much, is good fortune, and placeth thee on even ground with the proudest of the golden fleece. Oh then, be wife and let induftry walk with thee in the morning, and attend thee until thou reachest the evening hour for reft. Let honefly be as the breath of thy foul, and never forget to have.a penny, when all thy expences are enumerated and paid: then fhalt thou reach the point of happiness, and independence fhall be thy fhield and buckler, thy helmet and crown; then fhall thy foul walk upright, nor ftoop to the filken wretch because he hath riches, nor pocket an abufe because the hand which offers it wears a ring fet with diamonds. AN ECONOMICAL PROJECT. A Tranflaxion of this Letter appeared in one of the Daily Papers of Paris about the Year 1784. The following is the Original Piece, with fome Additions and Corrections made in it by the Author.] To the AUTHORS of the JOURNAL. MESSIEURS, You OU often entertain us with accounts of new difcoveries. Permit me to communicate to the public, through your paper, one that has lately been made by myself, and which I conceive may be of great utility. I was the other evening in a grand company, VOL. II, D where the new lamp of Meffrs. Quinquet and Lange was introduced, and much admired for its fplendor; but a general enquiry was made, whether the oil it confumed, was not in proportion to the light it afforded, in which cafe there would be no faving in the ufe of it. No one prefent could fatisfy us in that point, which all agreed ought to be known, it being a very defirable thing to leffen, if poffible, the expence of lighting our apartments, when every other article of family expence was fo much augmented. I was pleased to see this general concern for œconomy; for I love œconomy exceedingly. I went home, and to bed, three or four hours af ter midnight, with my head full of the subject. An accidental fudden noife waked me about fix in the morning, when I was surprised to find my room filled with light; and I imagined at firft, that a number of thofe lamps had been brought into it: but, rubbing my eyes, I perceived the light came in at the windows. I got up and looked out to fee what might be the occafion of it, when I faw the fun juft rifing above the horizon, from whence he poured his rays plentifully into my chamber, my domeftic having negligently omitted the preceding evening to close the fhutters. I looked at my watch, which goes very well and found that it was but fix o'clock: and ftill thinking it fomething extraordinary that the fun fhould rife fo early, I looked into the almanack; where I found it to be the hour given for his rifing on that day. I looked forward too, and found he was to rife till earlier every day till towards the end of June; and that at no time in the year he etarded his rifing fo long as till eight o'clock. Your readers, who with me have never seen any figns of funthine before noon, and feldom regard the aftronomical part of the almanack, will be as much aftonished as I was, when they, hear of his rifing fo early; and efpecially when I affure them, that he gives light as foon as he rifes. I am convinced of this. I am certain of the fact. One cannot be more certain of any fact. 1 faw it with my own eyes. And having repeated this obfervation the three following mornings, I found always precifely the fa ne refult. Yet fo it happens, that when I fpeak of this difcovery to others, I can eafily perceive by their countenances, though they forbear expreffing it in words, that they do no not quite believe me. One, indeed, who is a learned natural philofopher, has affured me, that I must certainly be miftaken as to the circumftance of the light coming into my room for it being well known, as he fays, that there could be no light abroad at that hour, it follows that none could enter from without; and that of confequence, my windows being accidentally left open, inftead of letting in the light, had only ferved to let out the darkness and he ufed many ingenious arguments to fhew me how I might, by that means, have been deceived. I own that he puzzled me a little, but he did not fatisfy me; and the fubfeqent obfervations I made, as above mentioned, confirmed me in my firft opinion. This event has given rife, in my mind, to feveral ferious and important reflections. I confidered that, if I had not been awakened fo early in the morning, I thould have flept fix hours longer by the light of the fun, and in exchange have lived fix hours the following night by candle-light; and the latter being a much more expenfive light than the former, my love of ceconomy induced me to muter up what little arithmetic I was mafter of, and to make fome calculations, which I fhall give you, after cbferving, that utility is, in my opinion, the test of value in matters of invention, and that a difcovery which can be applied to no ufe, or is not good for fomething, is good for nothing. I took for the bafis of my calculation the fuppafition that there are 100,000 families in Paris, and that these families confume in the night halt a pound of bougies, or candles per hour. I think this is a moderate allowance, taking one fa mily with another; for though I believe fome confume lefs, I know that many confume a great deal more. Then eftimating feven hours per day, as the medium quantity between the time of the fun's rifing and ours, he rifing during the fix fol lowing months from fix to eight hours before noon, and there being feven hours of cou:fe per nightin which we burn candles, the account will fland thus- In the fix months between the twentieth of March and the twentieth of September, there are Nights Hours of each night in which we burn candles Multiplication gives for the total Thefe 1,281 hours multiplied by One hundred twenty eight millions 183 7 1,281 128,100,000 and one hundred thousand hours, fpent at Paris by candle-light, which, at half a pound of wax and tallow per hour, gives the weight of Sixty-four millions and fifty thoufand of pounds, which, estimating the whole at the medium price of thirty fols the pound, makes the fum of ninety-fix millions and feventy-five thousand livres tournois 64,050,000 96,075,000 An immenfe fum! that the city of Paris might fave every year, by the oeconomy of ufing funfhine inftead of candles. If it fhould be faid, that the people are apt to be obftinately attached to old cuftoms, and that it will be difficult to induce them to rife before noon, confequently my difcovery can be of little ufe; İ anfwer, Nil defperandum. I believe all who have common fenfe, as foon as they have learnt from this paper that it is day-light when the fun rifes, will contrive to rife with him; and, to compel the reft, I would propofe the following regulations: Firft. Let a tax be laid of a louis per window, on every window that is provided with fhutters ro keep out the light of the fun. Second. Let the fame falutary operation of police be made ufe of to prevent our burning canles, that inclined us laft winter to be more coomical in burning wood; that is, let guards be placed in the fhops of the wax and tallow-chanders, and no family be permitted to be fupplied with more than one pound of candles per week. Third Let guards be pofted to stop all the coach |