1907 | Letiers between Mr. W. Richardson and Mr. J. Harris. 223 
tlertaken so costly a work, at my owh 
private expence, That I did not repeat 
here, that, had it not been for the inter- 
ference of the illustrious president of the 
Royal Society of London, my collection 
had been for everlost to me, was because 
I had already made this acknowledge- 
ment im my Voyage a la Recherche de La 
Pérouse, a work of much more extensive 
circulation, than the one I am now pub- 
lishing, on the Plants of New Holland, 
€an possibly be, 
That candour, which pervades the 
whole of your Journal, is to me a guffi- 
cient security, that you will (willingly) 
ansert thisexplanation in a future number. 
You may be assured that nobody en- 
tertains'a higher respect for, or more 
grateful sense of the obligations due to 
Sir Joseph Banks than I do. 
Accept, gentlemen, the acknowledge- 
ment of my most distinguished consider- 
ation, 
Paris, LaBILLARDIERE, 
dune 16,1807. del’ Institut de France, 
PS. The seeds of Embothrium tinctorium, 
(N. Holl. Pl. Sp. p. 31. tab. 42 & 43,) 
which are found in great abundance in Van 
Diemen’s Island, may hereafter become an 
object of great importance in commerce. If 
you are of the same opinion, do me the favour 
to make mention of them in your Journal, 
that traders may be induced to pay that at- 
tention to them which they deserve. 
—_—=r a 
Lo the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR 
ANUSCRIPT copies of the fol- 
lowing letters are bound up ina 
copy of the “ Hermes,” which lately came 
into my possession; and as I have no 
doubt that they are genuine, [have trans-, 
cribed them for your perusal, and should 
you consider them of any importance, 
you are at liberty to publish them in 
your useful Magazine. 
To such of your readers as may be ad- 
mirers of Mr, Harris’s Philosophy, they 
will probably be interesting: while, on 
the other hand, it may create a smile in 
others, to find the same epithet (divine) 
applied to the works of the philosopher 
of Sarum, that has been bestowed upon 
the two finest writers of antiquity, Cicero 
and Plato! : 
Sir, Kensington, Dec. 7, 1756. 
As modesty is the constant attendant on 
merit, so I am forced to suppress the warfn 
sentiments which arise on this occasion, lest 
even truth should offend your delicacy: 
permit me; Sir, however to own, that L have 
received more delight, as well as more benefit, 
from the ‘* Three Treatises,” and the ** Her- 
Mies,” than from all the books I ever ready 
and those friends whom I most esteem, often 
in raptures join with me in praising those di- 
wine works, 
There is one passage, however, vol. ii, 
p. 297, in which I am not satisfied with their 
assistance. It is said to appear strange at 
first, and I must say it does to me at last 
having read the work above ten times over, 
and the passage many times, I donot charge 
it with obscurity, but with only being wrote 
beyond my poor comprehension. ‘The great 
desire I have to improve in these studies, 
obliges me (all other helps failing) to apply 
as men do in law affairs, to the highest tri- 
bunal, The words I allude to are, ‘* That 
if there was not something good, which was 
in no respect useful, even things usefu) thems» 
selves could not possibly have existence. 
For this is in fact no more than to assert, that 
some things are ends, some things are means, 
and if there were no ends, there could be of 
course no means.” y 
There is a grievous obscurity in page 7, 
with regard to the synthetical part postpon- 
ed, the time when it willappear. The care- 
ful reader is in the dark, Mr. Vaillant, the 
hookseller, is the same: nor canthe latter be 
half so eager after his expected profit, as the 
former: the particular interest I take in the 
aftair, makes me wish that the time will not 
be long. 
Pardon me, Sir, this one trouble mores 
when the next volume shall be published, 
may there be met with in town, the expert 
logician, and the rational mathematiciats 
combined in any teacher! Could such a 
master be formed, who would not take pains 
to become a wiser philosopher, and an acuter 
reasoner in all the possible subjects either of 
science or deliberation. Will your Preface 
6¢ raise me a thirst,” and the Author be so 
cruel not to allay it? in the Dialogue con- 
cerning Happiness, it is fot so.——But I forget 
myself—— 
In publica commoda peccem, 
Si longo sermone morer. 
I havethe honour to be with the profoundest 
respect, WitiiaM RICHARDSON, 
Sir, Sarum, Dec. 16, 1736. 
I am thankful for the favourable opinion 
you express of my works, and am glad you 
ean find any thing in them worthy the at- 
tention of a speculative man, since in this 
they may be truly said to attain the end of 
their publication. 
As to the difficulty you propose, it is to be 
explained by properly regarding the distinc- 
tion between things desirable for something 
else, and desirable for themselves. The 
hide, for example, is desirable for the lea- 
ther, the leather for the shoe, the shoe to 
preserve the foot free from injury or pain. 
Here the hide, the leather, and the shoe are 
desirable for something else, and, were it not 
for that something else, would not be desire 
able at all, Call these things therefore use~ 
