ters.
The idea had, it appears, been put before Alexander Pope, and approved
by him; he is said even to have drawn up a list of the authors whose
writings might be taken as authorities for such a dictionary; but he
died in 1744, before anything further was done. The subject seems then
to have been pressed upon the attention of SAMUEL JOHNSON; but it was
not till 1747 that the matter took definite shape, when a syndicate of
five or six London booksellers contracted with Johnson to produce the
desired standard dictionary in the space of three years for the sum of
fifteen hundred guineas. Alas for human calculations, and especially
for those of dictionary makers! The work occupied nearly thrice the
specified time, and, ere it was finished, the stipulated sum had been
considerably overdrawn. At length, in 1755, appeared the two massive
folios, each 17 inches long, 10 inches wide, and 3-1/2 inches thick,
entitled 'A | Dictionary | of the | English Language | in which | the
Words are deduced from their Originals, | and | illustrated in their
different significations | by Examples from the Best Writers. | By
Samuel Johnson.' The limits of this lecture do not permit me to say
one tithe of what might and ought to be said of this great work. For
the present purpose it must suffice to point out that the special new
feature which it contributed to the evolution of the modern dictionary
was the illustration of the use of each word by a selection of
literary quotations, and the more delicate appreciation and
discrimination of senses which this involved and rendered possible.
Only where he had no quotations did Johnson insert words from Bailey's
folio, or other source, with _Dict._ as the authority. The literary
quotations were entirely supplied by himself from his capacious
memory, or from books specially perused and marked by him for
extraction. When he first began his work in the room in Gough Square,
his whole time was devoted to thus reading and marking books, from
which six clerkly assistants copied the marked quotations. The fact
that many of the quotations were inserted from memory without
verification (a practice facilitated by Johnson's plan of merely
naming the author, without specifying the particular work quoted, or
giving any reference whereby the passage could be turned up) is
undoubtedly the reason why many of the quotations are not verbally
exact. Even so, however, they are generally adequate for the purpose
for which