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(seq. 16)
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(seq. 17)
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1746. DECEMBER hath 31 DAYS.
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Upon the 17th Day of JUNE, 1745. The Day that Louisbourg was reduced to the Obedience of the Crown of Great Britain.
Bright Hesperus, the Harbinger of Day, Smil'd gently down on Shirley's prosperous Sway, The crowding Years roll'd swiftly on to view The glorious Actions He was born to do : Time urg'd their speed till this important Day ; But now Dame Nature seems to ask a stay. The Prince of Light rode in his burning Car, To see the Overtures of Peace and War, Around the World ; and bade his Charioteer, (Who marks the Periods of each Month and Year) Rein in his Steeds, and rest upon high Noon To view our Victory at Cape Breton.
The Persecutor's Hell, by an unknown Hand.
A miserable Hell, The execrable Persecutor finds, No Spirit howls among the Shades below, More damn'd, more fierce, nor more a Fiend than he Aloud he Heav'n, and Holiness blasphemes, While all his Enmity to Good appears, His Enmity to Good ; once falsely call'd Religious Warmth, and charitable Zeal. On high beyond th' unpassable Abyss, To aggravate his righteous Doom he views, The blissful Realms, and there th' I-----t, The visionary, the deluded Saint By him so often hated, wrong'd, and scorn'd, So often curs'd, and damn'd, and banish'd thence, He sees him there [possess'd?] of all that Heav'n, Those Glories, those immortal Joys, which he The Orthodox, unerring Catholick, With all his Charity, and burning Zeal Against Enthusiasm poor soul has lost.
The Planet Venus is Oriental, or Morning Star to the 24th of March ; thence Occidental, or Evening Star to the Year's End.
(seq. 18)
A Dialogue between a SCHOLAR and a CLOWN.
Clown, SIR, Altho' I don't know what Clasp you are in, I understand you are a Scholard, I wou'd therefore pop a plain Question to you, and shall be glad of your Dissolution as soon as I have done?
Scho. In mercy then I hope you will not have done this forty Years, but trusting (thro' the strength of a good Consti- tution) that your Question will not kill me right out of hand I'll venture to hear it, so please to Name it Sir.
Clown. Why my Neighbour Vulcan put his Son out to Coledge to learn to be a Minister, he was an honest Lad, and us'd to speak the Truth, but now he tells me the World turns round, and that the Sun and Stars stand stock still in the Skies : He says too that all the Scolards and Ministers believe that the World turns round, for my part I think the Ministers ought to be turn'd out of their Pulpits if they maintain such wicked Doctrines ; but the Question is this, Whether you don't read conjuring Books at Coledge that bewitches you into such an Opinion?
Sch. Our Capacities are enlarg'd by our Education at Colledge to see the Reasonableness of such an Opinion, which you can't do for want of our Advantages.
Cl. I can tell you that a Cow is roundest when she is licking her ----- ; that a Goose has most Feathers on her Back when the Gander is on her ; but you, to go a peg higher in your Pretences to Knowledge, tell us the World turns round, and because we han't Learning to conspute with you, you wou'd have us believe all you say is true ?
Sch. It is demonstrably true from the Eclipses of the Sate- lities of Jupiter, that Light is not instantenous, but propogated by a progressive Motion, and is 7 min. and 5 sec. com- ing from the Sun to this Earth, and if the fixed Stars were not as much farther from the Earth, than the Sun, as 7 Years is more than 7 min. and 5 sec. we could discern their Parallaxes, which we can't do ; & if the fixed Stars move round the Earth in 24 Hours, their Distance from the Earth is but the semi- Diameter of that Circle they describe in 24 Hours ; and it is un- likely that they themselves should move a Space in 24 Hours that their Light could not accomplish in 42 Years, & move as fast too as the Light of the Sun in coming to the Earth in 7 min. & 5 sec.