92 94 117 Meteor. Diaries for Feb. 1788, and Mar. 1787 90 The Aurum Muívum-Hiftorical Paradox 115 137-154 161-175 176-182 134 Embellished with a View of the MARKET PLACE a DOVER; an ALLEGORIC FIGURE from the MEDICAL SCIETY; a beautiful UN; and feveral Figures illuftrative of WATER SP UTS. By SYLVANUS URBAN. Gent. LONDON, Printed by JOHN NICHOLS, for D. HENRY, late SAINT JOHN STATE. The warm days and nights awake dormant vegetation. Yellowhammer (emberiza fia va) fings. Blackbird (turdus merula) builds.d Pilewort (ficaria verna) and daffodil (narciffus minor) in bloom-e Draba verna in full bloom.--f Bats (vefpertilio murinus) come forth at fix p. m. in queft of phalenæ, though the thermometer was only 43.-8 Peaches and nectarines in bloom.-b Dog's-toothed (erythronium dens canis) in bloom. , The daffodil comes this year long before the fwallow dares, and takes the winds of * Yellowbammer, that is, yellowcoar, from the old Gothic word bamur, a garment. Hence allo bammercloth for the covering of a coach-box. OBSERVATIONS. BEING THE SECOND NUMBER OF VOL. LVIII. PART I. OXFORD DICTIONARY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. XXXGREEABLY to the detires of the following among his correfpondents, Mr. CROFT acknowledges their favours in this publication. A He very much thanks them all. It is his intention to depofit their communications in fome publiċ library, whether he ufe them or not; along with all his MSS. and his philological library. D. D. advifes kindly, but there have been good reafons for not publishing yet. In the course of the fummer it is hoped that a volume will be ready, to fhew (what a few pages will not fhew) the incredible, radical, and incurable defects of Johnfon; the progrefs made in the new Dictionary, and the manner in which it is carried on. "Gratitude" may be affured, that the author of the new Dictionary can never forget what he owes to Johnfon. He will praife that mighty man more, in fact, than ten Knights who write his life. He will fay that, every time he takes up Johnfon's Dictionary, he is more convinced it deferves to be put into the fire; but he will alfo fay, that, every time he takes it up, he is more aftonished to think what the peor, poverty-kricken, book feller-fold, man has done, and more and more convinced that the book, which the new Dictionary fhall difplace from our fhelves, is perhaps the greatest work by one individual (all things confidered) that has ever appeared in any country. The Effay, which " Gratitude" mentions and offers, Mr. C. has already marked, to be tranfcribed by his affiftants for his Dictionary. It" Gratitude" do not confider what has just been faid as praise, Mr. C. is ready to fubfcribe to the following paffage in Whitaker; except that Mr. C. concludes there were more reafons than we know, why Johnfon was neglected in the reign, of which Whitaker (peaks with more freedom perhaps than even Hiftory demands. (Hiftory of Manchester, 4to. 1775 book 11. chap. viii, feĉt. 1, p. 327, 8.) — I hope that I have executed the whole "with fuch a refpectfulness to the gen"tleman (Johnson] whom I meant par 44 ticularly to encounter, as is peculiarly` "due to one, whom every friend of vir"tue must esteem, and every lover of “letters admire; whofe negligencies are "merely the difgrace of the reign that "left fuch a writer to ftruggle with dif"treffes and depend upon bookfellers, "and whole mittakes are the incident "failings of humanity; one, of whom I "am happy to acknowledge, because it "is doing juftice to genius and to "worth, that, for energy of language, vigour of under ftanding, and rectitude "of mind, he ranks equally as the first March with beauty. Shakspeare's March is but just begun.-k Bees frequent the male bloom of the willow.-/ Frogs croak, xo. Almond-tree and early plum in bloom. Goofeberries in bloom. Pear-tree against wall in bloom. Frogs ipawn. Corinths in bloom. Crown imperial in bloom. Saxifragia craffifolia in bloom. Blackthorn (prunus fpinofa) in bloom. Chaffinches (fringillæ cœlebes) pull off the bloffors of the polyanths, which are beautifully variegated, to eat the parts of fructification. .. scholar "scholar and the firft man in the king"dom." Were it poffible for the author of the Life of Young to infult over fuch a man's failings in the first great English Dictionary, executed in fuch an incredibly short space of time, Mr. C. would ftudy to confign him to infamy, and gibbet his name in the new Dictionary at ingratitude, or fame other coundrel-word. Spirit" may fend the papers (which will be very acceptable) either to Mr. Nichols's, or to Mr. Croft, Holywell, Oxford, whichever be more convenient. They fhall be faithfully returned.-Spirit" may be affured, that Mr. C. will follow the example of Hume, and indeed of his anceñor Herbert Croft, Bishop of Hereford, in never anfwering any attack. Whether Mr. C. be praised or abufed, truly or untruly, now or hereafter, for fpending his life upon a Dictionary of his language, the publick will bear in mind what was moft folemnly faid in a letter by Mr. C. lalt November, which was copied into this Magazine for that month. A reference to that letter, "Spirit" may reft affured, will be the only aufwer that ill judging good-will, half-faced partiality, or open envy and malice, fhali ever force from the author of the new Dictionary: and be trufis that none of his real friends, by their of ficiousness, will give him reafon to confider them as his worst enemies. **Q will lay Mr. C. under great obligations, by bearing him in his mind with regard to fuch matters as his obliging letter of September mentions. That copy of Skinner unluckily does not appear in the library of Queen's college. For B. A's improved edit. of his book Mr. C. will be very thankful. He certainly raeans to quote modern books (though Johnson proteffed not to do it), whenever he shall deem them necellary to fatisfy any of the heads of his analyfis of Arts and Sciences. The new edition of Miller's Gardener's Dictionary (upon which the world will be glad to know that Profeffor Martyn is laboriously employed), will (for instance) undoubtedly be deemed neceffary to fatisfy the head of Botany, &c. More than B. A. withes, he will find in the tables, which it is intended to prefix to the Dictionary, of all the books quoted, their editions, &c.; with fhort characters, and perhaps marks (1, 2, 3), both there and at the quotations, to fav whether the books be fift, lafty or middlemott in point of merit,Every bad word will certainly be diftin guifhed by a mark of difapprobation. Profeffor Martyn has already honoured "Cantab." has Mr. C's thanks; but him with his acquaintance, and given Mr. C. his father's very curious MSS. of a Dictionary on Johnfon's plan; which were certainly put together long before Johnfon fate down, it is imagined as long ago as 1744." Cantab." is requested collects every thing that may by any to procure the provincialities. Mr. C. poffibility come into an English Dictionarv; though he do not wish or intend to draw out his plan extenfively enough for the lives of ten men. "Columbus' fhall find that Mr. C. English language is fpread. America, does not forget over how much land the and American books, will not be neglected by Mr. C. The American ambaffador has taken charge of fome letters, which will, no doubt, produce commuwhich he advifed Mr. C. to write, and nications from the other fide of the Atlantick. by noting what he mentions, and indeed "A Foreigner" will oblige Mr. C. by putting down every thing which frikes him in learning the English language. Former makers of Dictionaries forgotten, that, with regard to the lanfor living languages have not enough guage, they were natives, and well-informed ones-they fhould have poffeffed fhould have been able to imagine themthe verfatility of changing places, and felves ignorant, uninformed natives, and even foreigners taking up the Dictio language or their cuftoms well explained, nary. No people fhall ever fee their corrected, or criticiled, but by that man into the fhoes of a foreigner, and to leave who is able, whenever he choofe, to fup those in which he has been bred and grown old, and by which (to continue ed) his feet have been tqueezed, and the metaphor which chance has prefentpinched, and cramped, and contracted.This correfpondent will not be forry to know, that Mr. C. at prefent intends, unless it turn out one of the too-extenfive ideas which a determination not to be the Quixote of lexicographers may make him give up, to accompany his English words with a vocabulary of one or more foreign languages, perhaps French and German. "A Literary Tradefman" is deûred the terms of his trade. to proceed in arranging and deferi) in g Mr. C. collects the first quarters, marking the names on every thing even of this kind, but from cac li Difrefs of a Clergyman, and Liberality of the Etonians. each communication now, and meaning to give them hereafter, fhould he ufe the particular communication. For this determination, of never accepting any thing from friend or affiftant without mentioning their names, Mr. C. was o bliged to Shakfpere-Steevens fome years ago-Mr. Wedgewood has promifed Mr. C. his terms; and Mr. C. will be obliged even to a mafter chimneyfweeper for his. Such communications are of the first authority, and, thould Mr. C. not extend his fcheme fo far, pofterity will find them, and not be forry to find them, in the corner of fome publick library, among Mr. C's MSS; though perhaps covered with as much duft as the MSS. of the great Junius. “B-t,” “S. A."" M. M."" PhiloJohnfon," ""Minfhew junior," and "Etymologift," are received, with many thanks. "Birminghamienfis," it is ho ped, will call, in his way through Oxford.-To thofe writers in this publication, who have noticed his intended Dictionary, it is hardly neceffary for Mr. C. to lay he is obliged. Wife men will fee what this hafty fcribble is, and will criticize it accordingly. Mr. C. was not willing to be accused of ingratitude, until the appearance of the account which he means to give of the progrefs he has made in his work, by thofe correfpondents who particularly defired him to acknowledge their favours in this ufeful publication. If fuch acknowledgements as thefe fhould not exhibit fpecimens of every fpecies of fine writing, it is rather excufeable in a man fomewhat employed; or, at worst, there is one comfort, that the poor Dictionary-maker is confidered as much too dull an animal to be able to write at all. Ενθάδε δη φροντω τεύξειν περικαλλέα νην, Feb. 5. Homer's Hynin to Apollo, 1. 287. 93 be fufficiently wealthy to afford them a liberal education, or to allow them to cherish in embryo the plants of knowledge. Without which inflitution, Henry forefaw, that the world, in future ages, would be deprived of men of exuberant talents and most extenfive ge nius, whofe abilities the dark cloud of obfcurity would opprefs and overwhelm; as the most beautiful gem, which the hands of men have never eradicated from the fathomiefs bowels of the earth, perpetually lies hid, and ftrikes not with aftonishment the eye of the fpectator. The clergyman i have mentioned was one of thofe unhappy youths who had drudged from the loweft clafs to the pinnacle of the school, and was then fuperannuated from the College; a difmifs from the benefits of the Founder, which takes place if they do not procure, or by chance obtain, a removal to King's college, Cambridge, before they reach fuch an age. Confequently, all his hopes, which he had fo long cherished in his bofom, w re fruftrated and defeated, and the garden of comfort and happiness, which had fo long laid open to his hopes, the genial fruit of which he had fo long naturally wished to attain, on a fudden was transformed to a barren and gloomy wilder nefs of defpair. But it is unneceffary and indeed forward in me to enter into an explanation of the difappointments of the fuperannuated Collegers of Eton, fince your learned correfpondent Mr. F. Pigott, through the channel of your excellent Tagazine, vol. LVI. p. 448, difplayed it to us in fuch genuine, high, and pathetic colours; who, urged by bounty and noble liberality, pointed out a plan to aife a fund which inigit provide for thofe in fuch an unfortunate condition, and, much to his hendur, generously declared that he thould at any time be happy to advance a fun for the like purpofe. When the prefent diftrefs of the clergyman I have abovementioned, who is poffeffed of the fenty income of torty pounds a year, with the large family of a wife and five children, reached the ears of the Etonians, they generously and fpontaneously railed, out of their private purfes, a very handfome Bank note, which they fent him, hoping that it would in fome finall degree contribute to enliven the brow with pinching forrow oppretted. I have faid thus far, Mr. Urban, left to generous an act should be overwhelmed in obfcurity, and at the faire |