Birkbeck Hill, i. 294);
although it must be admitted that these have come to be among the
famous spots of the Dictionary, and have given gentle amusement to
thousands, to whom it has been a delight to see 'human nature' too
strong for lexicographic decorum.
[15] In some cases, long Lists of the Authors, from whose works 'the
illustrative quotations have been selected,' are given, without the
statement that many of those quotations have not actually been
selected from the authors and works named, but have merely been
annexed from Johnson or one of his supplementers.
[16] The famous _Deutsches Woerterbuch_ of Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm,
after many years of preparation, began to be printed in 1852; Jacob
Grimm himself died in 1863, in the middle of the letter F; the work is
expected to reach the end of S by the close of the century. The great
_Woordenboek der Nederlandsche Taal_ was commenced in 1852; its first
volume, _A--Ajuin_, was published in 1882, and it is not yet quite
half-finished. Of the new edition of the _Vocabolario della Crusca_,
which is to a certain extent on historical principles, Vol. I,
containing A, was published in 1863, and Vol. VIII, completing I, in
1899; at least twenty-five more years will be required to reach Z.
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