New Publications. 397 



Dictionary. In this respect, the improvements appear to me to 

 be numerous, and highly important. Many thousands of the 

 most common senses of terms were either overlooked by Dr 

 Johnson, or have found their way into the language since his 

 time. In scarcely a single instance have these deficiencies been 

 supplied by the English editors, or even the most glaring errors 

 corrected. That the dictionaries of our language are fifty years 

 behind the progress of knowledge among the English nation, as 

 recorded in our books, is a fact conceded by every one who has 

 taken the pains to examine the subject. Dr Webster, besides 

 adding very largely to the number of definitions, has given to 

 them, in a great degree, the precision of modern science ; and 

 although every attempt of this kind must, from the nature of the 

 case, be liable to many imperfections, we cannot but think that 

 he will be ultimately regarded as having carried forward Eng- 

 lish lexicography as much beyond the point where it was left 

 by Johnson, as Johnson himself advanced it beyond the pro- 

 gress of his predecessors. Like most men who have long con- 

 templated the irregularities of English orthography, Dr Web- 

 ster has been too anxious, probably, to accelerate its slow pro- 

 gress towards stricter analogies. His alterations are not indeed 

 very numerous ; but supported as they are by general prin- 

 ciples, and harmless as they are at all events, he will still un- 

 doubtedly be liable to the charge of " the affectation of spelling 

 better than his neighbours." We were afraid that the real me- 

 rits of this excellent work would be overlooked for a time. In 

 this, however, we have been deceived, for a British edition of 

 this American Dictionary is in the course of publication, which, 

 we understand, will rival the splendid American edition. 



SJ2. French edition of Berzelius's Chemistry condemned. — Di- 

 dot in Paris, says Berzelius, in a letter to Kastner, commenced 

 a French translation of my book on Chemistry, which is an- 

 nounced as an entirely new edition. Unfortunately, however, 

 the undertaking has misgiven. Jordan, the translator, a person 

 unknown to me, is no chemist; hence the first volume, which has 

 already appeared, teems with the grossest errors. At my re- 

 quest the second volume, which is even more wretchedly exe- 

 cuted than the first, has not been published. What Didot will 

 do in these circumstances I know not ; but the translation of 

 Jordan I shall jiever sanction. 



