clines us to recal paft fcenes of for- | hydropical, fhe calls for that from rows, adds to their number, and increafes their acrimony. which the ought to abftain, and instead of a medicine recurs to a poifon, In this ftate of diftrefs Walter persevered till his nails resembled the claws of an eagle, his beard that of a Jewish rabbi. His only fuftenance was bread and water, and his bed, which he would not fuffer to be made, was almost as hard as a stone?-Sleep, nature's foft reftorer, is feldom found in the regions of woe. She fled him, becaufe she seldom refts on the eye-lid which is wetted with a tear. Át length he was fo much emaciated by the fparenefs of his diet, and the agitation of his mind, that the domeftic, who braught him bread and water, and changed his taper, became apprehen After the last duties were paid to the reliques of his mother, Walter fhut himself up in the room wherein the had lain in state, keeping the fable hangings still up: the only light which he used was that of a fmall wax taper, in a favourite candlestick of his mother's; and the chair in which fhe ufed to fit was placed in that pofition at the table, when he had the pleasure of feeing her, and imbibing the precepts which she gave him for his future conduct. He recollected the circumftance, wrung his hands, melted into tears, and cried-" Where is the guide, the fupport, the companion of my youth-Why did I ever know-five of his life, and in his agonies ran why fhould I ever lofe her? Her dictates raised me above myself, her example ennobled me, and made me all that I was capable of being. Every power of my foul was expanded, was enlarged, and the fentiments- which nature had ftamped on my heart, were rendered legible to every one! What celeftial intercourfe has that chair, thefe tinfel ornaments, this table, on which the ufed to lean her elbow," This," cried he, " is a proper antiwhile fhe poured before me the fruits of experience! Ah! what celeftial intercourfe have they not been witnefs to and they are likewife witneffes now to her abfence! She has got the ftart of me in her career to heaven! She is gone, and has left me behind her! Her memory fhall be ever dear to my foul! Her memory fhall defraud death of his triumph, and bring her back from the grave 1-I till fee her That heavenly face, wrinkled with years, and crowned with grey hairs, is ftill before my eyes!-Never can I forget the vivacity of her apprehenfion, never the acuteness of her judgment, never the placid compofure and the indulgence of her temper!" After this foliloquy he read Young's Eftimate, which contributed to render "grief more grievous," for melancholy is generally fond of that which gives aliment and frength to itself: like the to his friend Lovejoy, begging him, in the most importunate manner, to refcue his master from the grave. Lovejoy enquired into the cause of his diftrefs, and found it neceffary to pour the balm of confolation into his bofom. He took his hat, and accompanied the domeftic. In the interval, Walter, looking around his room with haggard eyes— dote to the pomp, to the glitter of wealth, to the oftentation of the ambitious!. -The rofy lip, the snowy cheek, the fparkling eye muft come to this at laft!-The gilded dome, the gorgeous palace, and the monarch of the palace muft change his fplendid levee, to this fable, this awful fcene!But why fhould the fable scene be reckoned awful ?-A court is more awful by far! This engenders thought, this brings us to the regions of contemplation: contemplation teaches us what we are, teaches us to despise the tinfel of earthly grandeur, and wings the foul to heaven!--Awful, fable folitude, accept the vows of a new vo tary, who never (To be continued.) ROUS, New Tranflation of Rouffeau's Emilia. ROUSSEAU's EMILI A. A new Tranflation. Tif 285 moving and ftretching his limbs, before he is again put into fresh bonds. He is put into the cradle, with his head fixed, and his legs at their length, his arms hanging down at his fide: he is covered with linen, and cloaths of every fort, which hinder him from moving. Happy for him if he is not covered fo as to endanger ref-, piration, and if precaution enough has been taken to lay him on his fide, that his flavering may fall from his mouth without fuffocating him, for otherwise he would not have liberty to turn his head upon its fide to facilitate its running out *. O think only of preferving the life of the child is not fufficient; he ought to be taught to take care of himself when grown up, to bear the strokes of fortune, to brave riches and poverty, and to live, if it is neceffary, in the frozen island of Iceland, or upon the burning rock of Malta. It is ufelefs to take precautions to hinder his death; in fpite of them he muft die; and though his death, should not be occafioned by these cares of your's, A new-born child requires its limbs they would have been mifapp'ied. It to be stretched, to free them from that is of lefs confequence to hinder his torpid ftate, where, gathered into a death than to teach him to live. To heap, they have remained so long.live is not only to breathe, it is to act: They itretch † them, it is true, but it is to make ufe of our organs, of our they hinder them from moving: they fenfes, of our faculties, and of all our even chain the head by ftay-bands; parts which give us knowledge of our it looks as if they were afraid the existence. The man who has lived child should seem to be alive. Thus longeft, is not he who has lived the the impulfion of the inward parts of a moft years, but he who has moft en- body, which are growing, finds an injoyed life. Such a person was buried furmountable obitacle in the motions at an hundred years old, who died, in which it requires. The child makes a manner, as foon as he was born: it continually ufelefs efforts, which waste would have been better for him to its strength, or retard the progrefs of have died young, at leaft if he had its growth. It was lefs confined, lefs lived that great length of time. All troubled, and less preffed down in its our wifdom confifts in mean opinions; embryo ftate, than it is in its fwadall our customs are nothing but flave-dling linen, therefore I do not see what ry, trouble, and ceremony. A man, as it is now, is born, lives, and dies in flavery. At his birth he is crammed into a cradle; at his death he is nailed up in a coffin as long as he preferves the human fhape, he is clogged by our inftitutions. It is faid that many midwives pretend, by fmoothing the head over and over with their hands, to give new-born children better fhapes in that part of their body; and this is fuffered! Our heads would be very badly fhaped if they were formed by the author of our being, therefore we must have them fhaped on the outfide by widwives, and in the infide by philofophers!-The Hottentots are wiser than we ! Scarce is the child out of his mother's womb, and hardly does he enjoy the liberty of good it enjoys by being born. The tries This is taken from the Natural History of Mont. d: B --, Vol. IV. Page 190. The midwives or nurses. Monf. de Buffon makes many remarks upon this in his Natural Hiflory. At Siam, in Peru and in molt of the Indian countries, he fays the men are tall and strong, by being let go naked from their birth. He fays it is allo tries where the children are put into fwaddling cloaths, and stuffed into cradles, fwarm with hump-backed, lame, bow-legged, crooked, ricketty, and deformed people of every kind.For fear the body should be deformed by free motions, they fqueeze them up, and by that means make them more deformed than they would have otherwife been. They would willingly deprive them of the ufe of their limbs, to hinder them from being lame. Such a cruel restraint muft have fome influence over their tempers, as well as their conftitutions. Their first feelings are feelings of pain and reftraint; they find nothing but obftacles to all their motions which they have need of; more unhappy than a felon in irons, they make vain efforts, they grow angry and cry. Their firft utterance, you fay, is tears --I believe it. You teize them as foon as they are able to move: the first gifts they receive from you are chains: the first treatment that you give them are torments. Having nothing at liberty but their voice, what can they do elfe but make ufe of it to complain? They cry for the pain you make them endure thus muzzled up you would cry louder than they. From whence comes this unreafonable treatment?-From an unnatural cuftom. Since the time that mothers, defpifing their greatest duty, have been no longer willing to fuckle their children, it has been found neceflary to trust them to mercenary women, who finding themfelves, by this means, mothers to ftrange children, for whom nature fays nothing in their favour, have only fought to fave themfelves trouble. It would be neceffary to watch a child who is at liberty inceffantly; but when it is well tied up, it is flung into a corner without being regarded. Provided there is no proof of negligence against the nurfe, or provided that the child neither breaks its arms or its legs, what fignifies it to the purfe if it perishes, or remains infirm alfo the cafe with the mountaineers of Switzerlann. all its days. Its members are preferved at the expence of its body, and whatever happens, the nurfe is blamelefs. Thefe tender mothers, who, rid of their children, give themselves up entirely to the amufements of the town,do they, I fay, know, in the mean time, what treatment the child meets with in the village 6. For the leaft noise that he makes, they hang him up upon a nail, like a bundle of linen, and whilst the nurse, without hurrying herfelf, goes about minding her ufual bufinefs, the unhappy wretch remains crucified in this manner. All thofe who are found in this fituation, have always had their faces of a violet colour, and their breafts being ftrongly preffed down, hinders the blood from circulating, therefore it afcends into the head, and the patient has been thought very quiet, because he had not strength to cry. I do not know how many hours a child may remain in this fituation without dying, but I believe it cannot be many. This is, I think, one of the greateft conveniencies of fwaddling cloaths ||. (To be continued.) SKETCHES of BIOGRAPHY. NUMBER I. HOLT, Sir JOHN, Lord Chief Juftice of the Court of King's-Bench, bịn at Thame, in Oxfordshire, 1642. N% O chief juice, perhaps, ever continued in that poft fo long as lord chief juftice Holt did, his lordhip having maintained it twenty-two tion for his courage, integrity, and years fucceffively, with great reputacompleat knowledge in his profeffion. He applied himfelf with ty to the functions of his important office: he was a perfect mafter of the common law, and as his judgment was folid, his capacity vaft, and underftandand fuch a degree of refolution, as ing clear, fo had he a firmness of mind,' great affidui Answer to the Query refpelling the Planets. could never be brought to fwerve in the least from what he thought to be law and juftice: he had, upon great occafions, fhewn an intrepid (indignation of) zeal in afferting the authority of the law, for he ventured the indignation of both houfes of parliament by turns, when he thought the law was with him those who had the happinefs of living in his time were more immediately fenfible of his juftice, wisdom, and integrity. His advancement to the honourable station which he fo long and fo well filled, is an unerring proof that real merit will make its own way without any affiftance, without any little mean arts and affiduities, and that the only certain method to obtain true honour is to deferve it. ANON. (To be continued.) To the EDITOR of the LADY'S MA SIR, As GAZINE. 287 at various distances from that curve, and which can be no other than the tops of mountains. Sir Ifaac Newton mentions an atmosphere round the moon; other authors think there is reafon for the contrary: but that is no argument against the moon's being an habitable world, as it was doubtlefs as easy an exertion of Omnipotence to create beings capable of subfifting without air, as to replenish the water with inhabitants-and that we cannot live in that denfer medium, nobody ever thought of bringing as an argument to prove that the fish cannot. But this is not the cafe with refpect to the other planets: from several changeable spots upon their furface it is with reafon fuppofed that they are furrounded with an atmosphere. De la Hire discovered mountains in Venus; another aftronomer difcovered several fpots upon the furface of most of the planets, which kept a regular uniform motion from one fide to the other, a plain proof that they have a motion round their axis. That they are opake bodies, fhining with the fun's borrowed light, is proved from this ; only that part of the inferior planets that are turned towards the fun is found to fhine, confequently they ap pear with different phafes, like the moon, It is evident Jupiter is an o SI was gazing the other night upon the planet Jupiter, which, with the whole fpangled canopy of heaven, fhone in its full luftre, I recollected the requeft of your corref pondent Amelia, and refolved through the channel of your Magazine to give her my fentiments upon the fubject. The question was, Whether the pla-pake body, from the fhadow of his fanets, and other luminous bodies, are habitable worlds? The moon is by far the nearest to us of any of the planets, and it is by obfervations upon her different phafes and appearances that we are to form our conjectures, for a probable conjecture is the highest degree of certainty we can expect to arrive at upon thefe fubjects. That the surface of the moon is not fmooth or even, but interfperfed with hills, vales, mountains, cavities, feas, &c. is obvious to any one who looks at it through a telescope. It is demonftrable that there are a variety of hills and mountains by the irregular curve which bounds the enlightened part of the moon, and by small luminous fpots, which appear ftanding out tellites appearing on the body of the planet when they get between that and the fun; and fince Saturn fhines with fo faint a light, far fainter than the fixed ftars, or than the other planets, it being placed farther from the fun than any, it might rationally be concluded that Saturn is an opake body, and borrows all its luftre from the fun. And now, fince it has been proved by the best and most learned aftronomers that the planets are opake bo dies, that they are encompaffed by changeable atmospheres, blessed with the revolution of day and night, fummer and winter, furnished with mountains, valleys, feas, &c. what should hinder the fuppofition that the planets are habitable worlds? Does it not e large our ideas of the power, wisdom, and greatnefs of the Omnipotent Creator, to behold millions of worlds (for the fixed ftars are with juftice fuppofed to be funs, the centres to other fyftems) all rejoicing in the unbounded goodness of one all-powerful, all-wife, and all-gracious Being?" When I confider the heavens which thou haft created, the moon and ftars which thou haft ordained, Lord, what is man that thou art mindful of him, or the fon of man that thou vifiteft him?" Yet let not any humble foul, ftruck with the immenfity of the Creator's works, give room to the idea of being overlooked or neglected. Let it remember that not a fparrow. falls to the ground without the permiffion of our heavenly father; and that though his works are too vaft for our finite capacities to comprehend, his omnipotent goodness pervades the whole. I have thus, Mr. Editor, in a hafty Your most obedient, A RECEIPT for an infalible MEDI- TA A fpoonful of this electuary, regularly taken every day, will create as much happiness as our conftitutions are capable of at present. Probatum eft. N. B. If any of thefe ingredients are left out, the medicine will not operate effectually to procure the full quantity of happiness; and if fome of them are too predominant, it will be hurtful to the patient, and muft be fucceeded by the bitters of repentance. J. S. To the EDITOR of the LADY's Ma I SIR, GAZINE. N anfwer to Charlotte H-d's enquiry concerning the phænomenon of a rainbow, the following concife, but clear folution, will, I prefume, be fatisfactory. A rainbow is a parti-coloured meteor in the form of a femicircle, and makes its appearance in a rainy sky, oppofite the fun, occafioned by the refraction of its rays in drops of falling rain. I am, Sir, a new, and (if encouraged by the infertion of this) a future correfpondent. JUVENIS. Query on the CONVERSATION, or TICK- A Conftant reader of your Magazinc, begs leave to ask your correfpondent, who has favoured us with an account of the SPIDER, page 179, if they have, at any time in their employment, been heard to make a noife? The reafon, Sir, of my troubling you with this question is, that I live in the AKE of volatile pleasures, the country in an old houfe, and frequentcordials of the table, the confec-ly in the year hear a disagreeable ticktions of buildings, and all works of ing noife, fimilar to a watch, only art, munificence and benevolence, fix- ccafing a little, and then ticking again ed economy, rectified fpirits of ambi- for perhaps a day and a night at one tion, and the extract of philofophy, time, which, I am told, proceeds from of each a proper quantity. Mix them a fmall fpider; but as I never could all well together, and work them up find it, although I often fought after into an electuary with the fyrup of re- it, I fhall be glad to hear it confirmed ligion, made of the flowers of morali- or contradicted by thofe who have ty, and heightened with the pure ef- made the natural hiftory of those anince of Chriftianity. mals a part of their study. |