DICKORY CRONKE
DICKORY CRONKE
THE
DUMB PHILOSOPHER,
OR,
GREAT BRITAIN’S WONDER;
CONTAINING:
I. A faithful and very surprising Account how Dickory Cronke, a
Tinner’s son, in the County of Cornwall, was born Dumb, and
continued so for Fifty-eight years; and how, some days before he
died, he came to his Speech; with Memoirs of his Life, and the
Manner of his Death.
II. A Declaration of his Faith and Principles in Religion; with a
Collection of Select Meditations, composed in his Retirement.
III. His Prophetical Observations upon the Affairs of Europe, more
particularly of Great Britain, from 1720 to 1729. The whole
extracted from his Original Papers, and confirmed by unquestionable
Authority.
TO WHICH IS ANNEXED HIS ELEGY,
WRITTEN BY A YOUNG CORNISH GENTLEMAN, OF
EXETER COLLEGE IN OXFORD.
WITH
AN EPITAPH BY ANOTHER HAND.
“Non quis, sed quid.”
LONDON:
Printed for and Sold by THOMAS BICKERTON, at
the Crown, in Paternoster Row. 1719.
PREFACE
The formality of a preface to this little book might have been very
well omitted, if it were not to gratify the curiosity of some
inquisitive people, who, I foresee, will be apt to make objections
against the reality of the narrative.
Indeed the public has too often been imposed upon by fictitious
stories, and some of a very late date, so that I think myself
obliged by the usual respect which is paid to candid and impartial
readers, to acquaint them, by way of introduction, with what they
are to expect, and what they may depend upon, and yet with this
caution too, that it is an indication of ill nature or ill manners,
if not both, to pry into a secret that is industriously concealed.
However, that there may be nothing wanting on my part, I do hereby
assure the reader, that the papers from whence the following sheets
were extracted, are now in town, in the custody of a person of
unquestionable reputation, who, I will be bold to say, will not
only be ready, but proud, to produce them upon a good occasion, and
that I think is as much satisfaction as the nature of this case
requires.
As to the performance, it can signify little now to make an apology
upon that account, any farther than this, that if the reader
pleases he may take notice that what he has now before him was
collected from a large bundle of papers, most of which were writ in
shorthand, and very ill-digested. However, this may be relied
upon, that though the language is something altered, and now and
then a word thrown in to help the expression, yet strict care has
been taken to speak the author’s mind, and keep as close as
possible to the meaning of the original. For the design, I think
there is nothing need be said in vindication of that. Here is a
dumb philosopher introduced to a wicked and degenerate generation,
as a proper emblem of virtue and morality; and if the world could
be persuaded to look upon him with candour and impartiality, and
then to copy after him, the editor has gained his end, and would
think himself sufficiently recompensed for his present trouble.
PART I
Among the many strange and surprising events that help to fill the
accounts of this last century, I know none that merit more an
entire credit, or are more fit to be preserved and handed to
posterity than those I am now going to lay before the public.
Dickory Cronke, the subject of the following narrative, was born at
a little hamlet, near St. Columb, in Cornwall, on the 29th of May,
1660, being the day and year in which King Charles the Second was
restored. His parents were of mean extraction, but honest,
industrious people, and well beloved in their neighbourhood. His
father’s chief business was to work at the tin mines; his mother
stayed at home to look after the children, of which they had
several living at the same time. Our Dickory was the youngest, and
being but a sickly child, had always a double portion of her care
and tenderness.
It was upwards of three years before it was discovered that he was