If thou art rich, thou'rt poor; For like an afs, whofe back's with ingots bound, It occurs alfo in fome admirable lines, which, the elegant author obferves, contain the moral of his poem; a compofition of great excellence. As we are anxious that the fentiments exhibited, in the paffage to which we allude, should " grapple the attention" of our fair readers, we shall transcribe it for that purpose. VIRTUE'S an ingot of Peruvian* gold, SENSE the bright ore Potofi's + mines unfold; Mr HAYLEY'S Triumphs of Temper. In 31 lbs. 10 oz. 18 dwts. 20 grs. of filver, how many ingots, each weighing 7 lbs. 11 oz. 14 dwts. 17 grs.? Anf. 4 ingots. No. 178. WEDGE. Wedge, in mechanics, is the laft of the five powers or fimple machines. It is a very great mechanical power, fince not only the "knotted oak." but even the ragged-lided rock" can be fplit by it; which it would be impoffible to effect by the lever, wheel and axle, or pulley; for the force of the blow, or ftroke, shakes the cohering parts, and thereby makes them feparate the more eafily. It is ufually driven by a mallet, or wooden hammer. Wedge alfo denotes a mass of metal. As fparkles from the anvil us'd to fly, When heavy hammers on the wedge are fwaid. SPENSER. The accurfed thing" in the midst of Ifrael, was the concealment of a wedge of gold, part of the fpoils of Jericho, which the wicked ACHAN had purloined, contrary to exprefs command, and for which theft himself and family were afterwards toned and burnt, in the valley of Achor, in the vicinity of Jericho. See the 7th Chapter of Joshua. The fatal wedge of gold, which caufed the extermination of Achan's race, weighed 50 fhekels. Now, fuppofing a fhekel to weigh 9 dwts. 3 grs. English Troy weight, how many grains did it contain? Af. 10,950 grains. Peru is a large country of South America, famous for its mines of gold and filver; and fome of its medicinal drugs, which are brought into this country, are of excellent ufe, particularly the Jefuit's bark and Peruvian balfam. + Potofi is a mountain of Peru, containing the finest filver mine in the world; but its treasure is faid to be at prefent almost exhaufted, and the mountain itself is little better than a fhell. The rich and populous town of Potofi is fituated at the foot of the mountain. See Scripture Lexicon, p. 335, 2d edit. The exact weight is faid to be 9dwts. 2 grs. Troy. AVOIR AVOIR DUPOIS WEIGH T. No. 179, BATTERING RAM. This irrefiftible machine was a military engine, employed by the ancients to beat down the walls of befieged places. It was a vaft piece of timber like the mast of a ship, ftrengthened at one end with a head of iron, fomething resembling that of a ram, whence it obtained its appellation. This was hung by the middle with ropes to another beam, which lay across two pofts; and being thus fufpended in equilibrium, it was alternately drawn back and propelled by a century of men with fuch impetuofity, that no wall or tower could effectually withstand its reiterated concuffions. It is mentioned by the prophet Ezekiel in two paffages, chap. iv. 1, 2, and xxi. 22. and Nebuchadnezzar made use of it at the fiege of Jerufalem. Plutarch tells us, that Anthony, in the Parthian war, used a ram 80 feet in length; and Vitruvius afferts, that they were fometimes 120 feet long. The battering-ram which was employed by Titus to demolish the walls of Jerufalem (fee question 36) weighed, according to Jofephus, 100,000 lbs. how many tons, &c. do they contain? Anf. 44 tons, 12 cwt. 3 qrs. 12 lbs, No. 180. Hors. This ufeful article of commerce was brought into England, according to Anderfon, about the year 1525, from the Netherlands, and immediately used in brewing; but the phyficians of that period representing to the parliament, that hops were unwholefome, the use of them was fhortly after difcontinued. They have, however, been many years in general repute in the brewery, for the prefervation of malt liquors; which by the fuperaddition of this balfamic, aperient, and diuretic bitter, become lefs vifcid, lefs apt to turn four, more detergent, and more falubrious, They are also employed occafionally in medicine, There are large plantations of hops in feveral English counties, particularly in Worcestershire, Herefordshire, and Kent. "The flow'ry hops, whofe tendrils climbing round Preferve the potent draught." In 44 tons, 12 cwt. 3 qrs. 12 lbs. of hops, how many pounds? Anf. 100,000 lbs. And how many parcels, each containing as many Cantium was the ancient name of Kent. The Cantii were, according to Cæfar, the most civilized of all the Britons. That invader landed in their territory August 26, in the afternoon, 54 years B. C. pounds pounds as there are days in the year, are contained in this number of pounds, fuppofing 10lbs. more to be added to them? Anf 274 parcels. No. 181. COLOSSUS. A Coloffus is a ftatue of enormous magnitude. In the temple of Belus, at Babylon, there was a golden ftatue forty feet high, which weighed 1000 Babylonish talents, and was worth three millions and a half of our money. Dr. Rutherford's Anc. Hift. vol. i. p. 85. There was an image erected on the plains of Dura, which, according to Daniel, was fixty cubits, or about ninety feet in height. But the most celebrated Coloffus of which any account is preferved, and which is therefore emphatically ftyled the coloffus, and deemed one of the wonders of the world, was a ftatue of brafs erected to the SUN, at the mouth of the harbour of Rhodes, a city in an island of the fame name, in the Mediterranean fea. It was 105 feet high, and proportioned in all its parts; and, according to the general opinion, the ships of that period paffed between its legs. The Rhodian bully, That proudly ftretch'd his legs from fhore to shore, PETER PINDAR. CHARES, of Lindus, devoted 12 years to the completion of the work, which occurred 288 years B. C. Sixty-fix years fubfequent to its erection, an earthquake overthrew it, and it lay neglected 894 years, that is, till the year of our Lord 672; when Moarvias the 6th caliph, or emperor of the Saracens, having taken Rhodes, fold the brafs of this famous ftatue to a Jewish merchant, who loaded 900 camels with it. Allowing only 800 lbs. weight to every camel (though fome will carry 12 or 1300 lbs.) how many tons did the coloffus weigh? Anf. 321 tons, 8 cwt. 2 qrs. 8 lbs. No. 182. IRON is a hard, fufible, malleable, and the most useful of all metals, in the affairs of life. A little reflexion will fuffice to convince us, how awkward the operations of industry muft be, and what a rude fcene human life would foon exhibit, without the use of metals, and of this in particular. Without iron we could attain little perfection in tillage or agriculture; in mechanical arts or trades ; in architecture or navigation. Society, fays Dr. Rutherford, can never make great advances without the ufe of iron. It is the inftrument of univerfal industry. At the time of the Trojan war, iron was held in fuch eftimation, that in the games which Achilles gave in honour of Patroclus, he propofed a ball of that metal as a confiderable prize. Anc. Hift. vol. i. p. 39, 373. It has been remarked, as an inftance of the Divine Goodness to human kind, that thofe metals which are of most frequent and neceffary neceffary ufe to man, as iron, copper, and lead, are the most common and plentiful. With refpect to iron, it is an univerfal metal, being found in all the mineral earths and ftones that have been examined, in the ores of all other metals, and even in the afhes of all vegetables and animals. The Swedish iron has generally been preferred on many accounts, and particularly for the making of fteel; but the English iron, properly manufactured, has been found not inferior. Russia had several confiderable iron manufactories in the time of Peter the Great; fome of thefe he vifited with great alliduity, and himfelf learnt the bufinefs of a blacksmith. He fucceeded fo well in that trade, that in one day he forged alone, 18 poods of iron, equal to 720 pounds weight, and put his own particular mark on each bar. This was performed at the forges of one Muller at Iftia, ninety werfts diftance from Mofcow, to which place he often reforted. One of thefe bars, authenticated by Peter's mark, is ftill to be feen at Iftia in the fame forge. Another, forged alfo with the czar's own hand, is fhewn in the cabinet of the Academy of Sciences at Petersburgh; but this last was forged at Olonetz, a place fituated on the fide of the lake Ladoga, the 12th of October, juit before his death, which happened in 1725. This bar weighs 120 pounds. Peter, on the receipt of one of his day's wages from Muller, went directly to a fhop, and purchafed a pair of fhoes, which he took great pleasure in fhewing on his feet, faying to thofe who were prefent, I have earned them well, by the fweat of my brow, with hammer and anvil." 66 Peter once paffed a month at Iftia; and when he worked at the forges, the bayards, and other noblemen of his fuite, were obliged to blow the bellows, to ftir the fire, to carry coals, and perform all the other offices of journeymen blacksmiths*. Anecdotes of Peter. See alfo ORIGINAL Anec. of the fame Add the weight of the iron forged by Peter at Iftia and Olonetz together, and bring the amount into drams. Anf. 215,040 drams. No. 183. COPPER. Copper is one of the fix primitive metals. It is found in the bowels of the earth in feveral varieties, as native, &c. Copper is used in mixture with other metals. Mixed with tin, in confiderable quantity, it produces BELL-METAL; with a smaller proportion BRONZE; with zinc it forms BRASS, PINCHBECK, &C. Copper, when taken into the human body, acts as a violent emetic, and has been generally accounted poisonous, though lately received with fome applause into the materia medica as a tonic. Great attention to cleanlinefs is recommended in the use of copper utenfils; and it is altogether improper to let any fluid remain in a copper veffel Peter probably thought, and which might be one reafon of his exultation at receiving his wages as a blickfmith, that emperors, and kings, and lords, were not often fo ufefully employed. 2 till till it be cold; for this metal is much more calcinable in the cold than when heated. Its pernicious effects are prevented by having the veffels tinned. There are copper mines in many parts of Europe, &c. The mine in the ifle of Anglefey, on the coaft of North Wales, produces about 1500 tons of copper annually, from between fix and feven thoufand tons of ore. And the copper mines of Cornwall produce in the fame period no lefs than 4000 tons of copper. The yearly produce of these laft is calculated at £140,000 fterling. Ency. Brit. At the beautiful and magnificent palace of the duke of Devonshire at Chatfworth, in Derbyshire, on the banks of a fine piece of water, is a tree of copper, reprefenting a willow, from every leaf of which water is made to iffue, by the turning of a cock, fo as to form an artificial fhower. Beaut. of Art and Nat. vol. i. We read in the Scriptures of two veffels of fine copper, precious as gold. Ezra viii. 27. Subtract the Anglesey copper from the Cornish, bring the remainder into drams, and divide them into as many parcels of drams as there are weeks in the year. Anf. 1,433,600,000 drams; 27,569,230 parcels, 2 40 No. 184. SPECTATOR. The Tatler, Spectator, and Guardian, were periodical papers, published by a few eminent writers in the reign of Queen Anne, a period denominated the Auguftan age of English literature. The Tatler and Spectator not only reduced, as Dr. Johnson juftly remarks, the unfettled practice of daily intercourfe to propriety and politenefs, and exhibited the character and manners of the age, but fuperadded literature and criticifm, and taught, with great juftnefs of argument, and dignity of language, the most important duties and fublime truths. All thefe topics were happily varied with elegant fictions and refined allegories, and illuminated with different changes of ftyle and felicities of invention. Of effays thus elegant, thus inftructive, it is natural to fuppofe the approbation general; and it is faid by Addison, in a fubfequent work, that they had a perceptible influence upon the converfation of that time, and taught the frolic and the gay to unite merriment with decency; an effect which, adds Johnfon, they can never wholly lofe, while they continue to be among the firft books by which both fexes are initiated in the elegancies of knowledge. The principal writers who undertook the Spectator, which was published daily, were ADDISON and STEELE. They found, however, in their progrefs, many auxiliaries: many pieces were offered, and many were received. The papers written by Addifon are marked by one of the letters in the word CLIO, the mufe of hiftory. The |