SIR,

THOUGH you have seldom digressed from

moral subjects, I suppose you are not so rigorous

or cynical as to deny the value or usefulness

of natural philosophy; or to have lived in this age

of inquiry and experiment, without any attention to

the wonders every day produced by the pokers

of magnetism and the wheels of electricity. At

least, I may be allowed to hope that, since nothing

is more contrary to moral excellence than envy,

you will not refuse to promote the happiness of

others, merely because you cannot partake of their

enjoyments.

In confidence, therefore, that your ignorance has

not made you an enemy to knowledge, I offer you

the honour of introducing to the notice of the

publick, an adept, who, having long laboured for the

benefit of mankind, is not willing, like too many of

his predecessors, to conceal his secrets in the grave.

Many have signalized themselves by melting their

estates in crucibles. I was born to no fortune, and

therefore had only my mind and body to devote to

knowledge, and the gratitude of posterity will attest,

that neither mind nor body have been spared.

I have sat whole weeks without sleep by the side

of an athanor, to watch the moment of projection;

I have made the first experiment in nineteen diving

engines of new construction; I have fallen eleven

times speechless under the shock of electricity; I

have twice dislocated my limbs, and once fractured

my skull, in essaying to fly[c]; and four times

endangered my life by submitting to the transfusion of

blood.

[c] In the sixth chapter of Rasselas we have an excellent story

of an experimentalist in the art of flying. Dr. Johnson sketched

perhaps from life, for we are informed that he once lodged in the

same house with a man who broke his legs in the daring attempt.

In the first period of my studies, I exerted the

powers of my body more than those of my mind,

and was not without hopes that fame might be

purchased by a few broken bones without the toil of

thinking; but having been shattered by some violent

experiments, and constrained to confine myself to

my books, I passed six and thirty years in searching

the treasures of ancient wisdom, but am at last amply

recompensed for all my perseverance.

The curiosity of the present race of philosophers,

having been long exercised upon electricity, has been

lately transformed to magnetism; the qualities of

the loadstone have been investigated, if not with

much advantage, yet with great applause; and as the

highest praise of art is to imitate nature, I hope no

man will think the makers of artificial magnets

celebrated or reverenced above their deserts.

I have for some time employed myself in the same

practice, but with deeper knowledge and more extensive

views. While my contemporaries were touching

needles and raising weights, or busying themselves

with inclination and variation, I have been

examining those qualities of magnetism which may be

applied to the accommodation and happiness of common

life. I have left to inferior understandings the

care of conducting the sailor through the hazards of

the ocean, and reserve to myself the more difficult

and illustrious province of preserving the connubial

compact from violation, and setting mankind free for

ever from the danger of suppositious children, and the

torment of fruitless vigilance and anxious suspicion.

To defraud any man of his due praise is unworthy

of a philosopher; I shall therefore openly confess,

that I owe the first hint of this inestimable secret

to the Rabbi Abraham Ben Hannase, who, in his

treatise of precious stones, has left this account of

the magnet: <hb atymalqh>, &c. "The calamita, or

loadstone that attracts iron, produces many bad

fantasies in man. Women fly from this stone. If

therefore any husband be disturbed with jealousy, and fear

lest his wife converses with other men, let him lay

this stone upon her while she is asleep. If she be pure,

she will, when she wakes, clasp her husband fondly in

her arms; but if she be guilty, she will fall out of

bed, and run away."

When I first read this wonderful passage, I could

not easily conceive why it had remained hitherto

unregarded in such a zealous competition for

magnetical fame. I would surely be unjust to suspect

that any of the candidates are strangers to the name

or works of Rabbi Abraham, or to conclude, from

a late edict of the Royal Society in favour of the

English language, that philosophy and literature

are no longer to act in concert. Yet, how should a

quality so useful escape promulgation, but by the

obscurity of the language in which it was delivered?

Why are footmen and chambermaids paid on every

side for keeping secrets, which no caution nor expense

could secure from the all penetrating magnet?

Or, why are so many witnesses summoned, and so

many artifices practised, to discover what so easy an

experiment would infallibly reveal?

Full of this perplexity, I read the lines of Abraham

to a friend, who advised me not to expose my

life by a mad indulgence of the love of fame; he

warned me by the fate of Orpheus, that knowledge

or genius could give no protection to the invader of

female prerogatives; assured me that neither the

armour of Achilles, nor the antidote of Mithridates,

would be able to preserve me; and counselled me,

if I could not live without renown, to attempt the

acquisition of universal empire, in which the honour

would perhaps be equal, and the danger certainly

be less.

I, a solitary student, pretend not to much

knowledge of the world, but am unwilling to think it so

generally corrupt, as that a scheme for the detection

of incontinence should bring any danger upon

its inventor. My friend has indeed told me that all

the women will be my enemies, and that, however

I flatter myself with hopes of defence from the

men, I shall certainly find myself deserted in the

hour of danger. Of the young men, said he, some

will be afraid of sharing the disgrace of their mothers,

and some the danger of their mistresses; of those

who are married, part are already convinced of the

falsehood of their wives, and part shut their eyes to

avoid conviction; few ever sought for virtue in

marriage, and therefore few will try whether they

have found it. Almost every man is careless or

timorous, and to trust is easier and safer than to

examine.

These observations discouraged me, till I began

to consider what reception I was likely to find among

the ladies, whom I have reviewed under the three

classes of maids, wives, and widows, and cannot but

hope that I may obtain some countenance among

them. The single ladies I suppose universally ready

to patronise my method, by which connubial wickedness

may be detected, since no woman marries with

a previous design to be unfaithful to her husband.

And to keep them steady in my cause, I promise

never to sell one of my magnets to a man who

steals a girl from school; marries a woman of forty

years younger than himself; or employs the authority

of parents to obtain a wife without her own

consent.

Among the married ladies, notwithstanding the

insinuations of slander, yet I resolve to believe, that

the greater part are my friends, and am at least

convinced, that they who demand the test, and

appear on my side, will supply, by their spirit, the

deficiency of their numbers, and that their enemies

will shrink and quake at the sight of a magnet, as

the slaves of Scythia fled from the scourge.

The widows will be confederated in my favour by

their curiosity, if not by their virtue; for it may be

observed, that women who have outlived their husbands,

always think themselves entitled to superintend

the conduct of young wives; and as they are

themselves in no danger from this magnetick trial,

I shall expect them to be eminently and unanimously

zealous in recommending it.

With these hopes I shall, in a short time, offer to

sale magnets armed with a particular metallick

composition, which concentrates their virtue, and

determines their agency. It is known that the efficacy

of the magnet, in common operations, depends

much upon its armature, and it cannot be imagined,

that a stone, naked, or cased only in a common

manner, will discover the virtues ascribed to it by

Rabbi Abraham. The secret of this metal I shall

carefully conceal, and, therefore, am not afraid of

imitators, nor shall trouble the offices with

solicitations for a patent.

I shall sell them of different sizes, and various

degrees of strength. I have some of a bulk proper

to be hung at the bed's head, as scare-crows, and

some so small that they may be easily concealed.

Some I have ground into oral forms to be hung at

watches; and some, for the curious, I have set in

wedding rings, that ladies may never want an

attestation of their innocence. Some I can produce so

sluggish and inert, that they will not act before the

third failure; and others so vigorous and animated,

that they exert their influence against unlawful

wishes, if they have been willingly and deliberately

indulged. As it is my practice honestly to tell my

customers the properties of my magnets, I can

judge, by their choice, of the delicacy of their

sentiments. Many have been content to spare cost

by purchasing only the lowest degree of efficacy,

and all have started with terrour from those which

operate upon the thoughts. One young lady only

fitted on a ring of the strongest energy, and

declared that she scorned to separate her wishes from

her acts, or allow herself to think what she was

forbidden to practice.