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.
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