Interesting Question to the Improvers of Wafte Ground. fpirits low; and, after a serious conful- Better to fearch in fields for health unbought, Mr. URBAN, Jan. 14. As S improving wafte ground is a good deal the taste of the age, I fhall be much obliged to you, to infert, in your ufeful and entertaining Mifcellany, the following account, which may not only be of ufe to my brother Farmers, but may likewife be a curious fubject of inveftigation to the ftudious in natural philofophy. In October 1786, I bought thirty-nine ewe-sheep of three different perfons, and let them run all the fucceeding winter upon land juft laid down to grafs, after being recovered from a wild ftate. The foil was what is called here a black foil, a good deal inclined to the peat earth; but, when fown with oats and hay-feeds, in 1785, was very folid, and of good confiftence for pafture, the year following. There were about 100 bushels of lime fpread upon every acre of it, when laid down. The fheep were very healthy all winter; but, when the lambs came into the world in fpring, though large and full-grown, they were almoft all ei ther dead, or, having no ufe of their limbs, grew worfe and worfe till they expired, fo that only four of them lived to come to the butcher. But the ewes were always well, fattened regularly, and were all killed for mutton. There was only one crop of corn taken off this new land, which being of a loose contexture, the grafs upon it grew very Juxuriantly; and as this fort of grafs is generally esteemed very unwholefome for fheep, I fuppofe it must have been the caufe of this difagreeable effect. The after-grafs upon the fame fort of land was this year eat off by the weathers, which have likewife fattened and done very well upon it. That this Juxuriant growth of herbage should not S at all affect the full-grown sheep, and at the fame time that the dams should almost univerfally convey fo fatal a diforder to their young, is to me unaccountable; and I fhould be very glad to fee it explained by fome more intelligent perfon. This newly reclaimed land is likewife very unhealthy for all horned cattle, generally bringing them into a violent lax. But it has the contrary effect upon horfes, which, I think, are fooner freshened and made fat there than upon other land. But as I have fome mares with foal, I should be very glad of fome of your correfpondents' opinion about the probable effect upon them; whether or no these young animals will be liable to the fame diforder with the lambs. I imagine former cultivators of waste grounds have experienced the fame effects, but I do not know that it was ever made known to the publick. Had I ever feen it, I certainly hould not have flocked my farm with theep. This land was fown with the best common hay feeds that could be procured. I have fince been informed, that rye-grafs, not being of fo luxuriant a growth, when fown upon land of this nature, will not be attended with fuch pernicious effects. A FARMER. Mr. URBAN, Jan. 16. FEW people are unacquainted, that the numerous particular divifions of knowledge are only derivative branches from a leis number of more comprehenfive sciences. And it is an inconteftible truth, that, while we' are ignorant of the principles of any primitive fcience which ferves as the bafis to fome other branch of knowledge, we can be only fuperficially converfant in that branch of knowledge, of the bafis of which we are by the fuppofition ignorant. This, Sir, leads me to an application of almoft univerfal extent, and of the laft importance. There is fcarcely any thing in which our knowledge is more confined, and lefs clear and fatisfactory, than the general theory of motion, its origin, continuance, and communication. And fince almott all the compafs of human knowledge, at leaft fo far as relates to material objects, confifts in the cognizance of motion in fome or other of its varieties, it is evident that the defects of this theory muft pervade almoft every other branch of enquiry, and that our knowledge of this or that particular let or fyllem of motions, fuppofe a mecha nical engine-an animal organization It appears to me, Sir, that men too Permit me, therefore, Sir, through a channel of communication which will infure its meeting the view of numerous learned and ingenious perfons, to propofe a problem relative to this very important and fundamental point. Problem. IT IS REQUIRED TO EXPLAIN THE COM- I ftate this fimple problem, Sir, not to préfent to your readers a too complicated enquiry. But the investigation of this will doubtlefs involve a much larger extent of inveftigation. If any of your correfpondents will hazard a fpeculation on this very obfcure and very interefting queftion, he will have my fincere acknowledgements; and, if I venture to object to any part of fuch fpeculation, it will be with that candour which a love of truth will infpire, although with the freedom which the inveftigation of it demands. If no one should choofe to engage in a task which has hitherto proved to dif. ficult, I promife, provided you favour me with the infertion of this, to tranfmit you fome of my own thoughts upon the fubject; and am, Yours, &c. Mr. URBAN, Hackney, Dec. 15. Jowing obfervation. "In order to pre- dated to the general opinions and taste!”, Monthly Review, for Oct. p. 272.That fuch a sentence fhould be promulgated by thofe who are generally fuppofed to be in the miniftry, though not of the establishment, must be a matter of aftonishment to every lover of confiftency. As times, fashions, and other circumstances of weight occur, it may doubtlefs be prudent, nay expedient, to make fome alteration in the phrafeology, and poffibly in the mode of worthip. But that doctrines fhould be accommodated to opinions and tastes, appears to me rather as the fentiments of a defcen teftant. dant of Loyola, than of a liberal Pro will allow of my defcanting further upNeither my abilities nor my leifure on this fubject. Happy fhall I think induce fome able champion to step forth, myfelf, if this flight animadverfion may and vindicate that establishment, which these critics are pleased to carp and nibble every returning month. Mr. URBAN, ΤΗ NICODEMUS. at Jan. 6. HE dream inferted in your last vol. p. 1062, as it may probably take the attention of many, will also exhibit an obvious contradiction in the fentiextraordinary that he, who begins his ments of the editor, fince it feems very lucubration with exploding the fuperftition of the vulgar relative to fuch nightly vifions, and whofe letter is intituled, "Extremne danger of the popular belief in dreams," fhould only make his exordium the introduction to one of the most incontrovertible proofs of fuch fupernatural interpofitions, if the fact was as he relates it. For no dreamer, of confutation of infidelity on fuch fubany age, can produce a more serious jects! Nor was ever dream lefs fatis factory in its confequence, fince, though it did indeed afhift in bringing the mur derer to juftice, and produced an uncommon evidence againft him to the credulous, yet the innocent man loft his life, as if no fuch miraculous interpofition had happened. And therefore this dream, like many others on doubtful record, can only add to the natural propenfity of the weak, to encourage the faith this editor feems to reprobate in theory, and to adopt in opinion! For why, as an illuftration that the vapours of the night ought to be difregarded in the morning, fhould he recount a ftory fit for the Chiiftmas evening tale of a century Female Writers.-Dr. Anderfon, Dr. Smith, and Mr. Knox. century paft, when marvellous narrations of ghofts, or dreams of wondrous im ort, afforded that amufement which cards have now entirely exploded-Or rather, modern education has expanded the mind, and afforded, by the light of general erudition, fenfe enough to rife fuperior to that fuperftition which influenced the unlettered multitude of former times. It may be obferved alfo, that the dreamer gives no date of the year when this tranfaction happened in Ireland, a kingdom ever replete with marvellous and barbarous transactions! D, S. Mr. URBAN, Jan. 7. O the lift of female authors, vol. Ti LVII. p. 884, please to add Mrs. Jane Marshall, author of Clarinda Cathcart, Alicia Montague, and the comedy of Sir Harry Gaylove. Brantome defcribes the unfortunate Mary Stewart as poffeffing, among other acquirements, a fingular eafe in poetical compofition. If you think the inclosed Elegy, written by that princefs on the death of Francis I. her husband, poffeffes a fufficient degree of merit, you will, no doubt, give it a place in your Mifcellany. Thofe who are to judge of it, ought to recollect the time when it was written, and the state of French poefy at that period. It is transcribed from a note in a hiftory of Queen Elizabeth, juft publifhed, by Mademoiselle de Keralio, and never was before printed. Does not your correfpondpent Pl-t, p. 206, do fome injuftice to Dr. Anderfon and Dr. Adam Smith, when he reprefents them as having had any dif ference with Mr. Knox? Since I faw that letter, I have looked over the political writings of both thefe gentlemen, and can find nothing that can authorife that expreffion: nor have I heard, that ever either of these authors have thought the rude illiberalities of Mr. Knox required from them any fort of notice whatever. Nor do I fuppofe they will ever degrade their characters fo far as to take notice of fcurrilities, which are fufficiently refuted by the whole tenor of their life and writings. It is with pleafure I received intimation of the new English Dictionary undertaken by Mr. Herbert Croft. No book is more wanted in England than a good Dictionary of the language; and this, I conceive, may be faid without implying any fevere reflection against Dr. Johnfon. It is but by flow and gradual fteps that a work of this nature See it in our Poetry, p. 63. 7 can be brought to perfection; and I have often been forry to fee, that men of letters did not feem to think they could do juftice to Dr. Johnson, unles they praised his work as poffeffing abjolute inftead of relative perfection. Many English words are certainly omitted in that work, as Mr. Croft very properly remarks, LVII. 651; and perhaps he might have added, that many improper words have been admitted, which tend not only to fwell the volume (a circumftance of small importance indeed), but allo to corrupt the language. Dr. Johnfon was fond of long founding words, derived from the Latin. This was his hobby-horfe, and he was at great pains to pick them up with care wherever he could find them, and give them a place in his work. And as the tafte for coining new words of this kind was very prevalent about a century ago, many writers of that period feem to have thought it intimated a poverty of genius, and want of learning, if they did not crowd their pages with fonorous words of this kind that had never before been ufed, and which, as being perfectly ufelefs, never were by others employed afterwards. Such words as thefe do not, furely, deferve the name of English words, and ought to be excluded from an English Dictionary; or, if admitted at all, they fhould be marked there as barbarifms only. I had once the curiofity to run over the letter D in Johnson's Dictionary, in fearch of words of this clafs; and there I found fome hundreds of words, that neither I myself, nor any of my literary friends to whom I fhowed the lift, could recollect ever to have seen in any English writer whatever. It will be of ufe to mark fuch words either as obfolete or as barbarifms. But the radical defect of Johnton's Dictionary is the imperfect or the erro. neous explanation of the meaning of the words that are there admitted. Thefe explanations are in almoft every cafe fo obfcure, or fo indefinite, as to convey no accurate idea to the mind of the ig norant perfon who confults the Dictionary for information. I doubt not but Mr. Croft will apply his chief attention to this very important part of his work. It is not enough that Dr. Johnfon has produced, in his large work, paffages from the feveral authors he quotes as authorities-for although it should happen that the word thould bear the fame meaning in the quotation that is given to it in the text, with the explanation he gives gives of it (which is not always the cafe), yet as our beft writers have, on many occafions, employed a word in an improper ferfe, it may often happen that the reader will thus be lead into great perplexity and error. The compiler of a Dictionary fhould understand the language fo well, as to be able to give the precife idea that should be annexed to each word, and to point out the nice differences between that word and o thers which in certain circumstances may be fynonymous, though on other occafions their meaning is very diftinct and different. These peculiarities fhould be illuftrated by appofite examples, furmifhed by the author himfelf for the occafion, which might be farther corroborated by paffages felected from our best authors. An example of this mode of explaining words occurs, under the article Dictionary, in the Encyclopædia Britannica, published at Edinburgh; to which I beg leave here to refer the rea der. I am fatisfied, however, that the abilities of no one man, however intelligent he may be, are fufficient to compleat a Dictionary of any language upon that plan. To fupply the omiflions, and to correct the errors, of fuch a work, one plan, and only one, occurs to me as effectual. Let the perfon or perfons who engage in fuch an arduous under taking, when their materials are fo far collected as to admit of copying out the articles for the prefs, begin the work, by publishing gradually as they advance one leaf, or more, as they can overtake it, in fome Periodical Mifcellany that is very generally read by men of letters in Britain [and without any flattery, Mr. Urban, I know of none fo well entitled to that honour as your own], giving in that leat their own explanations full, fimply pointing out, by exact references, the writers they would quote as additional authorities, with a general invitation to all perfons to tranfmit to fome one, appointed for that purpose, fuch obfervations as occurred, tending to correct errors or to fupply defects; all of which, when they were evidently right, might be adopted, and fuch as appeared of a doubtful nature, might be inferted in fome future number of the Mifcellany, accompanied with explanations for the farther confideration of the publick. In this way the work might be gradually advancing towards completion; and, at a proper period, the new work might gin to be publifhed by itfelt in fepa rate numbers, that room might be thus given for farther corrections during its publication, which corrections might be inferted into the Appendix, fo as to render it as compleat as poffible. In this way, and in this way only, as I apprehend, may we hope to obtain in time a Dictionary of the English language, that in point of copioufnefs, diftintnefs, and accuracy, would exceed the works of the fame kind undertaken by the joint labours of the learned Academicians in other parts of Europe. In a Dictionary of this kind it would be proper to admit all words, whether they had now grown obfolete, or were only provincial or barbarous, putting d diftinguishing mark, with full explanations concerning each. The authorities for each word fhould alfo be printed at full length; and occafionally thould be given examples of the improper use of fuch words even by our moft claffical authors, with the reafons why the fe were rejected. All this fhould be print ed in a work by itfelf, to which refe rences fhould be made in the Dictio. nary, fo as to admit of being readily confulted at pleafure. In this way the bulk of the work would not be fo exceedingly cumberfome, as if the full authorities were printed in the Dictionary itfelf. The authorities could be occafionally confulted by the curious, and might be fuffered to remain un touched by those who were perfectly fatisfied with the fhorter illuftrations in the Dictionary itself. If you think thefe fhort hints can in any measure tend towards the perfecting of this great national work, I should be glad they obtained a place in your valuable Mifcellany. And if further elucidations are required, 1 fhall furnifh you with a particular addrefs to me if called for. Mr. URBAN, P A. B. D. Jan. 28. ERHAPS, amongst your numerous and refpectable correfpondents, I may be favoured with an answer to the following querics. By inferting them, therefore, in your u feful Mifcellany, you will confer a B. J. B. particular obligation on 1. Is there any known and cheap compofition, by wafhing over walls therewith, built with a foft fand-ftone, that tends to harden and preferve them from the injuries of weather? 2. What are the ingredients of that red compofition, much ufed in Italy for making floors, and its usefulness in refpect to durabiLty ? I have been informed, a principal one is the blood of cattle. Mr. |