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 it is visible in every Feature of his Countenance. Others think, that ill Nature, join'd to a Sense of his own Ignorance, is the Cause of it; which makes him strive to make others appear as ignorant as he is persuaded that he himself is: But to this is objected, that Criticks are very conceited, or at least seem so, of their own Abilities. The most rational Account of this is founded upon an Explication of the natural Cause of it, by the Observations which were made upon the Brain of one of those Animals: It was observ'd that there were many little Animals not unlike those found in Books, which we call Book-Worms, running about the pineal Gland. From whence the Anatomist argues thus: Since the Seat of the Soul is in the pineal Gland, because it is allow'd to be wholly in the whole Body, and wholly in every Part, or, to use their Words, who deny the first Position, that it is Totum in toto, & totum in qualibet parte, it follows, that those little Animals which inhabit the pineal Gland, must affect the whole Soul. But still the Question is, Why those little Animals, by thus affecting the whole Soul, should make a Man a Critick?

To which I answer, that bad Company will spoil any Man, and soon make him of their Principles. Now every Body allows, that it is the chief Business of those Animals to make Holes in all the Books they come at, never considering whether the thethe [sic] Book they lite on deserves such Treatment, or not; and that the Soul is continually affected by these Animals, may be thus proved: Experience convinces us, that it is possible for larger Animals to get into the Brain; but those larger Animals must leave a sensible Mark of their Entry, which the Book-Worms do not. But why should we wonder that we do not perceive the Holes by which they enter, since we cannot perceive the Holes through which the Rays of Light pass? And to make this