1801.] 
academic diftin@tion! One cannot glance 
jnto the firft page of an Je-author (I am 
forry. the difufe of the word authore/s ob- 
liges me to have recourfe to fuch ugly 
compounds), but R. A’s, and B. A’s, 
and M..A’s, and M. D’s,.and F. R. S8’s, 
and A.S.S’s*, and L. L. D’s, and God 
knows how many confequential letyers be- 
fides, meet the eye at every freth volume; 
or, where none of thefe are tugged in, 
ESQ. feems now to be as preicriptive a 
part of the title-page as tie name of the 
publifher or-printer: | whilft all of wifdom 
and genius that, from the remoteft ages 
to our-own times, was ever written by 
WOMEN, has, Quaker-like, been ufhered 
nto the world as the produétion of plain 
Elizabeth this, .or fimple Mary the other ! 
Now without entering into that field of 
difputation, the equality of the fexes, the 
oblervation on the difadvantages which 
female writers labour under, in their 
title-pages, leads me naturally enough 
to conclude, that women are unjuitly 
treated in thofe refpects. A dereliction 
from the patis of virtue has been known 
to, procure them titles of nobility, but 
who ever heard of any letter in the alpha 
bet, R. A. excepted, being . honorarily 
attached to the names of thofe who have 
fhone pre-eminent for virtue and talents ? 
It might-feem invidious or I would 
‘roundly affert, that 90 out ofahundred who 
bear off ‘¢their blufhing honours’? from 
our Univerfities, would find it difficult to 
eftablifh claims to tntelleftual excellence 
- with a Barbauld, a P. Wakefield, a Cow-'- 
Jey, a C, Smith, &c. &c. ;—that Hannah 
More and Mrs, Welt can furnith as folid 
pretentions to lawn fleeves and mitres as 
many upon the epifcopal bench ; and that 
Mrs. Piozzi, for all her literary wings are 
now in the moult, through ‘ Retrofpec- 
tion,’ has yet enough of the old woman 
and. the unqualified ariftocrat about her, to 
¢apacitate her, with the help of Latin and 
Greek, for fome profefforfhips. But I 
repeat it might be efteemed invidious, if 
I were roundly to affert fuch an hypo- 
theiis ; therefore the above gentle hint 
mutt fuffice. : 
I fhall now, beg leave to change my 
ground towards thofe who maintain, that 
women were created for nobler purpofes 
than making puddings and pies, and pro- 
viding linen for their families; and conced- 
ing, for the fake of peace, that {uch is the 
grand defideratum ot female exiftence, ftill 
I muft conclude, that women are unjuftly 
treated. No honorary appellation b-longs 
to fuperiority in the arts of pudding and 
pie-making but a tranfitory remark, ¢¢ it’s 
* Vide Colman’s Doctor Panglois, * 
/ 
Lufus Natura. 
U85 
very good!’? gulped down with the very 
mouthful of it which pleafed-the palare ! 
No other praife attends cleanlinefs of 
Jinen, but the private and humble teftimony 
of time and the wafher-woman ! 
Moreover be it known, that in the 
College or Academic Inftitution for the 
due honouring of FemaleExcellence,which 
T hope fome perlon wifer than my/elf, will, 
for the credit of their age and country, 
fortly propofe to the learned world, I 
fhail have no objeétion to -there being 
‘* degrees’’ for pudding and pie-making, 
as well as every other feminine art. 
On the contrary, I fhall have us much 
pleafure and pride in feeing my wife and 
daughters add to their fignatures S$. P. P. 
(Supreme in puddings and pies) asany of his 
Majefty’s liege funjeéts whatfoever. We 
en 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, 
F the following fingular circumiftance 
comes into your plan, it is at your 
fervice for your Mifcellany: . 
No. 9, Harley-freet, Your’s, &c. 
July, 180%. R ihyh iP 
LUSUS NATURE, 
we NOTHING more furprifed me, or enter= 
AN -ained my fancy more, than when, ona 
fine warm, ferene fummer’s day, the Kooko- 
ernan, or the iflands that lie four leagues weft 
of Good Hope, prefented a quite different form 
than what they have naturally.; We not 
only faw them far greater, as through a mag- 
nifying perfpective glafs, and plainly defcried 
all the ftones, and the furrows filled with ice, 
as if we ftood clofe by, but when that had 
lafted a while, they all looked as if they were 
but one contiguous Jand, and reprefented a 
wood or tall cut hedge. Then the fcene 
fhifts, and fhows the appearance of all forts of 
curious figures, as ships with fails, ftreamers 
and flags, autique elevated cafties, with de- 
cayed turrets, ftorks nefts, and a hundred 
{uch things, which at length retire aloft or 
diftant, and then vanifh. At fuch times the 
air is quite ferene and clear, but yet compret- 
s’d with jubtile vapours, as itis in very hot 
weather ; and, according to my opinion, when 
thefe vapours are ranged at a proper diftance 
between the eye and the iflands, the object © 
appears much larger, as it would through a 
convex glafs; and commonly,°a couple of 
hours afterwards, a gentle weft wind, and 
a vilible mift, follows, which puts an end to 
this lufus natura.” 
Crantz’s' Hifi. of Greenland, I. 49. 
Dear Crancu, Modbury, 25 Feb. 1801, 
I OUGHT certainly before now to have 
replied to your’s of the 27th December, con- 
taining the curious account of the effeés of 
terveftrial refraétion, in Greenland, by an au- 
thor whofe name in English is, itfeems, the 
‘ fame 
