further here. I should be counted
censorious, and perhaps unjust, if I should enter
204 THE HISTORY OF THE PLAGUE.
into the unpleasing work of reflecting, whatever
cause there was for it, upon the unthankfulness and
return of all manner of wickedness among us, which
I was so much an eyewitness of myself. I shall
conclude the account of this calamitous year, there-
fore, with a coarse but a sincere stanza of my own,
which I placed at the end of my ordinary memo-
randums, the same year they were written :
A dreadful plague in London was,
In the year sixty-five,
Which swept an hundred thousand souls
Away; yet I alive
H. F.
THE ENED OF THE HISTORY OF THE PLAGUE.
THE CONSOLIDATOR.
BY THE AUTHOR, OF THE TRUE-BORN
ENGLISHMAN.
THE
CONSOLIDATOR:
OR,
MEMOIRS
OF
SUNDRY TRANSACTIONS
FROM THE
WORLD IN THE MOON.
Translated from the Lunar Language,
By the AUTHOR of
The True-born English Man.
L O W D O W.
Printed, and are to be Sold by Benjamin Bragg, at
the Blue Ball, in Ave-mary-lane, 1705.
THE
CONSOLIDATOR.
IT cannot be unknown to any that have travelled
into the dominions of the czar of Muscovy, that
this famous rising monarch, Peter the Great, having
studied all methods for the increase of his power,
and the enriching as well as polishing his subjects,
has travelled through most part of Europe, and
visited the courts of the greatest princes; from
whence, by his own observation, as well as by car-
rying with him artists in most useful knowledge, he
has transmitted most of our general practice,
especially in war and trade, to his own unpolite
people; and the effects of this curiosity of his are
exceeding visible in his present proceedings; for by
the improvements he obtained in his European
travels, he has modelled his armies, formed new
fleets, settled foreign negoce in several remote parts
of the world; and we now see his forces besieging
strong towns, with regular approaches; and his
engineers raising batteries, throwing bombs, &c.,
like other nations; whereas before, they had no-
thing of order among them, but carried all by
onslaught and scalado, wherein they either pre-
vailed by the force of irresistible multitude, or were
slaughtered by heaps, and left the ditches of their
enemies filled with their dead bodies.
We see their armies now formed into regular
CONSOLIDATOR. P

210 THE CONSOLIDATOR.
battalions; and their Strelitz musketeers, a people
equivalent to the Turks' Janizaries, clothed like
our guards, firing in platoons, and behaving them-
selves with extraordinary bravery and order.
We see their ships now completely fitted, built and
furnished, by the English and Dutch artists, and
their men of war cruise in the Baltic. Their new
city of Petersburg, built by the present czar, begins
now to look like our Portsmouth, fitted with wet
and dry docks, storehouses, and magazines of naval
preparations, vast and incredible; which may serve
to remind us, how we once taught the French to
build ships, till they are grown able to teach us how
to use them.
As to trade, our large fleets to Archangel may
speak for it, where we now send a hundred sail yearly,
instead of eight or nine, which were the greatest
number we ever sent before; and the importation
of tobaccoes from England into his dominions, would
still increase the trade thither, was not the covetous-
ness of our own merchants the obstruction of their
advantages. But all this by the by.
As this great monarch has improved his country,
by introducing the manners and customs of the
politer nations of Europe; so, with indefatigable
industry, he has settled a new, but constant trade,
between his country and China, by land ; where his
caravans go twice or thrice a year, as numerous
almost, and as strong, as those from Egypt to Persia:
nor is the way shorter, or the deserts they pass
over, less wild and uninhabitable, only that they
are not so subject to floods of sand, if that term be
proper, or to troops of Arabs, to destroy them by
the way; for this powerful prince, to make this
terrible journey feasible to his subjects, has built
forts, planted colonies and garrisons at proper
distances; where, though they are seated in countries
THE CONSOLIDATOR, 21 I
entirely barren, and among uninhabited rocks and
sands, yet, by his continual furnishing them from
his own stores, the merchants travelling are relieved
on good terms, and meet both with convoy and
refreshment.
More might be said of the admirable decora-
tions of this journey, and how so prodigious an at-
tempt is made easy; so that now they have an
exact correspondence, and drive a prodigious trade
between Moscow and Tonquin; but, having a longer
voyage in hand, I shall not detain the reader, nor
keep him till he grows too big with expectation.
Now, as all men know the Chinese are an ancient,
wise, polite, and most ingenious people ; so the
Muscovites begun to reap the benefit of this open
trade; and not only to grow exceeding rich by the
bartering for all the wealth of those eastern coun-
tries, but to polish and refine their customs and
manners as much, on that side, as they have from
their European improvements on this.
And as the Chinese have many sorts of learning
which these parts of the world never heard of, so all
those useful inventions which we admire ourselves
so much for, are vulgar and common with them, and
were in use long before our parts of the world were
inhabited. Thus gunpowder, printing, and the
use of the magnet and compass, which we call
modern inventions, are not only far from being inven-
tions, but fall so far short of the perfection of art
they have attained to, that it is hardly credible
what wonderful things we are told of from thence;
and all the voyages the author has made thither,
being employed another way, have not yet furnished
him with the particulars fully enough to transmit
them to view ; not but that he is preparing a
scheme of all those excellent arts those nations are
masters of, for public view, by way of detection of
- P 2
212 THE CONSOLIDATOR.
the monstrous ignorance and deficiencies of Euro-
pean science; which may serve as a Lexicon.
Technicum for this present age, with useful dia-
grams for that purpose ; wherein I shall not fail to
acquaint the world, 1. With the art of gunnery,
as practised in China long before the war of the
giants, and by which those presumptuous animals
fired redhot bullets right up into heaven, and made a
breach sufficient to encourage them to a general
storm ; but being repulsed with great slaughter,
they gave over the siege for that time. This
memorable part of history shall be a faithful
abridgment of Ibra Chizra-le-peglizar, historio-
grapher-royal to the emperor of China, who wrote
anno mundi 114, his volumes extant, in the public
library at Tonquin, printed in leaves of vitrified
diamond, by an admirable dexterity, struck all at
an oblique motion, the engine remaining entire, and
still fit for use, in the chamber of the emperor's
rarities. -
And here I shall give you a draft of the engine it-
self, and a plan of its operation, and the wonderful
dexterity of its performance.
If these labours of mine shall prove successful, I
may, in my next journey that way, take an abstract
of their most admirable tracts in navigation, and the
mysteries of Chinese mathematics; which outdo
all modern invention at that rate, that it is incon-
ceivable : in this elaborate work I must run through
the 365 volumes of Augro-machi-lanquaro-zi, the
most ancient mathematician in all China: from
thence I shall give a description of a fleet of ships
of a hundred thousand sail, built at the expense of the
emperor Tangro the XVth; who having notice of the
general deluge, prepared these vessels, to every
city and town in his dominions one, and in bulk
proportioned to the number of its inhabitants; into
THE CONSOLIDATOR. 213
which vessel all the people, with such moveables as
they thought fit to save, and with a hundred and
twenty days’ provisions, were received at the time
of the flood; and the rest of their goods being put
into great vessels made of China ware, and fast
luted down on the top, were preserved unhurt by
the water: these ships they furnished with six hun-
dred fathom of chain instead of cables, which being
fastened by wonderful arts to the earth, every vessel
rid out the deluge just at the town's end; so that
when the waters abated, the people had nothing to
do but to open the doors made in the ship-sides,
and come out, repair their houses, open the great
China pots their goods were in, and so put them-
selves in statu quo.
The draft of one of these ships I may perhaps
obtain by my interest in the present emperor's
court, as it has been preserved ever since, and con-
stantly repaired, riding at anchor in a great lake,
about a hundred miles from Tonquin; in which all
the people of that city were preserved, amounting by
their computation to about a million and half.
And as these things must be very useful in these
parts, to abate the pride and arrogance of our
modern undertakers of great enterprises, authors of
strange foreign accounts, philosophical transactions,
and the like; if time and opportunity permit, I may
let them know how infinitely we are outdone by
those refined nations, in all manner of mechanic
improvements and arts ; and in discoursing of this,
it will necessarily come in my way to speak of a
most noble invention, being an engine I would
recommend to all people to whom it is necessary to
have a good memory; and which I design, if possi-
ble, to obtain a draft of that it may be erected in
our Royal Society's laboratory; it has the wonder-
fullest operations in the world: one part of it
214 THE CONSOLIDATOR.:
¥
-
furnishes a man of business to dispatch his affairs.
strangely ; for if he be a merchant, he shall write
his letters with one hand, and copy them with the
other: if he is posting his books, he shall post the
debtor side with one hand, and the creditor with .
the other; if he be a lawyer, he draws his drafts
with one hand, and engrosses them with the other.
Another part of it furnishes him with such an ex-
peditious way of writing, or transcribing, that a man
cannot speak so fast but he that hears shall have it
down in writing before it is spoken; and a preacher
shall deliver himself to his auditory, and having
this engine before him, shall put down everything
he says in writing at the same time; and so exactly
is this engine squared by lines and rules, that it
does not require him that writes to keep his eye
upon it. -
I am told, in some parts of China, they had ar-
rived to such a perfection of knowledge, as to under-
stand oné àother's thoughts; and that it was found
to be an excellent preservative to human society,
against all sorts of frauds, cheats, sharping, and

} many thousand European inventions of that nature
at which only we can be said to outdo those nations.
I confess, I have not yet had leisure to travel
those parts, having been diverted by an accidental
opportunity of a new voyage I had occasion to make
for further discoveries, and which the pleasure and
usefulness thereof having been very great, I have.
omitted the other for the present, but shall not fail
to make a visit to those parts the first opportunity,
and shall give my countrymen the best account I
can of those things; for I doubt not in time to bring
our nation, so famed for improving other people's
discoveries, to be as wise as any of those heathen
nations; I wish I had the same prospect of makin
them half so honest. .
THE CONSOLIDATOR. 215
I had spent but a few months in this country,
but my search after the prodigy of human knowledge
the people abounds with, led me into acquaintance
with some of their principal artists, engineers, and
men of letters; and I was astonished at every day's
discovery of new and unheard-of worlds of learning;
but I improved in the superficial knowledge of their
general, by nobody so much as by my conversation
with the library-keeper of Tonquin, by whom I had
admission into the vast collection of books which
the emperors of that country have treasured up.
It would be endless to give you a catalogue, and
they admit of no strangers to write anything down;
but what the memory can retain, you are welcome
to carry away with you; and amongst the wonder-
ful volumes of ancient and modern learning, I could
not but take notice of a few ; which, besides those.
I mentioned before, I saw, when I looked over this
vast collection; and a larger account may be given
in our next. -
It would be needless to transcribe the Chinese
character, or to put their alphabet into our letters,
because the words would be both unintelligible, and
very hard to pronounce; and therefore, to avoid
hard words and hieroglyphics, I will translate them
as well as I can. -
The first class I came to of books, was the con-
stitutions of the empire; these are vast great volumes,
and have a sort of engine like our Magna Charta, to
remove them, and with placing them in a frame, by
turning a screw, opened the leaves, and folded them
this way, or that, as the reader desires. It was
present death for the library-keeper to refuse the
meanest Chinese subject to come in and read them;
for it is their maxim, that all people ought to know
the laws by which they are to be governed; and as,
above all people, we find no fools in this country,
216 THE CONSOLIDATOR.
so the emperors, though they seem to be arbitrary,
enjoy the greatest authority in the world, by always
observing, with the greatest exactness, the pacta
conventa of their government: from these principles
it is impossible we should ever hear either of the
tyranny of princes, or rebellion of subjects, in all
their histories. -
At the entrance into this class, you find some
ancient comments, upon the constitution of the
empire, written many ages before we pretend the
world began : but above all, one I took particular
notice of, which might bear this title, Natural Right
proved superior to Temporal Power; wherein the old
author proves, the Chinese emperors were originally
made so, by nature's directing the people to place
the power of government in the most worthy person
they could find; and the author, giving a most exact
history of two thousand emperors, brings them into
about thirty-five or thirty-six periods of lines, when
the race ended; and when a collective assembly of
the nobles, cities, and people, nominated a ne
family to the government. -
This being an heretical book as to European
politics, and our learned authors having long since
exploded this doctrine, and proved that kings and
emperors came down from heaven with crowns on
their heads, and all their subjects were born with
saddles on their backs; I thought fit to leave it
where I found it, lest our excellent tracts of sir
Robert Filmer, Dr. Hammond, L y, S l,
and others, who have so learnedly treated of the
more useful doctrine of passive obedience, divine
right, &c., should be blasphemed by the mob, grow
into contempt of the people, and they should take
upon them to question their superiors for the blood
of Algernon Sidney and Argyle.
For I take the doctrines of passive obedience, &c.,
"THE CONSOLIDATOR. 217
among the statesmen, to be like the Copernican
system of the earth's motion among philosophers:
which, though it be contrary to all ancient know-
ledge, and not capable of demonstration, yet is
adhered to in general, because by this they can
better solve, and give a more rational account of
several dark phenomena in nature, than they could
before.
Thus our modern statesmen approve of this
scheme of government; not that it admits of any
rational defence, much less of demonstration, but
because by this method they can the better explain,
as well as defend, all coercion in cases invasive of
natural right, than they could before.
Here I found two famous volumes in chirurgery,
being an exact description of the circulation of the
blood, discovered long before king Solomon's allegory
of the bucket's going to the well; with several curious
methods by which the demonstration was to be made
so plain, as would make even the worthy doctor
B himself become a convert to his own eye-
sight, make him damn his own elaborate book, and
think it worse nonsense than ever the town had the
freedom to imagine. -
All our philosophers are fools, and their transac-
tions a parcel of empty stuff, to the experiments of
the Royal Societies in this country. Here I came to
a learned tract of winds, which outdoes even the
sacred text, and would make us believe it was not
wrote to those people; for they tell folks whence it
comes, and whither it goes. There you have an
account how to make glasses of hogs' eyes, that can
see the wind; and they give strange accounts both
of its regular and irregular motions, its compositions
and quantities; from whence, by a sort of algebra,
they can cast up its duration, violence, and extent:
in these calculations, some say, those authors have
218 THE CONSOLIDATOR.
been so exact, that they can, as our philosophers
say of comets, state their revolutions, and tell us
how many storms there shall happen to any period
of time, and when ; and perhaps this may be with
much about the same truth. - -
It was a certain sign Aristotle had never been at
China; for, had he seen the 216th volume of the
Chinese navigation, in the library I am speaking
of a large book in double folio, wrote by the famous
Mira-cho-cho-lasmo, vice-admiral of China, and said
to be printed there about two thousand years before
the deluge, in the chapter of tides he would have
seen the reason of all the certain and uncertain
fluxes and refluxes of that element, how the exact
pace is kept between the moon and the tides, with
a most elaborate discourse there, of the power of
sympathy, and the manner how the heavenly bodies
influence the earthly: had he seen this, the Stagy-
rite would never have drowned himself, because he
could not comprehend this mystery.
It is further related of this famous author, that


, he was no native of this world, but was born in the
imoon, and coming hither to make discoveries, by a
;
strange invention arrived to by the virtuosos of
# that habitable world, the emperor of China pre-
j
§
;
§
{
:
?
vailed with him to stay and improve his subjects
in the most exquisite accomplishments of those
lunar regions; and no wonder the Chinese are
such exquisite artists, and masters of such sublime
knowledge, when this famous author has blest them
with such unaccountable methods of improvement.
There was abundance of vast classes full of the
works of this wonderful philosopher: he gave the
how, the modus of all the secret operations of na-
ture; and told us, how sensation is conveyed to
and from the brain; why respiration preserves life;
and how locomotion is directed to, as well as per-

THE CONSOLIDATOR. 219 .
formed by the parts. There are some anatomical
dissections of thought, and a mathematical descrip-
tion of nature's strong box, the memory, with all
its locks and keys. & .
There you have that part of the head turned in-
side outward, in which nature has placed the ma-
terials of reflecting; and, like a glass beehive, re-
presents to you all the several cells in which are
lodged things past, even back to infancy and con-
ception. There you have the repository, with all
its cells, classically, annually, numerically, and alpha-
betically disposed. There you may see how, when
the perplexed animal, on the loss of a thought or
word, scratches his pole, every attack of his invad-
ing fingers knocks at nature's door, alarms all the
register-keepers, and away they run, unlock all the
classes, search diligently for what he calls for, and
immediately deliver it up to the brain ; if it can-
not be found, they entreat a little patience, till
they step into the revolvary, where they run over
little catalogues of the minutest passages of life,
and so, in time, never fail to hand on the thing;
if not just when he calls for it, yet at some other
time. - -
And thus, when a thing lies very abstruse, and all
the rummaging of the whole house cannot find it;
nay, when all the people in the house have given it
over, they very often find one thing when they are
looking for another.
Next you have the retentive in the remotest
part of the place, which, like the records in the
Tower, takes possession of all matters, as they are
removed from the classes in the repository, for want
of room. These are carefully locked, and kept safe,
never to be opened but upon solemn occasions, and
have swinging great bars and bolts upon them : so
that what is kept here, is seldom lost. Here con-
22O THE CONSOLIDATOR.
science has one large warehouse, and the devil
another; the first is very seldom opened, but has a
chink or till, where all the follies and crimes of life,
being minuted, are dropt in ; but as the man seldom
cares to look in, the locks are very rusty, and not
opened but with great difficulty, and on extra-
ordinary occasions, as sickness, afflictions, jails,
casualties, and death ; and then the bars all give
way at once; and being prest from within with
a more than ordinary weight, burst as a cask of
wine upon the fret, which, for want of vent, makes
all the hoops fly.
As for the devil's warehouse, he has two constant
warehouse-keepers, Pride and Conceit, and these
are all always at the door, showing their wares, and
exposing the pretended virtues and accomplish-
ments of the man, by way of ostentation.
In the middle of this curious part of nature,
there is a clear thoroughfare, representing the
world, through which so many thousand people
pass so easily, and do so little worth taking notice
of that it is for no manner of signification to leave
word they have been here. Through this opening
pass millions of things not worth remembering, and
which the register-keepers, who stand at the doors
of the classes, as they go by, take no notice of;
such as friendships, helps in distress, kindnesses
in affliction, voluntary services, and all sorts of im-
portunate merit; things which, being but trifles in
their own nature, are made to be forgotten.
In another angle is to be seen the memory's gar-
den, in which her most pleasant things are not only
deposited, but planted, transplanted, grafted, in-
oculated, and obtain all possible propagation and
increase; these are the most pleasant, delightful,
and agreeable things, called envy, slander, revenge,
strife, and malice, with the additions of ill turns,
THE CONSOLIDATOR. 221
reproaches, and all manner of wrong; these are
caressed in the cabinet of the memory, with a world
of pleasure never let pass, and carefully cultivated
with all imaginable art.
There are multitudes of weeds, toys, chat, story,
fiction, and lying, which, in the great throng of
passant affairs, stop by the way, and crowding up
the place, leave no room for their betters that
come behind, which makes many a good guess be
put by, and left to go clear through for want of en-
tertainment.
There are a multitude of things very curious and
observable, concerning this little, but very accurate
thing, called memory; but above all, I see nothing
so very curious, as the wonderful art of wilful for-
getfulness; and as it is a thing, indeed, I never
could find any person completely master of, it
pleased me very much to find this author has made
a large essay, to prove there is really no such
power in nature; and that the pretenders to it are
all impostors, and put a banter upon the world ; for
that it is impossible for any man to oblige himself
to forget a thing, since he that can remember to
forget, and at the same time forget to remember,
has an art above the devil.
In his laboratory you see a fancy preserved a la
mummy, several thousand years old; by examining
which you may perfectly discern, how nature makes
a poet. Another you have taken from a mere
natural, which discovers the reasons of nature's
negative in the case of human understanding;
what deprivation of parts she suffers, in the compo-
sition of a coxcomb; and with what wonderful art
she prepares a man to be a fool.
Here being the product of this author's wonderful
skill, you have a skeleton of a wit, with all the read-
222 THE CONSOLIDATOR.
ings of philosophy and chirurgery upon the parts:
here you see all the lines nature has drawn to form
a genius; how it performs, and from what principles.
Also you are instructed to know the true reason
of the affinity between poetry and poverty; and
that it is equally derived from what is natural and
intrinsic, as from accident and circumstance; how
the world being always full of fools and knaves, wit
is sure to miss of a good market; especially, if wit
and truth happen to come in company; for the
fools don’t understand it, and the knaves can’t bear
it.
But still it is owned, and is most apparent, there
is something also natural in the case too, since
there are some particular vessels nature thinks ne-
cessary to the more exact composition of this nice
thing called a wit, which, as they are or are not
interrupted in the peculiar offices for which they
are appointed, are subject to various distempers,
and more particularly to effluxions and vapours,
deliriums, giddiness of the brain, and lapsae, or
looseness of the tongue; and as these distempers,
occasioned by the exceeding quantity of volatiles
nature is obliged to make use of in the composition,
are hardly to be avoided, the disasters which gene-
rally they push the animal into, are as necessarily
consequent to them as night is to the setting of the
sun ; and these are very many, as disobliging
parents, who havefrequently in this country whipped
their sons for making verses; and here I could not
but reflect how useful a discipline early correction
must be to a poet; and how easy the town had been
had N. t, E. w, T. B , P s, D–,
S , D fy, and a hundred more of the jingling
train of our modern rhymers, been whipped young,
very young, for poetasting, they had never perhaps
THE CONSOLIDATOR. 223
sucked in that venom of ribaldry, which all the
satire of the age has never been able to scourge out
of them to this day. -
The further fatal consequences of these unhappy
defects in nature, where she has damned a man to
wit and rhyme, has been loss of inheritance, parents
being aggravated by the obstinate young beaus'
resolving to be wits in spite of nature, the wiser
head has been obliged to confederate with nature,
and withhold the birthright of brains, which other-
wise the young gentleman might have enjoyed to
the great support of his family and posterity. Thus
the famous Waller, Denham, Dryden, and sundry
others, were obliged to condemn their race to
lunacy and blockheadism, only to prevent the fatal
destruction of their families, and entailing the
plague of wit and weathercocks upon their pos-
terity.
The yet further extravagances which naturally
attend the mischief of wit, are beauism, dogmati-
cality, whimsification, impudensity, and various
kinds of fopperosities (according to Mr. Boyle,)
which, issuing out of the brain, descend into all the
faculties, and branch themselves, by infinite variety,
into all the actions of life.
These, by consequence, beggar the head, the tail,
the purse, and the whole man, till he becomes as
poor and despicable as negative nature can leave
him, abandoned of his sense, his manners, his
modesty, and what’s worse, his money; having
nothing left but his poetry, dies in a ditch, or a
garret, alamode de Tom Brown, uttering rhymes
and nonsense to the last moment.
In pity to all my unhappy brethren who suffer
under these inconveniences, I cannot but leave it
on record, that they may not be reproached with
being agents of their own misfortunes, since I
224 THE CONSOLIDATOR.
assure them nature has formed them with the very
necessity of acting like coxcombs, fixed upon them
by the force of organic consequences, and placed
down at the very original effusion of that fatal
thing called wit. *
Nor is the discovery less wonderful than edifying,
and no human art on our side the world ever
found out such a sympathetic influence, between
the extremes of wit and folly, till this great lunarian
naturalist furnished us with such unheard-of de-
monstrations. -
Nor is this all I learnt from him, though I
cannot part with this, till I have published a
memento mori, and told them what I had discovered
of nature in these remote parts of the world; from
whence I take the freedom to tell these gentlemen
that if they please to travel to these distant parts,
and examine this great master of nature's secrets,
they may every man see what cross strokes nature
has struck, to finish and form every extravagant
species of that heterogeneous kind we call wit.
There C S may be informed how he
comes to be very witty and a madman all at once;
and P r may see, that with less brains and
more p x he is more a wit and more a madman
than the Coll. Ad—son may tell his master, my
lord , the reason from nature, why he would
not take the court's word, nor write the poem
called, The Campaign, till he had 200l. per annum
secured to him ; since it is known they have but
one author int he nation that writes for them for
nothing, and he is labouring very hard to obtain
the title of blockhead, and not be paid for it :
here D. might understand how he came to be able
to banter all mankind, and yet all mankind be able
to banter him ; at the same time, our numerous
throng of Parnassians may see reasons for the
THE CONSOLIDATOR. 225
variety of the negative and positive blessings they
enjoy; some for having wit and no verse, some
verse and no wit, some mirth without jest, some
jest without forecast, some rhyme and no jingle,
some all jingle and no rhyme, some language with-
out measure, some all quantity and no cadence,
some all wit and no sense, some all sense and no
flame; some preach in rhyme, some sing when they
preach; some all song and no tune, some all tune
and no song: all these unaccountables have their
originals, and can be answered for in unerring
nature, though in our outside guesses we can say
little to it. Here is to be seen, why some are all
nature, some all art; some beat verse out of the
twenty-four rough letters, with ten hammers and
anvils to every line, and maul the language as a
Swede beats stockfish ; others huff nature, and
bully her out of whole stanzas of ready-made lines
at a time, carry all before them, and rumble like
distant thunder in a black cloud: thus degrees
and capacities are fitted by nature, according to
organic efficacy, and the reason and nature of
things are found in themselves. Had D–y seen
his own draft by this light of Chinese knowledge,
he might have known he should be a coxcomb.
without writing twenty-two plays, to stand as so
many records against him. Dryden might have
told his fate, that having his extraordinary genius
slung and pitched upon a swivel, it would certainly
turn round as fast as the times, and instruct him
how to write elegies to O. C. and king C. the
Second, with all the coherence imaginable; how to
write Religio Laicy, and the Hind and Panther,
and yet be the same man, every day to change his
principle, change his religion, change his coat,
change his master, and yet never change his nature.
There are abundance of other secrets in nature
CONSOLIDATOR, Q
226 THE CONSOLIDATOR,
discovered in relation to these things, too many to
repeat, and yet too useful to omit; as the reason
why physicians are generally atheists, and why
atheists are universally fools, and generally live to
know it themselves; the real obstructions which
prevent fools being mad, all the natural causes of
love, abundance of demonstrations of the synonymous
nature of love and lechery, especially considered
a la modern, with an absolute specific for the
frenzy of love, found out in the constitution,
Anglice, a halter.
It would be endless to reckon up the numerous
improvements and wonderful discoveries this ex-
traordinary person has brought down, and which
are to be seen in his curious chamber of rarities.
Particularly a map of Parnassus, with an exact
delineation of all the cells, apartments, palaces and
dungeons, of that most famous mountain ; with a
description of its height, and a learned disserta-
tion, proving it to be the properest place, next to
the P e house, to take a rise at for a flight to
the world in the moon.
Also some inquiries whether Noah's ark did not
first rest upon it; and this might be one of the
summits of Ararat; with some confutations of the
gross and palpable errors which place this extra-
ordinary skill among the mountains of the moon, in
Africa. *
Also you have here a muse calcined, a little of
the powder of which given to a woman big with
child, if it be a boy it will be a poet, if a girl she
will be a whore, if an hermaphrodite it will be
lunatic. -
Strange things, they tell us, have been done with
this calcined womb of imagination; if the body it
came from was a lyric poet, the child will be a
beau, or a beauty; if an heroic poet, he will be
THE CONSOLIDATOR. 227
a bully; if his talent was satire, he will be a philo-
sopher. -
Another muse, they tell us, they have dissolved
into a liquid, and kept with wondrous art, the
virtues of which are sovereign against idiotism,
dulness, and all sorts of lethargic diseases; but if
given in too great a quantity, creates poesy, poverty,
lunacy, and the devil in the head ever after.
I confess I always thought these muses strange
intoxicating things, and have heard much talk of
their original, but never was acquainted with their
virtue, a la simple, before; however, I would always
advise people against too large a dose of wit, and
think the physician must be a madman that will
venture to prescribe it.
As all these noble acquirements came down with
this wonderful man from the world in the moon, it
furnished me with these useful observations :—
1. That country must needs be a place of strange
perfection, in all parts of extraordinary knowledge.
2. How useful a thing it would be for most sorts
of our people, especially statesmen, p t-men,
convocation-men, philosophers, physicians, quacks,
mountebanks, stock-jobbers, and all the mob of the
nation’s civil or ecclesiastical bone-setters, together
with some men of the law, some of the sword, and
all of the pen : I say, how useful and improving a
thing it must be to them, to take a journey up to
the world in the moon ; but above all, how much
more beneficial it would be to them that stayed be-
hind.
3. That it is not to be wondered at, why the
Chinese excel so much all these parts of the world,
since but for that knowledge which comes down to
them from the world in the moon, they would be
like other people. -
4. No man need to wonder at my exceeding de-
Q 2
228 THE CONSOLIDATOR.
sire to go up to the world in the moon, having
heard of such extraordinary knowledge to be ob-
tained there, since in the search of knowledge and
truth, wiser men than I have taken as unwarrantable
flights, and gone a great deal higher than the
moon, into a strange abyss of dark phenomena,
which they neither could make other people under-
stand, nor ever rightly understood themselves; wit-
ness Malbranch, Mr. Lock, Hobbs, the honourable
Boyle, and a great many others, besides messieurs
Norris, Asgil, Coward, and the Tale of a Tub.
This great searcher into nature has, besides all
this, left wonderful discoveries and experiments be-
hind him ; but I was with nothing more exceedingly
diverted than with his various engines, and curious
contrivances, to go to and from his own native
country the moon. All our mechanic motions of
bishop Wilkins, or the artificial wings of the learned
Spaniard, who could have taught God Almighty how
to have mended the creation, are fools to this gentle-
man ; and because no man in China has made more
voyages up into the moon than myself, I cannot but
give you some account of the easiness of the pas-
sage, as well as of the country.
Nor are his wonderful telescopes of a mean qua-
lity, by which such plain discoveries are made, of
the lands and seas in the moon, and in all the ha-
bitable planets, that one may as plainly see what
o'clock it is by one of the dials in the moon, as if it
were no further off than Windsor castle; and had
he lived to finish the speaking-trumpet which he
had contrived to convey sound thither, Harlequin's
mock-trumpet had been a fool to it; and it had no
doubt been an admirable experiment, to have given
us a general advantage from all their acquired
knowledge in those regions, where no doubt several
useful discoveries are daily made by the men of
THE CONSOLIDATOR. 229
thought for the improvement of all sorts of human
understanding; and to have discoursed with them
on those things, must have been very pleasant, be-
sides its being very much to our particular advan-
tage. i
I confess I have thought it might have been very
useful to this nation, to have brought so wonderful
an invention hither, and I was once very desirous
to have set up my rest here, and for the benefit of
my native country, have made myself master of
these engines, that I might in due time have con-
veyed them to our Royal Society, that once in forty
years they might have been said to do something
for public good; and that the reputation and use-
fulness of the so so's might be recovered in Eng-
land; but being told that in the moon there were
many of these glasses to be had very cheap, and I
having declared my resolution of undertaking a voy-
age thither, I deferred my design, and shall defer
my treating of them till I give some account of my
arrival there. - . .
But above all his inventions for making this
voyage, I saw none more pleasant or profitable than
a certain engine formed in the shape of a chariot,
on the backs of two vast bodies with extended
wings, which spread about fifty yards in breadth,
composed of feathers so nicely put together, that no
air could pass; and as the bodies were made of
lunar earth, which would bear the fire, the cavities
were filled with an ambient flame, which fed on a
certain spirit, deposited in a proper quantity to last
out the voyage ; and this fire so ordered as to move
about such springs and wheels as kept the wings in
a most exact and regular motion, always ascendant;
thus the person being placed in this airy chariot,
drinks a certain dozing draught, that throws him
230 THE CONSOLIDATOR.
into a gentle slumber, and dreaming all the way,
never wakes till he comes to his journey's end.
OF THE CONSOLIDATOR.
THESE engines are called in their country lan-
guage, Dupekasses; and according to the ancient
Chinese, or Tartarian, Apezolanthukanistes; in
English, a Consolidator. -
The composition of this engine is very admirable;
for, as is before noted, it is all made up of feathers,
and the quality of the feathers is no less wonderful
than their composition; and therefore, I hope the
reader will bear with the description for the sake of
the novelty, since I assure him such things as these
are not to be seen in every country. .
The number of feathers are just 513; they are all
of a length and breadth exactly, which is absolutely
necessary to the floating figure, or else one side or
any one part being wider or longer than the rest,
it would interrupt the motion of the whole engine;
only there is one extraordinary feather, which, as
there is an odd one in the number, is placed in the
centre, and is the handle, or rather rudder to the
whole machine: this feather is every way larger
than its fellows, it is almost as long and broad again;
but above all, its quill or head is much larger, and
it has, as it were, several small bushing feathers
round the bottom of it, which all make but one
presiding or superintendent feather, to guide, re-
gulate, and pilot the whole body.
Nor are these common feathers, but they are
picked and culled out of all parts of the lunar
country, by the command of the prince; and every
province sends up the best they can find, or ought
to do so at least, or else they are very much to
THE CONSOLIDATOR. 231
blame; for the employment they are put to being
of so great use to the public, and the voyage or
flight so exceeding high, it would be very ill done
if, when the king sends his letters about the nation,
to pick him up the best feathers they can lay their
hands on, they should send weak, decayed, or half-
grown feathers, and yet sometimes it happens so ;
and once there was such rotten feathers collected,
whether it was a bad year for feathers, or whether
the people that gathered them had a mind to abuse
their king; but the feathers were so bad, the en-
gine was good for nothing, but broke before it was
got half way; and, by a double misfortune, this
happened to be at an unlucky time, when the king
himself had resolved on a voyage or flight to the
moon; but being deceived by the unhappy miscar-
riage of the deficient feathers, he fell down from so
great a height, that he struck himself against his
own palace and beat his head off. -
Nor had the sons of this prince much better suc-
cess, though the first of them was a prince mightily
beloved by his subjects; but his misfortunes chiefly
proceeded from his having made use of one of the
engines so very long, that the feathers were quite
worn out, and good for nothing; he used to make
a great many voyages and flights into the moon, and
then would make his subjects give him great sums
of money to come down to them again; and yet
they were so fond of him, that they always complied
with him, and would give him everything he asked,
rather than to be without him: but they grew wiser
SIEl Ce, -
At last this prince used his engine so long, it
could hold together no longer; and being obliged
to write to his subjects to pick him out some new
feathers, they did so ; but withal sent him such
strong feathers, and so stiff, that when he had
232 THE CONSOLIDATOR.
placed them in their proper places, and made a
very beautiful engine, it was too heavy for him to
manage: he made a great many essays at it, and had
it placed on the top of an old idol chapel, dedicated
to an old Brahmin saint of those countries, called,
Phantosteinaschap ; in Latin, Chap. de Saint Ste-
phano ; or in English, St. Stephen's. Here the
prince tried all possible contrivances, and a vast
deal of money it cost him ; but the feathers were so
stiff, they would not work, and the fire within was so
choked and smothered with its own smoke, for
want of due vent and circulation, that it would not
burn ; so he was obliged to take it down again;
and from thence he carried it to his college of
Brahmin priests, and set it up in one of their public
buildings: there he drew circles of ethics and po-
litics, and fell to casting of figures and conjuring,
but all would not do, the feathers could not be
brought to move ; and indeed I have observed,
that these engines are seldom helped by art and
contrivance; there is no way with them, but to
have the people spoke to, to get good feathers; and
they are easily placed, and perform all the several
motions with the greatest ease and accuracy im-
aginable ; but it must be all nature ; anything of
force distorts and dislocates them, and the whole
order is spoiled; and if there be but one feather
out of place, or pinched, or stands wrong, th
d- I would not ride in the chariot. .
The prince thus finding his labour in vain, broke
the engine to pieces, and sent his subjects word
what bad feathers they had sent him : but the
people, who knew it was his own want of manage-
ment, and that the feathers were good enough, only
a little stiff at first, and with good usage would have
been brought to be fit for use, took it ill, and never
would send him any other as long as he lived:
THE CONSOLIDATOR. 233
however, it had this good effect upon him, that he
never made any more voyages to the moon as long
as he reigned. - - -
His brother succeeded him; and truly he was
resolved upon a voyage to the moon, as soon as
ever he came to the crown. He had met with some
unkind usage from the religious lunesses of his
own country; and he turned Abogratziarian, a
zealous fiery sect, something like our Anti-every-
body-arians in England. It is confessed some of the
Brahmins of his country were very false to him, put
him upon several ways of extending his power over
his subjects, contrary to the customs of the people,
and contrary to his own interest; and when the
people expressed their dislike of it, he thought to
have been supported by those clergymen; but they
failed him, and made good that old English verse;
That priests of all religions are the same.
He took this so heinously, that he conceived a just
hatred against those that had deceived him ; and as
resentments seldom keep rules, unhappily entertain-
ed prejudices against all the rest; and not finding
it easy to bring all his designs to pass better, he
resolved upon a voyage to the moon. -
Accordingly he sends a summons to all his people,
according to custom, to collect the usual quantity of
feathers for that purpose; and because he would be
sure not to be used as his brother and father had
been, he took care to send certain cunning men, ex-
press, all over the country, to bespeak the people's
care in collecting, picking, and culling them out;
these were called in their language, Tsopablesdetoo;
which, being translated, may signify in English, Men
of Zeal, or Booted Apostles : nor was this the only
caution this prince used ; for he took care, as the
feathers were sent up to him, to search and examine
234 THE CONSOLIDATOR,
them one by one in his own closet, to see if they
were fit for his purpose; but, alas ! he found him-
self in his brother's case exactly; and perceived
that his subjects were generally disgusted at his
former conduct, about Abrogratzianism, and such
things, and particularly set in a flame by some of
their priests, called Dullobardians, or Passive-
Obedience-men, who had lately turned their tale,
and their tail too, upon their own princes; and upon
this, he laid aside any more thoughts of the engine,
but took up a desperate and implacable resolution,
viz. to fly up to the moon without it; in order to
this, abundance of his cunning men were summoned
together to assist him, strange engines contrived
and methods proposed ; and a great many came
from all parts to furnish him with inventions and
equivalent for their journey; but all were so pre-
posterous and ridiculous, that his subjects seeing
him going on to ruin himself, and by consequence
them too, unanimously took arms; and if their
prince had not made his escape into a foreign
country, it is thought they would have secured him
for a madman. *
And here it is observable, that as it is in most
such cases, the mad councillors of this prince, when
the people begun to gather about him, fled, and
every one shifted for themselves; nay, and some of
them plundered him first of his jewels and treasure,
and never were heard of since.
From this prince none of the kings or govern-
ment of that country have ever seemed to incline to
the hazardous attempt of the voyage to the moon,
at least not in such a hairbrained manner.
However, the engine has been very accurately
rebuilt and finished; and the people are now
obliged by a law, to send up new feathers every
three years, to prevent the mischiefs which hap-
* THE CONSOLIDATOR. 235
pened by that prince aforesaid keeping one set so
long that it was dangerous to venture with them ;
and thus the engine is preserved fit for use.
And yet has not this engine been without its
continual disasters, and often out of repair; for
though the kings of the country, as has been noted,
have done riding on the back of it, yet the restless
courtiers and ministers of state have frequently ob-
tained the management of it, from the too easy
goodness of their masters, or the evils of the times.
To cure this, the princes frequently changed
hands, turned one set of men out and put another
in ; but this made things still worse, for it divided
the people into parties and factions in the state, and
still the strife was, who should ride in this engine;
and no sooner were these Skaet-riders got into it,
but they were for driving all the nation up to the
moon: but of this by itself.
Authors differ concerning the original of these
feathers, and by what most exact hand they were
first appointed to this particular use ; and as their
original is hard to be found, so it seems a difficulty
to resolve from what sort of bird these feathers are
obtained: some have named one, some another ;
but the most learned in those climates call it by a
hard word, which the printer having no letters to
express, and being in that place hieroglyphical, i can
translate no better than by the name of a Collective:
this must be a strange bird without doubt; it has
heads, claws, eyes, and teeth innumerable; and if I
should go about to describe it to you, the history
would be so romantic, it would spoil the credit of
these more authentic relations which are yet be-
hind.
It is sufficient, therefore, for the present, only to
leave you this short abridgment of the story, as
follows: this great monstrous bird, called the
236 THE CONSOLIDATOR,
Collective, is very seldom seen, and indeed never
but upon great revolutions, and portending terrible
desolations and destructions to a country. º
But he frequently sheds his feathers, and they
are carefully picked up by the proprietors of those
lands where they fall; for none but those proprie-
tors may meddle with them ; and they no sooner
pick them up but they are sent to court, where
they obtain a new name, and are called in a word
equally difficult to pronounce as the other, but very
like our English word Representative; and being
placed in their proper rows, with the great feather
in the centre, and fitted for use, they lately obtained
the venerable title of the Consolidators; and the
machine itself, the Consolidator; and by that name
the reader is desired for the future to let it be
dignified and distinguished. 's
I cannot, however, forbear to descant a little
here on the dignity and beauty of these feathers,
being such as are hardly to be seen in any part of
the world, but just in these remote climates.
And first, every feather has various colours, and
according to the variety of the weather, are apt to
look brighter and clearer, or paler and fainter, as
the sun happens to look on them with a stronger
or weaker aspect. The quill or head of every
feather is or ought to be full of a vigorous substance,
which gives spirit, and supports the brightness and
colour of the feather; and as this is more or less in
quantity, the bright colour of the feather is increas-
ed, or turns languid and pale. . . . . .
It is true some of those quills are exceeding
empty and dry; and the humid being totally exhaled,
those feathers grow very useless and insignificant in
a short time. - .
Some again are so full of wind, and puffed up with
the vapour of the climate, that there is not humid
THE CONSOLIDATOR. 237
enough to condense the steam; and these are so
fleet, so light, and so continually fluttering and
troublesome, that they greatly serve to disturb and
keep the motion unsteady.
Others, either placed too near the inward con-
cealed fire, or the head of the quill being thin, the
fire causes too great a fermentation; and the con-
sequence of this is so fatal, that sometimes it mounts
the engine up too fast, and endangers precipitation :
but it is happily observed, that these ill feathers are
but a very few, compared to the whole number; at
the most, I never heard they were above a hundred
and thirty-four of the whole number : as for the
empty ones, they are not very dangerous, but a sort
of good-for-nothing feathers, that will fly when the
greatest number of the rest fly, or stand still when
they stand still. The fluttering hotheaded feathers
are the most dangerous, and frequently struggle
hard to mount the engine to extravagant heights;
but still the greater number of the feathers being
stanch, and well fixed, as well as well furnished, they
always prevail, and check the disorders the other
would bring upon the motion ; so that upon the
whole matter, though there has sometimes been
oblique motions, variations, and sometimes great
wanderings out of the way, which may make the
passage tedious, yet it has always been a certain
and safe voyage ; and no engine was ever known to
miscarry or overthrow, but that one mentioned be-
fore, and that was very much owing to the precipi-
tate methods the prince took in guiding it ; and
though all the fault was laid in the feathers, and
they were to blame enough, yet I never heard any
wise man but what blamed his discretion ; and par-
ticularly, a certain great man has wrote three large
tracts of those affairs, and called them, The History
of the Opposition of the Feathers: wherein, though
238 THE CONSOLIDATOR.
it was expected he would have cursed the engine it-
self and all the feathers to the devil, on the contrary,
he lays equal blame on the prince, who guided the
chariot with so unsteady a hand, now as much too
slack, as then too hard, turning them this way and
that so hastily that the feathers could not move in
their proper order; and this at last put the fire in
the centre quite out, and so the engine overset at
once. This impartiality has done great justice to the
feathers, and set things in a clearer light: but of
this I shall say more, when I come to treat of the
works of the learned in this lunar world.
This is hinted here only to inform the reader,
that this engine is the safest passage that ever was
found out ; and that, saving that one time, it never
miscarried ; nor, if the common order of things be
observed, cannot miscarry; for the good feathers
are always negatives when any precipitant motion
is felt, and immediately suppress it by their num-
ber; and these negative feathers are indeed the
traveller's safety: the other are always upon the
flutter, and upon every occasion, hey for the moon,
up in the clouds presently ; but these negative
feathers are never for going up but when there is
occasion for it; and from hence these fluttering
fermented feathers were called by the ancients
high-flying feathers, and the blustering things
seemed proud of the name.
But to come to their general character, the
feathers, speaking of them all together, are gene-
rally very comely, strong, large, beautiful things,
their quills or heads well fixed, and the cavities
filled with a solid substantial matter, which, though
it is full of spirit, has a great deal of temperament,
and full of suitable well-disposed powers to the
operation for which they are designed.
These, placed, as I noted before, in an extended
THE CONSOLIDATOR. 239
form like two great wings, and operated by that
sublime flame, which, being concealed in proper
receptacles, obtains its vent at the cavities ap-
pointed, are supplied from thence with life and
motion ; and as fire itself, in the opinion of some
learned men, is nothing but motion, and motion
tends to fire, it can no more be a wonder, if ex-
alted in the centre of this famous engine, a whole
nation should be carried up to the world in the
II].OOIl.
It is true this engine is frequently assaulted
with fierce winds and furious storms, which some-
times drive it a great way out of its way; and in-
deed, considering the length of the passage and the
various regions it goes through, it would be strange
if it should meet with no obstructions. These are
oblique gales, and cannot be said to blow from any
of the thirty-two points, but retrograde and thwart;
some of these are called in their language, Pen-
sionazima, which is as much as to say, being inter-
preted, a court-breeze; another sort of wind, which
generally blows directly contrary to the Pensiona-
zima, is the Clamorio, or in English, a country-gale;
this is generally tempestuous, full of gusts and dis-
gusts, squalls and sudden blasts, not without claps
of thunder, and not a little flashing of heat and
party fires. -
There are a great many other internal blasts, which
proceed from the fire within, which, sometimes not
circulating right, breaks out in little gusts of wind
and heat, and is apt to endanger setting fire to the
feathers: and this is more or less dangerous ac-
cording as among which of the feathers it happens;
for some of the feathers are more apt to take fire
than others, as their quills or heads are more or less
full of that solid matter mentioned before.
The engine suffers frequent convulsions and dis-
240 THE CONSOLIDATOR.
orders from these several winds; and which, if they
chance to overblow very much, hinder the passage;
but the negative feathers always apply temper and
moderation; and this brings all to rights again.
For a body like this, what can it not do? what
cannot such an extension perform in the air P and
when one thing is tacked to another, and properly
consolidated into onemighty consolidator, no question
but whoever shall go up to the moon, will find him-
self so improved in this wonderful experiment, that
not a man ever performed that wonderful flight, but
he certainly came back again as wise as he went.
Well, gentlemen, and what if we are called high-
fliers now, and a hundred names of contempt and
distinction, what is this to the purpose? who would
not be a high-flier, to be tacked and consolidated
in an engine of such sublime elevation, and which
lifts men, monarchs, members, yea, and whole na-
tions, up into the clouds; and performs with such
wondrous art, the long-expected experiment of a
voyage to the moon? And thus much for the de-
scription of the Consolidator. .
The first voyage I ever made to this country was
in one of these engines, and I can safely affirm I
never waked all the way; and now, having been as
often there as most that have used that trade, it may
be expected I should give some account of the
country; for it appears I can give but little of the
road. - -
Only this I understand, that when this engine, by
help of these artificial wings, has raised itself up to
a certain height, the wings are as useful to keep it
from falling into the moon, as they were before to
raise it, and keep it from falling back into this re-
gion again. -
This may happen from an alteration of centres,
and gravity having passed a certain line, the equipoise
THE CONSOLIDATOR. 24ſ
changes its tendency; the magnetic quality being
beyond it, it inclines of course, and pursues a centre,
which it finds in the lunar world, and lands us safe
upon the surface.
I was told I need take no bills of exchange with
me, nor letters of credit, for that upon my first ar-
rival the inhabitants would be very civil to me;
that they never suffered any of our world to want
anything when they came there; that they were
very free to show them anything, and inform them
in all needful cases; and that whatever rarities the
country afforded, should be exposed immediately.
I shall not enter into the customs, geography, or
history of the place, only acquaint the reader that
I found no manner of difference in anything natural,
except as hereafter excepted, but all was exactly as
is here, an elementary world, peopled with folks as
like us as if they were only inhabitants of the same
continent, but in a remote climate.
The inhabitants were men, women, beasts, birds,
fishes, and insects, of the same individual species as
ours, the latter excepted; the men no wiser, better,
nor bigger than here; the women no handsomer or
honester than ours; there were knaves and honest
men, honest women and whores, of all sorts, countries,
nations, and kindreds, as on this side the skies.
They had the same sun to shine, the planets were
equally visible as to us, and their astrologers were
as busily impertinent as ours; only that those won-
derful glasses, hinted before, made strange discoveries
that we were unacquainted with. By them they
could plainly discover that this world was their
moon, and their world our moon; and when I came
first among them, the people that flocked about me
distinguished me by the name of the Man that came
out of the Moon. -
I cannot, however, but acquaint the reader with
CONSOLIDATOR. IR
242 THE CONSOLIDATOR.
some remarks I made in this new world, before I
come to any thing historical.
I have heard that among the generality of our
people, who, being not much addicted to revelation,
have much concerned themselves about demonstra-
tions, a generation have risen up, who, to solve the
difficulties of supernatural systems, imagine a mighty
vast something, who has no form but what represents
him to them as one great eye. This infinite optic
they imagine to be Natura Naturams, or power-
forming; and that as we pretend the soul of man
has a similitudein quality to its original, accordingto
a notion some people have, who read that so-much-
ridiculed old legend, called Bible, that man was made
in the image of his Maker: the soul of man, there-
fore, in the opinion of these naturalists, is orie vast
optic power diffused through him into all his parts,
but seated principally in his head.
From hence they resolve all beings to eyes, some
more capable of sight and receptive of objects than
others; and as to things invisible, they reckon nothing
so, only so far as our sight is deficient, contracted, or
darkened by accidents from without, as distance of
place, interposition of vapours, clouds, liquid air, ex-
halations, &c.; or from within, as wandering errors,
wild notions, cloudy understandings, and empty
fancies, with a thousand other interposing obstacles
to the sight, which darken it, and prevent its opera-
tion, and particularly obstruct the perceptive facul-
ties, weaken the head, and bring mankind in gene-
ral to stand in need of the spectacles of education
as soon as ever they are born ; nay, and as soon as
they have made use of these artificial eyes, all they
can do is but to clear the sight so far as to see that
they can’t see ; the utmost wisdom of mankind, and
the highest improvement a man ought to wish for,
being but to be able to see that he was born blind.
THE CONSOLIDATOR. 243
This pushes him upon search after mediums for the
recovery of his sight, and away he runs to school to
art and science, and there he is furnished with
horoscopes, microscopes, telescopes, coeliscopes,
money-scopes, and the d 1 and all of glasses, to
help and assisthis moon-blind understanding. These,
with wonderful skill, and ages of application, after
wandering through bogs and wildernesses of guess,
conjectures, supposes, calculations, and he knows
not what, which he meets with in physics, politics,
ethics, astronomy, mathematics, and such sort of
bewildering things, bring him with vast difficulty to
a little, minute spot, called Demonstration; and as
not one in ten thousand ever finds the way thither,
but are lost in the tiresome uncouth journey, so they
that do, it is so long before they come there, that
they are grown old and good for little in the journey;
and no sooner have they obtained a glimmering of
this universal eyesight, this eclaircissement general,
but they die, and have hardly time to show the way
to those that come after.
Now as the earnest search after this thing called
demonstration filled me with desires of seeing every-
thing, so my observations of the strange multitude of
mysteries I met with in all men's actions here,
spurred my curiosity to examine, if the great eye of
the world had no people to whom he had given a
clearer eyesight, or, at least, that made a better use
of it than we had here. -
If, pursuing this search, I was much delighted at
my arrival into China, it cannot be thought strange;
since there we find knowledge as much advanced
beyond our common pitch, as it was pretended to
be derived from a more ancient original. -
We are told, that in the early age of the world,
the strength of invention exceeded all that ever has
been arrived to since: that we, in these latter ages,
R 2
244 THE CONSOLIDATOR.
having lost all that pristine strength of reason and
invention, which died with the ancients in the Flood,
and receiving no helps from that age, have by long
search arrived at several remote parts of knowledge,
by the helps of reading, conversation, and experience;
but that all amounts to no more than faint imitations,
apings, and resemblances of what was known in
those masterly ages.
Now if it be true, as is hinted before, that the
Chinese empire was peopled long before the flood,
and that they were not destroyed in the general
: deluge in the days of Noah; it is no such strange
thing that they should so much outdo us in this
sort of eyesight we call general knowledge, since
the perfections bestowed on nature, when in her
youth and prime, met with no general suffocation by
that calamity.
But if I was extremely delighted with the extraor-
dinary things I saw in those countries, you cannot
but imagine I was exceedingly moved when I heard
of a lunar world; and that the way was passable
from these parts. .
I had heard of a world in the moon among some
of our learned philosophers, and Moore, as I have
been told, had a moon in his head; but none of the
fine pretenders, no, not bishop Wilkins, ever found
mechanic engines whose motion was sufficient to
attempt the passage. A late happy author, indeed,
amonghis mechanic operations of the spirit, had found
out an enthusiasm, which if he could have pursued
to its proper extreme, without doubt might either in
the body, or out of the body, have landed him some-
where hereabout; but that he formed his system
wholly upon the mistaken notion of wind, which
learned hypothesis being directly contrary to the
mature of things in this climate, where the elasticity
of the air is quite different, and where the pressure
THE CONSOLIDATOR. 245
of the atmosphere has, for want of vapour, no force,
all his notion dissolved in its native vapour called
wind, and flew upward in blue streaks of a livid
flame called blasphemy, which burnt up all the wit
and fancy of the author, and left a strange stench
behind it, that has this unhappy quality in it, that
everybody that reads the book, smells the author,
though he be never so far off; nay, though he took
shipping to Dublin, to secure his friends from the
least danger of a conjecture.
But to return to the happy regions of the lunar
continent; I was no sooner landed there, and had
looked about me, but I was surprised with the
Strange alteration of the climate and country; and
particularly a strange salubrity and fragrancy in the
air, which I felt so nourishing, so pleasant and de-
lightful, that though I could perceive some small
respiration, it was hardly discernible, and the least
requisite for life, supplied so long that the bellows
of nature were hardly employed.
But as I shall take occasion to consider this in a
critical examination into the nature, uses, and ad-
vantages of good lungs, of which by itself, so I think
fit to confine my present observations to things more
particularly concerning the eyesight.
I was, you may be sure, not a little surprised,
when being upon an eminence I found myself
capable, by common observation, to see and distin-
guish things at the distance of a hundred miles
and more; and seeking some information on this
point, I was acquainted by the people, that there
was a certain grave philosopher hard by, that could
give me a very good account of things.
It is not worth while to tell you this man's lunar
name, or whether he had a name or no; it is plain
it was a man in the moon ; but all the conference I
had with him was very strange. At my first coming
246 THE CONSOLIDATOR,
to him, he asked me if I came from the world in
the moon. I told him, no : at which he began to
be angry; told me I lied; he knew whence I came
as well as I did, for he saw me all the way. I told
him I came to the world in the moon, and began to
be as surly as he. It was a long time before we
could agree about it; he would have it that I came
down from the moon; and I, that I came up to the
moon: from this, we came to explications, demon-
strations, spheres, globes, regions, atmospheres, and
a thousand odd diagrams, to make the thing out to
one another. I insisted on my part, as that my ex-
periment qualified me to know, and challenged him
to go back with me to prove it. He, like a true
philosopher, raised a thousand scruples, conjectures,
and spherical problems, to confront me; and as for
demonstrations, he called them fancies of my own.
Thus we differed a great many ways; both of us
were certain, and both uncertain ; both right, and
yet both directly contrary: how to reconcile this
jangle was very hard, till at last this demonstration
happened; the moon, as he called it, turning her
blind side upon us three days after the change, by
which, with the help of his extraordinary glasses, I,
that knew the country, perceived that side the sun
looked upon was all moon, and the other was all.
world; and either Ifancied I saw, or else really saw,
all the lofty towers of the immense cities of China.
Upon this, and a little more debate, we came to this
conclusion, and there the old man and I agreed,
that they were both moons and both worlds, this a
moon to that, and that a moon to this, like the sun
between two looking-glasses; and shone upon one
another by reflection, according to the oblique or
direct position of each other. - .
This afforded us a great deal of pleasure, for all
the world covet to be found in the right, and are
THE CONSOLIDATOR, 247
pleased when their notions are acknowledged by
their antagonists; it also afforded us many very
useful speculations, such as these :— -
1. How easy it is for men to fall out, and yet all
sides to be in the right.
2. How natural it is for opinion to despise de-
monstration. . .
3. How proper mutual inquiry is to mutual satis-
faction.
From the observation of these glasses, we also
drew some puns, crotchets, and conclusions.
1st. That the whole world has a blind side, a
dark side, and a bright side, and consequently so
has everybody in it.
2ndly. That the dark side of affairs to-day, may
be the bright side to-morrow; from whence abund-
ance of useful morals were also raised ; such as,
1. No man’s fate is so dark, but when the sun
shines upon it, it will return its rays and shine for
itself. -
2. All things turn like the moon, up to-day,
down to-morrow, full and change, flux and reflux.
3. Human understanding is like the moon at the
first quarter, half dark. x ºn
3dly. The changing sides ought not to be thought
so strange, or so much condemned by mankind, having
its original from the lunar influence, and governed
by the powerful operation of heavenly motion.
4thly. If there be any such thing as destiny in
the world, I know nothing man is so predestinated
to, as to be eternally turning round; and but that
I purpose to entertain the reader with at least a
whole chapter or section of the philosophy of human
motion, spherically and hypercritically examined
and calculated, I should enlarge upon that thought
in this place.
Having thus jumped in our opinions, and per-
248 - THE CONSOLIDATOR.
fectly satisfied ourselves with demonstration that
these worlds were sisters, both in form, function,
and all their capacities; in short, a pair of moons,
and a pair of worlds, equally magnetical, sympathe-
tical, and influential; we set up our rest as to that
affair, and went forward.
I desired no better acquaintance in my new
travels than this new associate; never was there
such a couple of people met; he was the man in
the moon to me, and I the man in the moon to
him ; he wrote down all I said, and made a book of
it, and called it, News from the World in the Moon ;
and all the town is like to see my minutes under the
same title; nay, and I have been told he published
some such bold truths there, from the allegorical
relations he had of me from our world, that he was
called before the public authority, who could not
bear the just reflections of his damned satirical way
of writing; and there they punished the poor man,
put him in prison, ruined his family; and not only
fined him ultra tenementum, but exposed him in the
high places of their capital city for the mob to
laugh at him for a fool. This is a punishment not
unlike our pillory, and was appointed for mean
criminals, fellows that cheat and cozen people,
forge writings, forswear themselves, and the like ;
and the people, that it was expected would have
treated this man very ill, on the contrary, pitied
him, wished those that set him there placed in his
room, and expressed their affections by loud shouts
and acclamations when he was taken down.
But as this happened before my next visit to that
world, when I came there all was over with him,
his particular enemies were disgraced and turned
out, and the man was not at all the worse received
by his country folks than he was before ; and so
much for the man in the moon.
THE CONSOLIDATOR. ... 249
. . After we had settled the debate between us,
about the nature and quality, I desired him to show
me some plan or draft of this new world of his ;
upon which he brought me out a pair of very
beautiful globes, and there I had an immediate
geographical description of the place.
I found it less by degrees than our terrestrial
globe, but more land and less water ; and as I was
particularly concerned to see something in or near
the same climate with ourselves, I observed a large
extended country to the north, about the latitude
of 50 to 56° northern distance; and inquiring of
that country, he told me it was one of the best
countries in all their world: that it was his native
climate, and he was just agoing to it, and would
take me with him.
He told me, in general, the country was good,
wholesome, fruitful, rarely situate for trade, extra-
ordinarily accommodated with harbours, rivers, and
bays for shipping; full of inhabitants, for it had
been peopled from all parts, and had in it some of
the blood of all the nations in the moon.
He told me, as the inhabitants were the most
numerous, so they were the strangest people that
lived ; both their natures, tempers, qualities, ac-
tions, and way of living, was made up of innumer-
able contradictions; that they were the wisest fools,
and the foolishest wise men in the world ; the
weakest strongest, richest poorest, most generous
covetous, bold cowardly, false faithful, sober disso-
lute, surly civil, slothful diligent, peaceable quar-
relling, loyal seditious nation that ever was known.
Besides my observations which I made myself,
and which could only furnish me with what was
present, and which I shall take time to inform my
reader with as much care and conciseness as pos-
250 THE CONSOLIDATOR.
sible, I was beholding to this old lunarian for every-
thing that was historical or particular.
And first, he informed me that in this new
country they had very seldom any clouds at all, and
consequently no extraordinary storms, but a con-
stant serenity; moderate breezes cooled the air, and
constant evening exhalations kept the earth moist
and fruitful; and as the winds they had were
various, and strong enough to assist their navigation,
so they were without the terrors, dangers, ship-
wrecks and destructions, which he knew we were
troubled with in this our lunar world, as he called it.
The first just observation I made of this was,
that I supposed from hence the wonderful clearness
of the air, and the advantage of so vast optic capa-
cities they enjoyed, was obtained: Alas! says the
old fellow, you see nothing to what some of our
great eyes see in some parts of this world, nor do
you see anything compared to what you may see by
the help of some new invented glasses, of which I
may in time let you see the experiment; and per-
haps you may find this to be the reason why we do
not so abound in books as in your lunar world;
and that, except it be some extraordinary trans-
lations out of your country, you will find but little
in our libraries worth giving you a great deal of
trouble. -
We immediately quitted the philosophical dis-
course of winds, and I began to be mighty inquisi-
tive after these glasses and translations, and—
1st. I understood here was a strange sort of
glass, that did not so much bring to the eye, as, by
I know not what wonderful operation, carried out
the eye to the object, and quite varies from all our
doctrine of optics, by forming several strange phe-
nomena in sight which we are utterly unacquainted
THE CONSOLIDATOR. 251
with ; nor could vision, rarefication, or any of our
schoolmen's fine terms, stand me in any stead in
this case ; but here was such additions of piercing
organs, particles of transparence, emission, transmis-
sion, mediums, contraction of rays, and a thousand
applications of things prepared for the wondrous
operation, that you may be sure are requisite for the
bringing to pass something yet unheard of on this
side the moon.
First, we were informed by the help of these
glasses, strange things, which pass in our world for
nonentities, are to be seen, and very perceptible; for
example:—
State polity, in all its meanders, shifts, turns,
tricks, and contraries, is so exactly delineated and
described, that they are in hopes in time to draw a
pair of globes out, to bring all those things to a cer-
tainty. -
Not but that it made some puzzle, even among
these clearsighted nations, to determine what
figure the plans and drafts of this undiscovered
world of mysteries ought to be described in. Some
were of opinion, it ought to be an irregular centa-
gon, a figure with a hundred cones or angles; since
the unaccountables of this state science are hid in
a million of undiscovered corners, as the craft,
subtilty, and hypocrisy of knaves and courtiers
have concealed them, never to be found out but
by this wonderful d lscope, which seemed to
threaten a perfect, discovery of all those nudities,
which have lain hid in the embryo, and false con-
ceptions of abortive policy, ever since the founda-
tion of the world.
Some were of opinion this plan ought to be cir-
cular, and in a globular form, since it was on all
sides alike, full of dark spots, untrod mazes, waking
mischiefs, and sleeping mysteries; and, being de-
252 THE CONSOLIDATOR.
lineated like the globes displayed, would discover
all the lines of wickedness to the eye at one view:
besides, they fancied some sort of analogy in the ro-
tundity of the figure with the continued circular
motion of all court policies in the stated round of
universal knavery.
Others would have had it hieroglyphical, as by a
hand in hand, the form representing the affinity
between state policy here and state policy in the
infernal regions, with some unkind similes be-
tween the economy of Satan's kingdom and those
of most of the temporal powers on earth; but
this was thought too unkind. At last it was deter-
mined that neither of these schemes were capable
of the vast description, and that, therefore, the
drafts must be made single, though not dividing the
governments, yet dividing the arts of governing into
proper distinct schemes, viz. – - -
1. A particular plan of public faith ; and here we
had the experiment immediately made : the repre-
sentation is qualified for the meridian of any
country, as well in our world as theirs; and turning
it towards our own world, there I saw plainly an
exchequer shut up, and twenty thousand mourning
families selling their coaches, horses, whores, equi-
pages, &c., for bread, the government standing by
laughing, and looking on : hard by I saw the
chamber of a great city shut up, and forty thousand
orphans turned adrift in the world; some had no
clothes, some no shoes, some no money; and still
the city magistrates calling upon other orphans to
pay their money in. These things put me in mind
of the prophet Ezekiel, and methought I heard the
same voice that spoke to him, calling me, and
telling me, Come hither, and I will show thee
greater abominations than these ; so looking still on
that vast map, by the help of these magnifying-
THE CONSOLIDATOR. 253
glasses, I saw huge fleets hired for transport service,
but never paid; vast taxes anticipated, that were
never collected; others collected and appropriated,
but misapplied ; millions of tallies struck to be
discounted, and the poor paying forty per cent. to
receive their money. I saw huge quantities of
money drawn in, and little or none issued out ; vast
prizes taken from the enemy, and then taken away
again at home by friends; ships saved on the sea,
and sunk in the prize offices; merchants escaping
from enemies at sea, and bepirated by sham em-
bargoes, counterfeit claims, confiscations, &c., ashore:
there we saw Turkey fleets taken into convoys, and
guarded to the very mouth of the enemy, and then
abandoned for their better security : here we saw
Mons. Pouchartrain shutting up the town-house of
Paris, and plundering the bank of Lyons.
2. Here we saw the state of the war among
nations; here was the French giving sham thanks
for victories they never got, and somebody else
addressing and congratulating the sublime glory of
running away; here was Te Deum for sham victories
by land, and there was thanksgiving for ditto by
sea; here we might see two armies fight, both run
away, and both come and thank God for nothing.
Here we saw a plan of a late war, like that in Ire-
land; there was all the officers cursing a Dutch
general, because the damned rogue would fight
and spoil a good war, that, with decent management
and good husbandry, might have been eked out
this twenty years; there were whole armies hunting
two cows to one Irishman, and driving of black
cattle declared the noble end of the war. Here we
saw a country full of stone walls and strong towns,
where, every campaign, the trade of war was carried
on by the soldiers with the same intriguing as it
was carried on in the council-chambers; there was
254 THE CONSOLIDATOR.
millions of contributions raised, and vast sums col-
lected, but no taxes lessened; whole plate-fleets
surprised, but no treasure found; vast sums lost by
enemies, and yet never found by friends; ships
loaded with volatile silver, that came away full and
got home empty; whole voyages made to beat no-
body, and plunder everybody ; two millions robbed
from the honest merchants, and not a groat saved
for the honest subjects. There we saw captains
listing men with the government's money, and letting
them go again for their own ; ships fitted out at the
rate of two millions a year, to fight but once in
three years, and then run away for want of powder
and shot. - -
There we saw partition treaties damned, and the
whole given away, confederacies without allies,
allies without quotas, princes without armies, armies
without men, and men without money, crowns with-
out kings, kings without subjects, more kings than
countries, and more countries than were worth
fighting for. -
Here we could see the king of France upbraiding
his neighbours with dishonourably assisting his
rebels, though the mischief was, they did it not
neither ; and, in the same breath, assisting the
Hungarian rebels against the emperor; M. Ld. N.
refusing so dishonourable an action as to aid the
rebellious Camisars, but leaguing with the admirant
de Castile to invade the dominions of his master,
to whom he swore allegiance. Here we saw pro-
testants fight against protestants, to help papists:
papists against papists, to help protestants; pro-
testants callin Turks, to keep faith against Christians
that break it: here we could see Swedes fighting
for revenge, and call it religion; cardinals deposing
their catholic prince, to introduce the tyranny of a
Lutheran, and call it liberty; armies electing kings,
THE CONSOLIDATOR. 255
and call it free choice; French conquering Savoy,
to secure the liberty of Italy.
3. The map of state policy contains abundance
of civil transactions, nowhere to be discovered but
in this wonderful country, and by this prodigious
invention: as first, it shows an eminent prelate
running in everybody's debt to relieve the poor,
and bring to God robbery for burnt-offering: it
opens a door to the fate of nations: and there we
might see the duke of S y bought three times,
and his subjects sold every time ; Portugal bought
twice, and neither time worth the earnest; Spain
bought once, but loath to go with the bidder;
Venice willing to be bought, if there had been any
buyers; Bavaria bought, and run away with the
money; the emperor bought and sold, but bilked
the chapman ; the French buying kingdoms he
cannot keep, the Dutch keep kingdoms they never
bought ; and the English paying their money with-
out purchase. - - -
In matters of civil concerns, here was to be seen
religion with no outside, and much outside with
no religion; much strife about peace, and no peace
in the design : here was plunder without violence,
violence without persecution, conscience without
good works, and good works without charity;
parties cutting one another's throats for God’s sake,
pulling down churches de propaganda fide, and
making divisions by way of association.
Here we have peace and union brought to pass
the shortest way; extirpation and destruction proved
to be the road to plenty and pleasure : here all the
wise nations a learned author would have quoted,
if he could have found them, are to be seen, who
carry on exclusive laws to the general safety and
satisfaction of their subjects.
Occasional bills may have here a particular his-
256 THE CONSOLIDATOR.
torical, categorical description : but of them by
themselves.
Here you might have the rise, original, lawful-
ness, usefulness, and necessity of passive obedience,
as fairly represented as a system of divinity, and as
clearly demonstrated as by a geographical descrip-
tion; and, which exceeds our mean understanding
here, it is, by the wonderful assistance of these
glasses, plainly discerned to be coherent with re-
sistance, taking arms, calling in foreign powers,
and the like. Here you have a plain discovery
of C. of E. politics, and a map of loyalty: here it is
as plainly demonstrated as the nose in a man’s face,
provided he has one, that a man may abdicate,
drive away, and dethrone his prince, and yet be
absolutely and entirely free from, and innocent of
the least fracture, breach, encroachment, or in-
trenchment upon the doctrine of non-resistance:
can shoot at his prince without any design to kill.
him, fight against him without raising rebellion,
and take up arms, without levying war against his
prince. -
Here they can persecute dissenters, without de-
siring they should conform, conform to the church
they would overthrow, pray for the prince they
dare not name, and name the prince they do not
pray for.
By the help of these glasses strange insights are
made into the vast, mysterious, dark world of state
policy; but that which is yet more strange, and
requires vast volumes to descend to the particulars
of, and huge diagrams, spheres, charts, and a
thousand nice things to display, is, that in this vast
intelligent discovery, it is not only made plain that
those things are so, but all the vast contradictions
are made rational, reconciled to practice, and
brought down to demonstration.
THE CONSOLIDATOR. 257
German clockwork, the perpetual motions, the
prim mobilies of our shortsighted world, are trifles
to these nicer disquisitions.
Here it would be plain and rational, why a par-
liament-man will spend 5000l. to be chosen, that
cannot get a groat homestly by sitting there : it
would be easily made out to be rational, why he
that rails most at a court is soonest received into
it : here it would be very plain, how great estates
are got in little places, and double in none at all :
it is easy to be proved honest and faithful to victual
the French fleet out of English stores, and let our
own navy want them. A long sight, or a large
lunar perspective, will make all these things not
only plain in fact, but rational and justifiable to all
the world.
It is a strange thing to anybody, without doubt,
that has not been in that clearsighted region, to
comprehend, that those we call high-fliers in Eng-
land are the only friends to the dissenters, and
have been the most diligent and faithful in their
interest, of any people in the nation ; and yet so it
is, gentlemen, and they ought to have the thanks of
the whole body for it.
In this advanced station, we see it plainly by re-
flection, that the dissenters, like a parcel of knaves,
have retained all the high-churchmen in their pay;
they are certainly all in their pension-roll: indeed,
I could not see the money paid them there, it was
too remote; but I could plainly see the thing; all
the deep lines of the project are laid as true, they
are so tacked and consolidated together, that if any
one will give themselves leave to consider, they will
be most effectually convinced that the high church
and the dissenters here, are all in a cabal, a mere
knot, a piece of clockwork; the dissenters are the
dial-plate, and the high church the movement,
CONSOLIDATOR. S
258 THE consolidATOR.
the wheel within the wheels, the spring and the
screw to bring all things to motion, and make the
hand on the dial-plate point which way the dissen-
ters please.
For what else have been all the shams they have
put upon the governments, kings, states, and people
they have been concerned with ? what schemes
have they laid on purpose to be broken P what vast
contrivances, on purpose to be ridiculed and ex-
posed ? The men are not fools, they had never
v–—d to consolidate a b ——, but that they were
willing to save the dissenters, and put it into a pos-
ture in which they were sure it would miscarry.
I defy all the wise men of the moon to show an-
other good reason for it.
Methinks I begin to pity my brethren, the
moderate men of the church, that they cannot see
into this new plot, and to wish they would but get
up into our Consolidator, and take a journey to the
moon, and there, by the help of these glasses, they
would see the allegorical, symbolical, heterodoxical-
ity of all this matter; it would make immediate
converts of them ; they would see plainly, that to
tack and consolidate, to make exclusive laws, to
persecute for conscience, disturb, and distress par-
ties; these are all fanatic plots, mere combina-
tions against the church, to bring her into contempt,
and to fix and establish the dissenters to the end of
the chapter: but of this I shall find occasion to
speak occasionally, when an occasion presents itself
to examine a certain occasional bill, transacting in
these lunar regions, some time before I had the
happiness to arrive there.
In examining the multitude and variety of these
most admirable glasses for the assisting the optics,
or indeed the formation of a new perceptive faculty,
it was, you may be sure, most surprising, to find
THE CONSOLIDATOR. 259
there that art had exceeded nature; and the power
of vision was assisted to that prodigious degree, as
even to distinguish nonentity itself; and in these .
strange engines of light it could not but be very
pleasing, to distinguish plainly betwixt being and
matter, and to come to a determination in the so-
long-canvassed dispute of substance, vel materialis,
vel spiritualis; and I can solidly affirm, that in all our
contention between entity and nonentity, there is
so little worth meddling with, that had we had
these glasses some ages ago, we should have left
troubling our heads with it.
I take upon me, therefore, to assure my reader,
that whoever pleases to take a journey, or voyage,
or flight, up to these lunar regions, as soon as ever
he comes ashore there, will presently be con-
vinced of the reasonableness of immaterial substance,
and the immortality, as well as immateriality of the
soul: he will no sooner look into these explicating
glasses, but he will be able to know the separate
meaning of body, soul, spirit, life, motion, death,
and a thousand things that wise men puzzle them-
selves about here, because they are not fools enough
to understand.
Here, too, I find glasses for the second sight, as
our old women call it. This second sight has been
often pretended to in our regions, and some famous
old wives have told us they can see death, the soul,
futurity, and the neighbourhood of them, in the
countenance. By this wonderful art, these good
people unfold strange mysteries, as under some irre-
coverable disease, to foretell death ; under hypocon-
driac melancholy, to presage trouble of mind; in
pining youth, to predict contagious love; and a
hundred other infallibilities, which never fail to be
true as soon as ever they come to pass, and are all
grounded upon the same infallibility y which a
S
260 'THE CONSOLIDATOR,
shepherd may always know when anyone of his sheep
is rotten, viz., when he shakes himself to pieces.
But all this guess and uncertainty is a trifle to
the vast discoveries of these explicatory optic
glasses: for here are seen the nature and conse-
quences of secret mysteries: here are read strange
mysteries relating to predestination, eternal decrees,
and the like : here it is plainly proved, that pre-
destination is, in spite of all enthusiastic preten-
ces, so entirely committed into man's power, that
whoever pleases to hang himself to-day, won’t live
till to-morrow ; no, though forty predestination
prophets were to tell him, his time was not yet
come. These abstruse points are commonly and
solemnly discussed here; and these people are
such heretics, that they say God’s decrees are all
subservient to the means of his providence; that
what we call providence is a subjecting all things to
the great chain of causes and consequences, by
which that one grand decree, that all effects shall
obey, without reserve, to their proper moving causes,
supersedes all subsequent doctrines, or pretended
decrees, or predestination in the world: that by
this rule, he that will kill himself, God, nature,
providence, or decree, will not be concerned to
hinder him, but he shall die; any decrees, pre-
destination, or foreknowledge of infinite power to
the contrary in any wise notwithstanding ; that it
is in a man's power to throw himself into the water,
and be drowned ; and to kill another man, and he
shall die; and to say, God appointed it, is to make
him the author of murder, and to injure the
murderer, in putting him to death for what he could
not help doing. -
All these things are received truths here, and no
doubt would be so everywhere else, if the eyes of
Teason were opened to the testimony of nature, or
THE CONSOLIDATOR: 261
if they had the helps of these most incomparable
glasses.
Some pretended, by the help of these second-
sight glasses, to see the common periods of life;
and others said they could see a great way beyond
the leap in the dark: I confess, all I could see of
the first was, that holding up the glass against the
sea, I plainly saw, as it were on the edge of the
horizon, these words:
The verge of life and death is here.
'Tis best to know where 'tis, but not how far.
As to seeing beyond death, all the glasses I
looked into for that purpose, made but little of it;
and these were the only tubes that I found defective;
for here I could discern nothing but clouds, mists,
and thick, dark, hazy weather; but revolving in my
mind, that I had read a certain book in our own
country, called Nature, it presently occurred, that
the conclusion of it, to all such as gave themselves
the trouble of making out those foolish things called
inferences, was always, Look up ; upon which, turn-
ing one of their glasses up, and erecting the point
of it towards the zenith, I saw these words in the
air, REVELATION, in large capital letters. -
I had like to have raised the mob upon me for
looking upright with this glass ; for this, they said,
was prying into the mysteries of the great eye
of the world; that we ought to inquire no further
than he has informed us, and to believe what he
had left us more obscure: upon this, I laid down
the glasses, and concluded, that we had Moses and
the prophets, and should be never the likelier to be
taught by one come from the moon.
In short, I found, indeed, they had a great deal
more knowledge of things than we in this world;
and that nature, science, and reason, had obtained
262 THE CONSOLIDATOR.
great improvements in the lunar world ; but as to
religion, it was the same, equally resigned to and
concluded in faith and redemption ; so I shall give
the world no great information of these things.
I come next to some other strange acquirements
obtained by the helps of these glasses; and parti-
cularly for the discerning the imperceptibles of
nature; such as, the soul, thought, honesty, reli-
gion, virginity, and a hundred other nice things,
too small for human discerning.
The discoveries made by these glasses, as to the
soul, are of a very diverting variety; some hiero-
glyphical and emblematical, and some demonstra-
tive.
The hieroglyphical discoveries of the soul make
it appear in the image of its Maker; and the analogy
is remarkable, even in the very simile; for as they
represent the original of nature as one great eye,
illuminating as well as discerning all things; so the
soul, in its allegorical, or hieroglyphical resemblance,
appears as a great eye, embracing the man, envel-
oping, operating, and informing every part: from
whence those sort of people who we falsely call poli-
ticians, affecting so much to put out this great eye,
by acting against their common understandings, are
very aptly represented by a great eye with six or
seven pair of spectacles on ; not but that the eye of
their souls may be clear enough of itself, as to the
common understanding; but that they happen to
have occasion to look sometimes so many ways at
once, and to judge, conclude, and understand so
many contrary ways upon one and the same thing,
that they are fain to put double glasses upon their
understanding, as we look at the solar eclipses, to
represent them in different lights, lest their judg-
ments should not be wheedled into a compliance
with the hellish resolutions of their wills; and this
THE CONSOLIDATOR. 263
is what I call the emblematic representation of the
soul. • .
As for the demonstrations of the soul's existence,
it is a plain case, by these explicative glasses, that
it is: some have pretended to give us the parts; and
we have heard of chirurgeons that could read an
anatomical lecture on the parts of the soul; and
these pretend it to be a creature in form, whether
chameleon or salamander, authors have not deter-
mined; nor is it completely discovered when it
comes into the body, or how it goes out, or where
its locality or habitation is, while it is a resident.
But they very aptly show it, like a prince in his
seat, in the middle of his palace the brain, issuing
out his incessant orders to innumerable troops of
nerves, sinews, muscles, tendons, veins, arteries,
fibres, capilarii, and useful officers, called organici,
who faithfully execute all the parts of sensation,
locomotion, concoction, &c.; and in the hundred
thousandth part of a moment, return with particular
messages for information, and demand new instruc-
tions. If any part of his kingdom, the body, suffers
a depredation, or an invasion of the enemy, the ex-
presses fly to the seat of the soul, the brain, and
immediately are ordered back to smart, that the
body may of course send more messengers to com-
plain; immediately, other expresses are despatched
to the tongue, with orders to cry out, that the
neighbours may come in and help, or friends send
for the chirurgeon. Upon the application, and a
cure, all is quiet, and the same expresses are de-
spatched to the tongue to be hush, and say no more
of it till further orders. All this is as plain to be
seen in these engines, as the moon of our world
from the world in the moon.
As the being, nature, and situation of human soul
is thus spherically and mathematically discovered,
264 THE CONSOLIDATOR.
I could not find any second thoughts about it in all
their books, whether of their own composition or by
translation; for it was a general received notion,
that there could not be a greater absurdity in
human knowledge, than to employ the thoughts in
questioning what is as plainly known by its conse-
quences as if seen with the eye; and that to
doubt the being or extent of the soul's operation, is
to employ her against herself; and therefore, when
I began to argue with my old philosopher, against
the immateriality and immortality of this mystery we
call soul, he laughed at me, and told me, he found
we had none of their glasses in our world; and bid
me send all our sceptics, soul-sleepers, uor Cowards,
Bakers, Kings and Bakewells, up to him into the
moon, if they wanted demonstrations; where, by
the help of their engines, they would make it plain
to them that the great eye being one vast intellect,
infinite and eternal, all inferior life is a degree of
himself, and as exactly represents him as one little
flame the whole mass of fire; that it is therefore
incapable of dissolution, being like its original in
duration, as well as in its powers and faculties, but
that it goes and returns by emission, regression, as
the great eye governs and determines; and this
was plainly made out by the figure I had seen it in,
viz., an eye, the exact image of its Maker: it is true,
it was darkned by ignorance, folly and, crime, and
therefore obliged to wear spectacles; but though
these were defects or interruptions in its operation,
they were none in its nature; which, as it had its
immediate efflux from the great eye, its return to
him must partake of himself, and could not but be
of a quality uncomeatable, by casualty or death.
From this discourse we the more willingly ad-
journed our present thoughts, I being clearly con-
vinced of the matter; and as for our learned doc-
THE CONSOLIDATOR. 265
tors, with their second and third thoughts, I told
him I would recommend them to the man in the
moon for their further illumination, which if they
refused to accept, it was but just they should remain
in a wood, where they are, and are like to be, puz-
zling themselves about demonstrations, squaring of
circles, and converting oblique into right angles, to
bring out a mathematical clockwork soul, that will
go till the weight is down, and then stand still till
they know not who must wind it up again.
However, I cannot pass over a very strange and
extraordinary piece of art which this old gentleman
informed me of, and that was an engine to screw a
man into himself: perhaps our countrymen may be
at some difficulty to comprehend these things by my
dull description; and to such, I cannot but recom-
mend a journey in my engine to the moon.
This machine that I am speaking of, contains a
multitude of strange springs and screws, and a man
that puts himself into it, is very insensibly carried
into vast speculations, reflections, and regular de-
bates with himself. They have a very hard name
for it in those parts; but if I were to give it an
English name, it should be called, the Cogitator, or
the chair of reflection. - -
And first, the person that is seated here feels
some pain in passing some negative springs, that
arewound up, effectually to shut out all injecting, dis-
turbing thoughts, and the better to prepare him for
the operation that is to follow ; and this is without
doubt a very rational way; for when a man can ab-
solutely shut out all manner of thinking, but what
he is upon, he shall think the more intensely upon
the one object before him. -
This operation past, here are certain screws that
draw direct lines from every angle of the engine to
the brain of the man, and, at the same time, other
266 THE CONSOLIDATOR.
direct lines to his eyes; at the other end of which
lines, there are glasses which convey or reflect the
objects the person is desirous to think upon.
Then the main wheels are turned, which wind up
according to their several offices; this the memory,
that the understanding, a third the will, a fourth
the thinking faculty; and these being put all into
regular motions, pointed by direct lines to their
proper objects, and perfectly uninterrupted by the
intervention of whimsey, chimera, and a thousand
fluttering demons that gender in the fancy, but are
effectually locked out as before, assist one another
to receive right notions, and form just ideas of the
things they are directed to ; and from thence the
man is empowered to make right conclusions, to
think and act like himself, suitable to the sublime
qualities his soul was originally blest with.
There never was a man went into one of these
thinking engines, but he came wiser out than he
was before; and I am persuaded it would be a
more effectual cure to our deism, atheism, scep-
ticism, and all other scisms; than ever the Italian's
engine for curing the gout by cutting off the toe.
This is a most wonderful engine, and performs
admirably, and my author gave me extraordinary
accounts of the good effects of it; and I cannot but
tell my reader, that our sublunar world suffers mil-
lions of inconveniences for want of this thinking
engine: I have had a great many projects in my
head, how to bring our people to regular thinking,
but it is in vain without this engine; and how to
get the model of it I know not; how to screw up
the will, the understandiug, and the rest of the
powers; how to bring the eye, the thought, the
fancy and the memory, into mathematical order,
and obedient to mechanic operation. Help Boyle,
Norris, Newton, Manton, Hammond, Tillotson, and
THE CONSOLIDATOR. 267
all the learned race! Help philosophy, divinity, phy-
sics, economics! All is in vain, a mechanic chair of
reflection is the only remedy that ever I found in
my life for this work. s
As to the effects of mathematical thinking, what
volumes might be writ of it will more easily appear,
if we consider the wondrous usefulness of this en-
gine in all human affairs; as of war, peace, justice,
injuries, passion, love, marriage, trade, policy, and
religion. -
When a man has been screwed into himself, and
brought by this art to a regularity of thought, he
never commits any absurdity after it; his actions
are squared by the same lines, for action is but the
consequence of thinking; and he that acts before
he thinks, sets human nature with the bottom up-
ward.
M. would never have made his speech, nor the
famous B ly wrote a book, if ever they had been
in this thinking engine : one would have never told
us of nations he never saw, nor the other told us
he had seen a great many and was never the wiser.
H. had never ruined his family to marry whore,
thief, and beggar-woman, in one salliant lady, after
having been told so honestly and so often of it by
the very woman herself. .
Our late unhappy monarch had never trusted the
English clergy, when they preached up that non-
resistance, which he must needs see they could
never practise: had his majesty been screwed up
into this Cogitator, he had presently reflected that it
was against nature to expect they should stand still
and let him tread upon them; that they should,
whatever they had preached or pretended to, hold
open their throats to have them be cut, and tie their
own hands from resisting the Lord's anointed.
Had some of our clergy been screwed in this en-
268 THE CONSOLIDATOR,
gine, they had never turned martyrs for their
allegiance to the late king, only for the lechery of
having Dr. S-- in their company.
Had our merchants been managed in this engine,
they had never trusted their Turkey fleet with a
famous squadron, that took a great deal of care to
convoy them safe into the enemy's hands.
Had some people been in this engine, when they
had made a certain league in the world, in order to
make amends for a better made before, they would
certainly have considered further, before they had
embarked with a nation that are neither fit to go
abroad nor stay at home.
As for the thinking practised in noble speeches,
occasional bills, addressings about prerogative,
convocation disputes, turnings in and turnings out
at ours and all the courts of Christendom, I have
nothing to say to it.
Had the duke of Bavaria been in our engine, he
would never have begun a quarrel which he knew
all the powers of Europe were concerned to sup-
press, and lay all other business down till it was
done.
Had the elector of Saxony passed the operation of
this engine, he would never have beggared a rich
electorate to ruin a beggared crown, nor sold him-
self for a kingdom hardly worth any man’s taking :
he would never have made himself less than he
was, in hopes of being really no greater; and stept
down from a protestant duke, and imperial elector,
to be a nominal mock-king with a shadow of power,
and a name without honour, dignity, or strength.
Had Mons. Tallard been in our engine, he would
not only not have attacked the confederates when
they passed the morass and rivulet in his front, but
not have attacked them at all, nor have suffered
them to have attacked him, it being his business
THE CONSOLIDATOR. 269
not to have fought at all, but have lingered out
the war till the duke of Savoy having been
reduced, the confederate army must have been
forced to have divided themselves of course, in
order to defend their own.
Some that have been very forward to have us
proceed the shortest way with the Scots, may be said
to stand in great need of this chair of reflection, to
find out a just cause for such a war, and to make a
neighbour nation making themselves secure, a suf-
ficient reason for another neighbour nation to fall
upon them : our engine would presently show it
them in a clear sight, by way of parallel, that it is
just with the same right as a man may break open a
house because the people bar and bolt the windows.
If somebody has changed hands there from bad
to worse, and opened instead of closing differences
in those cases, the Cogitator might have brought
them, by more regular thinking, to have known
that was not at all the method of bringing the
S. S to reaSOn.
Our Cogitator would be a very necessary thing to
show some people that poverty and weakness is not
a sufficient ground to oppress a nation, and their
having but little trade cannot be a sufficient ground
to equip fleets to take away what they have.
I cannot deny that I have often thought they
have had something of this engine in our neigh-
bouring, ancient kingdom, since no man, however
we pretend to be angry, but will own they are in
the right of it, as to themselves, to vote and procure
bills for their own security, and not to do as others
demand, without conditions fit to be accepted : but
of that by itself. T-
There are abundance of people in our world, of
all sorts and conditions, that stand in need of our
thinking engines, and to be screwed into themselves
270 TIIB. CONSOLIDATOR.
a little, that they might think as directly as they
speak absurdly : but of these also in a class by itself.
This engine has a great deal of philosophy in it ;
and particularly, it is a wonderful remedy against
poring; and as it was said of Mons. Jurieu at
Amsterdam, that he used to lose himself in himself;
by the assistance of this piece of regularity, a man
is most effectually secured against bewildering
thoughts, and, by direct thinking, he prevents all
manner of dangerous wandering, since nothing can
come to more speedy conclusions than that which
in right lines points to the proper subject of debate.
All sorts of confusion of thoughts are perfectly
avoided and prevented in this case, and a man is
never troubled with spleen, hippo, or mute madness,
when once he has been thus under the operation of
the screw : it prevents abundance of capital disas-
ters in men, in private affairs ; it prevents hasty
marriages, rash vows, duels, quarrels, suits at law,
and most sorts of repentance. In the state, it saves
a government from many inconveniences; it checks
immoderate ambition, stops wars, navies, and ex-
peditions; especially, it prevents members making
long speeches when they have nothing to say: it
keeps back rebellions, insurrections, clashings of
houses, occasional bills, tacking, &c.
It has a wonderful property in our affairs at sea,
and has prevented many a bloody fight, in which a
great many honest men might have lost their lives
that are now useful fellows, and help to man and
manage her majesty's navy. -
What if some people are apt to charge cowardice
upon some people in those cases? It is plain that
cannot be it, for he that dare incur the resentment
of the English mob, shows more courage than would
be able to carry him through forty seafights.
It is therefore for want of being in this engine,
*
THE CONSOLIDATOR. 27]
that we censure people, because they don’t be
knocking one another on the head, like the people
at the bear-garden; where, if they do not see the
blood run about, they always cry out, A cheat; and
the poor fellows are fain to cut one another, that
they may not be pulled to pieces; where the case
is plain, they are bold for fear, and pull up courage
enough to fight, because they are afraid of the people.
This engine prevents all sorts of lunacies, love-
frenzies, and melancholy madness; for, preserving
the thought in right lines to direct objects, it is im-
possible any deliriums, whimseys, or fluttering air
of ideas, can interrupt the man; he can never be
mad: for which reason I cannot but recommend it to
my lord S , my lord N , and my lord H-
as absolutely necessary to defend them from the
state-madness which for some ages has possessed
their families, and which runs too much in the
blood.
It is also an excellent introduction to thought,
and therefore very well adapted to those people
whose peculiar talent and praise is, that they never
think at all. Of these, if his grace of B
please to accept advice from the man in the moon,
it should be to put himself into this engine, as a
sovereign cure to the known disease called the
Thoughtless Evil. -
But above all, it is an excellent remedy, and very
useful, to a sort of people who are always travailing
in thought, but never delivered into action; who
are so exceeding busy at thinking, they have no
leisure for action; of whom the late poet sung well
to the purpose :
&sººººººººººººººº. Some modern coxcombs, who
Retire to think, 'cause they have nought to do ;
d would
'72 THE CONSOLIDATOR.
For thoughts were giv'n for action's government,
Where action ceases, thought's impertinent:
The sphere of action is life's happiness,
And he that thinks beyond, thinks like an ass.
RoCHEST. Poems, p. 9.
These gentlemen would make excellent use of this
engine, for it would teach them to despatch one
thing before they begin another ; and therefore is
of singular use to honest S-, whose peculiar it
was, to be always beginning projects but never finish
any.
The variety of this engine, its uses, and improve-
ments, are innumerable, and the reader must not
expect I can give anything like a perfect description
of it.
There are yet another sort of machine, which I
never obtained a sight of till the last voyage I
made to this lunar orb, and these are called Ele-
vators: the mechanic operations of these are won-
derful, and helped by fire; by which the senses are
raised to all the strange extremes we can imagine,
and whereby the intelligent soul is made to converse
with its own species, whether embodied or not.
Those that are raised to a due pitch in this won-
drous frame, have a clear prospect into the world of
spirits, and converse with visions, guardian angels,
spirits departed, and what not: and as this is a won-
derful knowledge, and not to be obtained but by
the help of this fire, so those that have tried the
experiment, give strange accounts of sympathy,
pre-existence of souls, dreams, and the like.
I confess I always believed a converse of spirits,
and have heard of some who have experienced so
much of it as they could obtain upon nobody else
to believe. -
THE CONSOLIDATOR. 273
I never saw any reason to doubt the existent
state of the spirit before embodied, any more than
I did of its immortality after it shall be uncased;
and the scriptures saying, the spirit returns to God
that gave it, implies “a coming from,” or how could
it be called ‘a return.” -
Nor can I see a reason why embodying a spirit
should altogether interrupt its converse with the
world of spirits from whence it was taken ; and to
what else shall we ascribe guardian-angels, in which
the scripture is also plain P and from whence come
secret notices, impulse of thought, pressing urgen-
cies of inclination, to or from this or that altogether
involuntary, but from some waking kind assistant
wandering spirit, which gives secret hints to its
fellow-creature, of some approaching evil or good,
which it was not able to foresee P
For spirits without the helps of voice converse.
I know we have supplied much of this with en-
thusiasm and conceited revelation ; but the people
of this world convince us that it may be all natural,
by obtaining it in a mechanic way, viz., by forming
something suitable to the sublime nature, which
working by art, shall only rectify the more vigorous
particles of the soul, and work it up to a suitable
elevation. This engine is wholly applied to the
head, and works by injection; the chief influence
being on what we call fancy, or imagination, which
by the heat of strong ideas, is fermented to a strange
height, and is thus brought to see backward and
forward every way, beyond itself: by this a man
fancies himself in the moon, and realizes things
there as distinctly as if he was actually talking to
my old philosopher. - -
This indeed is an admirable engine, it is composed
of a hundred thousand rational consequences, five.
CONSOLIDATOR. T
274 THE CONSOLIDATOR.
times the number of conjectures, supposes, and pro-
babilities, besides an innumerable company of flut-
tering suggestions and injections, which hover round
the imagination, and are all taken in as fast as they
can be concocted and digested there: these are
formed into ideas, and some of those so well put to-
gether, so exactly shaped, so well dressed and set out
by the additional fire of fancy, that it is no un-
common thing for the person to be entirely deceived
by himself, not knowing the brat of his own begetting,
nor be able to distinguish between reality and repre-
sentation: from hence we have some people talking
to images of their own forming, and seeing more
devils and spectres than ever appeared: from hence
we have weaker heads not able to bear the opera-
tion, seeing imperfect visions, as of horses and men
without heads or arms, light without fire, hearing
voices without sound, and noises without shapes, as
their own fears or fancies broke the phenomena be-
fore the entire formation.
But the more genuine and perfect use of these
vast elevations of the fancy, which are performed,
as I said, by the mechanic operation of innate fire,
is to guide mankind to as much foresight of things
as either by nature, or by the aid of anything ex-
tranatural, may be obtained; and by this exceeding
knowledge, a man shall forebode to himself approach-
ing evil or good, so as to avoid this, or be in the
way of that ; and what if I should say, that the
notices of these things are not only frequent, but
constant, and require nothing of us, but to make
use of this elevator, to keep our eyes, our ears, and
our fancies open to the hints; and observe them.
You may suppose me, if you please, come by this
time into those northern kingdoms I mentioned
before, where my old philosopher was a native, and
not to trouble you with any of the needful observa-
*
THE CONSOLIDATOR. 275
tions, learned inscriptions, &c., on the way, accor-
ding to the laudable practices of the famous Mr.
Br—mly, it is sufficient to tell you I found there
an opulent, populous, potent, and terrible people.
I found them at war with one of the greatest
monarchs of the lunar world, and at the same time
miserably rent and torn, mangled and disordered
among themselves.
As soon as I observed the political posture of
their affairs (for here a man sees things mighty
soon, by the helps of such a masterly eyesight as I
have mentioned), and remembering what is said for
our instruction, that a kingdom divided against it-
self cannot stand; I asked the old gentleman if he
had any estate in that country P. He told me, no
great matter; but asked me why I put that question
to him ; Because, said I, if this people go on fighting
and snarling at all the world, and one among another
in this manner, they will certainly be ruined and
undone, either subdued by some more powerful
neighbour; whilst one party will stand still and see
the other's throat cut, though their own turn imme-
diately follows, or else they will destroy and devour
one another. Therefore I told him I would have
him turn his estate into money, and go somewhere
else; or go back to the other world with me.
No, no, replied the old man, I am in no such
fear at this time, the scale of affairs is very lately
changed here, says he ; in but a very few years.
I know nothing of that, said I, but I am sure there
never was but one spot of ground in that world
which I came from, that was divided like them, and
that's that very country I lived in. Here are three
kingdoms of you in one spot, said I, one has already
been conquered and subdued; the other suppressed
its native inhabitants, and planted it with her own,
and now carries it with so high a hand over them
T 2
276 . THE CONSOLIDATOR.
of her own breed, that she limits their trade, stops
their ports; when the inhabitants have made their
manufactures, these wont give them leave to send
them abroad, impose laws upon them, refuse to alter
and amend those they would make for themselves,
make them pay customs, excises, and taxes, and yet
pay the garrisons and guards that defend them,
themselves; press their inhabitants to their fleets,
and carry away their old veteran troops that should
defend them, and leave them to raise more to be
served in the same manner; will let none of their
money be carried over thither, nor let them coin
any of their own; and a great many such hardships
they suffer under the hand of this nation, as mere
slaves and conquered people, though the greatest
part of the traders are the people of the very nation
that treats them thus.
On the other hand, this creates eternal murmurs,
heart-burnings, and regret, both in the natives and
the transplanted inhabitants; the first have shown
their uneasiness by frequent insurrections and re-
bellions, for nature prompts the meanest animal to
struggle for liberty; and these struggles have often
been attended with great cruelty, ravages, death,
massacres, and ruin both of families and the country
itself: as to the transplanted inhabitants, they run
into clandestine trade, into corresponding with their
masters’ enemies; victualling their navies, colonies,
and the like; receiving and importing their goods
in spite of all the orders and directions to the
contrary.
These are the effects of divisions and feuds on
that side; on the other hand, there is a kingdom
entire, unconquered, and independent, and for the
present under the same monarch with the rest.
But here their feuds are greater than with the other,
and more dangerous by far, because national: this
THE CONSOLIDATOR. 277
kingdom joins to the north part of the first kingdom,
and terrible divisions lie among the two nations.
The people of these two kingdoms are called, if
you please for distinction sake, for I cannot well
make you understand their hard names, Solunarians
and Nolunarians, these to the south and those to
the north, the Solunarians were divided in their
articles of religion; the governing party, or the
established church, I shall call the Solunarian
church ; but the whole kingdom was full of a sort
of religious people called Crolians, who, like our
dissenters in England, profess divers subdivided
opinions by themselves, and could not, or would
not, let it go which way it will, join with the esta-
blished church.
On the other hand, the established church in the
northern kingdom was all Crolians, but full of Solu-
narians in opinions, who were dissenters there, as
the Crolians were dissenters in the south, and this
unhappy mixture occasioned endless feuds, divisions,
subdivisions, and animosities without number, of
which hereafter.
The northern men are bold, terrible, numerous,
and brave, to the last degree, but poor, and, by the
encroachments of their neighbours, growing poorer
every day.
The southern are equally brave, more numerous,
and terrible, but wealthy; and care not for wars, had
rather stay at home and quarrel with one another,
than go abroad to fight, making good an old maxim,
Too poor to agree, and yet too rich to fight.
Between these the feud is great, and every day
growing greater; and those people who pretend to
have been in the Cogitator, or thinking engine, tell
us, all the lines of consequences in that affair point
at a fatal period between the kingdoms.
The complaints also are great, and backed with
278 THE CONSOLIDATOR.
fiery arguments on both sides; the northern men
say, the Solunarians have dealt unjustly and un-
kindly by them in several articles; but the southern
men reply with a most powerful argument, viz. they
are poor, and therefore ought to be oppressed, sup-
pressed, or anything.
But the main debate is like to lie upon the article
of choosing a king, both the nations being under
one government at present, but the settlement
ending in the reigning line, the northern men refuse
to join in government again, unless they have a
rectification of some conditions, in which they say
they have the worst of it.
In this case, even the southern men themselves
say, they believe the Nolunarians have been in the
chair of reflection, the thinking engine, and that
having screwed their understandings into a direct
position to that matter before them, they have made
a right judgment of their own affairs, and with all
their poverty stand on the best foot as to right.
But as the matter of this northern quarrel comes
under a second head, and is more properly the sub-
ject of a second voyage to the moon; the reader may
have it more at large considered in another class,
and some further enlightenings in that affair than
perhaps can be reasonably expected of me here.
But of all the feuds and brangles that ever poor
nation was embroiled in ; of all the quarrels, the
factions, and parties, that ever the people of any
nation thought worth while to fall out for; none were
ever in reality so light, in effect so heavy, in ap-
pearance so great, in substance so small, in name so
terrible, in nature so trifling, as those for which this
southern country was altogether by the ears among
themselves.
And this was one reason why I so earnestly
inquired of my lunarian philosopher, whether he
THE CONSOLIDATOR. 279
had an estate in that country or no. But having
told him the cause of that inquiry, he replied, there
was one thing in the nature of his countrymen which
secured them from the ruin which usually attended
divided nations, viz., that if any foreign nation,
thinking to take the advantage of their intestine di-
visions, fell upon them in the highest of all their
feuds, they lay aside their parties and quarrels and
presently fall in together to beat out the common
enemy; and then, no sooner had they obtained
peace abroad, by their conduct and bravery, but
they would fall to cutting one another's throats again
at home, as naturally as if it had been their proper
calling, and that for trifles too, mere trifles.
Very well, said I, to my learned self, pretty like
my own country still, that, whatever peace they
have abroad, are sure to have none at home.
To come at the historical account of these luna-
rian dissensions it will be absolutely necessary to
enter a little into the story of the place, at least as
far as relates to the present constitution, both of the
people, the government, and the subject of their
present quarrels.
And first we are to understand, that there has for
some ages been carried on in these countries, a
private feud or quarrel among the people, about a
thing called by them. Upogyla, with us very vulgarly
called Religion. . -
This difference, as in its original it was not great,
nor indeed upon points accounted among themselves
essential, so it had never been a difference of any
height, if there had not always been some one thing
or otherhappening in the state, which made the court-
politicians think it necessary to keep the people busy
and embroiled, to prevent their more narrow inspec-
tion into depredations and encroachment on their li-
280 THE CONSOLIDATOR.
berties, which was always making on them by the
COUrt.
It is not denied but there might be a native
want of charity in the inhabitants, adapting them to
feud, and particularly qualifying them to be always
piquing one another; and some of their own nation,
who, by the help of the famous perspectives before-
mentioned, pretend to have seen further into the
insides of nature and constitution than other people,
tell us the cross lines of nature which appear in the
make of those particular people, signify a direct
negative as to the article of charity and good neigh-
bourhood.
It was particularly unhappy to this wrangling
people, that reasons of state should always fall in,
to make that uncharitableness and continual quar-
relling humour necessary to carry on the public
affairs of the nation, and may pass for a certain
proof that the state was under some diseases and
convulsions, which, like a body that digests nothing
so well as what is hurtful to its constitution, makes
use of those things for its support, which are in their
very nature fatal to its being, and must at last tend
to its destruction.
But as this, however, inclined them to be conti-
nually snarling at one another, so as in all quarrels
it generally appears one side must go down.
The prevailing party, therefore, always kept the
power in their hands, and as the under were always
subject to the lash, they soon took care to hook
their quarrel into the affairs of state, and so
join religious differences and civil differences to-
gether.
These things had long embroiled the nation, and
frequently involved them in bitter enmities, feuds,
and quarrels, and once in a tedious, ruinous, and
THE consolidATOR. 281
bloody war in their own bowels, in which, contrary
to all expectation, this lesser party prevailed.
And since the allegoric relation may bear great
similitude with our European affairs on this side the
moon, I shall, for the ease of expression, and the
better understanding of the reader, frequently call
them by the same names our unhappy parties are
called by in England; as Solunarian churchmen,
and Crolian dissenters, at the same time desiring my
reader to observe, that he is always to remember
who it is we are talking of, and that he is by no
means to understand me of any person, party,
people, nation, or place, on this side the moon, any
expression, circumstance, similitude, or appearance
to the contrary in any wise notwithstanding.
This premised, I am to tell the reader that the
last civil war in this lunar country, ended in the
victors confounding their own conquest by their
intestine broils, they being, as is already noted, a
most eternally quarrelling nation; upon this new
breach, they that first began the war turned about,
and pleading that they took up arms to regulate the
government, not to overthrow it, fell in with the
family of their king's, who had been banished, and
one of them destroyed, and restored the crown to
the family, and the nation to the crown, just for all
the world as the presbyterians in England did, in
the case of king Charles the Second.
The party that was thus restored accepted the
return the others made to their duty, and their
assistance in restoring the family of their monarch,
but abated not a tittle of the old rancour against
them as a party, which they entertained at their
first taking arms, not allowing the return they had
made to be any atonement at all for the crimes
they had been guilty of before. It is true, they
passed an act or grant of general pardon and
282 THE CONSOLIDATOR.
oblivion, as in all such cases is usual, and as without
which the other would never have come in, or have
joined powers to form the restoration they were
bringing to pass, but the old feud of religion con-
tinued, with this addition, that the dissenters were
rebels, murderers, king-killers, enemies to monar-
chy and civil government, lovers of confusion,
popular, anarchial governments, and movers of
sedition ; that this was in their very nature and
principles, and the like. -
In this condition, and under these mortifications,
this party of people lived just an Egyptian servi-
tude, viz., of forty years, in which time they were
frequently vexed with persecution, harassed, plun-
dered, fined, imprisoned, and very hardly treated,
insomuch that they pretend to be able to give an
account of vast sums of their country money,
levied upon them on these occasions, amounting, as
I take it, to two millions of lunatians, a coin they
keep their accounts by there, and much about the
value of our pound sterling; besides this they were
hooked into a great many sham plots, and sworn
out of their lives and estates in such a manner, that
in the very next reign the government was so sen-
sible of their hard treatment, that they reversed
several sentences by the same authority that had
executed them; a most undeniable proof they were
ashamed of what had been done ; at last, the
prince who was restored as above said, died, and
his brother mounted the throne; and now began a
third scene of affairs, for this prince was neither
churchman, nor dissenter, but of a different religion
from them all, known in that country by the name
of Abrogratzianism, and this religion of his had this
one absolutely necessary consequence in it, that a
man could not be sincerely and heartily of this, but he
must be an implacable hater of both the other. As this
THE CONSOLIDATOR. 283
is laid down as a previous supposition, we are with
the same reason to imagine this prince to be entirely
bent upon the suppression and destruction of both
the other, if not absolutely as to life and estate, yet
entirely as to religion.
To bring this the more readily to pass, like a true
politician, had his methods and particulars been
equally politic with his generals, he began at the
right end, viz., to make the breach between the
Solunarian church and the Crolian dissenters as
wide as possible; and to do this it was resolved to
shift sides, and as the crown had always took part
with the church, crushed, humbled, persecuted, and
by all means possible mortified the dissenters, as is
noted in the reign of his predecessor, this prince
resolved to caress, cherish, and encourage the Cro-
lians by all possible arts, and outward endearments ;
not so much that they purposed them any real
favour, for the destruction of both was equally
determined, nor so much that they expected to draw
them over to Abrogratzianism, but two reasons may
be supposed to give rise to this project. -
1. The Lunarian church party had all alon
preached up for a part of their religion, that absolute
undisputed obedience was due from every subject
to their prince, without any reserve, reluctance, or
repining ; that as to resistance, it was fatal to body,
soul, religion, justice, and government; and though
the doctrine was repugnant to nature, and to the
very supreme command itself, yet he that resisted,
received to himself damnation, just for all the world
like our doctrine of passive obedience. Now though
these Solunarian churchmen did not absolutely be-
lieve all they said themselves to be true, yet they
found it necessary to push these things to the ut-
most extremities, because they might the better fix
upon the Crolian dissenters the charge of professing
f
284. THE CONSOLIDATOR.
less loyal principles than they. For as to the Cro-
lians, they professed openly they would pay obedi-
ence to the prince, as far as the laws directed, but no
further.
These things were run up to strange heights,
and the people were always falling out about what
they would do, or would not do, if things were so
and so, as they were not, and were never likely to be;
and the hot men on both sides were every now and
then going together by the ears about chimeras,
shadows, may-be's and supposes.
The hot men of the Solunarian church were for
knocking the Crolians on the head, because, as they
said, they were rebels, their fathers were rebels, and
they would certainly turn rebels again upon occasion.
The Crolians insisted upon it, that they had no-
thing to do with what was done before they were
born, that if they were criminal because their
fathers were so, then a great many who were now
of the Solunarian church were as guilty as they,
several of the best members of that church having
been born of Crolian parents. e
In the matter of loyalty, they insisted upon it
they were as loyal as the Solunarians, for that they
were as loyal as nature, reason, and the laws both of
God and man required, and what the other talked
of more was but a mere pretence, and so it would
be found if ever their prince should have occasion
to put them to the trial; that he that pretended to
go beyond the power of nature and reason, must in-
deed go beyond them, and they never desired to be
brought into the extreme, but they were ready at
any time to show such proofs, and give such demon-
strations of their loyalty, as would satisfy any reason-
able prince, and for more they had nothing to say.
In this posture of affairs, this new prince found
his subjects when he came to the crown, the
THE CONSOLIDATOR. 285
Solunarian church caressed him, and notwithstand-
ing his being devoted to the Abrogratzian faith,
they crowned him with extraordinary acclamations.
They were the rather inclined to push this
forward by how much they thought it would singu-
larly mortify the Crolians, and all the sorts of dis-
senters, for they had all along declared their abhor-
rence of the Abrogratzians to such a degree, that
they publicly endeavoured to have got a general
concurrence of the whole nation in the public cortes,
or diet of the kingdom, to have joined with them
in excluding this very prince by name, and all other
princes that should ever embrace the Abrogratzian
faith. - -
And it wanted but a very little of bringing it to
pass, for almost all the great men of the nation,
though Solunarians, yet that were men of temper,
moderation, and foresight, were for this exclusive
law. But the high priests and patriarchs of the
Solunarian church prevented it, and upon pretence
of this passive-obedience principle, made their
interest and gave their voices for crowning, or en-
tailing the crown and government on the head of
one of the most implacable enemies, both to their
religion and civil rights, that ever the nation saw ;
but they lived to repent it too late.
This conquest over the Crolians and the mode-
rate Solunarians, if it did not suppress them entirely,
it yet gave the other party such an ascendant over
them, that they made no doubt when that prince
came to the crown, they had done so much to oblige
him, that he could deny them nothing, and therefore,
in expectation, they swallowed up the whole body of
the Crolians at once, and began to talk of nothing
less than banishing them to the northern part of the
country, or to certain islands and countries a vast
286 THE CONSOLIDATOR.
way off, where formerly great numbers of them had
fled for shelter in like cases.
And this was the more probable by an unhappy
stroke these Crolians attempted to strike, but mis-
carried in, at the very beginning of this prince's
reign: for as they had always professed an aversion to
this prince on account of his religion, as soon as
their other king was dead, they set up one of his
natural sons against this king which the Solunarians
had so joyfully crowned. This young prince in-
vaded his dominions, and great numbers of the most
zealous Crolians joined him. But to cut the story
short, he was entirely routed by the forces of the
new prince, for all the Solunarian church joined
with him against the Crolians, without any respect
to the interest of religion, so they overthrew their
brethren : the young invading prince was taken
and put to death openly, and great cruelties were
exercised in cold blood upon the poor unhappy
people that were taken in the defeat!
Thus a second time these loyal Solunarian church-
men established their enemy, and built up what they
were glad afterwards to pull down again, and to beg
the assistance of those very Crolians whom they had
so rudely handled, to help them demolish the power
they had erected themselves, and which now began
to set its foot upon the throat of those that nourished
and supported it.
Upon this exceeding loyalty and blind assistance
given to their prince, the Solunarians made no
question but they had so eternally bound him to
them, that it would be in their power to pull down
the very name of Crolianism, and utterly destroy it
from the nation.
But the time came on to undeceive them, for this
prince, whose principle as an Abrogratzian, was to
THE CONSOLIDATOR. 287
destroy them both, as it happened, was furnished
with counsellors and ecclesiastics of his own pro-
fession, ten thousand times more bent for their
general ruin than himself. :
For, abstracted from the venom and rancour of
his profession as an Abrogratzian, and from the
furious zeal of his Brahmin priests, and religious
people, that continually hung about him, and that
prompted him to act against his temper and inclina-
tion, by which he ruined all, he was else a forward
and generous prince, and likely to have made his
people great and flourishing. - -
But his furious churchmen ruined all his good
designs, and turned all his projects to compass the
introduction of his own religion into his dominions.
Nay, and had he not fatally been pushed on by
such as really designed his ruin, to drive this deep
design on too hastily and turn the scale of his ma-
nagement from a close and concealed, to an open
and professed design, he might have gone a great
way with it. Had he been content to have let that
have been twenty years a-doing, which he impatiently,
as well as preposterously, attempted all at once, wise
men have thought he might in time have suppressed
the Solunarian religion, and have set up his own.
To give a short scheme of his proceedings, and
with them of the reason of his miscarriage.
1. Having defeated the rebellious Crolians, as is
before noted, and reflecting on the danger he was
in upon the sudden progress of that rebellion, for
indeed he was within a trifle of ruin in that affair;
and had not the Crolians been deceived by the dark-
ness of the night and led to a large ditch of water,
which they could not pass over, they had certainly
surprised and overthrown his army, and cut them
in pieces, before they had known who had hurt them.
Upon the sense of this danger, he takes up a
288 THE CONSOLIDATOR,
pretence of necessity for the being always ready to
resist the factious Crolians, as he called them, and
by that insinuation hooks himself into a standing
army in time of peace; nay, and so easy were the
Solunarian church to yield up any point, which they
did but imagine would help to crush their brethren
the Crolians, that they not only consented to this
unusual invasion of their ancient liberties, but sent
up several testimonials of their free consent, nay,
and of their joy of having arrived to so great a
happiness, as to have a prince that, setting aside the
formality of laws, would vouchsafe to govern them
by the glorious method of a standing army.
These testimonials were things not much unlike
our addresses in England, and which when I heard,
I could not but remember our case, in the time of
the late king James, when the city of Carlisle, in
their address, thanked his majesty for the establish-
ing a standing army in England in time of peace,
calling it the strength and glory of the kingdom.
So strong is the ambition and envy of parties,
these Solunarian gentlemen not grudging to put
out one of their own eyes, so they might at the
same time put out both the eyes of their enemies;
the Crolians rather consented to this badge of their
own slavery, and brought themselves who were a
free people before, under the power and slavery of
the sword.
The ease with which this prince got over so con-
siderable a point as this, made him begin to be too
credulous, and to persuade himself that the Soluna-
rian churchmen were really in earnest, as to their
pageant-doctrine of non-resistance, and that, as he
had seen them bear with strange extravagancies on
the Crolian part, they were real and in earnest when
they preached, that men ought to obey for con-
science's sake, whatever hardships were imposed
THE CONSOLIDATOR. 289
upon them, and however unjust, or contrary to the
laws of God, nature, reason, or their country. What
principle in the world could more readily prompt a
prince to attempt what he so earnestly coveted, as
this zealous prince did therestoring the Abrogratzian
faith? for since he had but two sorts of people to do
with, (one he had crushed by force, and had brought
the other to profess it their religion, their duty, and
their resolution, to bear everything he thought fit to
impose upon them, and that they should be damned
if they resisted,) the work seemed half done to his
hand.
And indeed, when I reflected on the coherence of
things, I could not so much blame this prince for
his venturing upon the probability; for whoever was
but to go up to this lunar world and read the stories
of that time, with what fury the hot men of the
Solunarian church acted against the dissenting Cro-
lians, and with what warmth they assisted their
prince against them, and how cruelly they insulted
them after they were defeated in their attempt of
dethroning him ; how zealously they preached up
the doctrine of absolute undisputed resignation to
his will, how frequently they obeyed several of his
encroachments upon their liberties, and what solemn
protestations they made to submit to him in any-
thing, and to stand by and assist him in whatever
he commanded them, to the last drop, much with
the same zeal and forwardness as our life and fortune
men did here in England: I say, when all this was
considered, I could not so much condemn his credu-
lity, nor blame him for believing them ; for no man
could have doubted their sincerity, but he that at
the same time must have taxed them with most
unexampled hypocrisy.
For the Solunarians now began to discern their
prince was not really on their side; that neither in
CONSOLIDATOR. # U
290 THE CONSOLIDATOR.
state matters any more than religion, he had any
affection for them, and the first absolute shock he
gave them, was in publishing a general liberty to
the Crolians. It is true this was not out of respect
to the Crolian religion any more than the Solunarian,
but purely because by that means he made way for
an introduction of the Abrogratzian religion, which
now began to appear publicly in the country.
But, however, as this was directly contrary to the
expectation of the Solunarians, it gave them such a
disgust against their prince, that from that very time,
being disappointed in the sovereign authority they
expected, they entered into the deepest and blackest
conspiracy against their prince and his government
that ever was heard of.
Many of the Crolians were deluded by the new
favour and liberty they received from the prince, to
believe him real, and were glad of the mortification
of their brethren ; but the more judicious, seeing
plainly the prince's design, “declared against their
own liberty, because given them by an illegal autho-
rity, without the assent of the whole body legally
assembled.
When the Solunarians saw this, they easily re-
conciled themselves to the Crolians, at least from
the outside of the face, for the carrying on their
design, and so here was a nation full of plots; here
was the prince and his Abrogratzians plotting to
introduce their religion, here was a parcel of blind
shortsighted Crolians plotting to ruin the Soluna-
rian establishment, and weakly joining with the
Abrogratzians to satisfy their private resentments;
and here was the wiser Crolians joining heartily
with the Solunarians of all sorts, laying aside private
resentments, and forgetting old grudges about re-
ligion, in order to ruin the invading projects of the
prince and his party.
THE CONSOLIDATOR. 291
There was indeed some verbal conditions past
between them ; and the Solunarians, willing to bring
them into their party, promised them, upon the faith
of their nation, and the honour of the Solunarian
religion, that there should be no more hatred, dis-
turbance, or persecution, for the sake of religion, be-
tween them, but that they would come to a temper
with them, and always be brethren for the future.
They declared that persecution was contrary to
their religion in general, and to their doctrine in
particular ; and backed their allegations with some
truths they have not since thought fit to like, nor
much to regard.
However, by this artifice, and on these condi-
tions, they brought the Crolians to join with them
in their resolutions to countermine their designing
prince ; these indeed were for doing it by the old
way downright, and to oppose oppression with
force, a doctrine they acknowledged, and professed to
join with all the lunar part of mankind in the prac-
tice, and began to tell their brethren how they had
imposed upon themselves and the world, in pre-
tending to absolute submission, against nature and
universal Lunarian practice. . -
But a cunning fellow personating a Solunarian,
and who was in the plot, gravely answered them thus;
Look ye, gentlemen, we own with you that nature,
reason, law, justice, and custom of nations, is on
your side, and that all power derives from, centres
in, and on all recesses or demises of power returns
to, its great original, the party governed; nay, we
own our great eye, from whom all the habitable
parts of this globe are enlightened, has always di-
rected us to practise what nature thus dictates, al-
ways approved and generally succeeded the attempt
of dethroning tyrants. But our case differs; we
have always pretended to this absolute undisputed
U 2
292 THE CONSOLIDATOR.
obedience, which we did indeed to ga n the power
of your party; and if we should turn round at once
to your opinion, though never so right, we should
so fly in the face of our own doctrine, sermons, in-
numerable pamphlets and pretensions, as would
give all our enemies too great a power over us in
argument, and we should never be able to look
mankind in the face: but we have laid our mea-
sures so, that by prompting the king to run upon us
in all sorts of barefaced extremes and violences, we
shall bring him to exasperate the whole nation ;
then we may underhand foment the breach on this
side, raise the mob upon him, and by acting on
both sides, seem to suffer a force in falling in with
the people, and preserve our reputation.
Thus we shall bring the thing to pass, betray our
prince, take arms against his power, call in foreign
force to do the work, and even then keep our hands
seemingly out of the broil, by being pretended
sticklers for our former prince ; so save our reputa-
tion, and bring all to pass with ease and calmness ;
while the eager party of the Abrogratzians will do
their own work by expecting we will do it for
them. - -
The Crolians, astonished both at the policy, the
depth, the knavery, and the hypocrisy of the design,
left them to carry it on, owning it was a master-
piece of craft, and so stood still to observe the issue,
which every way answered the exactness of its
contrivance.
When I saw into the bottom of all this deceit, I
began to take up new resolutions of returning back
into our old world again, and going home to
England, where, though I had conceived great in-
dignation at the treatment our passive-obedience
men gave their prince here, and was in hopes in
these my remote travels to have found out some
THE CONSOLIDATOR, 293
nations of honour and principles, I was filled with
amazement to see our moderate knaves so much
outdone, and I was informed that all these things
were mere amusements, visors, and shams, to bring
an innocent prince into the snare.
Would any mortal imagine, who has read this
short part of the story, that all this was a Solunarian
church plot, a mere conspiracy between these gen-
tlemen and the Crolian dissenters, only to wheedle
in the unhappy prince to his own destruction, and
bring the popular advantage of the mob to a greater
ascendant on the crown. -
Of all the Richelieus, Mazarines, Gondamars,
Oliver Cromwells, and the whole train of politicians
that our world has produced, the greatest of their
arts are follies to the unfathomable depth of these
Lunarian policies; and for wheedle, lying, swear-
ing, preaching, printing, &c., what is said in our
world by priests and politicians, we thank God may
be believed ; but if ever I believe a Solunarian
priest preaching non-resistance of monarchs, or a
Solunarian politician turning Abrogratzian, I ought
to be marked down for a fool; nor will ever any
prince in that country take their word again, if
ever they have their senses about them ; but as this
is a most extraordinary scene, so I cannot omit a
more particular and sufficient relation of some parts
of it, than I used to give.
The Solunarian clergy had carried on their non-
resistance doctrine to such extremities, and had
given this new prince such unusual demonstrations
of it, that he fell absolutely into the snare, and en-
tirely believed them ; he had tried them with such
impositions as they would never have borne from
any prince in the world, nor from him neither, had
they not had a deep design, and consequently stood
in need of the deepest disguise imaginable ; they
294 THE CONSOLIDATOR.
had yielded to a standing army, and applauded it
as a thing they had desired; they had submitted
to levying taxes upon them by new methods, and
illegal practices; they had yielded to the abrogation,
or suspension at least, of their laws, when the king's
absolute will required it ; not that they were blind,
and did not see what their prince was doing, but
that the black design was so deeply laid, they found
it was the only way to ruin him, to push him upon
the highest extremes, and then they should have
their turn served. Thus if he desired one illegal
thing of them, they would immediately grant two;
one would have thought they had read our Bible,
and the command, when a man takes away the
cloak, to give him the coat also.
Nor was this enough, but they seemed willing to
admit of the public exercise of the Abrogratzian
religion in all parts; and when the prince set it up
in his own chapel, they suffered it to be set up in
their cities and towns, and the Abrogratzian
clergy began to be seen up and down in their very
habits; a thing which had never been permitted
before in that country, and which the common
people began to be very uneasy at ; but still the
Solunarian clergy, and all such of the gentry espe-
cially as were in the plot, by their sermons, printed
books, and public discourses, carried on this high
topping notion of absolute submission, so that the
people were kept under, and began to submit to all
the impositions of the prince.
These things were so acted to the life, that not
only the prince, but none of his Abrogratzian coun-
sellors could see the snare; the hook was so finely
covered by the church artificers, and the bait so
delicious, that they all swallowed it with eagerness
and delight.
But the conspirators, willing to make a sure game
, THE CONSOLIDATOR, 295
of it, and not thinking the king or all his counsel-
lors would drive on so fast as they would have
them, though they had already made a fair progress
for the time, resolved to play home; and accord-
ingly they persuade their prince, that they will not
only submit to his arbitrary will in matters of
state and government, but in matters of religion;
and in order to carry this jest on, one of the heads
of their politics, and a person of great esteem for
his abilities in matters of state, being without
question one of the ablest heads of all the Soluna-
rian nobility, pretended to be converted, and turned
Abrogratzian. This immediately took as they
desired, for the prince caressed him, and enter-
tained him with all possible endearments, preferred
him to several posts of honour and advantage,
always kept him near him, consulted him in all
emergencies, took him with him to the Abrogratzian
sacrifices, and he made no scruple publicly to
appear there; and by these degrees, and a super-
Achitophelian hypocrisy, so insinuated himself into
the credulous prince's favour, that he became his
only confident, and absolute master of all his
designs.
Now the plot had its desired effect, for he pushed
the king upon all manner of precipitations; and if
even the Abrogratzians themselves who were about
the king, interposed for more temperate proceedings,
he would call them cowards, strangers, ignorant of
the temper of the Lunarians, who, when they were
agoing, might be driven, but if they were suffered
to cool and consider, would face about and fall off.
Indeed the men of prudence and estates among
his own party, I mean the Abrogratzians in the
country, frequently warned him to take more mo-
derate measures, and to proceed with more caution;

296 THE CONSOLIDATOR.
told him he would certainly ruin them all, and him-
self, and that there must be somebody about his
majesty that pushed him upon these extremes, on
purpose to set all the nation in a flame, and to over-
throw all the good designs, which, with temper and
good conduct, might be brought to perfection.
Had these wary counsels been observed, and
a prudence and policy agreeable to the mighty con-
sequence of things been practised, the Solunarian
church had run a great risk of being overthrown, and
to have sunk gradually in the Abrogratzian errors;
the people began to be drawn off gradually, and the
familiarity of the thing made it appear less frightful
to unthinking people, who had entertained strange
notions of the monstrous things that were to be seen
in it, so that common vogue had filled the people's
minds with ignorant aversions, that it is no absur-
dity to say, I believe there was two hundred thou-
sand people who would have spent the last drop of
their blood against Abrogratzianism, that did not
know whether it was a man or a horse.
This thing considered well, would of itself have
been sufficient to have made the prince and his
friends wary, and to have taught them to suit their
measures to the nature and circumstances of things
before them; but success in their beginnings blinded
their eyes, and they fell into this church snare
with the most unpitied willingness that could be
imagined. - r
The first thing therefore this new counsellor put
his master upon, in order to the beginning his more
certain ruin, was to introduce several of his Abro-
gratzians into places of all kinds, both in the army,
navy, treasure, and civil affairs, though contrary to
some of the general constitutions of government;
he had done it into the army before, though it had

THE CONSOLIDATOR. 297
disgusted several of his military men, but now he
pushed him upon making it universal, and still the
passive Solunarians bore it with patience.
From this tameness and submission, his next step
was to argue that he might depend upon it the So-
lunarian church had so sincerely embraced the doc-
trine of non-resistance, that they were now ripened
not only to sit still and see their brethren the Cro-
lians suppressed, but to stand still and be oppressed
themselves; and he might assure himself the matter
was now ripe, he might do just what he would
himself with them, they were prepared to bear any-
thing.
This was the fatal stroke, for having possessed the
prince with the belief of this, he let loose the reins
to all his long-concealed desires. Down went their
laws, their liberties, their corporations, their
churches, their colleges, all went to wreck, and the
eager Abrogratzians thought the day their own.
The Solunarians made no opposition, but what was
contained within the narrow circumference of peti-
tions, addresses, prayers, and tears; and these the
prince was prepared to reject, and upon all oc-
casions to let them know he was resolved to be
obeyed. -
Thus he drove on by the treacherous advice of
his new counsels, till he ripened all the nation
for the general defection which afterward followed.
For as the encroachments of the prince pushed
especially at their church liberties, and threatened
the overthrow of all their ecclesiastical privileges,
the clergy no sooner began to feel that they were
like to be the first sacrifice, but they immediately
threw off the visor, and beat the concionazimir ;
this is a certain ecclesiastic engine which is usual
in cases of general alarm, as the church's signal of
universal tumult.
298 THE CONSOLIDATOR.
This is truly a strange engine, and when a clergy-
man gets into the inside of it, and beats it, it roars,
and makes such a terrible noise from the several
cavities, that it is heard a long way; and there are
always a competent number of them placed in all
parts so conveniently, that the alarm is heard all
over the kingdom in one day.
I had some thoughts to have given the reader a
diagram of this piece of art, but as I am but a bad
draftsman, I have not yet been able so exactly to
describe it as that a scheme can be drawn, but to
the best of my skill, take it as follows. It is a hol-
low vessel, large enough to hold the biggest clergy-
man in the nation; it is generally an octagon in
figure, open before, from the waist upward, but
whole at the back, with a flat extended over it for
reverberation, or doubling the sound; doubling and
redoubling being frequently thought necessary to
be made use of on these occasions; it is very ma-
thematically contrived, erected on a pedestal of
wood like a windmill, and has a pair of winding
stairs up to it, like those at the great tun at Hei-
delberg.
I could make some hieroglyphical discourses upon
it, from these references, thus: 1. That as it is
erected on a pedestal like a windmill, so it is no
new thing for the clergy, who are the only persons
permitted to make use of it, to make it turn round
with the wind, and serve to all the points of the
compass. 2. As the flat over it assists to increase
the sound, by forming a kind of hollow or cavity
proper to that purpose, so there is a certain natural
hollowness, or emptiness, made use of sometimes in
it, by the gentlemen of the gown, which serves ex-
ceedingly to the propagation of all sorts of clamour,
noise, railing, and disturbance. 3. As the stairs to
it go winding up like those by which one mounts
THE CONSOLIDATOR. 299
to the vast tun of wine at Heidelberg, which has
no equal in our world, so the use made of these as-
cending steps is not altogether different, being fre-
quently employed to raise people up to all sorts of
enthusiasms, spiritual intoxications, mad and extra-
vagant action, high exalted flights, precipitations,
and all kinds of ecclesiastic drunkenness and ex-
cesses.
The sound of this emblem of emptiness, the con-
cionazimir, was no sooner heard over the nation,
but all the people discovered their readiness to join
in with the summons, and as the thing had been
concerted before, they send over their messengers
to demand assistance from a powerful prince beyond
the sea, one of their own religion, and who was
allied by marriage to the crown. -
They made their story out so plain, and their
king had by the contrivance of their Achitophel, ren-
dered himself so suspected to all his neighbours,
that this prince, without any hesitation, resolved to
join with them, and accordingly makes vast prepara-
tions to invade their king.
During this interval, their behaviour was quite
altered at home, the doctrine of absolute submission
and non-resistance was heard no more among them;
the concionazimir beat daily to tell all the people
they should stand up to defend the rights of the
church, and that it was time to look about them, for
the Abrogratzians were upon them. The eager
clergy made this ecclesiastic engine sound as loud
and make all the noise they could, and no men in
the nation were so forward as they to acknowledge
that it was a state trick, and they were drawn in to
make such a stir about the pretended doctrines of
absolute submission, that they did not see the snare
which lay under it; that now their eyes were
opened, and they had learned to see the power and
300 THE CONSOLIDATOR.
superiority of natural right, and would be deceived
no longer. Others were so honest to tell the truth,
that they knew the emptiness and weakness of the
pretence all along, and knew what they did when
they preached it up, viz. to suppress and pull down
the Crolians: but they thought their prince, who
they always served in crying up that doctrine, and
whose exclusion was prevented by it, would have
had more gratitude, or at least more sense, than to
try the experiment upon them, since whatever, to
serve his designs and their own, which they always
thought well united, they were willing to pre-
tend, he could not but see they always knew better
than to suffer the practice of it in their own case.
That since he had turned the tables upon them, it
is true he had them at an advantage and might pre-
tend they were knaves, and perhaps had an oppor-
tunity to call them so with some reason; but they were
resolved, since he had drove them to the necessity
of being one or the other, though he might call them
knaves, they would take care he should have no
reason to call them fools too.
Thus the vapour of absolute subjection was lost
on a sudden, and, as if it had been preparatory to
what was coming after, the experiment was quickly
made ; for the king pursuing his encroachments
upon the church, and being possessed with a belief
that pursuant to their open professions they would
submit to anything, he made a beginning with them,
in sending his positive command to one of his super-
intendent priests, or patriarchs, to forbid a certain
ecclesiastic to officiate any more till his royal plea-
sure was known.
Now it happened very unluckily that this patri-
arch, though none of the most learned of his frater-
nity, yet had always been a mighty zealous pro-
moter of this blind doctrine of non-resistance, and
THE CONSOLIDATOR. 301
had not a little triumphed over and insulted the
Crolian dissenters upon the notion of rebellion,
antimonarchical principles and obedience, with a re-
serve for the laws, and the like, as a scandalous
practice, and comprehensive of faction, sedition,
dangerous to the church and state, and the like.
This reverend father was singled out as the first
mark of the king's design; the deluded prince be-
lieved he could not but comply, having so publicly
professed his being all submission and absolute sub-
jection; but as this was all conceit, he was pushed
on to make the assault where he was most certain
to meet a repulse; and this gentleman had long
since thrown off the mask, so his first order was dis-
obeyed.
The patriarch pretended to make humble remon-
strances, and to offer his reasons why he could not
in conscience, as he called it, comply. The king,
who was now made but a mere engine, or machine,
screwed up or down by this false counsellor to act
his approaching destruction with his own hand, was
prompted to resent this repulse with the utmost in-
dignation, to reject all manner of submissions, ex-
cuses or arguments, or anything but an immediate
absolute compliance, according to the doctrine so
often inculcated ; and this he run on so high, as to
put the patriarch in prison for contumacy. -
The patriarch as absolutely refused to submit,
and offered himself to the decision of the law.
Now it was always a sacred rule in these lunar
countries, that both king and people are bound to
stand by the arbitrement of the law in all cases of
right or claim, whether public or private ; and this
has been the reason that all the princes have endea-
voured to cover their actions with pretences of law,
whatever really has been in their design ; for this
302 THE CONSOLIDATOR.
reason the king could not refuse to bring the patri-
arch to a trial, where the humour of the people first
discovered itself, for here passive obedience was
tried and cast, the law proved to be superior to the
king, the patriarch was acquitted, his disobedience
to the king justified, and the king's command proved
unjust.
The applause of the patriarch, the acclamations
of the people, and the general rejoicings of the whole
nation at this transaction, gave a black prospect to
the Abrogratzians; and a great many of them came
very honestly and humbly to the king and told him
if he continued to go on by these measures he would
ruin them all; they told him what general alarm
had been over the whole nation by the clamours of
the clergy; and the beating of the concionazimir in
all parts, informed him how the doctrine of absolute
obedience was ridiculed in all places, and how the
clergy began to preach it back again like a witch's
prayer, and that it would infallibly raise the devil of
rebellion in all the nation; they besought him to
content himself with the liberty of their religion,
and the freedom they enjoyed of being let into
places and offices of trust and honour, and to wait
all reasonable occasions to increase their advantages,
and gradually to gain ground ; they entreated him
to consider the impossibility of reducing so mighty,
so obstinate, and so resolute a nation all at once.
They pleaded how rational a thing it was to expect
that by degrees and good management, which by
precipitate measures would be endangered and
overthrown.
Had these wholesome counsels taken place in the
king's mind, he had been king to his last hour, and
the Solunarians and Crolians too had been all un-
done, for he had certainly encroached upon them
THE CONSOLIDATOR. 303
gradually, and brought that to pass in time which
by precipitant measures he was not likely to effect.
It was therefore a masterpiece of policy in the
Solunarian churchmen to place a feigned convert
near their prince, who should always bias him with
contrary advices, puff him up with vast prospect of
success, prompt him to all extremes, and always
fool him with the certainty of bringing things to
pass his own way.
These arts made him set light by the repulse he
met with in the matter of the patriarch, and now he
proceeds to make two attacks more upon the church;
one was, by putting some of his Abrogratzian priests
into a college among some of the Solunarian clergy;
and the other was, to oblige all the Solunarian
clergy to read a certain act of his council, in which
his majesty admitted all the Abrogratzians, Crolians,
and all sorts of dissenters, to a freedom of their
religious exercises, sacrifices, exorcisms, dippings,
preachings, &c., and to prohibit the Solunarians to
molest or disturb them.
Now as this last was a bitter reproach to the
Solunarian church for all the ill treatment the dis-
senting Crolians had received from them, and as it
was expressed in the act that all such treatment
was unjust and unchristian, so for them to read it
in their temples, was to acknowledge that they had
been guilty of most unjust and irreligious dealings
to the Crolians, and that their prince had taken care
to do them justice.
The matter of introducing the Abrogratzians into
the colleges or seminaries of the Solunarian priests,
was actually against the sacred constitutions and
foundation laws of those seminaries.
Wherefore in both these articles they not only
disobeyed their prince, but they opposed him with
304 THE CONSOLIDATOR.
those trifling things called laws, which they had be-
fore declared had no defensive force against their
prince; these they had recourse to now, insisted
upon the justice and right devolved upon them by
the laws, and absolutely refused their compliance
with his commands.
The prince, pushed upon the tenters before, re-
ceived their denial with exceeding resentment, and
was heard, with deep regret, to break out in excla-
mations at their unexpected faithless proceedings,
and sometimes to express himself thus: Horrid
hypocrisy Surprising treachery ! Is this the abso-
lute subjection which in such numerous testimonials
or addresses you professed, and for which you so
often and so constantly branded the poor Crolians,
and told me that your church was wholly made up
of principles of loyalty and obedience? But I will be
fully satisfied for this treatment.
In the minute of one of those excursions of his
passion, came into his presence the seemingly re-
volted Lunarian nobleman, and falling in with his
present passions, prompts him to a speedy revenge,
and proposed his erecting a Court of Searches, some-
thing like the Spanish Inquisition, giving them ple-
nipotentiary authority to hear and determine all
ecclesiastical causes absolutely, and without ap-
peal.
He empowered these judges to place, by his abso-
lute will, all the Abrogratzian students in the Solu-
marian college, and though they might make a
formal hearing for the sake of the form, yet that by
force it should be done.
He gave them power to displace all those Solu-
narian clergymen that had refused to read his act of
demission to the Abrogratzian and Crolian dissen-
ters, and it was thought he designed to keep their
THE CONSOLIDATOR: 305
revenues in petto, till he might in time fill them up
to some of his own religion.
The commission accordingly began to act, and
discovering a full resolution to fulfil his command,
they by force proceeded with the students of the
Solunarian college; and it was very remarkable,
that even some of the Solunarian patriarchs were of
this number, who turned out their brethren the
Solunarian students, to place Abrogratzians in
their room. -
This indeed they are said to have repented of
since, but however, these it seems were not of
the plot, and therefore did not foresee what was at
hand.
The rest of the patriarchs, who were all in the
grand design, and saw things ripening for its ex-
ecution, upon the apprehension of this court of
searches beginning with them, make an humble
address to their prince, containing the reasons why
they could not comply with his royal command.
The incensed king upbraided them with his hav-
ing been told by them of their absolute and unre-
served obedience, and refusing their submissions or
their reasons, sent them all to jail, and resolved to
have brought them before his new high court of
searches, in order, as was believed, to have them all
displaced. .
And now all began to be in a flame; the solicita-
tions of the Solunarian party having obtained
powerful relief abroad, they began to make suitable
preparations at home. The gentry and nobility.
who the clergy had brought to join with them, fur-
nished themselves with horses and arms, and pre-
pared with their tenants and dependants to join the
succours as soon as they should arrive. i
In short, the foreign troops they had procured,
CONSOLIDATOR, IX.
306 THE CONSOLIDATOR.
arrived, landed, and published a long declaration of
all the grievances which they came to redress.
No sooner was this foreign army arrived with the
prince at the head of them, but the face of affairs
altered on a sudden. The king indeed, like a brave
prince, drew all his forces together, and marching
out of his capital city, advanced above five hundred
stages, things they measure land with in those
countries, and much about our furlong, to meet his
enemy.
He had a gallant army well appointed and fur-
nished, and all things much superior to his adver-
sary, but alas! the poison of disobedience was gotten
in there, and upon the first march he offered to
make towards the enemy one of his great captains
with a strong party of his men went over and re-
volted. - - -
This example was applauded all over the nation,
and by this time one of the patriarchs, even the
same mentioned before that had so often preached
non-resistance of princes, lays by his sacred vest-
ments, mitre, and staff, and exchanging his robes
for a soldier's coat, mounts on horseback, and in
short, appears in arms against his lord. Nor was
this all, but the treacherous prelate takes along
with him several Solunarian lords, and persons of
the highest figure, and of the household and family
of the king, and with him went the king's own
daughter, his principal favourites and friends.
At the news of this, the poor deserted prince lost
all courage, and abandoning himself to despair, he
causes his army to retreat without fighting a stroke,
quits them and the kingdom at once, and takes
sanctuary with such as could escape with him, in
the court of a neighbouring prince.
I have heard this prince exceedingly blamed for
THE CONSOLIDATOR. 307
giving himself up to despair so soon. That he
thereby abandoned the best and faithfullest of his
friends and servants, and left them to the mercy of
the Solunarians; that when all those that would
have forsaken him were gone, he had forces equal
to his enemies; that his men were in heart, fresh
and forward; that he should have stood to the last;
retreated to a strong town, where his ships rode, and
which was over-against the territories of his great
ally, to whom he might have delivered up the ships
which were there, and have thereby made him
superior at sea to his enemies, and he was already
much superior at land; that there he might have
been relieved with forces too strong for them to
match, and at least might have put it to the issue of a
fair battle. Others, that he might have retreated to his
own court, and capital city, and taking possession
of the citadel, which was his own, might so have
awed the citizens, who were infinitely rich and nu-
merous, with the apprehensions of having their
houses burnt, they would not have dared to have
declared for his enemies, for fear of being reduced
to heaps and ruins; and that at last he might have
set the city on fire in five hundred places, and left
the Solunarian churchmen a token to remember
their non-resisting doctrine by, and yet have made
an easy retreat down the harbour, to other forts he
had below, and might with ease have destroyed all
the shipping as he went.
It is confessed, had he done either, or both these
things, he had left them a dearbought victory; but
he was deprived of his counsellor, for as soon as
things came to this height, the Achitophel we
have so often mentioned, left him also, and went
away; all his Abrogratzian priests too forsook him,
and he was so bereft of counsel that he fell into the
hands of his enemies as he was making his escape;
X 2
3O8 THE CONSOLIDATOR.
but he got away again, not without the connivance.
of the enemy, who were willing enough he should
go; so he got a vessel to carry him over to the
neighbouring kingdom, and all his armies, ships,
forts, castles, magazines, and treasure, fell into his
enemies' hands. . . - . . .
The neighbouring prince entertained him very
kindly, cherished him, succoured him, and furnished
him with armies and fleets for the recovery of his
dominions, which has occasioned a tedious war with
that prince, which continues to this day. >
Thus far, passive doctrines and absolute submis-
sion served a turn, bubbled the prince, wheedled
him in to take their word who professed it, till he
laid his finger upon the men themselves, and that
unravelled all the cheat; they were the first that
called in foreign power, and took up arms against
their prince. . . . . . .
Nor did they end here, but all this scene being
over, and the foreign prince having thus delivered
them, and their own king being thus chased away,
the people call themselves together, and as reason
good, having been delivered by him from the mise-
ries, brangles, oppressions, and divisions of the for-
mer reign, they thought they could do no less than
to crown their deliverer; and having summoned a
general assembly of all their capital men, they gave
the crown to this prince who had so generously
saved them. - . . . .
And here again, I heard the first king exceed-
ingly blamed for quitting his dominions, for had he
stayed here, though he had actually been in their
hands, unless they would have murdered him, they
could never have proceeded to the extremities they,
did reach to, nor could they ever have crowned the
other prince, he being yet alive, and in his own do-
, THE CONSOLIDATOR. 309
But by quitting the country, they fixed a legal
period to their obedience, he having deserted their
protection and defence, and openly laid down the
administration. . ... -
But as these sort of politics cannot be decided by
us, unless we know the constitutions of those lunar
regions, so we cannot pretend to make a decision
of what might, or might not have happened.
It remains to examine how those Solunarians be-,
haved themselves, who had so earnestly cried up
the principles of obedience and absolute submis-
SIOIl.
Nothing was so ridiculous: now they saw what
they had done, they began to repent, and upon re-
collection of thoughts some were so ashamed of
themselves, that having broken their doctrine, and
being now called upon to transpose their allegiance,
truly they stopped in the midway, and so became
martyrs on both sides.
I can liken these to nothing so well as to those
gentlemen of our English church, who though they
broke into the principles of passive obedience by
joining and calling over the P. of O., yet suffered
deprivations of benefices, and loss of their livings,
for not taking the oath; as if they had not as effec-
tually perjured themselves by taking up arms against
their king, and joining a foreign power, as they
could possibly do afterward, by swearing to live
quietly under the next king. . . .
But these nice gentlemen are infinitely outdone
in these countries; for these Solunarians, by a true
church turn, not only refuse to transpose their al-
legiance, but pretend to wipe their mouths as to
former taking arms, and return to their old doc-
trines of absolute submission, boast of martyrdom,
and boldly reconcile the contraries of taking up
arms, and non-resistance, charging all their bre-
31() THE CONSOLIDATOR.
thren with schism, rebellion, perjury, and the damn-
able sin of resistance.
Nor is this all; for as a great many of these Solu-
narian churchmen had no affection to this new
prince, but were not equally furnished or qualified
for martyrdom with their brethren, they went to
certain wise men, who being cunning at splitting
hairs, and making distinctions, might perhaps fur-
nish them with some mediums between loyalty and
disloyalty; they applied themselves with great dili-
gence to these men, and they, by deep study, and
long search, either found or made the quaintest de-
vice for them that ever was heard of.
By this unheard-of discovery, to their great joy
and satisfaction, they have arrived at a power which
all the wise men in our world could never pretend
to ; and which it is thought, could the description
of it be regularly made, and brought down hither,
would serve for the satisfaction and repose of a
great many tender consciences, who are very uneasy
at swearing to save their benefices.
These great masters of distinction have learned
to distinguish between active swearing and passive
swearing, between de facto loyalty and de jure
loyalty, and by this decent acquirement they ob-
tained the art of reconciling swearing allegiance
without loyalty, and loyalty without swearing, so
that native and original loyalty may be preserved
pure and uninterrupted, in spite of all subsequent
oaths, to prevailing usurpations. -
Many are the mysteries and vast the advantages
of this new invented method; mental reservations,
inuendoes, and double meanings, are toys to this,
for they may be provided for in the literal terms of
an oath, but no provision can be made against this;
for these men, after they have taken the oath, make
no scruple to declare they only swear to be quiet
THE CONSOLIDATOR. 3.11
as long as they can make no disturbance; that they
are left at liberty still to espouse the interest and
cause of their former prince; they nicely distinguish
between obedience and submission, and tell you, a
slave taken into captivity, though he swears to live
peaceably, does not thereby renounce his allegiance
to his natural prince, nor abridge himself of a right
to attempt his own liberty, if ever opportunity pre-
Sent.
Had these neat distinctions been found out be-
fore, none of our Solunarian clergy, no, not the
patriarchs themselves surely, would have stood out,
and suffered such depredations on their fortunes
and characters as they did; they would never have
been such fools to have been turned out of their
livings for not swearing, when they might have
learned here that they might have swore to one
prince, and yet have retained their allegiance to
another; might have taken an oath to the new,
without impeachment of their old oaths to the absent
prince. It is great pity these gentlemen had not
gone up to the moon for instruction in this difficult
C&Sé.
There they might have met with excellent logi-
cians, men of most sublime reasons: Dr. Overall,
Dr. Sherlock, and all our nice examiners of these
things, would appear to be nobody to them ; for as
the people in these regions have an extraordinary
eyesight, and the clearness of the air contributes
much to the help of their optics, so they have with-
out doubt a proportioned clearness of discerning, by
which they see as far into millstones, and all sorts
of solids, as the nature of things will permit; but
above all, their faculties are blessed with two ex-
ceeding advantages. .
1. With an extraordinary distinguishing power,
by which they can distinguish even indivisibles,
31.2 THE CONSOLIDATOR.
part unity itself, divide principles, and distinguish
truth into such and so many minute particles, till
they dwindle it away into a very nose of wax, and
mould it into any form they have occasion for, by
which means they can distinguish themselves into
or out of any opinion, either in religion, politics, or
civil right, that their present emergencies may call
for. . . - * -
2. Their reasoning faculties have this further ad-
vantage; that upon occasion they can see clearly for
themselves, and prevent others from the same dis-
covery, so that when they have occasion to see any-
thing which presents for their own advantage, they
can search into the particulars, make it clear to
themselves, and yet let it remain dark and mysteri-
ous to all the world besides. Whether this is per-
formed by their exceeding penetration, or by casting
an artificial veil over the understandings of the
vulgar, authors have not yet determined; but that
the fact is true, admits of no dispute. ,
And the wonderful benefit of these things in
point of dispute is extraordinary, for they can see
clearly they have the better of an argument, when
all the rest of the world think they have not a
word to say for themselves: it is plain to them that
this or that proves a thing, when nature, by common
reasoning, knows no such consequences.
I confess I have seen some weak attempts at this
extraordinary talent, particularly in the disputes in
England between the church and the dissenters,
and between the high and low church; wherein
people have tolerably well convinced themselves
when nobody else could see anything of the matter,
as particularly the famous Mr. W-ly about the
antimonarchical principles taught in the dissenters’
academies; ditto in L–—sly, about the dissenters
burning the city, and setting fire to their own
THE CONSOLIDATOR. 3.13
houses to destroy their neighbours’; and another
famous author, who proved that Christopher Love
lost his head for attempting to pull down monarchy
by restoring king Charles the Second.
... These indeed are some faint resemblances of
what I am upon; but alas ! these are tender sort of
people, that have not obtained a complete victory
over their consciences, but suffer that trifle to re-
proach them all the while they are doing it, to
rebel against their resolved wills, and check them
in the middle of the design : from which interrup-
tions arise palpitations of the heart, sickness and
squeamishness of stomach; and these have proceeded
to castings and vomit, whereby they have been
forced sometimes to throw up some such unhappy
truths as have confounded all the rest, and flown
in their own faces so violently, as in spite of
custom has made them blush and look downward:
and though in kindness to one another they have
carefully licked up one another's filth, yet this un-
happy squeamishness of stomach has spoiled all the
design, and turned the appetites of their party, to the
no small prejudice of a cause that stood in need of
more art and more face to carry it on as it should
be with a thoroughpaced casehardened policy,
such as I have been relating is completely obtained
in these regions, where the arts and excellences of
sublime reasonings are carried up to all the extra-
ordinaries of banishing scruples, reconciling con-
tradictions, uniting opposites, and all the necessary
circumstances required in a complete casuist.
It is not easily conceivable to what extraordinary
flights they have carried this strength of reasoning;
for besides the distinguishing nicely between truth
and error, they obtain a most refined method of
distinguishing truth itself into seasons and circum-
stances, and so can bring anything to be truth,
314 THE CONSOLIDATOR:
when it serves the turn that happens just then to
be needful, and make the same thing to be false at
another time.
And this method of circumstantiating matters of
fact into truth or falsehood, suited to occasion, is
found admirably useful to the solving the most dif-
ficult phenomena of state; for by this art the So-
'lunarian church made persecution be against their
principles at one time, and reducible to practice at
another. They made taking up arms, and calling
in foreign power to depose their prince, consistent
with non-resistance and passive obedience; nay,
they went further, they distinguished between a
Crolian's taking arms, and a Solunarian's, and fairly
proved this to be rebellion, and that to be non-re-
sistance.
Nay, and which exceeded all the power of human
art in the highest degrees of attainment that ever
it arrived to on our side the moon, they turned
the tables so dexterously, as to argument upon one
sort of Crolians, called Prestarians, that though
they repented of the war they had raised in former
times, and protested against the violence offered
their prince, and after another party had in spite
of them beheaded him, took arms against the other
party, and never left contriving their ruin till
they had brought in his son, and set him upon the
throne again.
Yet by this most dexterous way of twisting, ex-
tending, contracting, and distinguishing of phrases
and reasoning, they presently made it as plain as the
sun at noonday, that these Prestarians were king-
killers, commonwealths-men, rebels, traitors, and
enemies to monarchy: that they restored the mon-
archy only in order to destroy it, and that they
preached up sedition, rebellion, and the like: this
was proved so plain by these sublime distinctions,
THE CONSOLIDATOR. 315
that they convinced themselves and their posterity
of it, by a rare and newly acquired art, found out
by extraordinary study, which proves the wonderful
power of custom, insomuch, that let any man by
this method tell a lie over a certain number of
times, he shall arrive to a satisfaction of its cer-
tainty though he knew it to be a fiction before, and
shall freely tell it for a truth all his life after.
Thus the Prestarians were called the murderers of
the father though they restored the son, and all the
testimonials of their sufferings, protests, and insur-
rections, to prevent his death, signified nothing, for
this method of distinguishing has that powerful
charm in it, that all those trifles we call proofs
and demonstration were of no use in that case.
Custom brought the story up to a truth, and in an
instant all the Crolians were hooked in under the
general name of Prestarians, at the same time to
hook all parties in the crime.
Now as it happened at last that these Solunarian
gentlemen found it necessary to do the same thing
themselves, viz., to lay aside their loyalty, depose,
fight against, shoot bullets at, and throw bombs at
their king till they frighted him away, and sent him
abroad to beg his bread, the Crolians began to
take heart, and tell them, now they ought to be
friends with them, and tell them no more of rebel-
lion and disloyalty; nay, they carried it so far as
to challenge them to bring their loyalty to the test,
and compare Crolian loyalty and Solunarian loyalty
together, and see who had raised more wars, taken
up arms oftenest, or appeared in most rebellions
against their kings; nay, who had killed most
kings, the Crolians or the Solunarians; for there
having been then newly fought a great battle be-
tween the Solunarian churchmen under their new
prince and the armies of foreign succours under their
316 THE CONSOLIDATOR.
old king, in which their old king was beaten and
forced to fly a second time, the Crolians told them
that every bullet they shot at the battle was as
much a murdering their king, as cutting off the
head with a hatchet was a killing his father. º
These arguments in our world would have been
unanswerable, but when they came to be brought to
the test of lunar reasoning, alas they signified no-
thing; they distinguished and distinguished till
they brought the Prestarian war to be mere rebel-
lion, king-killing bloody and unnatural, and the
Solunarian fighting against their king, and turning
him adrift to seek his fortune, no prejudice at all
to their loyalty, no, nor to the famous doctrine o
passive obedience and absolute subjection. -
When I saw this, I really bewailed the unhappi-
ness of some of our gentlemen in England, who
standing exceedingly in need of such a wonderful
dexterity of argument to defend their share in our
late Revolution, and to reconcile it to their antece-
dent and subsequent conduct, should not be furnished
from this more accurate world with the suitable
powers, in order the better to defend them against
the banter and just raillery of their ill-natured ene-
mies the whigs. -
By this they might have attained suitable reserves
of argument to distinguish themselves out of their
loyalty, and into their loyalty, as occasion pre-
sented to dismiss this prince, and entertain that,
as they found it to their purpose; but above all,
they might have learnt a way how to justify swearing
to one king and praying for another, eating one
prince's bread and doing another prince's work,
serving one king they don’t love and loving another
they don’t serve; they might easily reconcile the
schisms of the church, and prove they are still loyal
subjects to king James, while they are only forced
THE CONSOLIDATOR. 317.
bondsmen to the Act of Settlement, for the sake of
that comfortable importance, called food and raiment;
and thus their reputation might have been saved,
which is most unhappily tarnished and blurred, with
the malicious attacks of the whigs on one hand, and
the non-jurants on the other. •
These tax them, as above, with rebellion by their
own principles, and contradicting the doctrine of pas-
sive submission and non-resistance, by taking up arms.
against their prince, calling in a foreign power, and
deposing him; they charge them with killing the
Lord's anointed, by shooting at him at the Boyne,
where if he was not killed it was his own fault, at
least it is plain it was none of theirs.
On the other hand, the non-jurant clergy charge
them with schism, declare the whole church of
England schismatics, and breakers-off from the:
general union of the church, in renouncing their
allegiance, and swearing to another power, their
former prince being yet alive.
It is confessed all the answers they have been able
to make to these things, are very weak and mean,
unworthy men of their rank and capacities, and it
is pity they should not be assisted by some kind
communication of these lunar arguments and dis-
tinctions, without which, and till they can obtain
which, a conforming Jacobite must be the absurdest
contradiction in nature; a thing that admits of no
manner of defence, no, not by the people themselves,
and which they would willingly abandon, but that
they can find no side to join with them. - • ,
The dissenting Jacobites have some plea for them-
selves, for let their opinion be never so repugnant
to their own interest, or general vogue, they are
faithful to something, and they won’t join with these
people, because they have perjured their faith, and
yet pretend to adhere to it at the same time... The
318 THE CONSOLIDATOR.
conforming whigs won't receive them, because they
pretend to rail at the government they have sworn
to, and espouse the interest they have sworn against;
so that these poor creatures have but one way left
them, which is to go along with me, next time I
travel to the moon, and that will most certainly do
their business, for when they come down again, they
will be quite another sort of men; the distinctions,
the power of argument, the way of reasoning they
will be then furnished with, will quite change the
scene of the world with them, they will certainly be
able to prove they are the only people, both injustice,
in politics, and in prudence; that the extremes of
every side are in the wrong; they will prove their
loyalty preserved, untainted, through all the swear-
ings, fightings, shootings, and the like, and nobody
will be able to come to the test with them ; so that
upon the whole, they are all distracted if they don't
go up to the moon for illumination, and that they
may easily do in the next Consolidator.
But as this is a very long digression, and for
which I am to beg my reader's pardon, being an
error Islipt into from my abundant respect to these
gentlemen, and for their particular instruction, I
shall endeavour to make my reader amends by
keeping more close to my subject.
To return therefore to the historical part of the
Solunarian churchmen, in the world in the moon.
Having, as is related, deposed their king, and
placed the crown upon the head of the prince that
came to their assistance, a new scene began all over
the kingdom.
1. A terrible and bloody war began through all
the parts of the lunar world, where their banished
prince and his new ally had any interest; and the
new king having a universal character over all the
northern kingdoms of the moon, he brought in a
THE CONSOLIDATOR. 3.19.
great many potent kings, princes, emperors and
states, to take part with him, and so it became the
most general war that had happened in those ages.
I did not trouble myself to inquire into the par-
ticular successes of this war, but at what had a more
particular regard to the country from whence I came,
and for whose instruction I have designed these
sheets, the strife of parties, theinternal feuds at home,
and their analogy to ours; and whatever is instruc-
tively to be deduced from them, was the subject of
immediate inquiry.
No sooner was this prince placed on the throne,
but according to his promises to them that invited
him over, he convened the estates of the realm, and
giving them free liberty to make, alter, add or
repeal, all such laws as they thought fit, it must be
their own fault if they did not establish themselves
upon such foundation of liberty, and right, as they
desired; for he gave them their full swing, never
interposed one negative upon them for several years,
and let them do almost everything they pleased.
This full liberty had like to have spoiled all; for,
as is before noted, this nation had one unhappy
quality they could never be broke of, always to be
falling out one among another.
The Crolians, according to capitulation, demanded
the full liberty and toleration of religion, which the
Solunarians had conditioned with them for, when
they drew them off from joining with the old king,
and when they promised to come to a temper, and
to be brethren in peace and love ever after.
Nor were the Solunarian churchmen backward,
either to remember or perform the conditions; but
by the consent of the king, who had been by agree
ment made guarantee of their former stipulations,
an act was drawn up in full form, and as complete,
as both satisfied the desires of the Crolians, and
32O. THE CONSOLIDATOR.
testified the honesty and probity of the Solunarians,
as they were abstractedly and moderately consi-
dered. -.
During the whole reign of this king, this union of
parties continued without any considerable interrup-
tion; there was indeed brooding mischiefs which
hovered over every accident, in order to generate.
strife, but the candour of the prince, and the pru-
dence of his ministers, kept it under for a long time.
At last an occasion offered itself, which gave an
unhappy stroke to the nation's peace. The king,
through innumerable hazards, terrible battles, and
a twelve years' war, had reduced his powerful adver-
sary to such a necessity of peace, that he became
content to abandon the fugitive king, and to own
the title of this warlike prince; and upon these,
among various other conditions, very honourable:
for him and his allies, and by which vast conquests.
were surrendered, and disgorged to the losers, a
peace was made to the universal satisfaction of all
those parts of the moon that had been involved in
a tiresome and expensive war.
This peace was no sooner made, but the inhabi-
tants of this unhappy country, according to the
constant practice of the place, fell out in the most
horrid manner among themselves, and with the very
prince that had done all these great things for them;
and I cannot forget how the old gentleman I had
these relations from, being once deeply engaged in
discourse with some senators of that country, and
hearing them reproach the memory of that prince
from whom they received so much, and on the foot
of whose gallantry and merit the constitution then
subsisted, it put him into some heat, and he told
them to their faces that they were guilty both of
murder and ingratitude. - ' -
I thought the charge was very high, but as they
THE CONSOLIDATOR. 321
returned upon him, and challenged him to make it
out, he answered he was ready to do it, and went
on thus:
His majesty, said he, left a quiet, retired, com-
pletely happy condition, full of honour, beloved of
his country, valued and esteemed, as well as feared
by his enemies, to come over hither at your own
request, to deliver you from the encroachments
and tyranny, as you called it, of your prince.
Ever since he came hither, he has been your
mere journeyman, your servant, your soldier of
fortune; he has fought for you, fatigued and ha-
rassed his person, and robbed himself of all his
peace for you ; he has been in a constant hurry,
and run through a million of hazards for you; he
has conversed with fire and blood, storms at sea,
camps and trenches ashore, and given himself no
rest for twelve years, and all for your use, safety,
and repose. In requital of which, he has been al-
ways treated with jealousies and suspicions, with
reproaches and abuses of all sorts, and on all occa-
sions, till the ungrateful treatment of the Soluna-
rians eat into his very soul, tired it with serving an
unthankful nation, and absolutely broke his heart;
for which reason I think him as much murdered as
his predecessor was, whose head was cut off by his
subjects.
I could not, when this was over, but ask the old
gentleman, what was the reason of his exclamation,
and how it was the people treated their prince upon
this occasion. -
He told me it was a grievous subject, and a long
one, and too long to rehearse, but he would give
me a short abridgment of it; and not to look back
into his wars, in which he was abominably ill
served, his subjects constantly ill treated him in
giving him supplies too late, that he could not get
CONSOLIDATOR, Y
322 • THE CONSOLIDATOR.
into the field, nor forward his preparations in time
to be ready for his enemies, who frequently were
ready to insult him in his quarters.
By giving him sham taxes and funds, that raised
little or no money, by which he, having borrowed
money of his people by anticipation, the funds not
answering, he contracted such wast debts as the
nation could never pay, which brought the war into
disrepute, sunk the credit of his exchequer, and
filled the nation with murmurs and complaint.
By betraying his counsel and well-laid designs to
his enemies, selling their native country to fo-
reigners, retarding their navies and expeditions,
till the enemies were provided to receive them,
betraying their merchants and trade, spending vast
sums to fit out fleets, just time enough to go abroad
and do nothing, and then get home again.
But as these were too numerous evils, and too
long to repeat, the particular things he related to
me in his discourse, were these that follow :
There had been a hasty peace concluded with a
furious and powerful enemy, the king foresaw it
would be of no continuance, and that the demise of
a neighbouring king, who, by all appearance, could
not live long, would certainly embroil them again.
He saw that prince keep up numerous legions of
forces, in order to be in a posture to break the
peace with advantage. This the king fairly repre-
sented to them, and told them the necessity of
keeping up such a force, and for such a time, at
least, as might be necessary to awe the enemy from
putting any affront upon them in case of the death
of that prince, which they daily expected. i
The party who had all along maligned the pros
perity of this prince, took fire at the offer, and here
began another state plot, which though it hooked
in two or three sets of men for different ends, yet
THE CONSOLIDATOR, 323.
altogether joined in affronting and ill treating their
prince, upon this article of the army.
The nation had been in danger enough from the
designs of former princes invading their privileges,
and putting themselves in a posture to tyrannise by
the help of standing forces; and the party that first
took fire at this proposal, though the very same
men who, in the time of an Abrogratzian prince,
were for caressing him, and giving him thanks for
his standing army, as has been noted before, were
the very people that began the outcry against this
demand ; and so specious were the pretences they
made, that they drew in the very Crolians them-
selves, upon the pretence of liberty, and exemption
from arbitrary methods of government, to oppose
their king. . . . .
It grieved this good prince to be suspected of
tyrannic designs, and that by a nation who he had
done so much, and ventured so far, to save from
tyranny and standing armies; it was in vain he
represented to them the pressing occasion ; in vain
he gave them a description of approaching dangers,
and the threatening posture of the enemy's armies;
in vain he told them of the probabilities of renew-
ing the war, and how keeping but a needful force
might be a means of preventing it ; in vain he
proposed the subjecting what force should be neces-
sary to the absolute power, both as to time and
number, of their own cortez or national assembly.
It was all one; the design being formed in the
breasts of those who were neither friends to the
nation, nor the king, those reasons which would
have been of force in another case, made them the
more eager; bitter reflections were made on the
king, and scurrilous lampoons published upon the
subject of tyrants, and governing by armies. -
Nothing could be more ungrateful to a generous
* Y 2
324 THE CONSOLIDATOR."
prince, nor could anything more deeply affect this
king, than whom none ever had a more genuine,
single-hearted design for the people's good ; but
above all, like Caesar in the case of Brutus, it
heartily moved him to find himself pushed at by
those very people whom he had all along seen pre-
tending to adhere to his interest, and the public
benefit, which he had always taken care should
never be parted; and to find these people join
against this proposal, as a design against their
liberties, and as a foundation of tyranny, heartily
and sensibly afflicted him.
It was a strange mystery, and not easily un-
riddled, that those men who had always a known
aversion to the interest of the deposed king, should
fall in with this party; and those that were friends
to the general good, never forgave it them.
All that could be said to excuse them, was the
plot I am speaking of, that by carrying this point
for that party, they hooked in those forward people
to join in a popular cry of liberty and property,
things they were never fond of before, and to make
some settlement of the people's claims which they
always had opposed, and which they would since
have been very glad to have repealed.
So great an ascendant had the personal spleen of
this party over their other principles, that they
were content to let the liberties of the people be
declared in their highest claims, rather than not
obtain this one article, which they knew would so
exceedingly mortify their prince, and strengthen
the nation's enemies. They freely join in acts of
succession, abjuration, declaration of the power
and claims of the people, and the superiority of
their right to the prince's prerogative, and abund-
ance of such things, which they could never be
otherwise brought to.
&
THE CONSOLIDATOR. 325
It is true these were great things, but it was
thought all this might have been obtained in con-
junction with their prince, rather than by putting
affronts and mortifications upon the man that had,
next to the influence of heaven, been the only
agent of restoring them to a power and capacity of
enjoying as well as procuring such things as
national privileges.
It was vigorously alleged that standing armies
in times of peace, were inconsistent with the public
safety, the laws and constitutions of all the nations
in the moon. :
But these allegations were strenuously answered,
that it was true without the consent of the great
national council, it was so, but that being obtained,
it was not illegal, and public necessities might
make that consent not only legal, but convenient.
It was all to no purpose, the whole was carried
with a torrent of clamour and reflection against the
good prince, who consented, because he would in
nothing oppose the current of the people; but
withal, told them plainly what would be the conse-
quences of their heat, which they have effectually
found true since to their cost, and to the loss of
some millions of treasure. . . .
For no sooner was this army broke, which was
the best ever that nation saw, and was justly the
terror of the enemy, but the great monarch we
mentioned before, broke all measures with this
prince and the confederate nations, a proof what
just apprehensions they had of his conduct, at the
head of such an army. For they broke with con-
tempt, a treaty which the prince upon a prospect of
this unkindness of his people had entered into with
the enemy, and which he engaged in, if possible, to
prevent a new war, which he foresaw he should be
very unfit to begin, or carry on, and which they
326 ..THE CONSOLIDATOR.
would never have dared to break had not this feud
happened.
It was but a little before I came into this country,
when such repeated accounts came of the encroach-
ments, insults, and preparations of their great pow-
erful neighbour, that all the world saw the necessity
of a war, and the very people who were to feel it
most applied to the prince to begin it.
He was forward enough to begin it, and in com-
pliance with his people, resolved on it; but the
grief of the usage he had received, the unkind treat-
ment he had met with from those very people that
brought him thither, had sunk so deep upon his
spirits, that he could never recover it; but being
very weak in body and mind, and joined to a slight
hurt he received by a fall from his horse, he died,
to the unspeakable grief of all his subjects that
wished well to their native country.
This was the melancholy account of this great
prince's end, and I have been told that once every
year there is a kind of fast, or solemn comme-
moration kept up for the murder of that former
prince, who, as I noted, was beheaded by his sub-
jects; so it seems some of the people, who are of
opinion this prince was murdered by the ill treat-
ment of his friends, a way which, I must own, is the
cruellest of deaths, keep the same day, to comme-
morate his death ; and this is a day in which it
seems both parties are very free with one another,
as to raillery and ill language. -
But the friends of this last prince have a double
advantage, for they also commemorate the birth-
day of this prince, and are generally very merry on
that day; and the custom is, at their feast on that
day, just like our drinking healths, they pledge one
another to the immortal memory of their deliverer.
As the historical part of this matter was absolutely
THE CONSOLIDATOR2. 327.
necessary to introduce the following remarks, and
to instruct the ignorant in those things, I hope it
shall not be thought a barren digression, especially
when I shall tell you that it is a most exact repre-
sentation of what is yet to come in a scene of affairs,
of which I must make a short abstract by way of
introduction.
The deceased prince we have heard of, was suc-
ceeded by his sister-in-law, the second daughter of
the banished prince, a lady of an extraordinary
character, of the old race of their kings, a native by
birth, a Solunarian by profession; exceeding pious,
just, and good, of an honesty peculiar to herself,
and for which she was justly beloved of all sorts and
degrees of her subjects,
This princess having the experience of her fa-
ther and grandfather before her, joined to her own
prudence and honesty of design, it was no wonder
if she prudently shunned all manner of rash counsels,
and endeavoured to carry it with a steady hand be-
tween her contending parties.
At her first coming to the crown, she made a so-
lemn declaration of her resolutions for peace and
just government; she gave the Crolians her royal
word, that she would inviolably preserve the tolera-
tion of their religion and worship, and always afford
them her protection, and by this she hoped they
would be easy. : .
But to the Solunarians, as those among whom she
had been educated, and whose religion she had al-
ways professed, been trained up in, and piously pur-
sued, she expressed herself with an uncommon
tenderness; told them they should be the men of her
favour, and those that were most zealous for that
church should have most of her countenance; and
she backed this soon after with an unparalleled act
of royal bounty to them, freely parting with a con-
328 THE CONSOLIDATOR.
siderable branch of her royal revenue for the poor
priests of that religion, of which there were many
in the remote parts of her kingdom.
What vast consequences, and prodigiously differ-
ing from the design, may words have when mis-
taken and misapplied by the hearers. Never were
significant expressions spoken from a sincere, ho-
nest, and generous principle, with a single design to
engage all the subjects in the moon to peace and
union, so perverted, misapplied, and turned by a
party, to a meaning directly contrary to the royal
thoughts of the queen: for from this very expres-
sion, ‘most zealous,” grew all the divisions and sub-
divisions in the Solunarian church, to the ruin of
their own cause, and the vast advantage of the Cro-
lian interest. The eager men of the church, espe-
cially those we have been taking of, hastily catched
at this expression of the queen, ‘most zealous,” and
millions of fatal constructions and unhappy conse-
quences they made of it, some of which are as follows:
1. They took it to imply that the queen, whatever
she had said to the Crolians, really designed their
destruction, and that those that were of that opinion,
must be meant by the “most zealous’ members of the
Solunarian church, and they could understand zeal
no otherwise than in their own way.
2. From this speech, and their mistaking the
words “most zealous,’ arose an unhappy distinction
among the Solunarians themselves, some zealous,
some more zealous, which afterwards divided them
into two most opposite parties, being fomented by an
accident of a book published on an occasion, of
which presently.
The consequences of this mistake appeared pre-
sently in the most zealous, in their offering all pos-
sible insults to the Crolian dissenters, preaching
them down, printing them down, and talking them
THE CONSOLIDATOR. 329.
down, as a people not fit to be suffered in the nation,
and now they thought they had the game sure.
• ‘Down with the Crolians’ began to be all the cry,
and truly the Crolians themselves began to be uneasy,
and had nothing to rely upon but the queen's pro-
mise, which, however, her majesty always made good
to them.
The other party proceeded so far, that they begun
to insult the very queen herself, upon the matter of her
word, and one of her college priests told her plainly
in print, she could not be a true friend to the Solu-
narian church, if she did not declare war against,
and root out all the Crolians in her dominions.
But these proceedings met with a check, by a
very odd accident: a certain author of those coun-
tries, a very mean, obscure, and despicable fellow, of
no great share of wit, but that had a very unlucky
way of telling his story, seeing which way things
were agoing, writes a book, and personating this
high Solunarian zeal, musters up all their argu-
ments, as if they were his own, and strenuously
pretends to prove that all the Crolians ought to be
destroyed, hanged, banished, and the d–l and all.
As this book was a perfect surprise to all the coun-
try, so the proceedings about it on all sides were as
extraordinary. f
The Crolians themselves were surprised at it, and
so closely had the author couched his design, that
they never saw the irony of the style, but began to
look about them to see which way they should fly to
save themselves. -
The men of zeal we talked of, were so blinded with
the notion, which suited so exactly with their real
design, that they hugged the book, applauded the
unknown author, and placed the book next their
oracular writings, or laws of religion.
330 THE CONSOLIDATOR.
The author was all this while concealed, and the
paper had all the effect he wished for. -
For as it caused these first gentlemen to caress,
applaud, and approve it, and thereby discovered their
real intention, so it met with abhorrence and detest-
ation in all the men of principles, prudence, and
moderation, in the kingdom, who though they were
Solunarians in religion, yet were not for blood, deso-
lation and persecution of their brethren, but with
the queen were willing they should enjoy their
liberties and estates, they behaving themselves
quietly and peaceably to the government.
At last it came out that it was writ by a Crolian;
but good God! what a clamour was raised at the
poor man; the Crolians flew at him like lightning,
ignorantly and blindly, not seeing that he had
sacrificed himself and his fortunes in their behalf;
they rummaged his character for reproaches, though
they could find little that way to hurt him; they
plentifully loaded him with ill language and railing,
and took a great deal of pains to let the world see
their own ignorance and ingratitude.
The ministers of state, though at that time of the
fiery party, yet seeing the general detestation of
such a proposal, and how ill it would go down with
the nation, though they approved the thing, yet
began to scent the design, and were also obliged to
declare against it, for fear of being thought of the
same mind.
Thus the author was proscribed by proclamation,
and a reward of fifty thousand hecatoes, a small
imaginary coin in those parts, put upon his head.
The cortes of the nation being at the same time
assembled, joined in censuring the book, and thus
the party blindly damned their own principles for
mere shame of the practice, not daring to own the
THE CONSOLIDATOR. 33 |
thing in public which they had underhand professed,
and the fury of all parties fell upon the poor author.
The man fled the first popular fury, but at last,
being betrayed, fell into the hands of the public
ministry.
When they had him they hardly knew what to do
with him; they could not proceed against him as
author of a proposal for the destruction of the Cro-
lians, because it appeared he was a Crolian himself;
they were loath to charge him with suggesting that
the Solunarian churchmen were guilty of such a
design, lest he should bring their own writings to
prove it true; so they fell to wheedling him with good
words to throw himself into their hands and submit,
giving him that gewgaw the public faith for a civil
and gentlemanlike treatment: the man, believing
like a coxcomb that they spoke as they meant,
quitted his own defence, and threw himself on the
mercy of the queen, as he thought; but they, abusing
their queen with false representations, perjured all
their promises with him, and treated him in a most
barbarous manner, on pretence that there were no
such promises made, though he proved it upon them
by the oath of the persons to whom they were
made. -
Thus they laid him under a heavy sentence, fined
him more than they thought him able to pay, and
ordered him to be exposed to the mob in the streets.
Having him at this advantage, they set upon him
with their emissaries to discover to them his ad-
herents, as they called them, and promised him
great things on one hand, threatening him with his
utter ruin on the other; and the great scribe of the
country, with another of their great courtiers, took
such a low step as to go to him to the dungeon
where they had put him, to see if they could tempt
him to betray his friends. The comical dialogue
332 THE CONSOLIDATOR.
between them there the author of this has seen in
manuscript, exceeding diverting, but having not
time to translate it, it is omitted for the present;
though he promises to publish it in its proper season
for public instruction.
However, for the present it may suffice to tell
the world, that neither by promises of reward or
fear of punishment they could prevail upon him to
discover anything, and so it remains a secret to this
day.
The title of this unhappy book was, the Shortest
Way with the Crolians. The effects of it were
various, as will be seen in our ensuing discourse:
as to the author, nothing was more unaccountable
than the circumstances of his treatment; for he met
with all that fate which they must expect who at-
tempt to open the eyes of a nation wilfully blind.
The hot men of the Solunarian church damned
him without bell, book, or candle; the more moderate
pitied him, but looked on as unconcerned; but the
Crolians, for whom he had run this venture, used
him worst of all; for they not only abandoned him,
but reproached him as an enemy that would have
them destroyed. So one side railed at him because
they did understand him, and the other because
they did not.
Thus the man sunk under the general neglect,
was ruined and undone, and left a monument of
what every man must expect that serves a good
cause, professed by an unthankful people,
And here it was I found out that my lunar
philosopher was only so in disguise, and that he was
no philosopher, but the very man I have been
talking of. e -
From this book, and the treatment its author re-
ceived, for they used him with all possible rigour, a
new scene of parties came upon the stage, and this
.THE CONSOLIDATOR. 333
queen's reign began to be filled with more divisions
and feuds than any before her. ‘,
These parties began to be so numerous and violent
that it endangered the public good, and gave great
disadvantages to the general affairs abroad.
The queen invited them all to peace and union,
but it was in vain; nay, one had the impudence to
publish that to procure peace and union it was ne-
cessary to suppress all the Crolians, and have no
party but one, and then all must be of a mind.
From this heat of parties all the moderate men
fell in with their queen, and were heartily for peace
and union: the other, who were now distinguished
by the title of high Solunarians, called these all
Crolians and low Solunarians, and began to treat
them with more inveteracy than they used to do
the Crolians themselves, calling them traitors to
their country, betrayers of their mother, serpents
harboured in the bosom, who bite, sting, and hiss at
the hand that succoured them : and, in short, the
enmity grew so violent, that from hence proceeded
one of the subtilest, foolishest, deep, shallow con-
trivances and plots that ever was hatched or set on
foot by any party of men in the whole moon, at
least who pretended to any brains, or to half a degree
of common understanding.
There had always been dislikes and distastes be-
tween even the most moderate Solunarians and the
Crolians, as I have noted in the beginning of this
relation, and these were derived from dissenting in
opinions of religion, ancient feuds, private interest,
education, and the like ; and the Solunarians had
frequently, on pretence of securing the government,
made laws to exclude the Crolians from any part of
the administration, unless they submitted to some re-
ligious tests and ceremonies which were prescribed
them.
334 .THE CONSOLIDATOR.
Now as the keeping them out of offices was more
the design, than the conversion of the Crolians to
the Solunarian church, the Crolians, at least many
of them, submitted to the test, and frequently con-
formed, to qualify themselves for public employ-
IſlentS.
The most moderate of the Solunarians were, in
their opinion, against this practice, and the high men
taking advantage of them, drew them in to concur
in making a law with yet more severity against them,
effectually to keep them out of employment.
The low Solunarians were easy to be drawn into
this project, as it was only a confirming former
laws of their own making; and all things run fair
for the design; but as the high men had further
ends in it than barely reducing the Crolians to con-
formity, they couched so many gross clauses into
their law, that even the grandees of the Solunarians
themselves could not comply with ; nay, even the
patriarchs of the Solunarian church declared against
it, as tending to persecution and confusion.
This disappointment enraged the party, and that
very rage entirely ruined their project; for now the
nobility, the patriarchs, and all the wise men of the
nation, joining together against these men of heat
and fury, the queen began to see into their designs;
and as she was of a most pious and peaceable temper,
she conceived a just hatred of so wicked and bar-
barous a design, and immediately dismissed from
her council and favour the great scribe, and several
others who were leaders in the design, to the great
mortification of the whole party, and utter ruin of
the intended law against the Crolians.
Here I could not but observe, as I have done be-
fore in the case of the banished king, how impolitic
these high Solunarian churchmen acted in all their
proceedings; for had they contented themselves by
THE CONSOLIDATOR. 335
little and little to have done their work, they had
done it effectually; but pushing at extremities, they
overshot themselves, and ruined all.
For the grandees and patriarchs made but a few tri-
fling objections at first, nay, and came off, and yielded
some of them too ; and if these would have con-
sented to have parted with some clauses which they
have willingly left out since, they had had it passed;
but these were as hot men always are, too eager
and sure of their game, they thought all was their
own, and so they lost themselves. t
If they railed at the low Solunarian churchmen
before, they doubled their clamours at them now; all
the patriarchs, and all the nobility and grandees,
nay, even the queen herself, came under their cen-
sure, and everybody who was not of their mind were
Prestarians and Crolians. :
As this rage of theirs was implacable, so, as I
hinted before, it drove them into another subdivi-
sion of parties, and now began the mysterious plot
to be laid which I mentioned before; for the cortes
being summoned, and the law being proposed, some
of these high Solunarians appeared in confederacy
with the Crolians, in perfect confederacy with them,
a thing nobody would have imagined could ever
have been brought to pass.
Now as these sorts of plots must always be car-
ried very nicely, so these high gentlemen who con-
federated with the Crolians, having, to spite the
other, resolved effectually to prevent the passing the
law against the qualification of the Crolians, it was
not their business immediately to declare them-
selves against it as a law, but by still loading it with
some extravagance or other, and pushing it on to
some intolerable extreme, secure its miscarriage.
In the managing this plot, one of their authors
was specially employed; and that all that was really
336 THE CONSOLIDATOR.
true of the Crolian dissenters might be ridiculed,
his work was to draw monstrous pictures of them,
which nobody could believe; this took immediately,
for now people began to look at their shoes to see if
they were not cloven-footed as they went along the
streets; and at last finding they were really shaped
like the rest of the lunar inhabitants, they went
back to the author, who was a learned member of a
certain seminary or brotherhood of the Solunarian
clergy, and inquired if he were not mad, distracted
and raving, or moon-blind, and in want of the
thinking engine; but finding all things right there,
and that he was in his senses, especially in a morn-
ing when he was a little free from, &c., that he was
a good, honest, jolly Solunarian priest, and no room
could be found for an objection there;—upon all
these searches it presently appeared, and all men
concluded, it was a mere fanatic Crolian plot; that
this high party of all were but pretenders, and mere
traitors to the true high Solunarian churchmen, that,
wearing the same cloth, had herded among them in
disguise, only to wheedle them into such wild ex-
travagances as must of necessity confuse their
counsels, expose their persons, and ruin their
cause, according to the like practice put upon
their Abrogratzian prince, and of which I have
spoken before. -
And since I am upon the detection of this most
refined practice, I crave leave to descend to some
particular instances, which will the better evince
the truth of this matter, and make it appear that
either this was really a Crolian plot, or else all
these people were perfectly distracted; and as their
wits in that lunar world are much higher strained
than ours, so their lunacy, where it happens, must,
according to the rules of mathematical nature
bear an extreme equal in proportion.
THE CONSOLIDATOR. 337
This college fury of a man was the first on whom
this useful discovery was made; and having writ se-
veral learned tracts, wherein he invited the people
to murder and destroy all the Crolians, branded all
the Solunarian patriarchs, clergy, and gentry, that
would not come into his proposal, with the name of
cowards, traitors, and betrayers of lunar religion;
having beat the concionazimir at a great assembly
of the cadirs, or judges, and told them all the Cro-
lians were devils, and they were all perjured that
did not use them as such : he carried on matters so
dexterously, and with such surprising success, that
he filled even the Solunarians themselves with hor-
ror at his proposals. And as I happened to be in
one of their public halls, where all such writings as
are new are laid a certain time to be read by every
comer, I saw a little knot of men round a table,
where one was reading this book. There were two
Solunarian high priests in their proper vestments,
one privy-councillor of the state, one other noble-
man, and one who had in his hat a token to signify
that he possessed one of the fine feathers of the Con-
solidator, of which I have given the description al-
ready. . -
The book being read by one of the habited .
priests, he starts up with some warmth, By the
moon, says he, I have found this fellow out, he is
certainly a Crolian, a mere prestarian Crolian, and
is crept into our church only in disguise, for it is
certain all this is but mere banter and irony, to
expose us, and to ridicule the Solunarian interest.
The privy-councillor took it presently, Whether
he is a Crolian or no, says he, I cannot tell, but he
has certainly done the Crolians so much service,
that if they had hired him to act for them, they
could not have desired he should serve them
better. - -
consolidATOR. - Z
338 THE CONSOLIDATOR.
§
Truly, says the man of the feather, I was always
for pulling down the Crolians, for I thought them
dangerous to the state; but this man has brought
the matter nearer to my view, and shown me what
destroying them is, for he put me upon examining
the consequences, and now I find it would be lop-
ping off the limbs of the government, and laying it
at the mercy of the enemy, that they might lop off
its head; I assure you he has done the Crolians
great service, for whereas abundance of our men of
the feather were for routing the Crolians, they
lately fell down to one hundred and thirty-four, or
thereabouts. -
All this confirmed the first man's opinion, that he
was a Crolian in disguise, or an emissary employed
by them to ruin the project of their enemies; for these
Crolians are damned cunning people in their way,
and they have money enough to engage hirelings to
their side. -
Another party concerned in this plot was an old
cast out Solunarian priest, who, though professing
himself a Solunarian, was turned out for adhering
to the Abrogratzian king, a mighty stickler for the
doctrine of absolute subjection. -
This man draws the most monstrous picture of a
Crolian that could be invented, he put him in a
wolf's skin with long ass's ears, and hung him all
over full of associations, massacres, persecutions,
rebellions, and blood. Here the people began to
stare again, and a Crolian could not go along the
street but they were always looking for the long
ears, the wolf’s claws, and the like ; till at last no-
thing of these things appearing, but the Crolians
looking and acting like other folks, they began to
examine the matter, and found this was a mere
Crolian plot too, and this man was hired to run these
extravagant lengths to point out the right meaning,
THE CONSOLIDATOR. 339
The discovery being made, people ever since un-
derstand him, that when he talks of the dissenters’
associations, murders, persecutions, and the like,
he means that his readers should look back to the
murders, oppressions, and persecutions they had suf-
fered for several past years, and the associations that
were now forming to bring them into the same con-
dition again. - - .
From this famous author I could not but proceed
to observe the further progress of this most refined
piece of cunning, among the yery great ones, gran-
dees, feathers, and consolidators of the country.
For these cunning Crolians managed their intrigues
so nicely, that they brought about a famous division
even among the high Solunarian party themselves;
and whereas the law of qualification was revived
again, and in great danger of being completed ;
these subtle Crolians brought over one hundred and
thirty-four of the feathers in the famous Consolida-
tor to be of their side, and to contrive the utter
destruction of it; and thus fell the design which
the high Solunarian churchmen had laid for the
ruin of the Crolians’ interest, by their own friends
first joining in all the extremes they had proposed,
and then pushing it so much further, and to such mad
periods, that the very highest of them stood amazed
at the design, startled, flew back, and made a full
stop; they were willing to ruin the Crolians, but
they were not willing to ruin the whole nation. The
more these men began to consider, the more
furiously these plotters carried on their extrava-
gances; at last they made a general push at a
thing, in which they knew if the other high men
joined, they must throw all into confusion, bring a
foreign enemy on their backs, unravel all the thread
of the war, fight all their victories back again, and
involve the whole nation in blood and confusion.
Z 2
340 THE CONSOLIDATOR.
They knew well enough that most of the high
men would hesitate at this, they knew if they did
not, the grandees and patriarchs would reject it, and
so they played the surest game to blast and over-
throw this law that could possibly be played. -
If any man in the whole world in the moon will
pretend this was not a plot, a Crolian design, a
mere conspiracy to destroy the law, let him tell me
for what other end could these men offer such ex-
tremes as they needs must know would meet with
immediate opposition, things that they knew all the
honest men, all the grandees, all the patriarchs,
and almost all the feathers would oppose.
From hence all the men of any foresight brought
it to this pass, as is before noted, that either these one
hundred and thirty-four were fools or madmen, or .
that it was a fanatic Crolian plot and conspiracy to
ruin the making this law, which the rest of the So-
lunarian churchmen were very forward to carry on.
I heard indeed some men argue that this could
not be ; the breach was too wide between the Cro-
lians and these gentlemen ever to come to such an
agreement; but the wiser heads who argued the
other way, always brought them, as is noted above,
to this pinch of argument: that either it must be
so, be a fanatic Crolian plot, or else the men of
fury were all fools, madmen, and fitter for an hos-
pital, than a state house, or a pulpit.
It must be allowed, these Crolians were cunning
people, thus to wheedle in these high-flying Solu-
narians to break the neck of their dear project.
But upon the whole, for aught I could see,
whether it went one way or the other, all the nation
esteemed the other people fools, fools of the
most extraordinary size in all the moon, for either
way they pulled down what they had been many
years a building. -
THE CONSOLIDATOR. 341
I cannot say that this was in kindness to the
Crolians, but in mere malice to the low Solunarian
party, who had the government in their hands, for
malice always carries men on to monstrous ex-
tremeS. -
Some indeed have thought it hard to call this a
plot, and a confederacy with the Crolians; but
I cannot but think it the kindest thing that can be
said of them, and that it is impossible those people
who pushed at some imaginary things in that law,
could but be in a plot as aforesaid, or be perfectly
lunatic, downright madmen, or traitors to their
country, and let them choose which character they
like.
I cannot in charity but spare them their
honesty, and their senses, and attribute it all to
their policy. -
When I had understood all things at large, and
found the exceeding depth of the design, I must
confess the discovery of these things was very
diverting, and the more so, when I made the proper
reflections upon the analogy there seemed to be be-
tween these Solunarian high churchmen in the
moon, and ours here in England; our high church-
men are no more to compare to these, than the
hundred and thirty-four are to the consolidators.
Ours can plot now and then a little among them-
selves, but then it is all gross and plain sailing, down
right taking arms, calling in foreign forces, assassi-
nations, and the like ; but these are nothing to the
more exquisite heads in the moon. For they have
the subtilest ways with them that ever were heard
of They can make war with a prince, on purpose
to bring him to the crown; fit out vast navies
against him that he may have the more leisure
to take their merchantmen; make descents upon
him, on purpose to come home and do nothing; if
342. THE CONSOLIDATOR.
they have a mind to a sea-fight, they carefully send
out admirals that care not to come within half a
mile of the enemy, that coming off safe they may
have the boasting part of the victory, and the
beaten part both together. -
It would be endless to call over the roll of their
sublime politics. They damn moderation in order
to peace and union, set the house on fire to save it
from desolation, plunder to avoid persecution, and
consolidate things in order to their more immediate
dissolution.
Had our high churchmen been masters of these
excellent arts, they had long ago brought their de-
signs to pass.
The exquisite plot of these high Solunarians
answered the Crolians’ end, for it broke all their
enemies' measures, the law vanished, the grandees
could hardly be persuaded to read it, and when it
was proposed to be read again, they hissed at it, and
threw it by with contempt. , -
Nor was this all; for it not only lost them their
design as to this law, but it absolutely broke the
party, and just as it was with Adam and Eve, as
soon as they sinned, they quarrelled and fell out
with one another; so, as soon as things came to
this height, the party fell out one among another ;
and even the high men themselves were divided;
some were for consolidating, and some not for
consolidating; some were for tacking, and some not
for tacking; as they were or were not let into the
Secret. - .
If this confusion of languages, or interest, lost
them the real design, it cannot be a wonder. Have
we not always seen it in our world, that dividing an
interest, weakens and exposes it 2 Has not a great
many both good and bad designs been rendered
abortive in this our lower world, for want of the
THE CONSOLIDATOR. 343
harmony of parties, and the unanimity of those con-
cerned in the design
How had the knot of rebellion been dissolved in
England, if it had not been untied by the very
hands of those that knit it? All the contrary force
had been entirely broken and subdued, and the
restoration of monarchy had never happened in
England, if union and agreement had been found
among the managers of that age. -
The enemies of the present establishment have
shown sufficiently that they perfectly understand
the shortest way to our infallible destruction, when
they bend their principal force at dividing us into
parties, and keeping those parties at the utmost
Varlance. -
But this is not all, the author of this cannot but
Lobserve here, that as England is unhappily divided
among parties, so it has this one felicity even to be
found in the very matter of her misfortunes, that
those parties are all again subdivided among them-
selves. - -
How easily might the church have crushed and
subdued the dissenters, if they had been all as mad as
one party, if they had not been some high and some
low churchmen 2 And what mischief might not that
one party have done in this nation, had not they been
divided again into jurant-Jacobites, and non-jurant;
into consolidators, and non-consolidators ? From
whence it is plain to me, that just as it is in the moon,
these consolidating churchmen are mere confede-
rates with the whigs ; and it must be so, unless we
should suppose them mere madmen, that dont
know what they are adoing, and who are the
drudges of their enemies, and know nothing of the
matter.
And from this lunar observation it presently
occurred to my understanding, that my masters, the
344 - THE CONSOLIDATOR.
dissenters, may come in for a share among the
moon-blind men of this generation, since had they
done for their own interest what the law fairly ad-
mits to be done, had they been united among them-
selves, had they formed themselves into a politic
body to have acted in a public united capacity by
eneral concert, and as persons that had but one
interest, and understood it, they had never been so
often insulted by every rising party, they had never
had so many machines and intrigues to ruin and
suppress them, they had never been so often
tacked and consolidated to oppression and persecu-
tion, and yet never have rebelled or broke the
peace, incurred the displeasure of their princes, or
have been upbraided with plots, insurrections, and
antimonarchical principles; when they had made
treaties and capitulations with the church for tem-
per and toleration, the articles would have been
kept, and these would have demanded justice with
an authority that would, upon all occasions, be re-
spected. - -
Were they united in civil polity; in trade, and
interest, would they buy and sell with one another,
abstract their stocks, erect banks and companies in
trade of their own, lend their cash to the govern-
ment in a body, and as a body. .
If I were to tell them what advantages the Cro-
lians in the moon make of this sort of management,
how the government finds it their interest to
treat them civilly, and use them like subjects of
consideration; how upon all occasions some of the
grandees and nobility appear as protectors of the
Crolians, and treat with their princes in their
names, present their petitions, and make demands
from the prince of such loans and sums of money as
the public occasions require; and what abundance
of advantages are reaped from such an union, both to
THE CONSOLIDATOR. 345
their own body as a party, and to the government
also, they would be convinced ; wherefore I cannot
but very earnestly desire of the dissenters and
whigs in my own country, that they would take a
journey in my Consolidator up to the moon, they
would certainly see there what vast advantages they
lose for want of a spirit of union, and a concert of
measures among themselves.
The Crolians in the moon are men of large souls,
and generously stand by one another on all occa-
sions; it was never known that they deserted any-
body that suffered for them, my old philosopher ex-
cepted, and that was a surprise upon them.
The reason of the difference is plain, our dissen-
ters here have not the advantage of a Cogitator, or
thinking engine, as they have in the moon. We
have the elevator here, and are lifted up pretty
much, but in the moon they always go into the
thinking engine upon every emergency, and in this
they outdo us of this world on every occasion.
In general, therefore, I must note that the wisest
men I found in the moon, when they understood
the notes I had made as above, of the subdivisions
of our parties, told me that it was the greatest hap-
piness that could have been obtained to our coun-
try, for that if our parties had not been thus divided,
the nation had been undone. They owned that
had not their Solunarian party been divided among
themselves, the Crolians had been undone, and all
the moon had been involved in persecution, and
been very probably subjected to the Gallunarian
monarch.
Thus the fatal errors of men have their advan-
tages, the separate ends they serve are not foreseen
by their authors, and they do good against the
very design of the people, and the nature of the
evil itself. .'
346 THE CONSOLIDATOR,
And now that I may encourage our people to
that peace and good understanding among them-
selves, which can alone produce their safety and
deliverance, I shall give a brief account how the
Crolians in the moon came to open their eyes to
their own interest, how they came to unite, and how
the fruits of that union secured them from ever
being insulted again by the Solunarian party, who
in time gave over the vain and fruitless attempt,
and so a universal lunar calm has spread the whole
moon ever since. -
If our people will not listen to their own advan-
tages, nor do their own business, let them take the
consequences to themselves, they cannot blame the
man in the moon.
To endeavour to bring this to pass, as these
memoirs have run through the general history of
the feuds and unhappy breaches between the So-
lunarian church and the Crolian dissenters in the
world of the moon, it would seem an imperfect and
abrupt relation, if I should not tell you how, and
by what method, though long hid from their eyes,
the Crolians came to understand their own interest,
and know their own strength.
It is true, it seemed a wonder to me when I con-
sidered the excellence and variety of those perspec-
tive glasses I have mentioned, the clearness of the
air, and consequently of the head, in this lunar
world; I say it was very strange the Crolians
should have been moon-blind so long as they were,
that they could not see it was always in their power
if they had but pursued their own interest, and
made use of those legal opportunities which lay be-
fore them, to put themselves in a posture, as that
the government itself should think them a body too
big to be insulted, and find it their interest to keep
measures with them. º
THE CONSOLIDATOR. 347
It was indeed a long time before they opened
their eyes to these advantages, but bore the insults
of the hair-brained party, with a weakness and
negligence that was as unjustifiable in them, as
unaccountable to all the nations of the moon.
But at last, as all violent extremes rouse their
contrary extremities, the folly and extravagance of
the high Solunarians drove the Crolians into their
senses, and roused them to their own interest, the
occasion was, among a great many others, as fol-
lows: -
The eager Solunarians could not on all occasions
forbear to show their deep regret at the dissenting
Crolians enjoying the toleration of their religion
by a law. -
And when all their legal attempts to lessen that
liberty had proved abortive, her Solunarian majesty
on all occasions repeating her assurances of the
continuance of her protection, and particularly the
maintaining this toleration inviolable, they pro-
ceeded then to show the remains of their malice, in
little insults, mean and illegal methods, and con-
tinual private disturbances upon particular persons,
in which, however, the Crolians, having recourse to
the law, always found justice on their side, and
had redress with advantage, of which the following
instance is more than ordinarily remarkable :
There had been a law made by the men of the
feather, that all the meaner idle sort of people, who
had no settled way of living, should go to the wars;
and the Lazognians, a sort of magistrates there, in
the nature of our justices of the peace, were to send
them away by force.
Now it happened, in a certain Solunarian island,
that for want of a better, one of their high priests
was put into the civil administration, and made a
Lazognian. In the neighbourhood of this man's
348 TIIE CONSOLIDATOR.
jurisdiction, one of their own Solunarian priests had
turned Crolian, and whether he had a better talent
at performance, or rather was more diligent in his
office, is not material, but he set up a kind of a Cro-
lian temple in an old barn, or some such mechanic.
building, and all the people flocked after him.
This so provoked his neighbours of the black gir-
dle, an order of priests, of which he had been one,
that they resolved to suppress him, let it cost what
it would.
They run strange lengths to bring this to pass.
They forged strange stories of him, defamed him,
run him into jail upon frivolous and groundless oc-
casions, represented him as a monster of a man,
told their story so plain, and made it so specious,
that even the Crolians themselves, to their shame,
believed it, and took up prejudices against the poor
man, which had like to have been his ruin.
They proscribed him in print for crimes they
could never prove, they branded him with forgery,
adultery, drunkenness, swearing, breaking jail, and
abundance of crimes; but when matters were ex-
amined and things came to the test, they could
never prove the least thing upon him. In this
manner, however, they continually worried the poor
man, till they ruined his family and reduced him to
beggary; and though he came out of the prison
they cast him into by the mere force of innocence,
yet they never left pursuing him with all sorts of
violence. At last they made use of their brother of
the girdle, who was in commission as above, and
this man being high priest and Lazognian too, by the
first was a party, and by the last had a power to
act the tragedy they had plotted against the poor
Iſlan.
In short, they seized him without any crime
alleged, took violently from him his license, as a
THE CONSOLIDATOR. 349
Crolian priest, by which the law justified what he
had done, pretending it was forged, and after very
ill-treating him, condemned him to the wars, de-
livers him up for a soldier, and accordingly carried
him away.
But it happened, to their great mortification, that
this man found more mercy from the men of the
sword, than from those of the word, and so found
means to get out of their hands, and afterwards to
undeceive all the moon, both as to his own cha-
racter, and as to what he had suffered. -
For some of the Crolians, who began to be made
sensible of the injury done the poor man, advised
him to have recourse to the law, and to bring his
adversaries before the criminal bar.
But as soon as this was done, good God! what a
scene of villany was here opened; the poor man
brought up such a cloud of witnesses to confront
every article of their charge, and to vindicate his
own character, that when the very judges heard it,
though they were all Solunarians themselves, they
held up their hands, and declared in open court it
was the deepest track of villany that ever came be-
fore them, and that the actors ought to be made
examples to all the moon.
The persons concerned, used all possible arts to
avoid, or at least to delay the shame, and adjourn
the punishment, thinking still to weary the poor
man out. But now his brethren, the Crolians, began
to see themselves wounded through his sides, and
above all, finding his innocence cleared up beyond all
manner of dispute, they espoused his cause, and as-
sisted him to prosecute his enemies, which he did,
till he brought them all to justice, exposed them to
the last degree, obtained full reparation of all his
losses, and a public decree of the judges of his justi-
fication and future repose. •
350 THE CONSOLIDATOR.
Indeed when I saw the proceedings against this
poor man run to a height so extravagant and mon-
strous, when I found malice, forgery, subornation,
perjury, and a thousand unjustifiable things, which
their own sense, if they had any, might have been
their protection against, and which any child in the
moon might have told them must one time or other
come upon the state and expose them ; I began to
think these people were all in the Crolian plot too.
For really such proceedings as these were the
greatest pieces of service to the Crolians as could
possibly be done; for as it generally proves in other
places, as well as in the moon, that mischief unjustly
contrived falls upon the heads of the authors, and
redounds to their treble dishonour, so it was here;
the barbarity and inhuman treatment of this man,
made the sober and honest part even of the Solu-
narians themselves blush for their brethren, and
own that the punishment awarded on them was just.
Thus the Crolians got ground by the folly and
madness of their enemies, and the very engines and
plots laid to injure them served to bring their ene-
mies on the stage, and expose both them and their
CàUISé.
But this was not all, by these incessant attacks
on them as a party, they began to come to their
senses out of a fifty year slumber; they found the
law on their side, and the government moderate
and just ; they found they might oppose violence
with law, and that when they did fly to the refuge
of justice, they always had the better of their enemy;
flushed with this success, it put them upon consider-
ing what fools they had been all along to bear the
insolence of a few hot-headed men, who contrary to
the true intent and meaning of the queen, or of the
government, had resolved their destruction. -
It put them upon revolving the state of their own
TEIE CONSOLIDATOR. 351
case, and comparing it with their enemies’; upon
examining on what foot they stood, and though es-
tablished upon a firm law, yet a violent party push-
ing at the overthrow of that establishment, and dis-
solving the legal right they had to their liberty and
religion; it put them upon duly weighing the near-
ness of their approaching ruin and destruction, and
finding things run so hard against them, reflecting
upon the extremity of their affairs, and how if they
had not drawn in the high church champions to
damn the projects of their own party, by running at
such desperate extremes as all men of any temper
must of course abhor, they had been undone; truly
now they began to consider, and to consult with
one another what was to be done. -
Abundance of projects were laid before them,
some too dangerous, some too foolish to be put in
practice; at last they resolved to consult with my
philosopher. -
He had been but scurvily treated by them in his
troubles, and so universally abandoned by the Cro-
lians, that even the Solunarians themselves insulted
them on that head, and laughed at them for expect-
ing anybody should venture for them again. But
he, forgetting their unkindness, asked them what it
was they desired of him P -
They told him, they had heard that he had re-
ported he could put the Crolians in a way to secure
themselves from any possibility of being insulted
again by the Solunarians, and yet not disturb the
public tranquillity, nor break the laws; and they
desired him, if he knew such a secret, he would
communicate it to them, and they would be sure to
remember not to forget him for it as long as he lived.
He frankly told them he had said so, and it was
true, he could put them in a way to do all this if
they would follow his directions. What's that, says
352 THE CONSOLIDATOR.
one of the most earnest inquirers ? It is included
in one word, says he, Unite. -
This most significant word, deeply and solidly
reflected upon, put them upon strange and various
conjectures, and many long debates they had with
themselves about it ; at last they came again to
him, and asked him what he meant by it P
He told them he knew they were strangers to
the meaning of the thing, and therefore if they
would meet him the next day he would come pre-
pared to explain himself; accordingly they meet;
when, instead of a long speech they expected from
him, what sort of union he meant, and with who, he
brings them a Thinking Press, or Cogitator, and
setting it down, goes away without speaking one
word.
This hieroglyphical admonition was too plain not
to let them all into his meaning; but still as they
are an obstinate people, and not a little valuing
themselves upon their own knowledge and pene-
tration, they slighted the engine, and fell to off-hand
surmises, guesses, and supposes.
1. Some concluded he meant unite with the So-
lunarian church; and they reflected upon his un-
derstanding, that not being the question in hand,
and something remote from their intention, or the
high Solunarians’ desire.
2. Some meant unite to the moderate party of
the Solunarians, and this they said they had done
already.
At last some being very cunning, found it out,
that it must be his meaning, unite one among
another; and even there again they misunderstood
him too ; and some imagined he meant downright
rebellion, uniting power, and mobbing the whole
moon, but he soon convinced them of that too.
At last they took the hint, that his advice di-
THE CONSOLIDATOR, - 353
rected them to unite their subdivided parties into
one general interest, and to act in concert upon
one bottom ; to lay aside the selfish, narrow, suspi-
cious spirit, (three qualifications the Crolians were
but too justly charged with,) and begin to act with
courage, unanimity, and largeness of Soul; to open
their eyes to their own interest, maintain a regular
correspondence with one another in all parts of the
kingdom, and to bring their civil interest into a form.
The author of this advice having thus brought
them to understand and approve his proposal, they
demanded his assistance for making the essay; and
it is a most wonderful thing to consider what a
strange effect the alteration of their measures had
upon the whole Solunarian nation.
As soon as ever they had settled the methods
they resolved to act in, they formed a general
council of the heads of their party, to be always
sitting, to reconcile differences, to unite parties, to
suppress feuds in their beginning. -
They appointed three general meetings in three
of the most remote parts of the kingdom, to be
half yearly, and one universal meeting of persons
deputed to concert matters among them in general.
By that time these meetings had sat but once,
and the conduct of the council of twelve began to ap-
pear, it was a wonder to see the prodigious alteration
it made all over the country.
Immediately a Crolian would never buy anything
but of a Crolian ; would hire no servants, employ
neither porter nor carman but what were Crolians.
The Crolians in the country, that wrought and
managed the manufactures, would employ nobody
but Crolian spinners, Crolian weavers, and the like.
In their capital city, the merchandizing Crolians
would freight no ships but of which the owners and
commanders were Crolians. -
CONSOLIDATOR. A a
354 THE CONSOLIDATOR.
They called all their cash out of the Solunarian
bank; and as the act of the cortes, confirming the
bank then in being, seemed to be their support,
they made it plain that cash and credit will make a
bank without a public settlement of law; and with-
out these, all the laws in the moon will never be able
to support it. - *
They brought all their running cash into one
bank, and settled a sub-cash, depending upon the
grand bank, in every province of the kingdom ; in
which, by a strict correspondence and crediting
their bills, they might be able to settle a paper
credit over the whole nation.
They went on to settle themselves in all sorts of
trade in open companies, and sold off their interests
in the public stocks then in trade. -
If the government wanted a million of money
upon any emergency, they were ready to lend it as
a body, not by different sums and private hands
blended together with their enemies, but, as will
appear at large presently, it was only Crolian money,
and passed as such. - -
Nor were the consequences of this new model
less considerable than the proposer expected, for
the Crolians being generally of the trading, manu-
facturing part of the world, and very rich, the in-
fluence this method had upon the common people,
upon trade, and upon the public, was very consider-
able every way. .
1. All the Solunarian tradesmen and shopkeepers
were at their wits' end; they sat in their shops and
had little or nothing to do, while the shops of the
Crolians were full of customers, and their people
over head and ears in business; this turned many
of the Solunarian tradesmen quite off of the hooks,
and they began to break and decay strangely, till at
last a great many of them, to prevent their utter
THE CONSOLIDATOR. 355
ruin, turned Crolians, on purpose to get a trade;
and what forwarded that part of it was, that when a
Solunarian, who had little or no trade before, came
but over to the Crolians, immediately everybody come
to trade with him, and his shop would be full of
customers, so that this presently increased the num-
ber of the Crolians. *
2. The poor people in the countries, carders,
spinners, weavers, knitters, and all sorts of manu-
facturers, run in crowds to the Crolian temples for
fear of being starved, for the Crolians were two-
thirds of the masters or employers in the manufac-
tures all over the country, and the poor would have
been starved and undone if they had cast them out
of work. Thus insensibly the Crolians increased
their number. •.
3. The Crolians being men of vast cash, they no
sooner withdrew their money from the general bank,
but the bank languished, credit sunk, and in a
short time they had little to do, but dissolved of
COUITSé.
One thing remained which people expected
would have put a check to this undertaking, and
that was a way of trading in classes, or Societies,
much like our East-India companies in England;
and these depending upon public privileges granted
by the queen of the country, or her predecessors,
nobody could trade to those parts but the persons
who had those privileges: the cunning Crolians,
who had great stocks in those trades, and foresaw
they could not trade by themselves without the
public grant or charter, contrived a way to get
almost all that capital trade into their hands, as
follows: !
They concerted matters, and all at once fell to
selling off their stock, giving out daily reports that
they would be no longer concerned, that it was a
A a 2
356 THE CONSOLIDATOR.
losing trade, that the fund at bottom was good for
nothing, and that of two societies the old one had
not twenty per cent. to divide, all their debts being
paid; that the new society had traded several years,
but if they were dissolved could not say they had
got anything, and that this must be a cheat at last;
and so they resolved to sell.
By this artifice, they daily offering to sale, and
yet in all their discourse discouraging the thing
they were to sell, nobody could be found to buy.
The offering a thing to sale and no bidders, is a
certain never-failing prospect of a lowering the
price; from this method, therefore, the value of all
the banks, companies, societies, and stocks in the
country, fell to be little or nothing worth; and that
was to be bought for forty or forty-five lunatians
that was formerly sold at one hundred and fifty, and
so in proportion of all the rest.
All this while the Crolians employed their emis-
saries to buy up privately all the interest or shares in
these things that any of the Solunarian party would
sell.
This plot took readily; for these gentlemen, ex-
posing the weakness of these societies, and running
down the value of their stocks, and at the same
time warily buying at the lowest prices, not only in
time got possession of the whole trade, with their
grants, privileges, and stocks, but got into them at a
prodigiously low and despicable price.
They had no sooner thus wormed them out of the
trade, and got the greatest part of the effects in
their own hands, and consequently the whole ma-
nagement, but they run up the price of the funds
again as high as ever, and laughed at the folly of
those that sold out.
Nor could the other people make any reflections
upon the honesty of the practice, for it was no
THE CONSOLIDATOR. * 357
original, but had its birth among the Solunarians
themselves, of whom three or four had frequently
made a trade of raising and lowering the funds of
the societies by all the clandestine contrivances in
the world, and had ruined abundance of families to
raise their own fortunes and estates.
One of the greatest merchants in the moon raised
himself by this method to such a height of wealth,
that he left all his children married to grandees,
dukes, and great folks; and, from a mechanical
original, they are now ranked among the Lunarian
nobility, while multitudes of ruined families helped
to build his fortune, by sinking under the knavery
of his contrivance. .
His brother in the same iniquity, being at this
time a man of the feather, has carried on the same
intriguing trade with all the face and front imagin-
able; it has been nothing with him to persuade his
most intimate friends to sell, or buy, just as he had
occasion for his own interest to have it rise, or fall,
and so to make his own market of their misfortune.
Thus he has twice raised his fortunes, for the
house of feathers demolished him once, and yet he
has by the same clandestine management worked
himself up again.
This civil way of robbing houses, for I can esteem
it no better, was carried on by a middle sort of peo-
ple, called in the moon Bloutegondegours, which
signifies men with two tongues, or in English, stock-
jobbing brokers. -
These had formerly such an unlimited power, and
were so numerous, that indeed they governed the
whole trade of the country; no man knew when he
bought or sold, for though they pretended to buy
and sell, and manage for other men whose stocks
they had very much at command, yet nothing was
358 * THE CONSOLIDATOR.
more frequent than when they bought a thing.
cheap, to buy it for themselves; if dear, for their
employer; if they were to sell, if the price rise, it
was sold; if it fell, it was unsold; and by this art no-
body got any money but themselves, that at last, ex-
cepting the two capital men we spoke of before,
these governed the prices of all things, and nothing
could be bought or sold to advantage but through
their hands; and as the profit was prodigious, their
number increased accordingly, so that business
seemed engrossed by these men, and they governed
the main articles of trade.
This success, and the imprudence of their con-
duct, brought great complaints against them to the
government, and a law was made to restrain them,
both in practice and number. - . .
This law has in some measure had its effect, the
number is not only lessened, but by chance some
honester men than usual are got in among them,
but they are so very, very, very few, hardly enough
to save a man's credit that shall vouch for them.
Nay, some people, that pretend to understand
their business better than I do, having been of their
number, have affirmed, it is impossible to be honest
in the employment. •' ,
I confess, when I began to search into the conduct
of these men, at least of some of them, I found
there were abundance of black stories to be told of
them, a great deal known, and a great deal more un-
known; for they were from the beginning conti-
nually encroaching into all sorts of people and socie-
ties, and in conjunction with some that were not
qualified by law, but merely voluntarily, called in
the moon by a hard long word, in English signify-
ing Projectors, these erected stocks in shadows, so-
cieties in nubibus, and bought and sold mere va-
THE CONSOLIDATOR. 359.
pour, wind, emptiness, and bluster for money, till
they drew people in to lay out their cash, and then
laughed at them. - .
Thus they erected Paper Societies, Linen Socie-
ties, Sulphur Societies, Copper Societies, Glass So-
cieties, sham banks, and a thousand mock whimseys
to hook unwary people in ; at last sold themselves
out, left the bubble to float a little in the air, and
then vanish of itself. . . . ;
The other sort of people go on after all this ; and
though these projectors began to be out of fashion,
they always found one thing or other to amuse and
deceive the ignorant, and went jobbing on into all
manner of things, public as well as private, whether
the revenue, the public funds, loans, annuities, bear-
skins, or anything. . -
Nay, they were once grown to that extravagant
height, that they began to stock-job the very
feathers of the Consolidator, and in time the kings
employing those people might have had what
feathers they had occasion for, without concerning
the proprietors of the lands much about them.
It is true this began to be notorious, and received
some check in a former meeting of the feathers;
but even now, when I came away, the three years ex-
piring, and by course a new Consolidator being to be
built, they were as busy as ever; bidding, offering,
procuring, buying, selling, and jobbing of feathers
to who bid most; and notwithstanding several late
wholesome and strict laws against all manner of .
collusion, bribery, and clandestine methods, in the
countries procuring these feathers, never was the
moon in such an uproar about picking and culling
the feathers; such bribery, such drunkenness, such
caballing, especially among the high Solunarian
clergy and the Lazognians; such feasting, fighting,
and distraction, as the like has never been known.
360 THE CONSOLIDATOR.
And that which is very remarkable, all this not
only before the old Consolidator was broke up, but
even while it was actually whole and in use.
Had this hurry been to send up good feathers,
there had been the less to say: but that which made
it very strange to me was, that where the very worst
of all the feathers were to be found, there was the
most of this wicked work; and though it was bad
enough everywhere, yet the greatest bustle and con-
trivance was in order to send up the worst feathers
they could get. !
And indeed some places such sorry, scoundrel,
empty, husky, withered, decayed feathers were of
fered to the proprietors, that I have sometimes
wondered any one could have the impudence to
send up such ridiculous feathers to make a Conso-
lidator, which, as is before observed, is an engine of
such beauty, usefulness, and necessity.
And still, in all my observation, this note came in
my way, there was always the most bustle and dis-
turbance about the worst feathers.
It was really a melancholy thing to consider, and
had this lunar world been my native country, I
should have been full of concern to see that one
thing, on which the welfare of the whole nation so
much depended, put in so ill a method, and gotten
into the management of such men, who for money
would certainly have set up such feathers, that
whenever the Consolidator should be formed, it
would certainly overset the first voyage; and if the
whole nation should happen to be embarked in it,
on the dangerous voyage to the moon, the fall would
certainly give them such a shock as would put them
all into confusion, and open the door to the Gal-
lunarian, or any foreign enemy to destroy them.
It was really strange that this should be the case,
after so many laws, and so lately, made against it;
THE CONSOLIDATOR. 361
*},
but in this, those people are too like our people in
England, who have the best laws the worst executed
of any nation under heaven.
For in the moon, this hurry about choosing of
feathers was grown to the greatest height imagin-
able, as if it increased by the very laws that were
made to suppress it; for now at a certain public
place, where the Bloutegondegours used to meet
every day, anybody that had but money enough
might buy a feather at a reasonable rate, and never
go down into the country to fetch it; nay, the trade
grew so hot, that of a sudden, as if no other business
was in hand, all people were upon it, and the whole
market was changed from selling of bear-skins, to
buying of feathers. .
Some gave this for a reason why all the stocks of
the societies fell so fast; but there were other rea-
sons to be given for that ; such as clubs, cabals,
stock-jobbers, knights, merchants, and thie—s. I
mean a private sort, not such as are frequently
hanged there, but of a worse sort, by how much
they merit that punishment more, but are out of the
reach of the law, can rob and pick pockets in the
face of the sun, and laugh at the families they ruin,
bidding defiance to all legal resentment.
To this height things were come under the grow-
ing evil of this sort of people.
And yet in the very moon, where, as I have noted,
the people are so exceeding clearsighted, and have
such vast helps to their perceptive faculties, such
mists are sometimes cast before the public under-
standing, that they cannot see the general interest.
This was manifest, in that, just as I came away
from that country, the great council of their wise
men, the men of the feather, were agoing to repeal
the old law of restraining the number of these people;
and though as it was there was not employment
362 THE CONSOLIDATOR,
for half of them, there being a hundred in all, and
not above five honest ones, yet when I came away
they were going to increase their number. I have
nothing to say to this here, only that all wise men
that understand trade were very much concerned
at it, and looked upon it as a most destructive thing
to the public, and foreboding the same mischiefs
that trade suffered before. -
It was the particular misfortune to these lunar
people that this country had a better stock of gover-
nors in all articles of their welfare, than in their
trade; their law affairs had good judges, their church
good patriarchs, except, as might be excepted; their
state good ministers, their army good generals, and
their Consolidator good feathers; but in matters
relating to trade, they had this particular misfortune,
that those cases always came before people that did
not understand them. . . i
Even the judges themselves were often found a
a loss to determine causes of negoce, such as pro-
tests, charter-parties, averages, baratry, demurrage
of ships, right of detaining vessels on demurrage, and
the like; nay, the very laws themselves are fain to
be silent, and yield in many things a superiority to
the custom of merchants.
And here I began to congratulate my native

country, where the prudence of the government has
provided for these things, by establishing in a com-
mission of trade some of the most experienced gen-
tlemen in the nation, to regulate, settle, improve,
and revive trade in general, by their unwearied
labours and most consummate understanding. And
this made me pity these countries, and think it
would be an action worthy of this nation, and be
spoken of for ages to come to their glory, if in mere
charity they would appoint or depute these gentle-
men to go a voyage to those countries of the moon,
THE CONSOLIDATOR. 363
and bless those regions with the schemes of their
sublime undertakings and discoveries in trade.
But when I was expressing myself thus, my
philosopher interrupted me, and told me I should
see they were already furnished for that purpose,
when I came to examine the public libraries; of
which by itself. - -
But I was further confirmed in my observation of
the weakness of the public heads of that country, as
to trade, when I saw another most preposterous law
going forward among them, the title of which was
specious, and contained something relating to em-
ploying the poor; but the substance of it absolutely
destructive to the very nature of their trade, tended
to transposing, confounding, and destroying their
manufactures, and to the ruin of all their home com-
merce; never was nation so blind to their own in-
terest as these Lunarian law-makers, and the people
who were the contrivers of this law were so vainly
conceited, so fond of the guilded title, and so posi-
tively dogmatic, that they would not hear the fre-
quent applications of persons better acquainted with
those things than themselves, but pushed it on merely
by the strength of their party, for the vanity of being
authors of such a contrivance. . . . .
But to return to the new model of the Crolians.
The advice of the Lunarian philosopher run now
through all their affairs; “Unite,’ was the word
through all the nation, in trade, in cash, in stocks,
as I noted before. . . . . .
If a Solunarian ship was bound to any out-port,
no Crolian would load any goods aboard; if any
ship came to seek freight abroad, none of the Cro-
lians’ correspondents would ship anything unless
they knew the owners were Crolians; the Crolian
merchants turned out all their Solunarian masters,
sailors, and captains, from their ships; and thus, as
364 THE CONSOLIDATOR.
the Solunarians would have them be separated in
respect of the government, profits, honours, and
offices, they resolved to separate in everything else
too, and to stand by themselves.
At last, upon some public occasion, the public
treasurers of the land sent to the capital city to
borrow 500,000 lunatians upon very good security
of established funds; truly nobody would lend any
money, or at least they could not raise above a
fifth part of that sum, inquiring at the bank, at
their general society’s cash, and other places; all
was languid and dull, and no money to be had ; but
being informed that the Crolians had erected a
bank of their own, they sent thither, and were an-
swered readily, that whatever sum the government
wanted, was at their service, only it was to be lent
not by particular persons, but such a grandee, being
one of the prime nobility, and who the Crolians now
called their protector, was to be treated with about
it.
The government saw no harm in all this, here
was no law broken, here was nothing but oppression
answered with policy, and mischief fenced against
with reason.
The government therefore took no notice of it, nor
made any scruple, when they wanted any money,
to treat with this nobleman, and borrow any sum of
the Crolians, as Crolians; on the contrary, in the
name of the Crolians, their head or protector
presented their addresses and petitions, procured
favours on one hand, and assistance on the other;
and thus by degrees, and insensibly, the Crolians be-
came a politic body, settled and established by orders
and rules among themselves; and while a spirit
of unanimity thus run through all their proceedings,
their enemies could never hurt them, their princes
always saw it was their interest to keep measures
*
THE CONSOLIDATOR. 365
with them, and they were sure to have justice upon
any complaint whatsoever.
When I saw this, it forced me to reflect upon af-
fairs in our own country; Well, said I, it is happy
for England that our dissenters have not this spirit
of union, and largeness of heart among them ; for if
they were not a narrow, mean-spirited, short-sighted,
self-preserving, friend-betraying, poor-neglecting
people, they might have been every way as safe, as
considerable, as regarded, and as numerous, as the
Crolians in the moon; but it is not in their souls to
do themselves good, nor to espouse, or stand by
those that would do it for them ; and it is well for
the churchmen that it is so, for many attempts have
been made to save them, but their own narrowness
of soul and dividedness in interest has always pre-
vented its being effectual, and discouraged all the
instruments that ever attempted to serve them.
It is confessed, the case was thus at first among
the Crolians; they were full of divisions among them-
selves, as I have noted already of the Solunarians,
and the unhappy feuds among them had always not
only exposed them to the censure, reproach, and
banter of their Solunarian enemies, but it had served
to keep them under, prevent their being valued in
the government, and given the other party vast ad-
vantages against.
But the Solunarians, driving thus furiously at
their destruction and entire ruin, opened their eyes
to the following measures for their preservation :
and here again the high Solunarians may see, and
doubtless whenever they made use of the lunar
glasses they must see it, that nothing could have
driven the Crolians to make use of such methods
for their defence, but the rash proceedings of their
own warm men, in order to suppressing the whole
Crolian interest. And this might inform our
366 THE CONSOLIDATOR.
countrymen of the Church of England, that it cannot
but be their interest to treat their brethren with
moderation and temper, lest their extravagances
should one time or other drive the other, as it were
by force, into their senses, and open their eyes to do
only all those things which by law they may do,
and which they are laughed at by all the world for
not doing. - .
This was the very case in the moon : the philo-
sopher, or pretended such, as before, had often pub-
lished, that it was their interest to unite ; but their
eyes not being open to the true causes and neces-
sity of it, their ears were shut against the counsel, till
oppression and necessities drove them to it.
Accordingly, they entered into a serious debate
of the state of their own affairs, and finding the ad-
vice given very reasonable, they set about it, and
the author gave them a model, entitled, An inquiry
into what the Crolians may lawfully do, to prevent
the certain ruin of their interest, and bring their
enemies to peace. !
... I will not pretend to examine the contents of this
sublime tract; but from this very day, we found
the Crolians in the moon acting quite on a different
foot from all their former conduct, putting on a new
temper, and a new face, as you have heard.
All this while the hot Solunarians cried out,
‘plots, associations, confederacies, and rebellions,’
when indeed here was nothing done but what the
laws justified, what reason directed, and what, had
the Crolians but made use of the Cogitator, they
would have done forty years before.
The truth is, the other people had no remedy,
but to cry murder, and make a noise; for the Cro-
lians went on with their affairs, and established
themselves so, that when I came away, they were
become a most solid and well united body, made a
THE CONSOLIDATOR. 367
considerable figure in the nation, and yet the go-
vernment was easy ; for the Solunarians found,
when they had attained the utmost end of their
wishes, her Solunarian majesty was as safe as before;
and the Crolians’ property being secured, they were
as loyal subjects as the Solunarians, as consistent
with monarchy, as useful to it, and as pleased with
it.
I cannot but remark here, that this union of the
Crolians among themselves had another conse-
quence, which made it appear it was not only to
their own advantage, but to the general good of all
the nation.
For, by little and little, the feuds of the parties
cooled, and the Solunarians began to be better re-
conciled to them ; the government was easy and
safe, and the private quarrels, as I have been told
since, begin to be quite forgot. -
What blindness, said I to myself, has possesse
the dissenters in our unhappy country of England,
where by eternal discords, feuds, distrusts, and dis-
gusts among themselves, they always fill their ene-
mies with hopes, that by pushing at them, they may
one time or other complete their ruin ; which ex-
pectation has always served as a means to keep
open the quarrel; whereas had the dissenters been
united in interest, affection, and management among
themselves, all this heat had long ago been over,
and the nation, though there had been two opinions,
had retained but one interest, been joined in affec-
tion and peace at home, been raised up to that degree
that all wise men wish, as it is now among the in-
habitants of the world in the moon.
It is true, in all the observations I made in this
lunar country, the vast difference paid to the per-
sons of princes began to lessen; and whatever re-
spect they had for the office, they found it necessary
368 THE CONSOLIDATOR.
frequently to tell the world that on occasion, they
could treat them with less respect than they pre-
tended to owe them.
For, about this time, the divine right of kings
and the inheritances of princes in the moon, met
with a terrible shock, and that by the Solunarian
party themselves ; and insomuch that even my
philosopher, and he was none of the jure divino
men neither, declared against it.
They made crowns perfect footballs, set up what
kings they would, and pulled down such as they did
not like, ratione voluntas, right or wrong, as they
thought best, of which some examples shall be given
by and by.
After I had thus inquired into the historical af-
fairs of this lunar nation, which for its similitude
to my native country I could not but be inquisitive
in, I waived a great many material things, which
at least I cannot enter upon the relation of here,
and began to inquire into their affairs abroad.
I think I took notice, in the beginning of my ac-
count of these parts, that I found them engaged in
a tedious and bloody war with one of the most
mighty monarchs of all the moon.
I must therefore hint, that among the multitude
of things which for brevity sake I omit, the reader
may observe these were some :
1. That this was the same monarch who har-
boured and entertained the Abrogratzian prince,
who was fled as before, and who we are to call the
king of Gallunaria.
2. I have omitted the account of a long and
bloody war, which lasted a great many years, and
which the present queen's predecessor managed
with a great deal of bravery and conduct, and
finished very much to his own glory and the na-.
tion's advantage.
THE CONSOLIDATOR. ' 369
3. I have too much omitted to note, how bar-
barously the high Solunarian churchmen treated
him for all his services, upbraided him with the ex-
pense of the war, and though he saved them all
from ruin and Abrogratzianism, yet had not one
good word for him; and indeed it is with some dif-
ficulty that I pass this over, because it might be
necessary to observe, besides what is said before,
that ingratitude is a vice in nature, and practised
everywhere as well as in England; so that we
need not upbraid the party among us with their ill
treatment of the late king, for these people used
their good king every jot as bad, till their unkind-
mess perfectly broke his heart.
Here also I am obliged to omit the historical part
of the war, and of the peace that followed ; only I
must observe that this peace was very precarious,
short, and unhappy; and in a few months the war
broke out again with as much fury as ever.
In this war happened one of the strangest, unac-
countable, and most preposterous actions that ever
a people in their national capacity could be guilty
of.
Certainly if our people in England, who pretend
that kingship is jure divino, did but know the story
of which I speak, they would be quite of another
mind; wherefore I crave leave to relate part of the
history, or original of this last war, as a necessary
introduction to the proper observations I shall make
upon it. -
There was a king of a certain country in the
moon, called in their language, Ebronia, who was
formerly a confederate with the Solunarians. This
prince dying without issue, the great monarch we
speak of, seized upon all his dominions as his right:
though, if I remember right, he had formerly sworn
never to lay claim to it; and after that, by a subse-
CONSOLIDATOR. B b
370 THE CONSOLIDATOR. '
quent treaty, had agreed with the Solunarian prince
that another monarch, who claimed a right as well
as he, should divide it between them.
The breach of this agreement, and seizing this
kingdom, put almost all the lunar world into a
flame, and war hung over the heads of all the north-
ern nations of the moon, for several claims were made
to the succession by other princes, and particularly
by a certain potent prince called the Eagle, of an
ancient family, whose lunar name I cannot well ex-
press, but in English, it signifies, the men of the
great lip ; whether it was originally a sort of a nick-
name, or whether they had any such thing as a
great lip hereditary to the family, by which they
were distinguished, is not worth my while to ex-
amine. -
It is without question that the successive right,
if their lunar successions are governed as ours are
in this world, devolved upon this man with the lip,
and his families ; but the Gallunarian monarch
brought things so to pass, by his extraordinary con-
duct, that the Ebronian king was drawn in by some
of his nobility, who this prince had bought and
bribed to betray their country to his interest, and
particularly a certain high priest of that country, to
make an assignment, or deed of gift, of all his domi-
nions, to the grandson of this Gallunarian monarch.
By virtue of this gift, or legacy, as soon as the
king died, who was then languishing, and, as the
other party alleged, not in a very good capacity to
make a will, the Gallunarian king sent his grand-
son to seize upon the crown; and, backing him with
suitable forces, took possession of all his strong for-
tifications and frontiers. -
Nor was this all: the man with the lip, indeed,
talked big, and threatened war immediately, but
the Solunarians were so unsettled at home, so un-
THE CONSOLIDATOR. 371.
prepared for war, having but just dismissed their
auxiliar troops, and disbanded their own, and the
prince was so ill served by his subjects, that both
he and a powerful neighbour, nations in the same
interest, were merely bullied by this Gallunarian ;
and as he threatened immediately to invade them,
which they were then in no condition to prevent,
he forced them both to submit to his demand,
tacitly allow what he had done in breaking the
treaty with him, and at last openly acknowledge his
new king.
This was indeed a most unaccountable step, but
there was a necessity to plead, for he was at their
very doors with his forces; and this neighbouring
people, who they call Mogenites, could not resist
him without help from the Solunarians, which they
were very backward in, notwithstanding the earnest
solicitations of their prince, and notwithstanding
they were obliged to do it by a solemn treaty.
These delays obliged them to this strange step of
acknowledging the invasion of their enemy, and
pulling off the hat to the new king he had set up.
It is true, the policy of these lunar nations was
very remarkable in this case, and they outwitted
the Gallunarian monarch in it ; for by the owning
this prince, whom they immediately after declared
an usurper, and made war against, they stopped the
mouth of the Gallunarian his grandfather, took from
him all pretence of invading them, and, making him
believe they were sincere, wheedled him to restore
several thousands of their men, whom he had taken
prisoners in the frontier towns of the Ebronians.
Had the Gallunarian prince had but the forecast
to have seen that this was but a forced pretence to
gain time, and that as soon as they had their troops
clear, and time to raise more, they would certainly
turn upon him again, he would never have been put
- B b 2
372. THE CONSOLIDATOR."
by with so weak a trifle as the ceremony of congra-
tulation; whereas, had he immediately pushed at
them with all his forces, they must have been
ruined, and he had carried his point without much
interruption. -
But here he lost his opportunity, which he never
retrieved; for it is in the moon, just as it is here,
when an occasion is lost, it is not easy to be re-
covered, for both the Solunarians and the Mogenites
quickly threw off the mask, and declaring this new
prince an usurper, and his grandfather an unjust
breaker of treaties, they prepared for war against
them both. . , -
As to the honesty of this matter, my philosopher
and I differed extremely, he exclaimed against the
honour of acknowledging a king, with a design to
depose him, and pretending peace when war is de-
signed; though, it is true, they are too customary in
our world; but however, as to him, I insisted upon
the lawfulness of it, from the universal custom of
nations, who generally do things ten times more
preposterous and inconsistent, when they suit their
occasions. Yet I hope nobody will think I am re-
commending them by this relation to the practice of
our own nations, but rather exposing them as un-
accountable things never to be put in practice
without quitting all pretences to justice and national
honesty.
The case was this:
As upon the progress of matters before related,
the Solunarians and Mogenites had made a formal
acknowledgment of this new monarch, the grand-
son of the Gallunarian king, so, as I have hinted
already, they had no other design than to depose
him and pull him down.
Accordingly, as soon as by the aforesaid while
they had gained breath, and furnished themselves
THE CONSOLIDATOR. 373
with forces, they declared war against both the Gal-
lunarian king and his grandson, and entered into
strict confederacy with the man of the great lip,
who was the monarch of the eagle, and who by
right of succession had the true claim to the Ebro-
nian crowns.
In these declarations, they allege that crowns do
not descend by gift, nor are kingdoms given away
by legacy, like a gold ring at a funeral, and there-
fore this young prince could have no right; the
former deceased king having no right to dispose it
by gift. r
I must allow, that judging by our reason, and
the practice in our countries here, on this side the
moon, this seemed plain, and I saw no difference
in matters of truth there or here, but right and
liberty both of princes and people seems to be the
same in that world as it is in this, and upon this .
account I thought the reasons of this war very just,
and that the claim of right to the succession of the
Ebronian crown, was undoubtedly in the man with
the lip, and his heirs; and so far the war was most
just, and the design reasonable. w
And thus far my lunar companion agreed with me.
And had they gone on so, says he, they had my good
wishes, and my judgment had been witness to my
pretences, that they were in the right. .
But in the prosecution of this war, says he, they
went on to one of the most impolitic, ridiculous,
dishonest, and inconsistent actions that ever any
nation in the moon was guilty of; the fact was thus:
Having agreed among themselves that the Ebro-
nian crown should not be possessed by the Gallunarian
king's grandson, they in the next place began to
consider who should have it.
The man with the lip had the title, but he had a
great government of his own, powerful, happy, and
374 THE CONSOLIDATOR;
remote, being, as is noted, the lord of the great Eagle,
and he told them he could not pretend to come to
Ebronia to be a king there; his eldest son truly was
not only declared heir apparent to his father, but
had another Lunarian kingdom of his own, still
more remote than that, and he would not quit all this
for the crown of Ebronia, so it was concerted by all
the confederated parties, that the second son of this
prince, the man with the lip, should be declared
king, and here lay the injustice of all the case.
I confess, at my first examining this matter, I did
not see far into it, nor could I reach the dishonesty
of it, and perhaps the reader of these sheets may be
in the same case; but my old Lunarian friend being
continually exclaiming against the matter, and
blaming his countrymen the Solunarians for the dis-
honesty of it, but especially the Mogenites, he began
to be something peevish with me that I should be
so dull as not to reach it, and asked me, if he
should screwmeinto the thinking-press, for the clear-
ing up my understanding.
At last he told me he would write his particular
sentiments of this whole affair in a letter to me,
which he would so order as it should effectually
open mine eyes; which indeed it did, and so I believe
it will the eyes of all that read it: to which pur-
pose I have obtained of the author to assist me in
the translation of it, he having some knowledge also
in our sublunar languages.
The substance of a letter wrote to the author of
these sheets while he was in the regions of the
772.00%.
FRIEND FROM THE Moon,
- According to my promise, I hereby give you a
scheme of Solunarian honesty, joined with Mogenite
THE CONSOLIDATOR. 375
policy, and my opinion of the action of my country-
men and their confederates, in declaring their new-
made Ebronian king.
The Mogenites and Solunarians are looked upon
here to be the original contrivers of this ridiculous
piece of pageantry, and though some of their neigh-
bours are supposed to have a hand in it; yet we all
lay it at the door of their politics, and for the ho-
nesty of it let them answer it if they can.
It is observed here, that as soon as the king of
Gallunaria had declared that he accepted the will
and disposition of the crown of Ebronia, in favour
of his grandson, and that according to the said dis-
position he had owned him for king, and in order
to make it effectual had put him into immediate
possession of the kingdom, the Mogenites and their
confederates made wonderful clamours at the injus-
tice of his proceedings, and particularly on account
of his breaking the treaty then lately entered into
with the king of the Solunarians, and the Mogenites,
for the settling the matter of right and possession,
in case of the demise of the Ebronian king.
|However, the king of Gallunaria had no sooner
placed his grandson on the throne, but the Moge-
nites and other nations, and to all our wonder, the
king of Solunaria himself acknowledged him, owned
him, sent their ministers, and compliments of con-
gratulation, and the like, giving him the title of
king of Ebronia. .
Though this proceeding had something of sur-
prise in it, and all men expected to see something
more than ordinary politic in the effect of it, yet it
did not give half the astonishment to the lunar
world, as this unaccountable monster of politics
begins to do.
... We have here two unlucky fellows, called
Pasquin and Marforio; these had a long dialogue
376 THE CONSOLIDATOR.
about this very matter, and Pasquin, as he always
loved mischief, told a very unlucky story to his
comrade, of a high Mogenite skipper, as follows:
A Mogenite ship coming from a far country, the
custom-house officers found some goods on board
which were contraband, and for which they pre-
tended the ship and goods were all confiscated. The
skipper, or captain, in a great fright, comes up to the
custom-house, and being told he must swear to
'something relating to his taking in those goods,
replied in his country jargon, Ya, dat sall ick doen
myn heer; or in English, Ay, ay, I’ll swear. But
finding they did not assure him that it would clear
his ship, he scruples the oath again, at which they told
him, it would clear his ship immediately. Hael, well
myn heer, says the Mogen man, vat motick Sagen,
ick sall all swear myn skip to salvare, i. e. I shall
swear anything to save my skip. -
We apply this story thus: .
If the Mogenites did acknowledge the king of
Ebronia, we did believe it was done to save the
skip ; and when they reproached the Gallunarian
king with breaking the treaty of division, we used
to say we should all break through twice as many
engagements for half as much advantage. . .
This setting up a new king against a king on
the throne, acknowledged and congratulated by
them, is not only looked on in the lunar world as
a thing ridiculous, but particularly infamous, that
they should first acknowledge a king, and then set
up the title of another. If the title of the first
Ebronian king be good, this must be an impostor
and usurper of another man's right; if it was not
good, why did they acknowledge him, and give him
the full title of all the Ebronian dominions 2 caress
and congratulate him, and make a public action of
it to his ambassador.
THE CONSOLIDATOR. 377
Will they tell us they were bullied and frighted
into it 2 that is to own they may be huffed into an
ill action; for owning a man in the possession of
what is none of his own, is an ill thing, and he that
may be huffed into one ill action, may by con-
sequence be huffed into another, and so into any-
thing.
What will they say for doing it 2 we have heard
there has been in the world you came from, a way
found out to own kings de facto, but not de jure;
if they will fly to that ridiculous shift, let them tell
the world so, that we may know what they mean,
for those foolish things are not known here.
If they owned the king of Ebronia voluntarily,
and acknowledged his right, as we thought they
had, how then can this young gentleman have a
title, unless they have found out a new division, and
so will have two kings of Ebronia, make them part-
ners, and have a Gallunarian king of Ebronia, and a
Mogenite king of Ebronia, both together ?
Our lunar nations, princes, and states, whatever
they may do in your world, always seek for some
pretences, at least, to make their actions seem honest,
whether they are so or no; and, therefore, they
generally publish memorials, manifestoes, and decla-
rations of their reasons why, and on what account
they do so, or so ; that those who have any grounds
to charge them with injustice, may be answered
and silenced ; it is for the people in your country
to fall upon their neighbours, because they will do
it, and make probability of conquest a sufficient
reason of conquest; the Lunarian nations are sel-
dom so destitute of modesty but that they will
make a show of justice, and make out the reasons
of their proceedings; and though sometimes we
find even the reasons given for some actions are
weak enough, yet it is a bad cause, indeed, that
378 THE CONSOLIDATOR.
can neither have a true reason, nor a pretended
one. The custom of the moon has obliged us to
show so much respect to honesty, that when our
actions have the least colour of honesty, yet we will
make reasons to look like a defence, whether it be
SO OI. In O.
But here is an action that has neither reality nor
pretence; here is not face enough upon it to bear
an apology. First, they acknowledge one king, and
then set up another king against him ; either they
first acknowledged a wrong king, and thereby be-
came parties to an usurper; or they act now against
all the rules of common justice in the world, to set
up a sham king, to pull down a true one, only be:
cause it is their interest to have it so.
This makes the very name of a Solunarian scan-
dalous to all the moon; and mankind look upon
them with the utmost prejudice, as if they were a
nation who had sold all their honesty to their
interest; and who could act this way to-day, and
that way to-morrow, without any regard to truth,
or the rule of honour, equity, or conscience; this is
swearing anything to save the skip ; and never let
anyman reproach the Gallunarian king with breaking
the treaty of divisions, and disregarding the faith
and stipulations of leagues; for this is an action so
inconsistent with itself, so incongruous to common
justice, to the reason and nature of things, that no
history of any of these latter times can parallel it ;
and it is past the power of art to make any reason-
able defence for it. --
Indeed, some lame reasons are given for it by our
politicians. First, they say, the prince with the
great lip was extremely pressed by the Gallunarians
at home in his own country, and not without appre-
hensions of seeing them ere long under the walls
of his capital city. ' ' ". . . . . . . . . . . . ;
THE CONSOLIDATOR. 379
From this circumstance of the man with the lip,
it was not irrational to expect that he might be in-
duced to make a separate peace with the Gallunari-
ans, and serve them as he did once the prince of Ber-
lindia, at the treaty of peace in a former war, where
he deserted him after the solemnest engagements
never to make peace without him ; but his pressing
occasions requiring it, concluded a peace without
him, and left him to come out of the war as well as
he could, though he had come into it only for his
assistance. Now finding him in danger of being
ruined by the Gallunarian power, and judging from
former practice in like cases that he might be
hurried into a peace, and leave them in the lurch,
they have drawn him into this labyrinth, as into a
step which can never be receded from without the
utmost affront and disgrace, either to the family of
the Gallunarian, or of the lip ; an action which in
its own nature is a defiance of the whole Gallu-
narian power and, without any other manifesto, may
be taken as a declaration from the house of the lip
to the Gallunarian, that this war shall never end
till one of those two families are ruined and re-
duced.
What condition the prince with the lip's power is
in, to make such a huff at this time, shall come
under examination by and by ; in the mean time
the Solunarians have clenched the nail, and secured
the war to last as long as they think convenient.
If the Gallunarians should get the better, and
reduce the man with the lip to terms never so dis-
advantageous, he cannot now make a peace without
leave from the Solunarians and the Mogenites, lest
his son should be ruined also ; or if he should
make articles for himself, it must be with ten times
the dishonour that he might have done before.
Politicians say, it is never good for a prince to
380 THE CONSOLIDATOR.
put himself into a case of desperation. This is
drawing the sword, and throwing away the scab-
bard ; if a disaster should befall him, his retreat is
impossible, and this must have been done only to
secure the man with the lip from being huffed, or
frighted, into a separate peace.
The second reason people here give, why the
Solunarians are concerning themselves in this mat-
ter, is drawn from trade.
The continuing of Ebronia in the hands of the
Gallunarians will most certainly be the destruction
of the Solunarian and Mogenites’ trade, both to that
kingdom and the whole seas on that side of the
moon ; as this article includes a fifth part of all the
trade of the moon, and would, in conjunction with
the Gallunarians, at last bring the mastership of the
'sea out of the hands of the other, so it would in effect
be more detriment to those two nations, than ten
kingdoms lost, if they had them to part with. -
This the Solunarians foreseeing, and being ex-
tremely sensible of the entire ruin of their trade,
have left no stone unturned to bring this piece of
pageantry on the stage, by which they have hooked
in the old black Eagle to plunge himself over head
and ears in the quarrel, in such a manner as he can
never go back with any tolerable honour; he can
never quit his son and the crown of Ebronia, with-
out the greatest reproach and disgrace of all the
world in the moon. -
Now, whether one, or both of these reasons are
true in this case, as most believe both of them to be
true the policy of my countrymen, the Solunarians,
is visible indeed; but, as for their honesty, it is past
finding out. - -
But it is objected here, this son of the lip has an
undoubted right to the crown of Ebronia. We do
not fight now to set up an usurper, but to pull down
THE CONSOLIDATOR, 381.
an usurper; and it has been made plain by the mani-
festo, that the giving a kingdom by will, is no con-
veyance of right; the prince of the Eagle has an
undoubted right, and they fight to maintain it.
If this be true, then we must ask these high and
mighty gentlemen how came they to recognise and
acknowledge the present king on the throne; why
did they own an usurper, if he be such either one
or other must be an act of cowardice and injustice,
and all the politics of the moon cannot clear them of
one of these two charges; either they were cowardly
knaves before, or else they must be cunning knaves
In OW. - -
If the young Eagle has an undoubted title now,
so he had before, and they knew it as well before
as they do now; what can they say for themselves,
why they should own a king who they knew had no
title, or what can they say for going to pull down
one that has a title 2
I must be allowed to distinguish between fighting
with a nation, and fighting with the king. For
example: our quarrel with the Gallunarians is
with the whole nation, as they are grown too strong
for their neighbours. But our quarrel with Ebronia
is not with the nation, but with their king; and this
quarrel seems to be unjust in this particular, at
least in them who owned him to be king, for that
put an end to the controversy.
It is true, the justice of public actions, either in
princes, or in states, is no such nice thing, that any-
body should be surprised to see the government
forfeit their faith; and it seems the Solunarians are
no more careful this way than their neighbours.
But then those people should in especial manner
forbear to reproach other nations and princes with
the breaches which they themselves are subject
to 0, .
382 THE CONSOLIDATOR,
As to the Eagle, we have nothing to say to the
honesty of his declaring his son king of Ebronia, for,
as is hinted before, he never acknowledged the title
of the usurper, but always declared and insisted on
his own undoubted right, and that he would recover
it if he could. -
Without doubt the Eagle has a title by proximity
of blood, founded on the renunciation of the king of
Gallunaria, formerly mentioned; and if the will of
the late king be invalid, or he had no right to give
the sovereignty of his kingdoms away, then the Eagle
is next heir. . •
But, as we quit his morals, and justify the honesty
of his proceedings in the war against the present
king of Ebronia, so, in this action of declaring his
second son, we must begin to question his under-
standing; and, saving a respect of decency, it looks
as if his musical head was out of tune, to illus tra-
tellus. I crave leave to tell you a story out of your
own country, which we have heard of hither. A
Frenchman, that could speak but broken English,
was at the court of England, when on some occasion
he happened to hear the title of the king of England
read thus, Charles the Second, king of England, Scot-
land, France, and Ireland. Wat is dat you say?
says monsieur, being a little affronted. The man
reads it again; as before. Charles the Second, king
of England, Scotland, France, and Ireland. Charles
the Second, king of France! Ma Foy, says the
Frenchman, you can no read; Charles the Second,
king of France; hall haſ haſ Charles the Second,
king of France when he can catch. Any one may
apply the story, whether it was a true one or no.
All the lunar world looks on it, therefore, as a
most ridiculous, senseless thing, to make a man a
king of a country he has not one foot of land in, nor
can have a foot there but what he must fight for.
THE CONSOLIDATOR. 383
As to the probability of gaining it, I have nothing
to say to it; but if we may guess at his success there
by what has been done in other parts of the moon,
we find he has fought three campaigns to lose every
foot he had got. -
It had been much more to the honour of the
Eagle's conduct, and of the young hero himself,
first to have let him have faced his enemy in the
field, and as soon as he had beaten him, the Ebro-
nians would have acknowledged him fast enough ;
or his own victorious troops might have proclaimed
him at the gate of their capital city; and if after all
the success of the war had denied him the crown he
had fought for, he had the honour to have shown
his bravery, and he had been where he was, a prince
of the great lip. A son of the Eagle is a title much
more honourable than a king without a crown, with-
out subjects, without a kingdom, and another man
upon his throne; but by this declaring him king,
the old Eagle has put him under a necessity of
gaining the kingdom of Ebronia, which at best is a
great hazard, or, if he fails, to be miserably despicable,
and to bear all his life the constant chagrin of a
great title, and no possession. 3.
How ridiculous will this poor young gentleman
look, if at last he should be forced to come home
again without his kingdom what a king of clouts
will he pass for! and what will this king-making old
gentleman, his father, say, when the young hero
shall tell him, your majesty has made me a mock
king, for all the world to laugh at.
It was certainly the weakest thing that could be,
for the Eagle thus to make him a king of that, which
were the probability greater than it is, he may easily,
without the help of a miracle, be disappointed of.
It is true, the confederates talk big, and have
lately had a great victory, and if talk will beat the
384 THE CONSOLIDATOR,
king of Ebronia out of his kingdom, he is certainly
undone, but we do not find the Gallunarians part
with anything they can keep, nor that they quit any-
thing without blows; it must cost a great deal of
blood and treasure before this war can be ended;
if absolute conquest on one side must be the matter,
and if the design on Ehronia should miscarry, as
one voyage thither has done already, where are we
then P Let any man but look back, and consider what
a sorry figure your confederate fleet in your world
had made, after their Andalusian expedition, if they
had not, more by fate than conduct, chopped upon a
booty at Vigo as they came back.
In the like condition will this new king come
back, if he should go for a kingdom and should not
catch, as the Frenchman called it. It is in the
sense of the probability of this miscarriage, that
most men wonder at these unaccountable measures,
and think the Eagle's councils look a little wildish,
as if some of his great men were grown delirious and
whimsical, that fancied crowns and kingdoms were
to come and go, just as the great divan at their
court should direct. This confusion of circumstances
has occasioned a certain copy of verses to appear
about the moon, which in our characters may be
read as follows:
Wondelis Idulasin na Peria:ola Metartos,
Strigunia Crolias Xerin Hytale fºlos;
Farnicos Galvare Orpto sonamet Egonsberch,
Sih lona Sipos Gullia Ropta Tylos.
Which may be Englished thus:
Caesar you trifle with the world in vain, ,
Think rather now of Germany than Spain;
He's hardly fit to fill the Eagle's throne,
Who gives new crowns, and can’t protect his own.
THE CONSOLIDATOR. 385
But after all, to come closer to the point, if I can
now make it out that whatever it was before, this
very practice of declaring a second son to be king
of Ebronia, has publicly owned the proceedings of
the king of Gallunaria to be just, and the title of
his grandson to be much better than the title of the
now declared king, what shall we call it then P
In order to this, it is first necessary to examine
the title of the present king, and to enter into the
history of his coming to the crown, in which I shall
be very brief.
The last king of Ebronia dying without issue,
and a former renunciation taking place, the succes-
sion devolves on the house of the Eagle as before,
of whom the present Eagle is the eldest branch.
But the late king of Ebronia, to prevent the suc-
cession of the Eagle's line, makes a will, and sup-
plies the proviso of renunciation by devising, giving,
or bequeathing the crown to the grandson of his
sister. -
The king of Gallunaria insists that this is a lawful
title to the crown, and seizes it accordingly, instating
his grandson in the possession.
The Eagle alleges the renunciation to confirm
his title as heir ; and as to the will of the late king,
he says, Crowns cannot descend by gift, and though
the late king had an undoubted right to enjoy it
himself, he had none to give it away.
To make the application of this history as short
as may be, I demand then what right has the Eagle
to give it to his second son 2 If crowns are not to
descend by gift, he may have a right to enjoy it,
but can have none to give it away; but if he has a
right to give it away, so had the former king, and
then the present king has a better title to it than
the new one, because his gift was prior to this of
the Eagle. * * - -
CONSOLIDATOR, C C
386 THE CONSOLIDATOR.
I would be glad to see this answered ; and if it
cannot, then I query whether the Eagle's senses
ought not to be questioned, for setting up a title on
the very foundation for which he quarrels at him
that is in possession, and so confirms the honesty of
the possessor's title by his own practice.
From the whole, I make no scruple to say that
either the Eagle's second son has no title to the
kingdom of Ebronia, or else giving of crowns is a
legal practice; and if crowns may descend by gift,
then has the other king a better title than he, be-
cause it was given him first, and the Eagle has only
given away what he had no right to, because it was
given away before he had any title to it himself.
Further, the posterity of the Eagle's eldest son
are manifestly injured in this action, for kings can
no more give away their crowns from their pos-
terity, than from themselves; if the right be in the
Eagle, it is his, as he is the eldest male branch of
the house of the great lip, not as he is Eagle; and
from him the crown of Ebronia, by the same right
of devolution, descends to his posterity, and rests on
the male line of every eldest branch. If so, no act
of renunciation can alter this succession, for that is
a gift, and the gift is exploded, or else the whole
house of the great lip is excluded; so that let the
argument be turned and twisted never so many
ways, it all centres in this, that the present person
can have no title to the crown of Ebronia.
If he has any title, it is from the gift of his father
and elder brother; if the gift of a crown is no
good title, then his title cannot be good; if the
gift of a crown is a good title, then the crown was
given away before, and so neither he nor his father
has any title.
Let him that can answer these paradoxes defend
his title if he can ; and what shall we now say to the

THE CONSOLIDATOR. 387
war in Ebronia? only this, that they are going to
fight for the crown of Ebronia, and to take it away
from one that has no right to it, to give it to one
that has a less right than he , and it is to be feared,
that if heaven be righteous, it will succeed accord-
ingly.
The gentlemen of letters who have wrote of this
in our lunar world, on the subject of the Galluna-
rian title, have took a great deal of liberty in the
Eagle's behalf, to banter and ridicule the Galluna-
rian sham of a title, as if it were a pretence too
weak for any prince to make use of, to talk of kings
giving their crowns by will.
Kingdoms and governments, says a learned lunar
author, are not things of such indifferent value, to
be given away, like a token left for a legacy. If
any prince has ever given or transferred his govern-
ment, it has been done by solemn act, and the peo-
ple have been called to assent. and confirm such con-
cessions. -
Then the same author goes on, to treat the king
of Gallunaria with a great deal of severity, and ex-
poses his politics, that he should think to put upon
the moon with so empty, so weak, so ridiculous a
pretence, as the will of a weak-headed prince, who
neither had a right to give his crown, nor a brain
to know what he was doing; and he laughs to think
what the king of Gallunaria would have said to have
such a dull trick as that put upon him in any such
CaSe.
Now when we have been so witty upon this very
article, of giving away the crown to the king of
Gallunaria's grandson, as an incongruous and ridi-
culous thing, shall we come to make the same in-
congruity be the foundation of a war P
With what justice can we make a war for a prince
C c 2
388 THE CONSOLIDATOR,
who has only a good title by virtue of the self-same
action which makes the grandson of his enemy have
a bad title. - -
I always thought we had a just ground to make
war on Ebronia, as we were bound by former alli-
ances to assist the Eagle in the recovery of it in
case of the death of the late king of that country.
But now the Eagle has refused the succession,
and his eldest son has refused it, I would be glad to
see it proved how the second son can have a title,
and yet the other king have no title.
What a strange sort of a thing is the crown of
Ebronia, that two of the greatest princes of the
lunar world should fight, not who shall have it, for
neither of them will accept of it, but who shall have
the power of giving it away. --
Here are four princes refuse it; the king of Gal-
lunaria's sons had a title in right of their mother,
and it was not the former renunciations that would
have barred them, if this softer way had not been
found out ; for time was, it has been pleaded on be-
half of the eldest son of the Gallunarian king, that
his mother could not give away his right before he
was born. -
Then the Eagle has a right, and under him his
eldest son ; and none of all these four will accept of
the crown; I believe all the moon cannot find four
more that would refuse it. + -
Now though none of these think it worth accept-
ing themselves, yet they fall out about the right of
giving it away. The king of Gallunaria will not
accept of it himself, but he gets a gift from the last
incumbent. This, says the Eagle, cannot be a good
title, for the late king had no right to make a deed
of gift of the crown, since a king is only tenant for
life, and succession of crowns either must descend
THE CONSOLIDATOR. ' 389.
by a lineal progression in the right of primogeniture,
or else they lose the tenure, and devolve on the
people. - i
Now as this argument holds good, the Eagle has
an undoubted title to the crown of Ebronia: But
then, says his Eaglish majesty, I cannot accept of
the crown myself, for I am the Eagle, and my eldest
son has two kingdoms already, and is in a fair way.
to be Eagle after me, and it is not worth while for
him, but I have a second son, and we will give it him.
Now may the king of Gallunaria say, If one gift
is good, another is good, and ours is the first gift,
and therefore we will keep it; and though I so-
lemnly declare I should be very sorry to see the
crown of Ebronia rest in the house of the Galluna-
rian, because our trade will suffer exceedingly ; yet
if never so much damage were to come of it, we
ought to do justice in the world; if neither the
Eagle nor his eldest son will be king of Ebronia,
but a deed of gift shall be made, the first gift has
the right, for nothing can be given away to two
people at once, and it is apparent that the late king
had as much right to give it away as anybody.
The poor Ebronians are in a fine condition all
this while, that nobody concerns them in the
matter ; neither party has so much as thought it
worth while to ask them who they would have to
reign over them; here has been no assembly, no
cortes, no meeting of the people of Ebronia, neither
collectively or representatively, no general conven-
tion of the nobility, no house of feathers; but Ebro-
nia lies as the spoil of the victor, wholly passive; and
her people and princes, as if they were wholly un-
concerned, lie by and look on; whoever is like to be
king, they are like to suffer deeply by the strife,
and yet neither side has thought fit to consult them
about it. . . . . .
390 THE CONSOLIDATOR,
. The conclusion of the whole matter is in short
this; here is certainly a false step taken, how it shall
be rectified is not the present business, nor am I
wise enough to prescribe. One man may do in a
moment what all the lunar world cannot undo in
an age. It is not to be thought the Eagle will be
prevailed on to undo it, nay, he has sworn not to
alter it. • ' -
I am not concerned to prove the title of the pre-
sent king of Ebronia, no, nor of the Eagle's neither;
but I think I can never be answered in this, that
this gift of the Eagle's to his second son is prepos-
terous, inconsistent with all his claim to the crown,
and the greatest confirmation of the title of his
enemy that it was possible to give, and no doubt
the Gallunarians will lay hold of the argument.
If this prince was the Eagle's eldest son, he
might have a just right from the concession of his
father, because the right being inherent, he only
received from him an investiture of time ; but as
this young gentleman is a second son, he has no more
right, his elder brother being alive, than your grand
seignior, or czar of Muscovy, in your world.
Let them fight then for such a cause, who, valuing
only the pay, make war a trade, and fight for any-
thing they are bid to fight for; and as such value
not the justice of the war, nor trouble their heads
about causes and consequences so they have their
pay, it is well enough for them.
But were the justice of the war examined, I can
see none; this declaring a new king who has no
right but by a gift, and pulling down one that had it
by a gift before, has so much contradiction in it, that
I am afraid no wise man or honest man will em-
bark in it. . - $
- Your humble servant,
, , The Man in the Moon.
THE CONSOLIDATOR. 391.
I would have nobody now pretend to scandalize
the writer of this letter, which being for the Gallu-
narians, for no man in the moon had more aversion
for them than he, but he would have had the war
carried on upon a right bottom, justice and honesty
regarded in it; and, as he said often, they had no
need to go out of the road of justice, for had they
made war in the great Eagle's name all had been
well. -
Nor was he a false prophet, for as this was ill
grounded, so it was as ill carried on, met with shocks,
rubs, and disappointments, every way. The very
first voyage the new king made, he had like to
have been drowned by a very violent tempest,
things not very usual in those countries; and all
the progress that had been made in his behalf when
I came away from that lunar world, had not brought
him so much as to be able to set his foot upon his
new kingdom of Ebronia; but his adversary, by won-
derful dexterity, and the assistance of his old grand-
father, the Gallunarian monarch, beat his troops
upon all occasions, invaded his ally that pretended
to assist him, and kept a quiet possession of all the
vast Ebronian monarchy; and but at last, by the
powerful diversion of the Solunarian fleet, a shock
was given them on another side, which if it had not
happened, it was thought the new king had been
sent home again re infecta. . . . .
Being very much shocked in my judgment of this
affair, by these unanswerable reasons, I enquired
of my author who were the directors of this matter:
he told me plainly it was done by those great states-
men which the Solunarian queen had lately very
justly turned out, whose politics were very unac-
countable in a great many other things, as well as
in that. + - . -
It is true, the war was carried on under the new
392 THE CONSOLIDATOR.
ministry, and no war in the world can be juster, on
account of the injustice and encroachment of the
Gallunarian monarch.
The queen, therefore, and her present ministers,
go on with the war on principles of confederacy; it
is the business of the Solunarians to beat the inva-
der out, and then let the people come and make a
fair decision who they will have to reign over
them. -
This indeed justifies the war in Ebronia to be
right, but for the personal procedure as before, it
is all contradiction and can never be answered.
I hope no man will be so malicious as to say I
am hereby reflecting on our war with Spain. I am
very forward to say, it is a most just and reasonable
war: as to parallels between the cases of the princes,
in defending the matter of personal right, hic labor,
hoc opus.
Thus however you see humanum est errare,
whether in this world or in the moon, it is all one ;
infallibility of councils, any more than of doctrine,
1S Ił0t. In man.
The reader may observe, I have formerly noted
there was a new Consolidator to be built, and ob-
served what struggle there was in the moon about
choosing the feathers.
I cannot omit some further remarks here, as
1. It is to be observed, that this last Consolidator
was in a manner quite worn out. It had indeed
continued but three years, which was the stated time
by law, but it had been so hurried, so party-rid, so
often had been up in the moon, and made so many
such extravagant flights and unnecessary voyages
thither, that it began to be exceedingly worn and
defective. •
2. This occasioned that the light fluttering
feathers and the fermented feathers made strange
THE CONSOLIDATOR." 393
work of it; nay, sometimes they were so hot, they
were like to have ruined the whole fabric, and had
it not been for the great feather in the centre, and
a few negative feathers who were wiser than the
rest, all the machines had been broke to pieces,
and the whole nation put into a most strange con-
fusion. -
Sometimes their motion was so violent and pre-
cipitant, that there was great apprehensions of its
being set on fire by its own velocity, for swiftness
of motion is allowed by the sages and so so's to
produce fire, as in wheels, mills, and several sorts of
mechanic engines, which are frequently fired; and
so in thoughts, brains, assemblies, Consolidators,
and all such combustible things.
Indeed these things were of great consequence;
and therefore require some more nice examination
than ordinary, and the following story will in part
explain it.
Among the rest of the broils they had with the
grandees, one happened on this occasion.
One of the tacking feathers being accidentally
met by a grandee's footman, whom it seems wanted
some manners, the slave began to halloo him in the
street with, A tacker, a tacker, a feather-fool, a
tacker, &c.; and so brought the mob about him; and
had not the grandee himself come in the very in-
terim, and rescued the feather, the mob had de-
molished him, they were so enraged. |
As this gentleman-feather was rescued with
great courtesy by the grandee, taken into his coach
and carried home to his house, he desired to speak
with the footman.
The fellow being called in, was asked by him who
employed him, or set him on to offer him this in-
sult: the footman, being a ready bold fellow, told
him, Nobody sir, but you are all grown so ridiculous
394 THE CONSOLIDATOR.
to the whole nation, that if the hundred and thirty-
four of you were left but to us footmen, and it was
not in more respect to our masters, than you, we
should cure you of ever coming into the Consolida-
tor again; and all the people in the moon are of our
mind. - t
But, says the feather, why do you call me fool too?
Why sir, says he, because nobody could ever tell us
what it was you drove at, and we have been told
you never knew yourselves; now if one of you tack-
ing feathers would but tell the world what your real
design was, they would be satisfied; but to be
leaders in the Consolidator, and to act without
meaning, without thought or design, must argue
you are fools, or worse, and you will find all the moon
of my mind. .
But what if we had a meaning 2 says the feather
man. Why then, says the footman, we shall leave
calling you fools, and call you knaves, for it could
never be an honest one, so that you had better
stand as you do : and I make it out thus.
You knew, that upon your tacking the Crolians
to the tribute bill, the grandees must reject both,
they having declared against reading any bills
tacked together, as being against their privileges.
Now if you had any design, it must be to have the
bill of tribute lost, and that must be to disappoint
all the public affairs, expose the queen, break all
measures, discourage the confederates, and putting
all things backward, bring the Gallunarian forces
upon them, and put all Solunaria into confusion.
Now sir, says he, we cannot have such coarse
thoughts of you as to believe you could design such
dark, mischievous things as these, and therefore we
chose to believe you all fools, and not fit to be put
into a Consolidator again, than knaves and traitors to
your country, and consequently fit for a worse place.
THE CONSOLIDATOR. 395
The plainness of the footman was such, and so
unanswerable, that his master was fain to check
him, and so the discourse broke off, and we shall
leave it there, and proceed to the story.
The men of the feather, as I have noted, who are
represented here by the Consolidator, fell all together
by the ears, and all the moon was in a combustion.
The case was as follows.
They had three times lost their qualifying law,
and particularly they observed the grandees were
the men that threw it out, and notwithstanding the
plot of the tackers, as they called them, who were,
as I noted, observed to be in conjunction with the
Crolians, yet the law always passed the feathers,
but still the grandees quashed it.
To show their resentment at the grandees, they
had often made attempts to mortify them, some-
times arraigning them in general, sometimes im-
peaching private members of their house; but still
all would not do, the grandees had the better of
them, and going on with regularity and temper, the
consolidators, or feather-men, always had the worst,
the grandees had the applause of all the moon, had
the last blow on every occasion, and the other sunk
in their reputation exceedingly. .
It is necessary to understand here, that the men
of the feather serve in several capacities, and under
several denominations, and act by themselves; singly
considered, they are called the Consolidator, and the
feathers we mentioned, abstracted from their per-
sons, make the glorious engine we speak of, and in
which, when any sudden motion takes them, they
can all shut themselves up, and away for the moon.
But when these are joined with the grandees and
the queen, so united, they make a great cortes, or
general collection of all the governing authority of
the nation. * .
396 THE CONSOLIDATOR.
When this last fraction happened, the men of the
feather were under an exceeding ferment; they had,
in some passion, taken into their custody some
good honest lunar countrymen, for an offence
which indeed few but themselves ever imagined
was a crime, for the poor men did nothing but
pursue their own right by the law. ..
It is thought the men of the feather soon saw
they were in the wrong, but acted like some men
in our world, that when they make a mistake, being
too proud to own themselves in the wrong, run
themselves into worse errors to mend it.
So these lunar gentlemen disdaining to have it
said they could be mistaken, committed two errors
to conceal one, till at last they came to be laughed
at by all the moon. - - -
These poor men having lain a long while in
prison, for little or no crime, at last were advised
to apply themselves to the law for discharge ; the
law would fairly have discharged them; for in that
country, no man may be imprisoned but he must
in a certain time be tried, or let go upon pledges of
his friends, much like our giving bail on a writ of
Habeas corpus ; but the judges, whether overawed
by the feathers, or what was the cause authors
have not determined, did not care to venture dis-
charging them. -
The poor men thus remanded, applied themselves
to the grandees, who were then sitting, and who are
the sovereign judicature of the country, and before
whom appeals lie from all courts of justice. The
grandees, as in duty bound, appeared ready to do
them justice, but the queen was to be applied to,
first to grant a writ, or a warrant for a writ, called
in their country a writ of follies, which is as much
as to say, mistakes. - -
The consolidators foreseeing the consequence,
THE CONSOLIDATOR. 397
immediately applied themselves to the queen with
an address, the terms of which were so undu 1
and unman—ly, that had she not been a queen of
unusual candour and goodness, she would have
treated them as they deserved, for they upbraided
her with their freedom and readiness in granting
her supplies, and therefore as good as told her they
expected she should do as they desired. -
These people, that knew the supplies given were,
from necessity, legal, and for their own defence,
while the granting their request must have been
illegal, arbitrary, a dispensing with the laws, and
denying justice to her subjects, the very thing they
ruined her father for, were justly provoked to see
their good queen so barbarously treated.
The queen, full of goodness and calmness, gave
them a gentle kind answer, but told them she must
be careful to act with due regard to the laws, and
could not interrupt the course of judicial proceed-
ings; and at the same time granted the writ, having
first consulted with her council, and received the
opinion of all the judges, that it was not only safe, but
just and reasonable, and a right to her people which
she could not deny.
This proceeding galled the feathers to the quick,
and finding the grandees resolved to proceed judi-
cially upon the said writ of follies, which if they
did, the prisoners would be delivered and the fol-
lies fixed upon the feathers, they sent their poursui-
vants, took them out of the common prison, and
conveyed them separately and privately into prisons
of their own.
This rash and unprecedented proceeding pushed
them further into a labyrinth, from whence it was
impossible they could ever find their way out but
with infinite loss to their reputation, like a sheep in
a thick wood, that at every briar pulls some of
398 THE CONSOLIDATOR.
the wool from her back, till she comes out in a
most scandalous pickle of nakedness and scratches.
The grandees immediately published six articles
in vindication of the people's right, against the as-
sumed privileges of the feathers, the abstract of
which is as follows:
1. That the feathers had no right to claim, or
make any new privileges for themselves, other than
they had before.
2. That every freeman of the moon had a right
to repel injury with law.
3. That imprisoning the five countrymen by the
feathers, was assuming a new privilege they had no
right to, and a subjecting the subject's right to their
arbitrary votes. -
4. That a writ of deliverance, or removing the
body, is the legal right of every subject in the
moon, in order to his liberty, in case of imprison-
ment.
5. That to punish any person for assisting the
subject, in procuring or prosecuting the said writ of
deliverance, is a breach of the laws, and a thing of
dangerous consequence.
6. That a writ of follies is not a grace, but a right,
and ought not to be denied to the subject.
These resolves struck the languishing reputation
of the feathers with the dead palsy, and they
began to stink in the nostrils of all the nations in the
IſlC)OIl.
But besides this, they had one strange effect,
which was a prodigious disappointment to the men
of the feather.
I had observed before, that there was to be a new
set of feathers provided, in order to building an-
other Consolidator, according to a late law for a new
engine every three years. Now several of these
men of the feather, who thought their feathers capa-
THE CONSOLIDATOR. 399
ble of serving again, had made great interest, and
been at great cost to have their old feathers chosen
again, but the people had entertained such scoun-
drel opinions of these proceedings, such as tacking,
consolidating, imprisoning electors, impeaching
without trial, writs of follies, and the like, that if
any one was known to be concerned in any of these
things, nobody would vote for him.
The gentlemen were so mortified at this, that
even the hottest high-church Solunarian of them all,
if he put in anywhere to be re-chosen, the first
thing he had to do, was to assure the people he was
no tacker, none of the hundred and thirty-four;
and a vast deal of difficulty they had to purge them-
selves of this blessed action, which they used to
value themselves on before, as their glory and
Imerit.
Thus they grew ashamed of it, as a crime, got
men to go about to vouch for them to the country
people, that they were no tackers; nay, one of them,
to clear himself, loudly forswore it, and taking a
glass of wine, wished it might never pass through
him, if he was a tacker, though all men suspected
him to be of that number too, he having been one
of the forwardest that way, on all occasions, of any
person among the south folk of the moon.
In like manner, one of the feathers for the middle
province of the country, who used to think it his
honour to be for the qualifying law, seeing which
way the humour of the country ran, took as much
pains now to tell the people he was no tacker, as
he did before to promise them that he would do his
utmost to have the Crolians reduced, and that bill
to pass; the reason of which was plain, that he saw,
if it should be known he was a tacker, he should
never have his feather returned, to be put into the
Consolidator.
400 THE CONSOLIDATOR.
The heats and feuds that the feathers and the
grandees were now run into, began to make the
latter very uneasy, and they sent to the grandees to
hasten them, and put them in mind of passing some
laws they had sent up to them for raising money,
and which lay before them ; knowing that as soon as
those laws were past, the queen would break them.
up; and they being very willing to be gone, before
these things came too far upon the stage, urge
them to despatch.
But the grandees resolving to go through with
the matter, sent to them to come to a treaty on the
foot of the six articles, and to bring any reasons
they could, to prove the power they had to act as
they had done with the countrymen, and with the
lawyers they had put in prison for assisting them.
The feathers were very backward and stiff about
this conference, or treaty, till at last the grandees
having sufficiently exposed them to all the nation,
the bills were passed, the grandees caused the par-
ticulars to be printed, and a representation of their
proceedings, and the feathers’ foul dealings to the
queen of the country, and so her majesty sent them
home.
But if they were ashamed of being called tackers
before, they were doubly mortified at this now ; nay,
the country resented it so exceedingly, that some of
them began to consider whether they should ven-
ture to go home or no ; printed lists of their names
were published, though we do not say they were
true lists for it was a hard thing to know which
were true lists, and which were not, nor indeed
could a true list be made, no man being able to
retain the exact account of who were the men, in
his memory. -
For as there were a hundred and thirty-fou
tackers, so there were a hundred and forty-one of
THE CONSOLIDATOR. 401
these, who by a name of distinction, were called,
Lebusyraneim, in English, Aylesbury-men.
The people were so exasperated against these,
that they expressed their resentment upon all occa-
sions; and lest the queen should think that the na-
tion approved the proceedings, they drew up a re-
presentation or complaint, full of most dutiful ex-
pressions to their queen, and full of resentment
against the feathers; the copy of which being
handed about the moon the last time I was there, I
shall take the pains to put it into English in the best
manner I can, keeping as near the original as possible.
If any man shall now wickedly suggest, that this
relation has any retrospect to the affairs of England,
the author declares them malicious misconstruers of
his honest relation of matters from this remote
country, and offers his positive oath for their satis-
faction, that the very last journey he made into those
lunar regions, this matter was upon the stage, of
which, if this treatise was not so near its conclusion,
the reader might expect a more particular account.
If there is any analogy or similitude between the
transactions of either world, he cannot account for
that ; 'tis application makes the ass. -
And yet sometimes he has thought, as some
people fable of the Platonic year, that after such a
certain revolution of time, all things are transacted
over again, and the same people live again, are the
same fools, knaves, philosophers and madmen, they
were before, though without any knowledge of, or
retrospect to what they acted before; so why should
it be impossible, that as the moon and this world
are noted before to be twins and sisters, equal in
motion and in influence, and perhaps in qualities,
the same secret power should so act them, as that
like actions and circumstances should happen in all
parts of both worlds at the same time. -
CONSOLIDATOR. D d
402 THE CONSOLIDATOR.
I leave this thought to the improvement of our
royal learned societies of the anticacofanums, op-
posotians, periodicarians, antepredestinarians, uni-
versal soulians, and such like unfathomable people,
who, without question, upon mature inquiry, will
find out the truth of this matter. t
But if any one shall scruple the matter of fact as
I have here related it, I freely give him leave to do
as I did, and go up to the moon for a demonstration;
and if upon his return he does not give ample testi-
mony to the case in every part of it, as here re-
lated, I am content to pass for the contriver of it
myself, and be punished as the law shall say I de-
Serve.
Nor was this all the public matters in which this
nation of Solunarians took wrong measures; for
about this time, the misunderstandings between the
southern and northern men began again, and the
Solunarians made several laws, as they called them,
to secure themselves against the dangers they pre-
tended might accrue from the new measures the
Nolunarians had taken; but so unhappily were
they blinded by the feuds among themselves, and
beset by opinion and interest, that every law they
made, or so much as attempted to make, was really
to the advantage, and to the interest of the northern
men, and to their own loss; so ignorantly and weak-
headed were these high Solunarian churchmen in
the true interest of their country, led by their im-
placable malice at Crolianism, which, as is before
noted, was the established religion of that country.
But as this matter was but transacting when
I took the other remarks, and that. I did not
obtain a full understanding of it till my second
voyage, I refer it to a more full relation of my
further travels that way; when I shall not fail to
give a clear state of the debate of the two kingdoms,
THE CONSOLIDATOR. 403
in which the southern men had the least reason and
the worst success that ever they had in any affair of
that nature for many years before.
It was always my opinion in affairs on this side
the moon, that though sometimes a foolish bolt may
hit the point, and a random shot kill the enemy, yet
that generally discretion and prudence of manage-
ment had the advantage, and met with a propor-
tioned success, and things were or were not happy
in their conclusion, as they were more or less
wisely contrived and directed. -
And though it may not be allowed to be so here,
yet I found it more constantly so there, effects were
true to their causes, and confusion of counsels never
failed in the moon to be followed by distracted and
destructive consequences.
This appeared more eminently in the dispute be-
tween these two lunar nations we are speaking of;
never were people in the moon, whatever they
might be in other places, so divided in their opi-
nions about a matter of such consequence. Some
were for declaring war immediately upon the northern
men, though they could show no reason at all why,
only because they would not do as they would have
them. A parcel of poor scoundrel, scabby rogues,
they ought to be made submit ! What I won’t they
declare the same king as we do! hang them, rogues!
a pack of Crolian, Prestarian devils, we must make
them do it: down with them the shortest way, de-
clare war immediately, and down with them Nay,
some were for falling on them directly, without the
formality of declaring war. -
Others, more afraid than hurt, cried out ‘invasions,
depredation, fire and sword, the northern men
would be upon them immediately;’ and proposed to
fortify their frontiers, and file off their forces to the
borders: may, so apprehensive did those men of
D d 2
404 THE CONSOLIDATOR.
prudence pretend to be, that they ordered towns to
be fortified a hundred mile off of the place, when
all this while the poor northern men did nothing
but tell them that unless they would come to terms,
they would not have the same king as they, and
then took some measures to let them see they did
not purpose to be forced to it.
Another sort of wiser men than these, proposed
to unite with them, hear their reasons, and do them
right. These indeed were the only men that were
in the right method of concluding this unhappy
broil, and for that reason, were the most unlikely to
succeed. -
But the wildest notion of all, was, when some of
the grandees made a grave address to the queen of
the country, to desire the northern men to settle
matters first, and to tell them, that when that was
done, they should see what these would do for them.
This was a home stroke, if it had but hit, and the
misfortune only lay in this, that the northern men
were not fools enough ; the clearness of the air in
those cold climates generally clearing the head so
early, that those people see much further into a
millstone, than any blind man in all the southern
nations of the moon.
There was another unhappiness in this case,
which made the matter yet more confused, and that
was, that the soldiers had generally no gust to this
war. This was an odd case; for those sort of gen-
tlemen, especially in the world in the moon, don’t
use to inquire into the justice of the case they fight
for, but they reckon it is their business to go where
they are sent, and kill anybody they are ordered to kill,
leaving their governors to answer for the justice of
it. But there was another reason to be given why
the men of the sword were so averse, and always
talked coldly of the fighting part; and though the
THE CONSOLIDATOR, . 405
northern men called it fear, yet I cannot join with
them in that, for to fear requires thinking; and
some of our Solunarians are absolutely protected
from the first, because they never meddle with the
last, except when they come to the engine, and
therefore it is plain it could not proceed from fear.
It has puzzled the most discerning heads of the
age, to give a reason from whence this aversion pro-
ceeded, and various judgments have been given of
1t.
The Nolunarians jested with them, and when
they talked of fighting, bade them look back into
history, and examine what they ever made of a
Nolunarian war, and whether they had not been
often well beaten, and sent short home; bid them
have a care of catching a tartar, as we call it, and
always made themselves merry with it.
They bantered the Solunarians too, about the
fears and terrors they were under, from their arming
themselves, and putting themselves in a posture of
defence, when it was easy to see by the nature of
the thing, that their design was not a war, but a
union upon just conditions; that it was a plain token
that they designed either to put some affront upon
the Nolunarians, to deny them some just claims, or
to impose something very provoking upon them
more than they had yet done, that they were so ex-
ceeding fearful of an invasion from them.
Though these were sufficient to pass for reasons
in other cases, yet it could not be so here; but I
saw there must be something else in it. As I was
thus wondering at this unusual backwardness of the
soldiers, I inquired a little further into the meaning
of it, and quickly found the reason was plain, there
was nothing to begot by it, that the people were brave,
desperate, and poor, the country barren, mountain-
ous, and empty, so that in short there would be no-
“406 THE CONSOLIDATOR.
thing but blows and soldiers’ fellows to be had ; and
'I always observed that soldiers never care to be
knocked on the head and get nothing by the bar-
gain. - , , . “
... In short, I saw plainly the reasons that prompted
the Solunarians to insult their neighbours of the
north, were more derived from the regret at their
establishing Crolianism, than at any real causes they
had given, or indeed were in a condition to give
them. . • r
These, and abundance more particular observa-
tions I made, but as I left the thing still in agitation
and undetermined, I shall refer it to another voyage
which I purpose to make thither; and, at my return,
may perhaps set that case in a clearer light than
our sight can yet bear to look at it in. -
If in my second voyage I should undeceive
people in the notions they entertained of those
northern people, and convince them that the Solu-
narians were really the aggressors, and had put
great hardships upon them, I might possibly do a
work that, if it met with encouragement, might
bring the Solunarians to do them justice, and that
would set all to rights; the two nations might easily
become one, and unite for ever, or at least become
friends, and give mutual assistance to each other;
and I cannot but own such an agreement would
make them both very formidable; but this I refer to
another time. . - -
At the same time I cannot leave it without a
remark that this jealousy between the two nations
may perhaps in future ages be necessary to be main-
tained, in order to find some better reasons for for-
tifications, standing armies, guards and garrisons,
than could be given in the reign of the great prince
I speak of the queen's predecessor, though his was
against a foreign insulting enemy.
THE CONSOLIDATOR." 407
But the temper of the Solunarian high party was
always such, that they would with much more ease
give thanks for a standing army against the Nolu-
narians and Crolians, than agree to one legion
against the Abrogratzians and Gallunarians.
But of these things I am also promised a more
particular account upon my journey into that
country.
I cannot, however, conclude this matter, without.
giving some account of my private observations
upon what was further to be seen in this country.
And had not my remarks on their state matters
taken up more of my thoughts than I expected, I
might have entered a little upon their other affairs,
such as their companies, their commerce, their
public offices, their stock-jobbers, their temper,
their conversation, their women, their stages,
universities, their courtiers, their clergy, and the
characters of the severals under all these denomina-
tions; but these must be referred to time, and my
more perfect observations.
But I cannot omit, that though I have very
little knowledge of books, and had obtained less
upon their language, yet I could not but be very
inquisitive after their libraries and men of letters.
Among their libraries I found not abundance of
their own books, their learning having so much of
demonstration, and being very hieroglyphical; but I
found to my great admiration vast quantities of
translated books out of all languages of our world.
As I thought myself one of the first, at least of
our nation, that ever came thus far; it was, you
may be sure, no small surprise to me, to find all the
most valuable parts of modern learning, especially
of politics, translated from our tongue into the
lunar dialect, and stored up in their libraries with,
408 THE CONSOLIDATOR.
the remarks, notes, and observations, of the learned
men of that climate upon the subject. -
Biere, among a vast crowd of French authors
condemned in this polite world for trifling, came a
huge volume containing, Les CEuvres de Scavans,
which has nineteen small bells painted upon the
book, of several disproportioned sizes. -
I inquired the meaning of that hieroglyphic,
which the master of the books told me, was to
signify that the substance was all jingle and noise,
and that of thirty volumes which that one book con-
tains, twenty-nine of them have neither substance,
music, harmony, nor value in them.
The History of the Fulsomes, or a collection of
three hundred fine speeches made in the French
academy at Paris, and fifteen hundred gay flourishes
out of monsieur Boileau, all in praise of the invinc-
ible monarch of France. * -
The Duke of Bavaria's Manifesto, showing the
right of making war against our sovereigns, from
whence the people of that lunar world have noted
that the same reasons which made it lawful to him
to attempt the imperial power, entitle him to lose
his own, viz., conquest, and the longest sword.
Jack o' Both Sides, or a dialogue between Pasquin
and Marforio, upon the subject-matter of the pope's
sincerity in case of the war in Italy; written by a
citizen of Ferrara. One side arguing upon the oc-
casion of the pope's general wheedling the imperial-
ists to quit that country; the other bantering im-
perial policy, or the Germans pretending they were
tricked out of Italy, when they could stay there no
longer.
Lewis the Invincible, by monsieur Boileau. A
poem, on the glory of his most Christian majesty's
arms at Hochstedt and Verue. - - $ 4

THE CONSOLIDATOR. 409
All these translations have innumerable hiero-
glyphical notes, and emblems painted on them,
which pass as comments, and are readily under-
stood in that climate. For example, on the vol. of
dialogues are two cardinals washing the pope's
hands under a cloud that often bespatters them
with blood, signifying that in spite of all his preten-
sions he has a hand in the broils of Italy. And be-
fore him the sun setting in a cloud, and a blind
ballad-singer making sonnets upon the brightness of
its lustre.
The Three Kings of Brentford; being some histo-
rical observations on three mighty monarchs in our
world, whose heroic actions may be the subject of
future ages, being like to do little in this; the king
of England, king of Poland, and king of Spain.
These are described by a figure representing a
castle in the air, and three knights pointing at it,
but they could not catch.
I omit abundance of very excellent pieces, be-
cause remote; as three great volumes of European
mysteries, among the vast varieties of which, and
very entertaining, I observed but a few, such as
these: -
1. Why prince Ragotski will make no peace with
the emperor. But, more particularly, why the em-
peror won’t make peace with him.
2. Where the policy of the king of Sweden lies,
to pursue the king of Poland, and let the Muscovites
ravage and destroy his own subjects.
3. What the duke of Bavaria proposed to himself
in declaring for France.
4. Why the protestants of the confederacy never
relieved the Camisars. -
5. Why there are no cowards found in the English
service, but among their sea captains. .
6. Why the king of Portugal did not take
410 THE CONSOLIDATOR.
Madrid, why the English did not take Cadiz, and
why the Spaniards did not take Gibraltar, viz., be-,
cause the first were fools, the second knaves, and
the last Spaniards. - -
7. What became of all the silver taken at Vigo.
8. Who will be the next king of Scotland.
9. If England should ever want a king, who
would think it worth while to accept of it. -
10. What specific difference can be produced be-
tween a knave, a coward, and a traitor.
Abundance of these mysteries are hieroglyphically,
described in this ample collection; and without
doubt our great collection of annals, and historica}
observations, particularly the learned Mr. Walker,
would make great improvements there.
But to come nearer home, there, to my great
amazement, I found several new tracts out of our.
own language, which I could hardly have imagined
it possible should have reached so far. *
. As first, sundry Transactions of our Royal Society
about winds, and a valuable dissertation of Dr.
B ’s about wind in the brain. - - -
A discourse of poisons, by the learned Dr. M-,
with lunar notes upon it, wherein it appears that
Dr. C d had more poison in his tongue than
all the adders in the moon have in their teeth.
Nee Non, or lawyers' Latin turned into lunar bur-
lesque. The hieroglyphic was, the queen's money
tossed in a blanket, dedicated to the attorney gene-
ral, and five false Latin councillors. .
Mandamus; as it was acted at Abb—ton assizes,
by Mr. So–r general, where the qu–n had her,
own so—r against her for a bad cause, and never
a counsel for her in a good one. .
Lunar Reflections; being a list of about two thou-
sand ridiculous errors in history, palpable falsities,
and scandalous omissions, in Mr. Collier's geogra-
THE CONSOLIDATOR. 4] 1
phical dictionary; with a subsequent inquiry, by way
of appendix, into which are his own, and which he
has ignorantly deduced from ancient authors.
Assassination and Killing of Kings, proved to be
a Church of England doctrine ; humbly dedicated
to the prince of Wales, by Mr. Collier and Mr.
Snat ; wherein their absolving sir John Friend and
sir William Parkins without repentance, and while
they both owned and justified the fact, is vindicated
and defended.
Les Bagatelles, or Brom —y's travels into
Italy, a choice book, and by great accident pre-
served from the malicious design of the author,
who diligently bought up the whole impression, for
fear they should be seen, as a thing of which this
ungrateful age was not worthy.
Killing no Murder; being an account of the se-
vere justice designed to be inflicted on the bar-
barous murderers of the honest constable at Bow,
but unhappily prevented by my lord N m being
turned out of his office.
De Modo Belli, or an account of the best method
of making conquests and invasions a la mode de
Port St. Mary; three volumes in octavo, dedicated
to Sir Hen. Bell S. g : . . .
King Charles I. proved a T t; by Edward
earl of Clarendon, three vols. in fol. Dedicated to
the university of Oxford.
The Bawdy Poets; or new and accurate editions
of Catullus, Propertius, and Tibullus, being the
maidenhead of the new printing press at Cambridge,
dedicated by the editor, Mr. Ann y, to the
university ; and in consideration of which, and
some disorders near Casterton, the university
thought him fit to represent them in p—t.
Alms no Charity; or the skeleton of sir Humphry
412 THE CONSOLIDATOR.
Mackworth's bill for the relief of the poor; being
an excellent new contrivance to find employment
for all the poor in the nation, viz., by setting them
at work, to make all the rest of the people as poor
as themselves.
Synodicum Superlativum ; being sixteen large
volumes of the vigorous proceedings of the English
convocation, digested into years, one volume to every
year. Wherein are several large lists of the heretical,
atheistical, deistical and other pernicious errors which
have been condemned in that venerable assembly,
the various services done, and weighty matters de-
spatched, for the honour of the English church, for
sixteen years last past, with their formal proceed-
ings against Asgil, Coward, Toland and others, for
reviving old antiquated errors in doctrine, and
publishing them to the world as their own.
New Worlds in Trade; being a vast collection out
of the journals of the proceedings of the right ho-
nourable the commissioners of trade, with several
eminent improvements in general negoce, vast
schemes of business, and new discoveries of settle-
ments and correspondences in foreign parts, for the
honour and advantage of the English merchants;
being twelve volumes in folio, and very scarce and
valuable books.
Legal Rebellion, or an argument proving that
all sorts of insurrections of subjects against their
princes, are lawful, and to be supported whenever
they suit with our occasions; made good from the
practice of France with the Hungarians, the English
with the Camisars, the Swede with the Poles, the
emperor with the subjects of Naples, and all the
princes of the world as they find occasion; a large
volume in folio, with a poem upon the sacred right
of kingly power.
THE CONSOLIDATOR. 413
Ignis Fatuus, or the Occasional Bill in miniature;
afare, as it was acted by his excellency the lord
Gr il’s servants in Carolina.
Bunning away the Shortest Way to Victory; being
a large dissertation, showing to save the queen's
shipsis the best way to beat the French.
The Tookites, a poem upon the 134.
A New Tract upon Trade; being a demonstration
that to be always putting the people upon cus-
tomary mourning, and wearing black upon every
state occasion, is an excellent encouragement to
trade, and a means to employ the poor.
City Gratitude ; being a poem on the statue
erected by the court of aldermen at the upper end
of Cheapside, to the immortal memory of king Wil-
liam.
There were many more tracts to be found in this
place; but these may suffice for a specimen, and to
excite all men that would increase their understand-
ings in human mysteries, to take a voyage to this
enlightened country; where their memories, think-
ing faculties, and penetration, will no question be
so tacked and consolidated, that when they return,
they will all write memoirs of the place, and com-
municate to their country the advantages they have
reaped by their voyage, according to the laudable
example of their
Most humble servant,
THE MAN IN THE MOON.
THE END OF THE CONSOLIDATOR.
OXFORD : PRINTED BY D. A. TALBOYS.
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