 a Vessel
filled with human Ordure, about the Bigness of a Bristol Barrel.
    I saw another at work to calcine Ice into Gunpowder; who likewise shewed me
a Treatise he had written concerning the Malleability of Fire, which he intended
to publish.
    There was a most ingenious Architect who had contrived a new Method for
building Houses, by beginning at the Roof, and working downwards to the
Foundation; which he justified to me by the like Practice of those two prudent
Insects the Bee and the Spider.
    There was a Man born blind, who had several Apprentices in his own
Condition: Their Employment was to mix Colours for Painters, which their Master
taught them to distinguish by feeling and smelling. It was indeed my Misfortune
to find them at that Time not very perfect in their Lessons; and the Professor
himself happened to be generally mistaken: This Artist is much encouraged and
esteemed by the whole Fraternity.
    In another Apartment I was highly pleased with a Projector, who had found a
Device of plowing the Ground with Hogs, to save the Charges of Plows, Cattle,
and Labour. The Method is this: In an Acre of Ground you bury at six Inches
Distance, and eight deep, a Quantity of Acorns, Dates, Chesnuts, and other Maste
or Vegetables whereof these Animals are fondest; then you drive six Hundred or
more of them into the Field, where in a few Days they will root up the whole
Ground in search of their Food, and make it fit for sowing, at the same time
manuring it with their Dung. It is true, upon Experiment they found the Charge
and Trouble very great, and they had little or no Crop. However, it is not
doubted that this Invention may be capable of great Improvement.
    I went into another Room, where the Walls and Ceiling were all hung round
with Cobwebs, except a narrow Passage for the Artist to go in and out. At my
Entrance he called aloud to me not to disturb his Webs. He lamented the fatal
Mistake the World had been so long in of using Silk-Worms, while we had such
plenty of domestick Insects, who infinitely excelled the former, because they
understood how to weave as well as spin. And he proposed farther, that by
employing Spiders, the Charge of dying Silks would be wholly saved; whereof I
was fully convinced when he shewed me a vast Number of Flies most beautifully
coloured, wherewith he fed his Spiders; assuring us, that the Webs would take a
Tincture from them; and as he had them of all Hues, he hoped to fit every Body's
Fancy
