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ALEXANDER WHISTELO. 591

dancing master it had, I would not undertake to say: it was,
however, a merry-begotten devil, and probably a dancing
one; and it is not impossible that it might have been one of
those that tempted Saint Anthony, twenty thousand of whom
it is said could dance a saraband upon the point of a eambric
needle without incommoding each other.

That the learned sometimes account for things quite dif-
ferently from the rest of mankind, will appear from the
sequel of the story of the lady of Milan and her seven sons.
There was a tattle when I was at Milan, but as those who be-
lieved it had not read Simon Pontins de Coloribus oculoram,
it may be entitled to small credit. There was, they said, in
those days, a young Seotch laird, blue-eyed, and red-haired,
whe made the tour of Italy, to see pictures and statues, and
Kiss the Pope's toe; but that his devotion was principally
warmed by the image of this cis-alpine saint; that he came at
different times to worship at her shrine, and finally, that it
was he who recommended the milk that turned the children’s
hair red.

So much for maternal affection with human kind, But as
there is a comparative anatomy, why not comparative zool-
ogy! end, unfortunately for the pride of man, in the act on
which our philosophers and doctors have delivered their
opinion, the similiarity is entire. Poets have viewed it in
the same light; and the prince of poets defines it to be mak-
ing the beast with two backs. He, too, by the bye, was for
the maternal affection, for he makes Iago alarm Brabantio,
lest Desdemona should ‘‘be got with child of a Barbary
horse,’’? and he should have ‘‘coursers for cousins and gen-
nets for german.’? It was conformable to that idea that I
asked Dr, Mitchill whether the farmers on Long Island could
reasonably expect to have a bay foal when they plonghed
the black mare with the bay horse. He saw no more wonder
than that a dlack hen should have a white egg, and then
would have been the time, but for the fear of lengthening out
the trial too far, to have discussed the great problem of the
eternity of the world, which many venerable philosophers,

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