Anthony Florian Madinger Willich

“ Good-breeding adorns and enforces virtue and truth; it connects, it endears, and while it indulges the just liberty, restrains that indecent licentiousness of conversation, which alienates and provokes. Great talents render a man famous; great merit procures respect; great learning, esteem: but good-breeding alone can ensure love and affection. Hence it deserves to be peculiarly recommended to women, as the greatest ornament to such as possess beauty, and the safest refuge for those of a contrary description. ”

“ War is always a national evil; and is justifiable only in cases of self-defence; though, by proper remonstrances, it might doubtless in many instances be avoided, together with all its horrors.—Like the duels between private individuals, which disgrace civilized Europe, war may for a short time gratify the rage of hatred, but it uniformly fails to answer the end for which it was commenced;—disappointing the wishes of the ambitious; betraying the interests of society ”

“ In fact, it is to this cause we owe the continual importation of fresh seeds from abroad, our gardeners rarely saving any good red cabbage-seed; whereas, if a contrary conduct were pursued, they might continue the species as good in Britain as in any other part of the world.
In whatever light we view this plant, whether as an article of food for man, or as fodder for cattle, it fully merits all the attention, which of late years has been bestowed upon it. It amply repays the care and diligence which the industrious cultivator confers on it, each species being equally fruitful. ”

“ LOGIC, is the art of thinking and reasoning with judgment and propriety: or, it may be defined to be the history of the human mind; because it traces the progress of knowledge from the first and most simple conceptions, through all their various combinations, gradations, and the inferences that are drawn from a comparison of ideas.
Logic is, doubtless, one of the most important sciences that can be impressed on the young mind ”

“ The beech is the most beautiful tree our island produces. In stateliness and grandeur of outline, it vies with the oak. Its foliage is peculiarly delicate and pleasing to the eye, and therefore preferable to the lime, for ornamental plantations, particularly in parks, where the mast in fruitful years wiil be serviceable to the deer: its branches are numerous and spreading, and its stem grows to a great size. The bark is extremely smooth and silvery, which, together with the elegance of its foliage, gives a pleasing neatness and delicacy to its general appearance. ”

“ To a reflecting mind, it affords matter of just surprize, how so many persons of worth and character, while sober, can devote themselves to a custom which they cannot but abhor in their friends. For the sake of a momentary gratification of the palate, wines and spirits are indiscriminately swallowed, and especially by those whose age, labours, and merit in society, often entitle them to neither. Immense quantities of valuable grain, by Nature designed for the support of the poor and indigent, are annually converted into liquid fire, or more properly, poison! ”

“ EDUCATION, is the art of rearing, forming, and instructing children, according to the most appropriate rules and maxims.— Many volumes have, from time to time, been published on this most impotant subject; and though almost every writer aims at giving to the public a system peculiar to himself, yet all agree that the grand object of education is the gradual improvement of our moral, physical, and intellectual faculties.—Thus it happens, that the means to be adopted for attaining this salutary end, constitute all the difference of opinion prevailing among men. ”

“ By some, a brute is defined to be an animal not risible, or a living creature incapable of laughter; by others a mute animal. The peripatetics allowed to brutes a sensitive power, but denied them a rational one. The Platonists considered them as possessed of reason and understanding; though, in a degree less pure and refined than that of man. Descartes maintained that brutes are mere inanimate machines, destitute not only of reason, but of all thought and perception; and that their actions are only consequences of the exquisite mechanism of their bodies. ”

“ RIVER, a current or stream of fresh water, which flows in a bed or channel, from its spring or source, and empties itself into the sea.
Rivers form one of the chief ornaments of the globe: while they serve not only to carry off superfluous rains and springs; but, from the great numbers and varieties of fish they contain, likewise afford a grateful food to mankind. They also greatly tend to fertilize the soils through which they flow; and the Mud, that subsides at the bottom, as well as the weeds which vegetate on their banks, form a valuable fertilizing Manure. ”

“ Yet such is their infatuation, that nearly the whole of their weekly earnings is squandered on insurances: and it is a melancholy proof of the folly of mankind, that of the bread usually consumed, one-third only is eaten during the eventful period of drawing the lottery. Hence we think it our duty to state abuses of such magnitude; as they prey on the vitals of the community: and we trust that the wisdom of the legislature will shortly be induced to reform, or, if possible, to abolish the whole department of the lottery, and to adopt a less hazardous, and more dignified plan of finance. ”

“ ADULTERATION is the corruption, or debasement by an improper mixture, of any substance that was originally in a pure state. This art, though not unknown to the ancients, has in modern times been carried to a great extent; insomuch that we are sorry to observe, the rules and principles upon which so pernicious a practice is founded, are considered as qualifications essential to those persons who supply others as well with the common necessaries, as the luxuries, of life. ”

“ Those, who reflect on the fleeting nature of human thought, and on the importance of remembering the train of ideas which lead to a certain conclusion, will readily admit, that annotations might be rendered equally interesting and useful, if they were extended to that department of human affairs, which more immediately relates to the operations of the human mind.—Thus, if every striking idea, whether of an economical or intellectual tendency, were duly registered, and digested, when a more favourable opportunity offers, incalculable benefit would thence result to society. ”

“ It is remarkable, that this violation of divine and human law, has prevailed chiefly among the most civilized nations; and that it occurs more frequently among the wealthy, than the indigent classes of society. A combination of circumstances generally co-operates, to induce an unsettled mind to commit such unjustifiable crime: thus, it has been urged, that the copious use of tea, animal food, spirituous liquors, and the sulphureous exhalations of pit-coal, in a variable climate, instigate to suicide; because they uniformly tend to depress and enervate the human constitution. ”

“ We cannot, consistently with the plan of this work, enter into a detail of the rise and progress of architecture; and shall, therefore, only observe, that the Greeks, whose sublime and penetrating genius prompted them to combine elegance with convenience, derived their first ideas of building from the Egyptians.
But the mind of man being unquestionably influenced by the mode of government under which he lives; and the Greeks, with their independence, having also lost their ascendancy in works of genius, from that period the Romans must be considered as the encouragers of this noble art. ”

“ On one side, this fruit is of a glossy red, and a small part of the other is yellow; dots of the latter colour being dispersed over it, and sometimes also warts. Its flesh is uncommonly white, tender, juicy, and sweet, partaking of the odour of roses. The core is encompassed by a bright-red vein. When stored, this apple ripens about Christmas, at which period the German Borsdorfer begins to decay.—The tree of the red kind is one of the largest standards; bears every year abundant fruit; and its vernal blossoms resist the severity of night-frosts. ”

“ ARCHERY is the art, or exercise, of shooting with a bow and arrow.
Among ancient nations, the bow was the principal instrument of war; and the skill of the archer often decided the fate of battles and of empires. ”

“ BODY, in physics, implies an extended, solid, divisible substance, which in itself has no power of motion, but acts by external impulse; it also possesses the properties of attraction and repulsion. Whatever relates to this branch of knowledge, under its various modifications and appearances, through the whole creation, is the subject of physics, or natural philosophy: if it concern the economy of the human body, in particular, and the treatment of its various disorders, it belongs to the province of medicine, or the department of the physician. ”

“ That the preference was given to stone-buildings, over any kind of temporary huts, or tents, is obvious from the practice among the inhabitants of America, where the human race existed in its rudest state: these people were no sooner collected into great bodies, under the Emperors of Mexico and Peru, than stone buildings were immediately attempted. Hence the origin of architecture should not be searched for in any single nation, but in every country, at a time when the natives began to relinquish their savage way of life, and to adopt civilized manners. ”

“ The goodness of the beer will depend on the quality of the malt from which it is made; on the peculiar properties of the water with which it is infused; on the degree of heat applied in the mashing; on the length of time the fusion is continued; on the due manner of boiling the wort, together with the quantity and quality of the hops employed; and on the proper degree of fermentation: to ascertain all which particulars, with precision, constitutes the great mystery of brewing, and can only be learnt by experience and repeated observation. ”

“ COLOUR is one of the most remarkable phenomena in nature, the explanation of which, by the ancient philosophers, was vague and unsatisfactory, till Sir Isaac Newton, in 1666, discovered that the coloured image of the sun, formed by a glass prism, was not of a circular, but of an oblong form, contrary to the laws of refraction. Hence he conjectured, that light is not homogeneal, or a simple body, but that it consists of rays, some of which are much more refrangible than others. ”

“ On the other hand, the useful arts are always encouraged in every well regulated State. In short, the unexampled success of both, in this comparatively happy island, may be justly attributed to the sanction and munificence which men of talents and genius (whether natives or foreigners) uniformly experience from our gracious Sovereign, as well as from the nobility, almost without exception. No nation can boast of a greater number of connoisseurs and patrons, in the wealthy classes of society, than the British. ”

“ The latter, indeed, are, at this uncritical period, in a manner exiled from the studies of the inquisitive; though they appear to be so closely cemented to the human mind, that they will constantly intrude on our attention, engage the faculties of speculation, and absorb the powers of reflection, even when in a manner proscribed.—Conceiving, therefore, that it would be a fruitless innovation to introduce any new terms in the present state of philosophical nomenclature, we shall content ourselves with simply enumerating the heads of the different branches of the arts and sciences. ”

“ Dung possesses two remarkable properties, one of which is to produce a sensible heat, greatly promoting vegetation; the other is, to fatten and render the soil more fertile. The first of these is seldom to be found, unless in the dung of horses, or mules; the great effects of which, when newly made, and somewhat moist, are conspicuous in our kitchen gardens, where it invigorates and gives new life to every plant, supplying the absence of the sun, and affording us all the vegetable delicacies of the spring. ”

“ Formed for society, he seldom lives in solitude: and as an emanation of divine light appears to direct all the good actions of mankind, we excel every created being, while we enjoy the exclusive faculty of communicating our ideas, by speech as well as by letters. ”

“ With respect, however, to the human instinct, philosophers are by no means agreed; some affirming that man possesses a greater number of instincts than any species of brutes, while others assert that human nature is utterly destitute of any power or propensity, that can with propriety be denominated instinctive. Amid such diversity of opinions, it is difficult to decide; though it cannot be denied that infants afford very strong proofs of a natural impulse. ”

“ Philanthropists, who have exposed their lives, or employed their faculties in the service of their fellow-creatures, deserve that their memory should be perpetuated, both as a tribute of public gratitude, and as virtuous examples in the annals of history. The love of fame is natural to the human mind ”