the world would have acted like Perrin Perrin and Lucetta shed tears of affection and joy. My dear children, faid he, kifs the hand of 'your benefactor. Lucetta, this farm now belongs to us, and we can enjoy "it without anxiety or remorse.' Thus was honefty rewarded. Let those who defire the reward, practise the virtue. To the Printers of the BOSTON MA. 17: I will add what I can fpare: You shall have Lucetta. The bag was advertised in the news-papers, and cried in the neighbouring parishes. Some time having elapfed, and the money not demanded, the vicar carried it to Perrin. Thefe twelve • thousand_livres bear at present no profit: You may reap the intereft at leaft. Lay them out in fuch a manner, as to enfure the fum itself to the 'owner, if he hall appear.' A farm was purchased, and the confent of Lucetta's father to the marriage was obLained. Perrin was employed in hul-ins touched upon a fubbandry, and Lucetta in family-affairs. They lived in perfect cordiality; and two children endeared them till the more to each other. Perrin, one evening, returning homeward from his work, faw a chaife overturned, with two gentlemen in it. He ran to their affiftance, and offered them every accommodation his small house could afford. This fpot, cried one of the gentlemen, is very fatal to me. Ten years ago, I loft here twelve thoufand livres. Perrin liftened with attention. What fearch made you for them? faid he. It was not in my power, replied the franger, to make any fearch. I was hurrying to Port POrient to embark for the Indies, for the veffel was ready to fail. Next morning, Perrin fhewed to his guefts his house, his garden, his cattle, and mentioned the produce of his fields. All these are your property,' addreffing the gentleman who had loft the bag; the money fell into my hands; I purchased this farm with it; the farm is your's. The vicar has an inftrument which fecures your property, though I had died without feeing you.' The ftranger read the inftrument with emotion: He looked on Perrin, Lucetta, and the children. Where am I, cried he, and what do I hear? What virtue in people fo low? Have you any other land but this farm? No, replied Perrin; but you will have occafion for a tenant, and I hope you will allow me to remain here. Your honefly deferves a better recompence, anfwered the franger: My fuccefs in trade has been great, and I have forgot my lofs. You are well entitled to this little fortune: Keep it as your own. What man in ject, quite unfettled by the philofophers who have attended to it, and being an inveftigation rather Curious than ufeful, it is a part of natural hiftory that hath been more neglected than that of plants and animals. That the teftaceous fubftances, found at Nantaket--near York River, and at other places, were ever inhabited by clams, mufcles, oyfters,or any other animals, is to me very doubtful: Nor do I conceive, that the axiom, natura mihil facit fruftra, is an objection to these substances be ing produced by fome plaftic power, in the earth, more than to the production of other fubftances, which we every day have before our eyes, the ufe whereof we are totally ignorant of. But to leave this for the present, and to attend to the matter, as fuppofing thefe teflacia once to have been the habitation of animals, though there can be no precife, and fatisfactory account given of the force, or manner, of their being thus placed in thefe fubterraneous beds, it is easy to make conjectures vaftly more probable than that of M. Maillet. The text cited by M Maillet, if it ftood alone, might have done fome thing in fupport of his hypothefis; but the hiftory Mofes hath given us of the creation, taken altogether, appears to me to be a fat contradiction of it. The creation as defcribed in Genefis, was begun, and finished, in the space of fix days; and the command to the waters, to bring forth fish, and the creation of whales, was on the fourth day. The command was alle then given, to the fish to mul tiply tiply, which would have been unne-ver, hath been fo frequently fhifted. ceffary, i , if they had before exifted with the powers of propagation, while the earth was covered with water. The appearances at York-Town, and Nantafket, and at other places near the fea, more efpecially where the earth is loofe and fandy, may be accounted for, from those mutations which have frequently, though perhaps very gradually, taken place on the globe. The process of them in countries inhabited, have been made too flowly, to have caught attention in a manner, fufficient to produce an accurate account of them in hiftory. The changes in this country took place, many of them. before Europeans vifited thefe regions. It is Conjectured,and with great probability, that the flat country in New Jersey, between the highlands and the, fea, was once a part of the extent of the ocean. But we have never heard of - any marine fofls being found there in inking wells, or in any other way. The city of Ravena, in Italy, once flood on the fea thore, but is now far diftant from it. The earth at the mouth of great rivers, and at the feet of great mountains, is conftantly encreafed with the mud,and filt,brought down by the current and the rains. By the the mouths and channels of rivers in flat fandy places, are often fifted: in thePhilo, Tranf.Num. 277 ge, 1256, as cited by Doctor John Ray, one of the fellows, there is an account of feveral old boats, being dug up at twenty or thirty yards diftance from where the river Wel. land, in Great Britain now is, alfo the head of a tunel used in former times to empty the land water, through the bank into the river. And the Jettys, ufed to fecure the bank, are found ftanding in their order, under ground. On the other fide of the river have been dug up old tan vatts, cattle's horns, &c. But no hiftorian or even tradition, gives an account of this mu.tation. At Hatfield, in this flate, .there is a tree now diftant three rods from the river, to which, within the memory of perfous lately living, the ferry boats ufed to be tied. It is probable from the appearances in the intervale land at Northampton, that the beds of Connecticut ri From the bank of that river, at a place called Hockanum, near the bottom of Holyoke mountains, the door poft of an house, with the iron hinges remaining on it, was lately washed out where it had long been buried a confiderable depth. In Modena, a city in Italy, at fourteen feet below the furface are found the rubbish of an ancient city, paved ftreets, &c. Below this they find folid earth, and then black mud, briars, &c. Signoir Ramazzina, who gives this account, fays that he defcended a well twenty-four feet deep, and there faw wheat entire. Yet there is no account in hiftory when this city was deftroyed, or that fuch an one ever exifted. Some ancient charters in England, mention a certain wood once fanding, one mile from the fea, which is now as far within it. In the reign of Henry the firft of England, a great part of Flanders was overthrown, from which the fea has never yet receded. A great number of the fufferers fled to England, and fettled about Carlifle and South Wales. This contention between the land and water, hath always exifled, fometimes the one prevails, and fometimes the other. But trees, and other heavy bodies, frequently fink and gather dirt, fo as to lay entire beneath the furface of the earth, for a long time: Such are thofe found deep in fens, and moraffes; there are found in Burmingham, large fir trees under ground, with the impreffies of the ax plain upon them: De la Prime fays, it can be fufficiently proved, that they were cut dow by the Romans, to diflodge the Britons from their faftneffes. Many mutations have been made by earthquakes. The one accompanied with the most extenfive deftruction now known of, is that mentioned by Athanafius Rircher the Jefuit, which happened in Calabria, in the year 1638, where the cities for the fpace of twe hundred miles were overthrown and ruined. Kagufa, Smyrna, and Kingflon in Jamaica, have been funk within a century paf. Many other inftances of the mutations which have taken place, might be produced; but I fhall only add "here, that if these teftaceous fubflan сез ses found in the flat countries, near the fea, were ever the habitations of fhell fish: Their prefent bed was at fometime or other, a part of the bed, or the bank of the sea; for no accident or human force, could have deposited them there in the manner in which they are now feen. But I confider the fact of their having once been the crufts of animals, to be far from being proved; if they were found no where but in the flat countries, I could suppose the conjecture probabie. It is a maxim that nature makes nothing to be ufelefs; and perhaps it is ftrictly true: But does it follow, that because we do not difcern the ole of all we fee, that there is no ufe for it? Was this true, we should deem a great part of the animal creation, as well as fome part of the vegetable, to be merely the sport of nature. Doctor Edward Lhwyd, in a letter to a member of the Royal Society, in the year 1692, fays that thefe marine fotfils, in the form of thells, are found in folid marble on the face of broken fea cliffs; and from the tops below the furface of the fea, and they are not only in the face of the rocks, but throughout the whole mafs, perhaps in the fame manner as we find the pebbles contained in the large rocks in the vicinity of Bofton. Says the fame gentleman, fome foffil fhells, are of fpar. or chryftal, in the fame form as thofe found on the sea shore. The rocks in whales are almoft wholly compofed of thefe vertebræ, or broken pieces of the radii of fea ftars, which are called by fome fairy ftones: ia to be found in that form within th regions of the ocean. There are found on fome of the highest mountains, in Genoa, and on the Alps, and Appenine hills, fubftances which have the appearance of petrified shells. If there are marine productions, the fea hath at fometime or other overflowed the earth, for fo long a space of time, as to admit the fhell fifh to bed,and propagate on those mountains; for the fhells lay in beds feveral feet thick. This could not have been done by Noah's flood, for that was on the earth but a few days, more than ten months. There was another flood at Attica, in the days of Ogyges, five hundred and forty years after that of Noah, but it was topical, and of confequence did not arife to a great height, two hundred and forty years after there was another flood in Theffaly. which was celebrated by Ovid; and called Ducalians food. But neither of thefe could be high enough, or reft long enough on the particular places where they happened, to produce the effects abovementioned. I am rather of opinion, that thofe foffils were made for fome wife purposes, in the places where they are found, and were never the fhell of living fish. The following Anecdote, relating to Mr. WHISTON, is an inftance of primitive plainnels of fpeech, and integrity of beart, feldom found in Courts. HISTON was a penfioner to places far from the fea thore, have Queen Caroline, who fome been found an impreffion on incumbant ftones, fimilar to the form of one fide of a fifh. Doctor Lifter fays,that thefe marine fubftances, have been found in men and other animals. Doctor Lhwyd has found the form of leaves of plants in a cole pit, which he believes to have been produced there, otherwife the branches would have been discovered near them. Incredible numbers of those exotic fhells, have been found, when the feas of those countries where they were difcovered, produced no fifh any ways fimilar to them, nor were there any times admitted him to the honour of her converfation, and paid the penfion with her own hands. One day, the faid to him, Mr. Whifton, I underfland you are a free speaker, and honeftly tell people of their faults; no one is without faults, and I wish you would tell me of mine; and the preffed him to do so. He was fill upon · the referve, and the preffed him the more. Well, faid he, fince your Majefty infifts upon it, I muft obey you. There are abundance of people who come out of the country every fpring to London, and they all naturally defire to fee the King and Queen, and have not any opportunity of feeing your majefties fo conveniently as at the chapel-royal; but these country. folks, who are not used to fuch things, when they fee your Majefty talking with the King, almost all the time of divine fervice, are perfectly aftonished, and depart with ftrange impreffions into their respective countries, and make their reports there (let me tell you) not at all to your Majefty's Enigmatical Lift of young La honour. I am forry for it, answered zue Queen; I believe there may be too much truth in what you fay: But pray, Mr. Whifton, tell me of another fault. No, madam, faid he, let me fee you mend of this, before I tell you of another. firft attention, as it was originally intended to exprefs our gratitude to the Deity, and teach mankind the most important precepts of religion and virtue by which the human foul is not only exalted and refined, but The heart is fortified against all the Narious affaults of human calamities and by which we are taught to confi dies in Boston. 1. THE feat of thought. 2. A border. 3 A park for rabbits. 4. A bundle of wheat. 5. White and black. 6. The largest room in a houfe. 7. A fmall horse for ladies. 8. Slent, and the lord of earth. 9. A fruit, and a fathionable French word. 10. A polishing ore. 11. One of the fofteft colours, and part STREPHON. der happiness as entirely depending on An Enigmatical Lift of wear the reflections of our own minds. We fhall be fufficiently convinced of thefe truths, if we only confider the particular end and defign of the feveral (pecies of poetry. The EPIC POEM was intended to convey inftructions difguifed under the allegory of an important and heroic aiction. The ODE to celebrate the action of great men, in order to excite a general imitation in others. TRAGEDY to infpire us with a deteftation of guilt, by painting the fatal confequences that follow it; and with a veneration for virtue, by reprefenting the reward and juft praises that attend it. COMEDY and SATIRE, to correct whilft they divert us and wage implacable war with vice and folly. ELEGY, to weep over the tombs of fuch as deferve to be lamented; and PASTORAL, to fing the innocence of pleafures of rural life. To promote fuch defirable ends, the Audy of poetry has ever met with the ing Apparel. 1. Part of the body; half a common coarse cloth, and the head of a tribe. 2. Two thirds of a domeftic animal; two fifths of a favourite liquor, and part of the face. 3. A fleet animal, a numerical letter, and half a name of a patriarch. 4. Ufeful fervants in inns. 5. Three quarters of a written infrument, and what fishermen use. 6. Plunder, changing the last letter. 7. Part of a bird, changing the firft letter. 8 Not to fland Atill, a confonant, and half a negative, 9. A term common to a useful fet of men in capital towns. N. B. Wants better regulating in Poetical Effays, &c. for January, 1784., The father, friend, of human kind, To lead her fafe thro' flav'rys fhade, The warrior, patriot, faviour, shield. Nor can the hard forget the brave, For eight long years of dubious ftrife, But now fell wars, terrifick form, Is chang'd for concord's fofter air, The world is friendship's fav'rite care; No longer foes on hoftile ground, Bid defolation, burn around, Or wing the battles deathful form. |