xlvii 



specimen, not only of his extraordinary learning, but of his judg- 

 ment, taste, ingenuity, and acuteness.* 



But Mr. Pickering's great work, his Herculean labor in the 

 cause of classical learning, was his Greek and English Lexicon. 

 How he could have had the courage and resolution to undertake 

 such a work, in the midst of professional toils, is inconceivable 

 without a knowledge of the man. In truth, he thought infinitely 

 less of his own ease than of good to his fellow-men. " A strong 

 conviction," as expressed by himself, " that it would be rendering 

 an essential service to the interests of sound literature in our coun- 

 try, to promote the study of the language of Greece, whose authors 

 will be models in writing as long as her sculptors and architects 

 shall be models in the fine arts," sustained him through all the 

 difficulties of this bold undertaking. He was early convinced of 

 the importance of a Greek lexicon with an English instead of a 

 Latin interpretation, and seeing no prospect of such a work in 

 England, he entered upon the execution of his contemplated plan 

 in 1814. After proceeding alone through about one sixth part of 

 the whole work, he associated with himself the late Dr. Daniel 

 Oliver, whose character both as a scholar and a man rendered 

 him worthy of such a connection. The prospectus was issued in 

 1820, and the first edition appeared in 1826; the rapid sale of 

 which made it necessary to prepare a second edition much sooner 

 than had been expected. Mr. Pickering, having become sole 

 proprietor of the work, was alone responsible for the second edi- 

 tion, published in 1829, enlarged by the addition of "more than 

 ten thousand entire articles and very numerous parts of articles," 

 and greatly improved throughout. The next year it was reprinted, 



* Note F. 



