1903.] on Dictionaries. 353 



The same notion had led to the formation of the French Academy, 

 and of the Aecademia della Crusca at Florence, both of which bodies 

 had as a main object the formation of a standard dictionary to " fix the 

 language " and prevent its deterioration or change — a fond idea 

 borrowed from the artificial preservation of an unchanged Ciceronian 

 Latin in the schools. As England had no Academy, it was thought 

 that the work must be done here by some eminent man of letters, 

 and it was hoped that it might be done by Pope, who is said to have 

 entertained the idea, and even to have drawn up a list of the authors 

 who were to be accepted as standards. But he died in 1744, without 

 anything further being done. The matter was then pressed upon 

 the attention of Samuel Johnson, and in 1747 a syndicate of London 

 publishers contracted with him to produce the desired Standard 

 Dictionary. This was to be done in three years, but it occupied 

 nearly nine ; the work appeared at last in 1755. There is no time 

 within the limits of this lecture to describe the varied interest of 

 Johnson's great work, and it is only necessary to point out that its 

 characteristic feature was the support and illustration of every word and 

 sense, as far as possible, by quotations drawn from accredited writers. 

 These were all selected by the lexicographer himself from books read 

 and marked by him, whence they were copied out by his clerkly 

 assistants, or, in many cases, from the stores of his own memory — 

 the latter plan being facilitated by the fact that he gave no reference 

 beyond the author's name, which in its turn left a considerable room 

 for inaccurate quotation. Books belonging to Johnson's library are 

 in existence which show his method of reading and marking books ; 

 one of these is among the treasures of my scriptorium. 



Johnson's work raised English lexicography to altogether a higher 

 level. In his hands it became a department of literature. The 

 value of his Dictionary was recognised from the first by men of 

 letters; a secotid edition was called for the same year. But it 

 hardly became a popular work, or even a work of popular fame, before 

 the beginning of the nineteenth century. For forty years after its 

 appearance, new editions of Bailey continued to be issued in rapid 

 succession ; and new dictionaries of the size of Bailey, often largely 

 indebted to Johnson's definitions, appeared. An important new 

 feature was moreover added in 1778, when Dr. William Kenrick 

 gave in his New Dictionary the Orthoepy or Pronunciation. But of 

 these and many other dictionaries I can say little to-night, 

 except to mention the names of Noah Webster and Charles Eichard- 

 son. Webster was a great original genius and an independent 

 worker, great as a definer, but weak and often puerile in his 

 derivations, while Richardson's splendid work exalted the function 

 and use of literary quotations far beyond the notion of Dr. Johnson. 

 And I cannot dwell upon the Neio English Dictionary on historical 

 jprinciples, founded upon materials collected by the Philological 

 Society, and prepared at the expense and under the fostering care of 

 the University of Oxford, except to say that it marks another great 



