entific obfervations, as are to be feen in the two amazing repofitories of Mr. Profeffor Deard in the Strand, and of Mr. Profeffor Ruffel at Charing Cross? It were endless to enumerate particulars; but I cannot help taking notice of those elegant little portable telescopes, that are made use of in all public places; by which it is evident, that even our fine ladies and gentlemen are become proficients in Optics.

THE Universities feem to pride themselves greatly on their choice collections of curious and invaluable trifles, which are there preferved, only because they were not thought worth preferving any where elfe. But is the Ashmolean Collection of Rarities, comparable to the Nicknackatory of Mr. Pinchbeck? Or are any of their Mufæums ftored with fuch precious curiofities, as are frequently feen in Mr. Langford's AuctionRoom? Strangers, who think it worth while to go fo far as Oxford or Cambridge to see fights, may furely meet with as much fatisfaction at London. Are the two little pigmies, striking a clock at Carfax in Oxford, within any degree of comparison with the two noble giants at St. Dunftan's church in Fleet-Street; to say nothing of their enormous brethren at Guild-Hall? Are any

of

of the College Halls in either of the Universities, fo magnificent as those belonging to our worfhipful companies? Or can the Theatre at Oxford, or the Senate-houfe at Cambridge, vie with that ftupendous piece of architecture the ManfionHouse, fet apart for our Chancellor the Lord Mayor? It may be alledged perhaps, that these are trifling examples of fuperiority, which the younger fifter bears over her two elder: but at the fame time it cannot be denied, that she excells them both even in the minutiae of learning and antiquity.

WE must confefs, that Hydraulics, or the Motion of Fluids, feem to be taught exactly in the fame manner, and with the fame degree of knowledge, in London as in Oxford or Cambridge. The Glafs Tubes, and the Syphons, are formed very much in the fame fhape and fashion. The great Hydroftatical law, "That all fluids gravi"tate in proprio loco," is proved by the fame kind of experiments. The feveral students, of whatever age or ftation, vie with each other in an unwearied application, and a conftant attendance to this branch of mixed mathematics. The Profeffors, in each of the three Univerfities, are confeffedly very great men: but I hope I may be forgiven,

forgiven, if I wish to see my friend Mr. Ryan, Prefident of the King's Arms in Pall-Mall, unanimously declared Vice-Chancellor of the Univerfity of London.

I am, SIR,

Your humble fervant,

G. K.

NUMB. XVIII. Thursday, May 30, 1754.

Nihil eft furacius illo:

Non fuit Autolyci tam piceata manus.

MART.

Could he have filch'd but half so fly as thee,
Crook-finger'd Jack had 'cap'd the triple tree.

N information was the other day laid before

AN

a magiftrate by a Fellow of the Society of Antiquarians, against one of his brethren for a robbery. The prosecutor depofed upon oath, that the other had called upon him to fee his collection of medals, and took an opportunity of ftealing a leathern purse, formerly belonging to the celerated Tom Hearne, in which were con

tained, (befides an antique piece of copper-money, place, date, name, figure, and value unknown) a pair of breeches of Oliver Cromwell, a denarius of Trajan worth fifty fhillings, and a queen Anne's farthing value five pounds. He was with much ado diffuaded from carrying on his fuit; as the magiftrate convinced him, that however highly he might rate his own treasures, a jury, who were no Virtuofos, would confider a farthing merely as a farthing, and look upon a copper coin of a Roman Emperor as no better than a king George's halfpenny.

I CANNOT, indeed, without great concern, as a CONNOISSEUR, reflect on the known difhonefty of my learned brethren. The fcandalous practices, wherever their darling paffion is interested, are too notorious to be denied. The moment they conceive a love for rareties and antiques, their strict notions of honour disappear; and Tafte, the more it establishes their veneration for Virtú, the more certainly destroys their integrity as ruft enhances the value of an old coin, by eating up the figure and inscription.

MOST people are mafters of a kind of logic, by which they argue their confciences to fleep, and acquit themselves of doing what is wrong.

The

The country fquire of confirmed honesty in all other refpects, thinks it very fair to over-reach you in the fale of an horse; and the man of pleafure, who would fcorn to pick your pocket, or ftop you on the road, regards it rather as gallantry than bafenefs, to intrigue with your wife or daughter. In the fame manner the Virtuofo does not look on his thefts as real acts of felony; but while he owns that he would take any pains to fteal an old rufty piece of brafs, boasts that you may fafely truft him with untold gold: though he would break open your cabinet for a shell or a butterfly, he would not attempt to force your efcritoire or your ftrong box: nor would he offer the least violence to your wife or daughter, though perhaps he would run away with the little finger of the Venus de Medicis. Upon these principles he proceeds, and lays hold of all opportunities to increase his collection of rarities: and as Mahomet established his religion by the fword, the CONNOISSEUR enlarges his Mufæum, and adds to his ftore of knowledge, by fraud and petty larceny.

IF the libraries and cabinets of the curious were, like the daw in the fable, to be stripped of their borrowed ornaments, we fhould in many fee nothing but bare fhelves and empty drawers.