LXXXV1.] 



OF SELBORNE. 



235 



LETTER LXXXVI. 



TO THE HONOURABLE DAINES BARRINGTON. 

 " monstrent 



Quid tantum oceano properent se tingere soles 

 Hyberni : vel quse tardis rnora noctibus obstet." 



(ViRG. Georg. ii. 477-482.) 



" How winter suns in ocean plunge so soon, 

 And what belates the tardy nights of June." 



GENTLEMEN who heave outlets might contrive to make ornament 

 subservient to utility ; a pleasing eye-trap might also contribute 

 to promote science : an obelisk in a garden or park might be 

 both an embellishment and a heliotrope. 



Any person that is curious, and enjoys the advantage of a 

 good horizon, might, with little trouble, make two heliotropes ; 

 the one for the winter, the other for the summer solstice : and 

 these two erections might be constructed with very little 

 expense; for two pieces of timber framework, about ten or 

 twelve feet high, and four feet broad at the base, close lined 

 with plank, would answer the purpose. 



The erection for the former should, if possible, be placed 

 within sight of some window in the common sitting parlour; 

 because men, at that dead season of the year, are usually within 

 doors at the close of the day; while that for the latter might 

 be fixed for any given spot in the garden or outlet : whence 

 the owner might contemplate, in a fine summer's evening, the 

 utmost extent that the sun makes to the northward at the season 

 of the longest days. Now nothing would be necessary but to 

 place these two objects with so much exactness, that the 

 westerly limb of the sun, at setting, might but just clear the 

 winter heliotrope to the west of it on the shortest ; the whole 



