zaised in botanic gardens in feveral parts of Europe. Prince Eugene's garden at Vienna produced more coffee than was fufficient for his own confumption. This tree, being an evergreen, makes a fine appearance at all feafons of the year, but especially when in flower, and when the berries are red, which is generally in the winter, so that they continue a long time in that state.

The coffee produced in Arabia is found fo greatly to excel that raised in the Weft-Indies and elsewhere, that the cultivation of the tree is not much practifed in the British colonies. Coffee-berries are very apt to imbibe moisture, or the flavour of any thing placed near them. They have been rendered very difagreeable, or utterly spoiled, by being placed in a clofet near rum, fpirits of wine, or pepper.

The beverage prepared from those berries has been familiar in Europe for more than a century, and among the Turks for 170, fome fay 250 years. Its original is not well known. Some afcribe it to the prior of a monaftery, who being informed by a goat-herd, that his cattle fometimes browzing on the tree would wake and caper all night, became curious to prove its virtues. Accordingly, he first tried it on his monks, to prevent their fleeping at matins. Others refer the invention of coffee to the Perfians. It feems, however, to have been firit brought into vogue at Aden, a city near the mouth of the Red Sea. Hence it paffed to Mecca. From Arabia Felix it was conveyed to Grand Cairo. From Egypt it paffed to Syria and Conftantinople. Thevenot, the traveller, was the first who brought it into France; and a Greek fervant, called Pafqua, brought into England by Mr. Edwards, a Turkey merchant, in 1652, to make his coffee, firft fet up the trade of a coffee-man, and introduced drinking it into this ifiand.

From feveral experiments and obfervations made by Dr. Percival, to afcertain the effects of coffee on the human body, he infers, that it is flightly aftringent, and antifeptic; that it moderates alimentary fermentation, and is powerfully fedative. It affifts digeftion, relieves the head-ach, and has been prefcribed with great fuccefs in the afthma. In delicate habits the too liberal ufe of coffee has, however, been fufpected of producing palfies.

What are 1000 pounds of coffee worth at 4s. 6d. per pound? Anf. £225,

No. 120. CACAO. The cacao, or chocolate-nut-tree, is a native of America; and is found in great plenty in the northern provinces of South America, where it grows fpontaneously; but it is cultivated in many of the Weft-India iflands. It refembles a cherry-tree. The fruit is enclofed in a kind of pod, of the fize and figure of a cucumber. Of this fruit, which confifts of feeds, ufually about go in num. ber, with the addition of vanilla, and fome other ingredients, the Spaniards, and, after their example, the rest of Europe, prepare a kind of conferve, or cake; which, diluted in hot water, makes that delicious, whole fome drink, called CHOCOLATE.

It is likewife made into a fweetmeat; and there is an oil extraced from it, which is an extraordinary remedy for the cure of burns and

fcalds.

fcalds. The cacao-nuts are esteemed by the Mexicans as anodyne ;
and used, eaten raw, to affuage pains of the bowels. It has been
moreover remarked, that the cacao-nut-tree fupplies the Indians with
almost whatever they ftand in need of. The bark of the nut is made
into cordage, fails, and cloths; and the fhell into drinking bowls,
cups, &c. the kernel affords a wholefome food; and the milk contained
in the fhell a cooling liquor; the leaves are used for thatching houses,
and wrought into baskets; and the body of the tree is converted into
mafts for hips, and employed for various other purpofes. Indeed, it
is afferted in Lobo's voyage, and by other authors*, that a fhip may
be built, fitted out with mafts, fails, and cordage, and victualled with
bread, water, wine, fugar, vinegar, and oil, from the cacao-tree.
It is, probably, to this tree that Thomfon alludes in the fubfe-
quent lines.

Wide o'er his ifles the branching Oronoque +
Rolls a brown deluge, and the native drives
To dwell aloft on life-fufficing trees,

At once his dome, his robe, his food, and arms.

What are 2876 cacao nuts worth at 1s. 6d. 2. each? Ans. £224 13s. 9d.

No. 122.
Mr. SALMON,

A LINEN-DRAPER's BILL.

Bought of JOHN WILLIAMS, Jan. 4, 1795.

Bought of KATE WATSON, June 4, 1795.

Is a mort way of and confift
'S a fhort way of performing many fubtractions, and confifts of three

The firft is the number given to be divided; the fecond, that by which the work is performed; and the third, the refult of the operation.

EXAMPLE S.

No. 124. VELOCITY OF LIGHT.

Let there be light, faid GOD, and forthwith light
Ethereal, firft of things, quintellence pure
Sprung from the deep.

TOW

a

Hail holy light, offspring of heav'n firft-born,
Whofe fountain who fhall tell *? Before the fun,
Before the heav'ns thou wert; and at the voice
Of GOD, as with a mantle didft inveft
The rifing world of waters dark and deep,
Won from the void and formless infinitet.

MILTON.

The facred writings inform us, that the Divine Architect of the universe, after he had created the light formed the sun, which, according to philofophers and aftronomers, then became "the great palace of light; the regent of day; the delegated fource of light and life; the best image here below of his Creator."

Mathematicians have demonftrated, that light moves with fuch amazing rapidity, as to pass from the fun to our planet in about the fpace of eight minutes. Now admitting the diftance, as ufually computed, to be 95,000,000 of English miles, at what rate per minute does it travel? Anf. 11,875,000 miles.

If the following obfervation of a learned foreigner be juft, it cannot but be allowed to be a moft mortifying conclufion of the subject now

under confideration.

"There is no country in Europe, fays Dr. Wendeborn, more heavily burdened with taxes than England. The very light which falls through the windows, and which in London, during the winter, is mixed with no fmall portion of darkness, must be paid for!" Thus are we not only fubject to a wide range of taxation, which embraces every form of tangible property, but this efflux divine,' etherial as it is, has not been able to elude the rapacious gripe of English financiers.

No. 125. A MANUFACTURER. A manufacture is fomething made by the hand of man. It is derived from two Latin words, manus, the hand, and facere, to make. Manufactures are therefore opposed to productions, which latter are what the bounty of nature spontaneously affords us; as fruits, corn, marble, &c.

"If we try the different characters of men, fays an able writer, by the teft of utility, and found this test on the actual state of our nation, the knight of chivalry and his various offspring, compared to the modern manufacturer, feem weak and useless things. Even the country-gentleman, the most refpectable character of all thofe lilies of the valley who neither toil nor fpin, finks in this comparison. The proprietor of landed property, who lives on the income of his eftates, can in general be confidered only as the conduit that conveys the wealth of one generation to another. He is a neceffary link in fociety indeed, but his place can at all times be easily supplied in this point of view, the poor peafant who cultivates his eftate is of more importance than he. How then shall we estimate him when compared with a refpectable manufacturer ?—with the original genius, for inftance, who has found

* See Job xxxviii. 19.

+ See Gen. i. 2, 3.

See the Cyclop. art. Light, or the Ency. Brit, art, Astronomy, vol. ii, p. 577.

means to convert our clay into porcelain, and lays all Europe under contribution to England by his genius, tafte, and skill?”

The refpectable manufacturer here alluded to, is undoubtedly the late Mr. Wedgwood, who extended and applied pottery to a variety of curious compofitions, fubfervient not only to the ordinary purposes of life, but to ornament the arts, antiquity, history, &c. and thereby rendered it a very important object of commerce, both foreign and domeftic. This valuable manufacture is carried on in Staffordshire.

If 9 table fets of Mr. Wedgwood's porcelain cost £351; how much is that per fet? Anf. £39.

No. 126. TRADESMAN. A tradesman is a fhopkeeper. A merchant is called a trader, but not a tradefman; and it feems diftinguished in Shakespeare from a man that labours with his hands.

"I live by the awl, I meddle with no tradefman's matters.”

Suppofe a tradefman faves £1490 in 10 years; how much is that per annum? Anf. £149.

No. 127. A MECHANIC. This word fometimes fignifies a man fkilled in mechanics; a mathematical science which demonftrates the laws of motion. But it generally denotes a low workman; a person of mean occupation; in which fenfe Shakespeare ufes it; and no author has, we think, treated these valuable members of the community with more aristocratic infolence than that inimitable bard. "Mechanic flaves; mechanical, falt-butter-rogues; worfted-ftocking-knaves; rank-fcented many, apron-men, garlick-eaters," are a few of the many contemptuous epithets which are applied to them in his dramatic pieces. Hence it may be inferred, that it was the ton in his time, as it has been fince, to confider the lower claffes of God's creatures as things bafe and vile, holding no quantity." Let, however, the proudest natural philofopher, or the profoundest mathematician, confider, that although he may be justly delighted with the extent of his own views, yet, without mechanical performances, all his refined fpeculations would prove but an empty dream. And, indeed, in justice to Shakefpeare, he may be confidered in these paffages not as expreffing his own fentiments, but as exhibiting the infolent language often employed by the wealthy, and by those who are fometimes ftyled the great, when fpeaking of the lower orders of fociety.

Suppofe an excellent mechanic earns £17 6s. 6d. in 11 weeks; how much is that per week? Anf. £1 11s. 6d.

No. 128. PEASANT. A peafant is one whofe business is rural labour. Peafantry denotes country people.

Ill fares the land, to hast’ning ill a prey,
Where wealth accumulates, and men decay;
Princes and lords may flourish, or may fade;
A breath can make them, as a breath has made:
But a bold PEASANTRY, their country's pride,
When once destroy'd, can never be supply'd.

GOLDSMITH.

It