confeffed in his preface, which, as a literary curiosity, is inferted below.†

To Baret's fucceeded John Minfheu's Guide into the tongues, firft published in 1617 in eleven, and in 1627 in nine languages, but with a confiderable increase in the number of radical words. In this the author.undertakes to give the etymologies or derivations of the greater part of the words therein contained, but as they amount at the moft to no more than 14713, the work must be deemed not fufficiently copious.

In 1656, Thomas Blount a lawyer of the Inner Temple, published a small volume, intitled Gloffographia,

* About eighteene yeeres agone, hauing pupils at Cambridge • ftudious of the Latine tongue, I vfed them often to write epiftles and theame's together, and dailie to tranflate fome peece of Eng• lish into Latine, for the more fpeedie and eafie attaining of the fame. And after we had a little begun, perceiuing what great ⚫ trouble it was to come running to me for euerie worde they missed, (knowing then of no other dictionarie to helpe vs, but Sir Thomas Eliot's librarie, which was come out a little before :) I appointed them certaine leaues of the fame booke euerie daie to write the English before the Latin, and likewife to gather a number of fine phrafes out of Cicero, Terence, Cæfar, Liuie, &c. & to fet them. vnder feverall titles, for the more readie finding them againe at < their neede. Thus within a yeere or two, they had gathered ⚫ together a great volume, which (for the apt fimilitude betweene the good fcholers and diligent bees in gathering their waxe and honie into their hive) I called then their Aluearie, both for a memoriall, by whom it was made, and alfo by this name to incourage other, to the like diligence, for that they should not fee their worthie praife for the fame, vnworthilie drowned in obliuion. Not long after, diuers of our friends borrowing this our workę which we had thus contriued and wrought onelie for our owne priuate vse, often and many waies moued me to put it in prinț

• for

' graphia, or a dictionary interpreting fuch hard words, whether Hebrew, Greek, Latin, Italian, &c. that are now used in our refined English tongue, &c.' in which the articles though few are well explained. This book, as far as it went, was of fingular ufe to Edward Philips, a nephew and pupil of Milton, in the compilation of a dictionary by him published in folio, 1657, intitled The New World of Words,' which, as it is much more copious than that of Blount, and comprehends a great quantity of matter, must be looked on as the bafis of English lexicography.

Of technical as alfo of etymological dictionaries, many have long been extant, namely, The Inter

preter

⚫ for the common profit of others, and the publike propagation of the Latine tongue, or els to fuffer them to get it printed at their proper coftes and charges. But I both vnwilling, and halfe ashamed to haue our rude notes come abroad vnder the view of fo manie ⚫ learned eies, & especiallie finding no leafure from my prefixed • ftudies for the polishing of the fame, vtterlie denied their request, • vntil at length comming to London, the right worshipfull maister Pole, & maifter Garth, with other, fingular fauourers of all good learning, and my verie especiall friends, with their importunate ⚫ and earnest exhortations had cleane ouercome my contrarie mind. • Then immediatelie laieng afide all other ftudies, I was faine to ⚫ feeke for writers and workemen about the fame, to make it readie ⚫ for the preffe. Therefore I went to diuers of mine old pupils then being at the Innes of Court, delivering ech of them fome part of ⚫ their old discontinued worke to fee it written faire againe, and for other peeces which I thought vnperfect, I gat certaine of the ⚫ best scholers of two or three scholes in London, to write after my prescription: but in the French tables, although I had before ⚫ trauelled in diuers countries beyond the feas, both for language and ⚫ learning yet not trufting to mine owne fkill, I vfed the helpe of M. Chaloner, and M. Claudius. Upon this occafion I being

• much conuerfant about the Innes of Court, and alfo fome time occu• pied

preter or Law Dictionary of Dr. Cowell a civilian, à Common-Law Dictionary of the above Thomas Blount, the Etymologicum of Junius, and another of Skinner, both well known and frequently referred to, and of thefe did Johnfon avail himself.

The dictionary of Nathan Bailey a school-master, was first published in a thick octavo volume, fo well difpofed with refpect to the character and method of printing, as to contain more matter than could otherwise have been comprized in a volume of that fize. After it had paffed many editions with improvements by the author himself, he meditated an enlargement of it, and being affifted in the

.

pied among scholers in the scholes, there came vnto me a printer fhewing me Hulets dictionarie (which before I neuer fawe) and told me he intended to print it out of hand, augmented with our ⚫ notes alfo if I would. But this bargainė went not forward with ⚫ him for diuers caufes which here it were to long to reherse. And furelie, had not the right honourable Sir Thomas Smith knight, * principall fecretarie to the Queenes Maieftie, that noble Thefeus ⚫ of learning, and comfortable patrone to all students, and the right worshipfull M. Nowell deane of Pawles, manie waies encouraged me in this wearie worke (the charges were so great, and the losse of my time fo much grieued me) I had never bene able alone to haue wrestled against so manie troubles, but long ere this had cleane broken off our worke begun, and caft it by for euer.

Now therefore (gentle reader) looke not to finde in this booke cuerie thing whatsoeuer thou wouldeft feeke for, as though all things were here so perfect that nothing lacked, or were poffible to be added hereunto. But if thou maieft onelie find here the moft wordes that thou needeft, or at the least so manie as no other • dictionarie yet extant, or made hath the like take then I faie in good part this our fimple Aluearie in the meane time, and geue God the praise that firft moued me to fet my pupils on worke thereabout, and fo mercifullie alfo hath ftrengthened vs (thus as it is) at length to achicue and finish the fame.'

mathematical

mathematical part by Mr. Gordon, in the botanical by the famous gardener Philip Miller, and in the etymological by Mr. Lediard, a profeffor of the modern languages, it was published in a folio fize. The last improvement of it was by Dr. Jofeph Nicoll Scott, who, of a diffenting teacher had become a phyfician and a writer for the booksellers.

Johnfon, who before this time, together with his wife, had lived in obfcurity, lodging at different houses in the courts and alleys in and about the Strand and Fleet street, had, for the purpose of carrying on this arduous work, and being near the printers employed in it, taken a handfome house in Gough fquare, and fitted up a room in it with desks and other accommodations for amanuenfes, who, to the number of five or fix, he kept conftantly under his eye. An interleaved copy of Bailey's dictionary in folio he made the repofitory of the feveral articles, and these he collected by inceffant reading the beft authors in our language, in the practice whereof, his method was to fcore with a black-lead pencil the words by him felected, and give them over to his affiftants to infert in their places. The books he used for this purpose were what he had in his own collection, a copious but a miferably ragged one, and all fuch as he could borrow; which latter, if ever they came back to thofe that lent them, were fo defaced as to be fcarce worth owning, and yet, fome of his friends were glad to receive and entertain them as curiofities.

It seems that Johnfon had made a confiderable progrefs in his work when he was informed, that the earl of Chesterfield had heard and fpoken favourably of his defign. He had never till this time experienced

enced the patronage of any other than bookfellers, and though he had but an indiftinct idea of that of a nobleman, a reputed wit, and an accomplished courtier, and doubted whether he was to rate it among the happy incidents of his life, it might mean a liberal prefent or an handfome penfion to encourage him in the profecution of the work; he therefore refolved not to reject it by a fupercilious comparison of his own talents with those of his lordship, or to flight a favour which he was not able to estimate. Accordingly, he in the year 1747, drew up and dedicated to lord. Chesterfield, then a fecretary of state, a plan of his dictionary, the manufcript whereof he delivered to Mr. Whitehead the late laureat, who undertook to convey it to his lordship, but he having communicated it first to another person, it paffed through other hands before it reached that to which it was immediately directed the refult was an invitation from lord Chefterfield to the author.

Never could there be a stronger contraft of characters than this interview produced: a scholar and a courtier, the one ignorant of the forms and modes of addrefs, the other, to an affected degree, ac-, complished in both: the one in a manly and fententious ftile directing his discourse, to a weighty fubject; the other dreading to incur the imputation of pedantry, and by the interpofition of compliments and the introduction of new topics as artfully endeavouring to evade it. The acquaintance thus commenced was never improved into friendship. What his lordship thought of Johnson we may learn from his letters to an illegitimate fon, now extant*. Johnson was fo little pleased

* Letter 220.