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There were shops with Lowland stuffs in them, and over the doors signboards telling of the most curious trades for a Campbell burgh horologers, cordiners, baxters, and such like mechanicks that I felt sure poor Donald had small call for. They might be incomers, but they were thirled to Gillesbeg all the same, as I found later on.

But our "Mathematick" is one which Newton would have to go to school to learn; our "Staticks, Mechanicks, Magneticks, Chymicks, and Natural Experiments" constitute a mass of physical and chemical knowledge, a glimpse at which would compensate Galileo for the doings of a score of inquisitorial cardinals; our "Physick" and "Anatomy" have embraced such infinite varieties of beings, have laid open such new worlds in time and space, have grappled, not unsuccessfully, with such complex problems, that the eyes of Vesalius and of Harvey might be dazzled by the sight of the tree that has grown out of their grain of mustard seed.

As a man is naturally inclined to study; one delights in Divinity, another in the study of the Laws, a third in Physick, a fourth will be a Philosopher; moreover there are many Wits who are naturally inclined to the Mechanicks; as the one is a Painter, another a Goldsmith; the one a Shoomaker, the other a Taylor, a Carver, and so forth, divers and innumerable; all this happens by the Stars influence, whereby the Imagination is supernaturally founded & fortified, and whereupon it is resolved to rest; as it is found, that what a man hath once conceived in his Mind, and framed a foundation thereof, none can divert him from a constant resolution and relying thereon, except Death, which at last concludes all.

But our "Mathematick" is one which Newton would have to go to school to learn; our "Staticks, Mechanicks, Magneticks, Chymicks, and Natural Experiments" constitute a mass of physical and chemical knowledge, a glimpse at which would compensate Galileo for the doings of a score of inquisitorial cardinals; our "Physick" and "Anatomy" have embraced such infinite varieties of being, have laid open such new worlds in time and space, have grappled, not unsuccessfully, with such complex problems, that the eyes of Vesalius and of Harvey might be dazzled by the sight of the tree that has grown out of their grain of mustard seed.

"My Lord, replied the Patriot, this is an unexpected favour, and I am satisfied I owe it to your Lordship's Goodness. I hope an Opportunity to speak my Gratitude, will present it self; in the mean while count upon me, in whatever I can serve your Interest." At these Words, with a visible Joy in his Looks, he vanish'd. Three dirty Mechanicks appeared in a Shoemaker's Shop, who was a Dreamer.

The Instrument I spoke of before, being a sort of a Press, that is let out and in, more or less, according to the Discretion of the Nurse, in which they make the Child's Head flat, it makes the Eyes stand a prodigious Way asunder, and the Hair hang over the Forehead like the Eves of a House, which seems very frightful: They being ask'd the Reason why they practis'd this Method, reply'd, the Indian's Sight was much strengthened and quicker, thereby, to discern the Game in hunting at larger Distance, and so never miss'd of becoming expert Hunters, the Perfection of which they all aim at, as we do to become experienced Soldiers, learned School-Men, or Artists in Mechanicks: He that is a good Hunter never misses of being a Favourite amongst the Women; the prettiest Girls being always bestow'd upon the chiefest Sports-Men, and those of a grosser Mould, upon the useless Lubbers.

Johnson, however, had several opportunities of instructing the company; but I am sorry to say, that I did not pay sufficient attention to what passed, as his discourse now turned chiefly on mechanicks, agriculture and such subjects, rather than on science and wit. Last night Lady Rasay shewed him the operation of wawking cloth, that is, thickening it in the same manner as is done by a mill.

'He puts something into our society, and takes nothing out of it. Dr Johnson, however, had several opportunities of instructing the company; but I am sorry to say, that I did not pay sufficient attention to what passed, as his discourse now turned chiefly on mechanicks, agriculture and such subjects, rather than on science and wit.

He denounced the "old faction" as cunning, deceptive, overbearing, and disloyal; he called the clergy proud, ignorant, imperious, and inclined to sedition; and he denounced those in authority as "inconsiderable mechanicks, packed by the prevailing party of the factious ministry, with a fellow-feeling both in the command and the profits."

I am not very conversant with mechanicks; but the simplicity of this machine, and its multiplied operations, struck me with an agreeable surprize. I had learnt from Dr.