1802.] 
meant the upper leather, or toe-piece. In 
this cafe /peck and fpan mutt fignify not 
really new, but made as good as new— 
mended into fmarinefs. From the low 
origin of the metaphor, the words would 
retain an affociation of vulgarity—they 
would occur as in Butler :— 
And while the honor thou haft got 
Is {pick and fpan new, piping hot, 
Strike her up bravely. 
Or;- ; 
Thefe Jegiflative coblers furnifh, at an 
kour’s notice, a fpeck and [pan conftitution , 
but it gives way within the week: to work 
for wear is beyond their laft: their cuftomers 
will foon recur to Charles’s boot. 
Super. praife.—This hybrid word, al- 
though authorized by Shak{peare, is now 
difuled ; one would write to over-prai/e : 
even to /uper-firain, although employed 
by Lord Bacon, and more defenfible, as 
both parts derive from fouthern languages, 
is fuperfeded by, to over ftrain. 
Swafh.—Swafh, as Junius rightly ob- 
ferves, is an onomatopoeia; an attempt 
to imitate the found of ‘the whiff and 
wind of a fell fword,” or of an interrupted 
guth of waters. Thofe combatants, who 
_made more noife than flafh with their 
weapons, who affumed fiercenefs, were 
denominated /wa/bing : fwafb-buckler is 
fynonymous with bang-fhield, and is a 
very legitimate compound (fee the article 
Flap-fy). To fwafh a whip, tor ‘to wave 
it rapidly, fo as to produce a Joud hifling,”” 
is ftill in ufe. A poet might apply this 
epithet to a fling, which /wa/bes while it 
is whirled. mah 
Synonyme.—Surely fynonym, without 
the e final; as the upfilon, or y, repre- 
fents a vowel originally fhort, whereas 
the ¢ final always prolongs the preceding 
vowel. Even Gibbon, however, writes 
Hippodrome; which is an analagous in- 
ftance. 
Syriac. —The dialects of Syriaare called 
Syriac, and the inhabitants Syrian. Sir 
William Jones talks of the Afiatic lan- 
guages, and the Afian nations. Is this 
diftin&tion worth obferving, purfuing, ex- 
tending? Surely not. 
_ 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
! SIR, 
WT AM fufficiently acquainted with the 
ait world to know that one foolifh friend 
is more dangerous than twenty enemies ; 
I therefore abftained from the precipitate 
expreffion of that indignation which every 
-honeft mind muit feel when the character 
Mr. Edgeworth on Dr. Darwin.’ 115 
of a great and good man is disfigured by 
mifreprefentation or ridicule. . 
Many of the affertions in the Memoirs 
of Dr. Darwin, which appeared in the 
Monthly Magazine for June, are, to my 
certain knowledge, unfounded. He was 
feize{ with the diforder that terminated 
his exiftence whilft he was writing a letter 
to me—the fragment is now before me. 
Nothing can be more playful or pleafing 
than the ftyle and fentiments of this lait 
token of his friendfhip; it breathes fere- 
nity and happinefs, and is one amongtt a 
thoufand inftances of ‘* that fweet peace, 
which goodnefs bofoms ever.’” Upon the 
fame paper on which my friend had begun 
his letter, a lady who was ona vifit to . 
the Priory fent me an account of his 
death, He was feized with a fudden 
fhivering fit whilft he was writing—rang 
the bell—fpoke to Mrs. Darwin—reco- 
vered—but foon after fainted .and expired. 
The public are convinced, by the manly 
advertifement figned by Dr. Fox and Mr. 
Hadley, that the Doctor did not die ina 
fit of anger ; but the public may ftill fup- 
pofe that he was not mafter of that paffion. 
I have known him, intimately, during 
thirty-fix years, and in that period have 
witneffed innumerable inftances of his be- 
nevolence and good humour, and but very 
few of that haitinefs of temper which fo 
often accompanies good-nature. Five or — 
fix times in my life I have feen him angry, 
and have heard him exprefs that anger 
with much real, and more apparent ve- 
hemence—more than men of le{s fenfibi- 
lity would feel or fhew: but then the 
motive never was perfonal. When Dr. 
Darwin beheld any example of inhumanity 
or injuftice, he never could reftrain his 
indignation; he had not learnt, from the 
{chool ef Lord Chefterfield, to fmother 
every generous feeling, lett fome uncouth 
gefture, or fome ill-modulated period, 
fhould wound the delicacy of fome un- 
feeling fon of the Graces. 
In the intercourfe of familiar converfa- 
tion, the Doctor indulged his playful 
fancy in a thoufand harmlefs fallies ; but 
if a friend was ever hurt by a heedlefs 
fhaft, he poured balm into the wound by 
the kindeft expreffions of fympathy and 
regret. It is aflerted by the writer of his 
Memoirs, that he ftooped to accept of 
grofs flattery. Perhaps in the inmeft re 
ceffes of his heart vanity might reign 
without controul, but no man exacted lefs 
tribute of applaufein converfation. When 
the admirable traveftie of his poetic Ryle 
was publifhed in the Antijacobin New{- 
Pa papers 
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