by his writings, conferred upon me two signal benefits: they first cleared my intellects of an accumulated store, which I misprized as philosophy: they, in the second place, taught me sounder doctrine; and the better tenets of that doctrine have grown and ripened into the New English Dictionary.

To proceed. The lexicographer can never assure himself that he has attained the meaning of a word, until he has discovered the thing, the sensible object-res, quæ nostros sensus feriunt ;--the sensation caused by that thing or object (for language cannot sever them), of which that word is the name. To this, the term meaning should be strictly and exclusively appropriated; and this, too, may be called the literal meaning.

The first extension of the use of words from this literal denomination of sensible objects, or actions, or operations, is to supposed or assumed similar or correspondent objects or actions, or operations, in the human mind. This-the metaphorical application of the literal meaning— may, for the sake of brevity, be termed the metaphorical signification. It is a meaning transferred; and here commences the broad distinction of literal and metaphorical language.

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From this literal meaning, and metaphorical signification, the next step may be named, the consequential; and hence descend, in wide and rapid course, the applications of words in all their multitude and variety. These appear to be what Lennep intends to denote by translate significationes;—he has told us, "paucissimas esse proprias verborum significationes ;" and he adds: "e contrario autem, translatarum significationum copiam immensam, quæ ex propria notione, tanquam ex trunco arboris rami, quaquaversum pateant."

To Etymology, then, the lexicographer must first resort; but he must be cautious and reserved in the pursuit of it. Its use for the purpose of a dictionary of a particular language is barely to ascertain the origin, and hence the radical meaning of each individual term in the vocabulary—and though further inquiry will be indispensable in philological researches to trace the origin and formation of tongues, and the dialects of tongues; yet, when the intrinsic meaning is fixed, every lexicographical object is firmly secured.

Etymology, indeed, seems to admit of two main divisions; first, that which decomposes words into their primal, literal roots; and this is peculiarly the province of the philosophical grammarian or linguist; † and secondly, that which (in our own mingled speech more especially) traces their lineal and co-lineal descent from a radical meaning to their present form -and use. To this latter, the researches of the Dictionary have been generally limited.

I have judged it the safer, and in every respect more prudent and becoming, course to state

with brevity, and yet with clearness, the opinions of preceding Etymologists, among whom the name of Wachter ought to be most gratefully reported; not so much, perhaps, for the soundness of his decisions, in particular instances, as for the value of the materials, which his learned industry has brought together for the benefit of succeeding labourers. I have adopted or rejected his and their opinions, according to the best of my own judgment upon their merits; where I had any conclusion of my own, that I preferred, I have not hesitated to advance it; where I had not, I have left the reader in full possession of all that knowledge which I had collected for myself. I have rather wished to remain exposed to the charge of timidity than of rashness. While investigating, then, the meaning and consequent usage or application of words, I have considered it a duty incumbent upon the lexicographer to direct his view,-1st, To the etymology and literal meaning;-2nd, To the metaphorical application of this meaning-to the mind ;-3rd, To the application consequent or inferred from the literal meaning ;—and 4th, To the application consequent or inferred from that which is metaphorical.

In works of general literature (it will be obvious), the metaphorical usage must be of more frequent occurrence than the literal; but the metaphor is in general so palpable, that the greater portion of the language has, in the task of explanation, unconstrainedly submitted to this comprehensive, yet simple, compendious, and adequately explanatory formulary, viz., the etymology, and the literal meaning; literally, metaphorically, and consequentially, employed,— with the words of similar application. And I have occasionally fancied that I had some reason to congratulate myself upon the success with which I laboured to deduce, from this literal or intrinsic meaning, the graduated and connected progression or series of the various and extensive applications of words.

It is, however, only when Etymology shall have furnished these meanings, that we can commence with confidence (to adopt the figure of Dr. Sharpe) the construction of our chain; link after link may be appended in direct succession, to keep commensurate with the enlargement of knowledge and the movements of human thought; and by-chains may be collaterally attached to different links of the main connection, as need may dictate or convenience suggest.

If we cannot enlist the strength of Etymology, we may, in the next place, conjecture the meaning of a word by discriminating some one signification contained in its multitude of usages; and hence presume that we have discovered the reason upon which their propriety is founded. If these usages present so discordant and incongruous a diversity, that no such uniform signfication can be discerned, and consequently no such reason be enforced into our service, we have still left, in the third place, the expedient of arranging in some order the terms equivalent in their employment, or nearly so, to that which we may be endeavouring to interpret.

This last effort-even this, the only resource of unavailing erudition and baffled industry, has not been made (as I have already noticed) in the composition of those volumes, upon which the fame of Johnson is said to rest. I use the expression' said to rest,' because I am satisfied that for whatever fame he may possess and great, undoubtedly, it is, and deserves to be,-he is not indebted to his Dictionary. Had he, however, made this effort in the construction of his work, he might have escaped, in some measure at least, the censure urged so justly by a very learned and a very sensible writer of his own time against lexicographers in general, who remove the primary sense out of its place, and break that chain of significations, so necessary to preserve consistency, and relieve the burthen of remembrance. But (and it cannot be too strongly insisted upon) he pursues a course, or rather runs into various courses, of different tendency: he seizes-not the meaning, he does not look for it-there is no etymology; but he seizes, or endeavours to seize the present most popular usage; which may be of ancient, or may be of modern introduction: the explanation stands single, and disconnected-so do its successors, without a base to rest upon the signification of the context ascribed to the word: the number of distinct explanations continued without restriction, to suit the quotations, where any seeming diversity of application may be fancied;-And thus though it may, to those who still preserve undiminished their reverence for the authority of this extraordinary man, appear the very extreme of hardihood and temerity, I will venture to repeat that he rarely, if ever, even attempts to give the primary sense-the intrinsic meaning of the word, and thence to draw a chain of significations, or, more correctly speaking, to trace the applications in which it has been employed.

Though examples of the practical adaptation of general rules to particular instances, supply undoubtedly the most intelligible and unerring evidence of their truth; yet in the selection of those instances, there is a hazard of appearing laboriously trifling; and in the repetition, of wearying the exertions even of diligence and goodwill. I will endeavour to escape as blameless as I can; but I know not how I can do full justice to my work, unless I afford some further means of comparison with that of Dr. Johnson.

Let us then take first the common word SAD. Dr. J. tells us, that "the etymology of Sad is unknown," but that it means-

1. Sorrowful; full of grief.

2. Habitually melancholy, heavy, gloomy, not gay, not cheerful.

3. Gloomy; shewing sorrow or anxiety by outward appearance.

• Dr. Gregory Sharpe.

Here, then, are ten distinct explanations of the same word, founded upon no etymological or radical meaning; totally disconnected; with no distinction of literal from metaphorical signification. How is it possible that any word should have such a variety of separate meanings? -It is intelligible enough that, from the literal and metaphorical meaning, a great diversity of application may have extended: but what is the literal meaning, and how are the applications deduced from it? This the New Dictionary professes to teach :

SAD:-Wiclif renders the Latin, Petra, (a rock)—a sad stone: that is, a set (emphatically). firmly set, a fixed, a firm, stone. The Latin, firmitas, firmamentum, immobilitas, he also renders sadness; that is, setness or settledness; steadfastness, firmness, fixedness, stability. The sadness of your bileve, in Wiclif, is in our common version, the steadfastness of your belief. Hence it is inferred, that sad is sat (by the mere change of t into d, constant in our language), and means literally, set, settled; metaphorically, sedate.

From (1), the literal meaning, set, it may be further explained,

(2), Fixed, firm, steadfast or steady; confirmed, compact, cohesive, solid, dense, heavy. From (3), the metaphorical-sedate, it may be further explained.

(4), Serious, grave, melancholy, gloomy, mournful, grievous.

To these must be subjoined, as a further consequence: A sad fellow; one who does sad or serious things-things that cause sadness, or sad or serious consequences; and, thus, he is a mischievous fellow.

And the etymology is satisfactorily retraced to the Anglo-Saxon, sætt-an or sett-an, sedere, sedare,—to set, to settle. And this example furnishes an instance of the practical application of the orderly process of interpretation in its several gradations.

Let the next instance be the equally common words-Slight, the adj. n. and verb; and Sly, the adj. Dr. Johnson tells us, that slight, the adj., is from the Dutch slicht, that slight the n. is from the Islandic slag'd, cunning; and that the verb is in two of its meanings from the adj.

and in the third from the Dutch slichten. And he explains thus :

SLIGHT, adj. (Slicht, Dutch).

1. Small, worthless, inconsiderable.

2 Not important, not cogent, weak.

3. Negligent, not vehement, not done with effort.

4. Foolish; weak of mind.

5. Not strong; thin, as a slight silk.

TO SLIGHT (from the adjective).

1. To neglect, to disregard.

2. To throw carelessly; unless in this passage, to slight be the same as to sling-(Falstaff.) 3. (Slichten, Dutch). To overthrow, to demolish.

SLEIGHT, n. s. (slag'd, cunning, Islandic), artful trick, cunning artifice, dexterous practice; as sleight of hand, the tricks of a juggler. This is often written, but less properly, slight. SLY, adj. (Slith, Sax. slippery, and metaphorically, deceitful; Slægar, Islandic), meanly artful; secretly insidious; cunning.

The plan of the New Dictionary requires a different process, thus→

SLIGHT, SLY-Slight or sleight, is slayed or sleyed, sley'd, sleyt, sleit, sleight, or slight: the past participle of the verb, to slay;-in Anglo-Saxon, slah-an, to strike, to beat, to beat or cast

To slight, a verb, formed in the usual way upon the past participle, is to beat, to cast or throw down, to overthrow, to destroy, to demolish. Lord Clarendon writes-They slighted and demolished all the works of the garrison: they slighted the castle. To slaughter an ox, is to strike, to knock it on the head.

Falstaff was slighted (i. e. thrown into the river).

The Letters of Cassius were slighted off: i. e. thrown off, or aside; disregarded; or cast aside, as unworthy of regard.

Slight, the adjective, is—abject; cast or thrown aside or away, sc. as of little value, of little force or strength; and thus,-unvalued or valueless, inconsiderable, inefficient, weak, feeble, small, slender.

And a slight is—a disregard, neglect, disparagement, contempt, contumely.

Slight or sleight of hand-a throw or cast; a dexterous cast or motion of the hand; dexterity; adroitness. Cast was formerly used as fore-cast, project. And thus,

Slight, metaphorically, is—a dexterous, an adroit trick, or contrivance; a subtle manœuvre; a sly action. And

Sly (the participial termination ed omitted) is forecasting or projecting; acting with forecast, caution, circumspection; cautious, circumspect; cunning, wary, crafty, subtle.

A weaver's slay, and sleyed silk, have their origin in this same source.