Original Letter from Sir Thomas Lyttelton to the famous Chubb. 455 without them. If this be true, then it follows, that fociety would fuffer by the propagation of opinions contradictory to thefe, as it would be a weakning of one of the great foundations of public happinefs; and confequently, that Government has a right to interpofe its autho. rity fo far as to prevent its fpreading among its members. This is no breach of the charity of the Gospel, no afflicting or grieving men upon account of religious opinions, no invafion of the natural property of private judgement; nor is it liable to any of thofe accufations which the spirit of perfecution is juftly charged with; neither can it be ever faid to give offence to tender confciences; for thefe are not ductrines peculiar to any fect or fects; but fundamental to all religions, and fuch as all must be pleased to have maintained. Nor does the denying an atbeift or an infidel the liberty of arguing against the being of a God or future judgement compel him, as you fay, to be an bypocrite; for the obliging a man not to publish his opinions upon any point, is not obliging him to make profeffion of the contrary; fo that the whole injury, he could pretend is herein done him, is the not being permitted to communicate and enforce his fentiments to others, in oppofition to a doctrine which is of importance to the happiness of fociety. But as you allow that the care of that happiness is the great end of government, and that no man has a right to act against it; confequently no wrong is done that perfon in the reftraint of fuch a publication of his thoughts, allowing they have a mifchievous tendency. The only argument, therefore, that remains against fuch a reftraining power, and which undoubtedly ought to weigh very much with thofe who have the honour of the Chriftian faith fincerely at heart, is the reflection that may be thrown upon it, in confequence of the exercifing fuch a power; as if the profeffors of it dejpaired of defending it by reafon and argument, and therefore were neceflitated to call in force, in order to filence thofe adverfaries they could not answer. This indeed is a heavy charge, and fhould, if poffible, be avoided. But I doubt, Sir, if we examine nicely, we thall find, that it is not certainly the beft caufe that gains most profelytes, but that error may fometimes triumph over-truth; or, if it be not received by a majority, at least, that it debauches the opinions of many, notwithstanding the folidity or force of the arguments on the other fide. And though the experience we daily have of this does not authorize the magiftrates to interpofe in every difpute, or in any which does not affect fociety; yet it does most reafonably in thofe of fuch a nature as may be of confequence to the general good, which they are the guardians of. If a Jacobite fhould write a book, to prove that liberty is neither our natural nor legal right, and that our obedience to the prefent government, which is founded upon that opinion, is groundless and unjuft, and the government fhould forbid the publication of this book; would it be fair to infer from thence, that they doubted of the juftice of their cause, or that the argument was only answerable by force? No; but the reafon of their forbidding fuch a doctrine to be made public, would be to prevent weak and partial perfons from being feduced by it, to the prejudice of the state. You fee, Sir, my whole argument depends upon the fuppofition that the notion of a God and future rewards and punishments is highly beneficial to fociety; and that, therefore, whatever weakens fuch a notion is dangerous and hurtful to it. If I am miftaken in the propofition itfelf, or pursue it farther than it will bear, you will have the goodness to fet me right; which defire of information, as it is the only reafon of my troubling you with this, fo it ought to be the only end of all religious controverfy; though, if we may judge by the manner in which fuch difputes are generally carried on, the defign is rather to triumph over an enemy, than to learn of a friend. It is your particular honour to write entirely without pahon, which affords a ftrong prefumption that you alfo write wi. bout partiality; and, therefore, it cannot be difpleafing to you to hear your opinions queftioned, or to inftruct any perfon who fhall apply to you in search of truth. This is the itention and request of, Sir, your unknown humble fervant. (Mr. CHUBB'S dnfwer in our next.) H MR. URBAN, Pavloffk, Oct. 1, O. S. 1785. "LOW finall a part of this torref. trial globe is tenanted by man!" Surely a being that has traverfed defents and forefts of many hundred miles, and rarely meeting with a village or a poor oftrog upon his way, may take up tas exclamation with no bad grace! Allow 456 Original Correspondence from Ruffia.—Natural History. me the charitable relief of a fentiment now and then from fome ancient or modern fage. Let the experience be mine, and the expreffion his. It is a flower I love to cull. In the bofom of domestic ease the poet beft indulges the flights of fancy, and roams about the tracklefs regions of the earth amidst his family and friends, undifmayed by dangers in the fecurity of focial life, and only extending his hand to find it filled with plenty. While I, if bleffed (or curfed) with all the treasures of the Eaft, in my erratic courfe, muft fometimes feel the want of bread, and hear the rains and howling winds lafhing the vexed wilderness from every fide of heaven, throwded only in my frail cabitka, and this without one earthly friend to charm the tedious way. If on thefe occafions I cannot take the words of Virgil in fome florid defcription of the embellishments of an Arcadian fummer, I content myself with thofe of another poet; and, venturing a look towards heaven, ejaculate in humble confidence, Sat amico te mibi felix: What authority Plato had for the folloving axiom, we are at liberty to leave unexamined, as he forgot to leave us any data to proceed upon. I may perhaps not recollect his very words, but they are to this effect: Ultori Deo fumma cura peregrinus eft. Cumque cognatis careat et amicis, majorem apud Deum et apud homines mifericordiam meretur. I would refer you to the paffage, Mr. Urban, if you doubt my quotation; but, alas, there are no Platos here! I have no book but a little Vulgate Bible, with Beza's New Teftament. On crofting the Don at this place, the chalky mountains, hitherto constantly ia fight, now totally difappear to the Weft. Here the nature of the foil is entirely changed; and, from pure chalk, with here and there fome fand, to a perfect clay, as it is quite on to Kafanka. The Western fhore of this large river is mountainous, and almoft bare of wood, while the Eaftern fide is level, and produces fome oaks, poplars, willows, and other trees. The Don di vides this region into two vaft steppes or deferts, whereof that on the Wettern fide is called the fteppe of the Don, and that on the Eaftern the Kalmue fleppe, properly; but they are often confounded under the fame appellation, and you Will and them both occafionally termed teppes of the Don. Several hordes of the Torguts or Kalmucs cross the Volga, to come and pafs the fummers in the latter of thefe deferts. Both are of an enormous extent, and comprehend a number of lakes and marthes, of which fome are permanent, and others only formed by the accidental floodings of the Don, and fuch rivers as fall inte that vaft water. The common wormwood, the dracunculus (a fort of yarrow), and the wild fouthernwood, grow in fuch abundance in thefe deferts, that hundreds of carts might be loaded with them; and it feems a pity that no ufe is made of them in medicine. The cows and horfes feed on all the kinds of wormwood, while the fheep will not taste of any. The pharmacopolifts might likewife here obtain great store of elicampane for their fhops. The Kofacs take the folidago virga aurea, in infufion, like tea, against the non-retention of urine. They know the ufe too of the bramble-berries as well as the Ruffians. They make corks of the parenchyma, the fecond bark of the black-poplar, ufing it likewife for the fticks of their nets, which, by the exfreme levity of the wood, keep them upright in the water. The Dutch fishcrmen, as well as thofe on the Wefer, employ for this purpose a wood, called in Holland zoll-bout, or toll wood. It is in colour of a reddish brown, very light, and its filaments are extremely fmall. It fells for three ftivers the pound in Amfterdam. The Dutch import it from the Baltic, and fell a part of it to the Germans. What can this wood be? May it be only the wood of the alder, half rotten; or is it that of the black poplar? I have confidered this matter before, and find the note at the bottom in my pocket-book *. The Don near Kafanka abounds in fish of various kinds, especially the sturgeon and the fevringa. I faw great numbers of falcons in thefe parts, which make their nefts in the tops of the trecs. The fea-gull is alfo very common. You may go from hence to Tfcherkafk by either of three different ways. The first leads ftraight across the deferts; and this way the distance is no more than 500 verits. But, excepting fome little hovels at confiderable dif tances, the whole country is fo wild * See B.kman's Phyf. Econom. Biblio thec. tom. ii. p. 594. and Original Correspondence from Ruffia.-Natural Hiftory. and abandoned, that it would be impoffible to procure a horfe. The fecond is the great poft road, in length 800 verfts. As the third, which traces the Don in all its meanders, and goes through the ftanitzas, is the fafeft and the most remarkable, I fall take that when I go for Tfcherkafk, which will be in three or four days. If any of your correfpondents, Mr. Urban, will give you letters, for me, containing questions or hints for the direction of my inveftigations, I fhall receive them gratefully, and make them the companions of my journies. I fent you the name of my friend at Peterf burg, who will carefully tranfmit them as occafions ferve. It is a great bleff ing to have a good friend. I can depend upon him. Yours, &c. M. M. M. MR. URBAN, Tfcherkafk, Oct. 25, O. S. 1785. A Paffage in the Pfalms was running in my head the other day, which is in the English version to this effect: "The Heaven, even the Heaven of Heavens, is the Lord's; but the earth hath he given to the children of men." I was a good while before I could hit upon it in my little book; but at length I found the latter member of the fentence thus expreffed: "fed terram tradidit difputationibus eorum." I was delighted with the idea: for whether you confider the earth in a moral, political, phyfical, natural, philofophical, or theological fenfe, "tradita eft terra difputationibus noftrorum." For fear then of getting a knock in the fcuffle, and I am fure I can get nothing else, I will keep as clear as I can from haying any opinion about it, but what is warranted by facts; and for all the reft, fince Mr. Burnet, and Mr. Buffon, and Mr De Luc, cannot agree upon the matter, I fhall tick to my little book, at leaf till fomebody fhews me a better. As to the hereditary or political property of it, I know that not an inch of it belongs to me. Perhaps they that have the most are not the happiest; and I think to be tolerably happy is a very material matter in the account of life. I had rather travel sco verfts, night and day, in the midst of winter, than have the spleen or the hyp for an hour. The nature of the foil changes again near Uftchoperkaia, on the Weitern hore of the Don, and becomes a chalk mixed with fand, like that about Ka ..... 457 ftinfk. The whole country is moreover abfolutely deftitute of wood. On the furface of the river they gather plenty of the floating punge The Kofac women ufe it as the Ruffians do, by way of fard for the face and neck, and alfo ufe it medicinally as a vermifuge. Af ter having paffed Rofpopin and Kletf kaia, I came to Perekopikoi, where the great. grows in great abundance; but this plant is refufed by all the cattle; the camel alone eats of it when young. The fteppe that borders on Kremenfkaia prefents on all fides only a dry and fteril foil, as at Kalanka; but the oppofite fhore of the Volga is very well wooded. The whole region abounds with an incredible number of thrushes. All the known forts of liquorice grow in the environs of Petibenfkaia. The glycirrhiza glabra is that which thrives the most abundantly the whole length of the Don; and it would be as easy to procure its juice for the purposes o pharmacy from the fides of this river as from the fhores of the Volga. The Kolacs make a ptifan from this root which they use against the fea-fickness when they embark at Azof. A domeftic medicine very noxious, and often mortal, to many perfons, much used among the Kofacs, is the root of white hellebore, which they employ without diftinction in almost all difeafes. The women of irregular conduct take it to deftroy the effect of their amours. The little cultivated land I faw in the neighbourhood of the Don, towards This plant is found in the Moscva, as in all the rivers that flow gently; that is to fay, it strikes out its branches, which are of a good thickness, perpendicularly; whereas in the Don, and the more rapid currents, it protrudes them in a horizontal direction. In that cafe the branches are not above two or three lines in diameter, and, by the manform a kind of net-work. The naturalifts mer in which they interweave themselves, have not hitherto discovered, either here or elsewhere, the fmalleft degree of irritability in this plant, nor the gtest movement by which it might be fufpected of any principle of life. And yet, on burning it, the smell it exhales thould feem to indicate that it-belongs to the animal kingdom. Tais deferves to be well determined by a very exact chemical process, as this plant has never yet been analyzed as it ought to have been. The Reffians ofe it internally against worms; afperity may excite in the folds of the intef and it is probable that a powder of fo much tines irritations tuficiently violent for expelling fuch troubletome gues. Kobilenskalay 458 Original Correspondence from Ruffia.-Natural Hiftory. Kobilenfkaia, is laid out in melons and arbouses, or water-melons. They plant them in open air and without much apparatus in thefe fteppes; chufing preferably the most fandy places; thefe plants agreeing better with fuch a foil, whether it be a declivity or a plain and if after their bloffoming the feafon fhould prove a little wet, it is then they fucceed the beft. In fome places they likewife cultivate barley, oats, and wheat. : Kobilenskaia is fituate on the Eaftern fhore of the Don, very low; and con. fequently expofed in fpring and autumn to the frequent inundations of this river. In fuch cafes it rarely hap pens but fome houfes are carried away by the rapidity of the current. This pofition likewife deprives the inhabitants of the conveniency of cellars. On that part of the way that leads to Yefavlofskaia I faw great quantities of widgeefe, paffing and repafting in the air in very numerous flocks. They flew extremely high, and their favage nature makes it difficult to fhoot them. In the fpring they feed on the firft buds of the large willows, the leaves of the equiferum majus aquaticum, and the cones of the pine. In fummer they vifit the cultivated fields, and difcover a great preference for thofe of peas, barley, and oats. The damage they do must be very confiderable, if one may judge from their prodigious numbers. The banks of the Don, and the lakes about it, are frequented alfo during fummer by different kinds of ducks, which repair to them in immenfe troops. One fees them frequently affembled by hundreds; and the people tell me it is their cuftom to leave the rivers at fun. rife, to go and feed in the marshy meadows, that abound in herbs, The inhabitants of this country unanimously affirm, that, when the fheep have caten of the water hemlock, they certainly die. Linnæus attributes this deadly quality, which is especially experienced by the horfes, to a fpecies of the carculio, or beetle, that lives on this plant. I have often examined this plant with its root, and have never found either this beetle, or any worm. Befides, thefe very people affure us, that this plant is mortal to the theep in all feafons; and, as it grows in fhady and wet places, one cannot help fufpeting it to be venomous in its nature. The farther we defcend the Don, the efs wood we meet. At length none at all appears for a hundred verfts along its Western bank, while the oppofite fide, inhabited by the Kalmuos, pres fents to the view at least fome fmall willows fcattered here and there. The inhabitants ufe the branches and roots of these, when dried, for fire-wood. As it is in places where rivers difem. bogue that water-fowls delight the most, fuch places commonly abounding in reeds and rushes, we find many remarkable fpecies about Verchnoi Kurman, where the Kurman falls into the Don; among which I fhall notice the following:--the fpoon-bill, whofe membraneous œfophagus, which he dilates at will when gobbling down his prey, very much refembles the pelican's bag. His bill, in the form of a fpoon, which denotes him an aquatic bird that feeds on fish, is made in fuch a manner as to take them with the greatest eafe. But the fhape of his claws, and his cuftom of making his neft in the tops of the higheft trees, feem to bring his relationship ftill nearer to the heron. The baglan, which is the real cormorant, fwims in flocks on the water's of this country. When this bird is going to feed, he extends his wings, which are from one extremity to the other four feet and a half, and by the motion he gives them makes a noife that may be heard to a confiderable diftance. As foon as he fpies a fish come up towards the furface, he ftrikes upon him inftantly, dilates the bag under his beak, and fwallows his prey entire, Thefe birds nidify in company on the trees, in fuch a manner, that it is not uncommon to find on one fingle tree no lefs than five or fix of their nefts, compofed of twigs and roots, and made very fpacious. The cormorant fwims with incredible velocity, and flies extraordinarily high. In thefe parts I likewife met with feveral forts of curlews and herons. It is an incontrovertible fact, that all the fpecies of birds I have just now mentioned arrive every fpring in thefe environs, and return in autumn, over the Black Sea, into more Southern regions. There is every reafon to think that it is into Egypt, Arabia, Greece, or fome other province fituate under the fame meridian, that they go to fix their periodical abode. That at thele two feafons they take their flight by Azof, is a truth on which a long experience on the part of the Kofacs cannot leave us in any doubt. But what may be the Original Correspondence from Ruffia.-Natural Hiftory. the reason that hinders them from pro- From Cimelia to almost as far as Ticherkafk they have planted vines, whofe ftems have been brought from the other fide of the Euxine. If there ever was a country favourable to this kind of productions, it must be thofe that border on the Western bank of the Don, and that from Voronefch as far as to the mouth of this river. The foil of thefe banks is a mixture of fand, chalk, and a little clay. The needful rains feldom fail in thefe diftricts. It is true that in the fpring and autumn the Don is fubject to confiderable overflowings, and that thefe inundations may do much mitchief to the vineyards. Yet as the chalk mountains begin at but a fmall distance from the river, great advantage 459 might be drawn from that circumstance in relation to this object. But the Kofacs have not even the flightcft knowledge of the proper cultivation of the vine. At Cimelia the ftems are planted in the ground without fupports; or if fometimes they put them, they are only fender twigs, compofing a kind of ho rizontal lattice, on which the branches creep along. They take great care to chufe the lowest places for their vineyards, that the inundations may be fure to reach and to moiften the foil. In alk other refpects they leave the whole to nature; and are even perfuaded, that by tending them with more refinement, they thould do more harm than good. As to the manner of making wine, they go about it fill more aukwardly. As foon as the grape is ripe, which is about the end of Auguft, or at the latest about the middle of September, they cut and tread them. The juice thus expreffed is put into cafks, which they do not even take the pains to cleanse; and then, in three or four days after, they begin to drink it. So that, as the fpirit of a Kofac can have no repofe till it be all drunk out, the whole vintage is almost entirely confumed. As one approaches Cimelia the foil lofes entirely its chalky quality, and becomes a clay mixed with fand. At a little distance from the Stanitza of Babfkaia are two kargans, or tombs, on which I faw two ftatues, one reprefenting a man and the other a woman, who feem to be Tartars. But both are fo damaged by length of time, that they are rather to be confidered as ruins of ftatues than figures of any thing. They are fo much decayed, that a reprefentation of them world hardly pats mutter in the worst of your ragged regiments, with headlefs bishops, bodilets knights, and mutilated monks. All that one can how difcover of them is, that they were made of a gypfous ftone. In thefe kargans, over which fuch ftatues are erected, the fragments of the perfon interred are always found lying from Weft to Eaft. Among the bones, when they are thofe of a man, are found fabres and rings of gold and filver: when they are of a woman, the ornaments in which the fair fex delight. But as the Kofacs have appropriated to themfelves this fubterraneous wealth, the greatest part of these tombs are at prefent empty. At length, Mr. Urban, I am arrived at Ticherkak, after having paffed a distance |