ground with a hard unyielding knock, but it presses gradually and gently like a carriage upon springs. No sooner is the foot raised from the ground, than the hoofs, in consequence of the elasticity of these members, come together and strike upon each other with considerable force; and, as its motions are quick, it produces that kind of clattering sound which I had remarked. When this conformation of the hoof is adverted to, we cannot help admiring the wisdom and adoring the beneficence of that being who so happily adapted it for the particular purposes it was intended to serve; for the hoof thus opening, and catching the snow between, forms a much broader base than it otherwise would have had, and thus prevents it from sinking in soft snow to too great a depth, which would have been otherwise unavoidable. Let us go to other regions: we shall find the animals inhabiting them formed with a similar adaptation of parts for the functions they were intended to perform. Thus it is, that as knowledge increases, let us turn ourselves whither we will, we shall be forced to cry out, Wonderful are thy works, O God, in wisdom hast thou made them all!" Forgive, my dear sir, these involuntary rambles. I shall soon have done.

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I must not take time to delineate the purling rill (now returned to its proper channel) hopping from step to step in its descent, and whirling round the stones; forming a thousand varying shades upon the bottom; then gliding among the grafs as if to conceal. itself; and then looking sportively out, to see if you have lost it; always full of life and sportive cheerfulnefs. It put me in mind of Virgil's me Galatea fu

git; for when you would think you had lost it, it comes rustling behind you as if to attract your notice. But I shall become delirious if I dwell longer on these fairy scenes. I must tear myself from the remembrance of them reluctantly, as I did indeed from the reality. When I came to recollect that I must be gone, a heavy damp came acrofs my spirits, and we walked towards the entry-as our first parents, when obliged to leave Paradise,

With wand'ring steps and slow

Through Eden took their solitary way.

Though this paper is long, I have not availed myself of the liberty given by the writer to curtail any part of it. Editor.

To the Editor of Recreations in Agriculture, &c.

ON THE BENEFITS TO BE DERIVED FROM BEING BLIND AND DEAF.

SIR,

ALTHOUGH the government of the passions still remains one of the most difficult tasks for human skill and power to perform, yet such is the progrefs we have made in that perfectibility which modern philosophers have taught us, that we are fully able to regulate the five senses, so as to make them more conducive to the common purposes of life than they have ever yet been. We have them, indeed, so completely under management, that I am surprised

who are continually demonstrating, by many other proofs, that the present is a most enlightened age.

If we refer only to the sense of seeing, undoubtedly the most valuable of all, we must at once perceive that we have moulded and contrived this so as to answer a great many curious purposes with which our forefathers were unacquainted. It was an ancient prejudice, for example, that a man, made in the usual way, must see, whether he will or not, provided he keep his eyes open. Of this prejudice we have wisely got rid, many experiments having completely proved that the opening or shutting of the eyes is nowise connected with the power of seeing to advantage; that seeing itself is not in all respects and on all occasions absolutely necessary; that it is a power too troublesome to be always exercised, and apt to bring us into so many scrapes and inconveniencies, that it has been found expedient to delegate it to our neighbours; and that upon the whole, in consequence of this transfer of sight, there are very few who will take the trouble to see with their own eyes.

Philosophers tell us that the eye is not sight, but the organ of sight, exactly, I presume, as the tongue is not speech, but the organ of it. It is, therefore, a discovery of some importance to have found other uses for our eyes, than the mere vulgar purposes of seeing. Hence you will observe that the eye is now employed very much in affairs of gallantry, where it supplies a language the most intelligible now known, the most easily read, and at the same time as secret as the cyphering of state dispatches, and yet so exprefsive, animated, and energetic, as to produce some very extraor

dinary effects on the mechanism of society, and the population of nations. Its grammar is very easily learnt, because few words are necefsary, and it has no dictionary of definitions, because the meaning and the exprefsion always go hand in hand: for the same reason there are few of these disputes about pronunciation, or the misapplication or misarrangement of words which occasion in our other language so many disquisitions on Anglicisms, Scotticisms, and Irishisms. With respect to the utility of this language of the eyes, it is so generally acknowledged, that it would be a waste of ink and paper to enlarge on it. Suffice it to say, that in the early part of life, it appears to be the only proper use to which the eyes ought to be applied.

Another part of our skill in the management of this sense is, that we can afsume, when necefsary, a proper degree of blindnefs. And here we have to encounter another prejudice of education, namely, the opinion that every degree of blindness is a misfortune. This we have probably learned from occulists and other medical gentlemen who are unwilling to give up a species of practice that is abundantly lucrative. But whoever is acquainted with the world, whoever "knows men and things," must be sensible that the power of being blind is in many instances extremely convenient; without it, indeed, man would not be a free agent; he would know neither how to manage a creditor, nor how to get out of the way of a poor relation. Innumerable are the occasions in which our interest is intimately connected with our shutting our

Indeed, on such occasions, the only alternative is to be blind to them, or to our own interest, and where this happens to be the case, it is needlefs to say which way the decision will lie.

Without such a power of dispensing with the ordinary functions of the age, that very useful and convenient thing, called winking, would be entirely uselefs, and if it were to be discontinued we should have reason to expect a wonderful change, little short indeed of a revolution in various branches of the magistracy, from his worship at the office, down to the humble guardian of the night, in whom age happily combines to produce a salutary degree of blindness or winking. Not lefs wonderful would be the change in the conduct of the inferior officers of the excise and customs, &c. in those whose businefs it is to prevent monopolizing combinations, and other conspiracies against the consumers of the necefsaries of life. It may, indeed, be suspected that the late discoveries which have been made in the sciences of forestalling and regrating, have been owing to some interruption given to the operation of winking, or to some persons taking upon them, contrary to the usual practice, to employ their eyes merely for the purpose of seeing; the consequences of which must be highly prejudicial.

Farther: in the management of this sense we may perceive another advantage, which is usually called blinking. This, although much the same in reality with winking, is distinguished from it by being principally used by political orators in debates. They, like others, have found great inconvenience in keeping