Stone. 'Stones are bodies insipid, hard, not _ductile_ or _malleable_, nor _soluble_ in water.' This definition answers wood, or glass, or the bones of an animal. One. 'Less than two; single; denoted by an unit.' _Raleigh._ Without consulting Raleigh, we know that a man may have 'less than _two_' guineas in his pocket, and yet have more than _one_. But still we are not sure, that he has even a single farthing. One is _single_, but we are only where we started, for _single_ (_more Lexiphanico_) is '_one_, not double; not more than one.' The matter is little mended, when he subjoins that one is _that which is expressed by an unit_, for this may be the numerator of _any_ fraction. Take his book to pieces, put it into the scales of common sense, and see how it kicks the beam. A circle is, '1. A line continued till it ends where it began. 2. The space inclosed in a _circular_ line. 3. A round body, an orb.' The first of these definitions does not distinguish a circle from a triangle, or any other plain figure. He might have found a circle properly defined in Euclid, and a hundred other books. What are we to think of the rest of his mathematical definitions? Well, but he clears up this point, for a circle is 'the _space inclosed_ in a _circular_ line,' The third definition is no less erroneous than the second, for if a man were to mention the circle of the earth, we could not suspect that he meant the globe itself. Botany and the electrical fluid, are not inserted. Electricity he terms _a property_ in bodies. From this expression, and from all he says on the subject, we can ascertain his ignorance of that most curious and important branch of natural philosophy. _Electricity_ in general signifies 'the operations of a very subtile fluid, commonly invisible, but sometimes the object of our sight and other senses. It is one of the chief agents employed in producing the phaenomena of nature.' Its identity with lightning was discovered in 1752, three years before the publication of Dr. Johnson's folio dictionary. For the author then to talk of it as 'a _peculiar_ property, supposed once to belong chiefly to amber,' is shameful. It shews us the depth of his learning, and the degree of attention which he thought proper to bestow on his _great_ work. Elasticity. 'Force in bodies, by which they endeavour to _restore_ themselves.' To what? To their former figure, after some external pressure? And without adding some words like these the definition conveys no meaning.