believe, is not bestowed on any other portion of the year except its usual calendary divisions.* The frequent adoption of this precise interval, which consitutes no aliquot part of the year, nor is capable of an aliquot division into months or weeks, is somewhat extraordinary; yet it would be a little unfair to presume that our ancestors, in this instance, were actuated by mere caprice. Perhaps it may be no improbable supposition, that their preference arose from finding the period in question connected with some remarkable events in Sacred History; and that it is so connected, will appear from the following coincidences : The diluvial rain lasted forty days. The three miraculous fasts of Moses, Elijah, and our Saviour, lasted each forty days. The Christian Lent continues forty days. These, it must be confessed, are very striking; and perhaps no other arbitrary portion of the year has ever been so highly distinguished. Those who are in the habit of reflecting upon the operations of the human mind, well know, that although, in a contest of motives, the will ever yields to the stronger, yet in matters of indifference, where the judgment is sus pended in equilibrio, and yet must decide, the most trifling circumstance, the most remote allusion, is sufficient to turn the scale. 1800, Sept. TELONICUS. *The preference of the number forty is not confined to matters of time only forty shillings is the qualification of a freeholder at an election; forty shillings the limited value for causes in the county-court, the court-baron, &c. INDEX TO THE THIRD VOLUME. A. ADAMS, Rev. Dr. 106. Adams, George, dedication prefixed to his Essay on the Globes, 92. Adams, Parson, 58. Addington, Dr. experiment made by, 203. Addison, letter from, to a Lady, 8;-Letters to Lord Wharton, 110. Alberti, Count, condemned to the mines in Idra, 18. Alleyn, John, Esq. letter to, 174. Antichrist, 49. Antiquarian Society, names of the first Fellows, 440. Apparitions, remarkable stories of, 45, 47, 447, 495. Arbuthnot, Dr. extracts of letters from, 153. Architecture, an invention in, 249. Army, books recommended to a young officer in the, 178. Asthma, remedies for, 526. Athens, School of, Raphael's picture of the, 7. Atterbury, Bishop, letters from, 54, 101. Avarice, in old age, 397. Automaton, description of, 385. Ayloffe, Sir Joseph, his description of a picture in Windsor Cas- tle, 408. B. Bacon, Montague, Esq. letter from, 57. Barbers formerly incorporated with Surgeons, 396. Bark, the use of, 462. Barnard, William, prosecuted for sending a threatening letter to Barretier, the premature genius and learning of, 241. Beer, 460. Benediction, manner of giving, So. Benson, Auditor, an act of generosity of, 405. Bergamot pears recommended for the stone and gravel, 430. Boerhaave, his recipe for the gout, 293. Bonwicke, Rev. ——, letters to and from, 44, 51. Books, method of preserving them from worms, 255. Bowyer, Mr. consolatory letter to, from Dean Stanhope, 49. Bradley, Dr. his report on Williams's Tables, 150. Brown, Sir Thomas, on vulgar errors, 393. Brown, Rev. Littleton, letter to, 119. Buchan, Earl of, address to his learned correspondents, 125;- Letter to, 192. Buckingham, the learned tailor of, 264. Burney, Dr. his account of a musical prodigy, 435. Busby, Dr. letters to, 150. Butler, Bishop, letter from, 237. Buxton, Jedediah, account of, 261. C. Cæsar, remarkable story in his Commentaries, 337. Campbell, Dr. letter to, 95. Cardinals, account of, 368. Carlton, Sir Dudley, letter from, 124. Carteret, Lord, letters from, to the Earl of Oxford, 52. Case and opinion on the execution of Doyle and Valline, 370. Cathedral Churches, 166. Cattle, effects of salt in fattening, 416. Chad-pennies, 166. Chambers, Ephraim, letters from, 129. Character, want of, a common defect, 382. Charles I. letters to, from his Queen, Henrietta Maria, 32. Charles II. letter from, 188. Chess, automaton player at, 386. Chicken, manner of hatching them in Egypt, 281. Chrysostom, 51. Churches, cost of the fifty new, 451. Clergy, Corporation of the sons of the, 62. Collinson, Mr. Peter, letter to, relative to the Sheep Walks in Colson, Professor, letters to, 17. Conclave at Rome, account of, 368. Confessional, writers in the controversy on, 442. Conscious Lovers, observations on that play, 15. Contagion, the means of obviating, 466. Convict Laws, strictures on, 452. Cornbury, Lord, his letter to the Vice-Chancellor of Oxford, 24. Coventry, the see of, 226;-Peeping Tom of, 226. Cowley, letter from, 150. Crimp, theatrical, 56. Croft, his life of Dr. Young, 88. Cromwell, Oliver, letters from, 4, 5. Crotch, William, 435. Cumming, James, Esq. letter to, 60. D. Daddo, Mr. letter to, 178; 179, note. Debtor, on the body of, being taken in execution after his death, Derbyshire, sermon in praise of, 420. Diamonds, particulars relative to large ones, 418. Digby, Sir Kenelm, his sympathetic powder, 401. Disorders produced by the immoderate use of spirituous liquors, 456. Distemper, manner of painting in, 83. Dobson, translator of Paradise Lost, 406. Doddridge, Dr. letter from, 195 ;-account of his works, 196. Dog, wonderful sagacity of, 30. Drams, on drinking, 202, 456. Dream, a singular one, and corresponding event, 470. Dryden, letters from, 151. Durham, on founding a college at, 5. Dutens, Rev., letter to, 385. |