The fishes renature, without

usual in

And as

fect preservation, it is far beyond them all. Lord Gardenston, in his travelling memorandums, remarks, that after having seen the finest collections of natural history in France, Italy, and Germany, he had found none in which the objects were so naturally disposed, or so perfectly preserved, as in that of Mr Weir. His birds and fishes especially deserve particular notice. tain the plumpness and the freshness of any thing of that dried, fhrivelled appearance so other collections; nor ever lose any thing of it. to birds Mr Weir possesses the rare secret of curing them, so as to remain entirely free of vermin of every sort. Dr Walker has at present in his collection, birds which were prepared by Mr Weir upwards of thirty years ago, whose plumage is as fresh and glofsy as that day they were killed; and Mr Weir with confidence afserts, that they will continue so for ages. How different this from the birds in the British, and every other museaum in Europe! What a pity that a secret of such singular utility fhould be confined to one man! Why do not the public purchase it from him, for the general improvement of science in every part of the globe? Mr Weir is a man of too liberal principles to with-hold it upon reasonable terms; but it is not to be expected that a man whe is not in affluent circumstances, should part with a thing of that nature without a proper compensation.

ANECDOTES OF ALPHONSO KING OF ARRAGON.

THIS trait of his liberality is well known. One of his treasurers had brought him a sum of ten thousand ducats. An officer who was there at that time, said in a low voice to somebody, I fhould ask no more than that sum to be happy you shall be so, said Alphonso who had heard him

Aug. 22. and he made the ten thousand ducats be given to him directly.

He had gone with some of his courtiers to see the jewels of a jeweller. He was scarcely out of his fhop when the merchant came running after him to complain of a theft they had made of a diamond of great value. Alphonso went back to the shop of the merchant, and having made him bring a large jar filled with bran, he ordered that each of his courtiers fhould put in their hand fhut and bring it out open. He began first. After they had all done he ordered the jeweller to empty the jar on the table: by this means the diamond was fouud and nobody dishonoured.

4

Alphonso used to say, that among so many things that men posse fs, or that they seek after with ardour during the course of their life, all is but vain' amusement, except dry and old wood to burn, old wine to drink, old friends to converse with, and old books to read.

TO CORRESPONDENTS.

THE Editor returns thanks to the gentleman who has taken the trouble of transcribing an article from the tale a tetes. Is much obliged to him for his kind intentions, and liberal offer of afsistance. But is sorry he cannot avail himself of his kind offer. The Bee fhall never be so far prostituted as to become the vehicle of scandal and lubricity.

The Editor is much obliged to Mr Ss Sle for his good opinion and kind hin's, which shall be duly attended to. The Index indicetoricus has been only deferred for a time, from circumstances which will soon have no longer any influence, when it shall be refumed, if the readers in general seem to think it agreeable: some readers objected to the Tist of books, which they thought occupied more room that it was worth. The observations by D. X. are received. General remarks on manners, where no personal allusions are made, will be very acceptable. Impartiality is received, and under consideration.

Several pices deferred for want of room.

89.

THE BEE,

O'R

LITERARY WEEKLY INTELLIGENCER,

FOR

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 29. 1792.

I

SIR,

OF TASTE IN ARCHITECTURE.

Continued from p. 239.

To the Editor of the Bee.

HAVE fhown the progrefs of architecture from its simplest forms in the infancy of society to the rude, but magnificent efforts of superstition, to erect temples to the invisible power of heaven; and I now proceed to consider it under the influence of vanity and ostentation in the ages of luxury and refinement.

This last and copious subject of my efsay, naturally divides itself into the consideration of those improvements which arose from the vanity, pride, and ostentation of princes, in the erection of public edifices, and of those which in later times have sprung from the wealth of private individuals.

In the beginning, almost all the wealth of nations was accumulated in the state. The nation, or, in ether words, the prince, was very rich, and the people very poor; neither commerce nor manufactures, nor the plunder of provinces by rapacious governors,

nor the right of primogeniture, nor the accumulation of property by marriage or collateral succefsion, had rendered private individuals capable of erecting lasting monuments of taste and magnificence.

The whole revenues of the commonwealth, that could be saved from the exigencies of government, were employed either in the building of stately temples in honour of the gods, or in defraying the expence of public roads, bridges, aqueducts, or pleasing the populace by the celebration of spectacles and games, to feed the vanity of the public or of the prince. The extinct empire of middle Asia seems to have been the first that erected durable monuments of architectural grandeur; and as in the remains of these, lately contemplated by the truly learned and excellent Sir William Jones, in the neighbourhood of Bombay, and at Benares in Indostan, we perceive the semblance of the manners, drefs, religion, customs, and architecture, of the Gothic and Scythian nations; so we may fairly conjecture that all sciences and arts have followed the course of the natural day.

Averting our eye with a respectful smile, from the calculations of Mr Bailli on the antiquity of these nations, let us call ourselves home to objects of contemplation where we have better guides. "They, (writes the ingenious Mr Riou) who, to judge of the origin of a custom or of an art, and of its passage from one people to another, adhere to the mere contemplation of any detached circumstances which may offer certain appearances of likenefs, and thus, from some particular equivocal forms, draw their conclu

sions about the generality of an art, are grofsly deceived." It is certain that Egypt was to the Greeks, what Greece afterwards became to the Romans, the pattern of imitation; the nursery of legislators, philosophers, and artists. The language, manners, and customs of the Greeks, sufficiently fhow that they were a Scythian or eastern people; and nothing but. vague hypothesis can invite the belief that the conquering emigrants brought any thing along with them but their language, their superstition and customs, hunger and their arms, into Europe, then " peopled by wandering hordes of savages and covered with marshes and forests. How many centuries elapIsed from the settlement of the first colonies of the Hellenic Greeks, until the first dawn of history, it is impofsible with any degree of accuracy even to conjecture; but we know with certainty, that, while the Greeks were barbarous, the arts flourished in the city of Thebes, and that they were of immemorial: antiquity in Egypt.

The fable of the Troglodytes and a subterranean: nation, appears evidently to be founded on the primæval custom of man's fheltering himself from danger and the inclemencies, of the weather, in caves and: dens of the earth.

Man, endowed with reason and progrefsive powers of improvement, which is denied to every other ani- mal, would, when roused from his sluggish nature,. go to the wild beast of the field and consider his ways and be wise; he would first fhelter himself in natural cavities of the earth, and afterwards make excavations: for himself. Many of these primæval dwellings are