SECTION III.

Mr next step is to the writers whose works have supplied the quotations, produced for the purpose of exemplifying, confirming, and illustrating the explanations which precede them. These, for the sake of preserving one uniform mode of illustration, have been divided into periods. The first commencing with the Rhyming Chronicles of Robert of Gloucester and Robert of Brunne,* and continuing through the reigns of Henry VIII. and his two immediate successors; the second extending from the accession of Elizabeth to the return of the second Charles, or from Hooker and Spenser to Milton and Bp. Taylor: the third, from the Restoration to the establishment of the House of Hanover upon the throne; or from Waller and Barrow to Pope and Samuel Clarke: the fourth from the reign of George II. to the beginning of the pre

sent century.

The quotations that have been selected from Gloucester, Brunne, and Peers' Plouhman, always take their place at the head of the array. Then follow, Wiclif, supported, whenever possible, by an early translator of the Bible; next, in rank and order, Chaucer and Gower, free, as the great patriarchs of our speech, from any intermixture with their successors. Chaucer, with whose “ditees and songes glade," his contemporary Gower declared, even then, "the londe to be fulfilled over all;" and Gower himself, so justly named "the Moral Gower," who, he tells us,

Undertoke

In Englysshe for to make a boke,

Which stant betwene ernest and game.

Conf. Am. b. 8.

After these will be found, in due arrangement, a host of writers, whose works have never been before ensearched, for the important service of lexicography: our matchless translator of the Bible, Tindale; Udal, and his associates, the translators of the Commentaries of Erasmus ; Berners, of Froissart; Sir Thomas More; the Chronicles of Fabyan, and the Voyages of Hackluyt; with many others, whose compositions, small in size, but of inestimable worth, have hitherto been merely placed upon the shelves of the collector, as rarities to gaze at. In this

The former died in the beginning of Edward the First's reign, about the close of the 13th century; the latter at the end of the same Edward's reign.

region of unexplored country, I have travelled with most gratifying success; and I may have been induced sometimes to expend the treasures, of which I have possessed myself, with a hand so lavish, as to risk the imputation of wasteful liberality.

In the second period, also, especially where a scantiness has appeared in the first, prodigality has been preferred to penuriousness, and sometimes perhaps even to an economy, too scrupulously sparing.

In this period, many names will occur that have not at all—or, if at all, very scantily-been produced as authorities; more especially, Daniel, Drayton, Holland, the translator of Pliny, Livy, Plutarch, &c.; North's Lives of Plutarch, Chapman, Beaumont and Fletcher, &c. &c. In the times subsequent, a more rigid parsimony has been exacted.

After the quotations from Chaucer and Gower and their few predecessors have been disposed of, the order of proceeding is this:-to produce the subsequent quotations according to the arranged series of the words; as many of those words from authors of the first period as my collected authorities would permit; these ended, then to commence the second period, and pursue the same order and so with the two remaining periods. It may be proper further to observe that when usages of the sub-derivatives had been furnished in the earliest periods, it was not deemed expedient to load the book with a succession of examples of all these, through all the modern periods of our literature, but rather to reserve this honour for the primary members of the family.

The uncouth aspect of the lines which are cited from Robert of Gloucester, Robert of Brunne and Peers' Plouhman, will not be suffered to repulse all literary readers entirely from a perusal of the quotations, of which writers more recent, but still comparatively antient, have supplied a valuable stock. If they have any curiosity to cultivate an acquaintance with "much phrase that now is dead," they will not neglect the name of Wiclif, and the more especially as they will derive assistance in the construction of his venerable English from the less antique interpreter, who usually attends him. Their curiosity will acquire strength from the gratifications of success; and Chaucer and Gower will stimulate their zeal to become masters of those older productions of their native tongue, which are collated in the pages of this Dictionary.

It is, most unquestionably, an unavoidable consequence of this mode of chronological arrangement, that a metaphorical application will not unfrequently take precedence of a literal, but the manner of explanation which I have already described, will render this a matter of but slender importance, when compared with the advantages that are secured by an adherence to the plan. By commencing with authorities in the earliest period of English composition, and

continuing them successively through the different stages by which the language has arrived at its present state of copiousness and (I would add) refinement, this Dictionary aspires to the pretension of presenting to the English reader an insight into some very interesting and instructive portions of a history of his native tongue.

The next peculiarity that I shall proceed to specify, consists in the classification of the words, with their immediate derivatives ;* followed by one comprehensive interpretation, adapted to the whole. There are instances, where this latter portion of the rule was not fairly practicable; but they are exceptions.

This method of arrangement is attended with these advantages, at least. The tediousness of incessant repetitions, by no means necessary for the rational use of a Dictionary, is entirely avoided,-a more extensive as well as intelligible deduction of usages from the intrinsic meaning may be consistently pursued, and instruction unsought will be forced upon the mind. The whole family, or rather, more generally, the whole branch of a family, is presented to the eye and understanding at once: a collateral branch, or even all collateral branches, may be conveniently placed in juxtaposition, and a single glance will acquaint us with the relative barrenness or fertility of each. A little additional attention, a more prolonged inspection, will, with the less difficulty, afford the opportunity of distinguishing such abuses as may have silently gained admission in the process of composing words; and of forming some laws to direct us in our efforts towards a general improvement of our vocabulary.

The very fact, that this arrangement presents a stumbling block (and such may be the case), to hasty and impatient reference, confirms the propriety of adopting it. Dictionaries are too frequently considered as books to which idleness may fly for instantaneous relief from ignorance, and find all that it wants without the trouble of perusing more. But a certain degree of knowledge and of thought, a certain portion of Grammatical Learning, is undoubtedly required, as a condition precedent to the use of the New Dictionary;-but the painfulness of thinking will speedily diminish; facility will be the result of very short practice;—a difficulty surmounted presents an encouragement to further efforts;-the continuance or renewal of enquiry will be frequently invited and not infrequently repaid; while by the habitual exercise of contemplating each individual word in close alliance with the immediate descendents from the same source, more enlarged and enlightened notions may become familiar.

These remarks may and probably will seem trivial to persons even of small pretensions to literature; perhaps more so to them than to the sounder and more reflecting scholar. I address myself to the more unlearned of the present, and to the youth of the rising generation. * E. g. Abstain, v. Consist. v.

D

The former, I am quite aware, still constitute a far too numerous portion of the community, and I should not feel excused to myself, if I did not premonish them, that by no very toilsome exertion of their faculties, it is possible for them to make a valuable addition to their proficiency in the language of their country. I must, however, exact from them this degree of previous erudition: that they should know an abstinent man to be one who abstains; the contents of a book, to be the matters contained in it; and then that they keep in mind, when consulting the Dictionary, the necessity of referring directly to the word from which each subderivative is formed, viz., to abstain and to contain. If, then, in a reference for the purpose of finding other such subderivatives, they should, as most assuredly they will, be disappointed, if they expect to discover them at all times in their precise alphabetical position, let them mitigate their disappointment by the reflection, that, from the very circumstance of their being obliged to make that slight employment of their intellect, which will bring the rule to recollection, they are instructed and improved; that at every instance, the labour of recollection will decrease; and that the quantity of knowledge gained at the moment above the quantity required by the exigencies of the moment, may be held in reserve for future service. They will soon become sensible that, though the Dictionary presents obstacles to be surmounted, it will thoroughly recompense the trouble.

The words, with their immediate derivatives, thus classed together, are succeeded by the cognate terms in other languages: if the origin be Latin, for instance, by the Italian, French, and Spanish; and by the Latin also: if the words be of Northern origin, by the German, Dutch, and Swedish; with the Anglo-Saxon and Gothic also.

One comprehensive interpretation, upon the principles already explained, subserves for the whole family this, I repeat, was the rule-instances have occurred, demanding a deviation from it, when this general interpretation did not comprise some especial usage of a subderivative; then that usage has been remarked and accounted for. No one surely needs to be told that an agent is one who acts; that a student is one who studies; a seller, one who sells. It will, however, tend most effectually to a better understanding of his native tongue, if the reader will previously subject the different terminations to a careful examination.* Tooke has observed of some of these terminations, that "they will afford sufficient matter for enter

* A connected view of them is prefixed to the Dictionary. "Quid, (Ung. terminatio) significat, non liquet. Sed non ideo meram et arbitrariam vocis desinentis flexionem esse existimem, cum quia vetustas et longus sæculorum ordo multa delevit, quæ hodie ignorantur, tum quiæ jam sæpe vidimus, multis particulis, quosdam inesse secretos significatus, quos neque nostra neque superior ætas animadvertit." Wachter. Pref. Sec. 6.

+ Div. of Purley, v. 2. ch. 6.

tainment to future etymologists;" they have afforded something better than entertainment to myself; and I hope I shall not be singular in the gratification I have derived from the pains with which I have endeavoured to trace them to their source.

The mode of classification pursued in the New Dictionary, does not, however, reach the refined and scientific speculations of certain scholars, who are sturdy contenders for a radical reformation upon the plan of the Greek Thesaurus. My objection is simply this, that an English Dictionary so constructed would be useless in the hands of any, but the already learned scholar, or of the sanguine student whom no difficulties could dishearten. The middle path, in which I have persevered, though it is obstructed by no formidable impediments to an easy progress, still leads by ascending steps to more commanding views than by the ordinary road can possibly be attained.

The ease with which it enables us to place in close comparison different branches of the same family, and the advantage, as far as the encrease of our vocabulary is in question, have been already noticed. Let any one, for instance, take the trouble to compare the two compound terms, conduce, and deduce; he will perceive that the subderivatives, which have crept into current use from the former, nearly double in number those that have been received, perhaps required, from the latter. Let him pursue this investigation, through other words of a similar description, (such as tract, with its compounds, contract, detract: form, with its compounds, conform, deform, inform); and he will see with what a running pen our Dictionaries may be swelled by the addition of thousands and tens of thousands of words-all formed simply by affixing our common terminations, upon regular principles of analogy, and which seem merely to be waiting for the decision of rashness or discretion upon their claim to admittance among those to which they are manifestly allied. Even under the one of the two first named, so much more copiously supplied as it is than its fellow, he will find room for an encrease. In short, no task of dull diligence presents a more prompt reward than that of augmenting our catalogue of words. Latinisms, Græcisms, Gallicisms, Americanisms, all formed upon the same principles of construction which guided our early scholars in the choice of words, now in ordinary use, might be struck off as if by the magic power of machinery: our language might be crowded with swarms, to satisfy the cravings of pedantic affectation; and a new and erudite Euphuism be created, which "the flower of our youth," to use the expression of the Oxonian biographer, would no doubt eagerly learn to "parly." I am not speaking of terms in science; they (dabiturque licentia sumta pudenter) are formed by scientific men who feel, or

* By the addition of two regular terminations in ly.