logo fette volte ogni di della fetti- E cotéito la guerirà egli? Così la fua memória diverrà il piú ámpio ferbatòjo di fcempiaggini che sia mai flato. Tale è pure l'opinióne mia. Non m'avete voi obbligo di quefte novélle ? Il diáfcane vi porti. E anche le gazzette, che non dícono mai nulla fe non bugie. Oh che cattive mogli! gue feven times over every day in the week, except Sundays. ift H. Strange phyfic! 2d H. And will that cure her? C. So the furgeon says. if H. Then her memory will prove the amplett receptacle of nonfenfe that ever was. zd H. Such is alfo my opinion. C. Are you not obliged to me for thefe news? ift H. The deuce take you. 2d H. And the news-papers too, that tell nothing but lyes. C. Oh the wicked wives! As a farther fpecimen of "the variety of topics and power of entertainment" of thefe dialogues, we fhall cite a paffage or two from others, for the fake of our English readers in that language alone. The one shall be a fample of the writer's turn for panegyrick, and the other of his talents for fatire. After a deal of critical fmall-talk about Offian and the tranflation of Homer, Mifs Hetty and her mafter proceed as follows: "H. But what do you think will be the confequence of Mr. Macpherfon's menaces to Doctor Johnson? Do you imagine that they will do each other any harm? M. No, no, my dear, don't be afraid for either. If ever they fhould meet, Macpherfon is quite fafe, because the doctor is as nearfighted as myfelf; therefore will not fee him. And as to Mr. Macpherfon, though I am told he has good eyes, he will not make any great ufe of them upon fuch an occafion. His anger will fubiide, and he is too wife, imprudently to ruth head-long into a deal of trouble. H. I am glad to hear you fay fo, as I wish them both well. From fome of the doctor's works I have learned many a good thing, and Offien has entertained me very often. M. Mean while many an anonymous blockhead, under the appellative of Boltonian, of Monitor, of Henderfon, of Braganza, of Americus, or of the Devil, will abufe Johnfon's Journey to the He brides in most of the papers, as they have abused all his other works. Some of them will call him names; fome will draw up paragraphs thick fown with barbarous words, by way of ridiculing his manner of writing; fome will be fo witty as to defcribe an emblematick Bear led about the Highlands of Scotland by James Bofwell, Efq. fome, will fay, that Johnfon knows nothing of government, because he is a Jacobite and a Tory; and fome will gravely foretell, that no new laurels will be added to his brow by his political writings, because he is a papift, and because he wishes to believe the fecond fight. But let the fellows fay and do what they pleafe. Johnfon, like all other men, may have flaws in his character as a writer and as a man: but fill, he is fuch a man and fuch a writer, as not to be afraid of dri vellers vellers in literature. Johnfon will never want people to love, to admire, and to reverence him. His name has been a great name ever fince he began to fhow himself in print. No wonder therefore if he has raised envy and malevolence in many a breaft. Malevolence and envy have at all times been the attendants on extraordinary merit; and even a cook, when eminently skilled in his profeffion, will attract the ill-will of every filthy fcullion. But depend upon it, my Hetty, that the next generation will rank Johnfon among the greatest geniufles that the world has ever feen, and that his country will for ever be as proud of him as old Greece was of her Plato. This, my dear Hetty, this will be the confequence of all the filly bustle about Offian, or I have moft miferably thrown away the many years that I have employed in the ftudy of your language, and of your country." That our Author has, indeed, miferably mifpent fome part of his time, others have experienced as well as himself: nor does it redound to the credit of his patrons, that they can digest such grofs and aukward adulation as the above; from which it is plain, that with all his study he does not know very much of our language or our country, if he thinks fo puerile a proof of his knowledge of either will recommend him to the reader. The next and last specimen, we shall give of thefe dialogues, is part of the fiftieth; containing a terrible fatire on a perfonage no less interefting to our critical community, than our Editor himself. It is entitled a dialogue between Hetty's mafter and two Elephants. "M. Who elfe is come to fee you within this last month? fi E. A certain Mr. William Kenrick, a famous man of learning. 2d E. And a doctor into the bargain. M. I have fome knowledge of him. Did he wonder when he faw you, or did he as Omiah did? 1 E. He came to fee us, faid he, because fomebody had told him, that elephants were very great beafts; but he found that he himself was as great a beast as any of us. 2d E. Seeing himfelf thus difappointed in his expectation, he grew fo furious, that he was almoft on the brink of challenging us to a duel, though it be not eafy to meet with a more cowardly duellift than him. M. How did the thing end? ift E. It was not an eafy matter to make him comprehend, that, if we were smaller beafts than him felf, it was not our fault, but of nature, who intended he should be fuch a beast as not to be overtopped by any other. M. And did you at last appease him? ft E. I think we did, because as he went he promised to make honourable mention of us in his London Review. It is with a bad grace this dialogue-writer talks of cowardice, who was glad to admit the plea of his own confummate cowardice, to exculpate him from wilful murder, in an affair of accidental affaffination. zd E. And never to write any epiftle against us. M. Do not truft much to his word, dear firs! I have heard it faid many times, that the daily food of Kenrick is flander. Whenever honeft perfon is to be fpoken ill of, there is not in the whole country a more foul-mouthed fellow than him*; nay, I can tell it you by experience. any f E. 'Twould be pretty that he would speak evil of us that never offended him. 2d E. And that have not the leaft mind ever to offend him! M. This is no great fecurity againft a man of his make. There are fo many men and fe many women in this town, who did not even know of his existence; yet were by him made a mark of a thousand villainous contumelies +. ift E. But what must we do, on the fuppofition he fhould speak evil of us? 2d E. Or in cafe he took it into his head to write against us fome epittle, in hopes to have it bought up by the malignant part of mankind, always too eager to know what a forry wretch can fay to the difhonour of two honeft elephants? M. What I ought to do in fuch a cafe, I fhould well know it, were I an elephant. A E. Do, tell it us! ad E. We befeech you on our knees! M. Were I an elephant, I would let him blufter a while; but then, taking my time, I would favour him with such a gentle blow of my tufk, that I would fet him on blotting twenty pages at leaft of his Review. ift E. A pretty trick this would be! 2d E. A pretty trick indeed! M. Believe me, elephants. Infolence is not to be repreffed but by fhowing one's tufks; for, the more you forbear, the more it rages. Don't you know the proverb, that he who makes a fheep of himfelf, is eaten up by the wolf? Show your tuks to these fellows, fhow 'em! ift E. Excufe me if I tell you,, that you are of too refentful a temper. As to myself, I believe, that if an afs gives you a kick, you are not to return it. The best way, begging your pardon, is to put up with any outrage, be it ever fo great, as Mr. Garrick and many others have done, who, treated with all poffible infamy ‡ by that swretch, pocketed it very quietly. * This clean-mouthed writer, in his broken English, does our Editor here the honour of calling him foul-mouthed follow. It would be impoffible, however, to bestow on fuch fellows as Mr. B. their proper epithets, without fouling the cleaneft, nay the dirtieft, mouth, in Christendom. + Pray be many?-If this wretched pretender to languages had ever been ho noured with the acquaintance of our Editor, he would have known him to live a life of study and retireinent. It is no wonder, therefore, he is not fo well known to the men and women of the town as thofe gentlemen whofe celebrity is enrolled, like Mr. B's, in the Newgate Calendar. And defervedly, not only for patronizing fuch infamous wretches as Bickerstaff and Baretti, but for the moft injurious treatment of a man of fenfe and fpirit that ever dplicity and avarice fuggefted, Mr. G. is too wile not to pocket very quietly what he knows to be his due. 2d. E. 2d E. I am likewife of my companion's mind, especially confidefing, that he, whofe hide is thick and hard as that of us elephants, has but little to fear the poifoned arrows of fuch bow-men. M. So many heads, fo many brains. Let therefore every one manage as he thinks proper. Tis enough for me to know, that, when a fcorpion bites thee, the beft remedy is to crush it upon the wound, if thou canst. At all events, an elephant may poffibly be found fome time or other lefs paffive than you, that fhall not let go unpunished the arrogance of that doctor, and know upon occafion how to give him tit for tat. ft E. Sir, you are a little too cholerick. 2d E. Elephants are not by a great deal fo irafcible as you. M. I am neither cholerick nor irafcible; but he that runs his foot on my corns, must know that I have feeling.* If E. And yet M. Oh you teaze me! Therefore it will be better for me to go. Fare you well." Farewell, also, to the vagabond author of thefe Billinfgate dialogues; with whofe puerilities we fhould not have fo long troubled the reader, had not his credit as a writer been, for fome years paft, bolstered up by men of too much eminence, in the republic of letters, to require fo wretched a foil, though mean of fpirit enough to accept of the fulfome encomiums of fo contemptible a parafite. ART. IV. The Improved Culture of the three Principal Graffes, Lucerne, Sainfoin, and Burnet: Wherein is defcribed a New Method of cultivating Lucerne to much greater Profit than any hitherto practifed in England or Abroad; fhewn by a Comparijon of the feveral Methods. To which are added, fome Obfervations on Clover. 8vo. 3s. 6d. Robinson. There are few publications that have met with more fuccefs, of late years, than books of Agriculture: fo generally hath the fpirit of improvement, diffuted itself, refpecting this most useful art. Hence it is that the labourers, in the literary vineyard, have fo plentifully fupplied the prefs with compilations, of different degrees of merit, on the fubject. In proportion, however, as the genuine communications of obfervation and experience, on fuch topics, are ufeful; in the fame proportion may the indigefted extracts of thofe fky-farmers, who till the ground only in their garret, be pernicious and hurtful, While we would That is, in eafy phrofcology, "tread on my corns and I'll ftab you through the heart." Braviffimo, Cellini! Mifs Hetty's matter is neither choleric not irafcible. If our Editor were really the cowardly dull ft this Italian bravo would reprefent him, we fhould advise him not to confide fo much in his goofe-quill it is fo eafily cut to the quick by a travelling pen-knife. The man who only SPEAKS daggers is no match for him who ufts them. with to difcourage therefore, the fpeculative reveries of these vifionary husbandmen, we with carefully to diftinguish between the catch-penny productions of fuch writers, and the practical treatifes of those who have really made hufbandry the object of their ftudy and attention. Among these writers we rank the Author of the tract before us; whofe remarks appear to be not only the genuine refult of much reading, but of much experimental application. In confequence of this, the reader will find in it, a judicious abftract of what every writer of eminence, hath advanced on the fubject, illuftrated by private experience. To give an abftract of such an abftract would be altogether nugatory, we fhall, therefore, content ourselves with little more than quoting the Author's introduction, as exhibiting a general view of the importance of the cultivation recommended. "It has always been a principal concern with husbandmen, and required their particular attention, to make provifion for their cattle. Hay is an article upon which many have a great dependence in winter, but it is often a very precarious one, on account of the accidents it is liable to, from the uncertainty of seasons. "The graffes treated of in the following fheets, are of univerfal ufe, at all feafons in the year. Lucerne as a green food for horfes, and other cattle, in fummer, fuperior to every other kind of grafs for rich nourishment: the culture of it is not difficult, and every farmer, who has any land proper for it, fhould cultivate it. "Sainfoin affords plentiful crops, and excellent hay for the fupport of cattle in winter; and in one refpect is much more advantageous than the best meadows; for, by their low fituation, it is often difficult, and fometimes impracticable, to make the hay they produce in good order; whereas the more elevated fituation of the land upon which fainfoin is commonly planted, renders it much easier to make it into hay; the ground upon which it is made, is always drier than meadows; and very few feasons are fo wet, that fainfoin cannot be well made into hay. "Burnet is a moft valuable article in the fpring; many good farmers have been puzzled to provide for their cattle during the whole month of April, and part of March and May. Neither commons nor paitures afford fubfiftence for the farmer's cattle, his ewes and lambs particularly, in that trying feafon; which yet, if not well fupported then, the owner will fuffer irreparable damage. Turneps are his great refource in winter, and till towards the beginning or middle of March; but then, if not killed by the froft, they are running to feed, their roots are dry and fticky, and nothing left but ftalks and leaves. "The farmer is then reduced to the neceffity of turning his stock upon his best and moft forward meadows and pastures; and upon his wheat, though far advanced; whereof the prime growth being eat down, what comes afterwards, is only a fecond and later growth, which in favourable circumstances may produce a good crop, but is an experiment the farmers would feldom choose to try, if they had not been led to the practice of it through neceffity. VOL. II. X " But |