haftily into the feat, and making a motion with her other hand toward the house, the chairmen took her up again, and carried her to the hall door.

I had been used to genteel figures among the female world, but heaven! what was the aftonishment of our fober family, to fee enter upon them, as juft rifen from her bed, a lady in her pete en l'air and flippers. They were getting up all at once, but fhe told them fhe begged the might not disturb them: that the only came to enquire the character of a fervant, and would wait till they had dined before the gave them any trouble about it. This was a piece of politeness that cost her very dear, as the fight and vapours of fuch viands as these coarse eaters fat down to, was a new kind of mortification to a person of her turn and delicacy; and perhaps not lefs troublesome or offenfive than the complication of ftinks at the door, though more unavoidable. It was politenefs to feem entertained independently of them, not to take them off from their dinner. The lady took up a treatise of Italian book-keeping that lay in the window, and kept her eye on it with as much feeming attention as if it had been the hiftory of Tom Jones. The young lady at the table had by this means an opportunity of viewing her, and she did not lose it. What was her amazement to fee in the place of her dowdy cap and ribbands, a head of fine flaxen hair, combed in an elegant irregularity to the face, behind braided into a ramillie, and turned up under a gauze cap, not much larger than a crown-piece. Nature had denied this ornament of the female fex height, but he had made amends for that deficiency by a fymmetry of form not to be equalled, and the taste of the lady and of her tradefwomen together, had found the way to fhew thofe elegancies in a more advantageous manner than they ever will be feen in any body else: the fleeves of her fack were made fo nicely to fit her arms, that the fine turn of them was visible through: ftockings, the filk of which was hardly thicker than a cobweb, fell fo close about the eleganteft legs in the world, that the very veins might be traced under them, and the fnowy colour of the fkin underneath gave a whiteness to them, that every woman of her acquaintance had turned off her hofier for not communicating to hers her complexion would have laid her under the cenfure of painting, had it not been finer than that artifice can bestow; and her blue eyes mould have made those of the immortal Pallis grey in the comparison. The young lady of the houfe fuppreffed her paffions a long time, but at length envy and

defpair

despair burst out together into tears. The dinner and the naughty girl were removed: the family faced about to their vifiter, and fhe, with the jauntieft air in the world, throwing her head back in her chair, and toffing one of her legs upon an adjoining one, began to ask fome queftions relating to her business there, of the lady of the houfe: that fage matron was rifing as the spoke, a ftare of wonder and a lifting up of both her expanded hands ftood in the place of an answer: fhe turned her back and walked out of the door.

The vifiter's look teftified her furprize; but the good man explained the incident by telling the lady with much. honeft confufion, that he believed her putting up her foot in that manner, had occafioned his wife's going out of the room: this was no unfavourable incident for me, as it left my character in hands that I knew would do it more justice than the lady who had juft gone off would have done. O I am very much concerned, fir, fays the lady, I forgot you in the city are all prudes: but this is a cuftom in France; the best women there I affure you, will tie up their garters in an affembly; but, fir, I want to know how your late fervant behaved with you.' My worthy, my honeft, and good mafter, who fincerely loved me, and who believed I deferved all the friendly things he could fay of me, faid every thing that he thought I deferved; he expatiated on my honefty, my fidelity, my fobriety, and indeed on every vir. tue that ought to recommend a man to fociety: the lady heard him with fome impatience, and at length replied, All this, fir, is very well, but it is not the thing I want to know: can he bear a flambeau genteelly before a lady's chair? does he understand rapping fashionably at a door? and can he deliver a How d'ye fenfibly, and fave one the trouble of writing of cards?' The good man ftared: he confeffed these were qualities he had never occafion to experience in me that I had many a time transacted affairs of four or five thousand pounds for him, and that he never had fcrupled to trust twice that fum in bank notes in my cuftody; but that' as to cards and how d'ye's, he did not know what they were, and for a flambeau he never saw one in his life. The lady was taking her leave with begging my master's pardon for the trouble fhe had given him, and faying I might do very well for another place, but that I was not that fort of fellow fhe wanted; but the good man recollected in time, that I had a recommendation which would answer all the lady's purposes, though such a one as he could give me was not calculated to do fo.

.

I was

It was now that my written character, the overflowings of lady Calm's generofity, became of use to me. called in, and no fooner produced it, than the lady, looking me full in the face, exclaimed, Angels! how have you metamorphofed yourself! is it you! O,I need not ask any farther questions. I know lady Calm's hand very well, and I remember you there, the best fervant in the world. I'm very glad I have met with you. You may come to me this evening.'

Our readers, we doubt not, will agree with us, that in the foregoing extracts, there are many true, though careless and incorrect sketches of real life, and fuch as bespeak the author to have been acquainted with the scenes and characters he has taken upon him to paint: tho' it is ridiculous to fuppofe a London merchant, who had never feen a flambeau.

ART. XVIII. The Theory of the Moon made perfect, So far at least as to determine the Longitude both at Sea and land, within the limits required by act of Parliament. To which is added, the Ufe which may be made of Comets. By Samuel Hardy. 8vo. 1s. Cooper.

SINCE

INCE the paffing of the bill for a reward for the dif covery of the longitude, feveral methods have been propofed, which are demonftrably true, and have often been put in practice with good fuccefs.

The best means our feamen have at prefent for correcting their journals, is the latitude of the place the ship is in, deduced from obfervations made of the altitudes of the fun and fixed stars; and which is of vast affistance to them; and could the difference of longitude be determined to the fame degree of exactness as the latitude, the art of navigation would be rendered complete. To fupply this defect is the intention of the treatise we are now to confider; but firft it may not be amifs to point out fome of the principal methods which have been already propofed, and the impediments which render them not fo practical, as thofe for discovering the latitude,

The difference of longitude between any two places, is equal to the arch of the equator intercepted between the two meridians paffing through the two places; and is analogous to the quantity of time, that the fun requires to move. from one meridian to the other; or, in the language of Copernicus, that is elapfed between the application of the meridian of one of the places to the fun, and the meridian

of

of the other; for fince the fun performs his revolution in the space of twenty-four hours, or which is the fame, fince the revolution of the earth about her axis, is performed in the fame time; it follows, that every hour there paffes over the meridian one twenty-fourth part of 360 degrees, or of the whole circumference of the equator, equal to 15 degrees, in two hours one twelfth part, or 30 degrees, and in any greater or leffer fpace of time a proportional greater or lefler part of the equator. Whence it follows, that if the difference of longitude, or arch of the equator intercepted between the meridians paffing through any two places be known, the difference of the times of the day in those two places is known alfo, and confequently, the hour in one place being known, the hour in the other is known alfo; and vice verfâ, if the difference between the times at any two places be known, the difference of longitude between those two places, is known alfo, hy reducing the difference of the times into degrees and minutes, allowing 15 degrees to an hour, &c.

From what has been faid, it follows, that if by any contrivance whatsoever, the hour of the day, at the fame point of abfolute time in two different places can be obtained, the difference of longitude between thofe two places is known alfo, and by comparing the times together, it is easy to pronounce which place lies to the eastward or weftward of

the other.

Wherefore, if two or more perfons can view the fame appearance at two or more places, and pronounce the time at each place when fuch appearance was vifible, or if the time when any notable appearance fhall happen at any place be calculated, and the time when that appearance was vifible at any other place was obferved, thefe times compared together will give the difference of meridians, or difference of longitude between the two places. Hence an excellent method has been proposed, which is by means of the eclipses of Jupiter's fatellites.

Jupiter has four fatellites or moon's conftantly attending him, and always obferve the fame laws in moving round him. Now, as neither Jupiter nor any of his attendants have any native light of their own, but,fhine with a borrowed light from the fun, each fatellite in every revolution about Fuqiter, fuffers two eclipfes, one at its entrance into the fhadow, the other at the entrance of its paffage behind his body; confequently, at each revolution of the fatellite, there are four remarkable appearances, one at

the

the entrance into the fhadow, and one at the emerfion out of it; one at the entrance behind the body, and another at the coming out; but of thefe the two former are chiefly regarded by aftronomers, because the swift motion of the fatellites plunge them fo quick into the fhadow`of Jupiter, that it is no difficult matter to pronounce, by the help of any telescope by which they may be feen, the exact time of their immerfion and emerfion.

Now as thefe happen at the same moment of time, and as the motions of the fatellites are fufficiently known, there is nothing wanting but a catalogue of the eclipfes to be publifhed for the meridian of any one place, and the observations made in different places, compared with the times fet down in the catalogue, will give the difference of longitude between the place of obfervation, and the place for which the catalogue was published,

When we confider the great number of thefe eclipfes which happen every year, there being more vifible in one year, than there are days in it, and confequently, but few nights when Jupiter can be feen, which is nearly eleven months of the year, but that an eclipse of one or other happens, and fometimes two or three in a night; the eafinefs with which they may be made; their requiring only a telescope of eight or ten feet in length; it is furprizing that our feamen have fo long neglected them, especially with regard to finding the longitude of the feveral ports they fail

to.

Another method of difcovering the longitude is by the help of pendulum clocks and watches, whofe ftructure have been greatly improved by their inventor M. Huygens, and published in the Philofophical Transattiens, No. 47. where the ingenious author has fhewn in what manner these machines are to be used in finding the longitude at fea, with directions for adjusting and keeping a journal by them. But the beft machine of this kind, and which muft certainly prove of use in difcovering the longitude, is that lately invented by the ingenious Mr. Harrison.

The chief objection against machines of this kind, is the effects which heat and cold have on the springs and pendulums; there having been feveral contrivances for hanging them fo as not to be affected by the motion of the fhip; but thefe effects are fo regular, that, doubtless they may be eafily accounted for.

Having given this fhort account of fome of the principal methods that have been propofed, we shall now confider the me

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