Dr. James’s Medicinal Dictionary, 3 vols. folio. 1743. To Dr. Mead. SIR, That the Medicinal Dictionary is dedicated to you, is to be imputed only to your reputation for superiour skill in those sciences, which I have endeavoured to explain and facilitate; and you are, therefore, to consider this address, if it be agreeable to […]

PREFACE TO NEW TABLES OF INTEREST: Designed to answer, in the most correct and expeditious manner, the common purposes of business, particularly the business of the publick funds. BY JOHN PAYNE, OF THE BANK OF ENGLAND. 1758. Among the writers of fiction, whose business is to furnish that entertainment which fancy perpetually demands, it is […]

Or, reasons offered against confining the procession to the usual track, and pointing out others more commodious and proper. To which are prefixed, a plan of the different paths recommended, with the parts adjacent, and a sketch of the procession.–Most humbly submitted to consideration[1]. All pomp is instituted for the sake of the publick. A […]

From the Gentleman’s Magazine, March, 1739. Men’ moveat cimex Pantilius? aut crucier, quodVellicet absentem Demetrius–HOR. Laudat, amat, cantat nostros mea Roma libellos,Meque sinus omnes, me manus omnis habet.Ecce rubet quidam, pallet, stupet, oscitat, odit.Hoc volo, nunc nobis carmina nostra placent.MARTIAL. It is plain from the conduct of writers of the first class, that they have […]

LETTER ON FIREWORKS.[1] MR. URBAN, Among the principal topicks of conversation which now furnish the places of assembly with amusement, may be justly numbered the fireworks, which are advancing, by such slow degrees, and with such costly preparation. The first reflection, that naturally arises, is upon the inequality of the effect to the cause. Here […]

BY ANNA WILLIAMS.[1] [1] From the Gentleman’s Magazine, Sept. 1750. When a writer of my sex solicits the regard of the publick, some apology seems always to be expected; and it is, unhappily, too much in my power to satisfy this demand; since, how little soever I may be qualified, either by nature or study, […]

A PROJECT FOR THE EMPLOYMENT OF AUTHORS.[1] TO THE VISITER. SIR, I know not what apology to make for the little dissertation which I have sent, and which I will not deny that I have sent with design that you should print it. I know that admonition is very seldom grateful, and that authors are […]

TO THE PUBLICK. There are some practices which custom and prejudice have so unhappily influenced, that to observe or neglect them is equally censurable. The promises made by the undertakers of any new design, every man thinks himself at liberty to deride, and yet every man expects, and expects with reason, that he who solicits […]

Some thoughts on agriculture, both ancient and modern; with an account of the honour due to an English farmer[1]. Agriculture, in the primeval ages, was the common parent of traffick; for the opulence of mankind then consisted in cattle, and the product of tillage, which are now very essential for the promotion of trade in […]

FURTHER THOUGHTS ON AGRICULTURE[1]. [1] From the Visiter for March, 1756, p. 111. At my last visit, I took the liberty of mentioning a subject, which, I think, is not considered with attention proportionate to its importance. Nothing can more fully prove the ingratitude of mankind, a crime often charged upon them, and often denied, […]

CONSIDERATIONS ON THE CORN LAWS[1]. By what causes the necessaries of life have risen to a price, at which a great part of the people are unable to procure them, how the present scarcity may be remedied, and calamities of the same kind may, for the future, be prevented, is an inquiry of the first […]

[A complete vindication of the licensers of the stage from the malicious and scandalous aspersions of Mr. Brooke, author of Gustavus Vasa; with a proposal for making the office of licenser more extensive and effectual.] BY AN IMPARTIAL HAND.[A] It is generally agreed by the writers of all parties, that few crimes are equal, in […]

The usual design of addresses of this sort is to implore the candour of the publick: we have always had the more pleasing province of returning thanks, and making our acknowledgments for the kind acceptance which our monthly collections have met with. This, it seems, did not sufficiently appear from the numerous sale and repeated […]

PREFACE TO AN ESSAY[1] ON MILTON’S USE AND IMITATION OF THE MODERNS IN HIS PARADISE LOST. FIRST PUBLISHED IN THE YEAR 1750. It is now more than half a century since the Paradise Lost, having broke through the clouds with which the unpopularity of the author, for a time, obscured it, has attracted the general […]

To which are subjoined several curious original letters from the authors of the Universal History, Mr. Ainsworth, Mr. Mac-Laurin, etc. BY WILLIAM LAUDER, A.M. Quem paenitet peccasse pene est innocens.SENECA. Corpora magnanimo satis est prostrasse Leoni:Pugna suum finem, quum jacet hostis, habet.OVID. —Praetuli clementiamJuris rigori.–GROTII Adamus Exul. FIRST PRINTED THE YEAR 1751. PREFATORY OBSERVATIONS. Dr. […]

Edinb. May 22, 1734. These are certifying, that Mr. William Lauder past his course at this university, to the general satisfaction of these masters, under whom he studied. That he has applied himself particularly to the study of humanity[1] ever since. That for several years past, he has taught with success, students in the humanity […]

AN ACCOUNT OF AN ATTEMPT TO ASCERTAIN THE LONGITUDE[1]. FIRST PRINTED IN THE YEAR 1755. It is well known to seamen and philosophers, that, after the numerous improvements produced by the extensive commerce of the later ages, the great defect in the art of sailing is ignorance of longitude, or of the distance to which […]

In three letters, to the printer of the Gazetteer. LETTER I. Dec. 1, 1759. SIR, The plans which have been offered by different architects, of different reputation and abilities, for the construction of the bridge intended to be built at Blackfriars, are, by the rejection of the greater part, now reduced to a small number; […]

THE PREFACE TO THE PRECEPTOR, CONTAINING A GENERAL PLAN OF EDUCATION[1] The importance of education is a point so generally understood and confessed, that it would be of little use to attempt any new proof or illustration of its necessity and advantages. At a time, when so many schemes of education have been projected, so […]

PREFACE TO ROLT’S DICTIONARY[1]. No expectation is more fallacious than that which authors form of the reception which their labours will find among mankind. Scarcely any man publishes a book, whatever it be, without believing that he has caught the moment when the publick attention is vacant to his call, and the world is disposed, […]