The hand: its mechanism and vital endowments as evincing design / [Sir Charles Bell].

  • Bell, Charles, Sir, 1774-1842.
Date:
1834
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The hand: its mechanism and vital endowments as evincing design / [Sir Charles Bell]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    every quotation given ; that it is cheap ; and that the publisher engages to de- liver all parts beyond thirty free of expense. No library should be without it.”— Christian Remembrancer. “ This laborious work, of which the two first Parts are before us, is understood to be completed in the manuscript; the subscriber, therefore, incurs no risk of disappointment from the non-accomplishment of the design. Of the care and diligence bestowed in getting up the New Dictionary we are prepared to speak in the highest praise. The paper is good, the type remarkably clear, the size convenient, in every respect becoming a work of national importance. The radical word with its derivatives, is placed at the head of the meaning, of the etymological derivation and of the quotations, by which their usages are illus- trated. These quotations are selected and digested in the chronological order of the writers appealed to, so that one, with common sagacity, may trace the changes through which a word has passed down to its modern acceptation. The primitive signification is thus made to give a strength and clearness to our own perception of the word. We remember when it was the custom to characterize a dull heavy work by the remark, “ I would as soon read a Dictionary through.” We may now say, without drawing upon the truth, that we have a Dictionary surpassing in entertainment and knowledge most books. The deep research and extensive reading which have amassed this wealth of quotations, make us acquainted with stores of thought, hitherto buried in the dust of time, or acces- sible only to the favoured few. The divines, the poets, the dramatists, the philo- sophers, the historians, who have helped to build up the noble fabric of our language, are made in short but appropriate sentences, to give us their own literary portraits; and, if style be an index to character, and expression to thought, we have here a fine opportunity of comparing age with age, not only in its literary, but also in its intellectual features. We add, that no deeper stain could be marked upon our national reputation, than that such a work, so grand in its design, and so perfect in its execution, should meet with indifference, or even with partial success.”—Gloucestershire Chronicle. “ The Fourth Division [Ency. Met.] is so much like an ordinary Encyclo- paedia in its scheme and contents, that it would not detain us a single moment were it not for the English Dictionary which is incorporated with it. It is an undertaking of immense labour ; and notwithstanding all the aid which may be derived from Johnson and other lexicographers, it cannot fail to prove an Her- culean task. If the compiler persevere, and finish as he has begun, we have no doubt the English Dictionary will soon be called for in a separate form.”—British Critic, Oct. 1818. “ This is certainly one of the most interesting parts of the volume before us ; we mean as to the Lexicon: it is apparently executed with care; possesses a con- siderable degree of novelty in the arrangement of the radicals and derivatives ; and is rendered both amusing and instructive by the number of appropriate quo- tations from the earliest poets, chroniclers, and historians, down to the latest and most approved writers in the English language, with the exception of all living authors. The citations afford a very pleasing illustration of the progressive changes in the language, and the almost directly opposite signification which we now attach to some words, when compared with the import which they were at first intended to convey. We make one extract from an example taken at random, to manifest the nature of the arrangement of this instructive part of the work. We regret that it has not been kept distinct.”—Monthly Review, June, 1819. “ We are inclined to consider the English language as having attained that fulness of maturity which leaves no wish for increase, but only anxiety for pre- servation, As helps to this, we have the various acceptations, in which every word has been used by approved writers, collected by Mr. Richardson, in a Dictionary, such as, perhaps, no other language could ever boast : and we have a new guide for the theory and use of languages, exemplifying his (Horne Tooke’s) principles, by applying them to our own tongue.”—Quarterly Review for March, 1827. Alluding to the portions published in the Encyclopaedia Metropolitana, the Reviewer of Dr. Webster observes—• “ Let the valuable contributions to an improved Dictionary by Mr. Richardson, in which he has embodied many of the principles of Tooke, be compared with the corresponding articles in the Dictionary of Dr. Johnson, and it will be seen how much lexicography owes to the Diversions ofPurley.”—Westminster Review, Jan. 1831. WILLIAM PICKERING, PUBLISHER, CHANCERY LANE, LONDON.