Lexicography is a chastening as well as an illuminating and fascinating art.

Neither is a dictionary a bad book to read. There is no cant in it, no excess of explanation, and it is full of suggestion,-the raw material of possible poems and histories.

The dictionary is a closed system in which someone interested in the meaning of a word can go around and around and end up exactly where he started, simply because words are defined in terms of other words, and these, in turn, are defined in terms of still other words.

When I feel inclined to r,ead poetry I take down my Dictionary. The poetry of words is quite as beautiful as that of sentences. The author may arrange the gems effectively, but their shape and lustre have been given by the attrition of ages.

Lexicographer: a writer of dictionaries, a harmless drudge.

Of course, one dictionary is as good as another to most people, who use them for spellers and bet-set-tiers and accessories to crossword puzzles and Scrabble games.

Dictionaries are like watches; the worst is better than none, and the best cannot be expected to go quite true.