The retail politician's anxious thought Deems _this_ side always right, and _that_ stark naught; He foams with censure; with applause he raves-- A dupe to rumors, and a tool of knaves; He'll want no type his weakness to proclaim, While such a thing as _fools-cap_ has a name. The hasty gentleman, whose blood runs high, Who picks a quarrel if you step awry, Who can't a jest, or hint, or look, endure: What's he? What? _Touch-paper_,--to be sure. What are our poets, take them as they fall, Good, bad, rich, poor, much read, not read at all? Them and their works in the same class you'll find They are the mere _waste-paper_ of mankind. Observe the maiden, innocently sweet; She's fair _white-paper_, an unsullied sheet; On which the happy man, whom Fate ordains, May write his _name_, and take her for his pains. One instance more, and only one I'll bring; 'Tis the _great man_ who scorns a little thing, Whose thoughts, whose deeds, whose maxims are his own, Formed on the feelings of his heart alone: True, genuine _royal-paper_ is his breast, Of all the kinds most precious, purest, best. ON THE ART OF SWIMMING. _In Answer to some Inquiries of M. Dubourg_[2] _on the Subject._ [2] Translator of Dr. Franklin's works into French. I am apprehensive that I shall not be able to find leisure for making all the disquisitions and experiments which would be desirable on this subject. I must, therefore, content myself with a few remarks. The specific gravity of some human bodies, in comparison to that of water, has been examined by M. Robinson, in our Philosophical Transactions, volume 50, page 30, for the year 1757. He asserts, that fat persons, with small bones, float most easily upon water. The diving bell is accurately described in our Transactions. When I was a boy, I made two oval pallets, each about ten inches long, and six broad, with a hole for the thumb, in order to retain it fast in the palm of my hand. They much resembled a painter's pallets. In swimming, I pushed the edges of these forward, and I struck the water with their flat surfaces as I drew them back: I remember I swam faster by means of these pallets, but they fatigued my wrists. I also fitted to the soles of my feet a kind of sandals; but I was not satisfied with them, because I observed that the stroke is partly given by the inside of the feet and the ankles, and not entirely with the soles of the feet. We have here waistcoats for swimming, which are made of double sail cloth, with small pieces of cork quilted in between them. I know by experience, that it is a great comfort to a swimmer who has a considerable distance to go, to turn himself sometimes on his back, and to vary in other respects the means of procuring a progressive motion.