or
that the word did not exist in English till the middle of last
century. The French sometimes complain that the fashion of suicide
was borrowed from England. It would seem at all events probable
that the word was so borrowed.

Let me urge here the advantage of a complete collection, or one as
nearly complete as the industry of the collectors would allow, of
all the notices in our literature, which mark, and would serve as
dates for, the first incoming of new words into the language.
These notices are of the most various kinds. Sometimes they are
protests and remonstrances, as that just quoted, against a new
word's introduction; sometimes they are gratulations at the same;
while many hold themselves neuter as to approval or disapproval,
and merely state, or allow us to gather, the fact of a word's
recent appearance. There are not a few of these notices in
Richardson's _Dictionary_: thus one from Lord Bacon under 'essay';
from Swift under 'banter'; from Sir Thomas Elyot under
'mansuetude'; from Lord Chesterfield under 'flirtation'; from
Davies and Marlowe's _Epigrams_ under 'gull'; from Roger North
under 'sham' (Appendix); the third quotation from Dryden under
'mob'; one from the same under 'philanthropy', and again under
'witticism', in which he claims the authorship of the word; that
from Evelyn under 'miss'; and from Milton under 'demagogue'. There
are also notices of the same kind in _Todd's Johnson_. The work,
however, is one which no single scholar could hope to accomplish,
which could only be accomplished by many lovers of their native
tongue throwing into a common stock the results of their several
studies. The sources from which these illustrative passages might
be gathered cannot beforehand be enumerated, inasmuch as it is
difficult to say in what unexpected quarter they would not
sometimes be found, although some of these sources are obvious
enough. As a very slight sample of what might be done in this way
by the joint contributions of many, let me throw together
references to a few passages of the kind which I do not think have
found their way into any of our dictionaries. Thus add to that
which Richardson has quoted on 'banter', another from _The
Tatler_, No. 230. On 'plunder' there are two inst