ver forget to have a penny, when all thy expences are enumerated and paid: then fhalt thou reach the point of happiness, and independence fhall be thy fhield and buckler, thy helmet and crown; then fhall thy foul walk upright, nor ftoop to the filken wretch because he hath riches, nor pocket an abuse because the hand which offers it wears a ring fet with diamonds. AN AN ECONOMICAL PROJECT. [A Tranflation of this letter appeared in one of the Daily Papers of Paris about the Fear 1784. The following is the Original Piece, with fome Additions and Corrections made in it by the Author.] TO THE AUTHORS OF THE JOURNAL MESSIEURS, YOU often entertain us with accounts of new difcoveries. Permit me to communicate to the public, through your paper, one that has lately been made by myfelf, and which I conceive may be of great utility. I was the other evening in a grand company, where the new lamp of Meffrs. Quinquet and Lange was introduced, and much admired for its fplendor; but a general enquiry was made, whe ther the oil it confumed was not in proportion to the light it afforded, in which cafe there would be no faving in the use of it. No one prefent could fatisfy us in that point, which all agreed ought to be known, it being a very defirable thing to leffen, if poffible, the expence of lighting our apartments, when every other article of family expence was fo much augmented. I was pleased to fee this general concern for œconomy; for I love œconomy exceedingly. I went home, and to bed, three or four hours after midnight, with my head full of the fubject. An accidental fudden noife waked me about fix in the morning, when I was furprized to find my 02 room room filled with light; and I imagined at first, that a number of thofe lamps had been brought into it: but, rubbing my eyes, I perceived the light came in at the windows. I got up and looked out to fee what might be the occafion of it, when I faw the fun juft rifing above the horizon, from whence he poured his rays plentifully into my chamber, my domeftic having negligently omitted the preceding evening to clofe the fhut ters. I looked at my watch, which goes very well, and found that it was but fix o'clock; and ftill thinking it fomething extraordinary that the fun fhould rife fo early, I looked into the almanack, where I found it to be the hour given for his ri fing on that day. I looked forward too, and found he was to rife ftill earlier every day till towards the end of June; and that at no time in the year he retarded his rifing fo long as till eight o'clock. Your readers, who with me have never feen any figns of funfhine before noon, and seldom regard the aftronomical part of the almanack, will be as much aftonished as I was, when they hear of his rifing fo early; and efpecially when I affure them, that he gives light as foon as he rifes. I am convinced of this. I am certain of my fact. One cannot be more certain of any fact. I faw it with my own eyes. And having repeated this obfervation the three following mornings, I found always precifely the fame refult. Yet fo it happens, that when I speak of this discovery to others, I can eafily perceive by their countenances, though they forbear expreffing it in words, that they do not quite believe me. One, indeed, who is a learned natural philofopher, has affured me, that I muft certainly be mistaken as to the circumftance of the light coming into my room; for it being well known, as he fays, that there there could be no light abroad at that hour, it follows that none could enter from without; and that of confequence, my windows being accidentally left open, inftead of letting in the light, had only ferved to let out the darkness: and he used many ingenious arguments to fhew me how I might, by that means, have been deceived. I own that he puzzled me a little, but he did not fatisfy me; and the fubfequent obfervations I made, as above mentioned, confirmed me in my first opinion. This event has given rife, in my mind, to several ferious and important reflections. I confidered that, if I had not been awakened fo early in the morning, I fhould have flept fix hours longer by the light of the fun, and in exchange have lived fix hours the following night by candlelight; and the latter being a much more expenfive light than the former, my love of oeconomy induced me to mufter up what little arithmetic I was mafter of, and to make fome calculations, which I fhall give you, after obferving, that utility is, in my opinion, the teft of value in matters of invention, and that a discovery which can be applied to no ufe, or is not good for fomething, is good for nothing. I took for the bafis of my calculation the fupposition that there are 100,000 families in Paris, and that thefe families confume in the night half a pound of bougies, or candles, per hour. I think this is a moderate allowance, taking one family with another; for though I believe fome confume lefs, I know that many confume a great deal more. Then eftimating feven hours per day, as the medium quantity between the time of the fun's rifing and ours, he rifing during the fix fol, lowing months from fix to eight hours before noon, and there being seven hours of course per night night in which we burn candles, the account will ftand thus In the fix months between the twentieth of March and the twentieth of September, there are Nights Hours of each night in which we burn candles Multiplication gives for the total Thefe 1,281 hours multiplied by 183 7 1,281 128,100,000 64,050,000 96,075,000 An immenfe fum! that the city of Paris might fave every year, by the economy of ufing funthine inftead of candles. If it fhould be faid, that people are apt to be obftinately attached to old cuftoms, and that it will be difficult to induce them to rife before noon, confequently my difcovery can be of little ufe; I anfwer, Nil defperandum. I believe all who have common fenfe, as foon as they have learnt from this paper that it is day-light when the fun rifes, will contrive to rife with him; and, to |