that Homberg, during his residence at Bologna, had again discovered it, after many experiments; and that Lemery learned it from him and made it publicly known. This, however, cannot be altogether true; for in the year 1622, P. Potier, or Poterius, a French chemist, who lived at Bologna, taught the preparation of it in his work already quoted, as did Kircher* in 1641, and the jesuit Casatif in 1686; though the process then employed was indeed not the best or most convenient; the proper method being first found out, after many accurate experiments, by the German chemist Marggraf, who showed also how similar light-magnets or luminous stones can be prepared from most of the ponderous spars and sparry fluors. But, even at present, those who prepare this stone for sale at Bologna talk in such a manner as if the secret were known to them alone. This was * Magnes, p. 481, ↑ De Igne. Francof. et Lips. 1688. 4to. p. 350. Marggrafs Chymische Schriften, ii. p. 119. This author says the cakes must be only as thick as the back of a knife; but that which I obtained in the year 1782 from Bologna, was an inch English measure in diameter, and two lines in thickness. It still weighs, after the brass box in which I long preserved it, between cotton, in a luminous state, has become black, and itself has lost its virtue, three drams. In colour it has a perfect resemblance to the star which Marggraf prepared from German stones, and presented to Professor Hollman, and which is now in my possession. It is contained in a capsule of tin plate, over which a piece of glass is cemented. the case, in 1771, with the director of the institute in that city.* Keysler purchased a piece as large as a dried fig pressed flat, for about two or three paoli. I shall embrace this opportunity of bringing to recollection, from De Thou's history of his own times, a relation which indeed contains many things incredible, and in all probability exaggerated, yet seems to be too well confirmed to be altogether rejected as false. If this be admitted, it may then be conjectured that, about the year 1550, either the Bologna stone, or what at present is called phosphorus and pyrophorus, was known to a few individuals. In the above year, when Henry II king of France made his solemn entrance into the town of Boulogne, on its restoration by the English, a stone from India, which was not hard, which had a luminous appearance like fire, and which could not be touched without danger, was presented to him by a stranger. For the truth of this account De Thou refers to the testimony of J. Pipin, in a letter to Ant. Mizaud, who asserts that he himself saw the stone. Morhof, who seems inclined to * Ferber's Briefe aus Wälschland, p. 75. + Dum rex Bononiæ esset, allatus est ad eum ex India orientali ab homine incognito, sed, ut apparebat, moribus barbaro, lapis stu penda specie et natura, videlicet lumine et fulgore mirabiliter coruscantibus, quique totus veluti ardens incredibili splendore micabat, et jactis quoquo versus radiis ambientem aerem luce, nullis fere oculis tolerabili, latissime complebat; erat et in eo mirabile quod terræ impatientissimus, si cooperiretur, sua sponte et vi facto impetu con consider this stone as that of the philosophers,* remarks that this passage is found in the first Paris edition in octavo,† and in the Franckfort re-impressions, both in folio and octavo; as is the case in the copy which I possess, but not in the other editions. He quotes also the words from the letter to Mizaud, which must be printed somewhere, but in what work I do not know. It appears that the historian inserted it almost without any change. festim evolabat in sublime; contineri vero includive ullo loco angusto nulla hominum arte poterat, sed ampla liberaque loca duntaxat amare videbatur; summa in eo puritas, eximius nitor, nulla sorde aut labe coinquinatus; figuræ species nulla ei certa, sed inconstans et mo mento commutabilis, cumque esset aspectu longe pulcerrimus, contrectari tamen sese impune non patiebatur, et diutius contra adnitentíbus aut obstinatius cum eo agentibus, incommodum afferebat; quod multi multis spectantibus sunt experti; si quid fortassis ex eo enixius conando detrahebatur, nam durus admodum non erat, nihilo minor fiebat. Hujus virtutem ac vim esse ad quam plura cum utilem, tum præcipue regibus necessarium aiebat hospes, qui miraculum ostentăbat, sed quam revelaturus non esset, nisi ingenti pretio prius accepto. Hæc ut in literis Jo. Pipini oculati rei testis, qui in familia A. Momorantii M. E. medicinam faciebat, ad Ant. Mizaldum et ipsum insignem medicum pridie Ascensionis Bononiæ datis perscripta sunt; ista tradò et amplius discutienda physiologis relinquo. • Polyhist. i. 1. 13. 26. p. 127. † Lib. v. p. 453. ↑ Lib. vi. p. 286 and 217. FOUNDLING HOSPITALS. CHILD-MURDER is so unnatural a crime, that mankind can be brought to the commission of it only by the greatest desperation, for which unfortunately there is too much cause. To parents who are just able by incessant labour to procure those things indispensably necessary to support life, the birth of every child increases the fear of starving or of being reduced to beggary. Those who have secured to them a scanty subsistence, but who live amidst the torments of slavery, wish to the new-born child, which at any rate is doomed to death, a speedy dissolution, before it can know that it has had the misfortune to be brought into the world, in order that they may not bequeath to it their poverty. A young female who has acquired by education the most delicate sense of honour and shame, finds herself, on the birth of an illegitimate child, exposed at once to the utmost disgrace and contempt. Her misfortune, though viewed with an eye of pity by the compassionate, excites the hatred of the greater part of her relations and friends, by whom she was before loved and respected, and who endeavoured to render her happy; and often amidst the most poignant feelings, and an agitation bordering on madness, she sees no other means of saving her honour than the total concealment of her error by destroying the child: a resolution which, notwithstanding the vigilance of the laws, is too often attended with success. A young woman who at this moment finds herself suddenly despised and neglected by her admirer, who gained her affections by the most powerful of all means, love and confidence, and obtained from her what she cannot recover, is often induced, in a fit of despair, to vent her fury on the consequences of her seduction-the child of her seducer. These misfortunes of mankind are among the disadvantages attending civilised society, which always render marriage more difficult as well as burthensome, and thereby make it impossible to gratify one of the most powerful impulses of nature. In the savage state, parents require no more for themselves and their children than what they can easily obtain. The inhabitants of Terra del Fuego, who live at the greatest distance from all culture, find shell-fish and esculent plants sufficient to appease their hunger; never are their thoughts disturbed by care for the maintenance of a child. The black slaves in St. Domingo say, that "it is only the white man who begs;" and indeed in this they are right*. Beggars exist only where they The negroes in St. Domingo cannot bear to be thought poor, or to be called beggars. They say none but white men beg; and when any one asks alms at the door, they observe to their master, "There is a poor white man, or a poor Frenchman, begging." Labat had a |