The third definition is superfluous, and the fourth is very clumsy. The fifth and sixth are still worse, for comedy[124] is frequently very _serious_ and tender, as well as tragedy; and that again represents the _lighter_ faults of mankind, as well as comedy. By the way, what are these _lighter_ faults, which our comedy is said to represent. In our comic scenes, adultery, and profaneness, appear to be the chief pulse of merriment. What the Doctor says of a farce is not true, nor is elegy _always_ mournful[125]. What can he mean by a poem without points or turns? An Idyll is a small short poem. An Epigram is a _short_ poem; but so is an Epitaph, or a Sonnet, and often an Ode, a Fable, &c. An Epigram terminates in a _point_. Wonderful! Of the rest of these definitions, the reader will determine whether they be not every one of them pitiful; and if it was possible for the Doctor, or any other man, to convey _less_ information, on so plain a subject. 'In comparing this with other dictionaries of the same kind, it will be found that the senses of each word are more _copiously_ enumerated, and more _clearly_ explained[126].' Of his _clear_ and _copious_ explanations, here is an additional specimen. Beast. 'An animal distinguished from birds, insects, fishes, and man.' It is also distinguished from _reptiles_, though the Doctor cannot tell us _how_. A Reptile is (but sometimes only) '_An animal that creeps upon many feet_.' A Snail is 'A slimy animal that creeps upon plants.' Many animals creep on plants besides a Snail. He dare not venture to say that a Snail is _a Reptile_, for he had said that a Reptile creeps upon many feet, and a Snail has none. Locke is quoted to prove that a _Bird_ is a _fowl_, and we are edified by hearing that a _fowl_ is a '_bird_, or a _winged_ animal.' But this may be the butterfly, the bat, or the flying fish. He should have said a _feathered_ animal. We are informed from Creech and Shakespeare, that a fish is _an animal that inhabits the water_. But besides amphibious animals, from the crocodile down to the water-mouse, we have seen _Erucae Aquaticae_, or Water Caterpillars, which are truly aquatic animals, yet are perfectly different from all fish. Insects are 'so called from a separation in the middle of their bodies, whereby they they are cut into two parts, which are joined together by a small ligature, as we see in common flies.' _Quere._ How many insects answer this description? Dr. Johnson had certainly no great occasion to quote Peacham and Swift before he durst tell us, (as he does) that a _Lily_ is a _flower_, and _Posteriors_ the _hinder_ parts. He forgot to introduce the Dean when affirming, that a T----d is _excrement_; but both Pope and Swift (among others) are cited for P--ss and F--t.