ome and beneficial. The highest and only just praise
of this admirable volume, would be given by a plain statement of its
merits, but these are too extensive and varied to be even catalogued
within brief limits--we can only touch upon a few of them. For a year
past we have had opportunity and occasion to examine parts of the work
as it was going on to completion, and to compare it with others of
similar design. We speak then advisedly when we say that it far
surpasses any such Lexicon hitherto in use among us, and should
supersede them all. Since the works of Forcellini, and Facciolati, and
Gesner, very great advances have been made in all departments of
classical Philology; many of the best results of these advances were
embodied in Freund's great Lexicon, the first volume of which was
published in 1834. But since then, and even since 1845, the date of the
last volume, the thirst for antiquarian research has slaked itself at
newly discovered sources. The present editors, to a discriminating
selection from all that the zeal and activity of others have gathered,
up to the latest time, have added valuable knowledge from their own
varied stores, and at last furnished to American students a work
superior in its kind to any that has preceded it here or abroad. It
combines in a remarkable degree the copiousness of a Thesaurus with the
brevity and convenience for ready reference of a school-dictionary.
Citations abundantly sufficient to meet the wants of ordinary readers
are given in full, while distinct references guide the more exacting
scholar over a much wider field of original authority. In this way space
is economized, and the book is made cheap without a sacrifice of
learning. Its first general merit is its singular correctness. In a
verification of the almost numberless passages quoted, and a correction
of time-honored blunders, committed by subordinates, but sanctioned by
names of great writers employing them; in a distrust of authority at
second-hand, and persistent fidelity to the cause of learning, we
recognize the diligence of Prof. W. W. Turner. Those who have never
tried this kind of work have but an inadequate idea of its demands on
the brain, and on the conscience too. _Reading through_ a dictionary is
an after-dinner pastime in comparison. The vocabulary is more extended
than in other lexicons. But the peculiar and highest merit of this work
appears in definitions, remarkable for clearness, fulness, and
distin