Phenix gazette. [volume] (Alexandria [D.C.]) 1825-1833, 1827-06-28

lection Of WEIGH proverbs. who wiz heip me
The Welkh. Adnms But, SIT, how can
Won do this IN three years! Johnso7'-Sr l
have no doubt that Iean dot in three years.
1dnms But thrSFrench Academy, which con-
lists Of forty members, took forty years to COM
n1e,e heir Dictionary. Lanson.-Sir, thus II
IS. This is the proportion. Let me see; forty
times fo-ty isssixteen hundred. AS three 10
s;x,een hundred, SO is the proportion OF an Eng
Iishman 10 a Frenchman' With so much ease
and ple asan,rycouii he talk Of that prodigious
labour which he had undertaken TO execute.
The Dictionary was completed IN July, 1922
the author having been sedulous'y engaged up,
ON il seven years. "The world mplated
with wonder SO siupencousa a work a'ehieVea oy
one man, while other countries had thought
such undertakings fit only for whole acade-
mics" As the patience o fthe proprietors was
repeatedly tried, and almost exhausted. oy ex,
Meeting that the work would be completed
within The time which Johnson had sanguinely
supposed three years), the learned author was
often coaded to despatch, more especially as
he had received all the copy money, by different
drafts. a considerable time before he had hn-
,shed his task. When the messenger who car
ried the last sheet to Miller returned, Johnson
asked him,"Well, what did he say?" "Hir, Tan.
swered the nessenger) he said, thank Ciod l
have done with him "'sI am glad (repiied John
son with a smile thai he thanks God tor any
thing" Miller and his associates, howeVer,en-
,er,ained the highest respect for Johnson, ana
were greatly his debtors in literary la6our; ana
he ever spoke of them with kindness and re-
gard, as having, by their Gberal undert akingS
raised the price and value Of Literature.
The magnitude of this work is at this day un-
derstood by most persons who reflect upon the
| subject, though il cannot be as obvious to per-
sons of this age as it must have been to those
of that IN which the absence of such a classifi-
cation of our language was felt. "When | took
the frst survey Of my undertaking (says John
son in his incompatible Preface,) l found our
| speech copious without order, and energetic
without rules; wherever turned my view, there
was perplexity TO be disentangled, and confu-
sion 10 be regulated; choice was TO be made GU:
Of boundless variety. without any established
principle Of selection; authorizations were to be
detected, without a settled test oil purity; ana
modes o frxpression to be rejected or received,
without the SURFACES of any writer's OF classical
reputation or acknowledged authority" Not
withdrawing MIR. Webster may avail himself
Of the learned labours Of Johnson and Walker,
our speech has been
yet with his twenty thousand ddTtTJhhsarleGt!o
and hisproposed additional definitions, and i'm
provemcnts relative TO aDamolous and unset
tied words, his labour will be arduous, and his
work when finished, a desidcratum. Dear
Swift allows that new words must sometimes
be introduced into a language, but proposes thai
none should be suffered TO besomc obsolete
This latter idea Johnson corpbats, as ~inconsis-
tent with a Sort Ct general agreement to forbear
a word, or with the propriety of reviving it,
when it conveys an offensive idea, and has be-
come unfamiliar and unplrasing. 1t is a singu-
lar fact, tina, the only aid which Johnson is said
to- have received, was a paper containing twen-
ty- etymologies, sent to him by a person then
unknown, but who afterwards proved 10 be DR..
Pearce. bishop of Rochester.
When DR.. Johnson commenced his Diction-
airy, although he had written much that had
procured distinction for him among the friends
aud patrons of literature, particularly his "Lon-
don," and his contributions 10 the Gentleman's
Magazine, he was nevertheless comparatively
unknown. He had The friendship and ~associa-
ton Of Pope, Garick, Mr.. afterwards Sir Jo-
shua) Reynolds, DR. Hawkesworth, the Earl Of
Orrery, Lord Sou,hwell, &c. but he had scarce
tiy begun that career of renown, which was af-
terw ards opened 10 him. His Rambler, Die
~tionary, Rasselas, Idler, Lives Of the Poets, and
a brilliant succession Of works, had not :hen as
i ooS1otSo W. uaHtC WituS " piaSSa ~ WSt, a.
mohgsl the great and learned of the world
He was poor, and frequently more than embar-
trassed in his pecuDiary affairs. He had dis
dained to court, and had not then received, the
patronage of The nobility. When the "Plan"
of the Dictionary was about 10 be published,
Dodsley suggested a desire to have it address
ed to Lord Chesterfield, who was then one
Of the principal secretaries of state, and
ambitious Of literary distinction, and who, hav-
ing accidentally met with the MS. had express.
ed himself in terms very favourable to the sue
cess OF the design. Johnson adopted the sug-
gestion, and the Plan was addressed to his lord
ship, as Boswell observes in a strain of COM
[piiment never more digni6ed. But for several
years Lord Chesterfield treated Johnson with
the coolest neglect; so much so, that it raised
in the latter the greatest contempt and indigna-
Ftion. Seven years afterwards however, when
the Dictionary was on the eve of completion,
his lordship, who had shattered himself with
expectations that Johnson would dedicate the
work to him, attempted, in a courtly manner,
to soolhe and insinuate himself with the Sage,
conscious, as it should seem, of the indifference
--<sl xiii u IL 5000 T. ----l 1T