Page:Antidote to superstition, or, A cure for those weak minds which are troubled with the fear of, ghosts and witches (NLS104184264).pdf/21

( 21 ) that he would make a diſtinguiſhed figure and be advanced to a very eminent rank in that honourable profeſſion. In a word, Sir, there was nothing to be heard or ſeen in this company, but congratulations of good fortune, forming of ſchemes, hope, joy, exultation, or whatever can be conceived as pleaſing or agreeable: and if there be ſuch a thing as happineſs without reaſon, theſe were ſurely a ſet of the happieſt people that ever exiſted; though I muſt confeſs, I was frequently tempted to think, that their happineſs bore a very ſtrong reſemblance to that of the ſtraw-crowned monarch in Bedlam.

At laſt, our turn of being admitted arrived, and the young lady, as good manners required, was introduced firſt. After being cloſetted for about a quarter of an hour with this falſe Prophet, ſhe returned, and aſſured me, that he was certainly one of the moſt wonderful men in the world; for he had told her a thonſand things which ſhe thought no body had known but herſelf.

By this time, Sir, you will imagine, that my incredulity muſt have been, in ſome meaſure, removed, and that I was readily diſpoſed to believe the incoherent reveries of this ſolemn mocker; but ſo fully was I convinced of the fallacy of his art, that I offered to lay a wager, that he could not give a true and ſatisfactory anſwer to any ſingle