built with falient angles, like the teeth of a faw, in order that one part might flank another. That form of a wall was afterwards improved by raifing round towers upon the falient angles, and the towers were improved by making them fquare.the antients had no occafion for any form more complete, being fufficient for defending against all the miffile weapons at that time known. The invention of cannon required a variation in military architecture. The first cannons were made of iron bars, forming a concave cylinder, united by rings of copper*. The first cannon-balls were of ftone, which required a very large aperture. A cannon was reduced to a fmaller fize, by using iron for balls instead of stone; and that destructive engine was perfected by making it of caft metal. To refift its force, ba stions were invented, horn-works, crown-works, half-moons, &c. &c. and military architecture became a fyftem governed by fundamental principles and general rules. But all in vain: it has indeed produced fortifications that have made fieges horribly bloody; but artillery, at the fame time, has been carried to fuch perfection, and the art of attack fo improved, that, according to the general opinion, no fortification can be rendered impregnable. The only impregnable defence is good neighbourhood among weak princes, ready to unite whenever one of them is attacked with fuperior force. And nothing tends more effectually to promote fuch union, than conftant experience

that fortifications ought not to be relied on.

"With respect to naval architecture, the first veffels were beams joined together, and covered with planks,pushed along with long poles in fhallow water, and drawn by animals in deep water. To thefe fuc. ceeded trunks of trees cut hollow, termed by the Greeks monoxyles. The next were planks joined together in form of a monoxyle. The thought of imitating a fish advanced naval architecture. A prow was conftructed in imitation of the head, a ftern with a moveable helm in imitation of the tail, and oars in imi tation of the fins. Sails were at laft added; which invention was fo early, that the contriver is unknown. Before the year 1545, ships of war, in England, had no portholes for guns, as at prefent: they had only a few cannons placed on the upper deck.

"When Homer compofed his poems, at leaft during the Trojan war, the Greeks had not acquired the art of gelding cattle; they eat the flesh of bulls and of rams. Kings and princes killed and cooked their victuals; fpoons, forks, table cloths, napkins were unknown. They fed fitting, the custom of reclining upon beds being afterwards copied from Afia; and like other favages, they were great eaters. At the time mentioned they had not chimnies, nor candles, nor lamps. Torches are frequently mentioned by Homer, but lamps never: a vafe was placed upon a tripod, in which was burnt drywood for giving light. Locks and keys were not common

at

at that time. Bundles were fecured with ropes intricately combined; and hence the famous Gordian knot. Shoes and ftockings were not early known among them, nor buttons, nor faddles, nor ftirrups. Plutarch reports, that Gracchus caused ftones to be erected along the highways leading from Rome, for the convenience of mounting their horfes; for at that time ftirrups were unknown, though an obvious invention. Linen for fhirts was not used in Rome for many years after the government became defpotic; even fo late as the eighth century it was not common in Europe.

Thales, one of the feven wife men of Greece, about fix hundred years before Chrift, invented the following method for measuring the height of an Egyptian pyramid. He watched the progrefs of the fun, till his body and its fhadow were of the fame length; and at that inftant measured the shadow of the pyramid, which confequently gave its height. Amafis, King of Egypt, prefent at the operation, thought it a wonderful effort of genius; and the Greeks admired it highly. Geometry must have been in its very cradle at that time. Anaximander, fome ages before Chrift, made the firft map of the earth, fo far as then known. About the end of the thirteenth century, fpectacles for affifting the fight were invented by Alexander Spina, a monk of Pifa. So useful an invention cannot be too much extolled. At a period of life when the judgment is in maturity, and reading is of great benefit, the eyes begin to grow dim. One cannot help pity

ing the condition of bookish men before that invention; many of whom must have had their fight greatly impaired, while their appetite for reading was in vigour.

"As the origin and progrefs of writing make a capital article in the prefent fketch, they must not be overlooked. To write, or, in other words, to exhibit thoughts to the eye, was early attempted in Egypt by hieroglyphics: but these were not confined to Egypt; figures composed of painted feathers were ufed in Mexico to exprefs ideas, and by fuch figures Montezuma received intelligence of the Spanish invafion. In Peru, the only arithmetical figures known were knots of various colours, which ferved to caft up accounts. The second step naturally in the progress of the art of writing, is, to reprefent each word by a mark, termed a letter, which is the Chinese way of writ ing: they have about 11,000 of these marks or letters in common ufe; and in matters of science they employ to the number of 60,000. Our way is far more eafy and commodious: inftead of marks or letters for words, which are infinite, we reprefent, by marks or letters, the articulate founds that compose words: thefe founds exceed not thirty in number; and confequently the fame number of marks or letters are fufficient for writing. This was at once to step from hieroglyphics, the most imperfect mode of writing, to letters reprefenting founds, the most perfect; for there is no probability that the Chinese mode was ever practised in this part of the world. With us, the learn ing to read is fo eafy as to be ac

quired in childhood; and we are ready for the fciences as foon as the mind is ripe for them: the Chinese mode, on the contrary, is an unfurmountable obftruction to knowledge; because it being the work of a life-time to read with eafe, no time remains for studying the fciences. Our cafe was, in fome meafure, the fame at the restoration of learning; it required an age to be familiarized with the Greek and Latin tongues; and too little time remained for gathering knowledge out of their books. The Chinese stand upon a more equal footing with respect to arts; for these may be acquired by imitation or oral inftruction, without books.

"The art of writing with letters reprefenting founds, is of all inventions the most important, and the leaft obvious. The way of writ. ing in China makes fo naturally the fecond step in the progrefs of the arts, that our good fortune in ftumbling upon a way fo much more perfect cannot be fufficiently admired, when to it we are indebted for our fuperiority in literatureabove the Chinese. Their way of writing is a fatal obftruction to fcience; for it is fo riveted by inveterate practice, that the difficulty would not be greater to make them change their language than their letters. Hierophyphics were a fort of writing fo miferably imperfect, as to make every improvement welcome; but as the Chinese make a tolerable fhift with their own letters, however cumbersome to those who know better, they never dream of any

improvements. Hence it may be averred with great certainty, that in China, the sciences, though ftill in infancy, will for ever continue fo.

"The art of writing was known in Greece when Homer compofed his two ethics; for he gives fomewhere a hint of it. It was at that time probably in its infancy, and used only for recording laws, religious precepts, or other fhort works. Cyphers, invented in Hindoftan, were brought into France from Arabia, about the end of the tenth century."

Mrs.

Mrs

-, upon the abrupt departure of her intended husband: to be fure, fhe takes it much to heart; for the lofs of an only lover, when a lady is past three and twenty, is as afflicting as the lofs of an only child after fifty-five.

"You tell me my mother defires a particular journal of my travels, and the remarks I have made upon them after the manner of the fage Mr. Bromley. Alas! I am utterly unfit for fo great a work; my genius is light and fuperficial, and lets flip a thousand observations which would make a figure in his book. It requires much induftry and application, as well as a prodigious memory, to know how many houfes there are in Paris; how many vestments in a proceffion; how many faints in the Romish ca lendar, and how many miracles to each faint and yet to fuch a pitch of exactnefs the curious traveller muft arrive, who would imitate Mr. Bromley; not to mention the pains he must be at in examining all the tombs in a great church, and faithfully tranfcribing the infcriptions, tho' they had no better author than the fexton or curate of the parish. For my part, I was fo fhamefully negligent as not to fet down how many croffes are in the road from Calais to Luneville; nay, I did not fo much as take an inventory of the relicks in the churches I went to fee. You may judge by this what a poor account I fhall give you of my travels, and how ill the money is beftowed that you fpend upon them. But, however. if my dear mother infifts upon it, I fhall have fo much complaifance for the curiofity natural to her fex as to write her a short particular of what rarities I have feen; but of all or

I thank you for fo kindly forgiving the piece of negligence I acquainted you of in my last. Young fellows are often guilty of voluntary forgetfulness in thofe affairs: but, I affure you, mine was quite accidental. Mr. Dtells you true, that I am weary of lofing money at cards; but it is no lefs certain, that without them I fhall foon be weary of Lorrain. The fpirit of quadrille has poffeft the land from morning till midnight; there is nothing else in every house in

town.

"This court is fond of strangers, but with a provifo that strangers love quadrille. Would you win the heart of the maids of honour, you muft lose your money at quadrille; would you be thought a wellbred man, you must play genteely at quadrille; would you yet a reputation of good fenfe, fhew judgment at quadrille; however, in fummer, one may contrive to pafs a day without quadrille; becaufe there are agreeable promenades, and little parties out of doors; but in the winter you are reduced to play at it, or fleep like a fly till the return of spring. Indeed, in the morning the Duke hunts; but my malicious ftars have fo contrived it, than I am no more a sportsman than a gameller. There are no men of learning in the whole country; on the contrary, it is a character they defpife. A man of quality caught

те

me the other day reading a Latin author; and asked me with an air of contempt, whether I was defigned for the church. All this would be tolerable, if I was not doomed to converse with a fet of English, who are ftill more ignorant than the French, and from whom, with my utmost endeavours, I cannot be abfent fix hours in the day. Ld. is the only one among them who has common fenfe; and he is fo fcandalously debauched in his principles, as well as practice, that his converfation is equally fhocking to my morals and my reafon.

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My only improvement here is in the company of the Duke and Prince Craon, and in the exercife of the academy: I have been abfent from the laft near three weeks, by reason of a fprain I got in the finews of my leg, which is not quite recovered. My duty to my dear mother; I hope you and the continue well. I am, Sir,

Your dutiful fon, G. L."

"Soissons, O&. 28. I thank you, my dear Sir, for complying fo much with my inclinations, as to let me ftay fome time at Soiffons; but, as you have not fixed how long, I wait for further orders. One of my chief reafons for disliking Luneville, was the multitude of English there, who most of them were fuch worthless fellows, that they were a dishonour to the name and nation. With these I was obliged to dine and fup, and pass a great part of my time.

"You may be fure I avoided it as much as poffible; but malgré moi, I fuffered a great deal. To prevent any comfort from other people, they had made a law among themfelves not to admit any foreigner into

their company; fo that there was nothing but English talked from June to January. On the contrary, my countrymen at Soiffons are men of virtue and good-fenfe; they mix perpetually with the French, and converse for the most part in that language. I will trouble you no more upon this fubject; but give me leave to fay, that, however capricious I may have been in other things, my fentiments in this particular are the fureft proofs I ever gave you of my strong and hereditary averfion to vice and folly. Mr. Stanhope is always at Fontainbleau. I went with Mr. Pointz to Paris for 4 days, when the Colonel was there to meet him: he received me with great civility and kindnefs. We have done expecting Mr. Walpole, who is obliged to keep ftrict guard over the Cardinal, for fear the German Minifters should take him from us; they pull and haul the poor old gentleman fo many ways, that he does not know where to turn, or into whofe arms to throw himself.

"Ripperda's escape to England will very much embroil affairs, which did not feem to want another obstacle to hinder them from coming to an accommodation. If the devil is not very much wanting to his own interefts in this bufinefs, it is impoffible that the good work of peace fhould go on much longer. After all, moft young fellows are of his party, and with he may bring matters to a war; for they make but ill minifters at a congrefs, but would make good foldiers in a campaign.

"No news from and her beloved husband: their unreasonable fondness for each other can never laft; they will foon grow

as