18 1 6.] Mr. Lawrence on Palingenesia, 



small suras for their sfayinif there; and 

 lie had many hundreds, by wliich he 

 made an iiidcpeiidance, and died ricii. 



The above, if properly managed, 

 mig'ht prove a considerable source of 

 national wealth ; and, if a proper insti- 

 tution were formed, a general knowledge 

 of such minor arts might soon be dif- 

 fused tiiroughout tills country; and thus 

 many articles that are now altogether 

 neglected would turn to good account, 

 by afibrding employment to poor chil- 

 dren, and persons who are incapable 

 of more laborious employ ; and, at the 

 same time, that it affords great induce- 

 ment to early habits of industry, wouhl 

 soon supersede the use of a number of 

 articles, for which we are wholly in- 

 debted to foreign countries. 



It may be worth notice, that the So- 

 ciety of Arts have, for many years past, 

 offered premiums for discoveries of va- 

 rious articles similar to the above ; and 

 many good things have been, by such 

 means, produced to that society ; but 

 the advantages of their being brought 

 into practice yet remains to be reaped 

 by the present age. 



STo the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 



SIR, 



DK. Johnson somewhere remarks 

 on the great number of agricul- 

 tural and veterinary Tracts pnblislicd 

 in the refgns of James and Charles 

 the 1st; and, in truth, from that period to 

 the present, the British press has bceu 

 abundantly supplied with tiiat species 

 of literature. With whatever degree of 

 propriety we are designated as a com- 

 mercial nation, we possess nearly, or 

 altogether, an equal right to be styled 

 agricultural. 1 he res rnstica et vete- 

 rinaria, the culture of the earth, the 

 management of domestic animals, and 

 the whole body of rural economy, have, 

 during tiie last two centuries absorbed, 

 and most profitably too, an extensive 

 share of our national attention. This 

 mental cmplovmenthasnatnrally enough 

 divided itself into the solid and prac- 

 tical, and the jiurcly scientific and con- 

 jectural; the former making the most 

 ample returns in substance, t!ie latter in 

 promise. It is with the latter only, that 

 my present business lies. 



I'VoOT the conclusion of the fifteenth, 

 to the middle of the seventeenth cen- 

 tury, there subsisted among the learned 

 upon the Continent, an enthusiasm, 

 or rage, for chemical experiment in 

 natural philosophy and agriculture, 

 with whicli Qvitiiit« cliciuico-asricultuiiil 



or the Resuscitation of Plants. 29* 



mania can bear no kind of comparisojji 

 in respect to extent, popularity, or ex- 

 travagance of pretension. Every sci- 

 ence, indeed, in turn, has had its iiisa- 

 uities; and the huinau niiud finds no 

 protection in tlie most laliouri'd edu- 

 cation. But the transcendental preten- 

 sions of the continental cliemists of tlios« 

 times, are absolutely without parallel, 

 and cannot fail of some ed'ect on th» 

 risible faculties, even at a period of so 

 sombre a cast as tli» present. On the 

 other hand, some i>ersons, on a perusal 

 of the grave details of such astonishing 

 facts, will be ready to remark— surely, 

 in former days, there could be neither 

 public nor private madhouses, or sucli 

 hosts of lunatics would never have been 

 suffered at large. Others, perhaps, may 

 be tempted to retort, that the extensive 

 modern foundations of that kind, but 

 too clearly evince our enormous need, 

 and even to speculate on the necessity 

 of addition; in such dispute, I am, pro- 

 bably, not qualified to bear a part, for 

 especial reasons. There is, however, a 

 very material feature, in which the phi- 

 losophical conjurers of former times 

 differed from their successors, who have 

 flourished nearer to, or within, our own t 

 the former appearing to have been ac- 

 tuated by the most genuine and dis- 

 tracted disinterestedness, whilst the 

 latter have invariably had the maiu 

 chance in view, tlie pocket furniture, 

 the coals and the candles. I'ew of th« 

 modeins play — they work, and never 

 gratuitously, if they can help it: such 

 has been the case with the illumines of 

 Germany, ot Mesiner, Cagliostro, of 

 De Minnndue, in England, and of tlia 

 American inventor and manufacturer 

 of the Bletallic Tractors, no longer ia 

 existence; whilst rheumatism still ex- 

 ists, in company with mildew. It is 

 here an approjiriate remark, how Uttlo 

 is known or recollected by the existing; 

 generation; of all, whether of a mcndy 

 curious or really useful nature, which 

 has passed and retired in t!ie world of 

 science, has had its day, has come like 

 shadows and so departed, in times, not 

 only distant, but immediately [irevious 

 to llieir own, notw ifhsfanding the dusty 

 coverlids and bindings of such an im- 

 mense body of records staring fliem iu 

 the face. Hence it is, that we have so 

 much ancient novelty; so many resur- 

 reclions from the dead, which we im- 

 plicitly accept as new creations; and 

 that W(! so often sit down, as we suppose 

 to a tresh and first-hand meal, which, 

 on a close iuvcstisatjyn, w ouM prove to 



U 



