Anecdote of Descartes.

DESCARTES, a famous French philosopher of the seventeenth century, was early in life an officer in the army; and, in course of nine years, went through a great deal of hard service. During this time the army was once encamped near an university town, and the young officer strolling about saw several persons, and among them a starch sort of a gentleman, with a long band and a black gown, reading an inscription on the wall. He went up, and found it was a question in Latin, which after he had read he copied out with a pencil on the leaves of his pocket-book, and was going away, when he was stopped at a little distance from the place by the reverend gentleman, and accosted in these words: Do you think, young gentleman, that you can answer that question? I did not know that young gentlemen of your profession troubled themselves

with such studies.' Sir,' answered Descartes with great diffidence, I do not see why we should not amuse ourselves in a camp with our books, as well as students in their chambers; I am sure we have many hours which would bear very heavy on us, if we could not divert our minds with something of the sort, and this question seems to me likely to enable me to pass away this evening without any fatigue or ennui.' The elder then gave the young officer his address, and begged to see him when he had solved the question; but what was his surprise, when the young gentle man brought him, the next afternoon, completely solved, the question, which had puzzled, and was then puzzling, the whole university? Starch manners, a great wig, a black dress, and a solemn strut, are not proofs of wisdom: not are a red coat and a sword, and a sprightly address, inevitable tokens of folly.

A new Work from the erudite pen of Counsellor Clinch, against the meditated measure of transfer

ring the appointment of the bishops from his Holiness to the King, will be published in a few days by COYNE, Capel-street. From the distinguished talents and very eminent rank, which Mr. Clinch stands in as a literary man, the public may expect the most satisfactory reasoning on the extraordinary subject which employs his pen.

Grammar of the Gaelic or Irish
Language. 12mo. BARLOW,
Dublin, 1808.

We are happy to have seen published a work so interesting to the long neglected and elegant lan

guage of Ireland, a complete and systematic Gaelic Grammar. This we trust will remove all difficulty in acquiring an intimacy with the mellifluous cadence of Irish poetry, as well as in the developement of the many hidden and valuable trea sures of our history and laws. In short we are authorized to pro nounce this the best practical Grammar extant of this now interesting language, and of equal merit with that of any other language with which we are acquainted. In a work, however, of such erudition and which must so vastly redound to the credit of its learned author, it appears to us rather an ill-timed modesty to conceal his name.

4TH QUESTION.

QUESTION, by Mr. T. Dillon, Teacher of Mathematics, Poo:seg

street.

Whoever sends a true solution to this Question before the 1st of November 1808, will be entitled to six Irish Magazines.

IN the Castle of Konigstein situated on the river Elbe. in latitude 50o 54' N. there is the largest wine cask in the world, in form of the lower frustrums of two equal cones, the difference between the bung and head diameters being 18 inches; and on a certain day in the summer of the year 1807, at the celebration of a grand festival, there was a flagstaff erected perpendicularly in the centre of its head, whose length was to the height of the Cask in the ratio of 1 to 1; and the shadow of the staff at six o'clock in the morning exceeded its meridian shade by 59,06 yards, it was also known that the time from noon to the sun being due west, exceeded the time from sunrise to his being directly east by lh. 35m. 3sec. Admit the cask to be full, and three equidistant holes to be made close to the bottom, one circular, whose circumference is 6 inches, the second a quare, whose perimeter is also 6 inches, and the third a parabola, whose base is 13, and the length

of the curve 4 inches; and sup pose the three holes were opened at the same time, and continued running until the vessel was totally exhausted; it is required to determine the dimensions, and the exact time of emptying the cask; the true quantity of wine discharged through each aperture, the day of observation, the sun's meridian altitude, and the moment of his rising at Konigstein on said day; when the distance between the vertex of the flagstaff and the greatest curvature of the cask measured 50,96 feet.

This cask was begun in the year 1722, and finished in 1725, under the direction of General Kyaw, it is railed in at the top, and affords room sufficient for twenty persons to regale themselves; several large goblets called welcome cups, are presented to those who delight in such honours.

Before this cask was finished, the famous tun in Heidelberg was reckoned the largest in the world, but according to computation, this at Konigstein contains upwards of 600 hogsheads more than that of Heidelberg.

Upon the uppermost head of this stupendous cask, there is a Latin inscription, which in English is as follows:

"Welcome traveller, and ad"mire this monument dedicated