"They were sure no man alive ever writ such damn'd stuff
as this." Neither did I ever hear that opinion disputed: So that Mr.
Partridge lies under a dilemma, either of disowning his almanack, or
allowing himself to be "no man alive". But now if an uninformed
carcase walks still about, and is pleased to call itself Partridge, Mr.
Bickerstaff does not think himself any way answerable for that. Neither
had the said carcase any right to beat the poor boy who happen'd to pass
by it in the street, crying, "A full and true account of Dr. Partridge's
death, etc."

Secondly, Mr. Partridge pretends to tell fortunes, and recover stolen
goods; which all the parish says he must do by conversing with the
devil and other evil spirits: And no wise man will ever allow he could
converse personally with either, till after he was dead.

Thirdly, I will plainly prove him to be dead out of his own almanack for
this year, and from the very passage which he produces to make us think
him alive. He there says, "He is not only now alive, but was also alive
on the very 29th of March, which I foretold he should die on": By this,
he declares his opinion, that a man may be alive now, who was not
alive a twelvemonth ago. And indeed, there lies the sophistry of this
argument. He dares not assert, he was alive ever since that 29th of
March, but that he is now alive, and was so on that day: I grant the
latter; for he did not die till night, as appears by the printed account
of his death, in a letter to a lord; and whether he is since revived
I leave the world to judge. This indeed is perfect cavilling, and I am
ashamed to dwell any longer upon it.

Fourthly, I will appeal to Mr. Partridge himself, whether it be probable
I could have been so indiscreet, to begin my predictions with the only
falsehood that ever was pretended to be in them; and this in an affair
at home, where I had so many opportunities to be exact; and must have
given such advantages against me to a person of Mr. Partridge's wit and
learning, who, if he could possibly have raised one single objection
more against the truth of my prophecies, would hardly have spared me.

And here I must take occasion to reprove the above mention'd writer of
the relation of Mr. Partridge's death, in a letter to a lord; who was
pleased to tax me with a mistake of four whole hours in my calculation
of that event. I must confess, this censure pronounced with an air
of certainty, in a matter that so nearly