ABSTRACT
Dictionary [wheat]; of which grain the great city of Lisbon never receives, even in the most favourable years, more than a third part of the native growths for its annual consumptien; and I believe I may say near the same proportion is wanting of barley, for the feeding of their horses, mules, and other cattle. Its great conquests in both Indies, its establishments in several parts of the coasts of Africa, and its possessions of the Azores, Madeira, and Cape V erd islands, had for a
IZ Boswell, Lzfe of Johnson, i. 359. Although Johnson supplied the Preface to Rolt's Dictionary, and may have been as adept at cutting and pasting as Rolt was, we have his own testimony that he was not familiar with the work. Boswell, astounded at the knowledge of the subject displayed in the Preface, asks Johnson whether he knew of Rolt or the work. Johnson's response is unequivocal: "'Sir, (said he) I never saw the man, and never read the book. The booksellers wanted a Preface to a Dictionary of Trade and Commerce. I knew very well what such a Dictionary should be, and I wrote a Preface accordingly."' While my argument cannot definitively deny that someone other than Rolt may have used his Dictionary entries, or the sources from which they were derived, to create the Universal Visiter essays in question, Samuel Johnson appears not to have been that person.
