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v POETBT.. SONNET. T She Has no heart, but. she is fair, Tib*rose, the lilly can't outvie* her:. She smih s so sweetly, that the air SeemS f ill of light and beauty nigh her. She has no heart, hut vet her face So man v hues of youth revealing, With so much liveliness and grace, That'i.n my soul ’:is ever stealing. She has no heart, she cannot love, Rot sh tan kindle’love in mine : Strange; that the softness of a dove Hound such a thing of air can twine. She has no heart—her eye, though bright, lias not the brightness of the soul j ! Tirs not the pure and lender light, That love from seraph beauty stole. ’Ti« but a wild and witching flame, * That leads us on a while through flowers, Then leaves us, lost iu guilt and shame, v To mourn our vain departed hou.s. Go then from me—thou const not chain A soul, whose flight is winged above, Turn Snot on'me tlnne eve again.: Thou hast no he&rt, ihou canst not love. d. As three to sixteen him-; proportion of an Englishman to a frenchman. 7 With so much ease and pleasantry could he talk of that pfddigious lahoi^ jvhich he had undertaken to execute.” 'The Dictionary was, completed.in July .1775, the author having beeivaKduloujjiy engaged upon it seven yedrs.wirld contemplated with wonder so jsftupcndoas a work atchieved by one man, while other countries had tlpnught such undertakings fit only for whole academies.’ As the patience of the proprietors was repeatedly tried, and almost exhausted, by expecting that the work would be completed within the time which Johnson had sanguinely supposed (three years,) the learned author was often goaded to despatch, more especially*as he had received all the copy money, by differ ent draffs, a considerable time before he flad finished his task. When the- messenger who carried , tiie last sheet to Miller return ed, Johnson asked him, ‘ Well, what did he say V 4 Sir, (answered the messenger) he said, thank God I have done with him.’ ‘ I rr.oM tub (avocsta) constitutionalist. * ELLEN'S GRAVE. u ,/TW.A»%in on eve of ca.lv spring Vfo saw thy form consign’d to caith, vifuj fiocip the south wind’s gentle wing Faqn’djwtiy flowers into birth— y’pojt’th*: ye llow mound they grew, | jjjia frees wore murmuring all around : ■ tt a beauteous scene to view— So calm—s > fair—’I was holy ground. The willow bow’d its branches there, And seemed thy early doom to weep; Beneath its shade the mourner’s tear Fell silent o’er thy last long sleep! The mourner—lie whose sorrowing heart W as riven to its core for thee— ’T-vas meet when day’s sad hours deport, That widowed spirit there should be! Tis in an eve of early spring, t sock the lone and sacred spot; ■ w changed! wild briars round it cling— v all neglected and forgot! lowors.scent the moonlight air— :c coney burrow's an the ground, willow’s ruined trunk is there, • storms have strewed its branches round! whrV Is la?, that mourning one, • hose (fc?coleus heart-consuming grief, vied to.implore from death alone > hope and comfort and relief?— •■'oon the gush of sorrow’s tide '■<pt in joy's bright sparkling wave! clasps another bride asts one thought on Ellen’s Grave. eiporated letter, of which the following is- a copy.:— f ** . • . “To the Right Hon. the Earl of Chesterfield. -' .Jr “February 7, 1755. , “ My Lord—-I hare been lately informed, by the proprietor of the World, that two pa pers, in which my Dictionary is recommend ed to the public, were written by your Lordt ship. To be so distinguished, is an honour, which, being very little accustomed to fa vours ftoin the great, I know not well how to receive, or in what terms to acknowledge. “ When, upon some slight encourage ment, I first visited your Lordship, 1 was overpowered, like the rest of mankind, by the enchantment of your address, and could not forbear to wish that 1 might boast mvself Le va-nqueur /iu vainqueur de la Ur re; that I might obtain that regard for which 1 saw the world contending; bat I found my at tendance so little encouraged that neither pride nor modesty would suffer me to con tinue it. When I had once addressed your t Lordship in public, I had exhausted all the am glad (replied Johnson with a smile) that : art of pleasing which a retired and uncourtly 'he thanks God for any thing.’ Miller and! scholar can possess. I had done‘all that I his associates, however, entertained the could ;'and no man is well pleased tp have HOPE. •light wastoming on, %i yilig’it trembling •. .*hng. on; ted, * . oner* ea Hope glew >7^ As down the stream 0< The waves of grief are lullfLvi/rest, And perfume fills the gentle gale. .• I But jib! when Hope’s beam fades away, (The fairest light the soul e’er woke in,) • The heart that glows with life to-day, Is seen to-morrow, cold and broken. Sorrow, with withered hand, spreads o’er . The sea of joy its maptle dark,; The sun of gladness shines no more, And wild blasts wreck our little barque. The breast’s wild throb o’er broken faith, The blasted smiles of early promise; The tears from those we lose in death, The grief for those who wander from us. Ail, all that can be scon or felt, WiliFthroiigb the mist of penury dart: Hope flies the breast where once, it dwelt, And leaves behind—a broken heart! FROM THE ALBANY ARGUS. DR. JOHNSON, AND HI9 DICTIONARY. The notices which we have recently seen published pfthe progress of Mr. Noah Web ster’s Dictionary, have recalled some of the circumstances, of which we remember to have read, connected with the compiling and publication of the great original work by Dr. Johnson. Roswell. in his Life of Johnson, states that the plan or prospectus was published to the world in the year 1747. when the author w»s 38 years of age; though Roswell believes that he had bestowed much previous thought upon the subject, from the enlarged, clear and accurate views wlueh the plan exhibited, and from other circumstances. The booksellers v/hor ontracted with Johnson for the execu tion of the work, were seven in number, at the head of which was Mr. Robert Dodsley, author of the Preceptor, a highly meritori ous work, and the.origin of that valuable class of books for the improvement of young minds. The principal charge of conduct ing the publication, however, devolved on another of the company, Mr. Andrew Mil ler! The price stipulated to be paid for the copy-right was fifteen hundred and seventy- five pounds. For the mechanical part of the preparation. Johnson employed six amanuenses. To those humble assist- arts, he showed great kindness, both filing their painful labours, and afterwards when some of them fell into poverty. “ Dr. Adams, says Boswell, found John son one day busy at his dictionary, when the following dialogue ensued : ‘ Adams—This Va great v> ork, sir. How are you to get all a etymologies ? Johnson—Why, sir, here shelf w th JunitiB, and Skinner, and :: and there is a Welch gentleman who ’^hrtd a collection ofWelch proverbs, Ip me.with the Welch. Adams— '■v can you do this in three years ? r , I have no doubt that Lean do .ears. Adams■—But the French highest respect for Johnson, and were great ly his debtors in literary labour ; and he ever spoke of them with kindness and re gard, as having*!^ (heir liberal undertakings, raised the price and value of literature. The magnitude of this work is at this day understood by most persons /who reflect upon the subject, though it can not be as obvious to persons of this age as it must have been to those of thht in which the ab sence of such a classification of our language was felt. ‘ When I took the first survey of my,undertaking (says Johnson in his incom parable Preface,) I found our speech copious without order, and energetic without rules ; wherever I turned my view, there was per plexity to be disentangled, and confusion to be regulated ; choice was to be made out of boundless variety, without any established principle of selection; adulterations were to he detected, without a settled test of purity ;' and modes of expression to be rejected or received, without the suffrages of any writer of established classical reputation or ac knowledged authority.* Notwithstanding Air.. Webster may avail himself of the learn ed labours of Johnson and Walked, and not withstanding our language has been‘brought to a comparative state of per^^tion, yet with his twenty thousand additional words, and his proposed additional deficiencies, and im provements relative to anomalous and uu- :seitled words, liis labour will beardous. and his work when finished, a desideratum. Dean Swiff allows that new words must sometimes be introduced into a language, but proposes that none should be suffered to become obsolete. This latter idea Johnson combats ral agreement to forbear a word, or with the propriety of reviving it, when it conveys an offensive idea, and has become unfamiliar and unpleasant. It is a singular fact, that the only aid which Johnson is said to have received, was a paper containing twenty, etymologies, sent to him by a person then unknown, but who afterwards proved to be Dr. Pearce, bishop of Rochester. When Dr. Johnson commenced his Dic tionary, although lie had written much that had procured distinction for. him among the friends and patrons of literature, particular ly Ins ‘ London,’ and his contributions to the Gentlemen’s Magazine, ho >vas nevertheless comparatively unknown* lie had the friend ship & association of Pope, Garrick, Mr. (af terwards Sir Joshua Reynolds, Dr. Hawkes- worth, the Earl-of Orrery, Lord South- well, &c. but he had scarcely, begun that ca reer of renown v which was afterwards opened to him. His Rambler, Dictionary, Rasselas, Idler, Lives of the ,Poets, ana a brilliant succession of works, had not then associated his name with, or placed it first, arr.ong the great and learned of the' world. He was poor, and more than embarrassed in his pe cuniary affairs. He had disdained to court, and had not then received the patronage of the nobility. When the ‘ Plan ’ of the 'Dic tionary-was about to be published, Dodsley suggested a desire to have it addressed to Lord Chesterfield, who wai ’then one of the principal secretaries of state, and ambitious of literary distinction, and who, having ac cidently met with the MS., had expressed himself in terms very favourable to the suc cess of the design. Johnson adopted the suggestion, and the Plan wgp addressed to his lordship, as Boswell observes, in a strain of compliment never more dignified- But for several years.. Lord Chesterfield treated Johnson vrilh the coldest neglect; so much so, that it raised in the latter the greatest’contempt and indignation. Seven years afterwards, however, when the Dic tionary was on the eve of completion, his lordship, who had ‘ flattered himself with expectations that Johnson would dedicate the work to him, attemeted, in a courtly manner, to soothe and insinuate himself with the Sage, conscious, as it should seem, of the indifference with which he had treat ed its learned author; and further attempted to conciliate him, by writing two papers in ‘The World,’ in recommendation of the work; and it must be confessed, that they contain some studied compliments, so fine ly turned, that if there had been no previous offence, it is probable that Johnson would have been highly delighted. Praise, says B. in general, was pleasing to him ; but by praise from a man of rank and elegant ac complishments, he was peculiarly gratified.* But the courtly device failed of its effect. Johnson, who thought that “ all was false and hollow,” despised the honeyed words, and ,was even indignant that Lord Chcster- his all neglected, be it ever so little. “ Seven years, my Lord, have now past, since I waited in your outward rooms, or was repulsed from your door; during which time I have been pushing my work through difficulties of which it is useless to complain, and have brought it, at last to the verge of publication, without one act of assistance, one word of enc ouragement, or one smile .of favor. Such treatment I did not expect, for I never had a Patron before. “ The shepherd in Virgil grew at last ac quainted with Love, and found him a native of the rocks. “ Is a Patron, my Lord, one who looks with unconcern on a man struggling for life in the water, and, when he has reached ground, encumbers him with help? The notice which you have been pleased to take of my labours, had it been early, had been kind; but it has been delayed till l am indif ferent, and cannot enjoy it; till I am solitary, and cannot itnpurt it; till I am known, and do not want it. TTiqpe it is no very cynical asperity riot to confess obligations where no benefit has been received, or to he unwill ng that the Public should consider me as owing that to a Patron, which Providence has enabled me to do for inyself. “•Having carried on my work thus far with so little’ obligation to any favourer of learning, I shall not be disappointed though I should conclude it, if less be possible, with less ; for I' have been long wakened from that dream* of hope, in whichJ once boasted myself with so much exultation. “ My Lord, your Lordship’s most humble servant, * , SAM. JOHNSON.” your ,ears on the enormity of a fractured gloved—who will be struck speechless at the slight of a pm instead of a string ; or set a whole house in an uproar, on'finding'll book on the table instead of in the book case! Those who have had the misfortune to meet with such a person, will know how to - sympathise ^vith rife. Gentle leader! I have passed two whole months with a par ticular lady. I had often received very press ing invitations to visit au old school-fellow, who is settled in a snug parsonage about fifty miles front town; hut- something or other was continually occurring to prevent me from availing mvself of them. “ Man ncvci-is, but always to be ‘ cursed.’ ” Ac cordingly, on the 17th of June, IS25* (I shall 'never forget it, if I live to the age of old P it,), having a few spare weeks-at my! disposal, I set out for iny chum’s residence.! He received me with bis wonted cordiality.; I but I fancied he looked n'little more care-{ worn than a man of thirty jnight have been i expected t > look, marked as he is to the woman of his choice, and m Che possession of an easy fortune. Poor fellow ! I did not know .that his wife was a precision—I do not employ the term in a religious sense. The first Tunt I received of the fact was from Mr. S. who, removing my hat from the first peg in the hall to the fourth, observed, 4 My wife is a little particular in these matters ; the first peg is for mif hat, the second is for V/ifliamV, the third for Torn’s and you can reserve the fourth if you please for your own; ladies, you know, do not like to have their arrangements interfered with.’ I promised to do my best to recollect the order of pre cedence with respect to the hats, and walk ed, iip stairs impressed with an awful venera tion'for a lady who had contrived to impose so.rigid a discipline on a man, formerly the most disorderly of mortals, mentally resolv ing to obtain her favor by the most studious observance ofher wishes. I Alight as well have determined to be Emperor of China! Before the week was at an end, I was a lost I always reckoned myself tolerably Presentiment.—The power of present! ment is extraordinary.—during the reign of terror in France, the Baron Marivgt was continually tormented by the apprehension that he should die upon a scaffold. All the cares of his wife were employed unsuccess fully to cairn'his fears. He sometimes in dulged himself with the hope, that -if his birth-day passed without' his being arrested, he should fie delivered from the weight which pressed his heart, and might perhaps be saved. Upon one occasion, he gazed, in a fit of deep^ydelapchdly, upon hi^ son who was then twp years old, and ex who hammers away in his rear from' mc ing till night. The worst of it is, that v Mrs. S. never allows a moment’s peace her husband, children, or servants, thihks herself a jewel of a wife; but sue! jewels are too costly for everv-day wear. I am sure poor S. thinks so in his heart, and, would be content to exchange half-a-dozen of liis wife’s tormenting good qualities for the sake of hping allowed a little cdnimonw. place repose. \ . - > 1 never shall forget the delight I felt on , entering my own-house, after enduring her thraldom for two months. I absolutely revelled in disorder, and gloried in nr" V* tors. I tossed my hat bne way, my gv ,/' another ; pushed all the chairs into the nil, -4 die of the room, and narrowly escaped kiclc- I ing my faithful Clnistoper, for offering ffr put it 4 in order ’ again. That cursed ‘spirit [of order!’ lam sure it is a spirit of evil omen to S. For my own piut, I Jo so exe crate the phra-e, that if I, were a-Member of the House t f Commons and the order of the day were called for, I should make it a rule to walk out. Since my return home, I have positively prohibited the usq of the word . in my house ; raid nearly quarrelled with an honest poulterer, who has Served me for the last ten years, because he has a rascally shopman, who will persist in snuf fling at my door (I hear him now from mylT parlour window,) 4 Any order this morning!*" Confound fhe fellow! that 13 his knock. I will go out; and offer him half a-crown to change his phrase! When at school, Order is Heaven’s first law, used to be our standing round-text copy; but were I doomed to transcribe the senti? ment in these my days of adolescence, £ should take the liberty of suggesting the new reading of— Order is hell’s first law—- for I feel satisfied that Satan himself is a 1 particular gentleman.’ Liverpool Races.—Wo congratulate our sporting friends on a novel kind of racing, which has just been established in the vicini- iiws. that f e, during/ V; itidy; never leaving more than half my clothes on the floor of my dressing-room, nor j ty of Liverpool: AH the town kriowi more ftmn a dozen books about an apart-I a number of choice spirits assemble, d - ment t may happen to occupy for an hour. 1 the summer evenings, on the green contigu- I do not. lose more than a dozen handker- ous to St. George’s hotel, Everton, for the chiefs in a iponth; nor have more than a purpose of enjoying the delightful exercises quarter of an hour’s hunt tor my hat or; oi bowling. .Among the group may be seen gloves whenever l go out in a hurry. I the portly lawyer, the bulky physician, and found all this was but as dust in the balance. ! the wealthy merchant, who there reinvigo- I might as well have expected to be admit-! rate themselves after the, toils of the dayby ted a.contributor to the Literary Magnet, j impellin g the bowl across the smooth green because I could write ‘joining hand.? , The first time l sat down to dinner I made a horrible blunder; for, in my haste to help my friend trf some asparagus. I pulled the dish a little out of its place, thereby derang ing the hexagonal order in which the said rejected, dishes were arranged—I discovered my mis- posed by hap on hearing Mr. S. sharply rebuked for ja similar offence; secondly, I sat half the evening with the cushion a full finger’s breadth beyond the cane-work of my chair —and what is worse, I do not know that I should have been aware of my de linquency, if the agony of the lady’s feel ings lqid not, at length, overpowered e\ r ery Other consideration, and at last burst forth with, ‘ Excuse me, Mr. isyjard. A few evenings ago the party met as usual; but the green, unfortunately, was out of order, and the bowlers eould not follow that usual pastime. What was to be done ? Vari ous plans were proposed, and succesively At length a foot-race was pro- a disciple of JEsculapius, who challenged a foreign gentleman to run him a race around the gravelled walk. Tho challenge was that the former would rim with the heaviest man in the company on h\s back, in a shorter time than the latter would run one hundred yards unincumbered. The challenge was accepted, And the wager was glasses round ; but a difficulty now' arose to determine which of the gentlemen present xcuse me, Mr. ————, but do pray possessed the greatest gravity. We have put your cushion straight; it annoys me be- | already said there was a portly lawyer?/! the y°fid measure to see it otherwise.’ My j company. All eyes were instantly fixed on third .offence was displacing the snuffer-[him; and he was requested, with one con- stand bom its central position between the i sen t, to act the party of jockey on the occa- , l[r . v qi —r v. ,,, my fourth, leaving a pamphlet sion. Our friend loves a good joke almost cla mpJ 1 HHU/ ne.V.qr live to see this child j 1 mad been perusing on the piano-forte, its | as well as Ire loves a <r 00 d dinner • and he in male clothing?” ari observation which his j proper place being a table in the fiddle of j withbut 'hesitation, accepted the situation* lady carefully treasured up in her memory, j the room, on which all books in present use 1 The man of physic stood to receive his The horrors of the revolution appeared at;! were ordered to repose; my fifth—but in short I learned rider, who mounted, as quickly as ,, ,• , -. • via ' ci • i * a* j - ; withstanding he carried the lawor, like Cohe presentiments, Madame de Manyet, I danger of having your legs snapt off, and in j upon Littleton, soon outstripped his bm Jen- about eleven o’clock, when they were just «««♦»•«* <"••■» ~ . rr serving the desert; left the table, and return ing in a few moments after with her son i {table knew its duty; the very chimney or- her arms dressed like a sailor, she gpve him’naments had been ‘trained up in the way to her bqsband, whom she tenderly em- j they should go,’ and wo to the unlucky another your nose. There never was a j Jess competitor, apd scampered away with house so atrociously neat; ever, c/iair^nd ’his Kaihof law with as much ease, as if lie had’ a mere boy upon his shoulders. His rival and the re.st of the company struggled I . , 4 . ' after him in vain. But how shall we S de- braced, and exclaimed—“ You now see your I wight who should make them 4 depart from scribe the catastrophe which befel him when son my dear, in man’s clfithing, and your!it.’ Even those 4 chartered libertines,’ the birth-day has already passed!” “ Not yet,”! children and dogs, were taught to be. as was his reply, “midnight has not struck;”|demure and hypocritical as the matronly His friends shuddered at the words, and j tabby cat herself; who sat with her fore feet -Sir thus it is. T Let me see: forty time 1 #7 ** which consists of forty members, ... f .. years to complete thekriietionary. field should, for a moment imagine that he 1 • n/tuLl Lrt 4kn /ltinn Af cuon on artirino 1 A nH could be the dupe of such an artifice.—-And it was on this occasion that he wrote to him anxiously forged their eyes upon a time piece, the fingers,of which they silently re garded, as they moved towards the wished- for hour. It was just on the point of twelve, when, a thundering knock was heard at the door. M. de Marivet turned pale; all who Surrounded -him were struck dumb - wiih.ter ror; the door opened, and gave admission to the emissaries of the revolutionary com mittee, who were come to seize him. M. de la C., whom, in a letter, he had advised to emigrate, had not taken the precaution to destroy his papers. After his departure, they had been transported, amongst; his otheF effects, to the house of M. de RiepapeV his grandfather. The latter had been im prisoned on suspicion, and seals had been placed upon the property at his house. He died in prison, and the agents of the com mittee, who were present when the seals were removed, found, in an earthen vessel, amongst some torn papers which were de stined to be burnt, the letter in which M. de Marivet advised M. de la C. to emigrate. This letter was his sentence of condemna tion. Mi de Marivet was summoned before the revoltitibsary tribunal, condemned to death, and lo^t his head upon the scaffold, just before Thermidor. . Particular People.—Reader! did’st .ever live with" a particular lady ? one possessed, not simply with the spirit, but the demon of tidiness 1 who will give you a good two hours* lecture upon the sin of an untied shoe-string, and raise a hurricane about ' ' ll together and her tail curled round her as ex actly as if she had been worked in au urn- rug, instead of being a living mouser. It was the utmost stretch of my friend’s marital authority to get his favorite spaniel admitted to the honours of the parlor ; and eveu this privilege is only granted in his master’s presence. If Carlo happens to pop his un- hicky brown nose into the room when S. is from home, he sets off directly with as much consciousness in his ears and tail as if he had been convicted of a larceny in the kitchen, and anticipated the application of the broomstick. As to the children, Heaven help them! 1 believe that they look forward to their evening visit to the tlrawing-room with much the same sort of feeling. Not that Mrs. S. is an unkind mother, or, I should rather say, not that she means to be so; but she has taken it into her head, that 4 preachee and floggee too’ is the way to bring up children; and that as young people have sometimes short memories, it is necessary to put them verbally in mind of their duties, From night till mom, from mom till dewy eve. So it is with her servants ; if one of them leaves a broom or a duster out of its place for a second, she hears of it for a month af terwards. I wonder how they endure it ! 1 have sometimes thought that from long practice, they Jo no* fieed it—as a frieud of mine who lives in a bustling street in the City, tells me he does notfoear the infernal noise of the coaches and carts in the front of his house, nor of a confounded brazier, he was within a few yards within the win ning post? The course is not one of the most even in the world, and it is thickly strewed with .sharp stones. Well, when iEsculapius was in the height of his career and when the goal was full in view, his foot struck against something. * He stumbled, he tottered, and down came Law and Rbysick with a concussion which shook to its vety foundation the tower of Everton church. Alas, Alas ! ’ “T. foil down and broke liis crown, And P. came tumbling after.” The blood flowed in copious streams, from the nostrils of iEsculapius; hut he sprang, like Antaeus, from the earth, with Herculean strength, he threw the lawyer behind his back, and pressing on with quick ened speed, reached the goal before his rival l completed two-thirds of his task; he was de clared the victor amidst the plaudits of the spectators, who congratulated him on the prodigious strength which he had displayed in winning the race with “ The Statutes at large ” upon his shoulders. Bathos.—Not long since, an eminent lawyer, of Ohio, closed a pathetic harangue . to a jury in the following strains. / “ And now the shades of night had shrouded the earth in dkrkness. All nature lay wrapped in solertm thought, when these defendant ruffians Came - rushing like a mighty torrent from the hills down upon the abodes of peace—broke open the plaintiff’s door—separated the weeping mother from her screeching infant—arid took away my client’s rifle, gentlemen of lhe jury, for which we charge 15 dollars.