_From Johnson's Influence of Civil Life, Sedentary Habits and
Intellectual Refinements, or Human Health and Happiness, &c._
_Parallel of enjoyment and suffering in drink._--The water drinker
glides tranquilly through life, without much exhileration or
depression, and escapes many diseases to which he would otherwise
be subject. The wine drinker experiences short, but vivid periods
of rapture, and long intervals of gloom; he is also more subject to
disease. The balance of enjoyment, then, turns decidedly in favour
of the water drinker, leaving out his temporal _prosperity_ and
future anticipations; and the nearer we keep to his regimen, the
happier we shall be. Here, however, as is in all other things, there
is a certain latitude within the range of health and happiness which
the wise man and the philosopher will occasionaly travel round, but
not exceed.--The _native fountain_ is in the centre, and from it
our eccentric divergences should be narrowly watched and carefully
limited.
_Density, weight, &c. of the earth._--From the experiment of
Maskelyne, and the calculations of Hutton, Cavendish, Laplace, &c.
it appears, that considering the specific gravity of water as unity,
the mean density of the earth would be according to Hutton, 4.95,
or according to Cavendish, 5.48. The mean most commonly adopted is
5.4. Taking this as our ground work, we may now proceed to that most
singular question of _weighing_ the earth.
Assuming 7920 miles as the mean diameter of the earth, the number of
cubic miles will be 239,979,311,961. Now each cubic mile contains
147,197,952,000 cubic feet; also every cubic foot of water weighs
1000 avoirdupoise ounces.
Hence a cubic mile of water will weigh 4,107,085,714 tons, and
consequently a globe of water of equal dimensions with our earth
would weigh 985,594,985,000,000,000,000 tons, and that multiplied by
the calculated density 5.4, gives 5,322,212,919,540,000,000,000 tons
for the weight of our earth.
_Fruit._--The Poughkeepsie Herald states, that Mr. Joseph Waddle,
of the town of Washington, Dutchess county, has sold, at the New
York market, during the last six weeks, the produce of ten apple
trees for the almost incredible sum of three hundred and sixty
dollars--they were of a species called Summer Russets; the quantity
fifty barrels. These apples grew on ten trees, which altogether
occupy less than one quarter of an acre of ground. When the apples
were first gathered last fall they filled fifty-three barrels, and
on being picked over this spring, preparatory to sending them to
market, they were reduced to fifty barrels.
_Agricultural Anecdote._----Furius Cresinus, as mentioned by Pliny,
the Roman historian, was originally a slave. Having been made
a freedman, he purchased a small spot of ground, from which he
obtained, through his unwearied industry, much finer crops than
many of the neighbours, who had larger farms. This excited general
envy, which his enemies carried to such a length as to accuse him
of employing magic charms to render his own grounds fertile and to
impoverish heirs. The _Edile_ caused him to be summoned to appear
and answer the charge before the people of Rome. Crecinus obeyed the
mandate, accompanied by his daughter, a fresh and healthy coloured
girl--charms which appeared to greater advantage from the symplicity
of her dress. The accused also brought with him the tools and
instruments of his profession. They were in excellent condition. His
mattocks were remarkably heavy, his plough was of an enormous size,
and his cattle were all sound and fat. "Behold!" said this truly
dignified and indignant farmer, "behold my whole magical equipage!
behold the charms which I have recourse to! There are others,
indeed, which I am not capable of producing before you; I mean the
sweat of my brow, and incessant toils both by day and night." This
native eloquence decided the matter; he was honourably acquitted by
the unanimous voice of a numerous and applauding assembly.
A mechanic in the North has invented a machine for seminaries,
which, by means of steam, not only warms the room, but _flogs all
the boys_ "on a graduated scale," according to their offences.
_Dr. Line._--This noted Irish physician, who died of the small pox
at the age of 85, built a house in a peculiar manner, so as to have
the full benefit of the circulation of the air. Every window had
another opposite to it, none of which he ever suffered to be shut
or glazed. The room in which he slept had four open windows, two on
each side of his bed. It was remarked that, for fifty years together
nobody died in his house. He carried this doctrine to such an
excess, as to contend that no house could be wholesome, where a dog
could not get in under the door and a bird at the window. Upon his
death, his son had all the windows glazed; soon after which, several
persons were _buried out of the house_.
The late king of England concurred a little in this practice of
Dr. Line. In the rooms where he and his family resided, he never
suffered a carpet to be laid; and in the chimney places allowed but
a very scanty portion of fire--barely enough to aid the circulation
of the air and prevent damps.
_Internal Improvements._--In consequence of the facilities afforded
by that part of the great canal which is completed, Plaster of
Paris, or Gypsum, which abounds in the western parts of New York,
is now selling at Utica at from $1.50 to $2.00 per ton, and it is
supposed that any part of that great tract of country lying on the
Hudson, may be supplied with it at from 4 to 5 dollars! Onondaga
salt will be sold at Albany at from 31 to 37 cents per bushel; and
a bushel of wheat, which formerly cost 44 cents to transport it to
that city, will be brought there from the interiour, for the small
sum of 5 cents. In truth, this canal when finished, will, seemingly,
bring the most remote places, even the most distant points of the
great lakes, into the neighbourhood of the port of New York.
_The Coronation of George IV._ which is to take place August, 1st,
is to be conducted on the most economical scale, and is not to cost
more than about $450.000!! The price of a coronation dress for a
peer and peeress is estimated at about $3.600.
_Marriage Promise._--In Somerset county, New Jersey, a young lady
lately received the sum of 1250 dollars damages, for a breach of
promise of marriage.
_Mobile_ is becoming a place of great importance; about 10,000 bales
of cotton have been shipped from this port in the present year, and
6,000 remained on hand. This shews an increase of 10,000 bales since
last year; and it is calculated that at least 10,000 more will be
shipped next year than in the present.
_The number of letters_ delivered daily by the post in Paris is, on
an average, 32,000; of journals, 18,000. In London, the average of
letters is 133,000, and journals 26,000.
_Cincinnati, June 15._--On Saturday last, in digging the well of Mr.
Wright, near Harrison, in this county, near a mile from White-Water,
and about 14 feet from the surface, in a bed of rounded limestone
pebbles, a living frog was dug up, which in a short time, hopped
away as nimbly as if he had been but a year old. There are trees
contiguous, and in lower ground, more than 500 years old, which have
evidently taken the places of others of equal growth; so that this
frog had probably lain buried for 1000 years.
_Mean temperature of the Earth._--According to Laplace, any actual
diminution of the mean temperature of the earth would be detected by
a diminution of the length of the day.--It appears by computation,
that one degree of Fahrenheit's thermometer would make an alteration
of nearly one second in the length of a day, and four or five
minutes in that of a year.
_Heat._--The effect of heat in expanding iron is strongly shown by a
gate of that material in this town.--In the cool of the morning it
shuts with a considerable spare space, (in the winter perhaps an 8th
of an inch) in the middle of a hot day the joints touch, and some
force is necessary to close it. The gate is about 3-1/2 feet wide.
[_Boston Pal._
"Let not sleep," says Pythagoras, "fall upon thy eyes, till thou
hast thrice reviewed the transactions of the past day. Where have
I turned aside from rectitude? What have I been doing? What have I
left undone which I ought to have done? Begin thus from the first
act, and proceed; in conclusion, for the ill which thou hast done,
seek repentance, and gratitude for the good."