First Edition. 4to. 54 leaves, folded printed Table of the different periods of the
German language inserted. On the back of the half-title are extracts (from Young and Ebert) concerning the fact that the letter
is addressed to a woman.
Not in Lowndes.
Not in the Cambridge Bibl. of Eng. Lit.
D. N. B. Vol. V, 110, 13.
Jefferson’s copy was sent to him by the author, to whom he wrote from Monticello on October 30, 1798. “
The copy of your printed letter on the English and German languages, which you have been so kind as to send me, has come to
hand; and I pray you to accept my thanks for this mark of your attention. I have perused it with singular pleasure, and, having
long been sensible of the importance of a knolege of the Northern languages to the true understanding of English, I see it,
in this letter, proved and specifically exemplified by your collations of the English and German. I shall look with impatience
for the publication of your ‘English and American dictionary.’ . . .
"
Your idea is an excellent one, pa. 30. 37. in producing authorities for the meanings of words, ‘to select the prominent passages
in our best writers, to make your dictionary a general index to English literature and thus intersperse with verdure and flowers
the barren deserts of Philology.’ and I believe with you that ‘wisdom, morality, religion, thus thrown down, as if without
intention, before the reader, in quotations, may often produce more effect than the very passages in the books themselves’--‘that
the cowardly suicide, in search of a strong word for his dying letter, might light on a passage which would excite him to
blush at his want of fortitude, & to force his purpose’--‘and that a dictionary with examples at the words may, in regard
to every branch of knolege, produce more real effect than the whole collection of books which it quotes.’ I have sometimes
myself used Johnson as a Repertory, to find favorite passages which I wished to recollect, but too rarely with success.
"
I was led to set a due value on the study of the Northern languages, & especially of our Anglo-Saxon while I was a student
of the law, by being obliged to recur to that source for explanation of a multitude of Law-terms. a preface to Fortescue on
Monarchies, written by Fortescue Aland, and afterwards premised to his volume of Reports, developes the advantages to be derived,
to the English student generally, and particularly the student of law, from an acquaintance with the Anglo-Saxon; and mentions
the books to which the learner may have recourse for acquiring the language. I accordingly devoted some time to it’s study.
but my busy life has not permitted me to indulge in a pursuit to which I felt great attraction. while engaged in it however
some ideas occurred for facilitating the study by simplifying it’s grammar, by reducing the infinite diversities of it’s unfixed
orthography to single and settled forms, indicating at the same time the pronunciation of the word by it’s correspondence
with the characters & powers of the English alphabet. some of these ideas I noted at the time on the blank leaves of my Elstob’s
Anglo-Saxon grammar: but there I have left them, and must leave them, unpursued, altho I still think them sound & useful.
among the works which I propose for the use of the A. S. student, you will find such literal & verbal translations of the
A. S. writers recommended, as you have given us of the German in your printed letter. thinking that I cannot submit those
ideas to a better judge than yourself, and that if you find them of any value you may put them to some use, I will copy them
as a sequel to this letter, & commit them without reserve to your better knolege of the subject. adding my sincere wishes
for the speedy publication of your valuable dictionary, I tender you the assurance of my high respect and consideration.
”
[The copy of this letter in Jefferson’s hand is headed:
Copied by hand; the press copy being illegible.] The sequel referred to by Jefferson was his Essay on Anglo-Saxon, see no. 4836.
There are several references to America in this work and one to Jefferson. The third entry in the Index reads:
Adams, President, style of his publications, 2. n. (Mr. Jefferson should have been mentioned)
The note on page 2 reads:
The future history of the other three quarters of the world will, probably, be much affected by America’s speaking the language
of England. Its natives write the language particularly well; considering they have no dictionary yet, and how insufficient
Johnson’s is. Washington’s speeches seldom exhibited more than a word or two, liable to the least objection; and, from the
style of his publications, as much, or more accuracy, may be expected from his
