244 DICITE, Causidici, gelido nunc Marmore magni Si forsan tumulum quo conditur Eumarus aufers EPICTETE I. ME, rex deorum, tuque, duc, necessitas, E. THEOCRITO. POETA, lector, hic quiescit Hipponax, EUR. MED. 193-203. Nox immerito culpanda venit Voce aut fidibus pellere docuit Sat lætitiâ sine subsidiis, Pectora molli mulcet dubiæ * Τοιος Άρης βροτολογος εν πολεμοισι μεμηνε SEPTEM ÆTATES. PRIMA parit terras ætas, siccatque secunda, 2 Myrias Egypto cessit bis septima pingui. Myrias adsciscit sibi nonagesima septem Imperium qua Turca 3 ferox exercet iniquum. The above is a version of a Latin epigram on the famous John Duke of Marlborough, by the Abbé Salvini, which is as follows: Haud alio vultu, fremuit Mars acer in armis ; Haud alio, Cyprium percurit ore Deam. The Duke was, it seems, remarkably handsome in his person, to which the second line has reference. To the above lines, which are unfinished, and can therefore only be offered as a fragment, in the doctor's manuscript, are prefixed the words, Geographia Metrica." As we are referred, in the first of the verses, to Templeman, for having furnished the numerical computations that are the subject of them, his work has been accordingly consulted, the title of which is, "A new Survey of the Globe," and which professes to give an accurate mensuration of all the empires, kingdoms, and other divisions thereof, in the square miles that they respectively contain. On comparison of the several numbers in these verses with those set down by Templeman, it appears that nearly half of them are precisely the same; the rest are not so exactly done. -For the convenience of the reader, it has been thought right to subjoin each number, as it stands in Templeman's works, to that in Dr. Johnson's verses which refer to it. 'In this first article that is versified, there is an accurate conformity in Dr. Johnson's number to Templeman's; who sets down the square miles of Palestine at 7,600. The square miles of Ægypt are, in Templeman, 140,700. 3 The whole Turkish empire, in Templeman is computed at 960,057 square miles. Undecies binas decadas et millia septem. 4 Myriadas decies septem numerare jubebit Pastor Arabs; decies octo sibi Persa requirit. Se quinquagenis octingentesima jungit Myriadas denas dat, quinque et millia, sexque + In the four following articles, the numbers, in Templeman and in Johnson's verses are alike. We find, accordingly, the Morea, in Templeman, to be set down at 7,220 square miles. Arabia, at 700,000-Persia, at 800,000 -and Naples, at 22,000. 4 Ibid. 5 Sicily, in Templeman, is put down at 9,400. "The Pope's dominions, at 14,868. 7 Tuscany, at 6,640. * Genoa, in Templeman, as in Johnson likewise, is set down at 2,400. Lucca, at 286. 10 The Russian empire, in the 29th Plate of Templeman, is set down at 3,303,485 square miles. 11 Sardinia, in Templeman, as likewise in Johnson, 6,690. The habitable world, in Templeman, is computed, in square miles, at 30,666,806 square miles. 13 Asia, at 10,257,487. Is Europe, at 2,749,349. 14 Africa, at 8,506,208. The British dominions, at 105,634. Ter tria myriadi conjungit millia quartæ, Et quadragenis decades quinque addit Ierne, 18 Ter sex centurias Holladia 19 jactat opima "England, as likewise in Johnson's expression of the number, at 49,450. 18 Ireland, at 27,457. 19 In the three remaining instances, which make the whole that Dr. Johnson appears to have rendered into Latin verse, we find the numbers exactly agreeing with those of Templeman; who makes the square miles of the United Provinces, 9,540-of the province of Holland, 1,800-and of Wales, 7,011. PLAN OF AN ENGLISH DICTIONARY. TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE PHILIP DORMER, EARL OF CHESTERFIELD, ONE OF HIS MAJESTY'S PRINCIPAL SECRETARIES OF STATE. MY LORD, WHEN first I undertook to write an English Dictionary, I had no expectation of any higher patronage than that of the proprietors of the copy, nor prospect of any other advantage than the price of my labour. I knew that the work in which I engaged, is generally considered as drudgery for the blind, as the proper toil of artless industry; a task that requires neither the light of learning, nor the activity of genius, but may be successfully performed without any higher quality than that of bearing burthens with dull patience, and beating the track of the alphabet with sluggish resolution. Whether this opinion, so long transmitted, and so widely propagated, had its beginning from truth and nature, or from accident and prejudice; whether it be decreed by the authority of reason, or the tyranny of ignorance, that of all the candidates for literary praise, the unhappy lexicographer holds the lowest place, neither vanity nor interest incited me to enquire. It appeared that the province allotted me was, of all the regions of learning, generally confessed to be the least delightful, that it was believed to produce neither fruits nor flowers; and that, after a long and laborious cultivation, not even the barren laurel* had been found upon it. Lord Orrery, in a letter to Dr. Birch, mentions this as one of the very few inaccuracies in this admirable address, the laurel not being barren in any sense, but bearing fruits and flowers. Boswell's Life, vol. i. p. 160. edit. 1804. |