Part 6 (1/2)

Webster inculcated his views on orthography and pronunciation upon all occasions He wrote, he lectured, he pressed home his doctrines upon persons and assemblies He was one of the first to perceive the i-houses Long after the ti he continued to act as a y The present printer of ”Webster's Dictionary” re at the case in Burlington, Vermont, a little pale-faced , ”My lad, when you use these words, please obligethem as here: _theater_, _center_,” etc It was Noah Webster traveling about a people to spell as he did: a better illustration could not be found of the refor his purpose

His conteressive a spirit was a them His doctrines were discussed in society and in print The F ? ? Society at Yale debated upon the adoption of Webster's orthography, deciding in 1792 in favor of it, and reversing their decision in 1794 Webster, by the as not unee, he iven to the author of the coed best by the faculty; but the foundation does not appear to have been per-offices to secure a conforraphy, so in the earlier years he had directed his arguments at the schools In 1798 he published ”A Letter to the Governors, Instructors, and Trustees of the Universities, and other Se in the United States, on the Errors of English Grammar,” from which I have already quoted; and appeals to these , to free theland ”It will be honorable to us as a nation, and ue and to science, that we exaes before we adopt them, and reject all such as have not obvious propriety for their foundation or utility for their object”

Webster's studies had thus been gravitating toward lexicography, and the habits of mind which had been confirmed in his various pursuits were precisely such as would serve best the purpose which he was gradually for Dr Chauncey Goodrich, in the memoir which is prefixed to the Dictionary, remarks upon certain habits for fixed principles, were of inestie in his labors afterward While his reat hoarder of documents and e; he accustoence in literary toil, and he was perpetually going back of facts to the principles which he thought to underlie them

It had been his custo, and failed to find in dictionaries, and his labors upon the Spelling-Book and Gra and defining, and had also disclosed to him the deficiencies in that respect of current dictionaries In 1806 he published ”A Coe,” in which he announced, with an aed,” that it contained five thousand lish compends The Dictionary was rendered stillunder its protection various tables of hts, an official list of all the post-offices in the United States, the number of inhabitants in the several States, and new and instructive chronological tables This, by the as the first occasion, I think, when a word-book had departed from the customary boundaries of such literature I have been able to find but one precedent, Dyche and Pardon's Dictionary, which, published a few years before, had contained a suppleed alphabetically, and apparently only as a museum of curiosities This Dictionary had, however, as a part of its regular text the several eneral description of the places, their situation, overnment, manufacture, number of representatives sent to parliament, and distance from London The encyclopaedic features of a dictionary are clearly of Aeneral and exclusive use of the Dictionary as a book of reference, and increased by the suggestions of coement of Entick, and in this preliminary work Webster exercised very little authority in deviating froes is indicated in his preface:--

”In a few instances I have preferred the orthography of Newton, Prideaux, Hook, Dryden, Whiston, etc, to that of Johnson, as being lish, as _scepter_, _sepulcher_ In o _u_ in _honour_ and a feords of that class I have pursued a common practice in this country, authorized by the principle of unifory, as well as by Ash's Dictionary In o _k_ after _c_ [as in _public_] I have unequivocal propriety and the present usage for radually purifying the orthography from its corruptions Thus, Edwards in his 'History of the West Indies,' and Gregory in his 'Economy of Nature,' Pope, Hoole, etc, restore _; and it would be no s of _aker_ Cullen, in his translation of 'Clavigero,' follows Bacon and Davenport in the true Saxon orthography of _drouth_; and the elegant Blackstone has corrected the orthography of _nusance_ and _duchy_ The diphthongs in words borrowed fro into desuetude for a century; the fehich renus Apollo of lexicographers then, and his bulky fae shadow over the world of words To rebel against his autocratic rule at the beginning of this century was to write one's self down an audacious and presu, therefore, that Webster's criticism of Johnson in this Dictionary and in other places should have exposed him to censure Dr

Ramsay of Charleston, a man of consequence in his day, wrote hiainst any A in that city” The letter gave Webster his opportunity, and he at once wrote and published his vigorous pa the ”Errors in Johnson's Dictionary and other Lexicons,” which is addressed to Dr Ramsay He takes a very lofty view of the situation ”The intelligence,” he writes, of this resentment in Charleston, ”is not wholly unexpected, for similar prejudices have been manifested in soht attention the history of nations, in their advances from barbarism to civilization and science, cannot be surprised at the strength of prejudices long established and never disturbed Few centuries have elapsed sinceNEW TRUTHS; and not two centuries have past since Galileo was i the truth of the Copernican System, condemned to do penance for three years, and his book burnt at Roerous and damnable heresies This example is cited as one of a multitude which the history of ree_, it accords in _principle_, with the case now before the A the value of Johnson's ethical writings, but distrusting his philological attainood his objections by detailed specifications He condemns the insertion of a e, ners as _adversable_, _advesperate_, _adjugate_, _agriculation_, _abstrude_, _injudicable_, _spicosity_, _crapulence_, _erous_, _tenebrosity_, _balbucinate_, _illachrymable_, etc, words to which the reader , but which he would be slow to introduce into his speech or writing Then he condemns Johnson's reference to writers of the seventeenth century who buried their thoughts beneath cues as:--

”The intire or broken _conetical fabric;” ”The effects of their activity are not precipitously _abrupted_, but gradually proceed to their cessations;” ”Some have written rhetorically and _concessively_, not controverting, but assued the illation;” ”Its fluctuations are but motions subservient, which winds, shelves, and every interjacency _irregulates_;” passages given as illustrative of the words italicized

”From a careful exae, I am inclined to believe that Johnson's authority hasthe nue Let any man of correct taste cast his eye on such words as _denominable_, _opiniatry_, _ariolation_, _assation_, _ataraxy_, _clancular_, _comminuible_, _conclusible_, _dedentition_, _deuteroscopy_, _digladiation_, _dignotion_, _cubiculary_, _discubitory_, _exolution_, _exeuterate_, _incoitate_, etc, and let hiives thousands of such ter In the 'English-Dutch Dictionary' of Willcocke, we find the compiler has translated _ariolation_, _clancular_, _denomiable_, _coer,' we see _digladiation_, _dignotion_, _exeuterate_, etc, turned into German These, or similar words, are by Neuman translated into Spanish, and where the mischief ends it is ilish taste and erudition, when they are told that their dictionaries contain thousands of such words which are not used by the English nation!”

Webster's next point is that Johnson has exceeded the bounds of legitiar and cant words ”It rapher to insert and define all words found in English books: then such words as _fishi+fy_, _jackalent_, _paritilish words! Alas, had a native of the United States introduced such vulgar words and offensive ribaldry into a similar work, what coluainst the wretch who could thus sully his book and corrupt the language!” He criticises the accuracy hich Johnson has discriminated the different senses of the same word, and words nearly synonymous The illustrative quotations which bear so much of the praise bestowed upon Johnson's Dictionary he declares to be one of the most exceptionable features, both because no small number of the exae with purity, and because a still larger nuht upon the definitions, and are frequently entirely unnecessary He cites on this last point the passages under the word _alley_, five in all, from Spenser, Bacon, Milton, Dryden, and Pope ”Does any reader of English want all these authorities to show the word to be legitimate? Far from it, nineteen twentieths of all our words are so coitiiven is by no means the most exceptionable for the number of authorities cited The author sometimes offers thirty or forty lines to illustrate words which every man, woman, and child understands as well as Johnson Thirty-five lines of exemplification under the word _froth_, for exa the word as would be the sae of the Six Nations”

His final charge rests on the inaccuracy of the etyenerally considered the least important part of a dictionary the subject has been little investigated, and is very imperfectly understood, even by men of science Johnson scarcely entered the threshold of the subject He consulted chiefly Junius and Skinner; the latter of as not possessed of learning adequate to the investigation, and Junius, like Vossius, Scaliger, and ists on the Continent, labored to deduce all languages frolected the principal sources of information, which were to be found only in the north of Europe, and in the west of Ireland and Scotland In another particular they all failed of success; they never discovered some of the principal modes in which the primitive radical words were combined to form the more modern co remains to be done_ I can assure the American public that the errors in Johnson's Dictionary are ten times as numerous as they suppose; and that the confidence now reposed in its accuracy is the greatest injury to philology that now exists I can assure them further that if any man, whatever may be his abilities in other respects, should attempt to compile a new dictionary, or ay, he will unquestionably do as ood”

A few years later Webster found an opportunity to attack the general subject of lexicography from another side, and one intimately connected with his special work In 1816 Hon John Pickering published ”A Vocabulary, or Collection of Words and Phrases which have been supposed to be peculiar to the United States of America To which is prefixed an Essay on the Present State of the English Language in the United States;” he had cited Webster upon various words and plainly was ai at him in his preface, when he declared that ”in this country, as in England, we have thirsty reformers and presumptuous sciolists, ould unsettle the whole of our ad it conform to their whimsical notions of propriety” Webster at once addressed a letter in print to Pickering, and took up weapons, offensive and defensive, with alacrity and confidence

”This is a heavy accusation, Sir, froentleman of your talents, liberality, and candor,” he writes ”Sciolists we may have in multitudes; but who are the e? Can you naland? Surely the finger of scorn ought to be pointed at the h to attee I am confident, Sir, that deliberate reflection will induce you to retract a charge so injurious to your fellow-citizens It certainly becomes you, and the character you maintain in society, to learn the distinction between an attee is, and an attempt to unsettle its principles Whether you number me with the thirsty reformers and presumptuous sciolists is a fact which I shall take no pains to discover, nor, if knoould the fact give me the smallest concern” Webster's hand trerows firoes on ”My studies have been soy, for the exclusive purpose of ascertaining and unfolding its principles, correcting abuses, and supplying the defect of rules in our elementary treatises In the course of my researches I have discovered a multitude of errors and false principles, and numerous defects in such treatises; and as I have pushed my inquiries probably much farther than any other man, I am satisfied that the evidence I can lay before the public will convince you that there is a rich lish friends have never yet discovered” He takes up Pickering's Vocabulary and rapidly criticises the several entries; he renews his criticis part of the pamphlet is his stout advocacy of the clairow out of their own conditions The English language was a coland and Ae, Alishrowth; nay, that the Alish, but a variation; not a departure froland, but an independent branch from a common stock

”Neords should not be introduced into a copious language without reason, nor contrary to its analogies But a living language e, and with the multiplication of ideas Those ould entirely restrain the practice of using neords seem not to consider that the limit they now prescribe would have been as just and rational, a thousand or two thousand years ago, as it is at this period If it should be said, we have words enough to express all our ideas, it may be truly answered, so had our ancestors when they left the plains of Germany; or when they first crossed the hellespont; or when they left the soil of Persia And what then? Would the words they then used be now sufficient for our purpose And who can define the bounds of future ie that men have not yet as much to learn as they have already learnt? The smallest acquaintance with the history of huht to silence the critics on this subject

”Nor are we to believe that two nations inhabiting countries separated by a wide ocean can preserve a perfect unifore If a perfect uniformity cannot be produced or preserved in two distant counties in England, how is this object to be effected between the English in Great Britain and their descendants in America, India, or New Holland? Let history answer the question The art of printing, interchange of books, and coress of mutation and diversities; but no huuage to diversities of condition and ie is like the motion of a broad river, which floith a slow, silent, irresistible current”

He turns the tables on a writer who points out Alish barbaris into use, and declares that in the use of language one nation as well as the other will coain to his position that Ae are not to wait passively upon English authority

”I venerate,” he says, ”the s; I venerate the literature, the laws, the institutions, and the charities of the land of my fathers But I deprecate the effects of a blind acquiescence in the opinions ofthat con press My n authors, which stifles inquiry, restrains investigation, benuor of the intellectual faculties, subdues and debases the enius in Ae with the salish writers, and the same confidence in their opinions, which most of my countrymen now possess, and I adopted their errors without examination After many years of research, I am compelled to withdraw much of that confidence, and to look with astonishment upon the errors and false principles which they have propagated; some of them of far more consequence than any which have been ood terlish; it is my interest and the interest of my fellow-citizens to treat them as friends and brethren But I will be neither frowned nor ridiculed into error, and a servile imitation of practices which I know or believe to be corrupt I will examine subjects for myself, and endeavor to find the truth, and to defend it, whether it accords with English opinions or not If I must measure swords with their travelers and their reviewers, on the subject under consideration, I shall not decline the coenius and character of lish authors, and their unhesitating submission to their opinions, their derision, and their frowns But I trust the tilish will be convinced that the intellectual faculties of their descendants have not degenerated in America; and that we can contend with them in LETTERS with as norant, Sir, of the narrowness of the sphere which I now occupy Secluded, in a great measure, from the world, with small means, and no adventitious aid froe to extend my influence, and powerful enmities to circu to counter-act a current of opinion? Yet I am not accustoree to the instruction of at least four eneration; and it is not unreasonable to expect that a few seeds of irow and ripen into valuable fruit, when led with the dust” A note is added, in which Webster with grave banter offers a suit of clothes to any English or A the little word _by_, stating its prinification and its true sense in its several uses and applications

The spirit hich Webster defended himself was ahad improved the temper of his weapons He was keener in his thrusts, more dexterous and supple, and comported himself in these disputes as a man entirely confident of his position It is not vanity which upholds asilently year after year at a task ridiculed by his neighbors and denounced by his ene better to sustain hih purpose, and an ai more clearly understood by himents of others There was in the outward circu which testifies to the sincerity and worth of his purpose He had withdrawn hiht free himself from encumbrances in his work, and with his love of society this was no light thing to do His family ith hi with hi attendants of his life!

FOOTNOTES:

[13] In the possession of Rev R C Waterston

[14] ”The first by Sir Thomas Smith, secretary of state to Queen Elizabeth; another by Dr Gill, a celebrated master of St Paul's School in London; another by Mr Charles Butler, ent so far as to print his book in his proposed orthography; several in the tie, Mr Elphinstone has published a treatise in a very ridiculous orthography”

CHAPTER VII

AN AMERICAN DICTIONARY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE

At the close of the Preface to his Compendious Dictionary, Webster announced his intention of co a full and co the objections which candid friends ht raise, he added: ”From a different class of men, if such are to be found, whose criticism would sink the literature of this country even lower than the distorted representations of foreign reviewers,--whose veneration for transatlantic authors leads them to hold American writers in unmerited contempt,--from such men I neither expect nor solicit favor However arduous the task, and however feeble h conviction of the necessity and i has overcome my fears and objections, and determined me to n authors which fascinates the minds of men in this country and holds theation of this subject great labor is to be sustained, and numberless difficulties encountered; but with a humble dependence on Divine favor for the preservation of ence, and execute it with a fidelity suited to its importance”