by aftronomers. They accordingly expected its return, making an allowance for its retardation, in 1789. Agreeably to this conjecture Dr. Maskelyne had calculated that it might be certainly expected before the 27th of April in that year. In this inftance, however, the expectation of aftronomers has been disappointed; and it remains for future obfervation to ascertain the periodical return of this eccentric planet. The comet which appeared in 1680, travelled, when neareft to the fun, with the amazing velocity of 880,000,000 of miles in an hour. Its greatest distance from the fun is computed at 11,200,000,000 of miles, and its leaft distance at 490,000, at which time it is faid to be 2000 times hotter than red hot iron. This comet approaches, in one part of its orbit, very nearly to the orbit of our earth; fo that, according to fome eminent philofophers, it may, in fome future revolutions, approach near enough to have very confiderable, if not fatal effects upon it. No. 4. FIXED STARS. These are fo called, because they always maintain the fame pofition, or relative distance from each other; their apparent diurnal motion being caused folely by the earth's turning on its axis. Mathematicians affert, that Syrius, or the Dog Star, is the nearest to us of all the fixed ones; and they compute its diftance from our earth at 2,200,000,000,000 of miles. They maintain that a found would not reach our earth from Syrius in 50,000 years; and that a cannon-ball, flying with its ufual velocity of 480 miles an hour, would confume 523,211 years in its paffage thence to our globe. The fixed ftars are fuppofed to be made for the fame purposes as the fun; that they may bestow light, heat, and vegetation, on a certain number of inhabited planets. OF World beyond world, in infinite extent, THOMSON, No. 5. THE INVENTION OF ALPHABETICAL LETTERS, AND THE ART OF WRITING. Writing is the art of conveying our ideas to others by letters, or characters vifible to the eye. To whom we are indebted, for this admirable and useful difcovery, does not appear. Many learned men have fuppofed, that the alphabet was of divine origin, and feveral writers have afferted, that letters were firft communicated to Mofes by God himself; whilst others have contended, that the decalogue was the first alphabetic writing. Again, many authors have decided in favour of the ancient inhabitants of Egypt. "There firft the marble learn'd to mimic life, Others 7 Others have maintained the claim of the Phoenicians to the invention of letters. Phoenicians firft, if ancient fame be true, Rowe's Lucan's Pharfalia. The Chaldeans have alfo had several learned advocates, who have attributed the invention of letters to the patriarch Abraham; and Sir Ifaac Newton, in particular, admits that letters were known in the Abrahamic time for fome centuries before Mofes. Mr. Gilbert Wakefield is one of thofe learned writers, who have maintained, that the art of alphabetical writing appears to be of divine origin; and in his ingenious Effay on this fubject, he obferves, that the Phoenicians, and their colonifts the Carthaginians, fpoke the Hebrew language, or a dialect fcarcely varying from the original; and that all the languages in ufe among men, which have been conveyed in alphabetical characters, were the languages of people, connected ultimately, or, immediately, with thofe who have handed down the earliest specimens of writing to pofterity, viz. the authors of the five firft books of the Old Teftament, which are acknowledged by all to be, not only the moft ancient compofitions, but also the moft carly fpecimens of alphabetical writing, at prefent exifting in the world. Mr. More, in his Effay upon the Invention of Writing, informs us, that the various combinations of the 24 letters, and none of them repeated twice, will amount to 620,448,401,733,239,439,360,000. But Clavius, the Jefuit, who alfo computed thefe combinations, makes the numbers to be but 5,852,616,738,497,664,000. No. 6. DIFFICULTY OF APPREHENDING HIGH NUMBERS. As very high numbers are fomewhat difficult to apprehend, we naturally fall on contrivances to fix them in our minds, and render them familiar but notwithstanding all the expedients we can contrive, our ideas of high numbers are ftill imperfect, and generally far fhort of the reality; and though we can perform any computation with exactnefs, the answer we obtain is often incompletely apprehended. If It may not be amifs to illuftrate, by a few examples, the extent of numbers which are frequently named without being attended to. a perfon employed in telling money reckon an hundred pieces in a minute, and continue at work ten hours each day, he will take feventeen days to reckon 1,000,000; a thousand men would take 45 years to reckon 1,000,000,000,000. If we fuppofe the whole earth to be as well peopled as Great-Britain, and to have been fo from the creation, and that the whole race of mankind had constantly spent their time in telling a heap confifting of 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 of pieces, they would hardly have yet reckoned a thoufandth part of that quantity. Ency. Brit. Art. Arithmetic. ADDITION ADDITION TEACHES to add feveral fums together into one whole or total. EXAMPLE S. No. 7. CREATION OF THE WORLD. Man, as the pious Hervey remarks, being greatly beloved by his Creator, is conftituted mafter of this globe. The fields are his exhauftlefs granary. The ocean his vaft refervoir. The animals fpend their ftrength to dispatch his bufinefs; refign their clothing, to replenish his wardrobe; and furrender their very lives to provide for his table. Man, more divine, is mafter of all these, Lord of the wide world, and wide wat'ry feas, SHAKESPEARE. For him kind nature wakes her genial pow'r, РОРЕ, Being thus diftinguished by the goodness of the Almighty, let us diftinguish ourselves by our gratitude. Let it be our undivided aim, to glorify him, who has been at fo much expence to gratify us: and, in particular, let ingenuous youth hence learn "to remember their Creator in the days of their youth." According to moft chronológers the world was created 4004 years B. C.; how old is it this prefent year 1795? Anf. 5799 years. No. 8. DELUGE. The inhabitants of our earth, excepting Noah and his family, were deftroyed for their wickedness by a flood. This direful event is defcribed in the 6th, 7th, and 8th chapters of Genefis; Noah being, as the facred hiftorian relates, "a just man and perfect in his generation, found grace in the eyes of the Lord," and was preferved in the ark, as were alfo his family, and a certain number of beasts and birds to replenish the earth. Of ev'ry beast, and bird, and insect small Came fev'ns, and pairs, and enter'd in, as taught With their four wives. Mean time down rush'd the rain Impetuous, and continu'd 'till th' earth No more was feen; the floating veffel fwum Uplifted, Uplifted, and fecure with beaked prow Rode tilting o'er the waves; all dwellings elfe MILTON. Upon the affuaging of the waters, the ark" faft on the top of fome high mountain fixed;" and Noah went forth and built an altar to Jehovah, receiving from the Lord, at the fame time, A covenant never to destroy The earth again by flood, nor let the fea MILTON, The token of this covenant was the " triple colour'd bow," which, it is fuppofed, did not appear before the deluge, the earth prior to that æra being watered daily by a thick mift, and confequently there could be naturally no rainbow, which is made by the refraction of the fun's rays in the drops of falling rain; a discovery we owe to the immortal Newton. Mean time refracted from yon' eaftern cloud, The various twine of light, by thee disclosed THOMSON. As the antediluvian world perished by the flood, fo fhall the prefent world, which we inhabit, be deftroyed by fire; and fome eminent aftronomers have imagined, that a comet will be the inftrument of this direful conflagration, when, as Shakespeare emphatically expreffes it, The cloud-capt towers, the gorgeous palaces, Or, agreeably to language ftill more awful, The heavens being on fire fhall be diffolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat. 2 Peter iii. 12. The deluge happened 2356 years B. C.; how long is that ago this present year 1795? Anf. 4151 years. No. 9. THE CALLING OF ABRAHAM*. Abraham, the father and stock whence the faithful fprung, was the son of Terah. He was * Abraham denotes a father of a great multitude: his former name, Abram, an high father. defcended defcended from Noah by Shem, and was born in the city of Ur, in Chaldea. He died at the age of 175 years, and was interred in the cave of Machpelah, near the body of Sarah his first wife. Machpelah was near Hebron, which was about twenty miles fouthward of the fpot where the city of Jerufalem was afterwards built. Abraham is faid to have been well skilled in many sciences, and to have written several books. Jofephus informs us, that he taught the Egyptians arithmetic and geometry; and, according to other writers, he inftructed the Phoenicians, as well as the Egyptians, in aftronomy. This illuftrious patriarch, who, for his faith, piety, and obedience, was honoured with the high titles of the "father of the faithful, and the friend of God," was called to be the father of a chofen people 1921 years B. C. Him God the moft High vouchfafed All nations of the earth were blefs'd. MILTON. Many of the inhabitants of the Eaft-Indies, not only Chriftians and Mahometans, but even the Indians and Infidels, have a traditionary knowledge of the patriarch Abraham, and fpeak highly in commendation of him. How long has the calling of Abraham preceded the present year *795? Anf. 3716 years. No. 10. SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF MOSES*. Mofes, the great Jewish legiflator, was the fon of Amram and Jochebed, of the tribe of Levi. He was born in Egypt, in the N. E. part of Africa. In confequence of a murderous edict iffued by the tyrant and perfecutor Pharaoht, king of that country, he was, fhortly after his nativity, expofed upon the river Nile, in an ark of bulrufhest. From this perilous fituation he was rescued by the humane daughter of the mercilefs defpot, who took him up, and nourished him for her own fon, and he became learned in all the wifdom of the Egyptians, and was mighty in words and in deeds." See Exodus ii. and Acts vii. 21, 22. About the 80th year of his age, Mofes, after performing a number of miracles in Egypt, quitted that kingdom with 600.000 Ifraelites, befides children, who all miraculously paffed through the RED SEA, * The name Mofes imports being drawn up, or taken out of the water. Ex. ii. 10. As juftice fhould be done even to a tyrant, we fhall quote a remark of the celebrated Dr. Jortin's refpecting Pharaoh. "This defpot, fays that learned writer, tyrant and perfecutor as he was, never compelled the Hebrews to forfake the religion of their fathers and to adopt that of the Egyptians. Such improvements in perfecution, adds that great man, were referved for Chriftians !!!" By bulrushes is fuppofed to be meant the papyrus, a reed which grew in the river Nile, with which they made fhips or floops. See Ifaiah xviii, 2. Whofe |