Printed by JOHN NICHOLS, for DAVID HENRY, late of St. John's ON THE MONTHLY OBITUARY. Mr. URBAN, July 1, 1787. MULTI homines, multas mentes, is an adage, the verity of which every day experience in fecular matters incontrovertibly establishes. In mode, and-habit of thought, in rurfuit of pleasure and amulement; in beauty, in building, in fashion, in dres, in tefte, diffimilitude is the chara&erific; all the fons and daughters of Adam difes in their feveral determinations on this point, and every one has his peculiar election and penchant. Among the many fpecies of intellectual amufement, Reading undoubtedly deferves to be claffed in the first forum: of the matier read, how multifarious is the genus in fociety! The lively, the gay, the ferious, the melancholic, the corrupting, the improving, have each their portion of fpecific readers; cach individually fhews the criterion of each man's goût; and herein, as I juft now faid, is remembered, moft appofitely, my adage, Multi bomines, multas mentes. This moment's perufal of your valuable Mifcellany gives rife to this reflection. In this your publication, like a table of many covers, every reader finds fomething to his tafte; the Erudite, the Philofopher, the Naturalift, the Biographer, the Metaphyfician, and the Poet, together with the penfive Thoughtful, and the volatile Gay, felect fomething for their palate, and rife from the repas amply fatisfied with the truly excellent viands which have been fet before them: the feaf of reafon has rendered epicurifm to all its partakers; and all its partakers retire, and carry edification mental with them. There is a department in this your much-efteemed Magazine, which the generality of your readers feldom may perufe; the fons of Levity, the Lotharios of the age, never; but which I never fail to do, and, I truft, with benefit: it is a department facred and appropriate to the man of ferious tirought and profound contemplation, who would with to be fupra-mundane, if I may ufe the word, while he is in it :--what I allude to is, your School for Vanity and Pride, or, in other terms, your MONTHLY OBITUARY. This, agreeable to my adage, is the part which beft plcafes me; here, indeed, is to be reaped inftruction of the laft concern; here we find matter of eternal import; here, "In the fam'd, the honour'd, and the great," We "view the falfe fcale of happinefs complete." Here, the man fick of gaudy fcenes may weigh his duft, and dwell among the tombs here, Riches, Infolence, and Pomp, may read to felf-caftigation, their Hic jacet; and here too, the pride of Learning, Wit, and Genius, may know their lutle value, temporally confidered, unless they have been exercifed to eternal purpofes. In thefe few pages, at the end of your Mifcellany, what a field of edifying Here he may familiarife the reflection is open to him who is not afraid to think! theory of Death; he may read how often his fhaft flies, in one month, at the breafts of the noble, the great, and the diftinguished; for no notification is here to be expected of the departure of the little dead, too numerous almost for memory. Here he finds, arranged in numerical fucceflion, men of all ages, creeds, and profeffions, Here, perhaps, he may find the nowho have paid the debt which all muft pay. minai neighbour to the oppresled, the arrogant opprefor, each have their flip of paper, Here the Wits, thofe gameand the line, to tell the world of their egress from it. cocks to one another, receive from the pen of Friendship their feveral Eulogies; and, though honeft humility of worth may be praifed to the prejudice of the pretenders to it, no replication can be made. Here, in this didactic Obituary, we fee, veluti in speculo, the operations of the enemies of human' Life'; here we read the names of the defroying egeats of Death,-Fever, Gout, Confumption, Stone, and Dropfy; and when we witnefs the fatal troke of cach, how can we refrain from faying, "Good God! through which of thefe gates will it pleafe You that I pafs out of life!" Such like reflections as thefe muft ever originate in a juftly-cultivated mind, from an obfervance of thule Catalogues of Mortality, which THE GENTLEMAN'S MAGAZINE peculiarly exhibits; they are the true anodynes against pride, folly, and inordinate attachment to the world and its interefts. Thefe are the pages I would ever recomment to the fèrious perutal of all your readers, but particularly to the juvenile and the thoughts; they are the moit excellent Vade Mecums they can poffibly recur to, for confolation in adverfity, for refiftance in temptation, for patience in fufferings; and for becoming conduct in every human Situation, there are the moft intructive monitors. "They teach us how to live; and oh! too high G. S. The Gentleman's Magazine LOND.GAZETTE Shrewfbury Meteor. Diaries for July, 1787, and Aug.1786 554 Hereford Cathedral-Old Chimnies Vindication of the Character of Dr. Johnfon, ib. Authentic Memoirs of the late Mrs. YATES 585 Dr. Herfchel on the Voicanos in the Moon 561 Original Letters of POPE and Lord OXFORD 589 Addition to the Doctor's Account of them 562 Dr. BENJAMIN FRANKLIN's Morals of Chefs 590 Mode of deftroying Infects enquired after 563 Further Account of French Commitioners 59> Premium propofed by a Society at Barbados 564 Mifcell. Remarks Tyrwhitt's Publications 593 Remarks on Publications of Mr. Johnftone. 565 The Abbé Mann-Petrified human Skeleton it. The MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT, No. II. 507 Proceedings in the laft Seffion of Parliament 594 Strictures on Dr. Bell's Preface to Courayer 568 Further City Proceedings on the Shop Tax 5991 Profell. Warton's Thoughts on Annual Odes 565 Office of King's Remembrancer, what it is 6cc The Origin and prefent Ufe of Church Bells 570 KEVIEW OF NEW PUBLICATIONS Thoughts on the Obfervance of the Sabbath 571 Catalogue of New Publications Particulars of the ancient Manor of Fauxhall 572 SELECT POETRY On the Cambridge MS. of the New Teftament b. Fr. King's Arret fince Commercial Treaty 6:8) Retrograde, degenerate Progrefs of Language 573 Foreign Affairs, E. and W. India News, America A flight Sketch of our English Vineyards Farther Particulars of Louvain University 574 Intelligence, Domeftic Occurrences, 627-636 Defence of Priestley-Old Seals illuftrated 575 Marriages, Deaths, Preferments, &c. 637-646 Bihop Blaife-Petrified human Bodies found 578 Daily Variations in the Prices of Stocks 57 Prices of Grain-Theatrical Regifter, &c. 647 Embellished with a View of HAWKHERST Church in KENT; and a Reprefentation of the Contents of a TUMULds difcovered near ALDBOROUGH, YORKSHIRE; LONDON, Printed by JOHN NICHOLS, for D. HENRY, late of SAINT JOHN'S GA |