they go rather to adjust the various readings, and fettle the text by conjectural notes, than explain allufions, did not enough attract the notice of the public to induce him actually to engage in the work; they were however evidences of great fagacity, and drew from Dr. Warburton a teftimony that fet him above all other competitors; for thus does he speak of Johnfon: As to all thofe things which have been published under the titles of Effays, Remarks, Observations, &c. on Shakespeare, (if you except fome critical < notes on Macbeth, given as a fpecimen of a projected edition, and written as appears by a man of parts and genius) the reft are abfolutely below a ferious notice;' and Johnson, who never forgot a kindnefs, remembered it by mentioning Warburton in terms of great refpect, as occafion offered, in his edition of Shakespeare, which he published many years after. By this and other of Johnson's writings, his reputation as a scholar and a philologift was fo well established, that the bookfellers of greatest opulence in the city, who had long meditated the publication of a dictionary, after the model of thofe of France and the Academia della Crufca, looked upon him as a fit perfon to be employed in fuch an undertaking. He was at that time in the vigour of his life, and by the offer of a liberal reward from men of fuch known worth as those were who made it, was tempted to engage with them, and accordingly fet himself to compile that work, which, he living to complete it, does him and all concerned in it great honour.

Nor can we fuppofe but that he was in a great meafure incited to the profecution of this laborious work

by

by a reflection on the state of our language at this time, from the imperfection of all English dictionaries then extant, and the great diftance in point of improvement in this kind of literature between us and fome of our neighbours. And here let me take occafion, by an enumeration of the feveral authors that had gone before him, to point out the fources of that intelligence which Johnson's voluminous work

contains.

Of Latin dictionaries and fuch as give the fignifications of English appellatives with a view only to illuftrate the Latin, he must be supposed to have made fome ufe, and of these the earlieft is Sir Thomas Elyot's Bibliotheca Eliotæ, published in 1541. This was improved by Cooper after many years' labor, by the addition of 33000 words, and published in 1565 in a large folio, and was a reason with Queen Elizabeth for promoting him to the bishopric of Lincoln †.

In 1572 was published an Alvearie or quadruple dictionary of four fundry tongues, namely, English, Latin, Greek and French, by John Baret of Cambridge, compiled with the affiftance of his pupils, but arranged and methodized by himfelf. This fact he ingenuously

The following fact refpecting this work remains upon record, viz. that his wife burnt the notes that he had been eight years gathering, and that he was other eight years in gathering the fame notes wherewith he compofed his dictionary. Her pretence was fear that he should kill himself with ftudy; but fhe was a fhrew and infamous for lewdness.

confeffed

confeffed in his preface, which, as a literary curio. fity, is inferted below †.

To Baret's fucceeding John Minfheu's Guide into the tongues, first published in 1617 in eleven, and in 1627 in nine languages, but with a confiderable increase in the number of radical words. In this the author undertakes to give the etymologies or derivations of the greater part of the words therein contained, but as they amount at the moft to no more than 14713. the work must be deemed not fufficiently copious.

In 1656, Thomas Blount a lawyer of the Inner Temple, published a small volume, intitled 'Gloffo

graphia,

+ About eighteene yeeres agone, hauing pupils at Cambridge ⚫ ftudious of the Latine tongue, Ivfed them often to write epiftles and theames together, and dailie to tranflate fome peece of Eng'lish into Latine, for the more fpeedie and eafie attaining of the fame. And after we had a little begun, perceiuing what great ⚫ trouble it was to come running to me for euerie worde they • miffed, (knowing then of no other dictionarie to help vs, but Sir Thomas Eliot's librarie, which was come out a little before:) I appointed them certaine leaues of the fame booke 'euerie daie to write the English before the Latin, and like* wife to gather a number of fine phrases out of Cicero, Terence, • Cæfar, Liuie, &c. & to fet them vnder severall titles, for the more readie finding them againe at their neede. Thus within a yeere or two, they had gathered together a great volume, which (for the apt fimilitude betweene the good fcholers and diligent bees in gathering their waxe and honie into their hive) I called then their Aluearie, both for a memoriall, by whom it was made, and also by this name to incourage other to the like diligence, for that they fhould not see their worthie praise for the fame, vnworthilie drowned in obliuion, Not long after, diuers of our friends borrowing this our worke ' which we had thus contriped and wrought only for our owne priuate vie, often and many waies moued me to put it in print

<for

graphia, or a dictionary interpreting fuch hard ' words, whether Hebrew, Greek, Latin, Italian, &c. 'that are now used in our refined English tongue, &c.' in which the articles though few are well explained. This book, as far as it went, was of fingular use to Edward Philips, a nephew and pupil of Milton, in the compilation of a dictionary by him published in folio, 1657, intitled The New World of Words,' which, as it is much more copious than that of Blount, and comprehends a great quantity of matter, must be looked on as the bafis of English lexicography.

Of technical as alfo of etymological dictionaries, many have long been extant, namely, The Inter

preter

⚫ for the common profit of others, and the publike propagation of 'the Latine tongue, or els to fuffer them to get it printed at their proper coftes and charges. But I both vnwilling, and halfe afham'ed to haue our rude notes come abroad vnder the view of so manie * learned eies, & efpeciallie finding no leafure from my prefixed ftudies for the polishing of the fame, vtterlie denied their request, ⚫ vntil at length comming to London, the right worshipfull maister Powle, & maifter Garth, with other, fingular fauourers of all good learning, and my verie efpeciall friends, with their importunate ' and earnest exhortations had cleane ouercome my contrarie mind. • Then immediatelie laieing afide all other studies, I was faine to 'feeke for writers and workemen about the fame, to make it readie for the preffe. Therefore I went to diuers of mine old pupils then "being at the Innes of Court, delivering ech of them fome part of ⚫ their old discontinued worke to fee it written faire againe, and ⚫ for other peeces which I thought vnperfect, I gat certaine of the ⚫ best scholers of two or three scholes in London, to write after my prefcription: but in the French tables, although I had before • trauelled in diuers countries beyond the feas, both for language ⚫ and learning: yet not trafting to mine owne skill, I used the helpe of M. Chaloner, and M. Claudius. Upon this occafion I being

• much conuerfant about theInnes ofCourt, and alfofometimeoccu

preter or Law Dictionary of Dr. Cowell a civilian, a Common-Law Dictionary of the above Thomas Blount, the Etymologicum of Junius, and another of Skinner, both well known and frequently referred to, and of thefe did Johnfon avail himself.

The dictionary of Nathan Bailey a schoolmaster, was first published in a thick octavo volume, fo well difpofed with refpect to the character and method of printing, as to contain more matter than could otherwife have been comprized in a volume of that fize. After it had paffed many editions with improvements by the author himself, he meditated an enlargement of it, and being affifted in the

pied among scholers in the scholes, there came vnto me a printer hewing me Hulets dictionarie (which before I neuer fawe) and ⚫ told me he intended to print it out of hand, augmented with our ⚫ notes also if I would. But this bargaine went not forward with ⚫ him for diuers caufes which here it were to long to reherse. And furelie, had not the right honourable Sir Thomas Smith knight, principall fecretarie to the Queenes Majeftie, that noble Thefeus of learning, and comfortable patrone to all ftudents, and the right worshipfull M.Nowell deane of Pawles, manie waies encou ⚫raged me in this wearie worke(the charges were fo great, and the loffe of my time fo much grieued me) I had never bene able alone to haue wrestled against fo manie troubles, but long ere this had cleane broken off our worke begun, and caft it by for euer. Now therefore (gentle reader) looke not to finde in this booke euerie thing whatsoeuer thou wouldst feeke for, as though all things were here fo perfect that nothing lacked, or were poffible to be added hereunto. But if thou maieft onelie find here the most wordes that thou needeft, or at the leaft fo manie as no ' other dictionarie yet extant, or made hath the like: take then I faie in good part this our fimple Alucarie in the meane time, and geue God the praise that first moued me to fet my pupils on worke thereabout, and fo mercifullie alfo hath ftrengthened vs (thus as it is) at length to atchieue and finish the fame.'

mathematical