NOTES, 427» 



ably to fome of the Works of Nature, of an etifv meihocî wheiebyt 

 aërofhts may direct their courfe even againft the wind ; but Î 

 would not publifli it were I ever fo certain of it's fuccefs. What ' 

 mjferies have not the perfecting of the compafs, an<i of gun- 

 powder, brought upon the Human Race ! The dcfn-able object 

 of refearch is not, M'hat is to render us n^ore intelligent, but 

 what is, to render us better. Science, in the hand of. Wifdom, 

 is a torch which illuminates, but brandi flied by the hand of 

 wickednefs, fets the World on fire. 



(3) Tou are an j^fiatic. Amajïs 'W&.s an Egyptian, and Egvpt 

 was in Africa ,- but the Ancients affigned it to Alia. The Nile" 

 ferved as a boundary to Alia on the Weft. Confult p/rV.y, and 

 the ancient Geographers. 



(4) To the height of Melita, This is the ifland now called 

 Malta. 



(5) Of the xylon. This is the cotton on a herb : it is originally 

 a native of Egypt. They now manufafture at Malta very beau- 

 tiful fluffs of it, which is the principal fource of fuppoit to the 

 commonalty of that ifland, who are miferably indigent. Theie 

 is a fécond fpecies produced on a flirub, which is cultivated in 

 Afia and the Weft-India iflands. Nay, I believe there is a third 

 fpecies that grows in America, on a tail prickly tjee; fuch cai'C 

 has Nature taken to diffufe a vegetable fo ufefuj over all the warm 

 regions of the Globe ! This much is certain, that the Savages of 

 the parts of America which are fituated between the Tropics;, 

 made for themfelves garments and hammocks of cotton» when 

 Columbus landed on that Country. 



(6) A prodigious quantity of quails. The quails ftill take Malta 

 in their way, and appear on a day nameid and marked in the al- 

 manacks of the country. The cuftoms of the animal creatron 

 do not vary ; but thole of the human fpecies have undergone 



collude r able 



