he foundation; which he justified to me by the like practise of
those two prudent insects, the bee and the spider.

There was an astronomer who had undertaken to place a sun-dial upon
the great weather-cock on the town-house, by adjusting the annual and
diurnal motions of the earth and sun, so as to answer and coincide
with all accidental turning of the winds.

We crossed a walk to the other part of the academy, where, as I have
already said, the projectors in speculative learning resided.

The first professor I saw was in a very large room, with forty pupils
about him. After salutation, observing me to look earnestly upon a
frame which took up the greatest part of both the length and breadth
of the room, he said, perhaps I might wonder to see him employed in a
project for improving speculative knowledge by practical and
mechanical operations. But the world would soon be sensible of its
usefulness, and he flattered himself that a more noble, exalted
thought never sprang in any other man's head. Every one knew how
laborious the usual method is of attaining to arts and sciences;
whereas by his contrivance, the most ignorant person, at a reasonable
charge, and with a little bodily labor, may write books in philosophy,
poetry, politics, law, mathematics, and theology, without the least
assistance from genius or study. He then led me to the frame, about
the sides whereof all his pupils stood in ranks. It was twenty feet
square, placed in the middle of the room. The superficies was composed
of several bits of wood, about the bigness of a die, but some larger
than others. They were all linked together by slender wires. These
bits of wood were covered on every square with paper pasted on them;
and on these papers were written all the words of their language in
their several moods, tenses, and declensions, but without any order.
The professor then desired me to observe, for he was going to set his
engine at work. The pupils, at his command, took each of them hold of
an iron handle, whereof there were forty fixt round the edges of the
frame, and giving them a sudden turn, the whole disposition of the
words was entirely changed. He then commanded six-and-thirty of the
lads to read the several lines softly as they appeared upon the frame;
and where they found three or four words together that might make part
of a sentence, they dictated to the four remaining boys, who were
scribes. This work was repeated three or four times, and