Evening star., 1928-05-12
THE LIBRARY TABLE
BY the Bookiorcr

The recent presentation OF set OF
the oxford English Dictionary" to
President Coolidge made the matter one
of international importance and brought
this great work, momentarily at least,
| to the attention of the world. And 1t
does deserve attention because OF Its
extent, Its intrinsic value and Its inter-
! esting history. Once called by Arnold
Bennett "the longest sensational serial
ever written" 1t justifles that descrip-
| ton. as a. years have elapsed since the
publication I the first part. Although
| the final part. completing IL large vol
umes. has now been published. a sequel
| Is promised in the form OF supple
! mentary volume to cover words that
| have come into use since those parts OF
| the alphabet to which they belong were
| originally published. But the real his
| tory OF "A New English Dictionary on
| Historical Principles"--to give 1t the
| name appearing on its title pagcs--gOeG
back for 70 years, for 1t was late in 1857
that Dean Richard C. Trench laid the
| foundation Of this dictionary by calling
the attention of the Pathological Society
| to the inadequacieS OF all existing die
| tionaries, especially that they did not
| give the histories of words and their
meanings when they were first used,
when last used if obsolete) and how
the meanings of words developed. From
| first to last the dictionary has had SIX
editors in chief, the most noted Of whom
| have been Frederick j. Furnivall, Sir
| James Murray, Henry Bradley and VIII
| liam A. Cragic. Besides the paid editors,
, there have always been host of yolun-
teer workers. scholars who have collec-
| lively read multitude of books, old and
new, not omitting magazines and news
papers, and made notes for the editors.
| Thus a reader from a single work ex-
| tracted thousands Of quotations, copying
| them on slips for use as examples under
| the various definitions of given word.
| The quotations so collected ran into the
millions. The dictionary Is therefore
| record. rich storehouSe OF the English
language from the eighth century to the
| present.
! The statistics of the oxford Diction-
airy" show it's extent and variety. 1t is
said to contain l5.488 pages, closely
| printed in triple columns; 178 miles OF
! type, $4,000 900 words, 100000 defini-
| tions and nearly 100000 quotations.
Some of the simplest words in the Eng
lish language, the commonest nouns.
adjectjves and verbs, required the most
| exacting labor, the closest discrimlrla-
| tion in the preparation of definitions
| and In the selection OF appropriate
| illustrative quotations. For example.
! DR.. William A. Cragie, latest editor in
an article in a recent number OF the
| Saturday Review Of Literature, states
| that the verb get" occupies % columns
In the dictionary and Is divided into 73
senses. many of which have numerous
subdivisions: that give" covers 25 COL
| umns. go" 35 columns: but that these
rtsnr fnE hty "a which
| extends to IS columns, with 154 num-
bered and a much larger number OF sub
divided sections. In the preparation OF
| these numerous columns of close print
often twice as much material had to be
worked through before the articles could
be prepared. DR.. George Philip Knapp,
| professor of English at Columbia UNI
| versity and a recognized authority on
| the history of the English language, in
reviewing the oxford Dictionary In
| the Saturday Review of Literature. pro-
| nounces 1t "as the most satisfying mon
ument of scholarship ever reared in the
English language" He points out that
! one constantly finds words In common
use not recorded In the dictionary: this
not through oversight but because they
we're not in existence in the language
| when their appropriate places in the
dictionary were made up. Thus auto
mobile" is missing, as is aerial" as
noun, and ace" person who has
| brought down a certain number OF air.
planes likewise 'jazz" and "fox-trot,
at least to describe a dance. Such ex-
amples but show that English tinclud-
ing Americanl is living language.
The promised supplementary volume OF
the oxford Dictionary" will bring IT up
to date, but the language will not stay
fm
to publish an entirely new edition OF
the oxford Dictionary" there Is and
long will be place-and big place
| for such q historical dictionary. 1t
does not, however, take the place of the
up TO date ordinary dictionaries that
most OF us habitually use.
II
Several English books published In
| the 3Os. 40s and Sos were almost
handbooks of morals and etiquette for
Victorian women. Extracts from them
| when read today might be mistaken for
humor. Mrs. Ellis wrote In THE Daugh-
ters of England" Cl842): "As women,
the first thing OF Importance is TO be
content TO be inferior to men--inferior
In mental power. In the same proportion
that you are inferior In bodily strength
In Woman tl839) Mrs. Sanford
wrote: "A really sensible woman feels
her dependence. She Is conscious OF In
feriority. and therefore grateful for sup
port" Mrs. A. q. Penny wrote In The
Afternoon of Unmarried Life" uS5S)
ION the ground of preservation. II
behooves every unmarried woman to
find some harmless mode OF doing active
service. There Is always some
unrelished occupation that may devolve
upon q willing coadjutor: In default OF
a l..fl lssA nf
lily correspondence will often be gladly
conceded" Mrs. Ellis. in The Wives
of England" (tS43l. thus warns married
women that "a mans man for a
that: 1T Is unquestionably the In
alienable right of all men. whether III
or we'll rich or poor wise or foolish, 10
be treated with Difference and made
much of In their own houses, the Saf-
casm Is certainly unconscious In THE
Women OF England" by Mrs. Ellis, when
she says: Most kindly has II been
accorded by man 10 his feeble sister
that 1t should not be necessary for her
to talk much. even on his favourlte
topics. In order to obtain his favour. An
attentive listener is generally all that
he requires" Charlotte Yonge saw
dangers In the most sedate amusementS
when. In "Womankind," she cautioned
| that even choir practice and singing ot
hymns Is often snare both In irrever-
ence. conceit and levity Of demeanor.
Ams,trur and village concerts are In like
marUer often innocent delights, but
needing great eircumspection and IN
stinctive modesty on the lady perform
ers' part 10 keep all as II should be,
These four woman writer's would be
bewildered ghosts II they could look IN
upon an England which is about 10
admit fiappers 10 the vote,
u y
Archaeology. anthropology medicine
and love are mingled In carefully de-
cided proportions in the latest novel OF
Francis Brett Young. THE Key of
Life" Beginning In DIR. Brett Young's
favorite Shropshire. the story moves to
Egypt, where one Of the chief charac-