nd that the
confidence now reposed in its accuracy is the greatest injury to
philology that now exists. I can assure them further that if any man,
whatever may be his abilities in other respects, should attempt to
compile a new dictionary, or amend Johnson's, without a profound
knowledge of etymology, he will unquestionably do as much harm as good."

A few years later Webster found an opportunity to attack the general
subject of lexicography from another side, and one intimately connected
with his special work. In 1816 Hon. John Pickering published "A
Vocabulary, or Collection of Words and Phrases which have been supposed
to be peculiar to the United States of America. To which is prefixed an
Essay on the Present State of the English Language in the United
States;" he had cited Webster upon various words and plainly was aiming
at him in his preface, when he declared that "in this country, as in
England, we have thirsty reformers and presumptuous sciolists, who would
unsettle the whole of our admirable language, for the purpose of making
it conform to their whimsical notions of propriety." Webster at once
addressed a letter in print to Pickering, and took up weapons, offensive
and defensive, with alacrity and confidence.

"This is a heavy accusation, Sir, from a gentleman of your talents,
liberality, and candor," he writes. "Sciolists we may have in
multitudes; but who are the men who would unsettle the whole of our
language? Can you name the men, or any of them, either in this country
or in England? Surely the finger of scorn ought to be pointed at the men
who are base enough to wish, and sottish enough to attempt, to unsettle
a whole language. I am confident, Sir, that deliberate reflection will
induce you to retract a charge so injurious to your fellow-citizens. It
certainly becomes you, and the character you maintain in society, to
learn the distinction between an attempt to find what the language is,
and an attempt to unsettle its principles. Whether you number me with
the thirsty reformers and presumptuous sciolists is a fact which I shall
take no pains to discover, nor, if known, would the fact give me the
smallest concern." Webster's hand trembles evidently with suppressed
anger, but he grows firmer as he goes on. "My studies have been
sometimes directed to philology, for the exclusive purpose of
ascertaining and unfolding its principles, correcting abuses, and
supplying the defect of rules in our elementary tre