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Johnson's dictionary and the language of learning.

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From: National Review
Date: 19870227
Author:Tate, J.O.

Johnson's Dictionary and the Language of Learning

by Robert DeMaria Jr.(North Carolina, 303 pp., $25)

THOMAS CARLYLE claimed that "HadJohnson left nothing but his Dictionary, one might have traced there a great intellect, a genuine man.' Since then, the "genuine man' has sometimes obscured the "great intellect.' We tend too often to dismiss the Dictionary with cliches, so that nearly everyone knows Samuel Johnson's definitions of lexicographer ("a harmless drudge') and network ("anything reticulated or decussated, at equal distances, with interstices between the ...

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