474 The General Obferver. No. XXVI. come up, both retreated with precip- lated with warm encomiums on the bravery of Jofephus, and the old gentleman fo heartily participated în his fon's joy, that he fervently thanked his gallant defender, and prefented him Mary Ann, as a token of his unfeigned regards. Jofephus received the invaluable prefent with every demonftration of fupreme felicity, and the lover and the friend, is only exchanged for the titles of husband and father. M. I. FOR THE MASSACHUSETTS MAGAZINE. The GENERAL OBSERVE R. No. XXVI. "I found my fubjects amicably join To leffen their defects by telling mine."-PRTOR. of fortune, he is hoisted up by uni THE best of men love the love their verfal applaufe, and every one expects virtues. I never knew a perfon in whom the eye of candour could not discover something to be commended, or one with whom the tongue of illiberality could not find fault. It is rare that the true character of a perfon is given: It is commonly taken ex parte: His beauties are difplayed, and his deformities concealed; or his vices are remembered, and his virtues forgotten. Mankind are too apt to run upon extremes in all things; but in nothing more than in the opinions they form, or exprefs, of one another. Paffion and prejudice, party fpirit, and zeal, are very officious intruders in this bufinefs; humanity and phiJanthropy fometimes blushingly ftep forward and with perfuafive emotions bias the mind; while envy and malice, with their ferpentine windings, crawl in and corrupt the judgement; and pride and vanity are as chattering and vociferous as magpies. Every man who appears upon the ftage of life, efpecially if he has an important part to act, is most critically obferved on his firft entrance; and every grade he afcends, he becomes the more confpicuous as he rifes, at every step he takes he beomes more and more, the object of attention-very motion is obferved fome look for perfections, But more for imperfections-few look equally for both.-If he happens to begin his afcent in a profperous gale as he approaches near the fummit, to fee him immaculate; thus partial, they expect in him that perfection which is not the lot of humanity—and when their prejudices have abated, and their wild enthufiafm cooled, they discover that he is mortal-they fee him heir to human imperfections-difappointed at the difcovery, they view him as degenerate and corrupt; not confider. ing that the change is more in their own imaginations, than in the perfon who is the object of them; they now watch for faults, more eagerly than before for virtues, and the most pure of mankind, has too many blemishes to conceal them all from eagle eyed jealoufy; the cry is now turned, and he is calumniated by the croud. very fenfible and good man, and an exemplary divine, once told me, that when he fettled in the ministry, his parifhioners would all with one accord, have it that he was an angel; a few years, he faid, convinced them of their error; and then, lays he, they as univerfally agreed that I must be a devil. The truth was that this man was neither devil nor angel; but if viewed with an impartial eye, and his perfections and imperfections both confidered, would have been found to be a very worthy man. Men in high A flations of life are too often treated in this way. Sometimes they have too mucli merit afcribed to them, but oftener A Difcourfe upon Horfe Shoes. oftener too little: Envy is ever officious on thefe occafions; people are apt to imagine when they fee one rifing in the world, that he is rifing from their ruins; the applaufe given to a rising character, feems to echo reproaches to them; they immediately fet themselves to work to retain their fuppofed merited importance; and as is always the cafe, with weak minds, they begin at the wrong end; instead of correcting their own faults, their whole time is devoted to hunting for WHE 475 foibles in the man of eminence, the object of their envy; and if, in him, they can discover blemishes, they are 1pread abroad as veils for their own. Mifguided mortals! pitiful is your employment! well would it be for ye, did ye confider that the washing of your own hands, would make ye much more cleanly and comely, than the defiling them the more by handling the filth and polutions of others. fent age poffefs the accumulated knowledge of the thousands that have elapfed. Every paft century has been gaining, little by little, and the weight of all their knowledge has fallen upon the men of the time in which we now live. A DISCOURSE upon HORSE SHOES. [By OPAY MICO, one of the Indian kings, from the Creek country. Delivered on a late vifit to Newyork. Tranflated from the Telaffee Language.] HEN I first arrived in this town, the refidence of the beloved Chief and the Great Council of the Thirteen Fires, my attention was very much attracted by thofe huge floating machines, in which the white men pass over the immense waters from country to country, and even (they tell me) those remote limits where the great ftar of the day rifes over the regions of the caft. My imagination was bufied in contemplating the wisdom and fagacity, not only of those who have with fo much art conftructed these machines, but also of those men who are entrufted with the management and direction of them on the face of such a dangerous and vaftly extended element as my understanding tells me the ocean muft be. How, faid I, is it poffible for them, when once they have left the main fhores, to direct the prow with so much art and precision to fome small spot of earth, placed like a hill in the midst of the unfathomable waters ! Doubtless they must be poffeffed of fagacity fuperiour to the rest of man kind. Such were my reasonings at that time. But I have fince difcovered, that the men of the pre On a certain day my curiofity led me (in company with my interpreter) to go on board one of thofe big canoes. I was furprised to find it furnished like a houfe, accomodated with every necellary for paffing many months with comfort on the great ocean which rolls over the unmeafurable spaces towards the east. My various inquiries were amply gratified by the commander, through the mouth of my interpreter. He feemed particularly complaisant to me, as being a stranger; and endeavoured to make me comprehend par ticularly the ufe of every part of the furniture that was fubfervient to the navigating and manœuvering of his veffel. Indeed my own fimple reafon and obfervation could, in fome degree, account for the end and defign of the greater part of the objects that I faw. At laft, directing my obfervations to the lower extremity of one of the mafts, 476 A Difcourfe upon Horfe Shoes. mafts, I could not avoid afking myself what could be the purpofe of nailing a thin plate of iron of a form approaching to circular, and pierced with feveral fmall holes, thereupon. After forming a thousand conjectures, but not one that in the leaft cleared up my doubts, I directed the interpreter to enquire of the mafter ત What could be the use of this flat piece of femicircular metal ? He immediately replied that the iron which had so much attracted my attention was no other than a common HORSE SHOE, which he himself had nailed in that spot, previous to his embarking on his first voyage. Truly, replied I, upon recollection, it is indeed a horse shoe, and fuch I have frequently feen heretofore in my own country. ¿ But of what poffible ufe or advantage can this be to the great canoe that travels only upon the face of the watry element ? The commander feemed fomewhat confused at my queftion. But inftantly recollecting himself, he defired me to retire with him and fit down in his wigwam; and then pouring out a bowl of red wine, which he defired me to drink off, he addressed me in the following manner: "You must know that there is a certain wonderful connexion and fympathy between the things above and the things below: The invifible parts of the animated creation, and those parts which ori this earth are the objects of our fight and other fenfes. Among the invifible intelligences there are not a few orders that take a fruits of the earth, at a time when our hopes and defires are fixed upon their profperity. Againft thefe, therefore, it is our duty to be upon our guard, and, by every method we can devife, repel, it if poffible, the fhafts of their vindictive malice. "Time has been when men wandered over the ocean without the leaft knowledge of the virtues of the horse shoe! These times, however, thank Heaven, are paft and gone. With this ineftimable jewel for a companion, we can now traverse the feas in fafety, and not be in conftant dread of the destructive influences of every vagabond atom of mischievous volition that rambles through our atmosphere, and by fome unknown means haraffes us, even from the orbits of the fuperiour planets. "But you will afk me, By what strange means does the horfe fhoe enfure fafety to the fhip, her crew, and her cargo ? "I answer, that it is only in particular circumstances and pofitions that it enfures any safety at all. For inftance, a horfe fhoe new from the blacksmith's anvil would be of no avail against the malevolent powers. The fhoe must have travelled many hundred miles attached to the foot of the animal, and even be worn to a certain degree of roundness on the outer edge, before it will anfwer our purpose. It is our cuftom, alfo, evermore to place the open part downward, as by this means the fhoe represents an arch (which is a token of ftrength) as well as the rotundity of the heavens, over our heads, which are fixed, durable, and to last forever. "It is by effects only that we can hope to arrive to any know→ ledge of a caufe. If, therefore, I can honeftly affure you that I have failed thefe five and forty years Dr. Franklin's Spectacles. years upon the deep feas, and never experienced any dangerous accident in fuch fhips or barques as had this particular piece of fron attached to them; but conftantly the reverse in thofe veffels wherein I neglected it, be affured there must be some reality in the matter, and that horfe fhoes, when thus applied, have the undoubted power of keeping mischief at a distance." The mystery being thus, in fome fort explained, I bade farewell to the mafter of the great canoe, not without amazement when I confidered the almost universal influence of folly and fuperftition over the most intelligent mind. This man, faid I, has fubjected the winds and tempefts to his control; he has fo cunningly contrived things, that rays of the fun, instead of only ferving to afford him light and warmth, are, by the intervention the 477 of fome curious inftruments, compelled to be his guides and directors; and yet, for all this his knowledge, and a great deal more, he is weak enough to make his fecret dependence for fafety upon certain imaginary effects proceeding from a worthlefs fcrap of crooked iron! What a number of barques and canoes have I fince vifited, and not one of them all but has its horse shoe! Such is the wisdom of the white men. They laugh at us for our credulity in maintaining fome fcores of pawwas to avert by their howlings and lacerations, the vengeance of the great evil Being. They defpife us for believing in our good and bad Moneetas, and paying a fuperftitious reverence to certain animals in the forests; they call us rude, favage and unenlightened, at the very instant when they themselves are putting their trust in HORSE SHOES. TO THE EDITORS OF THE MASSACHUSETTS MAGAZINE. GENTLEMEN, A fpecies of Spectacles has been recommended by the late Dr. FRANKLIN, in letter, an extract from which I fend you and as it is an important object, I have no doubt but you will be pleafed to gratify the publick with it, through your ufeful magazine. LEWIS LEPRELETE. FRANKLIN's SPECTACLES. "BY Dr. Y Mr. B- -'s faying that my double fpectacles can only ferve particular eyes, I doubt he has not been rightly informed of their construction. I imagine it will be found pretty generally true, that the fame convexity of glafs through which a man fees cleareft and best, at the diftance proper for reading, is not the best for greater diftances; I therefore had formerly two pair of fpectacles, which I fhifted occafionally, as in travelling I fometimes read, and often wanted to the profpects. Finding regard the change troublesome, and not always fufficiently ready, 1 had the glaffes cut, and half of each kind affociated in the fame circle. By this means, as I wear my spec tacles conftantly, I have only to move my eyes up and down, as I want to fee distinctly, far or near, the proper glaffes being always ready. This I find more particu larly convenient, fince my being in France; the glaffes that ferve me best at table to fee what I eat, not being the best to see the faces of thofe on the other fide of the table who speak to me; and when one's 478 Critique on Dr. Smith's Theory of Spafm. one's ears are not well accuftomed to the founds of a language, a fight of the movements, in the features of him that speaks, helps to explain; fo that I understand French better by the help of my fpectacles."* Vide a treatise on the diseases of the eyes, by William Rowley,M. D. published in 1790. CRITIQUE On Dr. SMITH'S THEORY of SPASM. TO THE EDITORS OF THE MASSACHUSETTS MAGAZINE. Turning over your Magazine, not many days fince, I fell upon Doctor SMITH'S Differtation on the Caufe of Spafm in Fever; the novelty of whofe fentiments induced me to make the following remarks, which you are requested to infert in your monthly publication. A FTER obferving that the arteries are endued with a power of elasticity, continually endeavouring to bring them into lefs dimenfions; that the blood contained in them is perpetually refifting that elaftick power; and that, in a healthy ftate, these two oppofing powers are in equilibrio; his doctrine of fpafm appears to be explicitly this: Some debilitating application diminishes the energy of the brain, neceffary to the action of the heart and arteries; of courfe diminishes the action of the heart and arteries. From this diminution of power in the heart and arteries, they become infufficient to propel the blood to the remote parts of the arterial fyftem. Hence, the refiftance to the elafticity of the extreme arteries being removed, they fall into fpafms. In this way, the Doctor endeavours to explain the formation of fpafm. But how can this theory apply to fpafm in inflammation, where the energy of the brain has not been previously diminished ? His novel doctrine refts totally on a diminution of the energy of the brain; and that depends on fome fedative application. Hence we may reason; if there has been no fuch application, and of course no diminished energy, there can be no fpafm. In inflammation, however, a fpafm does actually exift, and is confidered as the proximate cause of the disease; but it would be difficult to maintain, that a diminished energy had been previoufly induced. The fact is, the gentleman's plan will not explain the formation of fpafm in inflammation; fo that we must either look for different causes of a fimilar affection in thefe two difeafes, viz. Fever and Inflammation, or conclude that his doctrine is founded on mistaken facts. If we attend to the definition of the energy of the brain, we can hardly expect the effect, that is alledged, from its being diminished. We fuppofe the energy of the brain confifts in a certain mobility of the nervous power, or fluid. This mobility being impaired conftitutes a diminished energy. If a diminished energy effect a debility in the action of the heart and arteries, which the Doctor juftly observes, it must be in confequence of the nervous power, or fluid, not flowing in a fufficient |