CHARLES KNIGHT, 22, LUDGATE STREET. NEW YORK; WILLIAM JACKSON, 53, CEDAR STREET. MDCCCXXXV. COMMITTEE. Chairman-The Right Hon. the LORD CHANCELLOR, F.R.S., Member of the National Institute of France. Vice-Chairman-The Right Hon. LORD JOHN RUSSELL, M.P., Paymaster of the Forces. W. Allen, Esq., F.R. and R.A.S. Rt. Hon. Visc. Althorp, M.P., Chancellor of the Exchequer. Capt. F. Beaufort, R.N., F.R. and R.A.S., Hydrographer to the Admiralty. Sir C. Bell, F.R.S.L. and E. G. Burrows, M.D. C. Hay Cameron, Esq. The Rt. Bev. the Bishop of Chichester, D.D. William Coulson, Esq. R. D. Craig, Esq. Wm. Crawford, Esq. J. Frederick Daniell, Esq. F.R.S. H. T. Delabeche, Esq., V.P. Geol. Society. Rt. Hon. Lord Denman, T. Drummond, Esq. R.E., F.R.A.S. C. L. Eastlake, Esq., R.A. Rt. Hon. Visc. Ebrington, M.P. Sir Henry Ellis, Prin, Lib. Brit. Mus. Anglesea-Rev. E. Williams. Rev. W. Johnson. Mr. Miller. Ashburton-J. F. Kingston, Esq. Bilston-Rev. W. Leigh. Birmingham-Rev.J.Corrie, F.R.S. Chairman. Paul Moon James, Esq., Treasurer. Bridport-Wm. Forster, Esq. James Williams, Esq. Bristol-J. N. Sanders, Esq., Chairman. J. Reynolds, Esq., Treasurer. J. B. Estlin, Esq., F.L.S., Secretary. Calcutta-Lord Wm. Bentinck. Sir Edward Ryan. James Young, Esq. Cambridge-Rev. James Bowstead, M.A. Rev. Leonard Jenyns, M.A., F.L.S. Rev. Geo. Peacock, M.A., F.R.S. & G.S. Rev. C. Thirlwall, M.A. Thomas Wilkinson, Esq., Secretary. William Masters, Esq. Canton-J. F. Davis, Esq., F.R.S. Carlisle-Thomas Barnes, M.D., F.R.S.E. William Roberts, Esq. Chester-Hayes Lyon, Esq. Henry Potts, Esq. Chichester-John Forbes, M.D, F.R.S. C. C. Dendy, Esq. Corfu-John Crawford, Esq. Mr. Plato Petrides. Coventry-Arthur Gregory, Esq Denbigh-John Madocks, Esq. Thomas Evans, Esq. Treasurer-WILLIAM TOOKE, Esq., M.P., F.R.S. T. F. Ellis, Esq., A.M., F.R.A.S. I. L. Goldsmid, Esq., F.R. and R.A.S. G. B. Greenough, Esq., F.R. and L.S. Rowland Hill, Esq., F.R.A.S. The Rt. Hon. Sir J. C. Hobhouse, Bart. The Rt. Hon. the Earl of Kerry, M.P. Exeter-J. Tyrrell, Esq. John Milford, Esq. (Coaver.) Glasgow-K. Finlay, Esq. Professor Mylne. Alexander McGrigor, Esq. Charles Tennant, Esq. James Cowper, Esq. Glamorganshire-Dr. Malkin, Cowbridge. W. Williams, Esq., Aberpergwm. Keighley, Yorkshire-Rev. T. Dury, M.A. Liverpool Loc. As.-W. W. Currie, Esq. Ch Ludlow-T. A. Knight, Esq., P.H.S. Malmesbury-B. C. Thomas, Esq. Manchester Loc. As.-G. W. Wood, Esq., Ch. Benjamin Heywood, Esq., Treasurer. Newport, Isle of Wight-Ab. Clarke, Esq. R. G. Kirkpatrick, Esq. Newport Pagnell-J. Millar, Esq. Newtown, Montgomeryshire-W. Pugh, Esq. J. W. Lubbock, Esq., F.R., R.A. and L.S.S. J. Herman Merivale, Esq., A.M., F.A.S. W. H. Ord, Esq. M.P. The Right Hon. Sir H. Parnell, Bart., M.P. Sir M. A. Shee, P.R.A., F.R.S. H. Waymouth, Esq. J. Whishaw, Esq., A.M., F.R.S. John Wrottesley, Esq., A.M., F.R.A.S. Sheffield-J. H. Abraham, Esq. Shepton Mallet-G. F. Burroughs, Esq. John Rundle. Esq. The Rev. William Field, (Leamington C. H. Hebb, Esq. Wrexham Thomas Edgworth, Esq. New-York, October, 1835. Preparing for Publication, in Monthly Parts, each containing Eighty Quarto Pages, and to be completed labours, from toiling on with patient perseverance to their final close. "Ir was in the year 1747, that Dr. Johnson announced his intention of undertaking a Dictionary of the English Language. In a letter addressed to the "It is not necessary to raise a question whether the Earl of Chesterfield, he unfolded the PLAN upon which powerful and comprehensive mind of Johnson could, he designed to proceed; and he very justly assumed, in his day, in the then state of philological learning, that a work upon his plan was then wanting to our have wielded to effectual purpose the force of his own literature. The Dictionary itself was published in the rules. Certain it is that, with only Junius and Skinyear 1755, strange as it may seem, unaccompanied by ner for his guides in Etymology, (the latter of whom, But the offence which Johnson had taken on various occasions, he has most unaccountably neat the neglect of the wit among Lords, but the Lord glected,) and with no remoter search into our lanamong wits,' will fully account for the omission. The guage than the age of Elizabeth, it was utterly imposexecution would not, however, have sustained a com-sible that he should have laboured to apply those rules parison with the design, had the means of comparison with success. been given. his PLAN. The Author of the New Dictionary, when he "The leading principles of it were, that, in his ex- embarked in this undertaking, was well assured that planations, he should exhibit-first, the natural and the undoubted chief of philosophical grammarians had primitive signification of words, then give the conse- not spoken either idly or untruly, when he asserted quential, and then the metaphorical, meaning; and the that a new Dictionary ought to be written, and of a quotations were to be arranged according to the 'ages' very different kind indeed from any thing yet attemptof the authors. A mere inspection into any page of ed anywhere; he felt satisfied that this was not the his book will manifest that he had proceeded in the solitary dictum of one man; that the opinion had pecomposition of it wholly regardless, and in utter dere-netrated into our schools and colleges, and that it preliction, of his own avowed principles of lexicography. | vailed very generally among the various intelligent "If such a Dictionary as Dr. Johnson projected was and inquiring classes of his countrymen. He further wanting then, it may with justice be affirmed that it is felt that the volumes of Horne Tooke had developed a so now, and for this plain and conclusive reason, that new theory of language; that the principles of that neither did he himself at that time attempt, nor has theory had, in the main, been well received; that they any other person since attempted, to construct a work had settled deeply in the minds of literary men, both upon the plan prescribed. That deficiency, therefore, abroad and at home; and that upon those principles which Dr. Johnson had felt, and which he had de- he must compose his Work. clared it to be his purpose to relieve, to this moment "The great first principle upon which he has proremains, not merely in its full extent unabated, but ceeded in that department of the Dictionary which with all the aggravations that time and change may includes the explanation of words, is that so clearly fairly be supposed to have effected. During the evolved and so incontrovertibly demonstrated in the whole period of eighty years, which have passed since Diversions of Purley, namely-That a word has one the first publication of the Dictionary, no effort has meaning, and one only; and that all usages must been made upon the professed, but unpractised, princi- spring and be derived from this single meaning. To ples of its Author to compile a new Work, nor is any discover this meaning etymological research was inone known to have engaged even in the less glorious, dispensable; and the results of such research have but still arduous enterprise, of systematically reform- been stated, with conciseness it is true, yet with a fuling and remoulding the old. Supplements and addi- ness that will enable the more learned reader to form tions to the increase of its bulk, have been collected a judgment for himself, and the path of deeper invesand published; serviceable, it is true, even perhaps for tigation is disclosed to the pursuit of the curious inall intended purposes, but leaving the demand for Aquirer. The explanations are placed distinctly by NEW BOOK as imperative as before. Omnes pænarum themselves, unmixed with the Etymology, to suit the formas hic labor unus habet,' says Scaliger; and the purposes of hasty consultation. home-felt truth of this dreadful note of warning has hitherto, perhaps, deterred all aspirants to the honours of lexicography, who may have ventured (if any such there have been) to make a commencement of their As needful aids to trace the various usages of words from the intrinsic meaning, he has enjoyed and availed himself, not only of the large store of materials collected by Johnson and his Editors, the various sup |