In the possession of Rev. R. C. Waterston.

[14] "The first by Sir Thomas Smith, secretary of state to Queen
Elizabeth; another by Dr. Gill, a celebrated master of St. Paul's School
in London; another by Mr. Charles Butler, who went so far as to print
his book in his proposed orthography; several in the time of Charles the
first; and in the present age, Mr. Elphinstone has published a treatise
in a very ridiculous orthography."

CHAPTER VII.

AN AMERICAN DICTIONARY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE.

At the close of the Preface to his Compendious Dictionary, Webster
announced his intention of compiling and publishing a full and
comprehensive dictionary of the language. After answering the objections
which candid friends might raise, he added: "From a different class of
men, if such are to be found, whose criticism would sink the literature
of this country even lower than the distorted representations of foreign
reviewers,--whose veneration for transatlantic authors leads them to
hold American writers in unmerited contempt,--from such men I neither
expect nor solicit favor. However arduous the task, and however feeble
my powers of body and mind, a thorough conviction of the necessity and
importance of the undertaking has overcome my fears and objections, and
determined me to make an effort to dissipate the charm of veneration
for foreign authors which fascinates the minds of men in this country
and holds them in the chains of illusion. In the investigation of this
subject great labor is to be sustained, and numberless difficulties
encountered; but with a humble dependence on Divine favor for the
preservation of my life and health, I shall prosecute the work with
diligence, and execute it with a fidelity suited to its importance."

It was 1806 when he sat down to the task, and twenty years of almost
continuous labor were expended before the work then projected was given
to the world in the first edition of the "American Dictionary of the
English Language," in two volumes quarto. Complete absorption in his
work, which could yield nothing until it was completed, crippled his
resources, confined now in the main to copyright from his Spelling-Book;
and in 1812 he removed, as we have already seen, for economy's sake,
from New Haven to Amherst. During the next ten years he nearly completed
the bulk of the Dictionary, but there still remained much to do in the
way of comparison and finer study than his own library afforded. He