rewards, I would only just hint, that when in confequence they do remove the hofpital for lunatics from its prefent fite, which may now, for reafons too obvious to need explanation, be deemed clafic ground, they also improve, i. e. enlarge, the building; becaufe I forefee, if the other schemes of improvement which are fuggefted are carried into effect, fuch a receptacle may, in the end, be found the moft ufeful part of them.

Having, with fome degree of anxiety, hinted the coalition which I conceive has taken place betwixt the aërial and terreftrial architects of the prefent day, it may be eafily imagined that anxiety was increafed by the reflection that, now the buildings that have adorned the clouds are likely to be drawn downwards, the immense space above us, which is not fubject to any ground-rent, will be entirely unoccupied, for no better reafon than because access to it has been deemed rather difficult.

While I was puzzling betwixt eagles and baskets, pendent bridges and inclined planes, in order to facilitate the elevation of bodies, I was at once relieved and comforted to find, that ingenuity, ever on the wing, had smoothed the way to the regions above, and that a method to "elevate and furprife" had, after it had lain dormant almost twenty years, been revived with fuccefs; fo that I fhould little wonder to fee the travelling in air-balloons, the method alluded to, as regularly fyftematized as that in mail-coaches, to which, indeed, they seem to poffefs advantages infinitely fuperior.

This invention, unless we admit the claims of fome artists of remote antiquity, which, perhaps, it would be wifer to drop, it is faid, originated among our ingenious neighbours the French; a nation whofe inventions and executions have, within these last dozen years, aftonished the world; but as it has been often obferved, that, although they have the moft brilliant,

or,

or, according to modern phrafeology, in which I delight, the most luminous, ideas, we, in our John Bull or John Trot ways (who, entre nous, are perfons of exceeding good fenfe), generally make improvements upon them, which renders ufeful what probably was before only curious or ornamental. To elucidate this propofition, two inventions, very oppofite and appofite, have been quoted, viz. the application of the experiments on the contraction and expanfion of metals by cold and heat, to time-keepers, with a view to facilitate the discovery of the longitude, and the Small addition of a fhirt to a ruffle. Now as we have fucceeded in these two inftances, and in two thousand others, I think we have a right to fuppofe that we fhall be equally fortunate with refpect to the balloon fyftem, which an eminent and ingenious Gallic philofopher, of whom the pickpockets fay that " he has deferved well of this country," had the goodness last fummer to revive, upon the fame principle which had enabled many of his countrymen, in a former age, to fee what was doing above; and although the English fon of Phoebus, who attempted to rival him, failed; and his balloon, from being hawked about till it became a drug, was confidered as a large bolus, which the public mouth would not open wide enough to fwallow; as an immenfe glyfter, which would not produce one motion; as a vehicle which it was impoffible to fill even with puffing; as a receptacle for gafconade rather than gas; yet I do think it likely, that, in the course of this fummer, we fhall find among our own countrymen fome capable of rectifying the errors that were too apparent in the former experiments, of volatilizing the etherial fpirit, which, perhaps, the interested malice of foreign emiffaries had condenfed, and very poffibly by its powerful medium of elevating even a metallic or cryftalline orb, enduing them, or either of them, with the ideal property of poetry, fuch as has formerly

exifted

existed in the arrow of Abaris, or the broomsticks of the Weird Sifters, and conveying us

"through the air

To Thebes, to Athens, when they will, and where." Now as this ingenious invention will probably be carried into effect, and the caftles at which I have hinted, even if the rage for improvement, which, as has been obferved, I think will foon afcend to the fky, fuffers them to ftand, would unquestionably only, like the caftles of the feudal Baron or romantic Knight, let down their drawbridges, when the bugle-horn from their ramparts had announced the arrival of fome King, Hero, or Princefs, in diftrefs, and the dwarf had communicated thefe glad tidings to his Lord; while perfons in inferior ftations, nay even Squires of low degree, like thofe who dare vifit the manfions of opulence upon earth, in that vulgar vehicle a ftage coach, 'would be left to fhift for themfelves.

As this is fuppofed to be the fituation of things above, I would, for the encouragement of the middle and lower ranks of afcendants, humbly propofe, that there fhould, as foon as the nature of the undertaking will admit, at every convenient ftation in the clouds, be established inns for their reception and accommodation. We know that there are already fome houses; but I doubt whether, as dwellings, they are very comfortable, or strictly legal, becaufe I have underftood they are the freeholds of Artemidorus, Merlin, and all the learned Philomaths of old, though they have been Teafed to Albertus Magnus, Dr. Fauftus, Friar Bacon, Kelly, Dr. Dee, Wing, Partridge, Poor Robin, &c.

who,

* Perhaps the framers of the Vagrant Act would, by these philofophers, have been deemed no conjurors, because, though they seem to have confidered these houses as diforderly, they have made it as difficult to fupprefs them as other diforderly houses: though others are of opinion, that this part of the falutary ftatute alluded to was left open for

the

who, while on earth, might, with propriety, be confidered as their undertenants. Now thefe fages, to whom the little knowledge they had, when here, was a dangerous thing, may, if they are there, which for aught I know is the cafe, by their conferences with the ftars, their new neighbours, by finding out and revealing fecrets, by knowing every one's fortunes and misfortunes, become very troublefome inmates. One does not think fo much of their dealing in the black art, because we have heard of fome individuals of the ingenious fraternity of coal-merchants that are nearly as fkilful as themselves.

Having confidered thefe premifes, and, in my turn, furveyed this immenfe fpace, and all its appurtenances, with that attention which its fublimity demanded, I muft certainly coincide in opinion with Swift, that it has not, at least till fome late attempts, been made fo much of as, in this fpeculating age, might have been expected. I alfo moft perfectly agree with him, that let an affembly at a fair, a race, race, a boxing-match, an execution, or any other amusement, be ever fo numerous; let them fqueeze till they, perhaps, blunt the afperity of their bodies, and sharpen the afperity of their minds; let them puff and blow for refpiration, and bawl and wrangle for elbow-room, there is always a confiderable vacuum over their heads: to this vacuumi many afpiring geniufes have, at different periods, afcended, by the means of machines of different conftructions, which have enabled them to rife far above

the wifest and best of reafons; namely, that it was probable they would be one day more cafily come at. Perhaps their fagacity enabled them to foresee the advantage to the nation that would be, at a future time, derived from the bailoon fyftem; and therefore, although ftolen goods, they knew, weic as frequently taken to the planetary houfes as to the moon, they thought it would be better to wink when they looked up to thefe receptacles, till the ingenuity of our cloud furveyors had difcovered an cafier way to them than that which is generally fuppofed to elevate us to the fkies.

the common level of mankind; but although they have attained a furprifing altitude, and have, indeed, fometimes been exalted in a very particular manner, all thefe fpecimens of ingenuity fall far fhort of that ufeful invention air-balloons, upon which I fcarcely know how fufficiently to congratulate the land, which may now, as Egypt was of old, be termed the cradle of fcience; to which cradle I understand that fome of our own countrymen have had the honour to be appointed rockers: I fay, I fcarcely know how fufficiently to congratulate that happy land which is faid to flow with milk and honey, which feems an admirable diet for the infantile Arts and Mufes, upon this useful invention, or our own, upon the importation, dutyfree, of an inftitute and engine, which, though it is not meant to infinuate that we were ever short-fighted, has certainly increased our optical powers, and enabled us to fee farther than we ever faw before; the latter of which, indeed, feems to bid fair to fuperfede the neceffity for horfes, carriages, veffels, and all fuch vulgar terreftrial conveniences as have heretofore been used for the removal of goods and paffengers, and to render even our aquatic improvements of comparatively little importance.

The only thing which, to my apprehenfion, seems to be wanting to complete this fyftem, and to make us as well acquainted with what paffes in the Zodiac as at Court, Weftminster Hall, in Parliament, or the Stock Exchange, is, if it is not a folecifin, above all to fuffer a free prefs in the atmosphere, to encourage an unlimited circulation of all fuch reports as may be engendered by vapours, to have fome nimble operators ready to take advantage of every appearance of rupture in the clouds, men of active minds and etherial bodies, who are fo dauntlefs that they fear not even the rack of elements, and fo courageous that they can, without difmay, behold, and indeed take advantage of, the operations