Volume II Part 3 (1/2)

By help of this science the architects take their just s, as private houses, churches, palaces, shi+ps, fortifications, &c

By its help engineers conduct all their works, take the situation and plan of towns, forts, and castles, measure their distances from one another, and carry their measures into places that are only accessible to the eye

Fro sundials on any place, howsoever situate, and for any part of the world, to point out the exact time of the day, the sun's declination, altitude, aeometry the surveyor is directed how to draw a map of any country, to divide his lands, and to lay down and plot any piece of ground, and thereby discover the area in acres, rods, and perches; the gauger is instructed how to find the capacities or solid contents of all kinds of vessels, in barrels, gallons, bushels, &c; and thethe areas and contents of superfices and solids, and casting up all manner of workmanshi+p All these, and many more useful arts, too many to be enumerated here, wholly depend upon the aforesaid sciences, naeometry

This science is descended from the infancy of the world, the inventors of which were the first propagators of human kind, as Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, and divers others

There has not been any science so much esteemed and honoured as this of the ilance becoreat men, and laboured in by the potentates of the world, nas, princes, &c

_Matheic of as much orto a just for it so as to render the sa truth from falsehood in all occurrences, even subjects not yptians, Persians, and Lacedaes but such as had so those who had not overn

Though Plato's censure, that those who did not understand the 117th proposition of the 13th book of Euclid's Ele rational creatures, was unreasonable and unjust, yet to give a , who is destitute of a coe in the mathematics, is no less so

The usefulness of some particular parts of the mathematics, in the coe of thereat part of mankind, and very convenient to all the rest, that are any way conversant beyond the lis

Those whoet their bread by o along with it, and who have had soes from the them

And whatever may have been inificance and loss of time, yet these, I believe, never caused repentance in any, except it was for their reenerally affire to bethe s What science, then, can there be more noble, h and demonstrative, than this of the mathematics?

I shall conclude hat Plato says, in the seventh book of his _Republic_, with regard to the excellence and usefulness of geo to this purpose:

”Dear friend--You see, then, that mathematics are necessary, because, by the exactness of the e And it is re capable by nature to reason and understand the sciences, the less acute, by studying this, though useless to thee, that their ht; for no study employs it more, nor makes it susceptible of attention so ht to apply themselves to this study”

THE ART OF PROCURING PLEASANT DREAMS

_Inscribed to Miss, being written at her request_

As a great part of our life is spent in sleep, during which we have sometimes pleasant and some times painful dreams, it becomes of some consequence to obtain the one kind and avoid the other, for, whether real or iinary, pain is pain and pleasure is pleasure If we can sleep without drea, it is well that painful drea dreane_, so much added to the pleasure of life

To this end it is, in the first place, necessary to be careful in preserving health, by due exercise and great teination is disturbed, and disagreeable, sometimes terrible, ideas are apt to present themselves Exercise should precede meals, not immediately follow them; the first proestion If, after exercise, we feed sparingly, the digestion will be easy and good, the body lightsome, the tereeably Sleep, when it folloill be natural and undisturbed; while indolence, with full feeding, occasions nightmares and horrors inexpressible; we fall from precipices, are assaulted by wild beasts, murderers, and demons, and experience every variety of distress Observe, however, that the quantities of food and exercise are relative things; those who ht to, eat eneral, mankind, since the improvement of cookery, eat about twice as much as nature requires Suppers are not bad if we have not dined; but restless nights naturally follow hearty suppers after full dinners Indeed, as there is a difference in constitutions, sohtful dream and an apoplexy, after which they sleep till doo is more common in the newspapers than instances of people who, after eating a hearty supper, are found dead abed in thehealth, to be attended to, is the having a constant supply of fresh air in your bedcha in rooms exactly closed, and in beds surrounded by curtains No outward air that ed air, often breathed, of a close cha, if the particles that receive greater heat can escape, so living bodies do not putrefy if the particles, so fast as they become putrid, can be thrown off Nature expels thes, and in a free, open air they are carried off; but in a close rooh they become more and more corrupt A number of persons crowded into a small room thus spoil the air in a few minutes and even render it le person is said to spoil only a gallon of air per er time to spoil a bedchamber-full; but it is done, however, in proportion, and in It is recorded of Methusaleest liver, may be supposed to have best preserved his health, that he slept always in the open air; for, when he had lived five hundred years, an angel said to him, ”Arise, Methusalem, and build thee a house, for thou shalt live yet five hundred years longer” But Methusalem answered and said, ”If I aer, it is not worth while to build me a house; I will sleep in the air, as I have been used to do” Physicians, after having for ages contended that the sick should not be indulged with fresh air, have at length discovered that it ood It is therefore to be hoped that they may in time discover likewise that it is not hurtful to those who are in health, and that we may then be cured of the _aerophoba_, that at present distresses weak minds, and makes them choose to be stifled and poisoned rather than leave open theof a bedchalass of a coach

Confined air, when saturated with perspirable matter,[1] will not receive more; and that matter ives so about to be hurtful, by producing certain uneasiness, slight indeed at first, such as with regard to the lungs is a trifling sensation, and to the pores of the skin a kind of restlessness, which is difficult to describe, and few that feel it know the cause of it But we ht, we have, if warain We turn often, without finding repose in any position This fidgetiness (to use a vulgar expression for want of a better) is occasioned wholly by an uneasiness in the skin, owing to the retention of the perspirablereceived their quantity, and, being saturated, refusing to take any more To become sensible of this by an experiment, let a person keep his position in the bed, but throw off the bedclothes, and suffer fresh air to approach the part uncovered of his body; he will then feel that part suddenly refreshed; for the air will i up, and carrying off, the load of perspirable matter that incommoded it For every portion of cool air that approaches the war its portion of that vapour, receives therewith a degree of heat that rarefies and renders it lighter, when it will be pushed aith its burden, by cooler and, therefore, heavier fresh air, which for a ed and war quantity This is the order of nature, to prevent ani infected by their own perspiration He will now be sensible of the difference between the part exposed to the air and that which, re sunk in the bed, denies the air access; for this part now manifests its uneasiness more distinctly by the comparison, and the seat of the uneasiness is more plainly perceived than when the whole surface of the body was affected by it

[1] What physicians call perspirable matter is that vapour which passes off froh the pores of the skin The quantity of this is said to be five eighths of e eat--AUTHOR

Here, then, is one great and general cause of unpleasing dreams For when the body is uneasy, the reeable ideas of various kinds will in sleep be the natural consequences The re moderately (as before advised for health's sake), less perspirable iven tier before they are saturated, and we er before we areto receive anythinner and more porous bedclothes, which will suffer the perspirable h theer tolerable

3 When you are awakened by this uneasiness, and find you cannot easily sleep again, get out of bed, beat up and turn your pillow, shake the bedclothes well, with at least twenty shakes, then throw the bed open and leave it to cool; in theundressed, walk about your chae its load, which it will do sooner as the air in to feel the cold air unpleasant, then return to your bed, and you will soon fall asleep, and your sleep will be sweet and pleasant All the scenes presented to your fancy will be, too, of the pleasing kind I areeably entertained with them as by the scenery of an opera If you happen to be too indolent to get out of bed, you may, instead of it, lift up your bedclothes with one arood deal of fresh air, and, by letting theain This, repeated twenty times, will so clear them of the perspirablewell for some time afterward But this latter method is not equal to the former

Those who do not love trouble, and can afford to have two beds, will find great luxury in rising, when they wake in a hot bed, and going into the cool one Such shi+fting of beds would also be of great service to persons ill of a fever, as it refreshes and frequently procures sleep A very large bed, that will admit a removal so distant froree answer the same end