Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.

A correspondent asks if any of our nautical readers can furnish a plausible reason for the prevailing custom of fixing a horse-shoe on the foremasts of ships in his Majesty’s service, and whether it is a common practice in other vessels, as it has been often seen in the ships of war in the royal […]

It appears to me that a cruel practice has too long subsisted with regard to a very harmless part of the animal creation, whose wrongs cry out aloud for redress. The poor persecuted creature to which I allude is the hedgehog. or urchin; concerning whom (fatally for him) an opinion prevails; which I more than […]

If you ask a countryman in the South-west part of the kingdom to dine, he objects to any kind of game which comes to your table, and says, in his provincial dialect, I never. eats hollow fowl; under which term he includes hares and rabbits, as well as wild fowl, and every kind of poultry. […]

As the 14th of next month is a day anxiously looked for by the youth of both sexes, in the expectation of exercising their ingenuity in forming those amorous billets denominated ” Valentines,” I beg leave, through the channel of your Magazine, to offer a few suggestions to parents and guardians on the subject of […]

Superstition has done much mischief in the world in the days of our forefathers ; and perhaps, in some instances, their children of the present day are not quite exempted from its influence. May I be permitted to select the following as a specimen ? It is common to throw away the feathers of pigeons, […]

You may assure Mr. Dickinson, p. 4, the notion of the Cuckoo, in part, subsisting by sucking the eggs of other birds, does universally prevail ; and, though it is not noticed by authors of notoriety, there is a humble production, entituled “Songs for Children,” which has inculcated it for many years, if not for […]

As arts and sciences make very perceptible advances in Europe after every ten years, an Encyclopaedia or magazine, wherein to register our new stores, becomes, of necessity, a periodical publication. But as these dictionaries contain not only what is new, but generally a system of all that is known, both new and old, upon every […]

The vulgar in our country formerly esteemed it a forerunner of some calamity. Pennant, however, says it visits these islands frequently ; but not at stated seasons. It is found in many parts of Europe, in Egypt, and even as remote as Ceylon. The Turks call it Tir Chaos, or the messenger bird, from the […]

Among other plagiarisms idly charged against that gifted poet Lord Byron, is the incident of the White-bird, recorded in ” Don Juan,” hovering over a death-bed. Permit me to observe, that if his lordship is liable to censure on this account, so must the author from whom he is said to have derived it. The […]

Dec. 24. An instance of horrid barbarity, coupled with gross superstition, lately occurred at Hoo, in Kent. A farmer having a duck in his possession which layed eggs of a dun colour, the animal was immediately considered unlucky, and a resolution taken to dispose of it. A distemper, just at the time, broke out among […]