It was a noble thought, and produced a noble work--a
work which filled an original vacancy. In France, a National Academy had
undertaken a similar work; but this English giant had accomplished his
labors alone. The amount of reading necessary to fix and illustrate his
definitions was enormous, and the book is especially valuable from the apt
and varied quotations from English authors. He established the language,
as he found it, on a firm basis in signification and orthography. He laid
the foundation upon which future lexicographers were to build; but he was
ignorant of the Teutonic languages, from which so much of the structure
and words of the English are taken, and thus is signally wanting in the
scientific treatment of his subject. This is not to his discredit, for the
science of language has had its origin in a later and modern time.
Perhaps nothing displays more fully the proud, sturdy, and self-reliant
character of the man, than the eight years of incessant and unassisted
labor upon this work.
His letter to Lord Chesterfield, declining his tardy patronage, after
experiencing his earlier neglect, is a model of severe and yet respectful
rebuke, and is to be regarded as one of the most significant events in his
history.
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