Doing badly what should not be attempted?

[Fred Shapiro]

On Mon, 11 Sep 2006, Joel S. Berson wrote:

> Doesn't make it wrong, either.  Google hits for the full quotation
> with "hinder", about 37.  With "hind", about 91.  How many of the
> latter are due to an editor's having modernized usage?  And
> samueljohnson.com has both--apparently the same j(ack) lynch whose
> name is attached to the Rutgers page with "hinder".
>
> I was just pointing out a difference of opinion; I don't know what
> the authorized version is.  (And it's irrelevant to my needs.)

Just in case anyone is confused by this exchange, let me make clear that
the first edition of Boswell's Life of Johnson uses "hinder," not "hind,"
in this famous quotation.

Fred Shapiro


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