SOS Modem Languages. [Chap. XV. 



the langusLge * 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 *' neoteric im- 

 portation from the Latin/* is considered by many 

 as a departure from his o>\ n principles, by means 

 of which the purity of our tongue has suffered in- 

 jurious mixtures and adulterations. Still, how- 

 eveo viewing the work of Johnson a. the produc- 

 tion of one man ; recollecting how small a portion 

 of his life it employed; considering its immense 

 superiority to every thing of a similar kind which 

 had gone before it ; and taking into the account 

 also, that it was written *' with little assistance of 

 the learned, and without any patronage of the 

 great ; not in the soft obscurities of retirement, or 

 under the shelter of academic bowers, but amidst 

 inconvenience and distraction^ in sickness and in 

 sorrow," it must be regarded as a wonderful 

 monument of philological taste, erudition, and 

 labour. 



The English dictionaries which have been given 

 to the public since that of Dr. Johnson are nu- 

 merous. They have in general, however, content- 

 ed themselves with sCi'vilely copying that great 

 lexicographer, and have made iQ\w important ad- 

 ditions to his labours. To this general character 



* Dr. Johnson, In his Dicflonary, has collected about 48000 

 words. The reverend H. Croft asserted that he had made a list of 

 11000 more, which he projx)sed to introduce into a new work. 

 See Wendeboni'fi P'ird- of England ^ &:c. 



