So far have I been from any care to grace my pages with modern decorations, that I have studiously endeavoured to collect examples and authorities from the writers before the restoration, whose works I regard as the wells of English undefiled, as the pure sources of genuine diction. –Preface to A Dictionary of the English Language, Samuel Johnson Based on the passage, what made Johnson’s dictionary innovative? It was the first dictionary to try to restore English to its early form. It was the first dictionary to use modern page decorations. It was the first dictionary to trace word usage by using quotations from authoritative writers. It was the first dictionary to try to correct the writing of past authors.