The introduction is an account of the
editorial staff to wit, a learned divine who "hath entered with so much
discernment into the true spirit of the schoolmen, especially Thomas
Aquinas and Duns Scotus, that he is qualified to resolve, to a hair's
breadth, the nicest cases of conscience." A physician who "knows, to a
mathematical point, the just tone and harmony of the risings pulses...."
A lawyer who "what he this day has proved to be a contingent remainder,
to-morrow he will with equal learning show must operate as an executory
devise or as a springing use." A philosopher "able to give the true
reason of all things, from the composition of watches, to the raising of
minced pies ... and who, if he is closely questioned about the planner
of squaring the circle, or by what means the perpetual motion, or
longitude, may be discovered, we believe has honesty, and we are sure
that he has skill enough to say that he knows--nothing of the matter." A
moral philosopher who has "discovered a _perpetuum mobile_ of
government." An eminent virtuoso who understands "what is the best
pickle to preserve a rattle-snake or an Egyptian mummy, better than the
nature of the government he lives under, or the economy and welfare of
himself and family." Lastly, a _man of mode_. "Him the beaus and the
ladies may consult in the affairs of love, dress, and equipage."
There is a great deal of good answering to tolerably rational questions,
mixed with some attempts at humour, and other eccentricities, and
occasionally a freedom, both of question and answer, by which we might,
were it advisable, confirm the fact, that the decorums of 1736 and of
1850 are two different things.
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