roaring ... bull] Phalaris (d. c. 554 BC) was, according to legend a cruel tyrant who had commissioned a bronze bull in which to roast his victims alive. The first victim is said to have been Perillus, the inventor of the bull.

41

shape of... gods] Boyle was assisted in this dispute by dean Aldrich, Dr. Atterbury, afterwards Bishop of Rochester, and other persons at Oxford.

42

Desunt cætera] The rest is missing.

43

When visiting London in the first decade of the eighteenth century, Swift sometimes acted as family chaplain to the family of the Earl of Berkeley. He was often asked by Lady Berkeley to read aloud from various books of devotion and meditations, a task he did not enjoy. In order to avoid this task in future, Swift wrote and inserted his own “meditation” into the family copy of Robert Boyle’s Meditations, and read it aloud the next time he was called upon to assist with her ladyship’s devotions. Swift carried off the joke with a straight face, and Lady Berkeley learned of the trick only after praising “A Meditation upon a Broomstick” to friends. They, of course, had never heard of the essay, and when they opened the volume to examine it, they found Swift’s handwritten exercise.

44

two... pieces] this piece was preceded by two others in the anonymous first edition of A Tale of a Tub (1704).

45

This Discourse is not altogether equal to the two former, the best parts of it being omitted; whether the bookseller’s account be true, that he durst not print the rest, I know not; nor indeed is it easy to determine whether he may be relied on in anything he says of this or the former treatises, only as to the time they were writ in, which however appears more from the discourses themselves than his relation.

46

T. H. Esquire] possibly Thomas Hobbes.

47

Iroquois virtuosi] the Iroquois Indians in North America.

48

Gresham] the Royal Society’s headquarters was once in Gresham College, Broad Street, London.

49

Topinambou] an Indian tribe of Brazil.

50

Some writers hold them for the same, others not.

51

summum bonum] the highest good; that which is chiefly to be wished.

52

Macrocephali.

53

Round-heads] members of the Parliamentary party at the time of Charles I, referred to as “roundheads” because of their closely cropped hair.

54

Jauguis] Yogis.

55

Guagnini Hist. Sarmat. [Alexander Guagninus’ Sarmatine.]

56

cœlum empyrœum] the highest, empyrean heaven.

57

Dum... avidi] While scholars make the most hair-splitting distinctions about the right and wrong of our passions.

58

morsure] bite.

59

os sacrum] the sacrum bone (between the hips).

60

sir Humphrey Edwin] a Presbyterian who, ascending to the dignity of lord mayor of London, went in his official character to a meeting house.

61

The snuffling of men who have lost their noses by lewd courses [i.e., by contracting syphilis] is said to have given rise to that tone, which our dissenters did too much affect. W. WOTTON.

62

Herodot. [Herodotus (c. 484 BC—c. 430 BC)]

63