106 Modem Languages. 



adequate guide. Bailey was succeeded by seve- 

 ral others of inferior note, who laboured as English 

 lexicographers, but they did little worthy of being 

 recorded. In this state of things, Dr. Samuel 

 Johnson, a distinguished philologist of Great- 

 Britain, undertook to compile a grand national 

 dictionary, a task to which learned academies 

 had generally been considered alone equal. His 

 plan of the work was laid before the public in 

 1747, and in 1755 this wonderful production of 

 the labour of an individual issued from the press. 

 It must be acknowledged, that the Dictionary of 

 the English Language, notwithstanding ali its 

 splendid merits, is an imperfect work. Its illus- 

 trious compiler was, in a great measure, ignorant 

 of the philosophy of language, which at that period 

 was little understood by the most profound gram- 

 marians. His etymological investigations are too 

 often superficial and unsatisfactory; and his nume- 

 rous omissions of words unquestionably belonging 

 to the language," indicate either carelessness or 

 haste in the execution of his task. Added to these 

 faults, his style of definition has been criticised as 

 " loose and pedantic;'* he has been accused of a 

 needless and improper subdivision of meanings; 

 and his frequent indulgence of a taste for " neo- 

 teric importation from the Latin," is considered, 

 by many, as a departure from his own principles, 

 by means of which the purity of our tongue has 

 suffered injurious mixtures and adulterations. Still, 

 however, viewing the work of Johnson as the 

 production of one man; recollecting how small a 

 portion of his life it employed; considering its im- 

 mense superiority to every thing of a similar kind 



n Dr. Johnson, in his Dictionary , has collected about 48,000 words. The 

 Reverend H. Croft asserts that he has made a list of 11,000 more, which 

 he proposes to introduce into a new work. Scs Wendssorn'-s ' View of 

 Mngland) &c. 



