CENTER [ 131 ] [Double Rule] CENTER A CENTER FANTASTIC [Double line capital]Is one that wears his Feather on the Ins_ide of his Head. His Brain is like Quicks_ilver, apt to receive any Impres_s_ion, but retain none. His Mind is made of changeable Stuff, that alters Colour with every Motion towards the Light. He is a Cormorant, that has but one Gut, devours every Thing greedily, but it runs through him immediately. He does not know s_o much as what he would be, and yet would be every Thing he knows. He is like a Paper- Lanthorn, that turns with the Smoak of a Candle. He wears his Cloaths, as the antient Laws of the Land have provided, according to his Quality, that he may be known what he is by them; and it is as eas_y to decipher him by his Habit as a [i] Pudding. He is rigg'd with Ribbon, and his Garniture is his Tackle; #Center K2 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 132 #Center A FANTASTIC. all the res_t of him is Hull. He is s_ure to be the earlies_t in the Fas_hion, as others are of a Faction, and glories as much to be in the Head of a Mode, as a Solider does to be in the Head of an Army. He is admirably s_kil- ful in the Mathematics of Cloaths; and can tell, at the firs_t View, whether they have the right Symmetry. He alters his Gate with the Times, and has not a Motion of his Body, that (like a Dottrel) he does not borrow from s_ome- body els_e. He exercis_es his Limbs, like the Pike and Mus_ket, and all his Pos_tures are prac- tis_ed--Take him all together, and he is nothing but a Trans_lation, Word for Word, out of [i] French, [i] an Image cas_t in Plas_ter of [i] Paris, [i] and a Puppet s_ent over for others to dres_s thems_elves by. He s_peaks [i] French, [i] as Pedants do [i] Latin, [i] to s_hew his Breeding; and mos_t naturally, where he is leas_t unders_tood. All his non-Na_ turals, on which his Health and Dis_eases de- pend, are [i] s_tile novo. French [i] is his Holiday-Lan- guage, that he wears for his Pleas_ure and Or- nament, and us_es [i] English [i] only for his Bus_ines_s and neces_s_ary Occas_ions. He is like a [i] Scotch- man, [i] though he is born a Subject of his own ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CENTER A FANTASTIC. 133. Nation, he carries a [i] French [i] faction within him. #indent He is never quiet, but s_its as the Wind is s_aid to do, when it is mos_t in Motion. His Head is as full of Maggots as a Pas_toral Poet's Flock. He was begotten, like one of Pliny's Portugues_e Hors_es, by the Wind--The Truth is he ought not to have been reared; for being calved in the Increas_e of the Moon, he Head is troubled with a --- N.H. The las_t Word not legible. #Center K3 ------------------------------------------------------------------------