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Various the papers various wants produce,
The wants of fashion, elegance, and use.
Men are as various : and, if right I scan,
Each sort of paper represents some man.
Pray note the fop-half powder and half lace-
Nice, as a band-box were his dwelling place;
He's the gilt paper, which apart you store,
And lock from vulgar hands in the 'scrutoire.
Mechanics, servants, farmers, and so forth,
Are copy paper of inferior worth;

Less priz'd, more useful, for your desk decreed,
Free to all pens, and prompt at ev'ry need.

The wretch whom av'rice bids to pinch and spare,
Starve, cheat, and pilfer, to enrich an heir,
Is coarse brown paper; such as pedlars choose
To wrap up wares, which better men will use.
Take next the miser's contrast, who destroys
Health, fame, and fortune, in a round of joys.
Will any paper match him? Yes, throughout,
H's a true sinking paper, past all doubt.

The retail politician's anxious thought

Deems this side always right, and that stark nought;
He foams with censure; with applause he raves—
A dupe to rumours, and a tool of knaves;

He'll want no type his weakness to proclaim,
While such a thing as fools-cap has a name.
The hasty gentleman, whose blood runs high,
Who picks a quarrel, if you step a-wry,
Who can't a jest, or hint, or look endure:
What's he? What? Touch-paper to be sure.
What are our poets, take them as they fall;
Good, bad, rich, poor, much read, not read at all;
Them and their works in the same class you'll find;
They are the mere waste-paper of mankind.
Observe the maiden, innocently sweet,
She's fair white-paper, an unsullied sheet:
On which the happy man whom fate ordains,
May write his name, and take her for his pains.

One instance more, and only one I'll bring; 'Tis the rat man who scorns a little thing,

Whose thoughts, whose deeds, whose maxims are his

own,

Form'd on the fellings of his heart alone:
True genuine royal-paper is his breast;
Of all the kinds most precious, purest, best.

ON THE ART OF SWIMMING.

In answer to some inquiries of M. Dubourg* on the subject.

I AM apprehensive that I shall not be able to find leisure for making all the disquisitions and experiments which would be desirable on this subject. I must therefore, content myself with a few remarks.

The specific gravity of some human bodies, in comparison to that of water, has been examined by M. Robinson, in our Philosophical Transactions, volume 50, page 30, for the year 1757. He asserts, that fat persons with small bones float most easily upon water. The diving bell is accurately described in our Transactions.

When I was a boy, I made two oval pallets, each about ten inches long, and six broad, with a hole for the thumb, in order to retain it fast in the palm of my hand. They much resemble a painter's pallets. In swimming I pushed the edges of these forward, and I struck the water with their flat surfaces as I

* Translator of Dr. Franklin's works into French.

Q

drew them back. I remember I swam faster by means of these pallets, but they fatigued my wrists- also fitted to the soles of my feet a kind of sandals; but I was not satisfied with them, because I observed that the stroke is partly given with the inside of the feet and the ancles, and not entirely with the soles of the feet.

We have here waistcoats for swimming, which are made of double sail-cloth, with small pieces of cork quilted in between them.

I know nothing of the scaphandre of M. de la Chappelle.

I know by experience that it is a great comfort to a swimmer, who has a considerable distance to go, to turn himself sometimes on his back, and to vary in other respects the means of procuring a progressive motion.

When he is seized with the cramp in the leg, the method of driving it away is to give to the parts affected a sudden, vigorous, and violent shock; which he may do in the air as he swims on his back.

During the great heats of summer there is no danger in bathing, however warm we may be, in rivers which have been thoroughly warmed by the sun. But to throw oneself into cold spring water, when the body has been heated by exercise in the sun, is an imprudence which may prove fatal. I once knew an instance of four young men, who, having worked at harvest in the heat of the day, with a view of refreshing themselves plunged into a spring of cold water: two died upon the spot, a third the next morning, and the fourth recovered with great difficulty. A copious draught of cold water, in similar circumstances, is frequently attended with the same effect in North Ame

rica.

The exercise of swimming is one of the most healthy and agreeable in the world. After having swam for an hour or two in the evening, one sleeps coolly the whole night, even during the most ardent heat of summer. Perhaps the pores being cleansed, the in

sensible perspiration increases and occasions this coolness. It is certain that much swimming is the means of stopping a diarrhoea, and even of producing a constipation. With respect to those who do not know how to swim, or who are affected with a diarrhoea at a season which does not permit them to use that exercise, a warm bath by cleansing and purifying the skin, is found very salutary, and often effects a radical cure. I speak from my own experience, frequently repeated, and that of others to whom I have recommended this.

You will not be displeased if I conclude these hasty remarks by informing you, that as the ordinary method of swimming is reduced to the act of rowing with the arms and legs, and is consequently a laborious and fatiguing operation when the space of water to be crossed is considerable; there is a method in which a swimmer may pass to great distances with much facility by means of a sail. This discovery I. fortunately made by accident, and in the following

manner:

When I was a boy I amused myself one day with flying a paper kite; and approaching the bank of a pond, which was near a mile broad, I tied the string to a stake, and the kite ascended to a very considerable height above the pond, while I was swimming. In a little time, being desirous of amusing myself with my kite, and enjoying at the same time the pleasure of swimming, I returned; and loosing from the stake the string with the little stick which was fastened to it, went again into the water, where I found, that lying on my back, and holding the stick in my hands, I was drawn along the surface of the water in a very agreeable manner. Having then engaged another boy to carry my clothes round the pond to a place which I pointed out to him on the other side, I began to cross the pond with my kite, which carried me quite over without the least fatigue, and with the greatest pleasure imaginable. I was only obliged occasionally to halt a little in my course, and resist its

progress, when it appeared that, by following too quick, I lowered the kite to much; by doing which occasionally I made it rise again. I have never since that time practised this singular mode of swimming, though I think it not impossible to cross in this manner from Dover to Calais. The packet-boat, however, is still preferable.

NEW MODE OF BATHING.

EXTRACTS OF LETTERS TO M. DUBOURG.

London, July 28, 1768.

-I GREATLY approve the epithet you give, in your letter of the 8th of June to the new method of treating the small-pox, which you call the tonic or bracing method; I will take occasion, from it, to mention a practice to which I have accustomed myself. You know the cold bath has long been in vogue here as a tonic; but the shock of the cold water has always appeared to me, generally speaking, as too violent; and I have found it much more agreeable to my constitution to bathe in another element, I mean cold air. With this view I rise early almost every morning, and sit in my chamber without any clothes whatever, half an hour or an hour, according to the season, either reading or writing. This practice is not in the least painful, but, on the contrary, agreeable; and if I return to bed afterwards, before I dress myself, as some times happens, I make a supplement to my night's rest

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