confequence in the kingdom without fuch an academy. In thefe colleges the profeffors contrive new rules and methods of agriculture and building, and new inftruments and too's for all trades and manufactures, whereby, as they undertake, one man fhall do the work of ten, a palace may be built in a week, of materials fo durable, as to laft for ever without repairing. All the fruits of the earth fhall come to maturity at whatever feafon we think fit to chufe, and increase an hundred-fold more than they do at prefent; with innumerable other happy propofals. The only inconvenience is, that none of thefe projects are yet brought to perfection, and in the mean time the whole country lies miferably wafte, the houses in ruins, and the people without food or cloaths. By all which, inftead of being difcouraged, they are fifty times more violently bent upon profecuting their fchemes, driven equally on by hope and despair; that as for himself, being not of an enterprising fpirit, he was content to go on in the old forms, to live in the houses his ancestors had built, and act as they did in every part of life without innovation. That fome few other perfons of quality and gentry had done the fame, but were looked on with an eye of contempt and ill-will, as enemies to art, ignorant, and ill commonwealths-men, preferring their own cafe and floth before the general improvement of their country. ́

His Lord hip added, that he would not by any further particulars prevent the pleasure I fhould certainly take in viewing the grand academy, whither he was refolved I fhould go. He only defired me to observe a ruined building upon the fide of a mountain about three miles diftant, of which he gave me this account: that he had a very convenient mill within half a mile of his houfe, turned by a current from a large river, and fufficient for his own family, as well as a great number of his te

nants.

nants. That about feven years ago, a club of these projectors came to him with propofals to destroy this mill, and build another on the fide of that mountain, on the long ridge whereof a long canal must be cut for a repofitory of water to be conveyed up by pipes and engines to fupply the mill, becaufe the wind and air upon a height agitated the water, and thereby made it fitter for motion: and because the water defcending down a declivity would turn the mill with half the current of a river, whose courfe is more upon a level. He faid, that being then not very well with the court, and preffed by many of his friends, he complied with the propofal; and, after employing an hundred men for two years the work milcarried, the projectors went off, laying the blame entirely upon him, railing at him ever fince, and putting others upon the fame experiment with equal affurance of fuccefs, as well as equal difappointment.

In a few days we came back to town, and his excellency, confidering the bad character he had in the academy, would not go with me himself, but recommended me to a friend of his to bear me company thither. My lord was pleafed to reprefent me as a great admirer of projects, and a perfon of much curiofity, and eafy belief: which indeed was not without truth; for I had myself been a sort of projector in my younger days.

CHA P. V.

The author permitted to fee the grand academy of Lagado. The academy largely defcribed. The arts wherein the profeffors employ themfelves *:

THIS academy is not an entire fingle building,

but a continuation of feveral houfes on both fides of a ftreet, which growing wafte, was purchafed and applied to that use.

However wild the defcription of the flying ifland, and the manners and various projects of the philofophers of Lagado, may appear, yet it is a real picture embellished with much latent wit and humour. It is a fatire upon those aftronomers and mathematicians who have fo entirely dedicated their time to the planets, that they have been careless of their family and country, and have been chiefly anxious about the economy and welfare of the upper worlds. But if we confider Swift's romance in aferious light, we fhall find him of opinion, that thofe determinations in philofophy, which at prefent feem to the moft knowing men to be perfectly well founded and understood, are in reality unfettled, or uncertain, and may perhaps, fome ages hence, be as much decried as the axioms of Ariftotle are at this day. Sir Ifaac Newton and his notions may hereafter be out of fashion. There is a kind of mode in philofophy, as well as in other things and fuch modes often change more from the humour and c-price of men, than either from the unreafonable, or the illfounded conclufions of the philofophy itfelf. The reasonings of fome philofophers have undoubtedly better foundation than thofe of others: but I am of opinion, (and Swift feems to be in the fame way of thinking,) that the moft applauded philofophy, hitherto extant, has not fully, clearly, and certainly explained many difficulties in the phænomena of natu.e. I am induced to believe, that God may have abfolutely denied us the perfect knowledge of many points in philofophy, fo that we fhall never arrive at that perfection, however certain we may fuppofe ourselves of having attained to it already. Upon the whole, we may fay with Tully, Omnibus fere in rebus, et maxime in phyficit, quid non fit cilius quam quid fic, dixerim. Orrery.

This note in general feems to be a teftimony of his Lordship's approbation, but it is not eafy to difcover what in particular is meant by the word real, fince every picture is a real picture, whether it be copied from nature or fancy; and indeed it is equally difficult to conceive now a picture of any kind can be embellished with that which is hidden.

I was received very kindly by the warden, and went for many days to the academy. Every room hath in it one or more projectors; and I believe I could not be in fewer than five hundred rooms.

The first man I faw was of a meagre afpect, with footy hands and face, his hair and beard long, rag、 ged and finged in feveral places. His cloaths, fhirt, and fkin, were all of the fame colour. He had been eight years upon a project for extracting fun-beams out of cucumbers, which were to be put into vials hermetically fealed, and let out to warm the air in raw inclement fummers. He told me, he did not doubt, that, in eight years more, he should be able to fupply the governor's gardens with fun-fhine at a reasonable rate; but he complained that his stock was low, and intreated me to give him fomething as an encouragement to ingenuity, efpecially fince this had been a very dear feafon for cucumbers. I made him a small prefent, for my lord had furnished me with money on purpose, because he knew their practice of begging from all who go to fee them.

I went into another chamber, but was ready to haften bick, being almost overcome with a horrible ftink. My conductor preffed me forward, conjuring me in a whifper to give no offence, which would be highly resented, and therefore I durft not fo much as ftop my nose. The projector of this cell was the most ancient ftudent of the academy; his face and beard were of a pale yellow: his hands and cloaths dawbed over with filth. When I was prefented to him he gave me a clofe embrace, (a compliment I could well have excufed). His employment from his firft coming into the academy was an operation to reduce human excrement to its original food, by feparating the feveral parts, removing the tincture which it receives from the gall, making the odour exhale, and fcumming off the faliva. He had a weekly allowance from the fociety

K 3

ciety of a veffel filled with human ordure about the bigness of a Bristol barrel.

I faw another at work to calcine ice into gunpowder, who likewife fhewed me a treatife he had written concerning the malleability of fire, which he intended to publish.

There was a moft ingenious architect, who had contrived a new method for building houfes by beginning at the roof, and working downwards to the foundation, which he juftified to me by the like practice of those two prudent infects the bee and the fpider.

There was a man born b'ind, who had feveral apprentices in his own condition: their employment was to mix colours for painters, which their maf ter taught them to distinguish by feeling and smelling. It was indeed my misfortune to find them at that time not very perfect in their leffons, and the profeffor himself happened to be generally mistaken. This artift is much encouraged and esteemed by the whole fraternity.

In another apartment I was highly pleased with a projector, who had found a device of plowing the ground with hogs, to fave the charges of ploughs, cattle, and labour. The method is this: In an acre of ground you bury at fix inches diftance and eight deep, a quantity of acorns, dates, chefnuts, and other maste or vegetables, whereof these animals are fondeft: then you drive fix hundred or more of them into the field, where in a few days they will root up the whole ground in fearch of their food, and make it fit for fowing, at the fame time manuring it with their dung; it is true, upon experiment they found the charge and trouble very great, and they had little or no crop. However, it is not to be doubted, that this invention may be capable of great improvement.

I went into another room, where the walls and cicling were all hung round with cobwebs, except

a narrow