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The History of the Life and Adventures of Mr. Duncan Campell A Gentlen, who, tho' Deaf and Dumb, Writes down any Stranger's name at first Sight; By: Daniel Defoe (1661?-1731) |
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HISTORY OF THE LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF MR. DUNCAN CAMPBELL,
A Gentleman, who, tho' Deaf and Dumb, writes down any Stranger's
name at first Sight; with their future Contingencies of Fortune.
Now Living In Exeter Court over against the Savoy in the
Strand .
Gentem quidem nullam video neque tam humanam atque doctam;
nequtam immanem tamque barbaram, quæ non significari futura et a
quie busdam intelligi prædicique posse censeat. Cicero de Divinatione, lib. x.
LONDON :
Printed for E. CURLL: And sold by W. MEARS and T. JAUNCY, without
Temple Bar , W. MEADOWS in Cornhill , A. BETTESWORTH in
Pater Noster Row . W. LEWIS in Covent Garden and W. GRAVES in
St. James's Street. M.DCC.XX. (Price 5 s. )
TO THE
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN
OF
GREAT BRITAIN.
I am not unacquainted, that, ever since this book was first promised by
way of advertisement to the world, it was greedily coveted by a great
many persons of airy tempers, for the same reason that it has been
condemned by those of a more formal class, who thought it was calculated
partly to introduce a great many new and diverting curiosities in the
way of superstition, and partly to divulge the secret intrigues and
amours of one part of the sex, to give the other part room to make
favourite scandal the subject of their discourse; and so to make one
half of the fair species very merry, over the blushes and the
mortifications of the other half. But when they come to read the
following sheets, they will find their expectations disappointed, but I
hope I may say too, very agreeably disappointed. They will find a much
more elegant entertainment than they expected. Instead of making them a
bill of fare out of patchwork romances of polluting scandal, the good
old gentleman who wrote the Adventures of my Life, has made it his
business to treat them with a great variety of entertaining passages,
which always terminate in morals that tend to the edification of all
readers, of whatsoever sex, age, or profession. Instead of seducing
young, innocent, unwary minds into the vicious delight which is too
often taken in reading the gay and bewitching chimeras of the cabalists,
and in perusing the enticing fables of new invented tricks of
superstition, my ancient friend, the writer, strikes at the very root of
these superstitions, and shows them how they may be satisfied in their
several curiosities, by having recourse to me, who by the talent of the
second sight, which he so beautifully represents, how nature is so kind
frequently to implant in the minds of men born in the same climate with
myself, can tell you those things naturally, which when you try to learn
yourselves, you either run the hazard of being imposed upon in your
pockets by cheats, gipsies, and common fortune tellers, or else of being
imposed upon in a still worse way, in your most lasting welfare, by
having recourse to conjurors or enchanters that deal in black arts, and
involve all their consulters in one general partnership of their
execrable guilt; or, lastly, of imposing worst of all upon your own
selves, by getting into an itch of practising and trying the little
tricks of female superstition, which are often more officiously handed
down by the tradition of credulous nurses and old women, from one
generation to another, than the first principles of Christian doctrine,
which it is their duty to instil early into little children. But I hope
when this book comes to be pretty generally read among you ladies, as by
your generous and numerous subscriptions I have good reason to expect,
that it will afford a perfect remedy and a thorough cure to that
distemper, which first took its rise from too great a growth of
curiosity, and too large a stock of credulity nursed prejudicially up
with you in your more tender and infant years. Whatever young maid hereafter has an innocent but longing desire to know
who shall be her husband, and what time she shall be married, will, I
hope, when she has read the following sheets of a man that can set her
right in the knowledge of those points, purely by possessing the gift of
the second sight, sooner have recourse innocently to such a man than use
unlawful means to acquire it, such as running to conjurors to have his
figure shown in their enchanted glasses, or using any of those
traditional superstitions, by which they may dream of their husbands, or
cause visionary shapes of them to appear on such and such festival
nights of the year; all which practices are not ordinarily wicked and
impious, but downright diabolical... Continue reading book >>
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