When he is furnished with a competent number of names, though not so many as I have mentioned, it will be seasonable to teach him, under the titles singular and plural, the formation of plurals from singulars, by adding s or es; as hand, hands; face, faces; fish, fishes, &c. with some few irregulars, as man, men; woman, women; foot, feet; tooth, teeth; mouse, mice; louse, lice; ox, oxen, &c.

Which, except the irregulars, will serve for possessives, to be after taught him, which are formed by their primitives by like addition of s or es, except some few irregulars, as my, mine ; | thy, thine; our, ours; your, yours; his; her, hers; their, theirs, &c.

And in all those and other like cases it will be proper first to show him the particulars and then the general title.

Then teach him in another page or paper the particulars, a, an, the, this, that, these, those.

And the pronouns, I, me, my, mine; thou, thee, thy, thine; we, us, our, ours; ye, you, your, yours; he, him, his; she, her, hers; it, its; they, them, their, theirs; who, whom, whose. Then, under the titles 'Substantive, adjective,' teach him to connect these, as my hand, your head; his foot, his feet; her arm, arms; our || hats; their shoes, John's coat, William's band,

&c.

Then words relating to time, place, number, weight, measure, money, &c., are in convenient time to be showed him distinctly; for which the teacher, according to his discretion, may take a convenient season.

As likewise the time of the day, the days of the week, the days of the month, the months of the year, and other things relating to the almanack, which he will quickly be capable to understand, if once methodically shown him.

As likewise the names and situation of places and countries which are convenient for him to know, which may be orderly written in his book, and showed him in the map of London, England, Europe, the world, &c.

But these may be done at leisure, as likewise the practice of arithmetic, and other like pieces of learning.

In the meantime, after the concord of substantive and adjective, he is to be showed, by convenient examples, that of the nominative and verb; as, for instance, I go, you see, he sits, they stand, the fire burns, the sun shines, the wind blows, the rain falls, the water runs, and the like, with the titles in the top nominative verb.

After this (under the titles nominative verb, accusative), give him examples of verbs transitive; as, I see you, you see me, the fire burns the wood, the boy makes the fire, the cook roasts And in order to furnish him with more adjec- the meat, the butler lays the cloth, we eat our tives, under the title ، Colours, you may place || dinner. black, white, grey, green, blue, yellow, red, &c.; and having shewed the particulars, let him know that these are called colours. The like for taste and smell, as sweet, bitter, sour, stink.

And for hearing; sound, noise, word. Then for touch or feeling; hot, warm, cold, cool, wet, moist, dry, hard, soft, tough, brittle, heavy, light, &c.

From whence you may furnish him with more examples of adjectives with substantives; as white bread, brown bread, green grass, soft cheese, hard cheese, black hat, my black hat, &c.

And then inverting the order, substantive, adjective, with the verb copulative between; as, silver is white, gold is yellow, lead is heavy, wood is light, snow is white, ink is black, flesh is soft, bone is hard, I am sick, I am not well, &c., which will begin to give him some notion of syntax.

In like manner, when substantive and substantive are so connected; as, gold is a metal, a rose is a flower, they are men, they are women, horses are beasts, geese are fowls, larks are birds, &c.

Or even with a double accusative; as, you teach me writing or to write, John teacheth me to dance, Thomas tells me a tale, &c.

After this, you may teach him the flexion or conjugation of the verb, or what is equivalent thereunto; for in our English tongue each verb hath but two tenses, the present and the preter; two participles, the active and the passive: all the rest is performed by auxiliaries, which auxiliaries have no more tenses than the other verbs.

Those auxiliaries are, do, did, will, would, shall, should, may, might, can, could, must, ought, to, have, had, am, be, was. And if by examples you can insinuate the signification of these few || words, you have taught him the whole flexion of the verb.

And here it will be convenient, once for all, to write him out a full paradigm of some one verb, suppose to see, through all those auxiliaries.

The verb itself hath but these four words to be learned, see, saw, seeing, seen, save that after thou, in the second person singular, in both Then, as those before relate to quality, you tenses, we add est, and in the third person sinmay give him some other words relating to quan-gular, in the present tense, eth or es, or instead tity; as long, short, broad, narrow, thick, thin, thereof, st, th, s, and so in all verbs. high, tall, low, deep, shallow, great, big, small (little), much, little, many, few, full, empty, whole, part, piece, all, some, none, strong, weak, quick, slow, equal, unequal, bigger, less.

Then words of figure; as straight, crooked, plain, bowed, concave, hollow, convex, round, square, three-square, sphere, globe, bowl, cube, die, upright, sloping, leaning forward, leaning backward, like, unlike.

Of gesture; as stand, lie, sit, kneel, sleep. Of motion; as move, stir, rest, walk, go, come, run, leap, ride, fall, rise, swim, sink, drawn, slide, creep, crawl, fly, pull, draw, thrust, throw, bring, fetch, curry.

Then to the auxiliaries, do, did, will, would, shall, should, may, might, can, could, must, ought to, we join the indefinite see. And after have, had, am, be, was, the passive particle seen, and so for all other verbs.

But the auxiliary, am or be, is somewhat irregular in a double form.

Am, art, is; plural are; was, wast, was; plural were. Be, beest, be; plural were; were, wert, | were; plural were.

Be, am, was, being, been.

Which, attended with the other auxiliaries, make us the whole passive voice.

All verbs, without exceptions, in the active

they made their little matches (which were things of great importance in their thoughts), who should get the victory. He used commonly to leave these trifles undecided; but if ever he gave his opinion in these trivial affairs, the persons fared well by their consultation, for his judgment about them was like a petty oracle, and the end always answered his prediction. But I would have my reader imagine (that though our Duncan Campbell was himself but a boy) he was not consulted only by boys; his penetration and insight into things of a high nature got air, and, being attested by credible witnesses, won him the esteem of persons of mature years and discretion.

Argyle himself was making back alone towards the Clyde, when two resolute servants, belonging to an officer in the king's army, meeting him, though they knew him not, bid him surrender. He fired at and missed them; but they took better aim, and wounded him with a pistol ball. Then the Earl, drawing his two pistols out of the holsters, quitted his horse, that was quite tired, and took the river. A country fellow, who came with those two that had first assaulted him, pur- If a beautiful young virgin languished for a sued him with a pistol in his hand. The Earl husband, or a widow's mind was in labour to would have fired one of his, but the flint failing, have a second venture of infants by another he was dangerously wounded in the head by the spouse; if a housekeeper had lost anything bepeasant. He discovered himself, as he fell sense- longing to her master, still little Duncan Campless, crying out, "unfortunate Argyle." This bell was at hand. He was the oracle to be nobleman, how far soever he may be thought applied to; and the little chalked circle, where misled in principle, was certainly in his person a he was diverting himself with his play-fellows, very brave and a very gallant hero. They made near the cross at Edinburgh, was frequented haste to draw him out and bring him to himself; || with as much solicitation, and as much credit, after which, being delivered up to the officers, as the Tripos of Apollo was at Delphos in the erring, unfortunate great man, was conducted ancient times. to Edinburgh, and there beheaded.

Many gentlemen that followed the fortunes of this great man, though not in his death, they shared in all the other calamities attending his overthrow. They most of them fled into the remotest isles and the obscurest corners of all Scotland; contented with the saving of their lives, they grew exiles and banished men of their own making, and abdicated their estates before they were known to be forfeited, because, for fear of being informed against by the common fellows they commanded, they durst not appear to lay their claims. Of this number was Mr Archibald Campbell, and this new disaster wounded him deeply into the very heart, after so many late misadventures, and sent him untimely to the grave. He perfectly pined away and wasted; he was six months dying inch by inch, and the difference between his last breath and his way of breathing during all that time, was only that he expired with a greater sigh than he ordinarily fetched every time when he drew his breath.

Everything the Lapland lady had predicted so long before being thus come to pass, we may the less admire at the wonders performed by her son, when we consider this faculty of divination to be so derived to him from her, and grown, as it were, hereditary.

It was highly entertaining to see a young blooming beauty come and slily pick up the boy from his company, carry him home with as much eagerness as she would her gallant, because she knew she could get the name of her gallant out of him before he went, and bribe him with a sugarplum to write down the name of a young Scotch peer in a green ribbon that her mouth watered after.

How often, after he has been wallowing in the dust, have I myself seen nice squeamish widows help him up in their gilded chariots, and give him a pleasant ride with them, that he might tell them they should not long lie alone. Little Duncan Campbell had as much business upon his hands as the parsons of all the parishes in Edinburgh. He commonly was consulted, and named the couples before the minister joined them; thus he grew a rare customer to the toy-shop, from whence he most usually received fees and rewards for his advices. If Lady Betty Such a one was foretold that she should certainly have Beau Such a one in marriage, then little Duncan was sure to have a hobby-horse from the toy-shop, as a reward for the promised fop. If such a widow, that was ugly but very rich, was to be pushed hard for as she pretended (though in reality easily won), little Duncan, upon ensuring her such a captain, or such a lieutenant-colonel, was sure to be presented from the same child's warehouse with a very handsome drum, and a silvered trumpet.

If a sempstress had an itching desire for a parson, she would, upon the first assurance of him, give this little Apollo a pasteboard temple or church, finely painted, and a ring of bells || into the bargain, from the same toy-office.

Our young prophet, who had taught most of his little companions to converse with him by finger, was the head at every little pastime and || game they played at. Marbles (which he used to call children's playing at bowls) yielded him mighty diversion; and he was so dexterous an artist at shooting that little alabaster globe from between the end of his forefinger and the knuckle of his thumb, that he seldom missed hitting plumb (as the boys call it) the marble he aimed at, though at the distance of two or three yards. The boys always when they played coveted to have him on their side, and by hearing that he foretold other things, used to consult him, when

If a housekeeper lost any plate, the thief was certain to be catched, provided she took little master into the store room, and asked him the question, after she had given him his belly-full of sweetmeats.

Neither were the women only his consulters:

the grave merchants, who were anxious for many public told they asked them, though they sucventures at sea, applied to the boy for his opinion | ceeded in their wish, and were amply satisfied in of their security; and they looked upon his their curiosity. I have represented them, peropinion to be as safe as the insurance office for haps, in a ludicrous manner, because, though ships. If he but told them, though the ship was they are mysterious actions, they are still the just set sail, and a tempest rose just after on the actions of a boy; and as the rewards he received ocean, that it would have a successful voyage, for his advices did really and truly consist of gain the port designed, and return home safe such toys as I have mentioned, so could they not laden with the exchange of traffic and merchan-be treated of in a more serious manner, without dize, they dismissed all their fears, banished all the author's incurring a magisterial air of petheir cares, set their hearts at ease, and safe in dantry, and showing a mind, as it were, of being his opinion, enjoyed a calm of mind amidst a mighty grave and sententious about trifles. storm of weather. There are, however, some things of greater weight and importance done by him in a more advanced stage of life, which will be delivered to the public with that exactitude and gravity which becomes them; and in some of those relations, the names of some persons that are concerned shall be printed, because it will not at all be injurious to them, or because I have their leave, and they are still living to testify what I shall relate.

to

I myself knew one Count Cog, an eminent gamester, who was a person so far from being of a credulous disposition, that he was an unbeliever in several points of religion, and the next door to an infidel. Yet as much as he was a stranger to faith, he was mastered and overpowered so far in his incredulity by the strange events which he had seen come frequently to pass, from the predictions of this child, that he had commonly daily access In the meantime, as the greatest part of his this boy, to learn his more adverse and more non-age was spent in predicting almost innumerprosperous hours of gaming. At first, indeed, || able things, which are all, however, reduced to he would try, when the child foretold him his the general heads above-mentioned, I will not ill fortune, whether it would prove true; and, tire the reader with any particulars; but instead relying upon the mere hazard and turn of the of doing that, before I come to show his power of dice, he had always (as he observed) a run of divination in the more active parts of his life, ill luck on those forbidden days, as he never and when, after removing from Edinburgh to failed of good if he chose the fortunate hours London, he at last made it his public profession, directed by the boy. One time, above all the I shall account how such divinations may be rest, just before he was departing from Edin-made, and divert the reader with many rare exburgh, and when the season of gaming was almost over, most persons of wealth and distinction withdrawing for pleasure to their seats in the country, he came to young Duncan Campbell to consult, and was extremely solicitous to know how happily or unluckily he should end that term (as we may call it) of the gamester's weighty business, viz., play, there being a long vacation likely to ensue, when the gaming-table would be empty, and the box and dice lie idle and cease to rattle. The boy encouraged him so well with his predictions on this occasion, that Count Cog went to the toy-shop, brought him from thence a very fine ivory tee-totum, (as children call it), a pretty set of painted and gilded nine-pins and a bowl, and a large bag of marbles and alloys. And what do you think the gamester got by this little present and the prediction of the boy? Why, without telling the least tittle of falsehood, within the space of the last week's play, the gains of Count Cog really amounted to no less than twenty thousand pounds sterling, neat money.

Having mentioned these persons of so many different professions by borrowed names, and perhaps in a manner seemingly ludicrous, I would not have my reader from hence take occasion of looking upon my account as fabulous. If I was not to make use of borrowed names, but to tell the real characters and names of the persons, I should do injury to those old friends of his who first gave credit to our young seer, while I am endeavouring to gain him the credit and esteem of new ones, in whose way it has not yet happened to consult him. For many persons are very willing to ask such questions as the foregoing ones, but few or none willing to have the

amples (taken from several faithful and undoubted historians) of persons who have done the like before him, some in one way, and some in another; though in these he seems to be peculiar, and to be (if I may be allowed the expression) a species by himself, alone in the talent of prediction; that he has collected within his own individual capacity all the methods which others severally used, and with which they were differently and singly gifted in their several ways of foreseeing and foreteiling.

This art of prediction is not attainable any otherwise than by these three ways: first it is done by the company of familiar spirits and genii, which are of two sorts, some good and some bad, who tell the gifted person the things of which he informs other people. Secondly, it is performed by the second sight, which is very various, and differs in most of the possessors, it being but a very little in some, very extensive and constant in others; beginning with some in their infancy, and leaving them before they come to years; happening to others in a middle age; to others again in an old age that never had it before, and lasting only for a term of years, and now and then for a very short period of time; and in some intermitting, like fits, as it were, of vision, that leave them for a time, and then return to be as strong in them as ever; and it being in a manner hereditary to some families, whose children have it from their infancy, without intermission, to a great old age, and even to the time of their death, which they often foretold, before it came to pass, to a day, nay even to an hour. Thirdly, it is attained by the diligent study of the lawful part of the art of magic.

Before I give the reader an account (as I shall