★ Keep up to date with the latest news - subscribe to the Transcribe Bentham newsletter; Find a new page to transcribe in our list of Untranscribed Manuscripts
7 have seen but very little 2 of them who live with their
uncle are pretty, one very much so.
Job who is the Shipbuilder is in face very much like
his brother except that he wears a wig of a moderate size
and according to the ordinary fashion of the place. He is Shorter
than Job is a little lame with one foot and trouble with
an Astmha. He is rather more merry than his
brother. and He speaks of his brother as a Philosopher
and says he laughs at his Philosophy, when at the
same time his own disposition appears perfectly philosophical.
He has a house in London where he had been used to
spend the winters till the death of his poor father which
prevented his spending this that is coming, in England.
He has a good house which stands in his yard just
out of the Town. There is a Maiden He has a sister who lives with
him besides his 2 nieces. He is an old bacheldor.
The Brother the Captain I have not seen, he
has a Ship at the Texel and his house is at the
Hague. I hear These Brothers tell me th of several
curious things he has in his way and a compleat Treatise
on Shipbuilding of his own in Manuscript which
they dare to say he will shew me. He has a
Compass of his own invention which he made use
of for many years and which is far superior to
any others.
Had I my own paper & things with
me I should certainly have staid here till the
winter to have profited by the society of these extraordinary
men before I went any further, I am
affraid I shall almost repent the not doing it as it
is, were it not for Courland I believe I should stay
but I am now determined to set off the day after
tomorrow. When Bankes was in Holland he was
a good deal with the Mays but I believe they did
not open much to him. I am quite at a loss to account
for their very great openness to me, for it has come out
entirely by accident with in with respect to several
things which they have talked to me about, that they had
never before talked with mentioned them to any body else,
and this not in a way in the least to pay me a compliment
for they have not attempted any thing like that at any time.
The kind of method I have for the considering of all Mechanical
Engines by the assistance of which alone I have been able to judge
of their effects with the very little stock of mathematical
knowledge which I have, this method Job May possesses
in the highest degree. He learnt it from his father had
it as it were by instinct from his father without the pains
of learning it and his father had it in the same manner
from his grandfather. It is not very often that I have
met with a man with whom I have heard talk on
such a variety of subjects but what I have found some
weak place [some prejudice] some inconsistency]. But
these men appear to have had clear ideas from their
cradle. My Geometry and Algebra plans are
I am sure con perfectly conformable to the ideas of
---page break---
8 these men. I may be tollerably clear in my phisi
Ideas as well as they, but then I am as yet all
ignorance to them. I shewed John May my
"Petty's plan". I could see plainly that he was much
pleased with it but wh with an cast of his eye he
perceived it was not exhaustive and pointed out to
me the deficiencies. There certainly is nothing
that I could do but what he could make better by
additions if not by alterations. In short these men
have a great memory stored with a number of inter
facts relating to more subjects than are of my per
and seem at the same time to reason to the
of everything. It is impossible however that I should
find them in the end so perfect as I am now almost
led to imagine them. As yet I can see no glimpse
of any failure unless it be with respect to little adi
in their private conduct not in their ideas. What
stuff I write now, however you shall have it
as it comes without one moments consideration
John May tells me that he believes Smith's Wea
of Nations will be translated into dutch. O
He was the man to be consulted about it to be sur
and he says that as the part relating to the Exchang
&c of Amsterdam is not quite as it ought to have
been he has put that to rights that it may at any
rate give a true account of what will interest people
here the most. It was He who collected journals
and other information from the people of the Greenland
Ships here to serve as foundations for the probability
of the North pole Navigation Daynes Barrington
had got from hence accounts of Masters of Vessels pa
been by their journals to 86 and it was He who discovered
the fallacy of these Journals and pointed them out
to Barrington.
Thursday afternoon.
I am this instant going to set out for Hamburgh
exceedingly pleased with what I have picked up by
my long stay at this place. I go across the
Zeider Zee to the Lainer in a vessel not the m
convenient. I hope to write to you as I go alo
though I have as yet a day's work to note da
what I have collected. I have several letters
which you shall hear of in my next.
I have received no letter from you
Fryday the 17th was the date I believe of
the last letter I sent you.
|
Identifier: | JB/538/385/002 "JB/" can not be assigned to a declared number type with value 538.
|
|||
|---|---|---|---|
|
1779-10-06 |
|||
|
538 |
|||
|
385 |
|||
|
002 |
|||
|
Correspondence |
|||
|
Samuel Bentham |
|||