Page 586

586                              THIE DOCTOR.
stored the stomach Well for the expenditure  and much the largest consisted
of fire. The
which was to be required from it, the patient eleven shells were so many
leaves one in-
was then to lay himself on a pillow across a  closing the other, circle within
circle, like a
chair, and produce the desired effect either nest of boxes. The first of
these was the
by his fingers or by feathers dipped in oil. first heaven, wherein the Moon
bath her ap-
After this rude operation, which was to re- pointed place, the second that
of the planet
fresh the brain and elevate the pia mater, Mercury, the third that of Venus;
the
the stomach was to be comforted.          fourth was the circle of the Sun;
Mars,
To bathe the whole body with white wine  Jupiter and Saturn moved in the
fifth, sixth
was another mode of invigorating the pia  and seventh; the eighth was the
starry sky;
mater; for there it was that all maladies the ninth the chrystalline; the
tenth the
originate(l, none from the liver; the nature  primum mobile, which imparted
motion to
of the liver, said she, is that it cannot err; all; and the eleventh was
the immobile, or
es docta sin doctor.                      empyreum, surrounding all, containing
all,
The latter treatises in her book are in  and bounding all; for beyond this
there was
Latin, but she not unfrequently passes, as if no created thing, either good
or evil.
unconsciously, into her own language, writ-  A  living writer of no ordinary
powers
ing always livelily and forcibly, with a clear agrees in this conclusion
with the old philo-
perception of the fallacy of the established  sophers whom Doiia Oliva followed;
and in
system, and with a confidence, not so well declaring his opinion he treats
the men of
founded, that she had discovered the real science with as much contempt as
they be-
nature of man, and thereby laid the founda- stow upon their unscientific
predecessors in
tion of a rational practice, conformable to it. astronomy.
Reader, if thou art capable of receiving
pleasure from such speculations, (and if thou
art not, thou art little better than an Oran-
CHAPTER CCXVIII.                 Otang,) send for a little book entitled
the
" Progress of the Human Mind, its objects,
TuE MNDAN  5Y5EM A COMONLYHELD condiltions and  issue: with the relation
IN D, OLIVA' S AGE. MODERN OBJECTIONS   codtin    an   isu:wt.terlto
TO A PLURA'ITY OF WORLDS BY THE REV. which the Progress of Religion bears
to the
JAMES MILLER.                          general growth of mind; by the Rev.
James
Miller." Send also for the " Sibyl's Leaves,
Un cerchio immaginatoci bisogna,     or the Fancies, Sentiments and Opinions
of
A voter ben lta spea csontLpolare;  Silvanus, miscellaneous, moral and religious,"
Coii chi inteoder questez i/aria agogna
Conviensi cltteo per altro immaginare;  by the same author, the former published
in
Perche qui non si canta, efinge, e sogna;  1823, the latter in 1829. Very
probably
Venuat e it tempo da~filasofar e. PuLci.
you may never have heard of either: but if
ONE of Doiia Oliva's treatises is upon the  you are a buyer of books, I say
unto you,
Compostura del Mundo, which may best be  buy them both.
interpreted the Mundane System; herein      "Infinity," says this
very able and ori-
she laid no claim to the merit of discovery, ginal thinker, " is the
retirement in which
only to that of briefly explaining what had  perfect love and wisdom only
dwell with
been treated of by many before her. The   God.
mundane system she illustrates by compar-   "In Infinity and Eternity
the sceptic sees
ing it to a large ostrich's egg, with three  an abyss in which all is lost:
I see in them
whites and eleven shells, our earth being the  the residence of Almighty
Power, in which
yolk. The water, which according to this my reason and my wishes find equally
a firm
theory surrounded the globe, she likened to  support. -  here holding by
the pillars oi
the first or innermost albumen; the second HIeavon, I exist - I stand fast.
and more extensive was the air ; the third   Surround our material system
with a
I -