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the language even of the polite world then differed a good deal from accepted English, his English phrases are pretty strongly tinged with Scotticisms. Perhaps he could not well help this.

An instance of great influence exercised by the dictionary-maker is to be found in Johann Cristoph Adelung. He took up the position that the dialect of Upper Saxony (his own) was the standard of the German language, and made a large school of supporters for this view. The question is, whether in this he discovered an absolute truth, or gave effect to his own prejudices? In either view his influence was very great. He made war on the principle which was gaining growth, that any terms, though previously unused, if derivations from existing words in conformity with the genius of the German language, have a legitimate place in it. He fortified his opinions by grammars and treatises; and in the recesses of his Leipzic study made himself an established power in Germany.

Notwithstanding their influence, we apprehend, however, that dictionary-makers are on the whole an oppressed race, doomed to more than their due share of obscure drudgery. When one of them has with infinite labour brought his work to a conclusion, he shall see another, who is fortunate enough by a slight improvement to make “‘the best,” get all the honours and emoluments of the project. How often do we see in libraries cumbrous dictionaries made by men who are entirely forgotten! A William Robertson has just been mentioned as the author of a universal phrase-book. There are also two thick quarto dictionaries, a Greek and a Hebrew, bearing his name; but he is utterly disavowed by the biographical dictionaries, and. persons asking for him there will find his name not known. Such men as the Stephenses and Ducanges are, to be sure, pretty high in the lists of fame; but every one who looks into what they have done, feels that they have accomplished monuments of labour and of learning which are absolutely stupendous. Possibly dictionary-makers may not have had so uniform a life as one might suppose from their works, and from all we know of them. They may have had their romance at home—may have been crossed in love, and thence driven to dictionarying; may have been involved in domestic tragedies—who can say? The only instance we can call up at this moment of any one of the tribe coming before the public in any flagrant tragedy is Barnaby Brisson, the author of the ponderous dictionary of the civil and canon law, best known by his Latin name of Brissonius. He was hanged, and under rather remarkable circumstances, when the Catholic League had possession of Paris. He thought, poor man! to propitiate his executioners by requesting life enough to finish a work he was employed in; but if any of them had ever encountered the tough intricacies of his dictionary, it is not likely that they would have felt the appeal to be a softening one. Johnson is an exception to the class, in having kept up curiosity and. wonder while he was at work, and drawn attention to his workshop, as to some great artist’s studio. It has been an enigma what made one of his hot, impatient, impulsive temperament write a dictionary, and we offer our solution of the enigma. It was by way of a great mortification of the flesh—a heavy penance to keep down his rebellious temperament. ‘The same thing has been done by many a man of full-blooded, sanguine, impetuous nature, as we read in the histories of the anchorites who have lived on the tops of pillars, or gone into the caves of the desert to feed on pulse, and study, and reflect, and macerate their bodies. So he chained down his restless impetuous spirit to this dictionary. The difference between him and them is, that while they left nothing behind