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Article LETTER II. Page 1 of 2 →
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Letter Ii.
LETTER II .
MY DEAR FRIEND , Dublin . THE inhabitants , in general , of this kingdom , " are far from what they have too often and- unjustly been represented by those of our country who never saw them , a nation of wild Irish . Miserable aud oporessed , as by far too many of them are , an Englishman will find much civility in generalas among the same class in his own
as , country ; and , for a small pecuniary consideration , they will exert themselves to please you as much as any people , perhaps , in the king ' s dominions . Poverty " and oppression will naturally make mankind sour , rude , and unsociable ; and eradicate , or at least suppress , all the more amiable principles and passions of humanity . But it should seem unfair and ungenerous to judge of , or decide against , the natural dispo almost to
siton of a man reduced by indigence and oppression desperation . Let commerce , agriculture , and arts , but call forth the dormant activity of their genius , and rouse the native sp irit of enterprize , which rather lies torpid within them ; let liberal laws unfetter their minds , and p lenty cheer their tables ; they will soon show themselves deserving to rank with the most respectable societies in Europe . The bogs wherewith Ireland is overgrown , are not injurious to health , as is commonly imagined ; the watery exhalations from these
are neither so abundant , nor so noxious , as those from marshes , wnich become prejudicial from the various animal and vegetable substances which are left to putrify as soon as the waters are exhaled by the sun . B are not , as one mig ht suppose from their blackness , masses of putrefaction ; but , on the contrary , they are of such a texture , as to resist putrefaction above any other subtance we know of . A shoe , all taken out of bog
of one piece of leather , very neatly stitched , was a - some years ago , yet entirely fresh ; from the very fashion of which , there is scarce room to doubt , but it had lain there some centuries . Butter called rouskin , hath been found in hollowed trunks of trees , where it had been hid so long , that it was become hard and almost friable , yet not void of unctuosity . That the length of time it had been of the which
buried ' was very great , we learn from the depth bog , was ten feet , that had grown over it . But the common phenomenon of timber-trees dugout of these bogs , not only sound , but also so embalmed as afterwards to defy the injuries of time , demonstrates the antiseptic quality of them . The horns of the moose-deer must have lain many centuries in a bog : for the Irish historians do not recognize the existence of the animal whereon they grew . Indeed , 'human
bodies have , in many places , been dug up entire , which , must have lain there for ages . The growth of bogs , however , is variable in different places , from the variety of conditions in the situation , soil , humidity , and quantity of vegetable food ; in some places it is very rapid , in others very slow ; and therefore their altitudes cannot afford any certain measure of time . In the manufacturing counties of the north , peat-fuel has become so scarce , that turburies let from five to
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Letter Ii.
LETTER II .
MY DEAR FRIEND , Dublin . THE inhabitants , in general , of this kingdom , " are far from what they have too often and- unjustly been represented by those of our country who never saw them , a nation of wild Irish . Miserable aud oporessed , as by far too many of them are , an Englishman will find much civility in generalas among the same class in his own
as , country ; and , for a small pecuniary consideration , they will exert themselves to please you as much as any people , perhaps , in the king ' s dominions . Poverty " and oppression will naturally make mankind sour , rude , and unsociable ; and eradicate , or at least suppress , all the more amiable principles and passions of humanity . But it should seem unfair and ungenerous to judge of , or decide against , the natural dispo almost to
siton of a man reduced by indigence and oppression desperation . Let commerce , agriculture , and arts , but call forth the dormant activity of their genius , and rouse the native sp irit of enterprize , which rather lies torpid within them ; let liberal laws unfetter their minds , and p lenty cheer their tables ; they will soon show themselves deserving to rank with the most respectable societies in Europe . The bogs wherewith Ireland is overgrown , are not injurious to health , as is commonly imagined ; the watery exhalations from these
are neither so abundant , nor so noxious , as those from marshes , wnich become prejudicial from the various animal and vegetable substances which are left to putrify as soon as the waters are exhaled by the sun . B are not , as one mig ht suppose from their blackness , masses of putrefaction ; but , on the contrary , they are of such a texture , as to resist putrefaction above any other subtance we know of . A shoe , all taken out of bog
of one piece of leather , very neatly stitched , was a - some years ago , yet entirely fresh ; from the very fashion of which , there is scarce room to doubt , but it had lain there some centuries . Butter called rouskin , hath been found in hollowed trunks of trees , where it had been hid so long , that it was become hard and almost friable , yet not void of unctuosity . That the length of time it had been of the which
buried ' was very great , we learn from the depth bog , was ten feet , that had grown over it . But the common phenomenon of timber-trees dugout of these bogs , not only sound , but also so embalmed as afterwards to defy the injuries of time , demonstrates the antiseptic quality of them . The horns of the moose-deer must have lain many centuries in a bog : for the Irish historians do not recognize the existence of the animal whereon they grew . Indeed , 'human
bodies have , in many places , been dug up entire , which , must have lain there for ages . The growth of bogs , however , is variable in different places , from the variety of conditions in the situation , soil , humidity , and quantity of vegetable food ; in some places it is very rapid , in others very slow ; and therefore their altitudes cannot afford any certain measure of time . In the manufacturing counties of the north , peat-fuel has become so scarce , that turburies let from five to