Days am 87 1491 28 1492 737 733 922 924 214 30 32 23 932 214 EACH JULY, 1787. DAY'S PRICE OF STOCKS IN 218 737 938 735 934 73 72a 93 110 333 راق و سواق وصوارم 736 721 93 110 211 73 71 10 1474 90 106 21 13 694 91 107 214 158 59 70 a714 17 1461 18 19 14:2 712 697 3708 914 10:1 133 55 20 1461 72 [of a 704 914 108 3 56 21 713712707 717 70 a71 92 1081 27 24 147 724 71 924 198 21 25 92 21 26 151 73 93 110 22 64 15 18 15 19 67 N. B. It the 3 per Cent, Confels, the higheft and lowoft Price of each Day is giren; in the other Stock the higheft Price onls. 1 Canterbury 2 Stamford Winchester Worcester YORK 3 For AUGUST, 1787. CONTAINING Meteor.Diaries for Aug. 1787, and Sept. 1786 650 Benvolio's Remarks on Johnfon's Character 684 b. 690 696 715 716-720 Botanical Hiftory of the Box and Pine Trees 667 REVIEW OF NEW PUBLICATIONS 697-7151 Remarkable Original Letter to Dr. Hawes 722 Intelligence, Domeftic Occurrences, 726-737 747 748 By SYLVANUS URBAN, Gent. LONDON, Printed by JOHN NICHOLS, for D. HENRY, late of SAINT JOHN'S GAT.. 050 Meteorological Diaries for Auguit, 1787; and September, 1780. METEOROLOGICAL TABLE for Auguft, 1787. Black grares change colour.-2 Much fruit blown down-3 No acorns, the rudiments of the bloom being destroyed by infects; a moderate crop of apples in theltered gardens, few in expofed places; fcarce any pears; no plums.-4 Many limes about London quite naked.-5 Introduced trees, fuch as Iralian poplars, planes, tulip-trees, and efculent chefouts, remain in fuli verdure, while moft of our native are much faded 6 Hirundines appear again; during the ftrong winds they were not fen.-7 The vines were very forward in June; but the grapes are now quite backward, having made no progrefs in ripers Dary alter the 20th removed ud the 10th of Nov. to a village so miles SW of Londou. Wiltern long, 47. lat. 51. 6 min. ing THE Gentleman's Magazine: For AUGUST, 1787. BEING THE SECOND NUMBER OF VOL. LVII. PART II. Letter to the EDITOR from the Gentleman employed upon a New Dictionary of the English Language down to nearly the End of the Eighteenth Century. SIR, I Oxford, Aug. 3. N your publication for Jaft month I obferve that you are pleased to fpeak of the work upon which I have been for fome years employed, and rather to call upon me to fpeak to the publick about it. It was always my intention fo to do, Sir, when I fhould be able to inform the publick of my having made very confiderable progrefs. That time is, now, not far diftant; as I have, for a good while, counted a collection of more than 5000 words, which are not in the wonderful, though very imperfect, Dictionary of my great friend and mafter Johnson. This, however, is by no means the principal part of what I have done; and fill lefs of what I mean to do, though I could almost write my letter to you, Sir, in English words, which are not to be found in Johnson's English Dictionary. For a man, with a natural diflike to work, that was hired by the bookfellers, and was under the harrows of poverty, Johnon did much, did wonders (and you fhall fee, hereafter, that I will water his laurels, not, like fome of his friends, root them up): but much remains to be done, in every thing which regards the English language, by a man, aware of the ufe of Saxon, who fits down from choice to the task, and who fits down to it long enough. My principal hopes are from having put together my manufcripts (now nearly 200 quarto volumes) in fuch a manner that every step 1 make in the work counts; and, that the first perfon who fhall go by my houfe after my death, and can read, may fee directly how far I had advanced, if I thould not live to finish it. If I fhould, I fall tranfcribe, hereafter, from my original manufcripts for the prefs; and fhall depofit the manufcripts themfelves (fince they will contain, at perhaps every word, many more paffages than I fhall use), together with my collection of all dictionaries, grammars, effays, treatifes, &c. refpecting the English language, in fome public library, If any literary perfon would do me the favour of calling upon me, in his way through the University, before I publifh an account of the progrefs I have made, or after, I thall be very hap py to how him my manufcripts, &c. Any of your correfpondents, Sir, would greatly ing for fome weeks, on account of the black, blowing, wet weather. The bunches are of a good fize, and the grapes large, and much want hot funthine.3 Ivy (hedera helis) begins to blow.-9 Some few fwalows. Berberries ripe.-10 Many beeches jo laden with wait, that their boughs become pendulous. Athen keys in profufion." Young Iwallows nearly fledged in a neft under a gateway.12 Glow-worms thine faintly.-13 Limes in. this village, whofe roots penetrate between the rocks, carry a foliage unchanged beyond Any other tree, mary of the Llignm Language. greatly oblige me, who would have the goodness, either privately, or through your Magazine, to mention any books or manufcripts at all in my way, or (particularly) to point out any defects in Johnfon's Dictionary, or any thing which can in the least contribute to ren-der a Dictionary of the English Language more complete: they shall not find me fhrink from any thing, becaufe it demands time or toil. Thefe few words, I thought due, Sir, to your notice of my work. Before long I shall perhaps trouble the publick with many more, if I be not deterred by Pope, who made fad havock with poor verbal criticks in his life-time, and who continues fill to hold the rod over us in the only apophthegm which remains upon record as his the publisher of a Dictionary may know the meaning of a fingle word, but not of two words put together." Yours, &c. H. C. This correfpondent, who is the au thor of the Life of Young amongst Johnson's Lives, and has Johnfon's teftimony and the publick's to his being able to put words together, is defired to accept our thanks for the foregoing letter. Our correfpondents in general will please to take notice that we have the gentleman's addrefs, and that we fhall, at all times, be ready to tranfmit any thing to him privately, or to print in our Magazine any thing of merit which relates to his work, provided it be not too long for our purpose, under the title we have affixed to this article-" Ox-, ford Dictionary of the English Language" to which we with no more fucceís than it hall appear to merit, but certainly all that, as muft every Englishman and American. "To attemper our admiration, he has however thought fit to note the flumbers even of this great genius--and this not in a style of perfunctory difquifition, but with fuch a degree of afperity as critics difcover when they are criticifing the works of a rival " HAWKINS V. JOHNSON. 442. Mr. URBAN, Aug. 3. HA AVE you read that divine book, the Life of Samuel Johnton, LL.D. by Sir John Hawkins, Knt." Have you done any thing but read it fince it was first published? For my own part, 1 fcruple not to declare, that I could not reft till I had read it quite through, notes, digreflions, index, and all; then I could not rest till I had gone over it a lecond time. I begin to Think that increase of appetite grows by what it feeds on; for I have been read ing it ever fince. I am now in the midft of the fixteenth perufal; and still I discover new beauties. I can think of nothing else; I can talk of nothing else. In short, my mind is become tumid, and longs to be delivered of those many and great conceptions* with which it has laboured fince I have been through a courfe of this most perfect exemplar of biography. The compafs of learning, the extent and accuracy of information, the judicious criticifins, the moral reflections, the various opinions, legal and political, to fay nothing of that excess of candour and charity that breathe throughout the work, make together fuch a collection of fweets, that the fenfe aches at them. To crown all, the language is refined to a degree of immaculate purity, and difplays the whole force of turgid eloquence t. Johnson, to be fure, was thought for a while to have a knack at life-writing; but who, in his fenfes, would compare him to our Knight? Sir Thomas Urquhart, in the account of Crichton, (which the Knight has given us, 304. because it is fo intimately connected with Johnson's life,) honderfponders it pretty well; but even he muft yield the palm.. Read Hawkins once, and you can read na more, For all books elfe appear fo mean, fo poor; Sir John has, in his own perfon, ve- |