Nor must I here omit that beautiful Circumstance of his bursting out in Tears, upon his Survey of those innumerable Spirits whom he had involved in the same Guilt and Ruin with himself.

 —­He now prepared
  To speak; whereat their doubled ranks they bend
  From wing to wing, and half enclose him round
  With all his Peers:  Attention held them mute. 
  Thrice he assayed, and thrice in spite of Scorn
  Tears such as Angels weep, burst forth—­

The Catalogue of Evil Spirits has abundance of Learning in it, and a very agreeable turn of Poetry, which rises in a great measure from [its [1]] describing the Places where they were worshipped, by those beautiful Marks of Rivers so frequent among the Ancient Poets.  The Author had doubtless in this place Homers Catalogue of Ships, and Virgil’s List of Warriors, in his View.  The Characters of Moloch and Belial prepare the Readers Mind for their respective Speeches and Behaviour in the second and sixth Book.  The Account of Thammuz is finely Romantick, and suitable to what we read among the Ancients of the Worship which was paid to that Idol.

 —­Thammuz came next behind. 
  Whose annual Wound in Lebanon allured
  The Syrian Damsels to lament his fate,
  In amorous Ditties all a Summers day,
  While smooth Adonis from his native Rock
  Ran purple to the Sea, supposed with Blood
  Of Thammuz yearly wounded:  the Love tale
  Infected Zion’s Daughters with like Heat,
  Whose wanton Passions in the sacred Porch
  Ezekiel saw, when by the Vision led
  His Eye survey’d the dark Idolatries
  Of alienated Judah.—­

The Reader will pardon me if I insert as a Note on this beautiful Passage, the Account given us by the late ingenious Mr. Maundrell [2] of this Ancient Piece of Worship, and probably the first Occasion of such a Superstition.

We came to a fair large River—­doubtless the Ancient River Adonis, so famous for the Idolatrous Rites performed here in Lamentation of Adonis.  We had the Fortune to see what may be supposed to be the Occasion of that Opinion which Lucian relates, concerning this River, viz.  That this Stream, at certain Seasons of the Year, especially about the Feast of Adonis, is of a bloody Colour; which the Heathens looked upon as proceeding from a kind of Sympathy in the River for the Death of Adonis, who was killed by a wild Boar in the Mountains, out of which this Stream rises.  Something like this we saw actually come to pass; for the Water was stain’d to a surprizing Redness; and, as we observ’d in Travelling, had discolour’d the Sea a great way into a reddish Hue, occasion’d doubtless by a sort of Minium, or red Earth, washed into the River by the Violence of the Rain, and not by any Stain from Adonis’s Blood.

The Passage in the Catalogue, explaining the manner how Spirits transform themselves by Contractions or Enlargement of their Dimensions, is introduced with