 | Allen Reddick - 1996 - 292 pages
...ADAMS. But, Sir, how can you do this in three years? JOHNSON. Sir, I have no doubt that I can do it in three years. ADAMS. But the French Academy, which...is the proportion of an Englishman to a Frenchman." (James Boswell, The Life of Johnson, anecdote dated 1 748) And Johnson, well arm'd like a hero of yore,... | |
 | Andre Bernard, Clifton Fadiman - 2000 - 808 pages
...his former tutor from Oxford how he would complete his dictionary in three years. The other objected, "But the French Academy, which consists of forty members, took forty years to compile their dictionary." "Sir, thus it is. This is the proportion. Let me see; forty times forty is sixteen hundred. As is three... | |
 | Janet Sorensen - 2000 - 350 pages
...forty members had taken forty years, "Let me see; forty times forty is sixteen hundred. As three is to sixteen hundred, so is the proportion of an Englishman to a Frenchman." James Boswell, The Life of Samuel Johnson, ed. Bergen Evans (New York: The Modern Library, 1965), p.... | |
 | Timothy Wilson-Smith - 2004 - 174 pages
...Johnson proposed to finish his work in just three years. When challenged on the topic, he remarked: Let me see; forty times forty is sixteen hundred....three to sixteen hundred, so is the proportion of a Frenchman to an Englishman.''1 It would be misleading, however, to think that he did not 40 OTHER... | |
 | Oxford Historical Society (Oxford, England) - 1897 - 588 pages
...ADAMS : But, Sir, how can you do it in three years? JOHNSON: Sir, I have no doubt that I can do it in three years. ADAMS : But the French Academy, which...is the proportion of an Englishman to a Frenchman. With so much ease and pleasantry could he talk of that prodigious labour which he had undertaken to... | |
 | 1836 - 778 pages
...forty years to the compilation of their Dictionary, " Sir,'' said Johnson, " this is the proportion : forty times forty is sixteen hundred; as three to...is the proportion of an Englishman to a Frenchman." Very truly yours, St. John's, July 2. TG PS — In concluding this subject, T take the opportunity... | |
 | 1904 - 314 pages
...took forty years to compile their dictionary, while Johnson was expected to finish his in three : " Sir, thus it is. This is the proportion. Let me see : forty times forty is sixteen hundred. As three is to sixteen hundred, so is the proportion of an Englishman to a Frenchman." Without any aid from... | |
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ADAMS. But, Sir, how can you do this in three years ? JOHNSON. Sir, I have no doubt that I can do it in three years. ADAMS. But the French Academy, which consists of forty members, took forty years to compile their Dictionary. 
