sons; that the young Lawyers in our Inns
of Court are continually setting us together by the Ears, and think
they do us no Hurt, because they plead for us without a Fee; That many
of the Gentlemen of the Robe have no other Clients in the World
besides us two; That when they have nothing else to do, they make us
Plaintiffs and Defendants, tho' they were never retained by either of
us; That they traduce, condemn, or acquit us, without any manner of
Regard to our Reputations and good Names in the World. Your
Petitioners therefore (being thereunto encouraged by the favourable
Reception which you lately gave to our Kinsman _Blank_) do humbly
pray, that you will put an End to the Controversies which have been so
long depending between us your said Petitioners, and that our Enmity
may not endure from Generation to Generation; it being our Resolution
to live hereafter as it becometh Men of peaceable Dispositions.

_And your Petitioners (as in Duty bound) shall ever Pray, &c._

* * * * *

No. 578. Monday, August 9, 1714.

'--Eque feris humana in corpora transit,
Inque feras Noster--'

Ovid.

There has been very great Reason, on several Accounts, for the learned
World to endeavour at settling what it was that might be said to compose
_personal Identity_.

Mr. _Lock_, after having premised that the Word _Person_ properly
signifies a thinking intelligent Being that has Reason and Reflection,
and can consider it self as it self; concludes That it is Consciousness
alone, and not an Identity of Substance, which makes this personal
Identity of Sameness. Had I the same Consciousness (says that Author)
that I saw the Ark and _Noah's_ Flood, as that I saw an Overflowing of
the _Thames_ last Winter; or as that I now write; I could no more doubt
that I who write this now, that saw the _Thames_ overflow last Winter,
and that viewed the Flood at the general Deluge, was the same _Self_,
place that _Self_ in what Substance you please, than that I who write
this am the same _My self_ now whilst I write, (whether I consist of all
the same Substance material or immaterial or no) that I was Yesterday;
For as to this Point of being the same _Self_, it matters not whether
this present _Self_ be made up of the same or other Substances.

I was mightily pleased with a Story in some Measure applicable to this
Piece of Philosophy, which I read th