A Morning's Walk from London to Kew

MAP
OF THE AUTHOR’S ROUTE.

FOOTNOTES

1. I afterwards learnt in Chelsea, that, latterly, Ranelagh did not pay the proprietors five per cent. for their capital, and therefore they sold the materials to the best bidder. Return

2. It is difficult to assign limits to the gradual effects of the circuit of the waters by evaporation and rain on the creation of land, from the decay of vegetable organizations. All the rain which falls on such a country as England, from two to three feet deep per annum, tends to raise the surface of the soil with the substances generated by it, which we call solids. How small a portion reaches the rivulets, and how little returns to the sea! The consideration seems at least to justify the notion, that the waters desiccate in spite of the encroachments of currents, and that all things have proceeded from the silent agency of water. Return

3. I use the word ball, because I consider the power called electric, which shews itself between four containing and contained surfaces, as a physical point bearing geometrical relations to those surfaces; which point, by the rapidity of its motion to restore some disturbed equilibrium, generates a continuous fire, and deceives the eye by the semblance of a stream. Return

4. Since these observations were first published, a new law has provided for the separate maintenance of these wretched objects, nearly on the plan suggested. Return

5. As doctrines about fate and necessity involve a numerous class of mischievous superstitions, and are the bases of the success of endless impostures, it seems worth while to turn aside for a moment from the high road of my narrative to examine them. Some philosophers assert, that we are the inert patients of necessary causes: others, that we do what we list, without any cause, on the spontaneous impulse of our will: while nine-tenths of the human race maintain that we are governed by an unalterable fate, which is predestined, and that all the events of life take place for the sake of accomplishing some end! What is our real condition? We exist on a globe which, by a balance of mechanical powers, moves round a centre of gravity between it and the centre of the sun; and also round its own centre of gravity, communicating its aggregate motions to all the particles that compose it, and thereby exciting them into various modes of action, producing and sustaining all the phenomena which we witness. The entire mass then is the patient of these arrangements, and every thing on the earth is physically subservient to them. But, in animal organizations, we find a set of powers different from those which characterize inert minerals or plants. An animal has his own powers of loco-motion—he moves on his own centre of gravity—and, though the earth is his stage and the place of his origin, yet he is an independent Microcosm. To assist his loco-motion, to enable him to determine his course, to preserve his being, and to choose between what is good for him, and what is evil to him; he is provided with senses, with which he sees, hears, smells, tastes, and feels; with memory; and with powers of reasoning by analogy, or his senses and his experience would be useless: and yet men say, that such a creature is as much the patient of physical causes, as a stone or a plant! On the contrary, is it not evident, that an animal possesses peculiar powers of sense and reason, in order that he may not be the patient and victim of physical circumstances? But, say they, his actions are determined by his motives, and these are governed by causes over which he has no control; those causes are necessary, and, therefore, his actions are necessary. True—but these exterior causes (granting that they are always necessary links of a chain,) operate on a man only according to his estimate of them, which varies in different men, and in the same men at different times. The causes, at least as far as regards beings which are really their patients, may be regarded as necessary, and they may govern passive existences with absolute dominion; but in all animals they have to encounter the principle of individuality, the feeling of independence, the desire of well-being, and the energies of self-love. These, so to speak, enter into an argument with the causes—a process of reasoning takes place—a decision of judgment is formed—and that judgment it is which directs the will and the action. In other words, an erroneous and varying judgment interposes between the causes and the action; consequently, however absolute and necessary may be the causes, the action governed by an intervening imperfect judgment, and a varying estimate of these causes, is not equally absolute and necessary. Place ten men, or animals, in the same critical situation, and their judgment of the circumstances will lead each of them to act differently; though the necessary causes which ought to have governed their actions were the same; but their judgments, their knowledge, or their experience, were different, and, therefore, their actions. If animals were omniscient, they would have perfect judgments, which would exactly accord with the exterior or necessary circumstances, by which they might then be said to be governed; or, if they were stones and plants, they might be inert patients. But theirs is a mixed species of existence, they are neither plants nor gods. They have powers which plants have not, by which they can freely judge of the means of averting many palpable dangers; though their powers of judging are too limited to enable them to estimate all circumstances correctly, and therefore to move in necessary unison with the immutable physical laws that govern the changes and the motions of inert matter. Return

6. While these pages were printing, the Common Council of London, the second deliberative assembly in the empire, have presented an address to the Throne, in which they describe the late devastating Wars as “RASH AND RUINOUS, UNJUSTLY COMMENCED, AND PERTINACIOUSLY PERSISTED IN, WHEN NO RATIONAL OBJECT WAS TO BE OBTAINED;” and they add, that “IMMENSE SUBSIDIES WERE GRANTED TO FOREIGN POWERS TO DEFEND THEIR OWN TERRITORIES, OR TO COMMIT AGGRESSIONS ON THOSE OF THEIR NEIGHBOURS.” No friend of Truth could wish to see a more correct historical record of these melancholy events; and, whether the authors of them are allowed to drop into the grave by the course of nature, or should expiate their offences on a scaffold, there is not likely to be much difference of opinion about them in the year THREE THOUSAND EIGHT HUNDRED and SIXTEEN. Perhaps FIVE MILLIONS of men, and as many women and children, have fallen victims, in the space of twenty-five years, to attempts, as visionary as wicked, to destroy by the sword the assertion of Principles of Political Justice, which necessarily grew out of the cultivation of reason, and which were corollaries of that INTELLECTUAL PHILOSOPHY of which Bacon laid the foundation, and which has been matured by Selden, Coke, Milton, Sidney, Locke, Bolingbroke, Montesquieu, Blackstone, Rousseau, D’alembert, Hume, De Lolme, Mirabeau, and Fox. Rights of social man derived from such sources cannot be overwhelmed, though a divided people may have been overpowered, though hated dynasties may have been restored, and though Popery, the order of Jesuits, and the Holy Inquisition, may for a season have resumed their ascendency. Return

7. The box-wood used in England by the engravers on wood is often twelve inches in diameter; this, however, is not of English growth, but comes from Turkey, where it is held in slight estimation. Of course, when engravings on wood are larger than twelve inches in diameter, two blocks are joined together, for it is only the transverse section that can be wrought for this purpose. The most famous plantations of box in England are on the White-hill, near Dorking; but the trees there are mere sticks and shrubs compared with those at Mortlake; yet many of them are known to be two hundred years old. Return

8. The system of Physics which I have for many years inculcated, in the hope of removing from Philosophy the equivocal word attraction, supposes that space is filled with an elastic medium,—that this medium permeates bodies in proportion to their quantities of matter,—that resistance or re-action takes place between the universal medium of space and the novel arrangements of matter in bodies,—that this action and re-action diverge in the medium of space from the surfaces of bodies,—and that, like all diverging forces, they act inversely as the squares of the distances. That, if there were but one body in the universe, it would remain stationary by the uniform action of the surrounding medium,—that the creation of another body would produce phenomena between them, owing to each intercepting the action of the medium of space on the other, in proportion to the angles mutually presented by their bulks,—that two such bodies so acted upon by an universal medium must necessarily fall together, owing to the difference between the finite pressure on their near sides, and the infinite pressure on their outsides,—that a stone falls to the earth, because, with regard to it, the earth intercepts an angle of 180° of the medium of space on its near or under side; while, with regard to the earth, the stone intercepts but a small proportion of a second,—that these actual centripetal forces are very slight, between such distant bodies as the planets,—and, that the law of the forces is necessarily as their bulks directly, and as the squares of their distances inversely. That the centrifugal forces result from the same pressure or impulse,—that the varied densities of the opposite sides of the masses, as land and water, occasion a uniform external pressure to produce rotation on an axis,—that the action or oscillation of the fluid surfaces, a consequence of the rotation, constantly changes the mechanical centre of the mass, so as thereby to drive forward the mathematical centre in an orbit,—and that this is the purpose and effect of the tides, increased by the action and re-action of the fluid and solid parts. That centripetal and centrifugal forces so created, are necessarily varied by the diverse arrangements of the solid and fluid parts of planetary bodies, as we see in the northern and southern hemispheres of the earth,—and that hence arise the varied motions, the elliptical orbits, and all the peculiar phenomena. Attached as the moderns are to the terms attraction and repulsion, I produce this theory with due deference to their prejudices; and I venture to presume, that, on examination, it will be found to be a fair induction from the phenomena, and also in perfect accordance with all the laws of motion. It accounts for the uniform direction and moderate exertion of the centripetal force towards the largest body of a system; for the mutual actions of a system of bodies, or of many systems, on each other; and for the constantly varying direction of the centrifugal force, by shewing that it is generated within the mass. The term repulsion is even more disgraceful to Philosophy than that of attraction; all repulsion being in truth but a relative phenomenon between at least three bodies; and its most palpable appearance in electricity being but a stronger mechanical action towards opposite surfaces. The local impulses of magnets, and of bodies going into chemical union, are not better explained by Kepler’s gravitating sympathy, than by this doctrine of mechanical interception; but, I have no doubt that the former of these will, in due time, be traced to the difference between the rotary motion of the Equatorial and Polar regions; and the latter to some laws of the atomic theory, arising out of the shape and arrangement of the component particles, with reference to those of surrounding bodies. Return

INDEX.

1. A.
   • Accumulation of property, its misery to all, 44.
   • Admiralty, British, its characteristics, 9.
   • Addington, Mr. his residence, 167.
   • ——, political character, 280.
   • Almanacks of prognostication, their prodigious sale, 252.
   • Alfred the Great, his rare merits, 8.
   • American Aloe, reflections on, 59.
   • Anne Boleyn, her interview with Henry the Eighth, 58.
   • Animal motion, economy of, 124.
   • Ancestors, their number ascertained, 259.
   • Ancestry, no ground of pride, 262.
   • Anglican Church, its true foundation, 266.
   • Ant-hill, like the British metropolis, 151.
   • Antiquities, folly of the science so called, 340.
   • Archbishops of Canterbury, their ancient residence, 303.
   • Argument in behalf of poverty, 106.
   • Aristocracy of trade characterized, 101.
   • Arithmetic, its connexion with nature, 189.
   • Articles of faith, necessity of revising, 267.
   • Asparagus, its extensive cultivation, 55.
   • Assembly, a subscription one described, 91.
   • Astrology, its pretensions investigated, 234, 241.
   • Author, his feelings on concluding his Walk, 389.
2. B.
   • Barber, Alderman, his tomb and merit, 253.
   • Battersea-bridge, reflections on its toll, 41.
   • Ballot, choice by, its pernicious effect and erroneous principle, 91.
   • Bakewell, Mr. his mode of riding, 125.
   • Barnes Poor-house, libel on political economy, 193.
   • —— Common, its geological phenomena, 197.
   • —— Church-yard, reflections on, 215.
   • Bastile Palace, at Kew, 379.
   • Beggars, their habits and gains, 3 and 4.
   • Bee-hive, its buzz that of a distant town, 152.
   • Besborough, Lord, his seal, 177.
   • Bells, abuse of them, 210, 282.
   • Blenkinsop’s steam-engine, its convenient powers, 76.
   • Black balls, a majority of, how produced, 93.
   • Blair’s Universal Preceptor, its merits, 294.
   • Box-trees, ancient ones, 311.
   • Botanic Garden, at Chelsea, 37.
   • Bolingbroke, Lord, his house at Battersea, 51.
   • ——, recollections of, 54.
   • Book-clubs, a test of intellectual improvement, 98.
   • Book of Nature, described, 341.
   • British society, its radical diseases, 161.
   • Brunell, Mr. his workshops, 45.
   • Bramah, Mr. his ingenuity, 21.
   • Britain, mistress of imperial Rome, 36.
   • Buckingham House, notice of, 20.
   • Burke, his bigotry, 39.
   • Burial fees, account of, 382.
3. C.
   • Cæsar, his passage of the Thames, 35.
   • Causeways, necessity of improving, 126.
   • Cards, their absurd prognostics, 251.
   • Cause of causes, its instruments, 188.
   • ——, its incomprehensibleness, 272.
   • Catechism of Social Duties, its importance, 333.
   • Causes, physical and mental, defined, 238.
   • Causation, original, questions upon, 343.
   • Centinarian in Chelsea Hospital, 34.
   • Cemeteries, ought to be open, 216.
   • Certainty alone necessary, 237.
   • Chorus of the eye, 149.
   • Chaldeans, their demonology, 324.
   • Chances, laws of, govern all prognostication, 247, &c.
   • Church, system of attendance, 264.
   • ——, National, grounds for its moderation, 266.
   • Chabannes, Marquis de, his speculations, 223.
   • Chiswick, its bells and Church, 211.
   • Charters of Liberty, enumerated, 10.
   • Chelsea buns, notice of, 25.
   • Christianity, its total failure in preserving peace, 34.
   • ——, vulgar definition of, 371.
   • Changes, geological, their causes, 338.
   • Civilized and savage society contrasted, 102, 364.
   • Clerks, their ease of heart, 12.
   • Cleanliness, an auxiliary of virtue, 231.
   • Courtezans, cause of their turpitude, 27.
   • Contentment, its difficult acquisition, 43.
   • Commercial enterprise, instance of, 42.
   • Commons, their anti-social character, 155, 161.
   • Complaints of the poor, 106.
   • Cost of the poor at Wandsworth, 114.
   • Cottages, mile-stone and marine ones proposed, 127.
   • Conch, its sound that of a distant town, 152.
   • Cottage ornée described, 175.
   • Covent-garden market, mode of supplying, 225.
   • Compatibility of relative existences, 352.
   • Common Council of London, its patriotic conduct, 282, note.
   • Creation, its never ceasing agents, 198, &c.
   • ——, its progress, 335.
   • Cuvier, M. his geological discoveries, 337.
4. D.
   • D’Antraigues, Count and Countess, their horrible assassination, 219.
   • Dancing assemblies, their mistaken arrangements, 91.
   • Death, how a source of consolation, 62.
   • Demon of war described, 89.
   • Devonshire, Duchess of, her amiable character, 213.
   • Demonology, its absurdities, 269.
   • Dead, the sympathy towards, 216.
   • Descendants, their numbers ascertained, 257.
   • Distilleries, the bad policy of encouraging them, 64.
   • Dimsdale, Sir Harry, Mayor of Garrat, 80.
   • Don Saltero, his museum, 38.
   • Dolland’s achromatics, their misapplication, 145.
   • Dormitories of avarice described, 127.
   • Dreams, no prognostics, 249, 251.
   • Dramas of real life, 117.
   • Druids, their impostures, 172.
   • Drunkenness, its pernicious effects, 65.
   • ——, its cause, 66.
   • Dundas, his baneful orgies, 192.
   • Dunstan, Sir Jeffery, Mayor of Garrat, 79.
5. E.
   • East-Sheen, its pleasant sights, 232, 278.
   • Earth, the, its primative state, 340.
   • Economy of a workhouse, 109.
   • ——, political, its primary law, 139.
   • Education, obligation to make it universal, 332.
   • ——, —— to teach public duties, 362.
   • Egyptians, their absurd mythology, 324.
   • Ellenborough, Lord, his residence, 178.
   • Electricity, illustrations of, 183 to 191.
   • Election at Garrat, described, 81.
   • Eloquence of Pitt, recollections of, 162.
   • England, its exemplary road system, 122.
   • Enclosure Bill proposed, 158.
   • Enclosing parks, objections to, 172.
   • Entrails of animals, no prognostics, 249.
   • End of the world, phenomena leading to it, 354.
   • Erasmus, his character, 39.
   • Essex, cleanliness of its towns, 230.
   • Eternals, what are so, 350.
   • External species infinite in number, 353.
   • Excise system, its mischievous effects, 255.
   • Experience, a transcendent quality in a statesman, 165.
   • ——, a chief test of truth, 268.
   • Eye, concert played on it, 148.
6. F.
   • Family group in a workhouse, 110.
   • Farming out the poor, its inhumanity, 113.
   • Fate and fatality, discussion on, 235 to 244.
   • Family of man, its necessary co-mixture, 259.
   • Fever of the brain, its mental hallucinations, 71, 271.
   • Fertility, means of preserving, 314.
   • Ferdinand, cost of his restoration, 42.
   • Female education, discussion respecting, 292.
   • Fear, its operation on the mind, 70.
   • Females on fire, mode of extinguishing, 139.
   • Ferme ornée, described, 175.
   • Final causes, their nature, 353.
   • Fitness in nature, the primary law, 200, 352.
   • Fires, mode of preventing, 135, 138.
   • Fire-house, Hartley’s, 135.
   • ——, interesting prospect from, 145.
   • Finance, Pitt’s absurd system, 164.
   • Flame, when ungovernable, 139.
   • Food of a labouring family, 105.
   • Foot-paths, necessity for good ones, 125.
   • Fortune-telling, its errors exposed, 369.
   • Fox, Charles James, his patriotic character, 164.
   • ——, his death, 218.
   • Food distributed from religious houses, 308.
   • French Encyclopædists, their oversight, 1.
   • France, its improvements under Napoleon, 121, 170.
   • Free agency demonstrated, 241, note.
   • Fruit-trees, their general plantation recommended, 168.
   • Franklin, Dr. his electrical rods, 189.
7. G.
   • Gainsborough, his tomb and character, 383.
   • Garrat, mock mayor of, 77.
   • Galilean telescopes, preferred for telegraphs, 146.
   • Gardeners, their habits and slavery, 224.
   • Geometry, its connexion with nature, 189.
   • Geocentric phenomena, error relative, 246.
   • Generations, the law of their mixture, 260, &c.
   • George III. his liberal views on education, 332.
   • Geological changes, their causes traced, 339.
   • Ghosts, vulgar belief in, 68, 269.
   • Gipsies, interview with, 363.
   • Gluttony, lesson to, 195.
   • Goldsmid, Mr. his seat, character and history, 272.
   • Goodbehere, Alderman, his character, 256.
   • God, attributes of, 272.
   • Greeks, their mythological personification, 324.
   • Gravitation, its causes, 185.
   • Grief, its luxury described, 216.
   • Greatness, how best sustained, 17.
   • Grammars of Philosophy, &c. their merits, 294.
   • Great buildings, no standard of locality, 24.
   • —— men, their opinions no test of truth, 40.
   • Griffiths, Dr. anecdote of, 213.
   • Gradation of organized beings, 346.
   • Guelph, the Second, anecdote of, 208.
8. H.
   • Happiness, its production the test of worth, 8.
   • —— produced by employment, 174.
   • Haunted house, anecdotes of one, 66.
   • Harmony of relative existences, 352, 363.
   • Harper, Sir John, mayor of Garrat, 78.
   • Hartley, David, Esq. his fire-house described, 135.
   • Hayley, Mr. his epitaph on Meyer, 381.
   • Handel and Haydn compared, 149.
   • Hamilton, Lady, her distresses, 182.
   • Hedge-rows ought to be productive, 170.
   • Heat, its causes, 185.
   • Heydegger, his entertainment, 208.
   • Herschell, Dr. his clustering power, 351.
   • Historical justice, no atonement for suffering, 9.
   • Hindoos, their absurd mythology, 324.
   • Houses, method of securing them against fire, 139.
   • Home Tourist, his expected modesty, 2.
   • Howard, Mr. his exemplary character, 116.
   • Horses, cruelty of tight-reining them, 123.
   • House of Commons, character of its majorities, 163.
   • Hoare, Mr. his residence, 201.
   • Hogarth, Mrs. anecdote of, 213.
   • ——, Mr. his tomb and character, 388.
   • Horoscope, its supposed powers, 234.
   • House of God, its inadequacy, 271.
9. I.
   • Ignorance, the basis of superstition, 73.
   • Impress, its frightful tyranny, 366.
   • Infatuated nations characterized, 90.
   • Ingenuity superseded by taxation, 89.
   • Inclination of roads, determined, 121.
   • Instructors, clerical, their errors, 265.
   • Intellectual powers, their limited nature, 342.
   • —— philosophy, its indestructibility, 321.
   • Instincts of men compared, 364.
   • Iron-foundery, description of one, 86.
   • Isle of St. Peter’s, its ancient boundaries and modern splendor, 19.
10. J.
    • Jews, their superstitious demonology, 324.
    • Juries, Special, their disgraceful character, 255.
11. K.
    • Kelvedon, its cleanliness, 230.
    • Kew Priory, described, 376.
    • —— Green, ditto, 378.
    • Kit-Cat Club, its house at Barnes Elms, 201, 204.
    • ——, pictures, 207.
12. L.
    • Language, its means of improvement, 298.
    • Land, the patrimony of man, 159.
    • Lancaster, Mr. his system recommended, 333.
    • Lakes of North America, their probable fate, 327.
    • Law, its malignity and perversion, 362.
    • Legislation, summary of its duties, 104.
    • Life, compared to a morning’s walk, 390.
    • Living errors, corrected too late, 28.
    • Liberty, taught in popular elections, 84.
    • Life of man, described, 205, 256.
    • Lincoln, Bishop of, his attendance on Pitt, 166.
    • Lightning, destructive effects of, 182.
    • ——, means of security from, 189.
    • London, its features of ingress and egress, 13.
    • ——, reflection suggested by its distant prospect, 150.
    • ——, its population characterized, 153.
    • —— smoke, described, 130.
    • —— ——, its moral suggestions, 149.
    • Loco-motion, means of producing, 124.
    • Loco-motive beings, their peculiar economy, 347.
    • Lovers, the dupes of gipsies, 369.
    • Lumber trees, unfit for a civilized country, 169.
    • Luck and ill-luck, relative terms, 237.
13. M.
    • Matron of a workhouse, her character, 109.
    • Manners of the Londoners, 11.
    • Mall in St. James’s Park, its ancient splendor, 15.
    • Manufactory of pitch and turpentine, 56.
    • Manners, effects of a change of, 16.
    • Marsh of Westminster, reflection on, 20.
    • Madam and Mistress, distinction between, 212.
    • Machinery, ought not to injure workmen, 50.
    • Maurice, Mr. his merits as a Poet, 150.
    • Manufactory, a country one described, 85.
    • Matter, inorganic, laws governing, 344.
    • —— ——, whether eternal, 350.
    • Manual labour, its economy in manufactories, 88.
    • Maternal feelings in a workhouse, 112.
    • Man, his false assumption, 60, 359.
    • ——, his pride, 60, 358.
    • ——, his unsociable character, 95.
    • ——, his uncharitableness, 102.
    • ——, his numerous wants, 117.
    • ——, his vanity, 152.
    • ——, his monopolizing spirit, 155, 360.
    • ——, opposes himself to Providence, 158.
    • ——, his proper employment, 159.
    • ——, his true happiness, 174.
    • ——, his transitory state, 205, 361.
    • ——, his origin, progress, and decay, 205, 256.
    • ——, his common nature, 262, 360.
    • ——, his definite existence, 272.
    • ——, general views of his social state, 357.
    • ——, his cruelty to inferior creatures, 360.
    • Mercy, an engine of priestcraft, 307.
    • Mechanics, their relation to nature, 189.
    • Meyer, his tomb, 381.
    • Milk-fair, description of, 5.
    • Military education reprobated, 32.
    • Mile-stone and marine cottages recommended, 127.
    • Middleton, Mr. his estimates of Middlesex, 224.
    • Misery, dense mass of, 155.
    • Ministers of England, their narrow views, 167.
    • Monks, disinterment of their bones, 313.
    • Morris, Valentine, Esq. his benevolent character, 218, 300.
    • Moral deduced from the state of St. James’s palace, 15.
    • —— rule against great mischiefs, 28.
    • More, Sir Thomas, his residence and character, 38.
    • Motion, terrestrial, its general cause, 242, note.
    • Mortlake Church-yard, reflections on, 232, 263.
    • Moral condition of London, 152.
    • Mortlake Church, reflections within, 363, 280.
    • Music, its abuse in war, 10.
    • Mutilated Soldiers at Chelsea Hospital, 27.
    • Mussulmen, their exemplary sobriety, 65.
    • Mysteries, religious, their origin, 265.
    • Mythology, its origin and progress, 320.
14. N.
    • Natural feelings violated in workhouses, 110.
    • Nature superior to art, 118, 154.
    • ——, its operations uncomplicated, 188.
    • ——, its governing principle, 200.
    • Napoleon, his improvements of France, 121, 170.
    • Nell Gwyn, founder of Chelsea Hospital, 26.
    • Necessity, doctrine of, investigated, 235, 244.
    • Novels, characterized, 98.
15. O.
    • Obligations of the rich to the poor, 103.
    • Oil mills, description of one, 84.
    • Organic life, difficulty of conceiving its principle, 349.
    • Organized beings, intricacy of the laws governing, 345.
    • Origin of organized beings, its philosophical obscurity, 346.
16. P.
    • Painting and Poetry, compared, 384.
    • Palace of the Regent, its costly fitting, 6.
    • Partridge, John, his tomb and errors, 233.
    • Parks of London, their utility and capability, 17.
    • ——, noblemen’s, their inutility, 133.
    • Patronage, cause of war, 29.
    • Parish allowances to the poor, 113.
    • Panorama from Wimbledon Common, 149.
    • Paper circulation always ruinous, 181.
    • Parish poor-houses described, 109, 193.
    • Peace, its security, 33.
    • Peach, its crawling myriads, 352.
    • Peter the Hermit, his fanaticism, 39.
    • Perihelion point, importance of its place in producing terrestrial changes, 339.
    • Penley, Mr. his garden at Mortlake, 310.
    • Philosophy, modern, its divinities, 324.
    • ——, address to, 327.
    • Philosophical speculations on unseen powers, 185.
    • Pilton’s fences recommended, 176.
    • Pitt, Mr. his death and character, 162.
    • Planetary influences, examined, 234, 252.
    • Poetry and Painting, compared, 384.
    • Poor, diseased, provision for, 5.
    • Pottery, observations on its antiquity and application, 300.
    • Pope, Mr. his parlour at Battersea, 53.
    • Popular elections, their importance, 82.
    • Policy, wicked, its features, 7.
    • Poverty and wealth, contrasted, 102.
    • Priestcraft, its origin and progress, 320.
    • Probabilities, their connexion with fortune-telling, 247.
    • Productive powers, their intricacy, 346.
    • Promenades, evening ones proposed, 90.
    • Prosperity, national, its true signs, 129.
    • Principals in trade, their cares, 12.
    • Promenade in St. James’s Park, its ancient splendor, 15.
    • Pride, lessons to correct, 60, 358.
    • Printing, its abuse, 362.
    • Public Debt, how has it been expended, 41.
    • Putney-Heath, objects upon it described, 137, 166.
    • Public purse, a necessary stimulus to candidates, 81.
17. R.
    • Ranelagh, its scite described, 21.
    • Railways, proposal for extending them, 75.
    • Religious houses turned into market-gardens, 303.
    • Reformation of Religion, 267.
    • Retreats of men of business, 101.
    • Repton, Mr. his powers of arrangement, 133.
    • Rivers, absurd worship of, 355.
    • ——, phenomena of their banks, 63, 356.
    • ——, agents of never-ceasing changes, 192.
    • Richmond Park, notice of, 166.
    • Rights of man, intrigues against, 219.
    • Road Police, suggested, 123.
    • Royal Family, fond of Chelsea buns, 26.
    • Rome sunk and London exalted, 36.
    • Roads, principle of constructing them, 121.
    • Roehampton, its cheerless aspect, 171.
    • Ruins, without antiquity, 23.
18. S.
    • Saws, circular, their wonderful powers, 46.
    • Self-knowledge, neglect of, 1, 362.
    • Secondary causes, their general nature, 189.
    • Senses, animal, their limited powers, 342.
    • Shoe-making machinery, account of, 47.
    • Show, policy of, among princes, 6.
    • Shropshire girls, their industry and beauty, 226.
    • Slavery, its protean shapes, 365.
    • Sloane, Sir Hans, his statue, 37—tomb, 40.
    • Smoke, improperly emitted, 21.
    • —— of London, its remarkable phenomena, 130.
    • —— ——, plans for consuming, 132.
    • Soldiery, their specious character, 10.
    • Society, state of, in England, 90.
    • Soldiers, why and for what they are killed and wounded, 27.
    • Soldier, who had lost both arms, 29.
    • Spontaneous combustion, productive of superstition, 72.
    • Spencer, Lord, his park, 133.
    • Space, whether eternal, 350.
    • Stage-coach horses, mismanagement of, 123.
    • Standard of truth defined, 268.
    • Sterility of ancient countries, cause of, 356.
    • Statesmen, their mistaken policy, 4.
    • St. James’s palace, its ruined state, 14.
    • St. Paul’s Cathedral, 151.
    • St. Lawrence, the, its probable fate, 337.
    • Surfaces, the residence of electric power, 185.
    • Surrey, its disgraceful wastes, 156.
    • Supernatural appearances, referred to their causes, 70.
    • Survivors in regiments, their small numbers, 33.
    • Subjects for painters, 108.
    • Superstition, instances of, 69, 222.
    • ——, its origin and progress, 320.
    • Symmachus, his bigotry, 39.
19. T.
    • Taxes, not the sole business of governments, 18.
    • Tart-hall, account of, 18.
    • Taxation, its pernicious effects, 89.
    • Telegraphs, particulars of, 141, 146.
    • ——, their application to domestic purposes, 146.
    • Terror, vulgar, instances of, 68, 375.
    • Thames, its phenomena and changes, 355.
    • Thomson, the Poet, his town and character, 388.
    • Tides, their nature explained, 354.
    • Time and space characterized, 201, 256, 272.
    • Tooke, Mr. Horne, his character, 192.
    • Tonson, Jacob, his house at Barnes Elms, 201.
    • Trees, their importance in fertilization, 356.
    • Treasury, British, its pernicious powers, 9.
    • Transitory state of man, 16, 24, 52, 59, 312.
    • Treaty-breakers, appeal to them, 31.
    • Tragedies, in real life, 117, 140.
    • Tybourn, its present course, 19.
20. V.
    • Vegetables, their organization, 343.
    • Vital principle, its incomprehensible nature, 349.
    • Virtue, its worth, 350.
    • Virtuous exertion entitled to support, 104.
    • Village promenades, proposal for, 96.
    • Villages round London, their want of society, 100.
    • Villas, no signs of public wealth, 129.
    • Village bells, cause of their peculiar effect, 209.
    • Virtue, promoted by cleanliness, 231.
    • Vulcan, his residence, 86.
21. W.
    • Washington, the great, his character and glory, 7.
    • War-office, British, its equivocal merit, 9.
    • Water, the cause of change, 64.
    • War, its improper duration, 255.
    • ——, its horrors, associated with British grandeur, 11.
    • Want, the seat of its empire, 155.
    • ——, means of extinguishing, 159.
    • Wandsworth, its population, &c. 74.
    • —— workhouse, a visit to, 107.
    • Wages of labour, 105.
    • Walnut-trees, prodigious ones, 310.
    • Waithman, Mr. his patriotic character, 256.
    • Waste lands, a libel on political economy, 156.
    • Wealth, its personal consequences, 12.
    • ——, its relative nature, 103.
    • Welding Hammer, described, 86.
    • Westminster Abbey, characterized, 150.
    • Webb, Mr. his benevolent character, 116.
    • Wesley, Mr. his godlike zeal, 117.
    • —— his mode of riding, 135.
    • Webster, Mr. his geological discoveries, 337.
    • Welch girls, their industry and beauty, 226, 228.
    • Witham, its exemplary cleanliness, 230.
    • Winchester palace, notice of, 38.
    • Wimbledon Common, its elevation, 119.
    • ——, its misuse, 192.
    • Workmen, entitled to indemnity on the introduction of machinery, 49.
    • Woollet, Mr. his skill as an engraver, 134.
    • Workhouses, obligation to visit them, 105.
    • World, its end explained, 354.
    • Wood, Alderman, his patriotic character, 256.
    • Wordsworth, Mr. his poetical merit, 270.
    • Women, an employment worthy of them, 117.
22. Y.
    • York-house, the residence of Wolsey, 57.
23. Z.
    • Zoffany, Mr. his tomb and character, 386.