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loves to be affrighted, than you do. It is no more agreeable to him to make a falfe step, than it is to yourself. He feels the pain of the jarr as well as you. Therefore fmite him not. But remember this hiftory, and add not fin unto fin. The angel of the Lord is with you, though you see him not; and, in this cafe, fometimes withstands thee. Say not, My horse stumbles, and therefore I fmite him: but confider that, whilst you ride, your horfe goes a-foot: and a fixed ftone or hillock, a fharp flint, or a pinched and uneasy shoe might caufe even yourself to ftumble if you were to travel on foot; and you would think it hard to be chastised for an involuntary or forced trip. Do not then unto others as you would be unwilling fhould be done unto you. Say not, My horse starts, and therefore I fmite him; and I correct him, because he is timorous: but confider that you have your paffions as well as your horfe. Elfe, why the blood in thy face? or, why the palenefs of countenance on thefe occafions? The paffion of anger, or the paffion of fear, do then predominate in thyfelf. Learn firft to fubdue the fudden emotions of thine own paffions, and then endeavor to correct his fears. I will grant, if you please, that his paffion of fear may be foolish; but fo is your paffion of anger and your folly is greater than his, if what you fometimes fay is true,-that a man has more reason than a horfe. You have reason, and use it not; your horfe has not reafon, therefore he cannot use it. Your horfe has not reason to conquer his fears, whilft you have both reafon and power to fubdue your own paffion. Your horfe offends and cannot help it; you offend, and may help it. I leave it to your own judgment to determine, whether you or your horfe deferves moft to be corrected.'

We fhall close this article with the following citation, which deferves to be carefully impreffed on the minds of youth.

To be merciful as our Father is merciful, and, to make way for every work of mercy, neceffarily imply that it is our duty to extend or fhew mercy to every object of it. No creature is fo infignificant, but whilft it has life, it has a right to happiness. To deprive it of happiness is injuftice; and to put it to unneceffary pain is cruelty. It is very unreasonable therefore, if not foolish in men, to estimate the degree of the fin of cruelty to any creature by the value we fet upon the creature itself; or to fuppofe that difference of fize, or difference of beauty, are foundations of real difference as to the feelings of brutes. A fly has feeling as well as an ox; and a toad has as much right to happiness as a canary bird: for the fame God made the ox, and the fly, and the toad, and the bird. It is true, we have an averfion to fome creatures, and we are better affected towards fome than to others: but we ought not to put any of them to pain, if we can avoid it; for cruelty to a brute is odious and abominable, whether it be to a beast, or a bird, or a fish, or a worm. Be the creature never fo infignificant in

Our

our eftimation, we cannot put it to any degree of pain without a violation of the laws of nature; because every living creature is the work of the God of nature.

According to the divine law, mercy is a duty of that univerfal extent, that it will not be difpenfed with even in the accidental, and yet not uncommon circumftance, of finding a bird's nest. "If a bird's nest chance to be before thee in the way in any tree, or on the ground, whether they be young ones or eggs, and the dam fitting upon the young, or upon the eggs; thon fhalt not take the dam with the young, but thou fhalt in any wife let the dam go ;-that it may be well with thee, and that thou mayeft prolong thy days."

We need not, we prefume, make any apology to our readers for the length of this article, and the number of paffages which we have cited from Dr. Primatt's performance. It is the only work of any confiderable extent we have seen upon the fubject; and a work, which, on account of its excellent defign, is entitled to the warmest approbation.

XI. A New and Complete Dictionary of the English Language. To which is prefixed, A comprehenfive Grammar. By John Afh, LL.D. 2 Vols. 8vo. 125. Baldwin.

THIS

HIS work is formed upon an extenfive plan. It was in tended, as the editor tells us, to comprehend not only all the common words, whether radical or derivative, obfolete, cant, or provincial; but all proper names of men and women, heathen gods and goddeffes, heroes, princes, poets, historians, wife men, and philofophers, of special note, whether ancient or modern; of all the principal kingdoms, cities, towns, feas, and rivers in the known world, more efpecially in Great Britain and Ireland; of beafts, birds, fishes, and infects; of trees, plants, herbs, animals, and foffils; the terms of art in chymiftry, pharmacy, heraldry, divinity, mathematics, mechanics, manufacturers, and husbandry; the derivations from the ancient and modern languages; and the ufe and conftruction of words, illuftrated by examples; the pronunciation, pointed out by accents; the different fpellings, preferved and distinguished, as ancient or modern, common or uncommon, correct or incorrect; in a word, every thing which may be thought requifite to render the work worthy of the title it bears, that of a Complete Dictionary of the English Language.

The execution of fuch an undertaking as this requires an uncommon fhare of knowledge; and, if is to be performed by a fingle hand, the application of many years. But the editers of dictionaries are generally mere tranfcribers, and collect

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Ash's Dictionary of the English Language.

materials together, as haftily and mechanically, as the printer collects his types. One example may be fufficient to fhew, with what implicit confidence they ufually adopt the mistakes of their predeceffors.

Homer, in the 18th book of the Odyffey, defcribes the fight of Ulyffes and Irus; and informs us, that the hero did not choose to hazard a difcovery of his real character by exerting all his vigour and activity, or by killing his antagonist; but contented himself with only knocking him down, and difmiffing him with this reproof for his infolence :

There terrible, affright the dogs, and reign

A dreaded tyrant o'er the bestial fraín ;

But mercy to the poor and ftranger how,

Lefs heaven in vengeance fend fome mightier wee.' v. 126. The dictionary-writers, in their account of Irus, ftrangely mifreprefent the ftory. Cooper tells us, that Irus confumed Ulyffes hys vitayles wyth the wooers of Penelope'; therefore Ulyffes at hys returne home, flewe him with hys fift," Lloyd,, Hoffman, &c. ftyle him, affecla procorum Penelopes; and add, Ulyffes domum revertens pugno interfecit. Faber fays, Mendicus publicus fuit, quem Ulyffes interfecit. Ainfworth calls him a beggarly fellow of Ithaca, an attendant on the fuitors of Penelope; and with the rest of his brethren afferts, that Ulyffes at his return killed him with a blow of his fift. Stephanus, Littleton, Calepinus, Gefner, and Moreri, give the fame account of him. But Moreri having faid, that Irus was à la fuite des amans de Penelope,' Collier and Dr. Ash advance the beggar into a more exalted character, and gravely inform us, that he was one of Penelope's fuitors.

To return to the work under our immediate inspection.It contains perhaps ten or twenty thousand articles more than any other dictionary of the same size, in the English language, being printed on a much smaller type. But the author, we apprehend, has inferted a great number of words,, which might have been omitted, without any fort of detriment. There feems to be no occafion for fuch compounds as, Thurfdaymorning, Thursdayevening, Thursdaynight. The names of counties, cities, and towns, as Herefordshire *, Cheshire, Warwickshire, Birmingham, Canterbury, &c. are of course admitted. But there is very little, if any neceflity for introducing them a fecond time, in order to explain what is meant by Herefordshire cyder, a Chefhire cheese, a Warwickshire lad, a Birmingham halfpenny, and a Canterbury tale.

• Herefordshire and Hereford are however by an inadvertency omitted.

Some

Some of our author's explanations feem to be careless and inadequate. For example, inftead of giving the reader the moft probable etymology of Bilingfgate, or defcribing it as a large watergate, port, or harbour for fmall veffels, or as a market for fish, and other commodities, he only fays, it is a place in the city of London, famous for a number of low and noify people, who ufually affemble there.'

Sillabub, he tells us, is a mixture of milk, warm from the cow, with vinegar, sugar, and spices.'—In making a fillabub few people, we believe, will follow Dr. Afh's receipt.

The derivation of cogitabund is incorrect: the word, he fays, is derived from the Latin cogito, to think, and abundo, to abound. Cogitabandus however is no more a compound word,, than cogitabilis or cogitandus. The latter part is a common termination in a variety of different words, as errabundus, tremebundus, vagabundus, &c.

But we shall dwell no longer on the inaccuracies of this compilation. It is, we believe, upon the whole, as correct as the generality of our English dictionaries, and will be allowed to be more useful, as it is more comprehensive.

XII. Characteres Generum Plantarum quas in Itinere ad Infulas Ma ris Auftralis collegerunt, defcripferunt, delinearunt Annis 17721775. J. R. Forster, LL.D. Georgius Forster. 4to. 17.75% White, Cadell, & Elmily, 1776.

THE

HE public now receives the first specimen of the natural productions of those remote countries in the South-Sea, which our fhips have of late repeatedly vifited. Dr. Forfter and his fon were sent out with captain Cook, at the national expence, to collect and defcribe the various objects of natural history, which might be fuppofed to occur on a voyage through un. known feas. Immediately after their return they prepared the work before us. It contains feventy five new genera of plants, which they have scientifically defcribed according to the method of Linnæus, being fuch as will not rank under any known ge. nera, whofe characters have been delineated by that celebrated botanift. The names they have given to these new genera are moftly derived from the Greek, and relate to the most striking parts of the flower or fruit, or where these were not fufficiently characteristic, they have complimented fuch European and chiefly English naturalifts, whofe names had not hitherto been rewarded in botanical writings, by being transmitted to new plants. As the characters of the genera of plants depend folely upon the shape and nature of the flowers and fruit, they have explained their definitions by plates, on which those parts VOL. XLI. Feb. 1776.

L

are

are well reprefented both entire and in fections; an advantage that other works of this kind ftand much in need of, and which is of great ufe to fuch as intend to begin the study of natural hiftory. The defcriptions at large of the new fpecies of plants difcovered which rank partly under kaosun, and partly under thefe new genera; as alfo the defcriptions of new ani. mals which have been met with on this voyage, we are, from the preface, given to expect in a fhort time. In the present work, the authors have endeavoured to avoid loading the science with new names, and therefore confined, as much as poffible their number of new genera. The preface gives a brief account of the method by which they proceeded to collect, defcribe, and draw, in the courfe of their voyage; and the dedication to the king contains a fuccinct detail of the progrefs made in various arts and fciences under his majesty's aufpices. The whole work bears the marks of being executed with great care and fidelity; and the authors are justly entitled to the praise of having extended the knowledge of the vegetable productions of nature by their botanical refearches.

FOREIGN

ARTICLES.

XIII. Plaidoyer fur la Validité d'un Mariage Proteftant Par M. Trouffel, Avocat au Confeil Superieur. 8vo. Nifmes.

XIV. Second Plaidoyer, ou Replique fur la Validité d'un Mariage Proteftant. 8vo. Ibid.

XV. Difcours de M. Mazer, Avocat du Roi, au Préfidial de Nifmes. dans la Caufe du Sieur et de la Dame Roux. 8vo. Ibid

MADEMOISELLE Roubel, daughter of a proteftant merchant,

was married to another proteftant merchant, Mr. Roux. The bans were, like thofe of all other proteftants in France, published in a proteftant religious meeting in the defart (au défert), and the marriage was celebrated by a proteftant minifter. For eight years they lived happy together, refpected by all their acquaintance, and were bleffed with five children, four of whom are still living.

At that period, in Dec. 1773, madam Roux on a fudden falls defperately in love with a merchant's clerk; and, in order to get divorced from her hufband, elopes from her family; applies to a catholic priest; pretends a zealous refolution of turning catholic involves her husband in a law-fuit; declares herself to have lived all that time as his concubine; fummons him to embrace the catholic faith; to be legally married to her by a catholic prieft; and thus to convert their former fcandalous cohabitation into the holy state of matrimony!

She knew her husband to be firmly attached to his religion, and very probably truffed he would hardly turn catholic for the fake of recovering a faithlefs, vicious, ftrayed wife: befides, his caufe could not be pleaded before a catholic court but by catholic counsellors.

Yet, by catholic counfellors it was pleaded, and effectually-A more delicate and important law-fuit had perhaps not happened for ages in France; for its final determination was, either

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