 within side.
    But when my father read on, and was let into the secret, that when a child
was turn'd topsy-turvy, which was easy for an operator to do, and was extracted
by the feet; - that instead of the cerebrum being propell'd towards the
cerebellum, the cerebellum, on the contrary, was propell'd simply towards the
cerebrum where it could do no manner of hurt: -- By heavens! cried he, the world
is in a conspiracy to drive out what little wit God has given us, - and the
professors of the obstetrick art are listed into the same conspiracy. - What is
it to me which end of my son comes foremost into the world, provided all goes
right after, and his cerebellum escapes uncrushed?
    It is the nature of an hypothesis, when once a man has conceived it, that it
assimilates every thing to itself, as proper nourishment; and, from the first
moment of your begetting it, it generally grows the stronger by every thing you
see, hear, read, or understand. This is of great use.
    When my father was gone with this about a month, there was scarce a
phænomenon of stupidity or of genius, which he could not readily solve by it; -
it accounted for the eldest son being the greatest blockhead in the family. -
Poor Devil, he would say, - he made way for the capacity of his younger
brothers. - It unriddled the observation of drivellers and monstrous heads, -
shewing, a priori, it could not be otherwise, - unless * * * * I don't know
what. It wonderfully explain'd and accounted for the acumen of the Asiatick
genius, and that sprightlier turn, and a more penetrating intuition of minds, in
warmer climates; not from the loose and common-place solution of a clearer sky,
and a more perpetual sun-shine, etc. - which, for aught he knew, might as well
rarify and dilute the faculties of the soul into nothing, by one extreme, - as
they are condensed in colder climates by the other; - but he traced up to its
spring-head; - shew'd that, in warmer climates, nature had laid a lighter tax
upon the fairest parts of the creation; - their pleasures more; - the necessity
of their pains less, insomuch that the pressure and resistance upon the vertex
was so slight, that the whole organization of the cerebellum was preserved; -
nay, he did not believe, in natural births, that so much as a single
