en the language in its genuine _idiom_. In this respect
Franklin and Washington, whose language is their hereditary
mother-tongue, unsophisticated by modern grammar, present as pure models
of genuine English as Addison and Swift. But I may go further, and
affirm with truth that our country has produced some of the best models
of composition. The style of President Smith, of the authors of the
Federalist, of Mr. Ames, of Dr. Mason, of Mr. Harper, of Chancellor
Kent, [the prose]" happily bracketed reservation! "of Mr. Barlow, of Dr.
Channing, of Washington Irving, of the legal decisions of the Supreme
Court of the United States, of the reports of legal decisions in some
of the particular States, and many other writings, in purity, in
elegance, and in technical precision, is equalled only by that of the
best British authors, and surpassed by that of no English compositions
of a similar kind.

"The United States commenced their existence under circumstances wholly
novel and unexampled in the history of nations. They commenced with
civilization, with learning, with science, with constitutions of free
government, and with that best gift of God to man, the Christian
religion. Their population is now equal to that of England; in arts and
sciences our citizens are very little behind the most enlightened people
on earth,--in some respects they have no superiors; and our language
within two centuries will be spoken by more people in this country than
any language on earth, except the Chinese, in Asia, and even that may
not be an exception."

It is instructive to compare the preface with the celebrated one by Dr.
Johnson, introducing his dictionary. Webster, filled with a parochial
enthusiasm for his native country, exaggerates the necessity for a
local dictionary, and anticipates the vast audience that will one day
require his work. To him language is the instrument not so much of
literature as of daily association. He thinks of a dictionary as a book
of reference for the plain reader, and a guide to him in the correct use
of his vernacular. Johnson, proud of his literary heritage, burdened
with a sense of his own inadequacy, at once confesses the dignity of his
work and the melancholy of his own nature. He acknowledges the
limitation of his own philological attainments, and rests his claims to
honor upon the fullness with which he has gathered and arranged the
materials scattered through the vast area of English literature. The