A modest vindication of the hermite of the Sounding Island in requital for the modest vindication of the Salamanca doctor from perjury by Bartholomew Lane ...

CHAP. VI. How the Hermite of the sounding Island determined the Controversie between Trifle and Toyle-brains two famous Philosophers, concerning the Number of the Inhabitants of the World; by which a notable Conjecture may be made at the Number of the Sands of the Sea.

IT was no small honor for the Hermite of the sounding Island to be made the Umpire between two such famous Philosophers as the profound Trifle and the far applauded Toyle-braines in a controversie touching the deepest Mysteries that ever Nature conceal'd, and therefore he readily undertook so fair a Province, from whence he hop'd the greatest Renown and Profit imaginable.

Now you must understand that the Philosopher Trifle had espyed by the help of his Microscope certain little Animals in the Milt of a Codfish; about which he was extreamly troubled in Conscience. For he thought he had found out the business; believing that the semen prolificans was a living Body of it self, composed of several other living Bodies, which Nature and Concupiscence together throwing into its pro∣per receptacle, form'd another single living Creature of many other living Creatures, thereby intimating that life was before life; and Democratically concluding that all liv∣ving Creatures were produced by a Conjunction of several living Democratical Atoms.

The Sieur Toyle-brains was monstrously perplexed in mind about the certain Num∣ber of Inhabitants that peopled the World. And these were the two Brain con∣founding doubts propounded by the two Philosophers to the Hermite of the Sound∣ing Island.

It required sometime for the Hermite to resolve these Delphic Questions, so that while he was inspecting the Milts of Codfish, Eeles, Pikes, Trouts, Dace and Mi∣nows, and surveying the Vasa Deferentia of Cats, Hogs and Dogs, Weezels, Dor∣mice, dead Fryers and departed Nuns, Turkies, Capons, Geese, Sparrows, Eagles and Titmise, the two Philosophers had time enough to build an Amphitheater as big as that at the ancient Nicomedia in Bithynia, sufficient to contain fourscore Thou∣sand Spectators.

Which being finished, and the Hermite having appointed the Day, Heavens! what a concourse of People was there to admire the Hermites Learning, almost enough to have satisfyed the Sieur Toyle-brains doubt, had they been told.

Silence being commanded, the Hermite first declared what great pains he had taken, then he told the Assembly, that he had viewed the Milt of a Codfish and that in the Juice of it he had discovered an infinite Number of live Animals continu∣ally moving to and fro: and that he judged their Number to be about ten Thousand. That in the semen of a Cock he had discovered about 50000. and that he heard them crow all at a time; and that in an Eele they wriggl'd very much, by which he conclu∣ded that all these Animals were of the Nature of the Creature to which they gave life; and that the Testicles of the several Creatures in the World were made for the production of those Animals, and to keep them till they were made use of.

Now then quoth the Hermite as to the second doubt, considering that in such a small, quantity of the juice of the milt of no bigger then a sand Cod-Fish, and there are more than 10000 small living Creatures, and considering how many such quantities may be contained in the whole milt, I do positively aver that the milt of one single Codfish contains more living Animals, then there are living men a•• one time upon the Face of the Earth.

For look yee, right Noble and right Reverend, a hundred Sands in length will make an Inch; so then in a cubic Inch you will have a Million of Sands. A milt of a Codfish is 15 Cubic Inches, containing 15 Millions of Quantities no bigger then a Sand. Now if there be 10000 in one Quantity, there will be in 15 Quantities 150000000000 to proceed then. The compass of the Earth is 5400 Dutch Miles, the Superficies 3092072 Miles. Now there are in Holland and Westfriesland, to my cer∣tain knowledge, not one more or less, 1000000 People; therefore demonstrably the whole surface of the inhabited World contains 13385000000 Millions of People.

When the Assembly heard the great Learning of the Hermite, and how Geometrical∣ly and Arithmetically he had resolved the Philosophers Riddles, there was such a hi∣deous shout that the very breath of the peoples throats darkened the Air for ten Hours. And such was the Fame and Renown of the Hermite, that the two great Philosophers Trifle and Toyle-brains could not think any recompence high enough for him. However at length they made a shift to raise as many Thirteen-pence half∣penies, as there were small Animals in the Milt of a Codfish, which they presented him as a Testimony of their gratitude for his indefatigable pains.