66 "The hypothesis of deriving the frame of the "world by mechanical principles from matter evenly spread through the heavens being inconsistent with my system, I had considered it very little before your letter put me upon it, and therefore trouble you with a line or two more about it, if this comes "not too late for your use. 66 86 "In my former, I represented that the diurnal ro"tations of the planets could not be derived from "gravity, but required a divine arm to impress them. "And though gravity might give the planets a mo❝tion of descent towards the sun, either directly, or "with some little obliquity, yet the transverse mo"tions by which they revolve in their several orbs, required the divine arm to impress them according "to the tangents of their orbs. I would now add, "that the hypothesis of matter's being at first evenly 446 66 spread through the heavens, is, in my opinion, in"consistent with the hypothesis of innate gravity, "without a supernatural power to reconcile them, and "therefore it infers a Deity. For if there be innate "gravity, it is impossible now for the matter of the “earth, and all the planets and stars, to fly up from "them, and become evenly spread throughout all the "heavens, without a supernatural power; and certainly that which can never be hereafter without a supernatural power, could never be heretofore with, "out the same power." 66 66 REVIEW OF "A JOURNAL OF EIGHT DAYS JOURNEY, FROM PORTSMOUTH TO KINGSTON UPON THAMES, THROUGH WITH Miscellaneous Thoughts, Moral and Religious IN SIXTY-FOUR LETTERS: ADDRESSED TO TWO LADIES OF THE PARTIE TO WHICH IS ADDED, An ESSAY on TEA, considered as pernicious to Health, obstructing Industry, and impoverishing the Nation; with an Account of its Growth, and great Consumption in these Kingdoms; with several political Reflections; and Thoughts on Public Love: in Thirtytwo Letters to Two Ladies. BY MR. H***** "* [From the Literary Magazine, Vol. II. No. xiii. 1757.] OUR readers may perhaps remember, that we gave them a short account of this book, with a letter extracted from it, in November 1756. The author then sent us an injunction to forbear his work till a second edition should appear: this prohibition was rather too magisterial; for an author is no longer the sole master of a book which he has given to the public; yet he has been punctually obeyed; we had no desire to offend him, and if his character may be estimated by his book, he is a man whose failings may well be pardoned for his virtues. The second edition is now sent into the world, corrected and enlarged, and yielded up by the author to the attacks of criticism. But he shall find in us no malignity of censure. We wish indeed, that among other corrections, he had submitted his pages to the inspection of a grammarian, that the elegancies of one line might not have been disgraced by the improprieties of another; but with us to mean well is a degree of merit which overbalances much greater errors than impurity of style. We have already given in our collections one of the letters, in which Mr. Hanway endeavours to show, that the consumption of Tea is injurious to the interest of our country. We shall now endeavour to follow him regularly through all his observations on this modern luxury; but it can scarcely be candid, not to make a previous declaration, that he is to expect little justice from the author of this extract, a hardened and shameless Tea-drinker, who has for twenty years diluted his meals with only the infusion of this fascinating plant, whose kettle has scarcely time to cool, who with Tea amuses the evening, with Tea solaces the midnight, and with Tea welcomes the morning. He begins by refuting a popular notion, that Bohea and Green Tea are leaves of the same shrub, gathered at different times of the year. He is of opinion, that they are produced by different shrubs. The leaves of Tea are gathered in dry weather; then dried and curled over the fire in copper pans. The Chinese use little Green Tea, imagining that it hinders digestion and excites fevers. How it should have either effect is not easily discovered; and if we con sider the innumerable prejudices which prevail concerning our own plants, we shall very little regard these opinions of the Chinese vulgar, which experience does not confirm. When the Chinese drink Tea, they infuse it slightly, and extract only the more volatile parts; but though this seems to require great quantities at a time, yet the author believes, perhaps only because he has an inclination to believe it, that the English and Dutch use more than all the inhabitants of that extensive empire. The Chinese drink it sometimes with acids, seldom with sugar; and this practice our author, who has no intention to find any thing right at home, recommends to his countrymen. The history of the rise and progress of Tea-drinking is truly curious. Tea was first imported from Holland by the earls of Arlington and Ossory, in 1666; from their ladies the women of quality learned its use. Its price was then three pounds a pound, and continued the same to 1707. In 1715, we began to use Green Tea, and the practice of drinking it descended to the lower class of the people. In 1720, the French began to send it hither by a clandestine Commerce. From 1717 to 1726, we imported annually seven hundred thousand pounds. From 1732 to 1742, a million and two hundred thousand pounds were every year brought to London; in some years afterwards three millions; and in 1755, near four millions of pounds, or two thousand tons, in which we are not to reckon that which is surreptitiously introduced, which perhaps is nearly as much. Such quantities are indeed sufficient to alarm us; it is at least worth inquiry, to know what are the qualities of such a plant, and what the consequences of such a trade. He then proceeds to enumerate the mischiefs of Tea, and seems willing to charge upon it every mischief that he can find. He begins, however, by questioning the virtues ascribed to it, and denies that the crews of the Chinese ships are preserved in their voyage homewards from the scurvy by Tea. About this report I have made some inquiry, and though I cannot find that these crews are wholly exempt from scorbutic maladies, they seem to suffer them less than other mariners in any course of equal length. This I ascribe to the Tea, not as possessing any medicinal qualities, but as tempting them to drink more water, to dilute their salt food more copiously, and perhaps to forbear punch, or other strong liquors. He then proceeds in the pathetic strain, to tell the ladies how, by drinking Tea, they injure their health, and, what is yet more dear, their beauty. "To what can we ascribe the numerous complaints which prevail? How many sweet crea"tures of your sex languish with a weak digestion, "low spirits, lassitudes, melancholy, and twenty disorders, which in spite of the faculty have yet no "names, except the general one of nervous complaints? Let them change their diet, and among other articles, leave off drinking Tea, it is more 66 แ |