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Milton's Paradise Lost.

The following is an abridged account of what Mr. Todd relates in the first volume of his edition of our Poet's Works:

MILTON experienced some difficulty in getting his poem licensed, the licenser imagining that, in the noble simile of the sun in an eclipse, he had discovered treason. It was, however, licensed, and Milton sold his MS. to Samuel Simmons, April 27th, 1667, for an immediate payment of five pounds, with a proviso, that on 1300 copies being sold, he was to receive five pounds inore; and the same for the second and third editions.

The first edition appeared in 1667, in ten books small 4to. advertised at 3s. plainly bound; but as it met a very quick sale, the titles were varied in order to promote its circulation-thus the edition of 1667 is frequently found with the titles of 1688 and 1689.

In two years the sale gave the poet a right to his second payment, the receipt for which was signed April 26th, 1669. The second edition was printed 8vo. 1674, but he did not live to receive the stipulated payment. The third edition was published 1678: the copyright then devolving to his widow, she agreed with Simmons to receive eight pounds for it; this agreement was concluded, and the receipt signed, Dec, 21st, 1680. Simmons transferred the right for twenty. five pounds, to a bookseller named Brabazon Aylmer, and Aylmer sold half to Jacob Tonson, August 17th, 1683, and the other half at a price considerably ad vanced, March 24th, 1690.

Dr. Bentley received for editing Milton, in 1732, one hundred and five pounds; and Dr. Newton, for his edition of Paradise Lost, received six hundred and thirty pounds; and for Paradise Regained, one hundred and five pounds.

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Paul Sarpi's History of the Council of Trent.

A better illustration of an old adage could not be well selected than the following: Dr. Samuel Johnson proposed to translate the work, which stands as the head

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piece to this article, from the French version of Le Courayer; and twelve quarto sheets were completed and printed, for which he received from Cave, the projector of the Gentleman's Magazine*, forty-nine pounds, seven shillings; when the design was given up, in consequence of a singular rivalship, for a Mr. Samuel Johnson, librarían and curate of St. Martin's in the Fields, having engaged in the same laborious undertak ing, under the patronage of Dr. Zachary Pearce and the clergy, the interest exerted for the rival versions proved destructive to both; and, after some skirmishing between the two translators, the attempt was mutually relinquished.

Sallust

"Nearly thirty years ago, the president de Brosses, a distinguished philologist of France, finding in the course of his researches some remains of a History of the Roman Republic, by Sallust, which had been supposed to be entirely lost, undertook the arduous task of restoring it. After taking immense pains to collect all the quotations which had been made from this precious relic by the ancient grammarians and others, he found himself in possession of more than seven hundred frag ments, which he laid together with so much skill and patience, as to produce a connected work, by no means unworthy of the celebrated Roman whose name it bears. This work was translated into French, and published in 1777 at Dijon, in three volumes quarto, under the following title: "Histoire de la Republique Romaine dans le cours due 7 Siecle par Salluste," &c.

MILLER'S RETROSPECT.

Old Tobit; a Stage Play from the Old Testament. Acted at Broadgate, Lincoln, in the 6th year of Queen Elizabeth. The following curious list of scenes has

This Magazine commenced in 1731, and as it was the first attempt at a publication of the kind, has continued to maintain its character, as the best, during the lapse of nearly a century.

been communicated by some one of its correspondents to the Gentleman's Magazine.

List of Scenes lying at Mr. Norton's house, in tenure of William Smart.

1st-Hell-mouth, with a nether chap. Item. A Prison with a covering.

Item.

Sarah's Chamber.

Remaining in St. Swithin's Church.

Item. A great Idol with a club.

Item. A Tomb with a covering.

Item. The City of Jerusalem, with towers and pinnacles.

Item. The City of Nynevah.

Item. Old Tobye's House.

Item. The Israelites' House, and the Neighbour's House. Item. The King's Palace at Laches.

Item. A Firmament: with a fiery Cloud, and a double Cloud, to the custody of Thomas Fulbeck, Alderman.

Le Poëte sans fard, ou discours satyriques sur toutes sortes de sujets (par Gacon).-2 vols. 12mo. 1696.

This work, which was reprinted in 1701 with some alterations, is a collection of satires, which Chancellor Boucherat caused to be suppressed, and condemned the author to some month's imprisonment. François Gacon died in 1725, at the age of fifty, after having composed a great number of very indifferent satirical works. The following quatrain from the Poëte sans fard, may be considered no very unfavourable specimen of the author's talents.

Une beauté, quand elle avance en age,
A ses amans inspire du dégoût;

Mais, pour le vin, il a cet avantage,
Plus il viellit, plus il flatte le goût.

Which

may

be done into English', thus:

A beauty when advanced in age,
In lover's eyes sees little favour;
But wine it is has this advantage,

The older 'tis, the finer is its flavour.

Sancti Hieronymi Expositio in symbolum Apostolorum. 4to.-Oxford, 1478.

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This work, which I have before mentioned at page 35, is of very rare occurrence, but a copy of it made its appearance at King and Lochée's Auction Room, about two months since, when it fetched the moderate sum of Rinety-one guineas.

METHOD OF PREVENTING OR CURING THE DAMP IN HOUSES.

MESSRS. EDITORS,

THE best use of philosophy consists in the application of scientific discoveries to improve and ameliorate the condition of mankind; this is my sole reason for troubling you with the following remarks, on a subject which I believe you will agree with me in thinking of considerable importance, at least to a large portion of society.

Not far from this place* two females died in the same week, in two contiguous houses, in consequence of such houses being damp. Consumptions have been styled the plague of Britain. Dr. Pearson says (see Nicholson's Journal, vol. xxv. p. 217), from one hundred and twenty to one hundred and forty thousand subjects of the United Kingdom are annually cut off by pulmonary tubercles. No doubt the same cause must produce somewhat similar effects in other countries, allowance being made for difference of climate, &c. Damp houses, by suddenly checking perspiration, contribute in no small degree to the production et hectic and other fevers, which frequently terminate in death.

* See the Leeds' Mercury, Jan. 27, 1810, p. 3, col. 3. VOL. II.

N

(See Nicholson's Journal, vol. xv. p. 104.) Persons with the strongest constitutions, who, after being heated, sit to cool or sleep in such houses, may often from such circumstances date the commencement of these complaints, what then must be the effect on the delicate female in such a situation?

It will often happen, that dwelling-houses must be erected where it will be physically impossible for every part to be dry, or free from damp, unless a proper method be adopted to secure that desirable object: such method has not come within the sphere of my scanty observation. The best I have seen is, to remove part of the back-ground (where the house is built on the side of a hill) level with the foundation. But this expensive operation is insufficient, for the stagnant air in the area so sunk holds much water in solution, which will of course saturate the outer walls and adjoining rooms with moisture.

The method of prevention, or cure, which I beg leave to propose, is as follows. In case where the damp proceeds from one or more walls, or sides of the house, being built against the side of a hill, &c. let a narrow inner wall, air-tight, be carried up parallel with the outer damp wall, and at a small distance from it (such inner wall being continued above, and beyond the effect of the damp) air-holes must be left through the outer-wall into the top of the enclosed space; and from the bottom of such space in the middle of its breadth a metallic pipe, or any kind of flue, is to be carried under any convenient part of the ground-floor, to terminate in the kitchen or principal fire-place. The air in the mouth of the flue, or tube, being rarefied by the fire, a constant stream will issue from the atmosphere through the apertures, space, and flue, which will completely carry off the damp, and in addition greatly increase the draft of air up the chimney.

But if the damp proceed from the ground on which the house is built being a humid flat, it will be necessary to make the ground-floor double with an apparatus as described above. And where there are drains of running water, a current of air must by the same

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