They are very large and beautiful. I should by no means despair of converting these to use, though the first experiments were not succefsful. From Dr Anderson's trials it appears, that, from accidental circumstances, the silk will be sometimes so weak as not to admit of being reeled off without the greatest difficulty; though, from the same species of worms, the silk is, in other circumstances, as strong as could be wished. It may also happen that the same solvent which is sufficient to dissolve the gluten of the silk produced by one kind of worm, will not be sufficient to act upon that of another. On this head a good deal of elucidation is necefsary, though this paper too long to enter upon it at present.

is

Though I fear it will not be such an easy matter to get sailors to attend to silk worms on a sea voyage, as mifs Rhodes seems to apprehend, no endeavours on my part shall be wanting. Sir William Jones. writes to me, that though he has the greatest pofsible desire to promote enterprises of this sort; yet. he is so much engaged in the active functions of his office, that he can spare much less time to such economical pursuits than he could wish; and the little. time he can spare is so totally devoted to his literary Asiatic researches, that he cannot flatter himself with the hope of being able to afford me all the afsistance, he could with: but he has no doubt his friends, who are lefs taken up, will do it with alacrity. From Dr Anderson's exertions, which are entirely in the line of economics, every thing possible may be expected, If ever the worms can be brought hither by being alive for some part of the voyage, it must be, I should

Dict. 31 imagine, by the attention of some lady on her passage home, who might find it an agreeable kind of amusement to look after a few. Such a lady might thus, justly, acquire celebrity in future, by giving her name to that breed of silk worms, which owed their existence in Europe to her patriotic attention.

I beg leave to return my warmest acknowledgements to miss Rhodes for this interesting communication; and the obliging terms in which it is conveyed. It will give me singular pleasure if I can be in any means the instrument of disseminating the useful information, that her talent for accurate investigation has enabled her to give on this branch of natural history. J. A.

ANECDOTE.

A WOMAN went to find a monk, and said to him that fhe had stolen a packet which charged her conscience. You must restore it, answered the monk. But, father, I am not suspected, and if I restore it, I am difhonoured, Well, answered the monk, bring the theft to me, I'myself will make the restitution. The woman liked the expedient wonderfully, and in a fhort while after the put into the hands of the monk a basket, well wrapped in linen with an address on a card. The monk took the basket, and the woman retired with precipitation. The monk carried the deposit in triumph to the convent; and says to his brothers on entering, Here is my work. At the same time they heard the cries of an infant. It was indeed a new born child wrapped up in a basket, which the good woman had confided to the monk, as a packet which charged her conscience..

The bards would have little to write on,
The lawyers have little to say;

The critics would nought have to bite on,
The Non Cons not know how to pray.

Besides, for a plague wit is sent t'ye,
Its owners for ever are poor;
Whilst nonsense is vested with plenty,
Whereof you may see now therefore.

GLEANINGS OF ANCIENT POETRY.

AGAINST FOREIGN LUXURY.

BY W. BROWN.

AND now ye British swaines, (whose harmless sheepe
Than all the world's beside I joy to keepe,)
Which spread on every plaine, and hilly would,
Fleeces no lefse esteem'd than that of gold,,
For whose exchange one Indy jems of price,
The other gives you of her choicest spice,
And well the may; but we, unwise, the while,
Lefsen the glory of our fruitful isle,
Making those nations think we foolish are,
For baser drugs to vent our richer ware,
Which (save the bringer!) never profit man,
Except the sexten and physitian.

And whether change of clymes, or what it be,
That proves our marainers mortalitie,
Such expert men are spent for such bad fares
As might have made us lords of what is theirs.
Stay, stay at home, ye nobler spirits, and prise
Your lives more high then such base trumperies;
Forbeare to fetch; and they'le goe neere to sue,
And at your owne dores offer them to you!
Or have their woods and plaines so overgrowne
With poysnous weeds, roots, gums, and seeds unknowne;
That they would hire such weeders as you be
To free their land from such fertilitie.
Their spices hot, their nature best indures,
But 'twill impayre and much distemper yours.
What our owne soyle affords befits us best;
And long and long, for ever may we rest
Needlefse of help! and may this isle alone
Furnish all other lands, and this land none !

BRITISH PASTORALS.

NOTICES OF IMPROVEMENTS NOW GOING ON IN INDIA.

Continued from p. 75.

THE following communications respect chiefly the bread fruit tree.

From Dr James Anderson to Richard Molesworth, esq. DEAR SIR,

I AM favoured with your letter of the 2d of August last, and am sorry you have been disappointed in the teak and cinnamon trees which I sent you last year.

An alligator pear tree, however, having been sent me by colonel Kydd of Bengal, in a box of a new construction, in which I suffered it to remain three months in the shade before it was set out in the open ground, where it still continues healthy; I have directed two such boxes to be made, in which two teak and two cinnamon trees fhall be planted; and as captain Gerrard has obligingly promised to take particular care of them, I have no doubt will receive them both safe on the arrival of the Deptford.

you

If they are sent to the West Indies, they will soon yield seeds; my cinnamon and bread fruit tree, are already in flower, and the teak gives ripe seeds in eight or ten years.

You will see by my correspondence last year, that we have constructed reels here, which answer very well, as the fkaines made on them are afterwards placed by the silk weaver on a reel made of five slender pieces of bamboo, with a thread stretched from the eight extremities of four of the pieces, in the manner of the braces of a drum, and serve as the flies of this simple reel; the fifth piece of bamboo being the pivot or center.

From this reel he winds the silk on bobbins with the utmost facility, and no silk can possibly work more freely; but when your model arrives, I fhall pay every attention in my power to adopt the whole or any part of its construction, to the improvement of this business, as it