it feen that they had renounced the way of thinking, or at least the way of fpeaking, of their noble ancestors. In general, by the term Epicurean was meant a freethinker, a man to whom religion and virtue were but empty names; and the declamations of Cicero, as well as the deportment of fome of the principal Romans of those times, who, that they might have fome kind of philofophy, affected the Epicurean, was thought to juflify the worst that could be faid of them. In the time of Auguftus, many things indeed were confidered in a manner lefs auftere than formerly; but the common notion that men were accustomed to entertain of the Epicureans ftill remained; and, though people of a good education, and who had gone through their studies in Greece, faw clearly the ftate of the cafe; yet they applied the word, at leaft in fport, according to the vulgar acceptation. When, therefore, Horace, by a dilogy very ufual with him, calls himself an Epicurean hog, for telling Tibullus in a facetious manner, that, from the idleness he indulged in at his farm, he would find him fatter and fleeker than before, it is without any manner of confequence to the fectas fuch an epithet in his mouth could be nothing else than an indirect piece of raillery on vulgar prejudice; but likewife without confequence to himfelf-fince, for this pretended confeffion, which Brucker and others in good earneft take it for, he was not a hair's breadth more an Epieurean than Cicero when he writes to his jovial friend Pætus, "Illa mea, quæ folebas antea landare, O hominem facilem! O hofpitem non gravem abierunt. In Epicuri nos adverfarii noftri caftra conjecimus, &c." The encomiums thou formerly wert wont to bestow upon my contentedness are all at an end. I am no longer the eafy gueft, pleafed with every thing and tak ing all things kindly, my good Pætus ! We are gone over into the camp of Epicurus, our former enemy. Not that we carry our zeal for our new party fo far as the notorious defenders of it: at prefent we content ourfelves with the tafieful elegance, in which thou thyfelf wert pleafed when thy finances were yet in good order.-Be prepared, then, for a gueft of great appetite, and who has already made confiderable progrefs in the theory of GENT. MAG. February, 1807. IN Feb. 7. N common with all those who value our national antiquities, I derive confiderable fatisfaction from the various efforts which are making at the prefent time to illuftrate the antient architecture of this country; and, as a mite towards the ample fund of materials now collecting, permit me to of fer the accompanying reprefentation (Plate II.) of a Conduit which for merly food in the middle of the High ftreet at Maidstone, in Kent. It was an octagonal tower, about 24 feet in height, and 8 in diameter, conftructed of well-fquared mafonry. The afcent to the works of the clock, which were contained in the cupola, was by a winding flight of ftone fleps, occupying the whole interior of the edifice, and opening to the street under a finall Pointed arch on the North fide. About the year 1793 the town was paved, and this Conduit deftroyed. The dates 1567 and 1669, then discovered upon the leads, no doubt, marked the periods of different repairs; and the latter perhaps afcertained the age of the clock. Maidstone is fupplied with water of excellent quality, conveved in pipes right acrofs the river from a place called Rocky Hill in the the Weft Borough. Thefe pipes communicate with three conduits in the town, one at the top of the High-fireet, another about the middle, which was the moft antient, and is the fubject of the prefent communication, and a third at the bottom towards the bridge. The improvements and alterations which have taken place within the last 30 years in many of the towns of England, although they have added much to the convenience of the inhabitants, and to the facility of travelling, have proved very fatal to many of thofe objects which are interefting data to the antiquary, and capable of throwing much light on the antient domeftic architecture of these islands. The Preaching Preachingeroffes, Market croffes, and Conduits, which were every where to be met with, fometimes richly decorated with fculpture, and even painted and gilt, were certainly ornaments to the fireets wherein they were fituated, and, when viewed in connexion with the overhanging fronts of the houfes on either fide, decorated with feulptured pannels of arms and foliage, facious bow windows, often lighted with fained glass, and adorned with a profufion of tracery, brackets, pinnacles, and finials, produced a coup d'œil not lefs pleafing, and, perhaps, poffeffing not lefs intrinfic elegance, than the glaring red and yellow brick fronts of the prefent day. Towns far remote from the metropolis, no doubt, till retain many features of their original character; it may, therefore, be an object worthy the attention of your architectural friends to fecure, while it is yet practicable, fome general views of fireets where thefe features have been leaft obliterated. A Conduit fomewhat fimilar in form to the prefent appears in the painting of the Champ de Drap d' Or, formerly in the Royal Collection, according to the print of it published by the Antiquarian Society, and is, I believe, defcribed as running with wine upon the highlyfeftive occafion which that painting was defigned to celebrate; but whether any fimilar ftructures are fill ftanding in England, is a queftion which your Correfpondent the Architect (whofe perfonal acquaintance with the remaining antiquities in this kingdom evidently Turpaffes that of any other perfon in it) can be refolve. I T. FISHER. better able to judge of their age when I fee your book. I found, likewife, plenty of Roman cities, with remains not hitherto taken notice of. Some British monuments too, but not in that plenty I expected. I hope you have noted the age of your feveral Norman buildings, without which I think it will be impoffible to give any light to the Saxon. I imagine that the ftyle of building was pretty near the fame in the feveral ages, all over Europe; following the model of the Italians. But you are the better judge of thefe things, and therefore fay no more about them. I am obliged to you for reckoning me in the number of your friends, and for the trouble you have taken. You may, perhaps, find fome opportunity at your leifurė of fending the laft guinea; I am in no hafte-I have had fome thoughts of publishing a little thing; An HistoricalCritical Differtation upon the Saxon Poetry, but find fo many difficulties in it, that I do not know when it will fee the light. It is a ftudy fo much neglected by all our Antiquaries, that I expect but little affittance from friends, and as little from books. Our greatest men in the Saxon way, always excepting Junius, have been here miferably gravelled, and I can difcover fome great errors in them, but still am unable to produce any thing perfect and compleat of my own; for want of a thorough knowledge of the Runick; and it is not now a time of life for me to fiudy dead languages. Had I been bred in Sweden, and was perfectly maf ter of their language, I flatter myself that I could have made many difcoveries that would have been very acceptable, to the curious. However, imperfect as my work is like to be, I may perhaps one day or other fend it to the prefs, and fubmit it to the cenfure of the world. In the mean time, I am, dear Sir, Your, &c. Letter from Mr. Wife to Dr. Ducarel. "DEAR SIR, Holywell, July 31, 1753. AM forry it fo happened that I did not fee Mr. Mores when, he was in Oxford, but I was then upon a journey which I had long projected," and which afforded me a great deal of pleafore. I only wanted the alliance of "I have now an old friend with me fuch a friend as yourself, to have made from the Land's-end in Cornwall, who it more agreeable and ufeful. I vifited is publishing the Antiquities of that parts of Monmouth and Glamorgan County; if you have not already fubhires, where are many remains of feribed, I hope you will give me à British, Roman, Saxon, Danith, and commiffion to do it for you; as you may Norman antiquities. They abound be affured, from the character of the particularly with caftles; fome of Author (Mr. Borlafe) that the thing will be well executed. which feem to me to be older than they are commonly taken to be, viz. of the Saxon times. But I shall be To Dr. Ducarel, Doctors Commons, London." THE THE PROJECTOR, N° LXVII. "Caftigatque, auditque dolos THER VIRG. THERE are few fubjects which feem to have perplexed writers more, than what effimate they ought to form of the progrefs mankind are making in wifdom and virtue. So oppofite are their opinions on this fubject, that fome refer all that is wife and good to certain paft happy days, of which they can know very little; and others bid us look forward to fome future glorious æra, of which they can know nothing. Some maintain that we are amazingly degenerated from our wifer and better ancestors, while others congratulate themfelves on living in an age enlightened beyond any former, and faft approaching to perfection. Whoever takes the trouble to examine thefe pofitions with attention, and to weigh the arguments and proofs by which they are to be confirmed, will probably find his mind alternately perplexed and informed, and be unable abfolutely to join either party. All the conclufion he can draw with any degree of certainty will probably be, that there is more wifdom and virtue in the world than fome will allow, and lefs ufe made of them than others think there ought. It would appear, that every age has contributed fomething to our flock of materials, but that they are allowed to remain unemployed, owing to a difcovery many perfons have made of certain fubftitutes for Wifdom and Virtue, which anfwer their purpose just as well. The queftion of general improvement or degeneracy, however, feems of late to have been agitated by a set of philofophers, who have taken upon them the pleafing task of difperfing unbounded riches throughout the realm, and who fancy they know human nature more intimately than their predeceffors. They have accordingly been endeavouring to establish a theory upon this fubject extremely fimple, and to them extremely practicable. The refult of their arduous labours and deep confultations appears to be contained in this fingle propofition; namely, that all mankind are fools, except about a dozen or fourteen individuals, whofe bufinefs it is to profit by their folly, and whole opinion it is, that mankind will never get wifer. The lucubrations of thefe philofophers are regularly published twice or thrice within the fpace of a year, not through the flow and expenfive medium of book fellers, who wait until books are called for, and then demand, a price for them, but by every method of gratuitous difperfion. Their ingenious remarks appear in the fhape of handbills, of pofting bills, of letters,. of fongs and anecdotes, fometimes elegantly printed, and "adorned with fculptures;" and are diftributed not only in the repofitories where they are written, but at the corners of the freets, at every turnpike, on every bridge, and every highway; and fuch is the impartiality of the authors that thefe prefentation-copies are exprefly ordered to be given to all claffes, efpecially the lower, including ferving men and maids." And left the perfons appointed to difperfe fuch valuable writings, fhould by negligence, or wils fully, overlook any individual whatfo ever, every publick edifice and dead wall is covered with them, printed in letters of fuch large dimenfions, that the invalid may read them from his bed-chamber window, and the near fighted may not lament having forgot his fpectacles in his other coat pocket. This laft contrivance cannot be fufficiently praifed for its ingenuity; for what can be more happily contrived for the benefit of thofe who are already half blind, or in a fair way to become fo by poring over the pocket-editions of the works of thefe benevolent writers, and imbibing their principles? Nay, that the heedlefs paffengers may be attracted in every way, the very hackney coaches are covered with large paper copies of thefe lucubrations, and we have feen a fpecies of finall carts decorated in like manner. Here, too, I must paufe, to admire the metaphorical benevolence of thefe gentlemen, who by this ftriking imagery (far beyond the reach of our beft poets) give their readers an idea, either of gratifying their ambition by a coach, or of gaining their end in a cart. With an equally happy attention to the wildom that fpeaks in hints, and in parables and allegories, they regularly publifh very large editions of their works on the walls of Bedlam and St. Luke's; an illuftration of caufe and effect, which none of our fabulifts ever hit upon, from Æfop to Dodfley. Indeed, I have ever confidered the two buildings juft mentioned as admirably adapted for a courfe of lectures on the princi |