; laying his tail upon a wasp's nest and then rubbing it
hard against a tree, thus catching the wasps so killed; ridding himself of
fleas by gradually going into the water with a lock of wool in his mouth,
and so driving the fleas up into it and then leaving it in the water; by
catching crab fish with his tail, which he saith he himself was a witness
of.--_Derham's Physico-Theology_, book iv. chap. 11., and _Ol. Mag. Hist._
lib. xviii. cap. 39, 40.--Peruse this ye incredulous lectors of Baron
Munch-Hausen, and Colonel Nimrod. Talk no more of the fertile genius of our
Yankee brethren, but candidly admit ye are blameworthy for withholding
credence to matters which rather border on the marvellous.

* * * * *

Had man been a dwarf he could not have been a rational creature; for he
must then have had a jolt head, so there would not have been body and blood
enough to supply his brain with spirits, or he must have had a small head
answerable to his body, and so there would not have been brain enough for
his business.--_Grew's Cosmol. Sacr._ book i. chap. v.

Had the calf of the leg been providentially and prominently placed
_before_, instead of being preposterously and prejudicially placed
_behind_, it had been evidently better; forasmuch as the human shin-bone
could not then have been so easily broken,--_Dr. Moreton's Beauty of the
Human Structure_, page 62.--What a pity it is that these two learned and
self-sufficient authors, were not consulted in the formation of their own
persons: doubtless they could have suggested many improvements, and would
have felt all the advantages with due effect--probably they might have
liked their heads to screw on and off like Saint Denis, of France, who
frequently carried his under his arm.

* * * * *

The City of London is the largest city in the world, and the people of
London the wisest--_Wilson's Candid Traveller_, page 42.--Mark this, ye who
are levelling your _leaden_ wit at the worthy aldermen and cits of this
"large" and "wise" metropolis.

* * * * *

At the famous battle of Crescy, gained by Edward III., notwithstanding a
vast carnage of the French, and an infinite number of prisoners, the
English lost only one 'squire, three knights, and a few of inferior
rank.--_History of England, by Goldsmith._

At the battle of Agincourt, gained by Henry V. the French lost ten thousand
men