Is coarse brown paper; fuch as pedlars choofe
To wrap up wares, which better men will ufe.
Take next the mifer's contraft, who deffroys
Health, fame, and fortune, in a round of joys.
Will any paper match him? Yes, thro'out,
H's a true finking paper, past all doubt.
The retail politician's anxious thought
Deems this fide always right, and that flark nought;
He foams with cenfure; with applause he raves--
A dupe to rumours, and a tool of knaves
He'll want to type his weakness to proclaim,
While fuch a thing as fools-cap has a name.

The hafty gentleman, whofe blood runs high,
Who picks a quarrel, if you ftep awry,
Who can't a jeft, or hint, or look endure:
What's he? What? Touch-paper to be fure.
What are our poets, take them as they fall,
Good, bad, rich, poor, much read, not read at all;
Them and their works in the fame clafs you'll find;
They are the mere waste-paper of mankind.
Obferve the maiden, innocently fweet,
She's fair white-paper, an unfullied sheet;
On which the happy man whom fate ordains,
May write his name, and take her for his pains.
One inftance more, and only one I'll bring;
Tis the great man who fcorns a little thing,
Whofe thoughts, whofe deeds, whofe maxims are

his own,

Form'd on the feelings of his heart alone:

True genuine royal-paper is his breast;
Of all the kinds moft precious, pureft, beft.

ON THE ART OF SWIMMING.

*

In anfwer to fome inquiries of M. Dubourg on the fubject.

I

AM apprehenfive that I fhall not be able to find leifure for making all the difquifitions and experiments which would be defirable on this fubject. I must, therefore, content myself with a few remarks.

The specific gravity of fome human bodies, in comparison to that of water, has been examined by M. Robinfon, in our Philofophical Tranfactions, volume 50, page 30, for the year 1757. He afferts, that fat perfons with fmall bones float moit eafily upon water.

The diving bell is accurately defcribed in our Tranfactions.

When I was a boy, I made two oval pallets, each about ten inches long, and fix broad, with a hole or the thumb, in order to retain it faft in the pa'm of my hand. They much resemble a painter's pallets. In fwimming I pushed the edges of thefe forward, and I ftruck the water with their flat furfaces as I drew them back. I remember I fwam fafter by means of thefe pallets, but they fa tigued my wrists.I alfo fitted to the foles of my feet a kind of fand is; but I was not fatisfied with them, because I obferved that the ftroke is partly given with the infide of the feet and the ancles, and not entirely with the foles of the feet.

*Tranflator of Dr. Franklin's works into French.

We have here waiftcoats for fwimming, which are made of double fail-cloth, with fmall pieces of cork quilted in between them.

I know nothing of the fcaphandre of M. de la Chappelle.

I know by experience that it is a great comfort to a fwimmer, who has a confiderable diftance to go, to turn himself fometimes on his back, and to vary in other refpects the means of procuring a progreffive motion.

When he is seized with the cramp in the leg, the method of driving it away is to give to the parts affected a fudden, vigorous, and violent fhock; which he may do in the air as he fwims on his back. During the great heats of fummer there is no danger in bathing, however warm we may be, in rivers which have been thoroughly warmed by the fun. But to throw oneself into cold fpring water, when the body has been heated by exercife in the fun, is an imprudence which may prove fatal.

I

once knew an inftance of four young men, who, having worked at harveft in the heat of the day, with a view of refreshing themfelves plunged into afpring of cold water: two died upon the fpot, a third the next morning, and the fourth recovered with great difficulty. A copious draught of cold water, in fimilar circumstances, is frequently attended with the fame effect in North America,

The exercife of fwimming is one of the moft healthy and agreeable in the world. After having fwam for an hour or two in the evening, one fleeps Coolly the whole night, even during the moft ardent heat of fummer. Perhaps the pores being cleanfed, the infenfible perfpiration increafes and occafions this coolnefs. It is certain that much

fwimming is the means of ftopping a diarrhoea, and even of producing a conftipation. With refpect to thofe who do not know how to fwim, or who are affected with a diarrhoea at a feafon which does not permit them to use that exercife, a warm bath, by cleaning and purifying the skin, is found very falutary, and often effects a radical cure. fpeak from my own experience, frequently repeated, and that of others to whom I have recommended this.

I

You will not be difpleafed if I conclude these hafty remarks by informing you, that as the ordinary method of fwimming is reduced to the act of rowing with the arms and legs, and is confequently a laborious and fatiguing operation when the space of water to be croffed is confiderable; there is a method in which a fwimmer may pafs to great diftances with much facility by means of a fail. This difcovery I fortunately made by accident, and in the following manner:

When I was a boy I amufed myself one day with flying a paper kite; and approaching the bank of a pond, which was near a mile broad, I tied the ftring to a stake, and the kite afcended to a very confiderable height above the pond, while I was fwimming. In a little time, being defirous of amufing myfelf with my kite, and enjoying at the fame time the pleafure of fwimming, I returned; and loofing from the ftake the ftring with the little ftick which was faftened to it, went again into the water, where I found, that, lying on my back, and holding the flick in my hands, I was drawh along the furface of the water in a very agreeable manner. Having then engaged another boy to carry my clothes round the pond to a place which

I pointed out to him on the other fide, I began to crefs the pond with my kite, which carried me. quite over without the leaft fatigue, and with the greatest pleasure imaginable. I was only o◄ bliged occafionally to halt a little in my courfe, and refift its progrefs, when it appeared that, by following too quick, I lowered the kite too much; by doing which occafionally I made it rife again. I have never fince that time practifed this fingular mode of fwimming, though I think it not impoffible to crofs in this manner from Dover to Calais. The packet-boat, however, is ftill preferable.

*****

NEW MODE OF BATHING.

EXTRACTS OF LETTERS TO M. DUBOURG.

London, July 28, 1768.

GREATLY approve the epithet you give, in your letter of the 8th of June, to the new method of treating the fmall-pox, which you call the tonic or bracing method; I will take occafion, from it, to mention a practice to which I have accustomed myself. You know the cold bath has long been in vogue here as a tonic: but the fhock of the cold water has always appeared to me, generally speaking, as too violent; and I have found t much more agreeable to my conflitution to bathe in another element, I mean cold air. With this view I rife early almost every morning, and fit in VOL. II. F..