The career of Webster illustrates this truth. He worked alone, and his solitariness was not wholly due to his idiosyncrasies. It was in part the penalty paid by a student of the time. The resolution and self-reliance of an American were his, and so was the individuality. That such enterprises are not now conducted single-handed is owing not to a lack of courage but to the greater complexity of life, the more constant sense of interdependence, the existence of greater solidarity in intellectual pursuits. Webster was unable to believe that a company of scholars could ever be formed who should carry forward a revision of the Bible, and therefore he made the attempt himself. Individual criticism has been abundant ever since, but no one, however learned or popular, has ever been able to impress his work upon the community. The most carefully organized body of scholars submits the results of its ten years' conference to the votes of the world. The history of Webster's Dictionary is parallel with the growth of national life out of individualism.
INDEX.
Adams, John and Abigail, letters of, compared with those of John and Margaret Winthrop, [49].
Adams, J. Q., [22].
Adams, Samuel,
a pet aversion of the Hartford wits, [99], [100].
"Address to the President of the United States, on the subject of his Address," by N. W., [144].
Advertisement of school at Sharon, [10].
Agricultural life as determining social conditions, [13];
its comprehensive character in New England, [14].
Alexandrian Library, N. W.'s views on its destruction, [4].