1822; ]' 
[) 445°} 
NEW BOOKS PUBLISHED JN. MAY: 
WITH AN HISTORICAL AND CRITICAL, PROEMIUM. 
Authors or Publishers, desirous of 
——— 
seeing, an early notice, of their Works, are 
requested to transmit copies before the 18th of the Month. 
ia 5 
"TRE first part of an Analytical Dictionary 
of the English Language, by DAviD 
Boortu, has appeared within the month. It 
has often struck us as being singular, that, 
among the many competitors whoare con- 
stantly striving in the literary games, none 
sliould have thought of smoothing and ren- 
dering attractive the approach to that upon 
which they all depend—language. Every 
book, even the most trifling, has some sort 
of organization and connexion, something 
which gives it at least the charm of exist- 
ence; but the Dictionary, the Genctrix 
Libronum, has, as it were, since it was first 
heard of, been a dull, disjointed, and un- 
connected mass, of which the consulting af= 
forded little profit and no pleasure. True, 
amid the rubbish there were gems, but 
then there was no divining rod to guide one 
to where they lay ; and no association by 
which, after they had been found, they 
could be bound to the memory. This dul- 
néss, this dryness, and this want of real uti- 
lity, are natural, and perhaps necessary 
consequences of the alphabetical arrange- 
ment, in the adopting of which, the value 
of the® thing sought for has been wholly 
sacrificed to the ease of'seeking it. ‘Those 
nicer’shades of meaning, the knowledge 
of which at once constitutes the power 
and the philosophy of language, cannot be 
known from short insulated definitions of 
detached words; and heuce, even the best 
of our alphabetical dictionaries are merely 
heaps of loose synonymies, which, instead 
of telling you-the meaning of one word, 
merely furnish you with another of which 
you are as ignorant as of the first. We 
trankly confess, that, while we were often 
struck with the serious nature of this de- 
fect, we never once thought of any means 
by which it could be supplied; and, so 
habituated were we to consider an alpha- 
‘betical arrangement as a sine qua non in 
the forination of a dictionary, that, when 
we heard that Mr. Booth’s long and assi- 
duious lafours' were to come before the 
world withont that fundamental requisite, 
‘we could not help thinking that his book, 
However ‘acute ‘or profound, could not be 
used. A’ single" glance ‘at the’ work has, 
however, convinced us'that our fears were 
‘groundless; ‘and;\ at’ the same’ time shown 
us, that a dictionary may be made not only 
a connected aiid instructive, but'absolutely 
an’ entertaining book. His «dictionary 
commences with Man; the most interesting 
object of human enquiry, and it pro¢ceds 
by a very natural progress to other sub- 
jects. By this means, the book becomes a 
‘complete body of the philosophy of lan- 
1 
guage, which any one may read. with 
pleasure, and every one with advantage. 
The different words do not stand like so 
many insulated candles, each cut off from 
the others by the dark lanthorn of its own 
little paragraph, but in a clear and unin- 
terrupted space, where each borrows light 
from those around it. At the same time, 
the meaning of any single term may be 
found with little more labour than in a 
common dictionary. An alphabetical in- 
dex contains the words, with the pages in 
which they are explained ; so that all the 
additional labour is the consulting of this 
index. In the part now published, the 
index is placed at the end; but we would, 
when the work is completed, recommend 
the printing of the index in a separate 
volume, As the leading superiority of 
this work consists in the arrangement, it’ is 
not possible by an extract to convey any 
adequate idea of it; we shall, however, 
subjoin one, merely as a specimen of the 
style in which it is written; and, as our 
limits do not admit of an analysis, we can 
only recommend the work to the perusal of 
our readers, which we do with the utmost 
confidence: 
—‘The Roman senators, (from Senex, 
old) or elders of the people, chosen, by 
Romulus, at the institution of the Republic, 
on account of their age and wisdom, 
were called Putres, fathers. Their de- 
scendants were termed Patricii, patricians ; 
and, for some time, were exclusively in 
possession of all dignities—civil, military, 
and religious. They formed the nobility 
of the land; all others being plébes,, or 
common people. [tis hence that we have 
Patrician, siguifying noble, and Plebeian, 
common or vulgar. They are used both as 
substantives and adjectives. A.Patrician 
is a nobleman, adverting. to his right of 
sitting in the senate; and a Plebeian is one 
of the lower orders, ‘To prevent the ha- 
tred ‘and jealousy natural to such ine- 
quality of condition, Romulus ordained 
that every plebeidn should choose a pro- 
tector fromamong the Patrician families. 
This protector was called Patronus, the cri- 
gin of our patron. He was obliged to as- 
sist his protegees in all their undertakings, 
to defend them before'the tribunals; and, 
in short, to do every thing for them which 
a father should do for his children. In re- 
turn, they supplied his wants with their 
money, and supported his cause by their 
suffrages. “They were termed Clientes. 
Our word client retains very little of the 
signification. It is a person who hires an 
advocate to plead a cause ina Bes of 
aw, 
