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for the delicacy of their wit and Horatian irony, to be ranged with the pureft claffics of the courts of Auguftus and Louis quatorze. His papers in Common Senfe and The World might have given jealoufy to the fenfitive Addifon; and though they do not rival that original writer's fund of natural humour, they must be allowed to touch with confummate knowledge the affected manners of high life. They are fhort fcenes of genteel comedy, which, when perfect, is the most rare of all productions.

His papers in recommendation of Johnfon's Dictionary were models of that polifhed elegance which the pedagogue was pretending to afcertain,

and which his own ftyle was always heaving to overload with tautology and the moft barbarous confufion of tongues. The friendly patronage

was returned with ungrateful rudenefs by the proud pedant; and men fmiled, without being furprized, at feeing a bear worry his dancing-mafter.

Even Lord Chefterfield's poetical trifles, of which a few fpecimens remain in fome fongs and epigrams, were marked by his idolized graces, and with his acknowledged wit. His fpeeches courted the former, and the latter never forfook him to his latest hours. His entrance into the world was announced by his bonmots, and his clofing lips dropped repartees that fparkled with his Juvenile fire,

DESCRIPTION OF THE VIEW.

THIS HIS curious remain of antiquity is fituated near the Weft end of Craigmadee Moor, on the eftate of Peter Bannatyne, Efq. of Orchard, in the parish of Baldernock, Stirlingfhire, and lying nearly due north of the city of Glafgow, at the diftance of betwixt 8 and 9 miles. It confifts of three ftones, of a very large fize; two of which, as will appear from the plate, are lying upon the earth; the other is fupported by thefe, in a horizontal pofition. The two lower ftones approaches nearer to a prifmatic figure than any other. The up. per ftone is of a rhomboidal form, having its longitudinal diameter, which is 18 feet, lying in the direction of N. E. by S. W*.

It can hardly be doubted that this is one of those rude structures erected by the Druids in their facred groves.

Its fituation, in a very fequestered spot, on an eminence, furrounded by a grove of oakst, ftumps of which trees are ftill vifible, correfponds exactly to every defcription we have of thefe places of worship. The figures of the ftones themselves, and their pofition, bear a strong refemblance to others, which antiquarians have not hefitated to pronounce monuments of Druidifm. The name by which they are called feems no small confirmation of the truth of this opinion. A Druidical ftone in Ireland, mentioned by Cambden, is called the lifted ftone †. But, befides that, the ftones under confideration have the name of lift, which appears to be the general appellation of fuch Druidical ftones; the fpecific part of their name, viz. Auld Wives, is eafily accounted for.

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The circumference of these three ftones meafures upwards of 60 feet; the highest of the upper furface of the higheft ftone, from the ground about 18 feet ;-its depth 6 feet. Betwixt these ftones there is a triangular fpace, through which one or two perfons may creep at once.

the writer of this account, when examining these stones, upon the idea of their hay ing been a Druidical temple, fearched anxiously around for the veftiges of thefe trees; he accordingly found many of their remains, without almoft penetrating the furface of the feil, which is a deep mofs.

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DESCRIPTION OF THE MANNERS AND ACTIONS OF THE OESTRUS EQUI, BY
MR BRACY CLARK, VETERINARY SURGEON.
From Tranfa&ious of the Linnean Society, Vol. III.

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HE mode purfued by the parent THE fly to obtain for its young a fi tuation in the ftomach of the horfe is truly fingular, and is effected in the following manner :-When the female has been impregnated, and the eggs are fufficiently matured, fhe feeks among the horses a fubject for her purpose, and approaching it on the wing, the holds her body nearly upright in the air, and her tail, which is lengthened for the purpose, curved inwards and upwards in this way The approaches the part where the defigns to depofit the egg; and fufpending herself for a few seconds before it, fuddenly darts upon it, and leaves the egg adhering to the hair: fhe hardly appears to fettle, but merely touches the hair with the egg held out on the projected point of the abdomen. The egg is made to adhere by means of a glutinous liquor fecreted with it. She then leaves the horfe at a fmall diftance, and prepares a fecond egg, and, poising herfelf before the part, depofits it in the fame way. The liquor dries, and the egg becomes firmly glued to the hair this is repeated by various flies till 4 or 500 eggs are fometimes placed on one horse.

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The horses, when they become ufed to this fly, and find it does them no injury, as the Tabani and Conopes, by fucking their blood, hardly regard it, and do not appear at all aware of its infidious object.

The fkin of the horfe is always thrown into a tremulous motion on the touch of this infect, which merely arifes from the very great irritability of the fkin and cutaneous muscles at this feafon of the year, occafioned by the continual teafing of the flies, till at length these mufcles act involuntarily on the flightest touch of any body whatever.

Ed. Mag. July 1798.

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The infide of the knee is the part on which thefe flies are most fond of depofiting their eggs, and next to this on the fide and back part of the fhoulder, and lefs frequently on the extreme ends of the hairs of the mane. But it is a fact worthy of attention, that the fly does not place them promifcuously about the body, but conftantly on those parts which are most liable to be licked with the tongue; and the ova therefore are always fcrupulously placed within its reach. Whether this be an act of reafon or of inftinct, it is certainly a very remarkable one. I fhould fufpect, with Doctor Darwin, it cannot be the lat ter, as that ought to direct the performance of any act in one way only.

Whichever of these it may be, it is, without doubt, one of the strongest examples of pure inftinct, or of the moft circuitous reafoning any infect is capable of. The eggs thus depofited I at firft fuppofed were loofened from the hairs by the moisture of the tongue, aided by its roughnefs, and were conveyed to the ftomach, where they were hatched; but on more minute fearch, I do not find this to be the cafe, or at least only by accident; for when they have remained on the hairs four or five days they become ripe, after which time the flightest application of warmth and moisture is fufficient to bring forth in an inftant the latent larva. At

this time, if the tongue of the horse touches the egg, its operculum is thrown open, and a small active worm is produced, which readily adheres to the moift furface of the tongue, and is from thence conveyed with the food to the ftomach, If the egg itfelf be taken up by accident, it may pafs on to the inteftinal canal before it hatches; in which cafe its exift

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ence to the full growth is more precarious, and certainly not fo agreeable, as it is expofed to the bitter nefs of the bile.

I have often, with a pair of fciffars, clipped off fome hairs with the eggs on them from the horfe, and on placing them in the hand, moif

tened with faliva, they have hatched in a few feconds. At other times, when not perfectly ripe, the larva would not appear, though held in the hand under the fame circumftances for feveral hours; a fufficient proof that the eggs themfelves veyed to the ftomach.

are not con

A PARODY OF LORD CHESTERFIELD'S LETTERS TO HIS SON.

From the Works of Horace Walpole, late Lord Orford, just published in five Volumes Quarto.

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Introduction. can never be fufficiently lamented by philofophers, that the late earl of Chesterfield, who was fo perfect a matter of all the decorations of which the human mind or body is fufceptible, fhould not have left us a fyftem of education for a daughter as well as for a fon or rather may we not regret that his lordship's amours were not crowned with a perfect exemplar of each fex? No man, by his lordship's own account, was more intimately acquainted with the fairer part of the creation and fenfible as he feems to have been of their defects, who could have better chalked out a difpenfatory of remedies? His whole study feems to have been to have imposed upon mankind by fpecious qualities-undoubtedly, for no reafon, but because he thought external qualifications were all that mankind could judge of, or that could procure their efteem. As his appetite for fame and approbation was both intense and indefatigable, he would affuredly not have omitted all the virtues of the heart, had he not been convinced that virtue was never rewarded with public applaufe. He, who in forty years never uttered a word without ftopping to search for a better, could not have been fo indolent as not to cultivate the duties of humanity, had he discovered that they tended to recommend the poffeffor. When he enjoins his pupil to be aimable and d'avoir

des attentions, is it not evident he knew that generofity, patriotifm, charity, and friendship, were useless attri. butes? It is plain he thought fo, for he has never mentioned them in the lift of attractions. For friendship, he feems rather to have warned his difciple against ita caution imbibed from ambaffadors, the profeffion to which he dedicated his fon, and who, being trained to be spies, are rather incompatible with friends. To hear and fee, only to tell and betray, is not an intercourfe proper for Oreftes or Pylades.

To fupply this want of a female education, whither can we go fo judiciously as to the fame fource? Having perufed his lordship's tractate as often as Rapin read over Livy before he compofed his History of England (which is fo unlike Livy) I am perfuaded that his lordship's fyftem will answer the purpose. Nay, I do not know whether it is not itself, mutatis mutandis, more properly a fyftem of female than male education, and may not with fome flight alterations serve as well to bring up a fine lady as a fine gentleman. The Graces, the Graces! on them alone is founded his lordship's whole plan. Are not the Graces as effential to a maid of honour or a duchefs (I do not mean a pun) as to an ambassador or a fena. tor? To write French letters, to speak languages, to be acquainted with ribbande, ftars, orders of knighthood,

religious

religious orders, the ceremonies of the Romish church, to dance well, come into a room well, carve well, would fit as well on a woman of quality as on Sir Jofeph Yor Sir Jofeph M. To tell fibs, to pick the nose or ears, to eructate, to be abfent in company, to be as unhandy as lord Lyttleton, to write bad grammar or fpell meffage-cards ill, would as little become the lady of the bedchamber in waiting as the firft minifter. For a woman of Fashion to intrigue with her footman is as difgraceful and as dangerous as a lad's frequenting common women. Drams and champagne diforder both fexes. Gallantry in both is genteel: and an affair with Mr Fmay be as creditable as one with Madame de Blot. When a daughter comes home from the boarding-school, would not a tender mother be as much fhocked at the young lady's bursting into the room without a curtfey, as lord Chefterfield declared he fhould be if Mr Stanhope's premier abord, on his return from his travels, was not graceful? Would it not give the fignora Madre an equal fever?

Let us run a parallel a little farther. Elocution and ftyle his lordship pronounces the chief ingredients of eloquence. Every body's matter, he declares, is the fame. If words, ftyle and manner are all, and matter is nothing, who can deny, but under the character of a complete orator his lordship has drawn the portrait of an empty, loquacious, but agreeable woman? No matter what fhe fays, if fhe fays it politely.

As his lordship unquestionably fat for the picture he has drawn of a fine gentleman, may not his lordship's example be adopted into the fyftem with the highest propriety, and with equal propriety be recommended to fine ladies? Ought not a matron, on fuch a precedent, to write to mifs her daughter all the fcandal fhe hears or invents? May the not depend upon her

daughter's difcretion for its being spread? or to her daughter's husband for its being published, while the parties are living? Parental fondnefs and prudence will justify the propagation of any cruelty; as to furnish one's child with any inftance of successful futility, will justify advifing that child to copy the capital triflers of every age. No century can be barren in Marshal Richelieus of the female fex.

This then is the plan I mean to purfue. Without deviating from the facred text, 1 fhall paraphrafe every letter for the ufe of young ladies, making none but the neceffary alterations-dilating the author's fenfe when too compreffed; but never prefuming to abridge the abundant repetitions, as it is impoffible to beat the graces into a young head too often. If the verfion I have prefumed to give of the three firft letters fhould meet with fuccefs, I fhall continue with equal fidelity to adapt the reft to the meaneft capacities; and though the present age feems as it were by intuition to have educated itfelf on his lordship's plan, I shall still have the fatisfaction of tranfmitting to pofterity a faithful delineation of the fyftem of education neceffary to form a complete Macaronefs.

Letter I.

They tell me, Mifs, that you are difpofed to travel, and that your firft airing will be to Hammerfmith. Wherefore I think it my duty to wish you a good journey and fine weather. You will be fo kind, I flatter myself as to inform me of your arrival; and if you meet with any good buns or cheesecafes, pray bring me fome.

Hammersmith is a fmaller town than Brentford, but not fo ugly or dirty. In its neighbourhood are other villages; as Ealing, Acton, Kew, and Turnham-green. The latter carries on a great commerce in pigeons. They are better eating than turtleB 2

doves,

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A. you will all in good time read Dryden's Virgil and Pope's Homer, it is good, in the firft place, to have fome tincture of poetry, and to know in general the fibs to which poets often make allufion. You have heard the Bellman's verfes at Christmas, and you have already perufed Jack the Giant-killer and Mother Goofe's Tales. You have heard of fairies, hobgoblins, ghofts, gods and god deffes, and jack o'lanthorns, and I hope you remember them. These are old ftories, yet modern poets have never done with them; in particular, they always call upon Apollo and the mufes, though they are fure of never finding them at home, nor of having any notice taken of their vifit. It is for this reafon I fend you the hiftory of Apollo and the nine mufes; for, if you use yourself to leave your name for those who never vifit you again, you will certainly never neglect thofe who are well bred and punctilious in returning visits. It is a charming thing to make vifits and verses, and I hope you will have a talent for both. It is harder to make verfes thán vifits;

but the more difficult a thing is, the better: confequently, if you could do any thing that is impoffible, it would be ftill more glorious. Adieu.

Letter III.

Apollo was the fon of Jupiter and Latona, a god and a woman, who, as the heathens thought, breed as cafily together as animals of different fpecies. Latona was delivered of him in the ifle of Delos without the affiftance of a midwife; for a god's children always come into the world when people don't think of it. He is the god of day: and thence, 'when verfes have more tinfel than fenfe, it is called phebus or clinquant. He had a famous tem. ple at Delphi, which delivered oracles. An oracle is an ambiguous account of fomething that is to happen, and confequently has not happened, and therefore impoffible to be known. A prophecy is more certain, because it is generally made after the event.

The mufes were the daughters of Jupiter and Memory; that is, he remembered he had daughters, but forgot by whom. They are the goddeffes of poetry, hiftory, mufic, and of all the arts and sciences: of poetry, because it has nothing to do with memory, but with invention; of hiftory, because they are ancient maidens, who always invent fcandal or remember it; of mufic, because poetry is akin to found; and of arts and sciences, becaufe ladies who were invented, muft have invented them likewife; for the ancients, who were wiser than we, never gave a reason, that could be a reason, for any thing.

The mufes have three mountains, two fountains, and one horfe, which compofe a territory about as large as that of a German prince.

REMARKS ON THE GOVERNMENT, RELIGION, COURTSHIP, MARRIAGE, CUSTOMS, AND MANNERS OF THE NATIVES OF NEW SOUTH WALES.

THES 'HESE Remarks conftitute the firft regular Account that has

been published of the Manners, &c. of the Inhabitants of New South

Wales.

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