[ 3.8 ] 



it may not be ufelefs to enquire the reafons. To tlie firft and 

 principal of thefe, no man can be a iftrangcr vvho has fo read 

 the works of Johnibn as to have formed a juft notion of the 

 pecuhar genius of the author. PoiTefTed of the moft penetrating 

 acutenefs and refolute precifion of thought, he dehghts to em- 

 ploy himfelf in difcriminating what common inaccuracy had 

 confounded, and of feparating what the groflhefs of vulgar con- 

 ception had united. A judgment, thus employed (as he would 

 perhaps himfelf defcribe it) in fubtilizing diftindions, and dilfo- 

 ciating concrete qualities to the ftate of individual exiftence, 

 naturally called for language the moft determinate, for words of 

 the moft abftradl fignifications. Of thefe common fpeech could 

 furnifh him with but a Icanty fupply. Familiar words are 

 ufually either the names of things adually fublifting, or of qua- 

 lities denoted adjedively, by reference to thofe fubftantives to 

 which they belong : befides, common ufe gives to famihar words 

 fuch a latitude of meaning, that there are few which it does not 

 admit in a variety of acceptations. Johnfon, unwilling to fubmit 

 to this inconvenience, which, in every country, to avoid a mul- 

 tiplicity of terms, had been acquiefced in, fought out thofe 

 remote and abftrufe Latin derivatives, which as they had for 

 the moft part hitherto been ufed but once, were as yet appro- 

 priated to one fi2,nification exclufively. What the natural bent 

 of his genius thus gave birth to, his fucceiTive employments 

 ftrengthened to maturity. The fchoolmafter may plead prefcrip- 

 tion for pedantry ; the writer of a didlionary, if attached to 

 words of any defcription, has peculiar advantages towards 

 ftoring them in his memory ; and if they be terms which occur 

 but rarely, the difficulty of fearching out their authorities imprints 

 them more ftrongly. The writings of Sir Thomas Browne were 



to 



