Title Page

The title page provides an overview of the material covered by Johnson's Dictionary including the grammar, the history, and the literary usage of each word. The book was published in London in 1755 by W. Strahan, a publisher of noted authors such as Adam Smith and Edward Gibbon, for J. and P Knapton; T. and T. Longman; C. Hitch and L. Hawes; A. Millar; and R. and J. Dodsley who were the principle financiers of the creation of Johnson's Dicitonary. 

The page also contains an excerpt from Horace, a noted Roman author who lived in the Augustan Golden Age of Roman authors. The selection from Book II of Horace's Epitstles references the creative process of editing and refining literature. Johnson uses this as an introduction to his dictionary which is the culmination of his form of literary expression written in the spirit of Horacian endeavor. 

"But whoever wants to write a genuine poem, 
Will adopt, with his pen, the role of a true critic:
Whichever of his words are lacking in clarity,
Insufficiently weighty, unworthy of respect,
He’ll dare to erase them, though they’ll go unwillingly,
And they’ll still float about in Vesta’s sanctuary:
So a good poet can unearth and bring to the light
For us, beautiful names, long hidden, for things,
Though once spoken by Cato, or by Cethegus, 
And now buried by hideous neglect and dull age."