words, immediately after he was feized, concerning the dauphin's fafety; his declaration of his accomplices being a great way off, and out of reach; and his letter to the king, leave no room to doubt it. And the conference obferved by one of the guards is a corroborative circumstance; though Damiens, not able to deny it, endeavoured, at his trial, to change the order of the words, and transform a fhort thin man, into a thick tall man; which fhewed no token of madness, of which he had no other fhare than is common to rigid enthusiasts. For, when on the ftool of examination before his judges, he was evafive and cautious in his anfwers; and ufed every poffible artifice to extenuate his guilt. He was obftinate and hardy; and of all his exclamations, in the midft of his torment and agonies, there was not one acknowledging his offence, expreffing any forrow but for himself, or afking pardon for his treason. As for the acknowledgement at the performing of the amendehonorable, it was a ceremony; the fincerity of which he never confirmed by any future expreffion on the scaffold. In fhort, Damiens, for a moft atrocious crime, with great firmness and conftancy fuffered death, attended with tortures fhocking to human nature: but whilft we pity the criminal, we should not lofe the deteftation due to the offence. Singular Anecdotes of DR. MOYES and JOHN METCALF, two Extraordinary Blind Men. [From Memoirs of the Philofophical Society of Manchefter.] DR. R. Henry Moyes, who occafionally read Lectures on Philofophical Chemistry at Manchefter, like Dr. Saunderfon, the celebrated Profeffor of Cambridge, loft his fight, by the small-pox, in his early infancy. He never recolJected to have feen: " but the first traces of memory I have," fays he, "are in fome confufed ideas of the folar fyftem." He SINGULAR PROPERTIES OF A BLIND MAN. 211 He had the good fortune to be born in a country where learning of every kind is highly cultivated, and to be brought up in a family devoted to learning. Poffeffed of native genius, and ardent in his application, he made rapid advances in various departments of erudition; and not only acquired the fundamental principles of mechanics, mufic, and the languages; but, likewise, entered deeply into the investigation of the profounder fciences: and displayed an acute and general knowledge of geometry, optics, algebra; of aftronomy, chemistry; and, in fhort, of most of the branches of the Newtonian philosophy. Mechanical exercifes were the favourite employments of his infant years. At a very early age, he made himself acquainted with the use of edged tools fo perfectly, that, notwithstanding his intire blindness, he was able to make little wind-mills; and he even constructed a loom with his own hands, which still fhew the cicatrices of wounds he received in the execution of these juvenile exploits. By a most agreeable intimacy, and frequent intercourse, which I enjoyed with this accomplished blind gentleman, whilft he refided in Manchefter, I had an opportunity of repeatedly obferving the peculiar manner in which he arranged his ideas, and acquired his information. Wheneyer he was introduced into company, I remarked, that he continued fome time filent. The found directed him to judge of the dimenfions of the room, and the different voices, of the number of perfons that were prefent. His diftinction in these refpects, was very accurate; and his memory fo retentive, that he feldom was miftaken. I have known him inftantly recognize a perfon, on first hearing him fpeak, though more than two years had elapfed fince the time of their laft meeting. He determined, pretty nearly, the stature of thofe he was fpeaking with, by the direction of their voices; and he made tolerable conjectures respecting their tempers and difpofitions, by the manner in which they conducted their conversation. It must be obferved, that this gentlemen's eyes were not totally infenfible to intense light. The rays refracted through a prifm, when fufficiently vivid, produced certain diftinguishable effects on them. The red gave him a dif agreeable fenfation, which he compared to the touch of a faw. As the colours declined in violence, the harshness leffened, until the green afforded a fenfation that was highly pleafing to him; and which he defcribed, as conveying an idea fimilar to what he felt in running his hand over smooth polished furfaces. Polished furfaces, meandering ftreams, and gentle declivities, were the figures by which he expreffed his ideas of beauty. Rugged rocks, irregular points, and boisterous elements, furnished him with expreffions for terror and disguft. He excelled in the charms of converfation; was happy in his allufions to visual objects; and difcourfed on the nature, compofition, and beauty of colours, with pertinence and precision. Doctor Moyes was a striking inftance of the power the human foul poffeffes, of finding refources of fatisfaction, even under the most rigorous calamities. Though invol ved in ever-during darknefs," and excluded from the charming views of filent or animated nature; though de pendent on an undertaking for the means of his fubfiftence, the fuccefs of which was very precarious; in fhort, though deftitute of other fupport than his genius, and under the mercenary protection of a person whofe integrity he fufpected-still Dr. Moyes was generally chearful, and apparently happy. Indeed it must afford much pleasure to the feeling heart, to observe this hilarity of temper prevail, almost univerfally, with the blind. Though "cut off from the ways of men, and the contemplation of the human face divine," they have this confolation, they are exempt fron the |