age, but
it is inherently truthful, and marks the effect upon him of a sustained
purpose, brought, after a score of years, to completion. The Dictionary
was published three years after his return to America, and passed
through one revision at Mr. Webster's hands in 1840. He was still at
work upon it when he died, in 1843. It is fair to look to the preface of
a great work, especially of one which seems to admit little personality,
for an account of the motives and aims of the workman. In following the
lines of Webster's preface we discover the principles which we have
already noted stated anew and with increasing confidence. He gives
reasons why it had become necessary that an English dictionary should be
revised to meet the exigencies of American as distinct from English
life, and he says finally: "One consideration, however, which is
dictated by my own feelings, but which I trust will meet with
approbation in correspondent feelings in my fellow-citizens, ought not
to be passed in silence; it is this: 'The chief glory of a nation,' says
Dr. Johnson, 'arises from its authors.' With this opinion deeply
impressed on my mind, I have the same ambition which actuated that great
man when he expressed a wish to give celebrity to Bacon, to Hooker, to
Milton, and to Boyle. I do not, indeed, expect to add celebrity to the
names of Franklin, Washington, Adams, Jay, Madison, Marshall, Ramsay,
Dwight, Smith, Trumbull, Hamilton, Belknap, Ames, Mason, Kent, Hare,
Silliman, Cleaveland, Walsh, Irving, and many other Americans
distinguished by their writings or by their science; but it is with
pride and satisfaction that I can place them, as authorities, on the
same page with those of Boyle, Hooker, Milton, Dryden, Addison, Ray,
Milner, Cowper, Thomson, Davy, and Jameson. A life devoted to reading
and to an investigation of the origin and principles of our vernacular
language, and especially a particular examination of the best English
writers, with a view to a comparison of their style and phraseology
with those of the best American writers and with our colloquial usage,
enables me to affirm, with confidence, that the genuine English idiom is
as well preserved by the unmixed English of this country as it is by the
best _English_ writers. Examples to prove this fact will be found in the
Introduction to this work. It is true that many of our writers have
neglected to cultivate taste and the embellishments of style, but even
these have writt