Grapes must be stored in the jar, with fine shred paper, which will keep one from touching the other, as much as possible. Five or six bunches are the most which should be put into one jar; if they be large, not so many: for it is to be understood, that, whenever you open a jar, you must use that day all the fruit that is in it. Strawberries, as well as peaches, should have fine shred paper under and between them, in the place of straw, which is only to be used for apples and pears. Put in the strawberries and the paper layer by layer. When the jar is full, put on the stopper, and have it well luted round, so as perfectly to keep out the air. A composition of rosin, or grafting wax, is best: let none of it get within the jar, which is to be placed in a temperate cellar, Be sure to finish your process in the last quarter of the moon. Do not press the fruit; as any juice running out, would spoil all below. CURIOUS REMARKS ON THE VARIOUS DISEASES TO WHICH MANKIND ARE SUBJECT. THE ingenious Dr. Adair made the following curious and inte resting remarks on the shortness of human life: Of one thousand persons, twenty-three die in the birth; two hundred and twenty-seven from teething, convulsions, and worms; eighty from small-pox; seven in the measles; eight women in childbed; one hundred and ninety-one of consumptions, asthma, and other diseases of the breast; one hundred and fifty of fevers; twelve of apoplexy and lethargy; and forty-one of dropsy; omitting other diseases not so well ascertained: so that only seventyeight of one thousand attain what may be deemed old age. Or, if the reader chooses to take it in another point of view: of one thousand persons, two hundred and sixty die within the first year; eighty in the second; forty in the third; twenty-four in the fourth and within the first eight years of life, four hundred and forty-six, or almost one half of the number, are cut off by premature death. Sickly years are from one in four, to one in six or seven, to the healthy. December, January, and April, are, from observation, found to be the most sickly months, and June the most healthy, January is to June as eleven to one. INSTRUCTIONS INSTRUCTIONS FOR FINE GENTLEMEN. WHENEVER you go to the coffee-house, monopolize all the newspapers; and whatever paper is wanted most, be sure to keep that the longest. Whenever you fail in conversation to amuse the company, begin to laugh most immoderately; thereby you will command the attention of all the spectators. If any gentleman tells a remarkable good story, never laugh, but immediately answer it with another, and then laugh as much as you please. Wherever you go, be determined to find fault with every thing; thereby you prove yourself a man of consequence. Let your speeches be always preceded by some pretty oaths. Similes are very requisite to heighten conversation; no matter how unlike the subject they may be: but should you be astray for one, to enforce your arguments, think of your master, and you can never want. Certainly the black gentleman is the most convenient; and as he is the nearest to our mouths-logice-he must be the nearest to our theme: no matter what, he resembles every thing. She's handsome as the devil-ugly as the devil-hard as the devil-soft as the devil-hot as the devil-cold as the devil-devilish good-humoured— devilish cross. Do you wish to be in love? visit your mistress when you have drank freely of your bottle. Spirits give spirits; and a man can never talk of his heart, unless something puts it into his head: then practise a dying speech; thump your breast; flourish your handkerchief; and present a pistol. If she is not moved with this, I shall give you leave to shoot yourself. Whenever you are in company with ladies, endeavour to shew your sense and learning. Select as many hard words as possible, and quote passages out of Horace and Homer. Praise the former as a fine Grecian, and the latter for excelling in Latin. If you meet with a lady who knows more than yourself, be always of her opinion, and exclaim, "Gad's curse, you have taken them words out of my mouth." To carry a snuff-box is highly essential; but then you must learn to take a pinch with an air; at the same time, cock up the little finger, to shew you have a ring. When the conversation begins to be very warm, and the arguments very powerful, a pinch of snuff is an excellent excuse for not speaking; because if they insist upon your reasons, you can very easily set up a mock sneeze; and by the time that is finished-" Damn it, you forgot what you were going to say." It shews a great genius to tell a good lie, now and then, with a very serious face; which, if you please, you may confirm as truth, 112 by by pawning your honour; for then, though ever so much doubted, it must be swallowed: indeed, it requires a very great sagacity to bounce-and greater, to bounce out, and unsay what you have said, whenever a discovery is made: the best method of doing this, is, by prefacing the story with they say; for then, they, whoever they are, are the liars, and not you; but if it is a lie, which must be told upon very good authority, mention a gentleman's name who never was in being, and ask if they know him? and, as they do not, declare he is a man of the strictest truth, the most unexceptionable character, and that it was from him you heard so and so; which, therefore, you are convinced is truth: should, however, your story be contradicted, and absolutely declared to be false, then you may say, that your friend, Mr. (the name (a well, of the non-existing gentleman) had it from Mr. ESSAY ON THE ANTICIPATION OF PLEASURE. THE lively image we form of approaching pleasures, consti tutes one of the most sublime sources of human felicity. There is scarcely a man in the universe, in the vigour of life, whose heart is not often exhilirated with the hopes of seeing better days. Nature has provided the charms of anticipation, to console us under the pressure of past misfortunes, and to stimulate us into new efforts. It exonerates part of the load we should otherwise bear from actual evils; and relieves the painful impressions that are apt to be excited upon a retrospective view of our affairs. No man-however pure and elevated his principles-however prudent and fortunate his conduct--can look back on the different stages of his existence, without some sensations of disapprobation and sorrow. His reflexions can never produce such a degree of approbation and rapture, as to afford a permanent and infallible security against the assaults of a vexatious or a melancholy spirit. The reflexions, even of a good man, cannot alone infuse ardour. and transport into the soul. He must imagine, as well as reflect. A young man bows down his head when he thinks of what is past, and elevates it when he looks into future scenes. An old man ceases to feel pleasure in what is before him: he is dissatisfied with what is past; and his head is perpetually bowed down. Old men, as well as others, may derive consolation from anticipating the happiness of a future state of existence. But it is the design of this discussion only to treat of anticipation, as a natural operation of the mind; and to suggest how far superior its. pleasures generally are to those of reflexion. It would be well for, men to attend more closely to the structure of their mental qualities; and to bring themselves into such habits of contemplation, as will render old age less insupportable than most men find it. The reflexions that follow a life devoted to the cause of honour and virtue, are no doubt a source of some felicity. It is worthy the pursuit of every person, if it had no other advantage than what results merely from reflecting on it. But the constitution of our nature is such, that our lively, transporting pleasures, must proceed from anticipation. Old men gain, by an attachment to certain habits, part of what they lose in the diminished vigour of their anticipations. It is therefore of importance that all men should form such habits, as will not be unworthy a rational being in the last periods of his continuance on earth; and such as will probably best assimilate to that purer state of existence, of which, as the doctrines of our religion inform us, all good men will participate. ON TRIVIAL STUDIES. IF some persons be prevented from acquiring useful knowledge, by their intellectual incapacity: there are others, who, possessing talents, fail of important attainments, by wearing away their time in trivial studies. A person generally supposes he gives a satisfactory account of employing himself, when he can say, he has been engaged in reading. He may, however, deceive himself, as well as others, in this respect. It is not more common, or more disagreeable, to find men deficient in their ideas, from a neglect of books, than it is to observe them bloated with false or frivolous notions, by an injudicious choice of authors. An acquaintance of mine, who is celebrated for hi literary taste and ingenuity, invited me, the other morning, to look at his library, which is said to be an excellent one. If novelty give a claim to merit, my friend deserves great praise for his collection of books: for he cer tainly has filled his shelves with such performances, as scarcely any man but himself would ever think of purchasing. After expatiating upon a variety of authors I had never heard of, and a still greater number I had never read, he told me he had taken immense pains to ascertain every minute circumstance relative to the building of Noah's ark. No history, either sacred or profane, that threw any light upon that interesting subject, had escaped his notice. "It is," he said, " to be regretted, that the particulars. of that celebrated work of antiquity are not more generally known." The vast delight he had found in his researches, he assured me, were not to be described. As I considered myself uselessly employed in hearing his descriptions, my readers will make the same remark, if this essay communicate a conversation so unimportant. My friend informed me of many other equally curious discoveries or attainments-and his pride seemed to consist in knowing, what none of his acquaintance knew, or had any inclination to know. The design of reading, is not so much to increase the quantity of our knowledge, as the quality and utility of it. Men of leisure, who who have patience of investigation, may, perhaps, employ themselves in useless enquiries, without producing any hurtful effects? indeed they may happen to strike upon some discovery from which benefit will result. But where such an ardour of curiosity prevails, as to induce people to researches, from which no practical advantage is derived, it disqualifies them for active pursuits in life. It should be an established rule with every person who reads, to enquire of himself, when he lays aside his book, whether he have gained any ideas at all, and whether they be just and useful. To read, and yet to acquire no ideas, is, at any rate, a destruction of time: but the mere loss of time is not so pernicious, as to catch sentiments that are fallacious or trifling. PROGRESS OF THE POPULATION OF LONDON, PREVIOUS TO THE TIME FROM WHICH THE BILLS OF MORTALITY COMMENCED. THE time of the foundation of London is naturally involved in obscurity: it most probably must look for its origin to a few miserable huts of the first inhabitants of the island, whom the advantages of the situation drew together, and who little thought, when they reared their rude habitations, that the infant village would in time become the metropolis of England, and one of the most considerable cities of the world. If it existed at all at the time of the invasion under Julius Cæsar, it was too insignificant to attract his notice; but within a century from that time it became a place of some consequence, and probably of considerable extent; for in the year 62, Suetonius found his army, which is said to have consisted of 10,000 men, insufficient to defend it, and was obliged to abandon the city to Boadicea, by whom it was reduced to ashes, and all the inhabitants massacred. The local advantages which had induced the first inhabitants to make choice of this spot, had the same effect upon others, and the new settlers continued gradually to increase so much, that after the settlement of the East Saxons it became the chief town of their kingdom. In the year 798, London, with many of its inhabitants, was destroyed by fire: and in the next century it suffered much from the depredations of the Danes till the year 886, about which time it was repaired by Alfred, who afterwards made it the capital of all England. Under the care of this monarch, it was in 895 so far recovered from the devastations of the Danes, as to be capable of sending out forces against them. In 982, the city was again destroyed by fire; but in eleven years after this calamity it was able to send out a fleet against the Danes, and to defend itself effectually when besieged by them. From this period to the time of the Norman invasion it was frequently attacked by the Danes, but without success, and as this caused the people of the neighbouring |