when he was in his peasant's dress, though the alteration was made in his presence and with his own apparel. It happened also, that before Ludwig went home there was an eclipse of the sun, and Mr. Hoffman proposed to his guest that he should observe this phænomenon as an astronomer, and for that purpose furnished him with proper instru. ments. The impatience of Ludwig till the time of the eclipse is not to be expressed; he had hitherto been acquainted with the planetary world only by books and a view of the heavens with the naked eye; he had never yet looked through a telescope, and the anticipation of the pleasure which the new obser. vation would yield him, scarce suffered him either to eat or sleep; but it unfortunately happened, that just before the eclipse came on, the sky became cloudy, and continued so during the whole time of its continuance this misfortune was more than the philosophy even of Ludwig could bear; as the cloud came on he looked up at it in the agony of a man that expected the dissolution of nature to follow; when it came over the sun, he stood fixed in a consternation not to be described, and when he knew the eclipse was past, his disappointment and grief were little short of distrac tion. Mr. Hoffman soon after went in his turn to visit Mr. Ludwig, and take a view of his dwelling, his library, his study, and his instruments. He found an old crazy cottage, the inside of which had been long blacked with smoke; the walls were covered with propositions and diagrams written with chalk. In one corner was a bed, in another a cradle ; and under a little window at the side, three pieces of board, laid side by side over two trussels, made a writing table for the philosopher, upon which were scattered some pieces of writing paper containing extracts of books, various calculations and geometrical figures; the books which have been mentioned before were placed on a shelf with the compass and ruler that have been described, which, with a wooden square and a pair of six inch globes, constituted the library and museum of the truly celebrated John Ludwig. In this hovel he lived till the year 1754, and while he was pursuing the study of philosophy at his leisure hours, he was indefatigable in his day labour as a poor peasant, sometimes carrying a basket at his back, and sometimes driving a wheel-barrow, and crying such garden-stuff as he had to sell about the village. In this state he was subject to frequent insults, "such as patient merit takes of the unworthy," and he bore them without reply, or any other mark either of resentment or contempt, when those who could not agree with him about the price of his commo. dities used to turn from him with an air of superiority, and call him in derision silly clown and a stupid dog. Mr. Hoffman, when he dismissed him, presented him with a hundred crowns, which has filled all his wishes, and made him the happiest man in the world: with this sum he has built himself a more commo. dious habitation in the middle of his vineyard, and furnished it with many moveables and utensils, of which he was in great want; but above all, he has procured a very considerable addition to his library, an article so essential to his happi ness ness, that he declared to Mr. Hoffman he would not accept the whole province in which he lived, upon condition that he should renounce his studies, and that he had rather live on bread and water, than with hold from his mind that food which his intellectual hunger perpetually required. An account of some remarkable particulars that happened to a lady after having had the confluent kind of the small-pox. IN N the course of this disease, during which the lady was attended by the late Sir Hans Sloane, several threatening symptoms appeared, which, however, were at length overcome; and the patient, being thought out of danger, took several doses of such purgative medicines as are usually administered in the decline of the disease, without any bad consequence. But in the evening of the day on which she had taken the last dose that was intended to be given her on that occasion, she was suddenly seized with pains and convulsions in the bowels; the pain and other symptoms became gradually less violent, as the force of the medicine abated, and by such remedies as were thought best adapted to the case, they seemed at length to be entirely subdued. They were, however, subdued only in appearance; for at eleven o'clock in the forenoon of the next day they returned with great violence, and continued some hours; when they went off, they left the muscles of the lower jaw so much relaxed, that it fell down, and the chin was supported on the breast. The strength of the patient was so much exhausted during this paroxysm, that she lay near two hours with no other sign of life than a very feeble respiration, which was often so difficult to be discerned, that those about her concluded she was dead. were From this time the fits returned periodically every day, at about the same hour. At first they seemed to affect her nearly in the same degree; but at length all the symptoms were aggravated, the convulsions became more general, and her arms sometimes convulsed alternately; it also frequently happened, that the arm which was last convulsed remained extended and inflexible some hours after the struggles were over. Her neck was often twisted with such violence, that the face looked directly backwards, and the back part of the head was over the breast; the muscles of the counte nance were also so contracted and writhed by the spasms, that the features were totally changed, and it was impossible to find any resemblance of her natural aspect by which she could be known. Her feet were not less distorted than her head, for they were twisted almost to dislocation at the instep, so that she could not walk but upon her ancles. To remove or mitigate these de. plorable symptoms, many remedies were tried, and, among others, the cold bath; but either by the natural effect of the bath, or by some mismanagement in the bathing, the unhappy patient first became blind, and soon afterwards deaf and dumb. It is not easy to conceive what could increase the misery of deafness, dumbness, blindness, and frequent paroxysms of excruciating pain; yet a very considerable aggravation was added; for the loss of her her sight, her hearing, and her speech, was followed by such a stricture of the muscles of her throat, that she could not swallow any kind of aliment, either solid or liquid. It might reasonably be supposed that this circumstance, though it added to the degree of her misery, would have shortened its duration; yet in this condition she continued near three quarters of a year, and during that time was supported, in a very uncommon manner, by chewing her food only, which having turned often, and kept long in her mouth, she was obliged at last to spit out. Liquors were likewise gargled about in her mouth for some time, and then returned in the same manner, no part of them having passed the throat by an act of deglutition: so that whatever was conveyed into the stomach, either of the juices of the solid food, or of liquids, was either gradually imbibed by the sponginess of the parts, which they moistened, or trickled down in a very small quantity along the sides of the vessels. But there were other peculiarities in the case of this lady, yet more extraordinary. During the privation of her sight and hearing, her touch and her smell became so exquisite, that she could distinguish the different colours of silk and flowers, and was sensible when any stranger was in the room with her. After she became blind, and deaf and dumb, it was not easy to contrive any method by which a question could be asked her, and an answer received. This however was at last effected, by talking with the fingers, at which she was uncommonly ready. But those who conversed with her in this manner, were obli ged to express themselves by touching her hand and fingers instead of their own. A lady who was nearly related to her, having an apron on, that was embroidered with silk of different colours, asked her, in the manner which has just been described, if she could tell what colour it was? and after applying her fingers attentively to the figures of the embroidery, she replied, that it was red, and blue, and green, which was true; but whether there were any other colours in the apron, the writer of this account does not remember. The same lady having a pink-coloured ribbon on her head, and being willing still farther to satisfy her curiosity and her doubts, asked what colour that was ? her cousin, after feeling some time, answered, that it was pink-colour : this answer was yet more astonishing, because it shewed not only a power of distinguishing different colours, but different kinds of the same colour; the ribbon was not only discovered to be red, but the red was discovered to be of the pale kind, called a pink. This unhappy lady, conscious of her own uncommon infirmities, was extremely unwilling to be seen by strangers, and therefore generally retired to her chamber, where none but those of the family were likely to come. The same relation who had by the experiment of the apron and ribbon discovered the exquisite sensibility of her touch, was soon after convinced by an accident, that her power of smelling was acute and refined in the same astonishing degree. Being one day visiting the family, she went up to her cousin's chamber, and after making herself known, she entreated her to go down, down, and sit with her among the rest of the family, assuring her that there was no other person present; to this she at length consented, and went down to the parlour door; but the moment the door was opened, she turned back, and retired to her own chamber much displeased, alledging, that there were strangers in the room, and that an attempt had been made to deceive her. It happened, indeed, that there were strangers in the room, but they had come in while the lady was above stairs so that she did not know they were were. When she had satisfied her cousin of this particular, she was pacified; and being afterwards asked how she knew there were strangers in the room, she answered, by the smell. But though she could by this sense distinguish in general between persons with whom she was well acquainted, and strangers, yet she could not so easily distinguish one of her acquaintance from another without other assistance. She generally distinguished her friends by feeling their hands, and when they came in they used to present their hands to her, as a means of making themselves known; the make and warmth of the hand produced in general the differences that she distinguished, but sometimes she used to span the wrist and measure the fingers. A lady, with whom she was very well acquainted, coming in one very hot day, after having walked a mile, presented her hand, as usual; she felt it longer than ordinary, and seemed to doubt whose it was; but after spanning the wrist, and measuring the fingers, she said, "It is Mrs. M. but she is warmer to-day than ever I felt "her before." To amuse herself in the mourn. ful and perpetual solitude and dark. ness to which her disorder had reduced her, she used to work much at her needle; and it is remarkable, that her needie-work was uncommonly neat and exact; among many other pieces of her work that are preserved in the family, is a pincushion, which can scarce be equalled. She used also sometimes to write, and her writing was yet more extraordinary than her needlework; it was executed with the same regularity and exactness; the character was very pretty, the lines were all even, and the letters placed at equal distances from each other; but the most astonishing particular of all, with respect to her writing, is, that she could by some means discover when a letter had by some mistake been omitted, and would place it over that part of the word where it should have been inserted, with a caret under it. It was her custom to sit up in bed at any hour of the night, either to write or to work, when her pain or any other cause kept her awake. These circumstances were so very extraordinary, that it was long doubted whether she had not some faint remains both of hearing and sight, and many experiments were made to ascertain the matter; some of these experiments she acciden tally discovered, and the discovery always threw her into violent convulsions. The thought of being suspected of insincerity, or supposed capable of acting so wicked a part as to feign infirmities that were not inflicted, was an addition to her misery which she could not bear, and which never failed to produce an agony of mind not less visible visible than those of her body. A clergyman, who found her one evening at work by a table with a candle upon it, put his hat between her eyes and the candle, in such a manner that it was impossible she could receive any benefit from the light of it if she had not been blind. She continued still at her work, with great tranquillity, till putting up her hand suddenly to rub her forehead, she struck it against the hat, and discovered what was doing; upon which she was thrown into violent convulsions, and was not without great difficulty recovered. The family were, by these experiments, and by several accidental circumstances, fully convinced that she was totally deaf and blind, particularly by sitting unconcerned at her work, during a dreadful storm of thunder and light. ning, though she was then facing the window, and always used to be much terrified in such circumstances; but Sir Hans Sloane, her physician, being still doubtful of the truth of facts, which were scarce less than miraculous, he was permitted to satisfy himself by such experiments. and observations as he thought proper; the issue of which was, that he pronounced her to be absolutely deaf and blind. She was at length sent to Bath, where she was in some measure relieved, her convulsions being less frequent, and her pains less acute; but she never recovered her speech, her sight, or her hearing, in the least degree. Many of the letters, dated at Bath, in some of which there are instances of interlineations with a caret, the writer of this narrative hath seen, and they are now in the custody of the widow of one of her brothers, who, with many other persons, can support the facts here related, however wonderful, with such evidence as it would not only be injustice, but folly, to disbelieve. The following characters of Lord Somers, the Duke and Dutchess of Marlborough, Lord Godolphin, Lord Sunderland, Lord Wharton, Lord Cowper, the Earl of Not. tingham, and Sir Robert Walpole, are extracted from the history of the four last years of the Queen, by Dr. Swift, who professes to describe those qualities in each of them, which few of their ad. mirers will deny, and which appeared chiefly to have influenced them in acting their several parts upon the public stage: For I 'do not intend (says he) to draw 'their characters entire, which 'would be tedious, and little to the purpose; but shall only single out those passions, acquirements, and habits, which the owners were most likely to transfer into their political schemes, and which were most subservient to the designs they 'seemed to have in view.' These characters, and the history from whence they have been extracted, are far from giving us a very just idea of the times, or the persons they profess to describe; they may be read very usefully notwithstandsng this defect. For they may serve as a striking example of the melancholy effects of prejudice and party zeal; a zeal which, whilst it corrupts the heart, vitiates the understand. ing itself; and could mislead a writer of so penetrating a genius as Dr. Swift, to imagine that posterity would accept satire in the place |