What is come to the Man? How should such a ridiculous Design ramble into his Head? And is it not equally absurd to publish the Works of Hippocrates, who neither knew the Use of the Pulse, though as necessary in Physick as the Compass in Navigation, nor the Circulation of the Blood, nor the Benefits of Chymistry, for the Advancement of the Art of curing Diseases, and the Direction of Physicians at this Time, who are Masters of all this Knowledge, and a great deal more, of which the Greek Author was destitute? Suppose likewise that any Man was acquainted with the Model of the first Boats and Ships, whether built by the Argonauts or any before them, or of the original Contrivance of the Junks and Canows employed by the Indians, and should write a curious History of this Invention, and declare that he designed it for the Benefit and Instruction of the Builders in his Majesty’s Docks, and the Service of the Royal Navy; I cannot imagine that he would be much respected and applauded as their Benefactor, by our Master Shipwrights. Many more Instances might be insisted on, as the Art of making Clocks, and that of comick and tragick Poetry in their first Rise,
