1 226 Writers on The Confeffional.-Remarks on Dr. Priestley. Palmer, Rev. John Peckard, Peter, M. A. Priestley, Jofeph, LL. D Randolph, Thomas, D. D. Pref. of Ridley, Gloucester, D. D. Minister of Robinson, Rev. Robert, of Cambridge Roe, Samuel, M. A. Vicar of Stot- Rofe, William, M. A. of Chiswick Ryton, Durham Secker, Archbishop Seward, Thomas, Canon Refidentiary of Litchfield Sheppard, Richard, B. D. Fellow of C. C. C. Oxford, and Rector of Stevens, Thomas, M. A. Fellow of Sturges, John, M. A. Preb, of Win- Temple, Anthony, M. A. Mafter of the Free School of Richmond, and Vicar of Eafby, Yorkshire Tillard, Richard, M. A. Vicar of South Leverton, Nottinghamshire Toplady, Auguftus, A. B. Vicar of Tottie, John, D. D. Archdeacon of Tucker, Jofiah, D. D. Dean of Glou- Watfon, Richard, D. D. King's Pro feffor of Divinity in Cambridge Wollafton, Francis, LL. B. and F. R. S. Rector of Chiflehurst, Kent Wood, John, B. D. Rector of Cadleigh, Devon, and formerly Fellow of Sidney, Suff Coll. Cambridge Wywill, Chriftopher, LL. B. Řector of Black Notley, Effex. I The Letter in p. 167 continued. Shall now, Mr. Urban, make a few remarks on the conftitution of the human body; and, as I had in view fome reflections which are not wholly incompatible with Dr. Priestley's doc trice, I begged leave to premife, that I had no views inconfiftent with religion, but fheltered myelf intirely under the protection of thofe arguments which the author of the Slight Sketch had adduced in defence of Dr. Priestley. This alfo I can do with more confidence, as there feems to be fome reafons to think that powers do exist, which can be manifefted by experi ment, inconfiftent with every view of matter that has been taken, and not wholly irreconcilable with fome of the properties of fpirit. If Dr. P. excludes fpirit from the compofition of the human machine, and confiders man as an accountable creature, he must fuppofe that every particle must be again collected by the Almighty hand, and fuffer, or be rewarded for the actions formerly committed by the aggregate. This feems to be his idea, and he must add to it, that the arrangement of the feveral particles must be the fame, and the whole machine muft retain a confcioufnefs of its idenity. This, though difficult to be allowed, and fcarcely to be conceived, does not, by any means, explain the feveral phanomena. It does not fhew us how all the vital and natural actions of the dormouse are fufpended by the cold of winter; how the fumes of charcoal deftroy life, or how drowning deftroys, for a time only, when proper means are used, every appearance of animation. If life only, as he contends, confifted in the organization of the matter, it must remain while that organization continues; but the flightest caufes deftroy life, and fuch as have not fuch a mechanical force as in any degree to affect organization. It does not, however, depend on this reasoning; for diffections have fhewn, that there is no fenfible change to be traced in thefe circumftances: and it is rafh to affert, that fome change muft exist in the organization, though not to be traced On the Conftitution of the Human Body. traced by the anatomift, nor to be fuf- Trauflation of the Story mentioned by as well told and extremely true." "Erafmus to bis Friend Christian. WH HY did not you write to me to- 227 very bufy. "How were you ementertaining one. ployed?" I was at a play, and a very "A comedy, or a tragedy?" Both; but no one acted in a mafk; there was only one act, a chorus without flutes; the players bare-footed; they acted on the ground, were neither in focks nor buskins, but without any dance; the story was most turbulent, and fo was the event. adhere strictly to truth. I I faw to-day my hoefs valiantly fighting with her maid- fervant. The trumpet founded long before the battle; taunts had were bravely exchanged on both fides. It was a drawn battle; neither were victorious. This happened in the garden. I filently faw it from my parthe catastrophe. After the battle, the lour, not without laughing. But hear girl came up into my chamber to make the bed. In converfation, I commended her bravery, in being a match for her miftrefs in words, or bad -Janguage; but wifhed that he had made as good ufe of her hands as the did of her tongue. For the hoftefs, a robuft virago, quite athletic, continually pummelled the head of the girl, who was much the fhorteft, with her fifts. "What!" faid I, "had you no nails that you bore all this with impunity?" She answered, finiling, that she did not want courage, but itrength. "Do cefs in war depends only on strength! you think," I continued," that fucconduct is there of the utmost importance." On her afking what I advifed: "When the attacks you again," faid I, immediately pull off her tête;" for the women at Paris are wonderfully fond of black perriwigs. "When you have pulled off that, then fly at her hair." This I faid in joke, and thought it was fo taken. But about fupper-time comes running one of the guefts, Gentil Gerfon, one of King Charles's heralds, commonly known by the name of Gentil Gerters, and fee a bloody fight." We fon; and cries, "Come hither, my mafran inftantly, and found the mistress and the maid ftruggling on the ground. We could fcarce part them. bloody the battle was, was very apparent. Here lay on the ground a tête, So cruel was the flaughter! As we and there a hood, with heaps of hair. were at fupper, the landlady told us, with great truth, how couragerously the girl had behaved. "When I befaid the," to chaftife her, that is, to box her ears, the immediately gan, ་་ How tore tore off my téte." By this I found that my advice had not been loft. "When he had torn it off, the witch dafhed it in my eyes:" this was not my advice." Then," faid I, "the palled off as much hair as you fee here." She then called heaven and earth to witness that the never knew a girl fo cowardly and mifchievous. We told her that the must allow for accidents, and the uncertain event of war, and talked of making a peace for the future. While I congratulated myself that the miftrefs did not fuffpect it to be owing to my advice, otherwise I too fhould have found that the did not want a tongue. Paris, 1497, A Narrative of the Cultivation of a new Wheat brought by Mr. Ifaac Taylor, out of Yorkshire, in 1776, by George Whyrhale, Gent. of Bicknor Court, in the County of Gloucester, and then firft known in that county. IN October 1776, I was favoured with a letter from Mr. Ifaac Taylor, of Rofs, dated the 12th, prefenting me with a fpecimen of a particular fort of white Wheat, which he had juft before brought with him out of Yorkshire, and of which he recommended the cultivation, as having the follo ing properties, that it is "rather smaller than our wheat, but much more heavy, fhort, and thickbodied, the fkin thin, full of flour, and very bright, that it yields fortyfold on an average; and has a down on every grain, which guards it from the wet, fo that it does not grow in the ear though much expofed to rain." He added, that this wheat "was fold in Leeds market, for 7 s. the statutebushel, when other feed-wheat brought only 6 s. 3 d. at molt; and defired that I would fow it in the middle of a field, being apprehenfive that the birds would devour it, if fown near an hedge, or in a garden. Part of the quantity was ready beaten out before it was fent me, but there were four entire ears, which contained as follows. 1776. In a field of about eighteen chain acres, being a fort of mixed land, between a lime ftone loam and a fandy gravel, having been properly fallowed during the fummer, and moderately limed and dunged, and now sowing with red Lammas wheat, on narrow ridges. In the middle of this field, on the 21ft of October, I marked out a spot, three ridges in breadth, and about feven yards long; and just before the feedfman came to this place, I covered it over clofe with bags, to keep off the grain he was fowing; which when he had done, the bags were carefully taken up, and I ftood by while the ploughs were doing their office, in order to preferve my marks from being displaced. Having prepared a thin board, with pegs fixed in it, in two rows, at fix inches apart each way; and having chopped the mould fine, and picked off the ftones, I laid the board flat, with the pegs downwards; and preffing it pretty hard with my foot, fo as to make as many holes in the ground as there were pegs, each an inch deep, a woman followed with the wheat dropping a fingle grain into every hole, whilst I went on with my board, keeping the holes ftill in ftrait lines, till the quantity was all fet. I then filled up the holes with fresh mould, which were in number about eight hundred. Having neglected to count the grains, I took care to measure the quantity exactly, in a small pill-box, which I cut down to the fize, fo as that the quantity jult filled it twice, when chuck. The dimenfions of this box, as fince taken, were one inch and fix tenths and an half wide, and feven tenths and a quarter deep in the clear. After this the wheat was left till harvest, without any further care taken of it, only giving it one flight weeding, the fame as the reft of the field; which did not do justice to this, as the vacant spaces allowed the weeds more power of getting ftrong, before the corn was become able to keep them under. The field was reaped the 26th of Auguft, 1777, but the new wheat was not ripe fo foon as the rest, by five or fix days fo I cut it at two or three different times, as I found it ripen, from the 27th of August, to the ift of September. To To my furprize, I now found a good deal of the red wheat intermixed with my little crop of white; which I could no otherwise account for, than by fuppofing that the grains which produced the former must have adhered to the plough, and were afterwards rubbed off as it paffed through this part of the ground. I feparated thefe very carefully, and tied up all my Yorkshire wheat, as I reaped it, in handfuls, each containing one hundred ears, in all 2745 ears; being about three ears and an half upon an average from every grain that was fown. : All this I put by very carefully, hanging it up out of the reach of vermin, till just before I was ready to fow it again when, upon rubbing it out, I found I had been fo careless as to miflay my little box, and not having then taken its contents, I could not at that time difcover my increase by measure. I had therefore no way left to do it but by tale; and accordingly I counted out eight hundred grains from the heap, as they came to hand, and weighed off the whole quantity into little heaps of the fame exact weight with the eight hundred grains. The produce was one hundred and five of thefe heaps, and feventy-fix grains over, viz. 84076 grains; being by this computation one hundredand five times the quantity fown; and fomewhat more than thirty grains from every ear, one with another throughout. It may well be expected that these ears should be smaller than those which I received from Mr. Taylor, which probably were felected ears; whereas mine, as I moft carefully faved every one, included the fmalleft; and there were confequently fome amongst them, which contained but few grains, and many which were unripe and thin: befides, this was not a favourable year for wheat. I have no doubt, if the ground had been well weeded in time, and kept quite clean, it would have produced a much greater number of ears from every root, as well as larger; and perhaps would have ripened fooner. never appeared; fo I had from them only twenty plants. This crop, contrary to my expectation, ripened ftill later than the other, (A,) which was fown in the field. At the end of Auguft, and the 1ft and zd of September, I cut fuch of it as was pretty ripe; and foon afterwards, finding that the birds had attacked the reft, I covered it with a large net, which kept them off for fome days; but the corn being now all cleared from the. adjacent fields, I found, on the 10th of September, that they had ventured under the net; fo I then reaped the whole, though the ftraw, as to the greatest part of it, was not turned yellow. I had from this bed, in the whole, 320 ears; being 16 for every plant, one with another, and 12 and four 5ths for every grain that was fet- the particulars as follow: Grains. N° 100 ears, gathered be- fore it was much robbed by the birds, of which the produce was (37 grains each ear) 2-178 ears, reaped rothof Sept. much plundered by the birds, and not very ripe. Thefe yielded-not quite gå for every ear, 3---42 ears, from one fin- to an ear, being alike 320 ears, from which I had of grains, about 12 for each ear. 3737 1841 428 5996 an increase of almost 240 to one fown, befides what was eaten by the birds. Now, if the above-mentioned ears, N° 2 and No 3, being in all 220, could have been left to ripen thoroughly without lofs, there is not, I think, any reason to suppose that the number of grains they contained would have been found lefs in proportion than that of the crop A, raised in the field. This quantity would then have yielded 6600 grains, which, added to 3727 more, from No 1, as above, would have made the whole produce of the crop B to amount to 10,327 grains, or 413 for every grain of wheat fet. If this little bed had been well dung'd before it was fown, I am con ving vinced that the increafe would have been greater by a very large proportion, as well as the grain fooner ripe; but I chose to make this trial without that advantage. If N° 3 had not been robbed, and had yielded but 30 grains from every ear, the increafe would have been 1360 from one fingle grain. Upon the whole, I think it may be gathered from these experiments, that if a perfon happens to have a very fmall quantity of any grain, from which he wishes to obtain a great and fpeedy increase, the best way is to fet it in the middle of a field of the fame fpecies of corn, at great distances, not less than ten or twelve inches fquare; to have it carefully weeded, as much as three times, during its growth, and the first time pretty early in the fpring. And I am convinced, that, if any fuch perfon will previously cause the spot of ground to be fufficiently dung'd with well-rotted dung, the produce will not deceive his moft fanguine expectations. My whole quantity of this wheat was now nine filver pints, and the pillbox (which was afterwards found) near three times filled; and, as my pint contained 22 of the boxes, the whole was now full two hundred pillboxes, from two boxes and twentyfive grains fown, being an increafe, according to this computation, of about one hundred to one. The reafon of the proportion appearing lefs by measure than by number, probably, was, that many of the ears were not well ripened, and the grains fmall. But in the measure I was certain, as to my quantities: as to the tale of what was fown, I eftimated only from conjecture. Thus encouraged to proceed in the culture of this plant, I now thought it proper to give it a name to diftinguish it; fo we called it the Leeds Wheat. 1777. I had this year no conveniency of fowing my wheat, but under great difadvantages, and with little profpect of a large increase. The field in which it was to be fown, though it afforded a change of soil, was rather poor, and not naturally adapted to wheat, being dry, and inclinable to fandy; with a keen, yellow, gravelly bottom, and a very thin ftratum of mould for the crop upon the surface. It was this year under clover, was fpring-grazed, and afterwards mowed for feed in September; dung'd fpar ingly, with only 65 wain loads of folddung on the whole field, which confifts of full fix chain acres, and was sown at one plowing. Nov. 11th, the Leeds wheat was fown very thin on one fide of this field. It was very well weeded, but only once, and this not till June 1778; and was reaped the 21st of Auguft. The feafon was very dry, fo it was perfectly well harvested, and was houfed very carefully by itself, in an empty outhoufe, in order to keep it apart from all other grain; but here the mice were very free with it.-It was thrashed the ad of October, when all the red Lammas wheat (of which there was some unavoidably mixed with it, by being fown in the fame field) was diligently picked out; and, being made thoroughly clean, there was now one bushel and a half, and thirty pints over. My bushel being Monmouth meafure, which is called ten gallons, upon trial, I found to contain full one hundred and five of the filver pints; and the pint holding twenty-two of the pill boxes, the produce of this year's crop was 4125 boxes, from about two hundred fown in November 1777; which was an increase of zo and to one. 1778. This feafon I had an opportunity of doing better juftice to my new wheat than I could the laft, having a small field, of fomewhat more than two chain acres, which was very well fallowed by four ploughings, all made in very good and fine order, well limed at the first, and covered with thirty-four wain loads of well-rotted dung, which was turned in upon the fecond fallowing; and this, very foon after being carried out upon the field. This ground again afforded a very good exchange of foil, after that in which the wheat grew the last year, this being a true lime ftone loam, and very favourable to the growth of wheat. O&. 3, I again directed my bailiff to throw the Leeds wheat as thin as he well could; and he covered with it fo much of the little field, that the part which remained, though fown much thicker, did not take quite half a bufhel of the red Lammas. It was lightly pickled in a strong brine of falt and water, which would buoy up an egg: and, after drawing off the brine, mixed up with riddled lime, as is my conftant practice before sowing wheat. The |