of the fame annual income in the fame fum. A man with two hundred a year as a falaried clerk does not bear the proportion to a man of landed property with the fame income, that a poney does to a dray horfe; and who would not acknowledge the abfurdity of laying upon the poney the weight that the dray horfe only can bear? The obvious principle is, that perfons fhould pay in proportion to the property fecured by government. If the man of landed property is allowed to have not only the annual advantages of it, but thefe advantages are fecured to his pofterity, he furely ought to pay to government more than that man who receives an equal income one year for his falary, but, by the lofs of a hand, or fick nefs, may not be able to get another farthing for his fupport. Juftice requires that each man should pay according to his means: when the fame annual fum is required from the fame annual incomes, though these incomes are acquired in very different ways, the proprietors of thofe incomes do not pay according to their means; and the legiflature favours the clafs of men that can pay the moft, inftead of the clafs of men that cannot pay at all, without very great inconvenience and diftrefs.

POLYHISTOR.

QUESTIONS, to which Anfwers will

much reafon to complain of the fmall degree of real benefit that they have derived from their education ?

Why do we fee, on the fecond and third days of the first quarter of the moon, its whole face, one part quite bright, the other dark; but, in the fecond quarter, can fee only the bright part of the moon?

To the Editor of the Univerfal Mag. SIR,

THE contrivances of art, directed to important purposes, are always interefting to the enquiring mind; and thofe which contribute to the perfection of navigation are not the leaft curious in themselves, nor the least important in their confequences. This is my apology, if the obfervation I am about to offer be construed as trivial or hyperentical. The Dutch, it is well known, build their fhips wide and capacious, calculated for burthen; yet extremely flat-bottomed, and therefore liable, when traverse-failing, to be driven along the furface to leewards, or, in the failors phrafe, to make lee-way; and thus to lofe as much by lateral motion as they gain by progreffive motion, in the diagonal, against the wind. To obviate this difadvantage, yet without altering the construction of the veffel, or building it narrow and fharp in the bottom, the Dutch attach to each fide of it,

parallel with the fide, a moveable broad wing, which can be let down into the water at pleasure, and which, from its ufe in refifting the tendency to lateral motion to leeward, is called by the failors a lee

What are the objects the most worthy of our attention between the invasion of this island by the Romans and the reign of Alfred?

Why do parents complain fo much of the expence of the education of their children? and why have perfons, when grown up, fo

to motion in the line of the keel, as it prefents only an edge to the water in that direction.

Looking the other day into Mr. Holcroft's Travels, I was furprifed to find that a giofs miftake relative to this fimple but ingenious contrivance fhould be maintained by a traveller of his pretensions to

minutenefs and accuracy of enquiry. In his account of his paffage to Amfterdam in the Zuyder Sea, he fays, "The fea on which we failed was fo fhallow, that the veffels which navigate it are obliged to be furnished with a kind of fideings, which, defcending below the keel, give timely notice of dragging. Thefe wings were feldom entirely above the mud, as was evident; for the track of the thip, whenever I looked, left water that was highly difcoloured." (Vol. I, page 48.)

With the flighteft knowledge of the principles of failing, fuch as well-informed landfmen often poffefs, this laft obfervation of Mr. Holcroft would have led to an inference very oppofite to that which he deduced. They were obliged to employ the wings or lee-boards, to give warning to the watchful pilot of the fhallows; yet, whenever he looked, this warning was invariably communicated, and as invariably not regarded, by the pilot evidence, furely, that this was not their ufe. But Mr. Holcroft might have known,that, where a vessel is in danger of encountering fhallows, "the heaving of the lead" is the feaman's expedient of precaution, and "by the deep nine," or quarter lefs five," the burden of his fong to the pilot. It is well known that thefe lee-boards, or fide-wings, are principally useful in the deep and open fea; and that they are even dangerous in fhallow water, where, fixing in the ground, they may be-, come a fort of pivot, on which the fhip may be overfét. I am, &c.

London, Feb. 10, 1804.

66

Z.

P. S. The Zuyder Sea, as I have been informed by an intelligent nautical gentleman, who has navigated it, is fo deep, that the lee-boards of the packet-boats will not reach the bottom.

VOL. I.

To the Editor of the Univerfal Mag. SIR,

IN compliance with the request of your Oxonian Correfpondent, I beg leave to offer a few remarks in defence of an obfervation of the elegant Mrs. Montague, which he appears to confider as altogether indefenfible. The fair critic has affrmed, that "fashion does not fo eafily impofe on our fenfes as it mifleads our judgement ;" and your correfpondent is of opinion that this" fingular mistake," as he; calls it, is a proof that that lady "was little acquainted with the dogmas of fcholaftic erudition."I may be allowed to hint, en passant, that there is fome reafon to doubt whether the metaphyfical dogmas of the fchools have a direct and neceflary tendency to add acuteness to perception, or to purge the vifual ray of the understanding in all conftitutions. If we are to believe the complaints of a Cantabrigian wit and poet of the last century, their influence had a very oppofite effect upon him. So confufed were his intellects by fcholaftic dogmas, that he fays--

"And when I try to think ftrait on,
"I fidle out again, and strike
"Into the beautiful oblique ;
"Therefore I have no one notion

"That is not form'd like the defigning "Of the peristaltic motion.

"Vermicular, twifting, and twining; "Going to work "Juft like a bottle-fcrew upon a cork." J. Hall Stevenson's Works.

But this by the way. I am unable, however, for my own part (labouring, poffibly, under a fimilar misfortune of ignorance with the fair critic), to perceive that any of the dogmas of metaphyficians or moralifts ftand in contradiction to this fhrewd and original remark. At first fight, indeed, it may appear to be fomewhat incompatible with the metaphyfical axiom univerfally admitted fince the time of Locke, that the fenfes are the inlets to all our knowledge. T

This is the dogma alluded to, I prefume, when the lady is accufed of ignorance; for your correfpondent adds, furely our fenfes must be first impofed upon before our judgement!" Without ftaying to criticife the elegance of this pleonafm, I fhall merely intimate, that at the time when Mrs. Montague wrote, as at prefent, this metaphyfical truth was fo generally known and acknowledged, that every enquirer, of moderate attainments, could not remain ignorant on the fubject. It required no ghost from th' other world," nor any learned clerk from the cloifters, to tell a critic this.

But, Sir, it is my opinion, that this obfervation of Mrs. Montague is not only capable of being defended, but must, in truth, be admired as a proof of her critical acuteness and metaphyfical difcernment: far from being a "lingular mistake," it is a truth, worthy to be claffed with the dogmas of philofophy.

It would be difficult, I apprehend, to fhew in what manner the ever-varying hues, fantaftic forms, and grotefque decorations of that Proteus-like thing, which we denominate Fashion, can effect, in the first inftance, an impofition on the fenfes. The perceptions of thofe hues and forms by which he is defignated are conveyed, it is true, to the judgement-feat of the mind through the avenues of fenfe; but they arrive there, in the first inftance, fimple and unadulterated as the forms and tints of nature. No prifm intercepts or colours the rays of communication, and no cloud dims or diftorts the image. Were this in any cafe to happen, on what knowledge could we depend? Were the pictures delineated in the camera of the mind liable at all times to be changed or diftorted by the medium, how could we afcertain the modes and relations of exiftence in the material world? We fhould have Do word for "experience," be

caufe we could acquire no knowledge. We might then indeed difpute, with the ideal philofophers, whether all that we fee are not vifions of the foul; or rather the vifionary fyftem would be too well proved to admit of a dispute.

All this, I apprehend, any one who is converfant, like your correfpondent, with the doctrines of the fchools will readily admit. If fo, he is reduced to this dilemma; either to acknowledge that the remark, even with his transposition of terms, is futile, because fashion does not impofe on us at all; or to admit the truth of the original obfervation, that, if there is any impofition, it falls first upon the judgement.

Now it seems to me fo obvious that Fathion does impofe upon her votaries, that I fcarcely think it can be neceffary to adduce any thing like argument or illuftration in proof of it. It is fufficient to reflect, that in matters of amufement, or even of common utility, as well as in matters of opinion and fentiment, the fame identical thing is now admired as the pattern of beauty and excellence, and now ftigmatized, and contemned, as difgraceful to the name of taste. We are left, therefore, as I conceive, without any alternative. The judgement must be admitted to be the feat of the impofition; and if the fenfes are fubfequently involved in the fnare, it is by the transference of a portion of the deceit by a reflex operation of the judgement.

There are two fources of the emotions of tafte, or two sets of causes, which excite our admiration, when contemplating natural or artificial objects of beauty: the one fource is nature, or the conftitution of the human mind; the other is the faculty of affociation. Thefe two caufes fometimes, perhaps, operate feparately and independently of each other: moft commonly they act jointly, and are combined in various pro

portions in different inftances. The motives and intellectual operations of man are ufually complicated nature and education confpire to guide his actions, and modify his opinions; conftitution and habit refpectively operate to defignate his character. Sometimes we trace the preponderancy of the one, fometimes the prevalence of the other. In the department of tafte, over which fashion affumes defpotic rule, it is thus that nature and affociation variously combine to bias his opinions; and when the latter, as is moft common, principally prevails, and is affifted too by the charms of novelty, then pour judgement is but too cafily enfnared. But to be more particular.

It is a felf-evident truth, that we are so conftituted by nature, that certain colours, when viewed by the eye, are agreeable, or excite pleafurable emotions; while certain other colours are indifferent, or afford us no gratification; and fome are pofitively difagreeable. Here nature operates alone and independent. No caprice, no whims of man, can change the ftamp fhe has fet upon her works, nor alter the epithets beftowed on them by all the earth. Upon thefe matters neither fenfe nor judgement can be deceived. Fashion never called the rofe ugly, nor declared an octave to be a difcord.

But when affociation interferes, epithets of admiration are lavished on objects which by nature are nearly or altogether void of attraction; and thefe are transferred time after time to other objects more or lefs indifferent, more or lefs combined with what is effentially pleafing or difagreeable. But it is the judgement which is deceived in its decifions. As fociety is conftituted, wealth and honours, fplendor and magnificence, never fail to imprefs the minds of the majority of men with fentiments of adiniration:

and this is partly founded in good fenfe, partly in prejudice. Wealth and honours generally imply cultivation of mind, elegance of taste, pleafing manners, delicacy of sentiment; they imply fuperior means of happiness, the eafy gratification of all the wishes of the heart, freedom from many worldly anxieties and a conflant leifure for enjoy-ments. These are the ideas of delight, which are in a general way affociated with wealth and honours.---No wonder, then, that the world should look up to those who poffefs them with admiration; and that all their external ufages and decorations fhould convey, by affociation, the ideas of implication which I have juft enumerated: fo prone is the human mind to transfer to the fign the ideas attached to the thing fignified.

Thefe reflections will enable us to explain, with the utmost fatisfaction, the paradox before mentioned; namely, that the fame identical object fhall at one time be the idol of our admiration, at another the dæmon of difguft; and they will lead us to the fource and nature of the deceptions of fashion.

Suppofe that, at a time when it is the fashion to drefs in a certain colour, which is by nature calculated to produce a lively and pleafing impreffion on the fenfe; fuppofe that, in this general prevalence, a perfon of high rank appears in a hue which is naturally fombre and difagreeable; the eye recoils at firft from the image, and the epithets of odious, fantaftic, ugly, are fpontaneously affigned to it: neither fenfe nor judgement is impoted on at once; for the old affociations are thus fuddenly opposed, and new ones are not yet formed. But mark the progrefs. The difagreeable hue is adopted by degrees as the colour of ornament by many, and at length by all, of the rich and great; and the lively tint is left among the vulgar alone.

To the former the mind transfers all the affociated ideas of wealth and fplendor, and pronounces it elegant, rich, and admirable; with the latter, pleafing as nature may have painted it, are affociated by the mind the ideas of poverty, and vulgarity, and low-born coarfenefs, and all the contemptuous, which pride attaches to to the canaille. But the change in the emotions, which the objects now excite, is effected in the mind, not in the fenfe; or if in the fenfe, but fecondarily, and by the reflex operation of the mind. The mental faculty of affociation is the active principle in thefe affairs; it modifies the decifions of the judgement before the fenfes can be brought to acquiefcence. It is even doubtful whether they are at any time abfolutely involved in the impofition. The fombre tint pleafes rather comparatively than pofitively; rather as the fign and index of wealth and its implied delights, than abstractedly and in itself. Unconnected with its fafhionable uses, it is ftill the fame unfightly hue. And, on the contrary, it is only as a corporeal ornament that the difcarded lively dye is unfeeming to the fenfe abftracted from its vulgar affociations, it invariably excites its native and pleafing impreflions. In short, "fashion does not fo eafily impose on our fenfes as it miflends our judgement."

I have already trefpaffed too long on your attention, or I fhould have proceeded to apply the principles of affociation to the other departments of the republic of Fashion; where the prefides, like a First Conful, with despotic rule. But the application is ealy; to anticipate it, unneceffary. Över many of our opinions and fentiments, many of our actions and habits, as over the mechanical mutations of the modes and forms of life, fhe exerts a fimilar influence; and in all cafes, I believe, with Mrs. Montague, he does not fo cafily im

pofe upon our fenfes as the mifleads our judgement."

I may just be allowed to add, however, that in many inftances relative to doctrines and opinions, where fashion is faid to interfere, it is rather the powerful and more mechanical principle of habit, by which principles early inftilled into the mind, like motions acquired by the body, are retained and corroborated. But in all these inftances, likewife, the fenfes are fcarcely to be impofed upon; the judgement is eafily mifled. Surely the Roman Catholic eating and drinking the body and blood of his Saviour, as his judgement believes, receives precifely the fame fenfation as from port-wine and a wafer taken at any other time.

I am, Sir, your's, &c.
London, Feb. 13, 1804.

T.

To the Editor of the Universal Mag. SIR,

AS an old Jockey, I fit down with much pleasure, and in the pureft fenfe of the phrafe con amore, to furnith your excellent Mifcellany, ever devoted to the entertainment and inftruction of the public, with a concife general examination of a ftrange book, lately published by Samuel Chifney, which, without fuch analysis, mutt remain perfectly unintelligible to all but the very few initiated in the facred myfteries of the turf.

It may be faid, that the fubject of horse-racing neither is, nor ought to be, generally interesting; a length however, which, and as I conceive for folid reafons, I am neither prepared nor difpofed to go: but the interefts of justice and humanity have a natural demand on the attention and affections of