$26 
fireet. Yet I have hopes given me of 
having it reftored, with interelt, fome time 
oroth r. Ah! that /ome time or other is 
a great deceiver. 
Co-iolanus has not yet appeared upon 
the ftage, from the little dirty jealoufy of 
“Tullus (Garrick) towards bim who alone 
ean act Coriolanus (Quin.) - Indeed the 
firtt has entirely jockeyed the laft off the 
fiage for this feafon ; but I believe he will 
return on him next feafon, like a giant in 
‘his wrath. Let us have a litle more pa- 
tience, Pateifon ; nay, let us be cheartul. 
At laft, all will be well; at Jaft, al] will 
be over—here I mean! God forbid it 
fhould be hereafier! But as fure as there 
zs a God, tnat will not be fo. 
Now that Iam prating of myfelf, know 
thar, after fourteea or fifteen years, the 
Caftle of Indolence comes abroad in a fort- 
night. It will certainly travel as far as 
Barbadoes. You have an apartment in 
#t, as a night penfiener; which you may 
remember 1 fitted up for you, during our 
delighitul party at Norihaw. Will ever 
thefe days return again! Don’t you re- 
member your eating the raw fifh that~ 
were never caught ? 
All our friends are pretty much io fats 
guo, except it be poor Mr. Lyttleton. He 
has had the fevere(t trial a humane tender 
heait can have; but the old phyfician 
‘Time will at leat clofe wp his wounds, 
though there muit always remain an in- 
ward (marting. 
Mitchell is in the houfe for Aberdeen- 
fhire, and has fpoke modeftly well; I 
hope he will be in fomething elfe foon ; 
none deferves better; true friendfhip and 
humanity dwell in his heart. Gray is 
working hard at pafiing his accounts. I 
fpoke to him about that affair. If he 
gives you any trouble about it, even that 
of dunning, I fhail think ftrangely ; but 
I dare fay he is too friendly to his old 
friends, and ycu are among the oldeft. 
Proceedings of Learned Socicties. 
[ Nov. }; 
Symmer is at laf tired of quality, and is 
going to take a femi-country houfe at 
Hammerf{mith. ‘ 
I am forry that honeft fenfible Warren- 
der (who is in town) feems to be ftunted 
in church preferment: he ought to bea 
tall cedar in the houfe of the Lord. If he 
is not fo at. laft, it will add more fuel to 
my indignation, that burns already too ine 
tenfely, and throbs towards an eruption. 
Poor Murdock is in town, tutor to Admi- 
ral Vernon’s fon, and is in good hope of 
another living in Suffolk, that country of 
tranquillity, where be will then burrow 
himéelf in a wife, and be happy.. Goode 
natured obliging Millar is as ufual, 
Though the doétor increafes in his bufi- 
nefs, he does not decreafe in his {pleen ; 
but there is a certain kind of fpicen that 
is both humane and. agreeable, like 
Jacques in the play: I fometimes too have 
a touch of it. But I muft now break off 
this chat with you, about your friends, 
which, were I to indulge it, would be end- 
lefs. 
As for politics, we are, I believe, up- 
on the brink of a peace. The French are 
vapouring at prefent in the fiege of Maef- 
tricht, at the fame time they are mortally 
fick in their marine, and through all the 
vitals of France. It is pity we cannot 
continue the war a ‘little longer, and put 
their agonizing tiade quite to death, 
This fiege (I take it) they mean as their 
laft flourifh in the war. May your health, 
which never failed you yet, ftill continue, 
till you have fcraped together enough te 
return home, and live in fome fnug corner, 
as happy as the Corycins Senex, in Virgil's 
Fouith Georgic, whom I recommend both 
to youand myfelf, asa perfect model of 
the trueft happy life. Believe me to be 
ever molt fincerely and affectionately, 
Your’s Ges jb 
james THOMSON. | 
PROCEEDINGS OF LEARNED SOCIETIES. 
TRANSACTIONS or tHE ROYAL 
SOCIETY or LONDON. 
HE mcit elaborate and perbaps, on 
the whole, the molt ufeful paper laid 
before this Jezrned body, during the pre- 
fent year, is “* An Enquiry concerning the 
nature of beat, and its mode of communti- 
cation, by Benjamin Count Rumford.” The 
principal objeét of this Eflay is to obtain a 
more intimate knowledge of the nature of 
heat, and of its mode of aétion, by which 
the author thinks that we may be enabled 
to excite it with greater economy, confine 
it with greater facility, and direét its ape- 
rations with more precifion and effect. 
The Count fets out with a’ defcription 
of the apparatus invented and made ufe of 
for performing the feveral experiments, an 
x au Pe ee “eecoune 
