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The whole art of flea-botomizing!—

And with it oft inoculated

(At which friend Jenner’ll be elated)

Flies, fleas, and gnats, with cow-pock matter,

And not one soul took small-pox a’ter!—

Could take a microscopic mite,

Invisible to naked sight;

Ad infinitum, could divide it,

For times unnumber’d have I tried it.

With optic glass, of great utility,

Could make the essence of nihility

To cut a most enormous figure,

As big as St Paul’s church, or bigger!

Could tell, and never be mistaken,

What future oaks were in an acorn;

And even calculate, at pleasure,

The cubic inches they would measure.

Scotland could never boast a wight,

Could match OURSELF at second sight.[12]

Nor Wales a wizard, who so well

Could destiny’s decrees foretel.

For we’d a precious knack at seeing,

Not only matters not in being,

But ever and anon would still be

Foreseeing things which never will be—[13]

Great manufacturer of weather

Nine Lapland witches, clubb’d together,

With all the elements a stewing,

Are not our match at tempest brewing.