sb70012
Senior Member
- Joined
- Jun 19, 2013
- Member Type
- Interested in Language
- Native Language
- Persian
- Home Country
- Iran
- Current Location
- Iran
In 1747 Johnson published the plan of his Dictionary, and the next seven years were occupied in compiling it-although he had
been sanguine enough to count on finishing it in three years. When in 1748 Dr. Adams, a friend from Oxford days questioned his ability to carry out such a work alone in so short time, and reminded him that the Dictionary of the French Academy had been compiled by forty academicians working for forty years, Johnson replied with humorous jingoism: “ Sir, thus it is. This is the proportion. Let me see; forty times forty is sixteen hundred. As three to sixteen hundred, so is the proportion of an Englishman to a Frenchman.”
Source: The Norton Anthology of English Literature, Samuel Johnson (1709-1784)
Hello teachers,
I know the meanings of each word but I can’t get the main goal of the bold written part.
What does Johnson want to say by these words? I really can’t understand the bold written part.
Thanks in advance.
been sanguine enough to count on finishing it in three years. When in 1748 Dr. Adams, a friend from Oxford days questioned his ability to carry out such a work alone in so short time, and reminded him that the Dictionary of the French Academy had been compiled by forty academicians working for forty years, Johnson replied with humorous jingoism: “ Sir, thus it is. This is the proportion. Let me see; forty times forty is sixteen hundred. As three to sixteen hundred, so is the proportion of an Englishman to a Frenchman.”
Source: The Norton Anthology of English Literature, Samuel Johnson (1709-1784)
Hello teachers,
I know the meanings of each word but I can’t get the main goal of the bold written part.
What does Johnson want to say by these words? I really can’t understand the bold written part.
Thanks in advance.