336 Letters to Mr. Warton. [A.D. 1755. was solicited to suspend my excursion till we could recover from our confusion. 'I have not laid aside my purpose; for every day makes me more impatient of staying from you. But death, you know, hears not supplications, nor pays any regard to the convenience of mortals. I hope now to see you next week; but next week is but another name for to-morrow, which has been noted for promising and deceiving. 'I am, &c. 'SAM. JOHNSON.' 'I told you, that among the manuscripts are some things of Sir Thomas More. I beg you to pass an hour in looking on them, and procure a transcript of the ten or twenty first lines of each, to be compared with what I have; that I may know whether they are yet published. The manuscripts are these: 'Catalogue of Bodl. MS. pag. 122. F. 3. Sir Thomas More. '1. Fall of angels. 2. Creation and fall of mankind. 3. Determination of the Trinity for the rescue of mankind. 4. Five lectures of our Saviour's passion. 5. Of the institution of the sacrament, three lectures. 6. How to receive the blessed body of our Lord sacramentally. 7. Neomenia, the new moon. 8. De tristitia, tædio, pavore, et oratione Christi, ante captionem ejus. 'Catalogue, pag. 154. Life of Sir Thomas More. Qu. Whether Roper's? Pag. 363. De resignatione Magni Sigilli in manus Regis per D. Thomam Morum. Pag. 364. Mori Defensio Moria. 'If you procure the young gentleman in the library to write out what you think fit to be written, I will send to Mr. Prince the bookseller to pay him what you shall think proper. 'Be pleased to make my compliments to Mr. Wise, and all my friends. 'I am, Sir, 'Your affectionate, &c. [London] Aug. 7, 1755. 'June 12, Mr. Paul Knapton, bookseller. June 18, Thos. Longman, Esq., bookseller.' Gent. Mag. xxv. 284. The Esq.' perhaps is a sign that even so early as 1755 the Longmans ranked higher than most of their brethren. The Aetat. 46.] Publication of the DICTIONARY. 337 The Dictionary, with a Grammar and History of the English Language, being now at length published, in two volumes folio, the world contemplated with wonder so stupendous a work atchieved by one man, while other countries had thought such undertakings fit only for whole academies. Vast as his powers were, I cannot but think that his imagination deceived him, when he supposed that by constant application he might have performed the task in three years. Let the Preface be attentively perused, in which is given, in a clear, strong, and glowing style, a comprehensive, yet particular view of what he had done; and it will be evident, that the time he employed upon it was comparatively short. I am unwilling to swell my book with long quotations from what is in every body's hands, and I believe there are few prose compositions in the English language that are read with more delight, or are more impressed upon the memory, than that preliminary discourse. One of its excellencies has always struck me with peculiar admiration: I mean the perspicuity with which he has expressed abstract scientifick notions. As an instance of this, I shall quote the following sentence: When the radical idea branches out into parallel ramifications, how can a consecutive series be formed of senses in their own' nature collateral?' We have here an example of what has been often said, and I believe with justice, that there is for every thought a certain nice adaptation of words which none other could equal, and which, when a man has been so fortunate as to hit, he has attained, in that particular case, the perfection of language. The extensive reading which was absolutely necessary for the accumulation of authorities, and which alone may ac count for Johnson's retentive mind being enriched with a very large and various store of knowledge and imagery, must have occupied several years. The Preface furnishes an eminent instance of a double talent, of which Johnson was fully conscious. Sir Joshua Reynolds heard him say, 1 Own not in the original. Johnson's Works, v. 36. I.-22 'There 338 The Preface to the DICTIONARY. [A.D. 1755. 'There are two things which I am confident I can do very well: one is an introduction to any literary work, stating what it is to contain, and how it should be executed in the most perfect manner; the other is a conclusion, shewing from various causes why the execution has not been equal to what the authour promised to himself and to the publick.' How should puny scribblers be abashed and disappointed, when they find him displaying a perfect theory of lexicographical excellence, yet at the same time candidly and modestly allowing that he had not satisfied his own expectations'.' Here was a fair occasion for the exercise of Johnson's modesty, when he was called upon to compare his own arduous performance, not with those of other individuals, (in which case his inflexible regard to truth would have been violated, had he affected diffidence,) but with speculative perfection'; as he, who can outstrip all his competitors in the race, may yet be sensible of his deficiency when he runs against time. Well might he say, that 'the English Dictionary was written with little assistance of the learned',' for he told me, that the only aid which he received was a paper containing twenty etymologies, sent to him by a person then unknown, who he was afterwards informed was Dr. Pearce, Bishop of Rochester. The etymologies, 1 'I have not always executed my own scheme, or satisfied my own expectations.' Johnson's Works, p. 41. * In the Plan of an English Dictionary (ib. p. 16) Johnson, writing of 'the word perfection,' says:-Though in its philosophical and exact sense it can be of little use among human beings, it is often so much degraded from its original signification, that the academicians have inserted in their work, the perfection of a language, and, with a little more licentiousness, might have prevailed on themselves to have added the perfection of a Dictionary.' In the Preface to the fourth edition he writes:-'He that undertakes to compile a Dictionary undertakes that, which if it comprehends the full extent of his design, he knows himself unable to perform.' Ib. p. 52. • Ib. p. 51. • See post, under May 19, 1777. though Aetat. 46.] Erroneous definitions. 339 though they exhibit learning and judgement, are not, I think, entitled to the first praise amongst the various parts of this immense work. The definitions have always appeared to me such astonishing proofs of acuteness of intellect and precision of language, as indicate a genius of the highest rank'. This it is which marks the superiour excellence of Johnson's Dictionary over others equally or even more voluminous, and must have made it a work of much greater mental labour than mere Lexicons, or Word-books, as the Dutch call them. They, who will make the experiment of trying how they can define a few words of whatever nature, will soon be satisfied of the unquestionable justice of this observation, which I can assure my readers is founded upon much study, and upon communication with more minds than my own. A few of his definitions must be admitted to be erroneous. Thus, Windward and Leeward', though directly of opposite meaning, are defined identically the same way; as to which inconsiderable specks it is enough to observe, that his Preface announces that he was aware there might be many such in so immense a work; nor was he at all disconcerted 'See ante, p. 216, note 1. He defines both towards the wind. The definitions remain unchanged in the fourth edition, the last corrected by Johnson, and also in the third edition of the abridgment, though this abridgment was made by him. Pastern also remains unaltered in this latter edition. In the fourth edition he corrected it. The drawback of his character,' wrote Sir Joshua Reynolds, 'is entertaining prejudices on very slight foundations; giving an opinion, perhaps, first at random, but from its being contradicted he thinks himself obliged always to support it, or, if he cannot support, still not to acquiesce. Of this I remember an instance of a defect or forgetfulness in his Dictionary. I asked him how he came not to correct it in the second edition. "No," says he, "they made so much of it that I would not flatter them by altering it." Taylor's Reynolds, ii. 461. 'In his Preface (Works, v. 50) he anticipated errors and laughter. 'A few wild blunders and risible absurdities, from which no work of such multiplicity was ever free, may for a time furnish folly with iaughter, and harden ignorance into contempt.' In a letter written when 340 Humorous definitions. [A.D. 1755. when an instance was pointed out to him. A lady once asked him how he came to define Pastern the knee of a horse instead of making an elaborate defence, as she expected, he at once answered, ' Ignorance, Madam, pure ignorance'.' His definition of Network' has been often quoted with sportive malignity', as obscuring a thing in itself very plain. But to these frivolous censures no other answer is necessary than that with which we are furnished by his own Preface. 'To explain, requires the use of terms less abstruse than that which is to be explained, and such terms cannot always be found. For as nothing can be proved but by supposing something intuitively known, and evident without proof, so nothing can be defined but by the use of words too plain to admit of definition'. Sometimes easier words are changed into harder; as, burial, into sepulture or interment; dry3, into desiccative; dryness, into siccity or aridity; fit, into paroxism; for the easiest word, whatever it be, can never be translated into one more easy.' His introducing his own opinions, and even prejudices, under general definitions of words, while at the same time the original meaning of the words is not explained, as his Tory', nearly thirty years later he said :-' Dictionaries are like watches, the worst is better than none, and the best cannot be expected to go quite true.' Piozzi Letters, ii. 406. 1 See post, under July 20, 1762. ''Network. Anything reticulated or decussated, at equal distances, with interstices between the intersections.' Reticulated is defined 'Made of network; formed with interstitial vacuities.' 3.That part of my work on which I expect malignity most frequently to fasten is the Explanation.... Such is the fate of hapless lexicography, that not only darkness, but light, impedes and distresses it; things may be not only too little, but too much known, to be happily illustrated.' Johnson's Works, v. 34. * In the original 'to admit a definition.' Ib. • In the original, ‘drier.' Ib. 38. 6 'Tory. (A cant term derived, I suppose, from an Irish word signifying a savage.) One who adheres to the ancient constitution of the state, and the apostolical hierarchy of the Church of England: opposed to a whig.' |