"Really," resumed the traveller, "I am sorry to see a gentleman of your learning and gravity labouring under such strange blindness and delusion. Will you place the brief, the modern, and, as I may say, the vernacular name of Isaac Newton in opposition to the grave and sonorous authorities of Dariot, Bonatus, Ptolemy, Haly, Eztler, Dietirick, Naibod, Harfurt, Zael, Taustettor, Agrippa, Duretus, Maginus, Origen, and Argol? Do not Christians and Heathens, and Jews and Gentiles, and poets and philosophers, unite in allowing the starry influences?"
"Communis error—it is a general mistake," answered the inflexible Dominie Sampson.
"Not so," replied the young Englishman, "it is a general and well-grounded belief."
"It is the resource of cheaters, knaves, and cozeners," said Sampson.
"Abusus non tollit usum. The abuse of
