ublic spirit which is the animating soul of freedom, they serve
as tests of dauntless public virtue, afford the last and the best hope
of patriotism, and constitute national schools, in which impressive
Lessons of Liberty are taught to the whole people.

In my walk towards Garrat, my attention was attracted by a pretty
mansion, which pleased my eye, though the monotonous blows of its
adjoining oil-mill annoyed my ear. The owner, Mr. Were, politely
exhibited its details; and more mechanical ingenuity than is here
displayed could not well be applied to aid the simple operation of
extracting oil from linseed. A magnificent water-wheel, of thirty
feet, turns a main shaft, which gives motion to a pair of vertical
stones, raises the driving-beams, and turns a band which carries the
seed, in small buckets, from the floor to the hopper. The shock on the
entire nervous system, produced by the noise of the driving-beams as
they fall on the wedges, is not to be described. The sense of hearing
for the time is wholly destroyed, and the powers of voice and
articulation are vainly exerted. The noise is oppressive, though a
rebound, comparatively tuneful, takes place, till the wedge is driven
home; but afterwards, the blows fall dead, and produce a painful jarr
on the nerves, which affected me for several hours with a sense of
general lassitude. The gardens of this sensible manufacturer evince
considerable taste, and produce that agreeable effect which always
results from the combination of comfort, rural beauty, and useful
industry. A manufactory in a picturesque situation, surrounded by the
usual characters of opulence, is one of the most pleasing features of
an English landscape, combining whatever we most admire in nature and
art, with moral associations, that produce in the mind a sentiment of
perfect satisfaction.

Nearer to Wandsworth, Homer would have found imagery by which to
improve his description of the abode of Vulcan; for how feeble must
have been the objects of this nature, which a poet could view on the
shores of the Mediterranean, compared with the gigantic machinery of
an English iron-foundry. The application of the expansive powers of
nature, as a moving agent in the steam-engine; the means of generating
and concentrating heat in our furnaces; the melting of iron; the
casting of the fluid; the colossal powers of the welding hammer, the
head of which, though a ton in weight, gives a stroke per second; the
power of s