woven with their attendant luxuries, has been considered as the origin of the declension of that city. But though this weakness be found with men of talents, it is not so with men of science: these are born with a patient temperament, (the proper soil for knowJedge,) and this is one reason that grandeur and its appendages have little influence over thein. There is also another: the objects of a philosophic mind are superior; reason and truth have a potent efficacy in bracing every faculty of the soul, and enlarging every power of the understanding, Men employed in deep researches, whether they dive into the properties of matter, watch the revolution of orbs, or study the solution of problems,are not very likely to be diverted ORIGINAL THE OAK. "TWAS winter; and except a leaf Yet trembling here and there, December, icy-handed thief, And rustled to my feet; A rustic seat I sought, An aged oak with ample head, Its rev'rend aspect fixt my eye; Inspir'd by what I saw : Can give to trees a tongue, Gave language to an oak; Vain mortal! wherefore dost thou come My nakedness to see? Why leave a comfortable home, To moralize on me? from their pursuits even by social entertainments, or convivial powers; much less to be dazzled by the dignity of pedigree, the glitter of pomp, or the elegances of address. Fancy may seek for beauties to depicture, and wit for manners to deli neate; but philosophy has no other aim than discoveries to instruct: Principibus placuisse viris non ultima laus est, Hor. Epist. 17. Lib. 1. may be the sentiment of men of taste; but it is the nature of men of science, to beheld birth, affluence, and splendor, oculo irretorto. All rifled as I am and tom, To taunt me com'st thou here? Whate'er thy motive, mortal, take And condescend for once to make If honour, join'd to length of days, At once, and proves them vain! A monarch, not by courtesy Two cent'ries round their circles roll'd, Surviving still, though wounded strong, Oh! may thy foliage, glossy-green, Oh! may thy fairest shrubby form The flow of imagination often caused by drinking strong coffee, is certainly not so injurious as the tumultuous excitement produced by some other stimulants. Yet, where its effect is a sleepless night, it cannot be supposed altogether innoxious. This, however, generally arises from drinking coffee very strong, and without a due admixture of milk or cream. In the morning, or even after dinner, when duly proportioned to the other ingredients, it seldom fails to prove a salutary and grateful beverage, far preferable to that of England (tea), or that of France (wine), in its various states of modification. But, be it remembered, that coffee drunk scalding-hot, and without due assistance from the dairy, must be productive of injury to the stomach; and that injury must necessarily extend itself throughout the system.-No errors are so fatal as errors in diet; for this plain reason, that tey so frequently recur. Oh! may thy bright infusion steand Where'er the sun extends his beam, O'er all the favour'd earth: And te thy berry still preferr'd, While, from narcotic tea deterr'd, The muse shall sing thy worth! O coffee! to the weary wight By thee is fancy richly fed, And languor scar'd, and clear'd the head, She first excites, then sinks, the strength; O'er fermentation's deadly draught, Coffee, 'tis thine to rise supreme: So fragrant, rich, and pure. A. R. Tea is powerfully narcotic and stimulant; inducing either of these actions with more or less force, according to constitutional cir cumstances, The effects of tea, when used to excess (and it is difficult to mark the boundary) are a debilitated stomach, and an irritable disordered state of the whole structure: appetite sickens, clouds surround the head, the hand trembles, and the enfeebled frame acquires that distressing condition of alternate torpor and suffering, unsusceptible of pleasure but "tremblingly alive" to pain, now so common among all ranks, from the haughty duchess to the humble dame who at distance imitates her; and known by the appellation nervous. It is scarcely necessary to observe, that the enervating cup of Thea is not the only source of this inundation of disease: the factitious cravings and various modes of gratification, eagerly pursued by the multitude, high and low, to supply, by mere sensation, the place of higher en joyment, are unceasingly and successfully active in the production of pain and disorganization. Upon the whole, the effects of the strong infusion of tea are somewhat similar to those of alcohol, the product of fermentation; of which all the intoxicating liquors in common use among half civilized nations, are merely modifications. The immediate effects, however, of the latter, are more distressing; and their remote effects more certainly and universally destructive of lite. THE The fisherman sunk to his slumbers: One moment I look'd from the hill's gentle slope, (All hush'd was the billow's commotion,) And thought that the beacon look'd lovely as hope, That star of life's tremulous ocean. The time is long past and the scene is afar; Yet, when my head rests on its pillow, Will memory sometimes rekindle the star That blazed on the breast of the billow. In life's closing hour, when the trembling soul flies, And death stills the heart's last emotion; O then may the seraph of mercy arise, Like a star on eternity's ocean! What form ill-omen'd sounds those acents Again it croaks again it hovers nigh: Say, to what end these boding signs appear; What mischiefs you presage, what pending Hail, hated, dark-wing'd minister of fate; destiny. Whose frequent moans, borne on the Scarce Reason's self can calmly contemplate, hollow blast, And Superstition hears with looks aghast: My mind congenial greets thy dreadful lay, Welcomes the awful gloom, nor pants for I. U. day. songster hither, hither Your casual flight: your airy path I trace ; And, leaning at this ruin'd column's base, With curious eye your varied motions tend, And to your plaintive notes a pleas'd attention lend. Ah, may no feather'd foe your life efface! E'en truant school-boys spare your favor'd race, And man receives and greets you as a friend. When hail and snow a long white landscape form, Dauntless you seek his hospitable door, Find a warm refuge from the ruthless storm, And feed where pity fondly strews the floor. Oh! were frail man to man but half as kind, Yon houseless shiv'ring wretch had shunn'd this wintry wind. 1. U. PATENTS LATELY ENROLLED. MR. JOHN DUFF'S (GREAT PULTENEY STREET), for an Invention of Snuffers on a new and improved Construction, 'communicated to Mr. Duff by a Foreigner. N the drawings attached to this speciI fention, we have a perspective view. of the inside of the snuffers; which exhibits a scraper turning on pivots, one in a Socket, and the other underneath and perpendicular to it. There is a spring which presses through an opening in the scraper, to force it rapidly back against a valve or hanging door; which has a prominent peg facing the scraper, by which it is pushed as the door of the snuffers closes, and raises the valve to let the snuff pass into the receiver; it shuts again by its own weight. The scraper being of the same size as the valve or hanging hanging door, acts as a second door to the receiver, until drawn back by opening the snuffers, and then the valve resumes its place. There is likewise a representation of a piece of iron, which acts as a lever to draw the scraper forward and backward. One end of the lever is inserted in a hole; and the other end has an oval hole in it, and is held by a peg fixed in one of the shanks of the snuffers, near to its left edge; and, on account of the oval form of its aperture, draws forward the scraper at the opening of the snuffers, and pushes it backwards as the snuffers close. The door for emptying the receiver is at the end of the snuffers, and opens and shuts by pressing the point of the snuffers upwards and downwards: this door is kept closed by an inside spring. On the point of the snuffers are two semi-oval cuts, one plain, and the other with a few sharp edges, intended as proper means of raising or removing splinters, or thieves, in the wick of the candle; and which may or may not be added at discretion, and are not at all connected with the invention as such. MR. EDWARD MANLEY'S (UFFCULM, DEVON.), for a Plough. The plough described in this specification is denominated the "expedition plough," and is said to have this ad. vantage over every other implement: that the same horse-power has more than double the effect in draught; and that the work it makes, is greatly superior to that of every other plough. It is worked in a beam, in the common way; and has three different sets of feet, which may be exchanged one for the other, as required. These are more or less in number, according to the size of the beam, and the different work for which they are intended. The ploughs are so constructed as to be used for different purposes, in the following manner: The first sort, when set in shallow ground, will either scarify or spin; when set deep, they will draw themselves into the ground, working it up and pal verizing it at a great depth.--The second are used for the purpose of working the ground finer.The third are used for turning the ground over in single or double ridges. The beam or wooden frame, in which the feet are fixed, represents that of the common plough, with the addition of two arms or side beams to take the side feet, and is worked by handles, and set by a wheel. The feet are in three sets: a foot of the first set represents a coulter with a share-point, having wings fixed beMONTHLY MAG. No. 196. hind, or at foot of the second set; which exactly resembles the first, but is of a smaller size: a foot of the third set differs from the others only in having a smple or double broad plate fixed behind the coulter. To the above implements a roller and harrow-brush are occasionally annexed. MR. JOHN BARTON'S (ARGYLE-STREET, WESTMINSTER), for a Lamp of a new Construction. This lamp is said to be constructed upon the natural unerring principle of the difference of gravity between two fluids; which produces a constant supply of oil, or other combustible fluid, to feed the wick thereof, founting in a perpendicular. direction from a reservoir beneath the flame, having the quality of burung or consuming the whale oil, or other combustible fluid. The method of raising the oil, &c. consists in applying to the bottom of the column of oil, or other combusti ble fluid, contained in the lamp, the hydrostatic pressure of a fluid of greater specific gravity contained in an exterior reservoir, in which the lamp itself, with its contents and appendages, is made to float; and which fluid of greater specific gravity communicates with the interior of the lamp itself, and is at liberty to flow into it, subject to the counteracting nydrostate tic pressure of the column of oil, or other combustible fluid, contamed in the lamp, by means of an aperture in the bottom of it: and the patentee adds, "I am induced to believe, that by making the point at which the wick is placed, moveable; by the continual subsidence of the lamp on the exterior reservoir, during the combustion of the oil, &c.; and by the other improvements in the construction; I render it unnecessary, in the majority of instances, to employ for the heavier fluid any one of greater specific gravity than common water, and in other respects accomplish the end proposed with greater advantage or convenience than the same has hitherto been done with."-Mr. Barton, has given drawings to represent the whole lamp, and also the several parts of which it is composed. The lower part of a hall or staircase lamp, is a cylindrical vessel of thin brass or copper, the bottom of which is fitted on its lower extremity, either by a screw, joint, or otherwise. From the top of this vessel there issues a tube, communicating with it, to the superior extremity of which the burner, or burners, are adapted. There is an airvessel or float, nearly, but not quite sufU ficientl the oil down the sides of the burner, but apply the oil, which would otherwise be wasted by this means, to the purpose of more copiously supplying the combustion of the wick. In order, however, both that no part of the oil which exudes from the wick during its combustion may be wasted, and that the disagreeable effects which would result from its flowing down the sides may be still more effectually prevented, Mr. B. attaches to the tube which constitutes the burner, at a convenient distance below the plate or ledge, a second plate or ledge, of the same figure, but of larger dimensions than the one already described. The tube which constitutes the burner, is perforated between the two plates with two or more horizontal circular rows of small apertures, surrounding such tube: by this contrivance, any such oil as escapes over the edge of the upper of the said plates, may be caught by the lower one, and by that means again brought into contact with the wick through the apertures; and also, the external air which is admitted through the apertures, and a certain quantity of which will, of course, rise through the interstices of the cotton to the lighted portion of the wick, will assist in promoting combustion. ficiently, buoyant to support the whole of MR. WILLIAM HUTTON'S (SHEFFIELD) for a Method of making Sickles and Reaping Hooks. The nature of this invention shall be described nearly in the author's own words:-Take a piece of steel, haminer or roll it into a proper thickness, then cut or pare it into the form of a sickle or reaping-hook; this may be called the blade of the sickle or hook: then tooth the blade, if for a sickle, in the usual manner; next harden the blade in the hardening-mixture now used for saws, and give a temper or colour according to the quality of the steel of which it is made; then set, and grind it. The back may be made, and affixed to or upon the blade, in the following manner:-the blade being made, holes are to be pierced through that part intended to be affixed to the back; then take a piece of iron or steel, and hammer or draw it into the form of the back of a sickle or hook, and fit it to the blade; afterwards, pierce holes in the back to correspond with those pierced in the blade, and fasten them together either with rivets or screws. Or the backs may be made and fastened to the blades in this way: take a piece of iron or steel, roll, forge, cast, or hammer, it to any thickness, |