as to form a large pond, would afford him a convenient and inexhaustible supply of ice.  But the millwright, after the dam was completed, having artfully obtained his permission to use the waste water, and fraudulently erected there a common water-mill, which soon obtained all the neighbouring custom, he had sold out that property, and resorted to the agency of gunpowder, which is quite as philosophical a process as that of congelation, and much less expensive.  In answer to an inquiry of the Brahmin’s, he admitted, that though he had been able, by the force of congelation, to burst metallic tubes several inches thick, he had never succeeded in making it put the lightest machinery into a continued motion.

Having now nearly recovered, and being, I confess, somewhat bewildered by the variety and complexity of these ingenious projects, I felt disposed to take my leave; but Vindar insisted on conducting us into an inner apartment, to see his poetry box.  This was a large piece of furniture, profusely decorated with metals of various colours, curiously and fantastically inlaid.  It contained a prodigious number of drawers, which were labelled after the manner of those in an apothecary’s shop, (from whence he denied, however, that he first took the hint,) and the labels were arranged in alphabetical order.

“Now,” says he, “as the excellence of poetry consists in bringing before the mind’s eye what can be brought before the corporeal eye, I have here collected every object that is either beautiful or pleasing in nature, whether by its form, colour, fragrance, sweetness, or other quality, as well as those that are strikingly disagreeable.  When I wish to exhibit those pictures which constitute poetry, I consult the appropriate cabinet, and I take my choice of those various substances which can best call up the image I wish to present to my reader.  For example:  suppose I wish to speak of any object that is white, or analogous to white, I open the drawer that is thus labelled, and I see silver, lime, chalk, and white enamel, ivory, paper, snow-drops, and alabaster, and select whichever of these substances will best suit the measure and the rhyme, and has the most soft-sounding name.  If the colour be yellow, then there are substances of all shades of this hue, from saffron and pickled salmon to brimstone and straw.  I have sixty-two red substances, twenty-seven green ones, and others in the same proportion.  It is astonishing what labour this box has saved me, and how much it has added to the beauty and melody of my verse.

“You perceive,” he added, “the drawer missing.  That contained substances offensive to the sight or smell, which my maid, conducted to it by her nose, conceived to be some animal curiosities I had been collecting, in a state of putrefaction and decay, and did not hesitate to throw them into the fire.  I afterwards found myself very much at a loss, whenever my subject led me to the mention of objects of this character, and I therefore spoke of them as seldom as possible.”  After bestowing that tribute of admiration and praise which every great author or inventor expects, in his own house, and not omitting his customary medical fee, we took our leave.