Ludamar, to the crueleft indignities that the malice of bigotted Moors could invent. He was not fuffered to travel beyond the camp; though he moved as it moved, and of courfe faw a confiderable part of the country, and had an opportunity of obferving the manners of the people. "The Moors of Ludamar fubfift chiefly on the flesh of their cattle; and are always in the extreme of either glut tony or abftinence. In confequence of the frequent and fevere fafts which their religion enjoins, and the toilfome journeys which they fometimes undertake acrofs the defert, they are enabled to bear both hunger and thirft with furprising fortitude; but whenever opportunities occur of fatisfying their appetite, they generally devour more at one meal than would ferve an Euro. pean for three. They pay but little attention to agriculture; purchafing their corn, cotton cloth, and other neceffaries, from the Negroes, in exchange for falt, which they dig from the pits in the Great Defert. "The natural barrennefs of the country is fuch, that it furnishes 'but few materials for manufacture. The Moors, however, contrive to weave a strong cloth, with which they cover their tents; the thread is fpun by their women from the hair of goats: and they prepare the hides of their cattle fo as to furnish faddles, bridles, pouches, and other articles of leather. They are like wife fufficiently skilful to convert the native iron, which they procure from the Negroes, into fpears and knives, and alfo into pots for boiling their food; but their fabres and other weapons, as well as their fire-arms and ammunition, they purchase from the Europeans, in exchange for the Negro flaves which they obtain in their predatory excurfions. Their chief commerce of this kind is with the French traders on the Senegal river."

The Moors of this country have fingular ideas of feminine perfection. The gracefulnefs of figure and motion, and a countenance enlivened by expreffion, are by no means effential points in their ftandard; with them corpulence and beauty appear to be terms nearly fynonymous. A woman, of even moderate pretenfions, must be one who cannot walk without a flave under each arm to support her; and a perfect beauty is a load for a camel. In confequence of this prevalent taste for unwieldinefs of bulk, the Moorish ladies take great pains to acquire it early in life; and for this purpose many of the young girls are compelled by their mothers to devour an immenfe quantity of food, and drink a large bowl of camel's milk every morning. It is of no importance whether the girl has an appetite or not, the meat and the drink must be fwallowed; and obedience is frequently enforced by blows. This fingular practice, inftead of producing indigeftion and disease, foon covers the young lady with that degree of plumpness, which, in the eye of a Moor, is perfection itself.

"Although the wealth of the Moors confifts chiefly in their numerous herds of cattle; yet, as the paftoral life

B

Lynx.

does not afford full employment, the majority of the Ludamar people are perfectly idle, and fpend the day in trifling converfation about their horfes, or in laying fchemes of depredation on the Negro villages.

"The ufual place of rendezvous for the indolent is the king's tent, where great liberty of speech feems to be exercifed by the company towards each other. While in fpeaking of their chief, they exprefs but one opinion. In praife of their fovereign, they are unanimous. Songs are compofed in his honour, which the company fre quently fing in concert; but they are fo loaded with grofs adulation, that no man but a Moorish defpot could hear them without blushing. The king is diftinguifhed by the fineness of his drefs, which is compofed of blue cotton cloth brought from Tombuctoo, or white linen or muflin from Morocco. He has likewife a larger tent than any other perfon, with a white cloth over it; but in his ufual intercourfe with his fubjects, all diftinctions of rank are frequently forgotten. He fometimes eats out of the fame bowl with his camel driver, and reposes himself, during the heat of the day, upon the fame bed.

"The military strength of Ludamar confists in cavalry. They are well mounted, and appear to be very expert in fkirmishing and attacking by furprise. Every foldier furnishes his own horfe, and finds his accoutrements, confifting of a large fabre, a double barrelled gun, a fmall red leather bag for holding his balls, and a powder horn flung over the fhoulder. He has no pay, nor any remuneration but what arises from plunder. This body is not very numerous; for when Ali the king made war upon Bambara, our author was informed that his whole force did not exceed 2000 cavalry. They conftitute, however, by what he could learn, but a very fmall proportion of his Moorish fubjects. The horfes are very beautiful, and fo highly esteemed, that the Negro princes will fometimes give from twelve to fourteen flaves for one horse."

Cut off from all intercourfe with civilized nations, and boafting an advantage over the Negroes, by poffeffing, though in a very limited degree, the knowledge of letters, the Moors of Ludamar are at once the vainett and proudeft, and perhaps the most bigotted, ferocious, and intolerant of all the nations on the earth; combining in their character the blind fuperftition of the Negro with the favage cruelty and treachery of the Arab. It was with the utmoft difficulty that our author made his escape from this inhofpitable people.

LUPUS, the Wolf, a fouthern conftellation, joined to the Centaur, containing together 19 ftars in Ptolomy's catalogue, but 24 in the Britannic catalogue.

LYNX, a conftellation of the northern hemifphere, composed by Hevelius out of the unformed ftars. In his catalogue it confifts of 19 ftars, but in the Britannic 44.

MACHINERY.

'HE denomination Machine is now vulgarly given

THE Machine now

little analogy by which they can be claffed with propriety under any one name. We fay a travelling machine, a bathing machine, a copying machine, a threfhing machine, an electrical machine, &c. &c. The only circumftance in which all these agree seem to be, that their conftruction is more complex and artificial than the utenfils, tools, or inftruments which offer themselves to the first thoughts of uncultivated people. They are more artificial than the common cart, the bathing tub, or the flail. In the language of ancient Athens and Rome, the term was applied to every tool by which hard labour of any kind was performed; but in the language of modern Europe, it seems reftricted either to fuch tools or inftruments as are employed for executing fome philofophical purpose, or of which the conftruction employs the fimple mechanical powers in a confpicuous manner, in which their operation and energy engage the attention. An electrical machine, a centrifugal machine, are of the first class; a threshing machine, a fire machine, are of the other clafs. It is nearly fynonymous, in our language, with ENGINE; a term altogether modern, and in fome measure honourable, being beflowed only, or chiefly, on contrivances for executing work in which ingenuity and mechanical skill are manifeft. Perhaps, indeed, the term engine is limited, by careful writers, to machines of confiderable magnitude, or at leaft of confiderable art and contrivance. We fay, with propriety, fteam engine, fire-engine, plating-engine, boring engine; and a dividing machine, a copying machine, &c. Either of these terms, machine or engine, are applied with impropriety to contrivances in which fome piece of work is not executed on materials which are then faid to be manufactured. A travelling or bathing machine is furely a vul. garifm. A machine or engine is therefore a TOOL; but of complicated conftruction, peculiarly fitted for expediting labour, or for performing it according to certain invariable principles: And we should add, that the dependence of its efficacy on mechanical principles must be apparent, and even confpicuous. The contrivance and erection of fuch works conftitute the profeffion of the engineer; a profeffion which ought by no means to be confounded with that of the mechanic, the artifan, or manufacturer. It is one of the artes liberales; as deferving of the title as medicine, furgery, architecture, painting, or fculpture. Nay, whether we confider the importance of it to this flourishing nation, or the science that is neceffary for giving eminence to the profeffor, it is very doubtful whether it should not take place of the three laft named, and go pari paffu with furgery and medicine. The inconfiderate reader, who perufes Cicero de Oratore with fatisfaction, is apt to smile at Vitruvius, who requires in his architect nearly the fame accomplishments which Cicero requires

in his orator. He has not recollected, or perhaps did not know, that the profeffion of an architect in the Auguftan age was the moft respectable of all those which were not effentially connected with the management of ftate affairs. It appears that the architects were all Greeks, or the pupils of Greeks, altogether different from the members of the Collegium Murariorum, the corporation of builders and mafons. The architecture of temples, ftadiums, circuses, amphitheatres, feems to have been monopolifed, by ftate authority, by a fociety which had long fubfisted in Afia, connected by certain myfterious bonds, both civil and religious. We find it in Syria; and we learn that it was brought thi ther from Perfia in very ancient times. From thence it spread into Ionia, where it became a very eminent and powerful affociation, under the particular protection of Bacchus, to whom the members had erected a magnificent temple at Teos, with a vast establishment of priests and priesteffes, confifting of perfons of the firft rank in the state. They were the fole builders of temples and ftadiums throughout all Greece and the Leffer Afia; and the contractors for the machinery that was employed in the theatres, and in the great temples, for the celebration of the high myfteries of paganifm. By the imperfect accounts which remain of the Eleufinian and other myfteries, it appears, that this machinery muft have been immenfe and wonderful, and must have required a great deal of mechanical skill. This indeed appears, in the moft convincing manner, to any perfon who reflects on the magnificent ftructures which they erected, which excite to this day the wonder of the world, not only on account of their magnificence and incomparable elegance, but alfo on account of the mechanical knowledge that feems indispensably necessary for their erection. This will ever remain a myftery. There are no traces of fuch knowledge to be found in the writings of antiquity. Even Vitruvius, writing exprefsly on the fubject, has given us nothing but what is in the loweft degree of elementary knowledge.

This affociation of the Dyonifiacs undoubtedly kept their mechanical science a profound fecret from the uninitiated, the profane. They were the engineers of antiquity, and Vitruvius was perhaps not one of the ini tiated. He fpeaks of Myro and other Greek architects in terms of refpect which border on veneration. Perhaps the modern affociation of free mafons is a remain of this antient fraternity, continued to our times by the company of builders, who erected the cathedrals and great conventual churches. No one who confiders their works with fcientific attention, can doubt of their being deeply verfed in the principles of mechanics, and even its more refined branches. They appear to have car. ried the art of vault-roofing almoft to its acme of perfection; far outftripping their Grecian inftru&tors in their knowledge of this moft delicate branch of their art.

It

It were greatly to be wifhed that fome fuch inftitution did yet exift, where men might be induced by the moft powerful motives to accomplish themselves in the knowledge neceffary for attaining eminence in their profeffion.

We have been informed (and we thought our authority good), that our gracious Sovereign has fignified his intention of patronifing an inftitution of this kind. We heard, that it was propofed to inftitute degrees fimilar to our university degrees, and proceeding on fimilar conditions of a regular education or ftanding, which would enfure the opportunities of information, and alfo on an examination of the proficiency of the candidate. This examination, being conducted by perfons eminent in the profeffion, perhaps ftill exercifing it, would probably be ferious, because the fuccefsful candidate would immediately become a rival practitioner. Such an inftitution would undoubtedly prevent many grofs impofi. tions by unlettered mill-wrights and pump-makers, who now feldom appear under any name but that of engineer, although they are frequently ignorant even of the elements of mechanical fcience, and are totally unac quainted with the higher mathematics; without which, it is abfolutely impoffible for them to contrive a ma chine well fuited to the intended purpofe, or to fay with any tolerable precifion what will be the performance of the engine they have erected. Yet these are queftions fufceptible of accurate folution, because they depend on the unalterable laws of matter and motion.

All who have a juft view of the unfpeakable advan. tages which this highly favoured land poffeffes in the fuperiority and activity of its manufactures, and who know how much of this fuperiority fhould be afcribed to the great improvements which have been made in practical mechanics within these laft thirty years, will join us in wifhing fuccefs to fome fuch inftitution as that now mentioned.

We were naturally led to thefe reflections when we turned our thoughts to machinery in general, and ob. ferved what is done in this country by the native energy of its inhabitants, unaffifted by fuch fcientific inftructions as they might have expected from the pupils of a Newton, their countryman, under the patronage of the best of Sovereigns, eminently knowing in these things, and ever ready to encourage thofe fciences and arts which have fo highly contributed to the national profperity. What might not be reasonably expected from British activity, if those among ourselves who have knowledge and leifure had been at the fame pains with the members of the foreign academies to cultivate the Newtonian philofophy, and particularly the more refined branches of mechanics, and to deduce from their fpeculations maxims of conftruction fitted to our fituation as a great manufacturing nation? But fuch know. ledge is not attainable by thofe who are acquainted only with the imperfect elements contained in the publications read by the bulk of our practitioners. Much to this purpofe has been done on the continent by the moft eminent mathematicians; but from want of indi. vidual energy, or perhaps of general fecurity and pro tection, the patriotic labours of thofe gentlemen have not done the fervice to their country which might have been reasonably expected. Indeed, their differtations have generally been fo compofed, that only the learned could fee their value. They feem addreffed only, or

chiefly, to fuch; but it is to thofe authors that our countrymen generally have recourfe for information concerning every thing in their profeffion that rifes above mere elementary knowledge. The books in our language which profefs to be fyftems of mechanics rarely go beyond this: they contain only the principles of equilibrium. Thefe are abfolutely neceffary for the knowledge of machines; but they are very far indeed from giving what may be called a practical knowledge of working machinery. This is never in a ftate of equi librium. The machine muft move in order to work. There must be a fuperiority of impelling power, beyond what is merely fufficient for balancing the refiftance or contrary action of the work to be performed. The reader may turn to the article STATICS in the Encyclo pedia Britannica, and he will there fee fome farther obfervations on this head. And in the article MECHA NICS he will find a pretty ample detail of all the ufual doctrines, and a defcription of a confiderable variety of machines or engines, accompanied by fuch obfervations as are neceffary for tracing the propagation or tranfmiffion of preffure from that part of the machine to which the natural power is applied to the working part of the machine. Along with these two articles, it will be proper to read with peculiar attention the article ROTATION.

By far the greateft number of our most serviceable engines confift chiefly of parts which have a motion of rotation round fixed axes, and derive all their energy from levers virtually contained in them. And thefe acting parts are alfo material, requiring force to move them over and above what is neceffary for producing the acting force at the working part of the machine. The modifications which this circumftance frequently makes of the whole motions of the machine, are indica. ted in the article ROTATION in an elementary way; and the propofitions there inveftigated will be found almoft continually involved in the complete theory of the operation of a machine. Laftly, it will be proper to confider attentively the propofitions contained in the article STRENGTH of Materials, that we may combine them with thofe which relate wholly to the working of the machine; because it is from this combination only. that we discover the ftrains which are excited at the various points of fupport, and of communication, and in every member of the machine. We suppose all these things already underfood.

1

Our object at prefent is to point out the principles The chief which enable us to afcertain what will be the precife queftion in motion of a machine of given conftruction, when actua-mechanics. a natural power of known intensity, applied to a given point of the machine, while it is employed to overcome a known refiftance acting at another point. To abbreviate language, we fhall call that the IMPELLED POINT of the machine to which the preffure of the moving power is immediately applied; and we may call' that the WORKING POINT, where the refiftance arifing, from the work to be performed immediately acts.

To confider this important fubject, even in its chief varieties, requires much more room than can be allowed in an undertaking like ours, and therefore we must content ourselves with a very limited view; but at the fame: time, fuch a view as fhall give fufficient indication of the principles which fhould direct the practical reader in every important cafe. We fhall confider thofe machines

which