CASTLEMILK, the feat of Sir John Stewart Baronet, is fituated on the fide of the Cathlain hills, about four miles fouth from the city of Glafgow. The view from the houfe on all fides, is most delightful, affording profpects the most rich and variegated any where to be met with. To the eaft, the rich vale of Clyde, with Tinto in the back ground, appears full in view; to the north, the city of Glasgow with its numerous fpires, and the distant hills of Campfie; on the weft, the river Clyde enlivened by the many veffels floating on its furface; the towns of Paifley, Renfrew, and Caftle of Dumbarton, all unite to render the middle diftance of the picture enchanting, while far beyond all these, appear the distant hills of Arran and Argyle towering above each other, and as they recede, lowering their tints till they foften

into the azure of the sky. Towards the fouth, the view, though not extentive, is yet most agreeable, the woods of Caftlemilk, interfperfed with corn fields and houfes, and the top of the Cathlain hills "terminate the profpect.

In this houfe, the unfortunate Mary is faid to have lodged the night before the battle of Langfide. Many different spots are pointed out in the neighbourhood, where, the following day, fhe reviewed the discomfiture of her army, which was the ruin of all her fortunes. The most probable place is upon the brow of the eminence above Castlemilk, where a fpring iffues from the rock, and moiftens the root of a thorn tree, now grown venerable with age, under which the fat; and which is preferved as a lasting memorial of that melancholy difafter.

Voltaire.

S we approached the fmall town of Rheinmagen, we met, on a high narrow fhore at the foot of a ftill higher hill, a folemn proceffion, in honour of St Apollinarius. The prieft and the holy red banner were followed by the crowd, finging: boats glided along the ftream, each bearing its own enfign, and refounding with the fame chorus.

We fmiled, when we were told

taire ;

taire; had not one taken his body, and the other his heart.

The heart of Voltaire!-Oh you who laugh at the fimplicity of the peasants of the Rhine, who devoutly chaunt their hymns to the memory of a worthy man! You who train at a gnat and swallow a camel! You who cannot forgive the fanaticism of implicit faith! What fay you to an affembly of legislators, that decrees a niche in the new temple of the gods to the man who, while he lived, wandered from country to country, refpecting neither the religion nor the manners of any of them! who, in his Candide, ridiculed the Providence of God, and to whom virtue was a jeft?

Horology.

The Margrave of Baden is abfent, on a vifit to the uplands of his prin cipality. He is univerfally ranked among the best of the princes of Germany.

Counsellor Bockmann has very kindly shewn us his inftruments, for the promoting of mechanical and experimental difcoveries; and explained their uses. He poffeffes a large aftronomical clock, conftructed by the reverend paftor Hahn; which not only contains the common divifions of time, but has likewife divifions of ten, of a hundred, and of a thousand years, The fpectator contemplates with pleasure the contralt ed quick motion of the second hand, and the thousand year hand; which turns on a small dial plate, not larger than that of a Parifian watch. The progress of the latter in fifty years is very fmall; fo that its motion is im perceptible. The ten, hundred, and thousand year hands are not a mere difplay of the art of the maker: they are of great ufe; for, on the large dial plate, which contains all the leffer, the globes are described, and the progress of the stars denoted: fo that the hands, by their combining motions, difplay the variations, pofitions,

and appearances, of the earth and the heavenly bodies.

A Wonderful Infant Genius, We faw a watch made by Mr Auch, of Stutgard; a scholar of the minifter, Hahn. He is only fix-andtwenty; yet, in the opinion of fome, he already furpaffes his mafter. This watch contains the divifions of time, from a second to a century. On the oppofite fide, on a clouded azure ground, is feen the course of the fun and the moon, with its nodes and eclipfes. The artist means to improve this watch, and defcribe the courfe of Venus; as a morning and an evening ftar. The price of the watch is only three hundred rix dollars; which is but about half the fum paid for an English time-keeper; and which does not defcribe the course of the heavenly bodies.

This artift has likewife conftructed an arithmetical machine, that works the most difficult queftions, with incredible expedition, by the aid of a comprehenfive table in about five hours he worked all the fums from eleven times eleven to one hundred and fixteen times a hundred and fixteen while an expeditious writer could fcarcely copy the products faft enough.

Mr Auch is now (1790) five-andtwenty years old; and is the son of a peafant of Wurtemberg. When a child, about the age of four or five, he often rofe with the fun; and dili.. gently employed himself in mechanical purfuits. He conducted water through tubes of elder; dug wells; made conduits of quills; and, about his fixth year, made a pendulum clock, from shingles, with a kind of Eng lifh cogs; which would go tolerably for a quarter of an hour. In his tenth year, he wished his fchool-mafter to teach him arithmetic in which request he was not indulged. At eleven, he was permitted to stand in a corner, while the teacher heard the other fcholars their leffons; all of

whom

whom he foon excelled, and was of ten cited, by the mafter, as an exam. ple; and as capable of working fums too difficult for the other pupils. His father wished to bind him apprentice to a barber: but for this the boy had no inclination.

At laft, he was brought acquainted, by his own paftor, with the reverend Mr Hahn; at Kornwestheim, near Ludwigsburg; who found in him a fcholar as apt to learn as be was thankful for inftruction. He afterward quitted his teacher, and refided at Vaifingen; a fmall town in the Province of Wurtemberg; where he married, and lived highly respect ed for his talents and his morals. He employed his leifure hours in reading; much to the improvement of his heart, and understanding. Aftronomical knowledge was that which he most eagerly endeavoured to acquire. He conftructed a meridian line for himfelf, with the other neceffary aftronomical instruments; and began, with great ardour, to obferve the motions of the heavenly bodies: pro'ceeding to draw ingenious plans, to fimplify aftronomical watches, and the whole fyftem of the univerfe.

I have the lefs difficulty in fend. ing you these anecdotes of a living artift, because I think it highly probable that this young man, who has already displayed fo much genius, will hereafter make very valuable difcoveries.

A Pyrometer.

Mr Bockmann fhewed us, among other valuable inftruments, a Wedgewood Pyrometer. It confifts of two traight pieces of brafs, fixed nearly parallel to each other upon a flat fcale of the fame metal. There is a fpace between thefe brafs pieces a bout one English line wider at one end than at the other; and, the whole length being divided into one hundred and twenty parts, the inftrument becomes a gage for measuring to the hundred and twentieth part of

a line; the line being the twelfth part of an inch. In the ufe of the Pyrometer, a cylinder of porcelain clay is expofed, together with the subject of experiment, to the same heat of a furnace; and the gage, by admeasurement of the greater or lefs contraction produced in the cylinder, fhews the degree of temperature with great exactnefs, to the utmoft power of a melting furnace. Thefe cylinders have accordingly been applied to the practical meafurement of the heat of furnaces for glafs making, or the fufion of metals: a difcovery the utility of which is as great as it is felf-evident.

A Botanical Anecdote.

We visited Mr Kolreuter, the famous botanist; who, by artificial vegetation, has fucceeded in producing new fpecies of plants. His mode is neither that of fowing feed nor of tranfplanting: but by planting of fhoots. It is remarkable that the growth of this new kind of vegetation fhould be greater than that which we have fuppofed to be the natural growth: perhaps it is because that, by this method, the expence of fap is leffened. By repeated experi ments, he has no lefs fuccessfully reduced thefe varieties to their original form, and genus. He has again conducted them through their differ ent gradations, and again and again fully restored them to all their original powers, and properties: bringing back fome of them to the male kind, and others to the female.

Tirefias was ftruck blind, when he daringly endeavoured to unfold the fecrets of Venus. May we not expect that another Nemefis fhall purfue the man who, with wonderful wifdom and paffionate ardour, has drawn afide the veil of Nature.

This bold and difcreet obferver, who watched the bees at their employment, and who, by placing glafs tubes in the ambrofial cups of flowers, robbed them of their fweets and

brought

brought forth honey, this remarka ble man has not a foot of land, that he can call his own. Not one of the great men of Germany has conferred on himself the honour, or the delight, of beftowing a garden on this fage: whofe fcience is as pleafant as it is abundantly beneficial.

Effigies of John Hufs.

We faw, in a houfe, as we came back, the effigies of John Hufs, carved in ftone, with the date of the year 1415. Perhaps he lived in this house when the Emperor granted him a paffport to conduct him fafely

to Conftance.

It is a noble figure wifdom and love beam in the heaven - directed eye. The countenance denotes no arrogance, but on the contrary that benevolent fortitude with which, as Hufs approached the ftake, he told his lordly perfecutors he would perfevere in the truth to death. The

lines of the face are expreffive of the filent affliction he felt, at the decline of the church. The form of the lips feems to denote that ferenity of mind which he poffeffed at the fake, when, to the old woman who took up a firebrand that the might have fome part in the execution of a heretic, he fmiling exclaimed, Oh fancta fimplicitas!

A Political Reflection. About a league before we came to Schaffhaufen, we faw the Rhine in the valley, among woody fhores, ftrongly courfing its clear waves of emerald green, after having refreshed itself in the lake of Conftance. The top of a hill, in the foreft over this ftream, divides the German Empire (there no longer German) from Swifferland half a league before we come to Schaffhaufen. No longer

German!

No! By the facred waves of the Rhine, which rifes among the mouncains of our more free allies; and which watering the plains of the Ba

tavians, lovers of liberty, empties itfelf in the fea; no: our brethren of these hills, and our brethren of those plains, are no longer German: because they would no longer endure the yoke of tyranny. We contemplate them with refpe&t: yet may they never forget their origin We caft a retrospective look of admiration over their dark valleys, with a the clouds that envelop our own hills hope that the time may come when fhall difappear. Here and there, where and when it shall be neceffary, may the mountains be visible! If

they portend forms, they likewife Germany, like France, miftake the portend fertility. But oh, never may brand of extirminating difcord for the fire of heaven! With fuch a deluge may her parched plains never be fertilized!

Lavater.

We have now been here [Zürich] eight days; of which eight days, oh, how much have I to fay! After an absence of fixteen years, I have again feen our friends; Lavater, Hefs, and Pfenninger. Are they entirely what they were? No: not entirely. The river at its mouth grows larger, and more mighty. Wine every year becomes more potent, and mild: the goodness of good men every year in creases. Time, meditation, and fenfibility, have traced their furrows on the face of Lavater: it betrays an alteration of more than fixteen years; but his foul, his heart, his benevo lence, his cheerfulness, his ferenity, flourish in eternal youth. The taunts of his adverfaries have not conquer. ed him; have not weakened in him that firm and lively belief in the excellence of human nature, which was ever his chief characteristic.

Lavater took us, the day after our arrival, to a public walk; which, fome years ago, was laid out on the fouth-east fide of the town. There are high terraces among thefe walks. Thefe and their various profpects,

fome