pectable opinion of those who strike Let me now fpeak of the manner in which he employs the latter part of the day. After dinner he retires to his chamber, to fleep for about half an hour; he then takes a folitary walk, and, about five o'clock, goes to his cabinet, and continues his ftudies till about feven; he then returns to the large hall, has fome portion of his own works read to him, explains, and paffes fome encomium upon it. This is alfo the time in I which he frequently perufes the works of authors that have been recommended to him, or concerning which he has been defired to give his opinion. He never fups, but retires to bed about nine o'clock. In this manner has our indefatigable philo. fopher spent fifty years of his life, and ftill continues, though at the age of feventy-eight. he retains in his memory every thing he has written. He was very atten tive to every observation that I made, and readily admitted it where it seemed pertinent. Natural history and ftyle occupy his chief attention; perhaps the last has ftill the preference. He has frequently repeated to me, "Style is a man's felf. Poets have no ftyle; they are fettered by the measure and rhyme of their verses, and their style is fervile. When a perfon has been highly praised, I always urge, let me fee his ftyle." I asked him how he liked the ftyle of Mon Thomas? "Tolerably well (lays he) but it is prolix and inflated." And the style of Rouffeau ? “Still better; but Rouffeau has all the defects of an imperfect education. He abounds with parenthefis, exclamations, and digref fions." I defired him to favour me with his leading ideas concerning ftyle. "Thefe (fays he) you will find in the differtation I read before the academy. I fhall give you them in a few words: two things are effential to ftyle, conception and expreffion; the first is the refult of patient reflection. The fubject must be carefully examined and weighed for a confiderable time. It will gradually develope itself; nay, it is felt like a gentle ftroke of electricity: it affects the head, and warms the heart. This is the moment of genius. The work now becomes pleasant; fo pleasant, that I have been occupied twelve, fourteen hours fucceffively, a ftranger to every other pleasure. The deWhen thofe of his writings are fire of fame itself could not have read to him, which he is preparing made me fo affiduous: fame, when for publication, he brings every obtained, may be confidered as the thought and expreffion to the fevereft offspring of this pleafing eagerness, fcrutiny; fome ideas he developes in but do you wish to increafe this faa different manner, and others he pre- tisfaction by deriving it from an ori ferves the order, but retrenches fu- ginal fource? When you intend to perfluities, &c. He fometimes re-write upon any fubject, draw every peated to me, verbatim, paffages in thing from your own reflections; conhis work of a confiderable extent, for fult no author until you find that your your own flock of ideas is exhausted. This has always been my plan; and, in this method, I have confulted authors with pleasure. You will generally find yourself their equal; fometimes their fuperior. You criticife, you anticipate, and perufe with a pleafing rapidity; with respect to expreffion, fome image fhould always, if poffible, be connected with the thought, or conception. Some comparison is often neceflary to arrest and fix the idea, and this must be moulded and fhapen until it acquires the precife form you wish. It is not always proper to ufe the first word that presents itself, as it will probably be too common and familiar, but felect fome other, that approaches the nearest to it. When you compofe, always refpect the firft fuggeftion; this is generally the best. Lay alide your compofition for a few days; our natures make nothing perfect at the first inftant; they work flowly, and acquire new vigour by repofe. Let one particular fubject engage your attention, without distracting your thoughts with a diversity. Upon afking him, what is the best preparative to becoming a good writer? he answered, "Read the best authors, but read thofe of different taftes, and in different branches of literature: for, as Cicero obferves, they have a certain relation to each other; and one fcience frequently illucidates another. Publications in which the different branches of knowledge are thoroughly investigated are fcarce. Perhaps they do not exceed fifty, as thofe are abundantly fufficient to occupy the mind." He particularly recommended the production of those who were the most eminent for their genius. "Thefe (fays he) are only few in number: the works of Newton, Bacon, Leibnitz, Montefquieu, and my own. Newton difcovered a very important first principle, but he wafted his life in calculations to demonftrate it; .Ed. Mag. Sept. 1797. and his ftyle is not improving." Buffon had a higher opinion of Leibnitz than of Bacon. "The first (he faid) manifested the ftrongest marks of genius in every fubject he treated, whereas the discoveries of Bacon were fimply the refult of profound thought." He praised the genius of Montefquieu but not his ftyle, which is frequently abrupt, pompous, and much too laconic. "I have thoroughly ftudied the man (fays he) as his imperfections in compofition may be afcribed to his natural character. The prefident was almost blind, and he was fo much in a hurry, that he frequently forgot what he was going to fay, which brought him into the habit of expreffing his ideas as concife as poffible." Our philofopher frequently spoke with rapture of the pleasures derived from literature. He had never been fond of fociety. He had often fought the company of learned men, expecting to derive fome advantage from their converfation: but exclufive of a hint or two, which he occafionally collected, he found that the evenings spent in their company were wafted. To work was become to him an habit indifpenfably neceffary, as he hoped to live two or three years longer to be indulged in it. He was not afraid of death, and was confoled by the thought that his name would never die, He felt himself fully recompenfed for all his labours by the refpe&t which Europe had paid to his talents; and by the flattering letters. he had received from the most exalted perfonages. As the old gentleman was mentioning these circumftances, he opened bis efcrutoire, and fhowed me a letter from Prince Henry, replete with respect and veneration; and alfo feveral written by the Emprefs of Ruffia herfelf; they abounded with wit; and the high compliments fhe paid our philofopher, manifeftly delighted him, as they plainly indicated that he had thoBb roughly * From the Monthly Magazine. ON level ground, roads fhould have no greater elevation in the centre, than what is neceffary to carry off the rain which falls upon it; but on hills, the ridge, or trunk of the road, fhould be higher in proportion to the declivity of the hill; this difference of form should be obferved, to prevent the effect of fudden and violent rain, which fometimes is fo copious, as to rush across the roads down hills, and which, ftriking in torrents against an oppofite bank, is driven backwards and forwards, in a zigzag direction, to the deftruction of the road: by raifing the road higher in the middle than is common, the water finds a paffage to the channels, at each fide, and paffes no farther over the furface than is abfolutely neceffary. Great care should be taken to direct all mountain streams from roads; and fuch streams never fhould be permitted to run in the drains at the fides of the roads; but in other channels at a distance. In preparing the ground for a new road, or in repairing an old one, the firft thing to be attended to is the folidity of the foundation; if any part of it be soft, that part will fink, let the fuperficies be what it may; the vicinity of fmall fprings is generally the caufe of thofe detached holes which we frequently meet with in roads ;thefe fpots must be dug till a firm bottom is found, and the neighbour ing fprings must be drained below the foundation of the road. Having obtained a firm fubftratum for a new road, or having filled up all inequalities in an old one with folid materials, we may proceed to make a good road with much less trouble and expence than is usual. The foundation must now be covered with ftones of any fize, not exceeding fix or feven inches diameter; it is obvious, that if fmaller ftones can be had, they should be preferred. The ftones fhould be fpread equally over the furface, and fettled firmly with a light fledge; in this operation, fuch ftones as are too large, muft either be broken or carried away; over. this a layer of small stones, not larger than eggs, fhould be fcattered, and fettled with hammers between the interftices of the largest. Over this a fmall quantity of any hard clay, juft fufficient to cover the ftones; should be spread; if mixed with gravel it will be better; but if gravel alone were used, it would fall through the ftones and be wafted. It is taken for granted, that this work be done in dry weather; the road will, therefore, in this fituation, be fit for cattle and carriages; in a month or two, the clay and gravel will be worn a way, and the corners of the large ftones will appear; men fhould now be employed to break the ftones with hammers, weighing about two pounds and and a half; they should ftand up at this work, and the handles of their hammers should be from four to five feet long, according to the fize of the men. It will cost about a penny per yard to break a road covered in this manner, to the breadth of fourteen feet. After another month, or fix weeks, the road must be broken, with care, in the fame manner; and, with proper intervals, it should be broken from time to time, as often as may be neceffary; four times is, in general, fufficient. Whilft this operation is performing, a boy, with a bar. row of fine gravel, (hould follow the workmen, and fhould replace the fplinters of the large tones in the holes that are made by their being broken, and should fill the crevices with gravel;—a fmall quantity of gravel may be fpread over the road, which will foon find its way into any hollow that may have been left in the preceding operations. One caution must be strictly adhered to; ftones of different hardness must not be mixed, they may be ufed feparately; but if they are ufed together, the hard ftones will foon wear through the fofter, and the road will be unfit for repair, till the materials are picked up and forted. There may, at first view, appear but little difference between this and the common method of making roads with itone; but when the principles upon which thefe directions have been founded, are explained, a confiderable difference, in labour and expence, will be discovered. Two methods of breaking ftones for roads, are generally practiced; they are either laid upon the road and broken with long hammers, or they are broken in heaps by the fide of the road, and then thrown upon the furface; in both cafes, the fione at which the man ftrikes is liable to flip from the hammer, fo that fometimes five or fix attempts are necef fary to break one tone; but, when the ftones that are to be broken are cemented together by smaller stones, clay, and gravel, every blow that they receive upon their projecting furface, tells, and fplits them frequently in perpendicular layers, thro' their whole depth. When gravel falls between these layers, it binds them together more folidly than can be well conceived without experiment. On the contrary, when loofe ftones are thrown upon a road, they are difperfed by horfes' feet, and pushed either fide by the wheels of carriages, as every perfon must have perceived who has attended to the subject. Another principle must also be confidered,if the fubftratum is not previously rendered equally hard and even, wherever one place is fofter than another, that fpot will fubfide, and inequalities, that are at firft imperceptible, will, in time, grow deeper; water will, lodge in them, and the defcent of wheels will wear them deeper and deeper, till they break into ruts and holes; befides, where loofe ftones, broken as fmall as they ought to be in the common mode of making roads, are thrown together, they must be laid to a great depth, or they will scatter in fuch a manner as to be ufelefs; but, if they are managed in the manner that has been already defcribed, feven or eight inches will be fufficient. Another caution must be obferved in mending an old road; wherever a hole is to be filled, the edges of the hole fhould be cut perpendicular; and the form of the hole fhould be changed, from that of a bowl to the fhape of a trough, whofe fides rife at right-angles from the bottom; for, if fmall ones be thrown into a bowl, any preffure will force them over its fides; but, in a trough, they will be confined, and every preffure will comprefs and grind them, by degrees, to a smooth and folid furface. When any tone appears above the furface, ВЬ 2 it it should immediately be broken, elfe, befides the obftruction which it opposes to carriages, it becomes an eminence, from which the whole weight that it fuftains muft fall upon the road below it; repeated ftrokes of fuch momentum, foon form a hole round even a small stone, and the fucceffion of fuch holes foon destroys the road. Where roads are made entirely of gravel, after the foundation has been properly constructed, the gravel should be skreened or feparated into two or three forts: a layer of the finest sort, about two inches deep, fhould be first laid on; over this the fecond fort; then the coarseft; and, by fucceffive layers in the fame order, the foundation should be covered to the depth that is neceffary to fuftain the wear to which the road is fubject: but in all cafes, where there is a good foundation, it is better to fupply the road from time to time with fresh materials, than to bury at the bottom fuch as might be useful at the furface. MISCELLANEOUS CALCULATIONS, RELATIVE TO MAN, AND OTHER ANIMALS. |