Porta, on the He/lection of Cold 6^c. 1 67 



I dare undertake, may he so handled, that it shall not be 

 so much as the thousand part of the whole distance betveen 

 the two places, before mentioned) yet because we proceed 

 a maximis ad minima, so still dividing, and the more di- 

 minishing this error, the further we proceed ; it will in the 

 end, when we come to our ordinary measures mosc in use, 

 become very insensible, and not worth the regarding." 



A " natural standard, or universal measure" is ihe only 

 subject of my next extract, which is taken from pages lyi 

 and 192 of the Rev. Dr. IVilkins's " Essay towards a r^^al 

 Character, and a philosophical Language*." This work was 

 printed in 1 668, in which year the Doctor was appointed 

 Bishop of Chester, but written some time btiore ; for the 

 truly learned and ingenious author, in his dedication to 

 Lord Brouncker, President of the Royal Society, says that 

 when it *' was done in writing, and the impression of it 

 well nigh finished, it happened (among many other better 

 things) to be burnt in the late dreadful lire," (in 1660) 

 ** by which ^11 that was printed, excepting only two copies,, 

 and a great part of the unprinted original, was destroyed." 



" Measures of magnitude," says Dr. IVilkins, "do com- 

 prehend both those of length, and of superficies or area, 

 together with those of solidity, both comprehended in that 

 which is adjoined, viz. the word capacity, hold, contain. 

 The several nations of the world do not more diifcr in their 

 languages, than in the various kinds and proportions of 

 these measures. And it is not without great dithculty, that 



• From La Fie de M. Lcihnitz, prefixed to that great man's Essais de 

 Theodicic, bv the Chcj. de yauconrt, Ainst. 1747, p. loi. we learn that 

 the celebrated Dr. Hook was delighted witli tl'is work of W'ilkins; but 

 that M. Leihr.ilx. was not very well pleased wiih it ; having had a plan of 

 his own, for a real or universal character, ex|.ressivc of all Irint^uat^es, 

 but which never appeared. In the same place, wc are told of a well 

 ■written anonymous paper, on the same sunjcct, which appeared' in the 

 year 1720, in the 2d vol. of the Journal Lilrraiyf. Some other attempts 

 have been made; the last, I believe, bv my ingenious friend Dr. Jumts 

 Andvison, in the Minchestcr Transactions, I tliink, or in his miscellciny, 

 the Bee, printed at Edinburgh, or perhaps in both. It seems probable, 

 that the idea was suggested to Dr. Wilkins by '• the art of short-hand, 

 which," as he says in iiis dedication, " is in iis kind an ingenious device, 

 -. and of consii^erable usefulness, applicable to any language, much-won- 

 dered at by travellers, that have seen the experience of it in England : 

 and yet though it be above three score years, since it was first invented, 

 'tis not to this day (for ought I can learn) brought into common practice 

 in any other n ition," Mr. Locke also expressed his surprise, many years 

 afterwards, in his tract on education, that short-hand had never come 

 into Use on the continent ; in some parts of wliith, however, it is now 

 almost as much practised as it is in this island j though it be no where 

 cultivated so mucii as it deserves. 



L 4 the 



