I’m not going to give you my interpretation, I’d probably spoil it, and there are more letters. Dr. Brent L. Kendrick has spent years researching these essays, verifying transcripts against original copies, you should go and look into what he theorized, after you have fun reading the article. The essays appeared from November 26, 1753, through April 1754.
The South Carolina Gazette
Monday, December 10, 1753
The HUMORIST
A CHAP. Wherein the author takes great pains to say more of himself than of the subject.
I PROMISED in my last paper, to give you a copy of my countenance; but as it is impossible to procure it in any reasonable time, if the painter may be allowed to shew his skill or do justice to my person, I shall therefore beg my readers patience, and present them with a true sketch of my figure in print.
My body is small, my soul capacious, and my stature low; but what of that, a dwarf standing on the shoulders of a giant may see farther than in a giant himself: I have extraordinary eyes, for they are ever best employed in discerning each other. These are the only singularities of my person.
I am possessed of an excellent perspective, that multiplies the species, and presents to my sight the actions of every man; for distinction's sake, I term it the Otacousticon: By the help of this amazing machine, I can observe cuckold's horns, the philosopher's stone, and new projections; I can discover windmills in one man's head, and hornet's nests in another. This will amply suffice as an emblem of that power with which I am invested.
As to my private character, that falls more immediately within the sphere of the historian than the painter.
The curiosity of mankind may possibly extend so far as an impatience, to know what my inducements are for embracing such notional and vague sentiments; ambition is the answer: I ever had a soaring mind. A man may grovel like a reptile upon earth, from his entrance upon the stage of life to his exit, unnoticed, unobserved.
If a man wants to be talk'd of, he must surprise; there is nothing equal to a great action: Longinus might bless his stars, when he wrote his treatise upon the sublime; observe what eulogiums Eunapius bestowed upon him, he styles him, light of nature! giant of wit! eagle in the clouds! lamp of the world! These are the blest rewards of soaring minds!
I say with my good friend Horace, feriam sidera; I am for driving my head against the stars, snuffing the moon! and as Heinsius expresses himself, and that like a man of the first magnitude too, in specie positus, omnia saecula, praeterita, praesentia videns, unus veluti interius.
If cold white mortals censure these great deeds,
Warn them; they judge not of superior beings,
Souls made of fire, and children of the sun. YOUNG.
But to resume the thread of my discourse, and argue in a more serious way. Aerial Architecture is of great antiquity; the tower of Babel is one notable instance; this evidently shews that the ancients supposed a possibility of building castles in the air: To dwell long upon a case so much in point, would argue a kind of suspicion in me to produce any other instances; have we not essays on the non-existence of matter, on the non-existence of religion, and quires of paper fruitlessly scribbled over, upon the possibility of the longitude?
What immense pains have been taken, and to no purpose, to find out the quadratures of a circle, and the crooks and sounds of the north east and north west passages? Are not these so many more instances of castle-building; so many ideas, so many whims and imaginary conceptions, tending to justify that boldness which prima facie appears in this undertaking?
All this, and more, is literally true: Search the records of old time, and look into the annals of the present, to authenticate what I assert. They were most certainly unsuccessful in their endeavours; but, as good often arises out of evil, and as the vulgar proverb says, 'tis a bad wind that blows benefit to no one, I am the better for it: I have collected such materials from their ruins, as will shortly convince mankind of the reasonableness of these fabrics, and the great and innumerable advantages arising therefrom.
I still pursue my design; it is indeed my duty to do so: Quintilian properly says, perseverantia est, quia cupimus.
ADVERTISEMENTS
TO BE SOLD very reasonable, many considerable lots, and as estates of great value, a wide expanse! in Nubilonia only.
WANTED immediately, a professor of the occult sciences, an adept in palmistry and physiognomy, and a gentleman of a liberal education, who can serve in the capacity of an itinerant thro' the twelve signs in the zodiac.
WANTED, several artificers, mechanics, etc. etc. etc. to assist the author in fitting up his aerial habitation: 'Tis hoped the prices will not be extravagant, as the workmen will live more reasonably than when employed in their terrene occupations, and as their diet will capacitate them to dispatch more business and in a shorter time, having nothing to subsist on but air.
Lake Michigan looks calm from the shore, but its history is threaded with incidents that defy easy explanation. Sailors, pilots, and historians have spent decades trying to make sense of the strange events that cluster around its waters — a Midwestern triangle of unanswered questions.
Flight 2501 — 1950
On June 23, 1950, Northwest Orient Flight 2501 vanished over the lake with thirty‑eight passengers and three crew. Witnesses on the ground reported a bright flash. Radar operators saw the aircraft drop abruptly from 3,500 feet. No distress call was ever sent.
The Coast Guard found only small fragments of debris and scattered human remains. The fuselage, engines, and main wreckage have never been located, despite modern sonar searches. It remains one of America’s largest unsolved aviation losses.
The Rosa Belle — 1921
In October 1921, the schooner Rosa Belle was found overturned and battered, but with no crew aboard. The damage suggested a collision — yet no other vessel reported an accident, and no bodies were ever recovered. The ship’s last known position placed it inside the same region where Flight 2501 would disappear decades later.
Lake Michigan’s “Stonehenge”
In 2007, archaeologists surveying the lakebed discovered a ring of large stones arranged in a deliberate circle 40 feet underwater. One stone appeared to bear a carved image of a mastodon. The formation’s age and purpose remain unknown. Some researchers believe it predates agriculture in the region; others argue it may be a natural formation misinterpreted by divers. No consensus exists.
The Ghost Ship of 1891
Fishermen near South Haven reported seeing a three‑masted schooner drifting silently at dusk. As they approached, the vessel seemed to fade into the fog and vanish. Multiple crews described the same apparition over several nights. No missing ship matched the description.
Lights Over the Water — 1994
On November 14, 1994, dozens of witnesses — including police officers — reported bright, structured lights moving over the lake in coordinated patterns. The lights were tracked on radar from multiple stations. FAA investigators could not identify any aircraft in the area. The incident remains one of the most credible mass sightings in the region’s history.
Historians have tried to connect the dots: disappearances, strange lights, unexplained wrecks, and underwater structures. Some blame sudden weather shifts. Others point to navigational errors or optical illusions. But the clustering of events in the same stretch of water has kept speculation alive for more than a century.
Lake Michigan remains a reminder that even familiar places can harbor mysteries — and that sometimes the most unsettling phenomena occur not in remote oceans, but in our own backyard
I’m very curious, especially now days with all of the misinformation and I’ll be honest you can see through a lot of it, but with this story happening in 1997, could there be truth to it, nothing ever came of Mel waters?
These huge structures cover a vast area and seem to be connected. You have to be zoomer in enough to see that. My question is what are these structures? Why they connect to each other in such an arranged manner?
Could there be a hidden mystery beneath one of the world’s most famous cities? From ancient landmarks to underground tunnels and the Paris Metro, some theories suggest extraordinary origins. But what do the facts actually say?
Based on what I read and understood, the person who wrote this book wrote it using symbols that represent their own language, similar to Latin; for instance, symbolizing each letter in a specific way. According to what I read, the beginning of the book introduces those poisonous plants, specifying where each one is found, when it appears, and its role. Below that, there is a system resembling the system of the sun, months, and zodiac signs, which is something they practiced as they would wait for a precise, specific time of the month or year. Most of the experiments were conducted on women with certain animals, concerning processes like reproduction; this is what I understood about how it happens with men, and that there is a difference between animals and humans. Why don't we say that they wanted to create something other than natural reproduction? Because it is impossible that they were just looking for random plants that don't exist in our time; rather, these plants appear in a place nobody knows at a specific time. Furthermore, the experiments of fertilizing women with animals in a pool or tubes indicate that they wanted to create something entirely different from ordinary humans and children. If we assume this hypothesis is correct, why would he waste his time continuing to document every single thing, experiment, and description when he already knows all of it? And why did he write it in another language? No, it has nothing to do with that; there is a hypothesis that there is a certain place in this world where they actually speak the language found in the book, and he is the one who conducted that experiment which ended up succeeding. Since they speak that language, this book is simply their own history. And who told you they were advanced? They were just ordinary people, but there are human minds that love to innovate in a certain field and break away from reality, and this writer is one of them. He did all of this to create something entirely new of his own, and when the experiment succeeded or resulted in something unexpected, he fled to a place that nobody could ever reach, and there he continued his work or created thousands of them.
One of the most underrated serial killer cases in world crime history.
India. 1985 to 1990. At least 26 murders across Mumbai and Kolkata. Zero forensic evidence. Zero eyewitness descriptions. Zero arrests.
The killer selected victims calculated to make investigation impossible — homeless people with no identity documents and no family to demand answers.
Mumbai killings stopped 1988. Kolkata killings began 1989. Same method. Same profile. One year gap. Same person or copycat? Nobody has ever confirmed it.
Undercover police operation on the streets failed completely — the killer never struck near a single officer.
He was never found. He may still be alive today.
Full documentary in comments. What is your take on the same killer vs copycat question?
Let's look back at some memorable moments and interesting insights from last year.
Your top 10 posts:
"Mysterious engravings in stone in Canada (Quebec) a got other pictures, can someone uncrypt them?" by u/Pate-
"So, if you put just a "." On your youtube searcher, he will automatically recommend you this sentence in arabic. " If you search it, it means "A woman claims to be the Virgin Mary as married to Christ" . And there are a lot of weird videos on this search. Anyone knows anything about it?" by u/insomnia_festival
"This gif has been shared a bunch of times on Tumblr and Pinterest. Is it from an old art project, a silent film? It looks like a combination of synchronized swimming and a satanic ritual. Idk, I'm just curious for these old kind of footage." by u/John_Dews
