SOURCE: “The Philological Society's New English Dictionary,” in The Dial, Vol. IV, No. 48, April, 1884, pp. 301-304.

In the following review of A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles, Wells praises the breadth of Murray's endeavor, but finds that Murray sometimes sacrifices accuracy in favor of originality.

The age of Elizabeth has been called the Golden Age of English Literature, and that of Queen Anne the Augustan Age. In the absence of other special characteristics to distinguish the present period in Great Britain, we may apply a less euphonious title and call it the Age of Dictionaries. We have had dictionary periods before, but the immediate present is prolific beyond all precedent. The new edition of The Imperial, enlarged by Annandale, was completed a little more than a year ago; the Encyclopædic Dictionary, now in course of publication, is cast in a still larger mould; and Stormonth's Library...