being sure that it is only by such combined action, by such a joining of hand in hand on the part of as many as are willing to take their share in this toil, that we can hope the innumerable words which have escaped us hitherto, which are lurking unnoticed in every corner of our literature, will ever be brought within our net, that an English Dictionary will prove that all-embracing wávaypov which, indeed, it should be.

ADDENDA ET CORRIGENDA.

Page 11, note 1, for 'tutivillus' read "Tutivillus.'

Page 13, note 4, add as a second quotation the following:

"If having received this seal [of God] upon us, we so far forget ourselves as to let his æmulus, the fiend, the evil spirit, to set his mark over it, seal upon seal, this is so foul a disgrace as He can never brook it.”—Andrews, Of the Sending of the Holy Ghost, Sermon VI.

Page 26, note 1, for Glossary' read Glossarial Index.'

Page 38, last line of text, after the words "far off." add:

Encyclopædia' could not have yet existed, at the time when Ben Jonson in his Discoveries spoke of "the knowledge of the liberal arts, which the Greeks called έγκυκλοπαιδείαν.”

Page 51, line 15, after the words "the scenes, &c." add :

An observation of Wotton's marks the novelty of the word 'character.' It occurs in his Survey of Education, which may have been written about 1625. "Now, here then," he says, "will lie the whole business, to set down beforehand certain signatures, or characters, as I will call them (because that word hath gotten already some entertainment among us.)"

APPENDIX.

A LETTER

ΤΟ

THE VERY REV. THE DEAN OF WESTMINSTER,

FROM

HERBERT COLERIDGE, Esq.

(EDITOR OF THE LITERARY AND HISTORICAL PORTION OF THE PHILOLOGICAL SOCIETY'S NEW ENGLISH DICTIONARY.)

MY DEAR MR. DEAN,—

10, Chester-place, Regent's-park, May 30th, 1860.

As a new edition of your essay On Some Deficiencies in our English Dictionaries is about to appear, I wish to take this opportunity of laying before you some details relative to the scheme of a New Dictionary projected by the Philological Society, with reference to which your essay was originally written. I shall forego all description of the merely mechanical arrangements which have been adopted and brought at length into working order; all necessary information on that head will be found in our printed Proposal' and the Canons hereafter referred to my object on the present occasion is simply to state results, as it is by them alone that the public can be enabled to judge of the probable success of the scheme and of its claims to support. For the sake, however, of those to whom the scheme may be altogether new, it may be as well to state that the raw materials for the work-i.e., the words and authorities—are being brought together by the voluntary and independent

1 Proposal for the Publication of a New English Dictionary by the Philological Society. London: Trübner and Co. 1859. Price 6d.

labours of numerous individuals, all working on a common plan, according to certain definite and prescribed rules, and that the theory of lexicography we profess is that which Passow was the first to enunciate clearly and put in practice successfully—viz., 66 that every word should be made to tell its own story”—the story of its birth and life, and in many cases of its death, and even occasionally of its resuscitation.

It would be a waste of time to recount the history of our early attempts and failures. More than a year passed away in combating various difficulties, and it was not till August, 1858, that we felt ourselves in a position to announce the plan of a New Dictionary as a certainty, and to invite contributors to furnish us with assistance. A new and much-enlarged prospectus was shortly afterwards brought out, which has recently passed through a second edition, and many additions might now be made even to this. The details which I am about to give relate to what has been effected in this interval of rather less than two years. I shall first exhibit the state of our forces, and then proceed to an account of their achievements.

I ought, however, in limine, to say that the title under which we have hitherto been accustomed to announce our book -viz., that of an English Dictionary-is one no longer strictly applicable. During last year, several offers of assistance came in from the other side of the Atlantic, where our Proposal appears to have created some little sensation, and a wish was expressed that Americans should be allowed to take part in the work. This co-operation presented too many obvious advantages to allow us to hesitate for a moment with regard to its acceptance, and the Hon. G. P. Marsh, of Burlington, Vermont, having kindly offered to act as secretary in America, I at once suggested that the Americans should make themselves responsible for the whole of the eighteenth century literature, which probably would have a less chance of finding as many readers in England. This was agreed to, and an abridged edition of our Proposal has been issued there, and contributors are, as I understand, coming in, but no results of their labours have reached me as yet.

A. CONTRIBUTORS.

CALIFOUNDE

The number of contributors at the present time, exclusive of the Americans and three others who have died, is 147. Certain deductions must, however, be made from this total, in order to ascertain the efficient working staff. In the first place, fortythree contributors may be looked upon as "functi officio;" they have fulfilled their promises, sent in their work, and so terminated their temporary connexion with the scheme; fifteen more I set down as "hopeless;" most of these consist of contributors who volunteered to aid us under our first scheme, and have since either forgotten their promises, or found the task more irksome than they anticipated, and so thrown it aside, remaining deaf to all applications made to them on the subject. The loss is not very important, as in most cases the works undertaken by this faithless band are of secondary value; and in some instances I have succeeded in substituting fresh contributors in their places. This brings the number of actually operative hands down to eighty-nine. These I again divide into three classes. Class I., numbering thirty, consists of none but first-rate contributors, who do all they do conscientiously and well, and leave nothing to be desired in any respect. These men work with a thorough and intelligent appreciation of the nature of the scheme, and constitute its main support, and to their untiring efforts and labour of love will be due in a great measure such success as we may achieve. Class II. contains fifteen more of inferior merit, and Class III., amounting to the large number of forty-four, embraces all those who have not as yet sent in any work, and whose merits it is consequently impossible accurately to judge of at present.

The foregoing details may be looked upon, I think, as giving us as much encouragement as we could fairly expect. At the lowest calculation we have fifty efficient contributors at work— a number quite sufficient to do all that yet remains to be done, were they only located in positions where their energies could be employed to the greatest effect. Unfortunately, however, British Museums and Bodleians are not dotted over the land like circulating libraries, and consequently much of the material which is of primary importance to us is rendered, to all intents

and purposes, inaccessible. However, even as it is, our scheme will bear favourable comparison with that of the Grimms, which is now being carried on in Germany in a manner somewhat similar to our own. In their preface, these two great philologists, whose names command universal respect and attention, are constrained to confess, that out of eighty-three contributors (and those contributors, be it remarked, Germans) only six could be considered as satisfactory, and that only one of these six-the one who undertook Goethe's works-had entirely come up to their beau ideal of a contributor.

1

B. WORK.

In the First Period there have been at present undertaken about 139 of the various works and pieces given in our list. Of these I have received 64, leaving 75 still to be delivered. Among these last are the whole of the thirteenth century pieces included in my Glossarial Index, none of which have as yet been transcribed for use; and many of the heavier romances, printed by the Roxburghe and Abbotsford Clubs. Nearly all the important works of this period have, however, been undertaken, the few exceptions being Syr Gawayne, Barclay's Works, several of Caxton's publications, the two poems entitled Morte d'Arthur, edited by Halliwell, and for the Roxburghe Club respectively; and Trevisa's translation of the Polycronicon, which, I am glad to see, is to form part of the series now publishing under the auspices of the Master of the Rolls.2

Second Period. The total number of books of this period undertaken is about 276, reckoning the various treatises of each author together, although they may be in the hands of several

1 Proposal, pp. 17-24.

* I cannot help taking this opportunity of expressing my great regret, that the claims of two such authors as Robert of Gloucester and Robert Brunne, to a place in this series should have been overlooked. Their chronicles are important as philological no less than as historical monuments, and a new edition of Robert of Gloucester, based on the Cottonian MS., instead of the later and inferior Harleian MS. which Hearne was compelled to use, would form a most attractive volume. Now that the scheme is no longer confined to unprinted works, it is to be hoped that these authors will receive the consideration which they most eminently deserve.