unjuft is this? One man differs from an- Again, in politics, let us confider how proper ufe the miniftry want for them; Thefe opinions, fo different from each other, may be embraced by men whofe heads are fenfible, and their hearts good; men who have only the welfare of their country at heart. And yet to the former opinion, there will join all the prostitute and venal flaves of a debauched ministry, who will fell their fouls and confciences for a paultry bribe, men of whom I can only exclaim after Mr. Addison, O Portius is there not fome hidden curfe, man Who owes his riches to his country's ruin! Again, to the latter opinion, there will join all the traitors difaffected to the government, who, breaking thro' the most folemn oaths, only procure a feat in parliament, and put on the appearance of patriotifm, to fubvert the conftitution; villains! for surely perjury, in the most folemn matters is a crime, which cannot be openly defended by any person; there will likewife join all thofe pretended Patriots, who only exclaim against the wrong fteps of a minifter, in order to get that minifter difgraced; and when they have got themselves into his place, proceed in the very fame footsteps with their predeceffor, and likewife those who exclaim against the ministry only to enhance the price of their corruption. And yet both parties, which is moft ftrange, will overlook the failings, and even flatter those mean miscreants of their own party, and will inveigh against one of the other party, tho' his fole motive be the public good, because he has the misfortune to differ from them in opinion. From this diversity of opinions in things immaterial, one may perceive the difference betwixt man who ftrikes out into a thousand different ways, and has a thoufand different inclinations and opinions from another man, and the brute creation, which have the fame fympathy and antipathy with others of their own species, who all love the fame food, and hate the fame beafts of a different fpecies; all sheep are cowardly, all eagles voracious, all foxes cunning, and all tygers cruel. As this diverfity of opinions and manners fhows the difference betwixt reafon and instinct, it likewife shows how limited man is in his perfections, how fittle able ! Would the kind gods, for all my pain, Nor envy them their heav'n. A PROLOGUE, Written and Spoken by Mr. MARLEY, on the Reprefentation of the Beggar's Opera, at Carr-Town, a Seat of the Marquis of Kildare and Leinster, near Dublin; the Performers being all People of Fashion. OUR play to-night wants novelty, 'tis true-- To make amends, our actors are all new; And fure than ours, no ftage was ever droller, [stroller. Lords act the rogue, and ladies play the care, [dear. With all her gentle fmiles fhe'll fcold her Yet will her rage most amiable be found, (t) Mackheath you'll envy, tho' in fetters bound. [prove; If (d) Peachum's wife too fair, too graceful And feems to emulate the queen of love, If no disguise her beauty can conceal, If ev'ry look her matchlefs charms reveal, We own the fault, for spight of aukward [dare. The loves and graces will attend Kil(e) Diver, and winning Coaxer, if you knew [to them. You'd fwear you could not be too loving When you behold in (f) Peachum, (g) Matt, and (b) Lockett, [your pocket. You'd fhudder for your purfe, and guard Our (i) Trapes from Douglas' self the prize might win, [more gin. More virgins might destroy, and drink When (k) Slamakin you view, politely drunk, them, These characters their native worth dif (a) Mifs Martin. (b) Lady Louifa Lennox. (c) Capt. Morrils. (d) Marchioness of Kildare and Leinster. (e) Performed by Mrs. Knox and Mifs Vefey. (f) Lord Charlemont. (g) Mr. Connoly. Marley. (i) Mr. D. Gore. Powerfcourt, (1) Mr. Marley. (b) Mr. (k) Lord opinion; but judging is properly the examining strictly the fubject, and weighing well the reafons and counter-reafons on all parts, adjusting the true weight of each, and thence, by comparison, making out the truth of the whole. Obftinacy and paffion in an argument may be proofs of a weak caufe to be fupported; but they can never be arguments to evince a fober perfon.. He is no longer free in his judgment who is poffeffed of the certainty of his own opinion; and he only can be justly honoured with that name, who ufes his utmost efforts to find out what is most confonant to truth and reason, most profitable to himfelf and others, and yet judges of this without coming to any final refolution, or any condemnation of the contrary opinion; but profeffes himself, after all his researches, ready to hear all, to be pleased, not offended, at another's contefting the prerogative of his favoured opinion, and ready to entertain a better, as foon as he hears it. If truth be to be had, he will this way arrive at it; and on every fair difpute of this kind, he either grows wifer by embracing the opinions of his antagonist, or happier in a confirmation of the irrefiftible truth of his own. The three great steps to wisdom, the judging freely, the remaining unbiassed to any fyftem, and the readiness to receive information, thus mutually support and propagate one another. All that we fee before us, every object that the mind can take in, is to be judged of with the utmost freedom. The genuine office of wisdom, and the most proper, the worthieft, and the most natural exercife of the mind of man, is to judge: that wifdom, which, at first, inspired the practice, grows ftronger with it, and every act of the mind on this plan renders the next more easy. Why was man created with all the preeminence of fenfe and fpeech, above the reft of the animal world? Why had he a foul, an active confcience, principle implanted in him, capable of judging, of reasoning, and reflecting? These great prerogatives were not allotted him, that he might be able to erect edifices in the air, and flatter his pride with fooleries and vanity: no, but for better purposes; tó enable him to understand and determine all things that come before him, to grow December, 1761, wife by reflection and remembrance, to be the fuperintendant, the preferver of nature, that is, of tlie works of God, and be as it were his vicegerent to the lower feries of his creation, to regulate and de termine concerning them, to fee vice and error in his fellow-creatures, and by thefe, as well as by better examples, to form a proper plan of action for himfelf. There is no way to all this but freejudging; this is neceffary to the allotted perfection of man on earth; and toʻgo about to deprive him of this, is to make him no longer a human creature, but a fellow for the brutes. This is the means of fuperiority between man and man; and by this the wife, the feribus, and the reafoning, that is, the free-judging man, is as far above the common rank of men, as they above the brutes. Man differs more from man than man from beat, is a memorable fentence in one of our greatest geniufes. That people born with natural imperfections, ideots, or lunatics, should not understand the value of this glorious quality, is not to be wondered at, but to be lamented; but its value and pre-eminence cannot but be known to all who have the natural means of thinking at all. Pride and obftinacy have fo far prevailed in the world of late ages, that the general opinions are for the most part fuch as it is an honour to depart from. We fuppofe the nation we belong to the wifeft and beft inftructed in the univerfe, the most judicious in its manners, and moft rational in its cuftoms, of any in the world and why do we think fo? Doubtlefs, there are many things in which we excel; but we do not peculiarly pride ourfelves in thefe; prejudice of educa tion, and a firm confidence in opinions we have never examined in the scale of reafon, is the only ground for our thinking fo. But the philofophers of old, the free-judgers, the ferious and fedate reasoners on all things, nobly defpiíed the prevalence of opinion. They génerously could fay, Ameng all the various laws, cuftoms, and opinions of the world, shall we arrogantly pretend that none are good but ours? Has all the world been mistaken, except ourselves alone? Do not the profeffors of what feem to us the most abfurd of all the foreign cuftoms, think as 4 M warmly BY. HISTORY of the PRESENT WAR. Y the latest advices from Pomerania, it appears, that the fate of Colberg remained then undecided. The Ruffians have fince our last made feveral attempts; in most of which they were repulfed with lofs. They have, however, at length, got poffeffion of the outworks of that fortrefs. Since the froft began, the commandant of the place has caufed water to be thrown every night upon the counterfcarp of the ramparts, in order to render it more difficult to fcale them. From the army under Prince Henry of Pruffia, we learn, that the day after the Auftrians had diflodged them from Noffen, (as mentioned in our laft) the Pruffians having received Come reinforcements, they immediately regained poffeffion of that place; but the attack was very bloody, and the battalions of Schack and Colignon, and Col. Kleift's Hunters, fuffered much on the occafion. Since this affair, Prince Henry has put his troops into quarters of cantonment, the left at Meiffen, and the right at Katzenhaufen, in fuch a manner that they canbe quickly affembled in cafe of need.: The army of the empire, which is reckoned to be eight or ten thousand ftrong, is likewife gone into quarters of cantonment. The inhabitants of Berlin were lately under great apprehenfions, at the appearance of an Auftrian corps under general Lafci, within about feven miles from that capital. But Prince Henry having detached general Bandemer in purfuit of the enemy, they retreated through Lufatia to join the army of Marthal Daun. Advices from Silefia import, that the king of Pruffia arrived in perfect health at Breslau the beginning of December; from whence he had detached ro or 12,000 men down the Oder, whose march it was imagined would greatly influence the affairs in Pomerania. A confpiracy has been, difcovered, which was formed to furprize the king of Pruffia in his quarters; the particulars of which are as follows: A Silefian gentleman, of the name of Wargotfchr, who had an eftate near Strehlen, came often to the Pruffian camp, where he was well received by the king of Pruffia, and by the officers. He informed bimfelf, with great exactness, of every thing that paffed in the army, anc parti cularly, of the disposition made of the troops in their quarters of cantonment; and, as the country thereabout was well known to him, he formed a projeĉ of furprizing his Pruffian majefty, in the night of the 1ft of December, which was to have been executed in this manner : a small body of refolute cavalry were to penetrate, in the night, into the fuburbs of Strehlen, where his Prussian majesty lodged, to which they were immediately to fet fire, and, during the confufion, that this muft neceffarily occafion, to endeavour to feize and carry off the king of Pruffia, which Wargotfch thought was very practicable, as the quarters were, at that time, but flightly guarded. The whole affair is reported to have been accidentally difcovered by one of Wargotsch's own fervants, who had often been employed to carry letters to a Popish prieft, in a neighbouring village. These letters were directed to an Austrian lieutenant-colonel, and the priest had the care of tranfmitting them. The fervant obferving, when his master gave him the last letter, that he was uncommonly anxious. about the fafe delivery of it, and appeared to be in great agitation of mind, began to suspect that he was employed in a dangerous fervice; however, he took the letter, and promifed to deliver it as ufual; but instead of that, carried it directly to Strehlen, where he put it into the hands of Monfieur de Crufemark, the adjutant-genera', who immediately fent out two small parties of dragoons to seize Wargotích and the, prieft, who were both made prifoners, but efcaped afterwards. The trial of Wargotfch, who has been cited to appear, is actually carrying on before the Tribunal called the Ober Ampt, in Breslav. By accounts from the allied army, it appears that the campaign is at an end. On the 4th Prince Ferdinand fixed his head quarters at Hildesheim. The hereditary Prince will have his at Munster. The English cavalry, are to winter in T Eaft-Friefland, and the English foot in the bishopric of Ofnabrug. General Sporcken will pafs the winter at Hamelen, and general Luckner at Eimbeck, According to the allotment of the French troops this winter, Marshal Broglio will quarter quarter 60,000 men in the principality of Heffe. DOMES tion and contact, is what is generally called the eye of the volute. The volutes or helices of the Corinthian order are much the fame; except they have only two, or one and a half, circumvolutions. Three femi-circumvolutions or fegments of this curve, terminating in the centre, joined and reverfed, is the true line, an imitation of which has been called by the ingenious Mr. Hogarth, the line of beauty. There are two forts of fpiral curves which wind out of the fame plane. The firft of thefe contains thofe curves whofe axes, or the lines generated by the motion of the centre round which they wind, are ftrait, and the fecond where they are curve lines. The first differs according to the progreffions of the spaces; one of which is imitated by Mr. Hogarth's line of grace, and others by fome modern projecting volutes in architecture and carving, &c. The fecond differs according to the progreffions of the fpaces, and the curvature of the axes. Some of thefe are alfo imitated by our modern projecting volutes. The imperfect fpires are chiefly of two kinds, elliptic and angular. Both these confift of all the various forts which perfect fpires do. Befides, the elliptic ones confift of an infinite number of forts, according to the differences between the long and fhort diameters, in the fame way as elliptic circles or ellipfes. Some of thefe elliptic curves are imitated in architecture, and alfo fome angular ones, particularly in the Roman order, where the volutes are generally quadrangular. The ufes of the fpiral compaffes must therefore be very univerfal in the manual arts; fince imitations of thefe kinds of curves make up the chief parts of most HISTORY OF kinds of ornaments, and in others they might certainly be introduced with advantage. Nature is lavish of her beauties of this kind. The ringlets, curls, and wavings of human and other animal hair; the various ferpentine rifings in the human face and body, and the bodies of other animals; the wreaths of the ferpent and other vermicular creatures; the curls and twiftings of many parts of vegetables; and the pleafing fenfations which a view of them produce, fhow how much beauty depends upon this kind of variety. Art is fertile in her imitations of thefe beauties. In architecture and plaister of Paris wo'k ; in carpentry, ship-building, cabinet-making, musical-instrument-making, fculpture, upholstery, embroidery, &c. confequently, in drawing, engraving, and painting, &c. volutes, fcrolls, cimas, lines of beauty, &c. and other ornaments, for which we have as yet no names, are frequently used; and, therefore, fuch inftruments must be very useful in thofe arts. The objections which have been made to the uses of thefe principles in mechanics, are of very little weight; for, befides their being a new difcovery in the fcience of geometry, inftruments constructed upon them must be as ufeful for defcribing volutes, &c. as a common pair of compaffes is for circles, or rulers for trait lines. To fay that they can be done well enough by hand without them, is no objection; at least the fame may be made against common compasses, &c. as circles and ftrait lines are even more easily done by hand than volutes, &c. and every one knows that the exacteft methods made ufe of, both by the ancients and moderns, for defcribing volutes, are very tedious, imperfect, and in small ones impra&icable. CANADA. [Continued.] Anno HE afterwards navigated his veffel he made feveral voyages through the lakes, 1678. to Niagara, where he traced out another fort, and left the execution of it to the chevalier de Tonti, together with directions for building a fecond bark, at the mouth of the lake Erie, above the great cataract of Niagara. In the mean time, he travelled on foot through the whole district of Tfonnonthuan; and having spent the winter in different excurfions, in order to extend the fur trade, he returned to Cadarakui, From thence until his own veffel was dashed in pieces among the rocks, and the other built by Tonti perished in fuch a manner, that no particulars of her fate could be learned. This difafter was fucceeded by a misfortune ftill more interefting. He had depended, in a great meafure, u pon the friend-hip of the Illinois Indians, a numerous nation, in whofe country he hoped to establish convenient communications between Canada and the Miffiffipi. 4 M 2 He |