furprised not to fee the butler and foot man in their places; and I hope I fhall never fit down again to fuch a meal as that of which I then partook. My friend worked himself into one of his unfortunate paffions, for which he begged our pardon, complaining, poor man! of the infirmity of his nature. These circumftances put him out of conceit with his dinner, although no man entertains more hofpitably or elegantly. This dish was badly cooked-that was overdone-another was underdone -in short, nothing could please him; and his lady, who is a very amiable woman, and who was exceedingly hurt at his behaviour, attempting to foothe him, (which, by the by, as it moftly does, only added fuel to the flame), he began to quarrel with her, and the left the table in tears. The cloth was foon removed. During the remainder of the afternoon, my friend, exhausted by his paffion, hurt at, and afhamed of, his behaviour to his wife, in vain endeavoured to force his fpirits into a temporary vivacity; and the whole company, instead of enjoying the focial pleasures of the table with chearfulness, pleading fome excufe or other, took an carly leave and departed.

I was once told an anecdote of a cap. tain of a man of war, who is an honour to the fervice, which fo pleafed me at the time, that I have ever remembered it. He was one day vilited by the captain of another ship in the fame fleet; and, in the courfe of the vifit, his freind could not help remarking the readiness and exactnefs with which all his commands were executed; and, being what is called a good-natured eafy man (by no means calculated for a disciplinarian)"Zounds, Dick," fays he, "how do you contrive to be obeyed fo readily, and with fo little trouble? my d-n'd rafcals are fo perverfe, that I fometimes bawl till I am hoarfe, before I can be attended to." "My good friend," replied the other, "the mighty fecret confifts only in this: I do my duty, and therefore have reafon to expect that every fubordinate officer in the ship does his; they all know that they cannot neglect their bufinefs with out its being observed by me: I never punish an accidental or trifling fault, and I never overlook a great one.

"

In commercial and mercantile life, method is neceffary to its very exiftence, as trade cannot be properly carried on without a very intimate acquaintance

with it. It is by method and its appendages, order and regularity, that the tradesman, the merchant, and the banker conduct business so varied, so compli cated, and fo intricate. "Never leave till to morrow, what may be executed to day," is a very expreffive and comprehenfive adage. Afcertain in the morning what is to be your employment for the enfuing day; methodize your time with a critical exactnefs; portion out every hour; adhere to your plan, and, when you betake yourfelf to reft in the evening and lay your head on your pillow, you cannot have a more pleafing fource of fatisfaction, than to trace back the routine of your employments, and to reflect, that you have spent the day usefully; and, as a member of the community, have performed your part towards the public good.

See that regiment how it moves! with what wonderful exactness does the whole body advance, or retire, at the word of command! See the manual exercise performed! Is it not almost incredible to believe, that men, who perhaps, a year ago, followed the plough, and were comparatively unable to walk, who then had not one idea of the management of the mufquet, or of any movement to the found of the " fpirit-ftirring drum," or "ear-piercing fife," now perform evolutions, that are furprising to the eye of the observer? Method conquers their almoft invincible habits of rufticity. The drill-ferjeant, at the stated period, takes the recruits into the field, and by method makes the raw lad quit the roll in his gait, contracted in the furrowed field; and, in a fhort time, as Nature has given him a good shape and proper limbs, you fee a smart fellow erect from the drill, and fo altered, that was he now to appear a mongst his former companions, there would be few traces left by which they would at first recognise him. Happy would it be, if corruption of morals did not work quicker in the alteration of his conduct. than the ferjeant's cane in the improvement of his carriage!

By method, the algebraist solves the longeft problems; by method, the mathematician climbs from the fimple propofitions of Euclid to the principia of our immortal Newton, and all the ab ftrufe learning comprehended by the ingenious few. By method, the laborious fchool mafter leads forward the pupils committed to his charge, and prepares

them

them for the different walks, to which they are deftined in future life. By method, the man who has but a scanty pittance of this world's goods, avoids debts, and brings up his children to earn their bread, and to become ufeful members of fociety. And, by the want of methed, and of what is almost always a confequence, the want of œconomy, the moft opulent peers are diffipating their immenfe property; and fome future period may, perhaps, see their defcendants in abfolute want of that which is fquandered by them on courtezans, race-horfes, or at the gaming table.

Shall I fay, as a clergyman, that method is conducive to morality and reli gion? Let not the auftere moralift condemo the maxim. The man of method will fet apart a portion of his income for the relief of the poor and needy, which, by afcertaining his yearly expences, he will be enabled to do; the man of method is rarely a bad man; for he, who gives himself time to reflect upon, and to balance with precision his temporal affairs, can hardly fail of cafting a thought upon eternity. He will, therefore, become religious by method, addrefs his Maker with thankfulness, when he arifes invigorated in the morning, for his prefervation through the dangers of the night; and he will, from the fame caufe, bow before our heavenly Father in the even ing, when he retires to reft, from a consciousness of the unmerited favour of being preferved through the perils of the day, as well as for the bleffings he enjoys. By method, inftead of fpurring forward the almoft fainting poft-horfes, from the morning till the evening of the Sabbath, (blufh, ye mighty, at the profanation of that day, now fo fashionable, and your breach of the decalogue !), he will find time to attend to the duties of religion; and by appearing at his parishchurch, aid the cause of virtue by the influence of his example. By method too, he will always have his temporal affairs in fuch order, that, whenever he may be called away, a time which he well knows must be ever uncertain, he may prevent confufion to thofe he leaves behind.

་་་

Thus I have proved the neceffity of method. We fee its confequence, its utility, we fee its influence on the affairs of those who will fuffer themfelves to be guided by its dictates. A want of it produces conftant hurry and confufion,

a distracted state of mind and of circumftances, bankruptcy to the commercial part of mankind, irremediable disorder and ruin to profeffional men and to the higher orders of the state; whilft those who are happy enough to be in poffeffion of fuch a treasure, or who are wife enough to acquire it, fee their affairs profper, and regularity established in every department under them, arifing from fuch habits of reflection, as will enfure, not only prefent but everlasting felicity. To the PRINTER.

SIR,

AT the defire of feveral friends, I

fend you the following relation of fome exhibitions with a microscope, which it is hoped will not be unacceptable to your readers.

The objects were viewed with a mi. croscope of very high magnifying powers, equal, if not fuperior, to any in Europe.

The firft exhibited was a drop of fmail. beer. When the microfcope was adjufted to the proper focus, a confufion of irre. gular shaped fpots of duft were seen, and,' moving through this, a number of diftin&t animalcules enlarged, fome to the fize of frogs; but they were of different fhapes and fizes. Some of them were oval and others were round: Some had quick motions, others flow; and others again were feen with an evident motion, (though still flower), as if moving on a centre.

By the reflection on the linen sheet, the lowest part of the drop of liquor was thrown on the upper part of the feet; and almoft uniformly, the motion of thefe animals, thus magnified almost beyond belief, was made from the bottom of the sheet towards the upper parts.

In a fhort while, however, after these motions had been seen, they stopt in all the animalcules nearly, though not exactly, about the fame time; and feemed to carry the mafs of dregs partly with them.

When alive, though in general they moved towards the top of the sheet, yet at times they were feen to move in every direction, individuals moving towards a point feemingly a foot above, then stopping, and returning quickly to the spot they had left; fometimes alfo, in their tracts, defcribing a femicirle, or oblique line; at other times feemingly a complete circle; but, after going through thefe various revolutions, they uniform

ly

ly dropt motionless to the bottom or lower part of the fheet, which shows their specific gravity to be less than the liquor.

In water, the animalcules were seen of different fizes and Thapes, and defcribing the fame motions.

In vinegar, animalcules were shown magnified to a prodigious fize, of a lon gitudinal shape, refembling eels.

As this fluid is in a small degree more vifcid than proper to exhibit the motions of the animalcules, a minute particle of faliva was added, to enable them to move more evidently, which, however, might act by giving life.

The fame mixture of dregs or duft was feen in the water and vinegar.

There were, speaking within bounds, twenty animals in the drop of vinegar, and the largest one was about three or four feet long on the sheet.

The motion of this was comparatively flow; however, it moved itself hideously along; and I faw others a foot long move like eels in common rivers, with the greatest alertnefs and rapidity, and making numberless wreathings with their bodies, feeming to search for their food in every corner, and driving the dregs of the liquor that obftructed their passage before them, as fo many impudent intruders into their ground.

The eel near four feet long, we thought we faw diftinctly swallow a globule of fpittle which had been mixed with the vinegar, and feemed on the sheet about the fize of an orange.

It may be remarked, that the faliva or fpittle was divided into globules, which appeared of different fizes, of a light blue colour, and pellucid, containing no animalcules.

In a drop of milk animalcules were feen, of an oval figure, much about a fize, but more sluggish than those in ale or water.

A drop of blood recently taken from a gentleman's hand in the room, thewed a fluid of a reddish colour not very dark, a turbid fediment, and two or three animals, enlarged to the fize of pigeons eggs, with very languid motions.

In this experiment, however, I fufpected there was fome admixture of water, or a moisture previously collected on the fmall piece of glafs on which the fluids were adhering, to exhibit their contents with the aid of the microscope.

When a drop of other milk was fub

jected to the action of the microscope, number of roundish bodies were seen, and a sediment, as on the former trial but although the exhibiter pofitively a verred the animalcules were to be feen in this milk, the other spectators could not diftinctly p rceive any.

When a particle of spirit of hartshorn was added to a drop of the water subjected to the microscope, the animalcules feemed to be instantly killed.

A drop of folution of arsenic fhewed beautiful chrystallizations, (beginning in a number of points in the space of about a minute,) of various forms like pistols, fwords, &c. but as the air was frofty, and the evaporation did not go on fo faft as in the contrary circumftance, the aftonishingly rapid fhooting of the cry ftals in various directions was not feen; however some were observed at one shoot to be extended a quarter of a foot in a moment.

In a folution of the fugar of lead, the chrystals were magnified to about two feet, but the process in this was more tardy than in the other solution.

Various fmall thin fegments of trees and frubs, of which I can remember, vine, gooseberry, raifin, orange, oak, apple, and pear, about 1-4th inch diameter, and from their thinness rendered pellycid, were magnified to above five feet diameter.

The appearance in each was widely different.

The radii, ftretching from the centre to the circumference of thefe fegments, were of different fizes, were placed in different relative pofitions, and the vari ous receptacles intersperfed in their interftices were of different shapes.

The segment of the orange-tree wood exactly resembled the fegment of an q range,

In one, I think the goofeberry feg. ment, there was a plain white circle ex hibited by the microscope which could not be diftinguished by the naked eye. This appeared a foot in diameter.

A living bufe was maguified to the fize of many men, being above four feet; and at particular times we law, in the moft diftinct manner, the contractions of the heart, which was placed near the head, pushing the blood down towards the tail.

The heart appeared about the fize of a man's two hands closed, and the motion of it like that of the hands alternately o

pened