Oldalképek
PDF
ePub

alter the law and shall cheerfully confent to exchange my liberty of abufing others, for the privilege of not being abused myself.

By whom this court is commiffioned or conftituted.

:

It is not any commiffion from the fupreme executive council, who might previously judge the abilities, integrity, knowlidge, &c. of the perfons to be appointed to this great truft of deciding upon the characters and good fame of the citizens for this court is above that council, and may accufe, judge, and condemn it at pleafure. Nor is it hereditary, as is the court of dernier refort in the peerage of England. But any man who can procure pen, ink, and paper, with a a prefs, a few types, and a huge pair of blacking balls, may commiffionate himself, and his court is immediately establifhed in the plenary poffeffion and exercife of its rights. For if you make the least complaint of the judge's conduct, he daubs his blacking balls in your face wherever he meets you, and besides tearing your private character to splinters, marks you out of the odium of the public, as an enemy to the liberty of the prefs.

Of the natural fupport of this court.

Its fupport is founded in the depravity of fuch minds as have not been mended by religion, nor improved by good education.

There is a luft in man no charm can tame,

Of loudly publishing his neighbour's shame.
Hence,

On eagles' wings, immortal, scandals fly
While virtuous actions are but born to die.

DRYDEN,

Whoever feels pain in hearing a good character of his neighbour, will feel a pleasure in the reverie. And of thofe who, defpairing to rife to distinction by their virtues, are happy if others can be depressed to a level with themfelves, there are a number fufficient in every great town to maintain one of these courts by their fubfcription. A fhrewd obferver once faid, that in walking in the streets of a flippry morning, one might fee where the good natured people lived, by the afhes thrown on the ice before the doors; probably he would have formed a different conjec

ture of the temper of thofe whom he might find engaged in fuch fubfcriptions.

Of the checks proper to be established against the abufes of power in thofe courts.

Hitherto there are none. But fince fo much has been written and published on the federal conftitution; and the neceflity of checks, in all other parts of good government, has been fo clearly and learnedly explained, I find myself fo far enlightened as to fufpect fome check may be proper in this part alfo: but I have been at a lofs to imagine any that may not be construed an infringement of the facred liberty of the prefs. At length, however, I think I have found one, that instead of diminishing general liberty, shall augment it which is, by restoring to the people a fpecies of liberty of which they have been deprived by our laws, I mean the liberty of the cudgel! In the rude state of fociety prior to the existence of laws, if one man gave another ill language, the affronted perfon might return it by a box on the ear; and if repeated by a good drubbing; and this without offending against any law: but now the right of making fuch returns is denied, and they are punished as breaches of the peace, while the right of abusing feems to remain in full force; the laws made against it being rendered ineffectual by the liberty of the prefs.

My propofal then is, to leave the liberty of the prefs untouched to be exercifed in its full extent, force, and vigour, but to permit the liberty of the cudgel to go with it, pari paffu. Thus, my fellow citizens, if an impudent writer attacks your reputation--dearer perhaps to you than your life, and puts his name to the charge, you may go to him as openly and break his head. If he conceals himself behind the printers, and you can nevertheless discover who he is, you may in like manner, waylay him in the night, attack him behind, and give him a good drubbing. If your adverfary hires better writers than himself, to abuse you more effectually, you may hire brawny porters, fronger than yourself, to affift you, in giving him a more effectual drubbing. Thus far goes my project, as to private refentment and retribution. But if the publie fhould happen to be affronted, as it ought to be, with the conduct of fash

writers, I would not advife proceeding immediately to these extremities, but that we fhould in moderation content ourselves with tarring and feathering, and toffing them in a blanket.

If, however, it should be thought that this proposal of mine may disturb the public peace, I would then humbly recommend to our legiflators to take up the confideration of both liberties, that of the prefs, and that of the cudgel; and by an explicit law mark their extent and limits: and at the fame time that they fecure the perfon of a citizen from affults, they would likewife provide for the fecurity of his reputation.

SOME

[ocr errors][merged small]

OME wit of old-fuch wits of old there were-
Whose hints show'd meaning whofe allufions care,
By one brave stroke to mark all human kind,
Call'd clear blank paper ev'ry infant mind:
When still, as op'ning fenfe her dictates wrote,
Fair Virtue put a feal, or Vice a blot,

The thought was happy, pertinent, and true;
Methinks a genious might a plan pursue.
I, (can you pardon my prefumption? I-)
No wit, no genius, yet for once I try.

Various the papers various wants produce,
The wants of fashion, elegance, and use.
Men are as various: and, if right I fcan,
Each fort of paper reprefents fome man.

Pray note the fop-half powder and half lace-
Nice, as a band-box were his dwelling place,
He's the gilt-paper, which apart you store,
And lock from vulgar hands in the 'fcrutoire.

Mechanics, fervants, farmers and fo forth,
Are copy paper, of inferior worth:

Lefs priz'd, more useful, for your desk decreed,
Free to all pens, and prompt at ev'ry need.

The wretch whom av'rice bids to pinch and fpare,
Starve, cheat, and pilfer, to enrich an heir.
Is coarse brown taber; fuch as pedlars choose
To wrap up wares, which better men will ufe.

Take next the Mifer's contraft, who deftroys
Health, fame, and fortune, in a round of joys.
Will any paper match him? Yes, thro' out,
He's a true finking paper, past all doubt.

The retail politician's anxious thought

Deems this fide always right, and that stark nought;
He foams with fenfure; with applause he raves-
A dupe to rumours, and a tool of knaves;
He'll want no type his weaknefs to proclaim,
While fuch a thing as fools-cap has a name.

The hafty gentleman, whose blood runs high,
Who picks a quarrel, if you step 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 wafle-paper of mankind.

Obferve the maiden, innocent!y sweet,
She's fair white-paper an unsullied sheet;
On which the happy man whom fate ordains,
May write his name, and take her for his pains.

One instance more, and only one I'll bring ; 'Tis the Great-Man who fcorns a little thing, Whofe thoghts, whose deeds, whose 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, best.

OBSERVATIONS ON THE GENERALLY PREVAÍĽ

ING DOCTRINES OF LIFE AND DEATH.

YOUR

OUR obfervations on the caufes of death, and the experiments which you propofe for recalling to life those who appear to be killed by lightning, demonstrate equally. your fagacity and humanity. It appears that the doctrines of life and death, in general, are yet but little understood.

A tead, buried in fand, will live, it is faid, until the fand becomes petrified; and then, being inclofed in the stone it may ftill live for we know not how many ages. The facts which are cited in fupport of this opinion, are too numerous and too circumftantial not to deferve a certain degree of credit. As we are accustomed to fee all the animals with which we are acquainted eat and drink, it appears to us difficult to conceive how a toad can be fupported in such a dungeon. But if we reflect, that the neceffity of nourishment, which animals experience in their ordinary ftate, proceeds from the continual wafte of their fubftance by perfpiration: it will appear lefs incredible that fome animals in a torpid ftate, perfpire lefs because they ufe no exercife, hould have lefs need of alement; and that others, which are covered with fcales or fhells, which ftop perfpiration, fuch as land and fea turtles, ferpents, and fome fpecies of fish, fhould be able to fubfift a confiderable time without any nourishment whatever.-A plant, with its flowers, fades and dies immediately, if exposed to the air without having its roots immerfed in a humid foil, from which it may draw a fufficient quantity of moisture, to fupply that which exhales from its fubftance, and is carried off continually by the air. Perhaps, however, if it were buried in quickfilver, it might preferve, for a confiderable space of time, its vegetable life, its fell and colour. If this be the cafe, it might prove a commodious method of tranfporting from diftant countries thofe delicate plants which are unable to fuftain the inclemency of the weather at fea, and which require particular care and attention.

I have feen an infance of common flies preferved in a manner fomewhat fimilar. They had been drowned in Madeira wine, apparently about the time when it was

« ElőzőTovább »