n the momentous improvement he had made, by
which a family might save a dish of greens in a quarter, for so trifling
an expense as that of purchasing, working, and maintaining such a
stupendous machine; but no man was ever more sarcastic in his remarks
upon this piece of mechanism than the naturalist, who next appealed to
the patron's approbation for a curious disposition he had made touching
the procreation of muck-flies, in which he had laid down a curious
method of collecting, preserving, and hatching the eggs of these
insects, even in the winter, by certain modifications of artificial
heat. The nature of this discovery was no sooner communicated, than
Peregrine, unable to contain himself, was seized with a fit of laughter,
which infected every person at the table, the landlord himself not
excepted, who found it impossible to preserve his wonted gravity of
face.

Such unmannerly mirth did not fail to mortify the philosopher, who,
after some pause, during which indignation and disdain were painted in
his countenance, reprehended our young gentleman for his unphilosophical
behaviour, and undertook to prove, that the subject of his inquiry
was of infinite consequence to the progress and increase of natural
knowledge. But he found no quarter from the vengeful engineer, who now
retorted his ironical compliments, with great emphasis, upon this hotbed
for the generation of vermin, and advised him to lay the whole process
before the Royal Society, which would, doubtless, present him with a
medal, and give him a place among their memoirs, as a distinguished
promoter of the useful arts. "If," said he, "you had employed your
studies in finding out some effectual method to destroy those insects
which prejudice and annoy mankind, in all probability you must have
been contented with the contemplation of the good you had done; but this
curious expedient for multiplying maggots will surely entitle you to an
honourable rank in the list of learned philosophers."--"I don't wonder,"
replied the naturalist, "that you should be so much averse to the
propagation of insects, because, in all likelihood, you are afraid that
they will not leave you a cabbage to cut down with the same miraculous
machine."--"Sir," answered the mechanic, with great bitterness of
voice and aspect, "if the cabbage be as light-headed as some muck-worm
philosophers, it will not be worth cutting down."--"I never dispute
upon cabbage with the son of a cucumber," said t