A

REPLY

то

MESSRS. G. & C. MERRIAM'S ATTACK

UPON THE

CHARACTER OF DR. WORCESTER

AND

HIS DICTIONARIES.

BOSTON:

JENKS, HICKLING AND SWAN. ·

1854.

1903 SAMBRIDGE, VASS From

Greenleaf Extiri.

STEREOTYPED BY

HOBART & ROBBINS;

NEW ENGLAND TYPE AND STEREOTYPE FOUNDERY,

BOSTON.

WORCESTER'S DICTIONARIES.

We have recently received from a friend in Ohio a pamphlet issued by Messrs. G. & C. Merriam, of Springfield, Mass., containing a gross and vulgar attack upon the character of Joseph E. Worcester, LL.D., and his Dictionaries. To those who enjoy a personal acquaintance with Dr. Worcester, the statements contained in it will excite only compassion for the authors; but, as we are informed that the pamphlet has been extensively circulated throughout the Western States, and in sections of the country where Dr. Worcester is personally unknown, it becomes necessary, in justice both to him and ourselves, that we should examine some of the statements, and expose the falsity of them.

The attack upon the character of Dr. Worcester commences with a letter from Messrs. G. & C. Merriam, which occupies about fourteen octavo pages, purporting to be addressed to one Mr. L. P. Frost, from which we extract only the first paragraph, as follows:

MR. FROST.

66

Springfield, May, 1853.

DEAR SIR: Your favor of the 30th of March was duly received. We have also before us a copy of the pamphlet to which you refer, and beg leave to say a few things in regard to its statements. To begin with the end: its authors speak of their regret that gratuitous and unfounded assaults upon Worcester's Dictionaries" render it necessary for them to employ instrumentalities for which they seem conscious an apology is necessary. We will state the facts. In 1828, Dr. Webster, after twenty or thirty years' assiduous labor, published his AMERICAN DICTIONARY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE, in 2 vols. 4to. In the previous year, 1827, an edition of Todd's Johnson's Dictionary, 1 vol. 8vo., was published in Boston, of which Mr. Worcester was the American editor. Having the entire control of the matter, he retained the k in words terminating in c, as musick, physick, almanack, &c., and the u in honour, favour, authour, and that large class of words; Dr. Webster omitted both these, as music, favor, &c., and they constitute a very large and important class of the words in regard to which he departed from the then prevalent orthography. Shortly subsequent to this, Mr. Worcester was employed by Dr. Webster or his family to prepare an Abridgment of the American Dictionary—the present 8vo., published by Messrs. Harpers, for which he was paid $2000. It may be supposed he acquired some skill in dictionary-making by his labor. Some fifteen or eighteen years

subsequent to this, and very soon after Dr. Webster's death, and not till then, we believe, -and after Webster's 8vo. had acquired deserved celebrity and a wide sale, Mr. Worcester announced his intention to issue a Dictionary himself, of the same size and price, which he shortly did, adopting several of Dr. Webster's peculiarities, omitting the k and u, as above alluded to; but adding that he was "not aware of having taken a single word, or the definition of a word," from Webster, in the preparation of his own work. Yet it is a fact of significance in this connection, that errors in definitions, and in other respects, into which Dr. Webster was inadvertently led in his first, but corrected in subsequent editions, are faithfully found embodied in Worcester.

Before proceeding to controvert the falshoods contained in the foregoing paragraph, we extract, from the 17th and 18th pages of the same pamphlet, the following letter, which the Messrs. Merriam say was "recently received from a distinguished teacher in Eastern Massachusetts." They do not give the name of the writer, or of the place of his residence, but substitute blank lines, as given below:

April 13, 1853.

MESSRS. G. & C. MERRIAM. GENTLEMEN : * * * * I have no doubt of its being the Dictionary of the English Language, when Worcester shall be remembered only as an unworthy and unjust speculation of the past.

Webster's Spelling Book was the class book of my earlier days, and the memory of it is still pleasant, from the Frontispiece, with its Temple of Knowledge, to "Finis."

In later years I came into possession of Webster's smaller School Dictionary, and the feeling of exultation with which I looked over its pages is with me yet. In the language of a justly celebrated teacher of New Hampshire, there was no " tshuing" then, but simple common sense, founded on the use and derivation of the words, in spelling and pronunciation.

Some fourteen or fifteen years since I looked over Webster's Octavo Dictionary with MARSHALL S. RICE, Esq. (for more than twenty-five years an eminently successful teacher in Newton Centre, Mass.), and he selected something more than one hundred words, I should think, the spelling of which was simplified, as compared with Walker, and sent them to the editor of the Boston Cultivator, and they appeared in the columns of that paper, with a note commending Webster's Dictionary. (I think I am right ‍in the name of the paper. I know I am in the fact.)

About that time, or soon after, I heard of Worcester's Dictionary. The story came to me thus; namely, that Worcester was at once the pupil and assistant of Webster, and, seeing that he, Webster, had taken a step in advance of the age, though not in advance of truth, and also that Walker was "behind the time," treacherously went to work, catering to the Walkerian taste of the day, and produced this "bastard dictionary."

Since then, year after year, I have watched the unscrupulous measures with which the publishers of Worcester have pressed their claims to public attention and patronage, striving to defame the fair renown of Webster in their flagitious attempts to "fill their pockets" by foisting a comparatively worthless book upon the public. Editions of all sizes, all prices, and no prices, have been scattered through the community, placed in the hands of teachers, committees, &c., in order to get them introduced into schools. *I am not of age in the school-keeping business, yet, as this is but my eighteenth year of teaching (not 21st), six of which I have passed in connection with the Public High School in this place.

*

The "whining" of Worcester's advocates is with regard to the spelling and pronunciation of a few words which use is every year rendering nearer and nearer, and will soon completely render, Websterian, for the road to reach it is nothing in comparison to that already passed. And, in defining, Webster is infinitely preeminent. When you touch on this point, they are either mum, or yield the point at once.

Respectfully and truly yours,

In another pamphlet before us, issued by these same gentlemen, and purporting to be a letter addressed by them to Dr. Worcester, we find the following axiom: "We take it for granted, that a person quoting, publishing, and circulating opinions and statements made by others, indorses those statements and opinions; or else, disbelieving them, gives currency to what he knows to be falsehood." We assent to the truth of this proposition, and hold Messrs. G. & C. Merriam, by their own rule, responsible for the falsehoods contained in this letter, not only as indorsers, but as principals, at least until they furnish the public with the name of the author. We do not wish even to insinuate that the letter is a malicious fabrication, designed to injure both the moral and literary character of Dr. Worcester, and to affect the sale of his dictionaries; but we venture to assert that no gentleman holding the responsible office of "teacher in Eastern Massachusetts" will be willing to avow himself publicly as the author. We are, however, content to hold the indorsers responsible; and, with a view to expose the falsehoods contained in it, as well as in the preceding extract from the Messrs. Merriam's letter, we invite the attention of the reader to the following statement of facts in relation to the publication both of Worcester's and Webster's Dictionaries.

In 1827, Johnson's English Dictionary, as improved by Todd, and abridged by Chalmers, with Walker's Pronouncing Dictionary combined, was published in Boston, and edited by Dr. Worcester. It will be noticed that the Messrs. Merriam, in order to make it appear that Dr. Worcester had been inconsistent with himself in relation to orthography, say,

In 1827, an edition of Todd's Johnson's Dictionary, 1 vol. 8vo., was published in Boston, of which Mr. Worcester was the American editor. Having the entire control of the matter, he retained the k in words terminating in c, as musick, physick, almanack, &c., and the u in honour, favour, authour, and that large class of words.

This statement is void of truth, as will be seen by the following extract from a pamphlet recently issued by Dr. Worcester himself. He says: