LETTER XLIV 



TO THE SAME 



SELBORNE. 

 " Monstrent 



Quid tantum Oceano properent se tingere soles 

 Hyberni ; vel quae tardis mora noctibus obster." 



GENTLEMEN who have outlets might contrive to make orna- 

 ment 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 an 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 the set two erections might be constructed 

 with very little expense ; for two pieces of timber frame- 

 work, about ten or twelve feet high, and four feet broad 

 at the base, and 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 T .; 

 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 



VOL. II. X 45 T 



