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sciousness of inability, or hazard the and indeed, if what you receive as the favourable disposition of those who can wages of your service, is to be used only bestow it, by any known disqualifica- for providing the supplies to your pleation consequent of an idle or inconsiderate neglect of his opportunities.

sures, I should not hesitate to pronounce, that it is a great deal too much to be If these remarks have any claim to left at the disposal of any youth, who your attention, I would ground it upon from living under a paternal roof, and at the following corollary to the proposi- a paternal board, has no other demands tion from which they originate ;-That upon his purse, than what are indispenif he who employs his time in the ser- sable to keep his wardrobe in moderate vice of others, calculates its worth with repair. Much money is a possession as so much precision, he who has the pow- dangerous to a young man, as much er of appropriating it to his own more leisure, if the one be not prudentially immediate advantage, ought not to be œconomized, and the other wisely imless considerate in his application of it. proved; the profligate waste of the one, But you will perhaps tell me that who- leads to the pernicious abuse of the othever makes a pecuniary profit of his er; and vicious inclination is too often time, may be regarded as employing it found to be commensurate with the to his own benefit; and that you are means of indulgence. But the ruinous doing this while you receive in return facilities of both may be avoided by the for your attendance six or eight hours right application of your time; or, in in the day, an equivalent salary, and the best sense of the phrase, "by makthat when these hours are elapsed, you ing the most of it." And how is this to have a right to dispose of the remaining be done? I will tell you.

part in throwing away your earnings upon what you consider as a requisite recreation of your mind after the fatigues of its daily toil.

I should not find much difficulty in admitting your answer, could I be assured that such recreation were not more calculated to corrupt and dissipate the thoughts, than to recruit and renovate the mind; and did not this consequent present itself to my reflection, that, while you are occupied six hours in business, at a certain salary, and your leisure hours are squandered in the unprofitable pursuits of dissipation, you are, as it were, throwing the remainder of your time into the bargain, and for eighty or a hundred pounds a year so consumed, you are contented to sacrifice the best part of your life. How much wiser do those think and act, who, in their plodding calculations of the quid pro quo, tell us "they can make more of their time."

And how much more, my dear G, may not you make of your time! I do not mean in a pecuniary way-you are paid for your industry as much as the usefulness of your exertions can justly demand-and for six or eight hours' daily employment, the renumeration is quite sufficient; your responsibility being all comprehended in your punctuality of attendance and accuracy of transcript

Divide it regularly;
Employ it profitably;
Apply it sedulously;
Redeem it anxiously.
Divide it regularly.

Business, study, and recreation, make up the sum of a young man's occupation of time. In the first rank of his engagements ought to be placed the pledge which he has given to his employers, to fulfil the duties attached to his situation. This, therefore, constitutes the first division of his time--and this division will comprehend the hours of attendance. That it may not trench upon the regularity of his system, he will take care to accomplish all he has to do within the given period; and that he may effect this, he will not allow any unseasonable interruption which he can prevent, to interfere with his purpose: he will reflect that he is of no other importance in his office, than as he fulfils the duties of his peculiar department; but that while he continues to perform these, he secures to himself the important character of a young man who can be depended upon. In office hours, therefore, he must have no other concern than that which relates to his official businessand every other object must be rejected as an irrelevant intrusion upon his attention. Now, my dear G- - you are thus

22.

Letters from a Father to his Son.

[VOL. 2

occupied six hours in a day, and you are reading and answering them at your solemnly bound, by an honourable sense desk--and books or parcels which have of your compact, to apply them to the nothing to do with the affairs of your service of your engagement. It seldom business, should not be admitted among happens, I believe, that in your profession your professional papers; the mixture does the pressure of business exceeds the oppor- not bespeak the man of business, and tunities which the hours set apart for its this is the only character in which you execution afford for its completion. You should be known at such hours; and may, therefore, reckon upon the entire here I would protest against that idle possession of the rest of the day for your practice of many of your brother clerks independent application to your own who are in the habit of keeping books peculiar purposes;-whatever these pur- of light or vicious reading in their desks, poses may be, therefore, do not suffer them to distract your thoughts, or divert your attention from that official direction of both to which both ought to be conformed; but content yourself with the conviction that you have time enough in the rest of the day to attend to them. By this arrangement, pressure will not produce hurry, nor will hurry, should it occur from any extraordinary cause, implicate you in desultory or inaccurate performance of your duty.

with which they waste many a half-hour that might and ought to be otherwise employed. Such a practice is apt to produce an estrangement of thought that detaches them from their occupation, and unfits them for that deliberative part of it which is at all times requisite, even in its most cursory claims upon their attention. Let it not be thought by you that I carry this subject too far, and strain it beyond its general importance, by minutiae which, in your opinion, have no influence upon By dividing your time, you reduce the common progress of the business of all your pursuits into a regular system office;-for the fact is, my dear Gof action; you prevent their interfering that in whatever station a young man is with and confounding each other; and, placed, his mind displays itself more by what is of greater consequence than all such deviations, than by the graver exthis, you effectually obviate all that long ercises of his employ these he is well train of disabilities which invariably fol- aware if not performed with due conlow from procrastination, that "thief of time" as Young very aptly calls it. Your hours of business, therefore, must be applied to business only-and I should advise you not to fall into that custom which prevails among young men, of making appointments with their young acquaintance to meet them at their place of business upon the most trifling occasions; and carrying thither books either of frivolous import, or of a less justifiable description.

sideration, give a stamp to his character at once, and therefore he keeps himself upon his guard, while he concludes, that he may indulge in the former without any danger of committing himself to the censure of his employers. But all such indulgences, if continued, are very likely to clothe his proceedings with that desultory air, which, in time, will grow into character, and will go a great way towards diminishing the estimate of his official usefulness, or personal worth. Steadiness in a youth is a qualification which is held in much higher esteem by his superiors, than that sort of quickness which he is in the habit of depending upon for getting up his lost time, and supplying those consequent omissions which a uniform tenor of settled application would have enabled him to avoid.

This caution, unnecessary as it may appear, will assume some shape of importance, when it is recollected that every interruption produces delay in business. The value of your time will never be duly appreciated by those who take no account of their own; and while they think they have hours to spare, they will not reflect that you have not a moment to This steadiness is the satisfactory lose. Such impertinents you should brush ground of their confidence, but this away as you would the fly that lights quickness, while they perceive it to be upon the paper on which you are writing. the resource of his irregularity, will Your private letters also are as much always deter them from giving him any out of place, if you are in the habit of agency of extraordinary trust; you will

VOL. 2.]

On the Virtues of Coffee.

23

therefore do well to avoid this common plicate you in some inconvenient treserror of young men similarly situated pass upon the time allotted for the avowith yourself; because whatever of cations of your employ, and in that proyour private pursuits mixes itself with portion the execution of them will be you public duties, will be sure to im- imperfect, and incomplete.

Concluded in our next.

IT

ON THE VIRTUES OF COFFEE.

From the European Magazine.

removes the colic and

T is a generally-received opinion, that rates the process of digestion, corrects the human frame is not less influenced crudities, and by diet, than by climate; that its dispo- flatulencies. sitions, and characteristics, owe their originality as much to food, as those diseases evidently do, which are the legitimate fuses a genial warmth that cherishes the and indisputable issue of it.

Besides its effect in keeping up the harmony of the gastrick powers, it dif

animal spirits, and takes away the listlessness and languor which so greatly embitter the hours of nervous people, after any deviation to excess, fatigue, or irregularity.

If the preceding position be just, there cannot surely by a subject more interesting to man, than the pursuit of that knowledge which may instruct him to avoid what is hurtful to health, to select for his From the warmth and efficacy of cofuse such things as tend to raise the val- fee in attenuating the viscid fluids, and ue of his condition, and to carry the en- increasing the vigour of the circulation, joyments of life to their utmost improve- it has been used with great success in the fluor albus, in the dropsy, and in worm

ment.

In England the use of this berry hith- complaints; and in those comatose, erto has been principally confined to the anasarcous, and such other diseases as arise occasional luxury of individuals; as from unwholesome food, want of exercise, such, it is scarcely an object of public weak fibres, and obstructed perspiration. concern; but government, wisely con- There are but few people who are sidering that this produce of our own not informed of its utility for the headWest India islands is raised by our fel- ache; the steam sometimes is very uselow-subjects, and paid for in our own ful to mitigate pains of the head:-in manufactures, has lately reduced the the West Indies, where the violent speduty on the importation of plantation cies of head-ache, such as cephalaa, coffee; which has brought it within the hemicrania, and clavus, are more frereach of almost every description of peo- quent and more severe than in Europe, ple; and as it is not liable to any per- coffee is the only medicine that gives renicious process in curing it, and is inca- lief. Opiates are sometime used, but pable of adulteration, the use of it will coffee has an advantage that opium does probably become greatly extended; as not possess; it may be taken in all conin other countries, it may diffuse itself ditions of the stomach; and at all times among the mass of the people, and make by women, who are most subject to a considerable ingredient in their daily these complaints; as it dissipates those congestions and obstructions that are frequently the cause of the disease, and which opium is known to increase, when its temporary relief is past.

sustenance.

The extraordinary influence that coffee, judiciously prepared, imparts to the stomach, from its tonic and invigorating qualities, is strongly exemplified by the immediate effect produced on taking it, when the stomach is overloaded with food, or nauseated with surfeit, or debilitated by intemperance.

To constitutionally weak stomachs, it affords a pleasing sensation; it accele

Coffee having the admirable property of promoting perspiration, it allays thirst, and checks preternatural heat.

The great use of coffee in France is supposed to have abated the prevalency of the gravel.

In the French Colonies, where coffee

24

Dr. Moseley on the Virtues of Coffee.

[VOL. 2.

is more used than with the English, as opinion has been received, and propagawell as in Turkey, where it is the princi- ted from him, as he received and propapal beverage, not only the gravel, but the gated it from its fabulous origin. The gout, those tormentors of so many of facts have been refuted by Du Four, the human race, are scarce known. and many travellers. It has been found useful in quieting the tickling vexatious cough that often accompanies the small-pox, and other eruptive fevers. A dish of strong coffee, without milk or sugar, taken frequently in the paroxysm of an asthma, abates the fit; and I have often known it to remove the fit entirely. Sir John Floyer, who had been afflicted with the asthma from the seventeenth year of his age until he was upwards of fourscore, found no remedy in all his elaborate researches, until the latter part of his life, when he obtained it by coffee.

Sir Thomas Herbert, who was several years in the East, tells us that the Persians have a different opinion of coffee: "They say, that coffee comforts the brain, expels melancholy and sleep, purges choler, lightens the spirits, and begets an excellent concoction: and, by custom, becomes delicious. But all these virtues do not conciliate their liking of it so much, as the romantic notion, that it was invented and brewed by the ANGEL GABRIEL to restore Mahomet's decayed moisture, which it did effectually.

A subject like coffee, possessed of acPrepared strong and clear, and diluted tive principles and evident operations, with a great portion of boiled milk, it be- must necessarily be capable of misapplicomes a highly nutritious and balsamic cation and abuse; and there must be diet; proper in hectic, pulmonic, and all particular habits which these operations complaints where a milk diet is useful; disturb. Slare says he used it in too and is a great restorative to constitutions great excess, and it affected his nerves; emaciated by the gout and other chronic disorders.

but Dr. Fothergill, who was a sensible man, and did not use it to great excess, though he was of a very delicate habit, and could not use tea, drank coffee "almost constantly for many years, without receiving any inconvenience from it."

Long watching and intense study are wonderfully supported by it, and without the ill consequences that succeed the suspension of rest and sleep, when the nervous influence has nothing so sustain it. But the history of particular cases Bacon says, "coffee comforts the head sometimes serves but to prove, that manand heart, and helps digestion." Dr. Wil- kind are not all organized alike; and lis says, "being daily drank, it wonder- that the sympathy of one, and the anfully clears and enlightens each part of tipathy of another, ought by no means to the soul, and disperses all the clouds of render useles that infinite variety which every function." The celebrated Dr. pervades all nature; and with which Hervey used it often; Voltaire lived al- the earth is blessed in the vegetable cremost on it; and the learned and seden- ation. Were it so, physic would actary of every country have recourse to it quire but little aid from the toils of phito refresh the brain, oppressed by study losophy, when philosophy had no other and contemplation. incitement to labour than barren speculation.

It has long been a custom with many people among us, to add mustard to their coffee: mustard, or aromatics, may, with great propriety, be added in flatulent, languid, and scorbutic constitutions; and particularly by invalids, and in such cases where warmth or stimulus is required.

It is not to be expected that coffee should escape objections; and among its most furious enemies was Simon Paulli; but he founded his prejudice against coffee, as he had his prejudices against tea, chocolate, and sugar, not on experience, but on anecdotes that he had picked up by hasty travellers, which had no other foundation than absurd report and conjecture-but on these absurd tales this The Eastern nations add either cloves, learned man confesses he supports a no- cinnamon, cardamoms, cummin-seed, or tion that coffee (like tea to the Chinese) essence of amber, &c. but neither milk acted as a great drier to the Persians, and or sugar. Milk and sugar, without the abated aphrodisiacal warmth. This aromatics, are generally used with it in

VOL. 2.]

Dr. Carey on a new Coffee-Simmerer.

25

Europe, America, and the West India unerring test of experience has confirmIslands, except when taken after dinner; ed its utility, in many countries, not ex→ then the method of the French is com- clusively productive of those inconvemonly followed, and the milk is omitted. niencies, habits, and diseases, for which A cup or two thus taken after dinner, its peculiar properties seem most appliwithout cream or milk, promotes diges- cable :-let those properties be duly tion, and has been found very servicea- considered, and let us reflect on the ble to those who are habitually costive. state of our atmosphere, the food and If a draught of water is taken before mode of life of the inhabitants, so injucoffee, according to the eastern custom, rious to youth and beauty, filling the it gives it a tendency to act as an aperi- large towns and cities with chronical infirmities; and I think it will be evident If a knowledge of the principles of what advantages will result from the coffee, founded on examination and va- general use of coffee in England, as an rious experiments, added to observations article of diet, from the comforts of made on the extensive and indiscriminate which the poor are not excluded, and to use of it, cannot authorise us to attribute what purposes it may often be employed, to it any particular circumstance un- as a safe and powerful medicine. friendly to the human frame:-if the London; April 8, 1817.

ent.

DR. CAREY ON A COFFEE SIMMERER.

MR. EDITOR,

From La Belle Assemblee.

THE
HE use of coffee becoming every
day more extensive in this country,
I presume that any suggestion for the
improvement of that pleasant and salu-
brious beverage cannot be unacceptable
to the public. Under that persuasion, I
beg leave to communicate a method of
coffee-making, which I have long prac-
tised, and which I find to answer my
purpose better than any other; although
I have tried several, and bestowed on the
subject a share of attention, which your
readers will hardly deem censurable,
when apprised that coffee has, for the
last three years, been my only beverage,
except morning and evening tea.

bottom; thus admitting and confining a body of hot air all round and underneath the pot: the lid is double, and the vessel is, of course, furnished with a convenient handle and spout.

The extract may be made either with hot or cold water. If intended for speedy use hot water will be proper, but not actually boiling; and, the powdered coffee being added, nothing remains but to close the lid tight, to stop the spout with a cork, and place the vessel over the lamp, where it may remain unattended until the coffee is wanted for immediate use. It may then be strained through a bag of stout coarse linen, which will transmit the liquid so perfectly clear as not to contain the smallest particle of the powder. The strainer is tied round the mouth of an open cylinder, or tube, which is fitted into the mouth of the coffee-pot that is to receive the fluid, as a streamer is fitted into the mouth of a saucepan; and if the coffee-pot have a cock near the bottom, the liquid may be drawn out as fast and as hot as it flows from the strainer.

My process is that of simmering over the small but steady flame of a lamp; a process at once simple, easy, and uniformly productive of an extract so grateful to the palate and the stomach as to leave me neither the want nor desire of any stronger liquor. But to accomplish this, a vessel of peculiar construction is requisite. Mine is a straight-sided pot, as wide at top as at bottom, and inclosed in a case of similar shape, to which it is If the coffee be not intended for speedy soldered air-tight at the top. The case use, as is the case with me, who have my is above an inch wider than the pot; simmerer placed over my night-lamp at descends somewhat less than an inch bed-time, to produce the beverage which below it, and is entirely open at the I am to drink the next day at dinner and supper time; in such cases cold water

C Vol. 2. ATHENET M.

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