Samuel Johnson should be living at this hour

[1979Alena]

Помогите, плз, перевести

[lesdn]

Контекст,
Dictionaries are like watches; the worst is better than none, and the best cannot be expected to go quite true.

Samuel Johnson should be living at this hour; the English language has need of him. Though he was never at a loss for words, the great lexicographical drudge would probably be confounded to read the new Random House Webster's College Dictionary. It is bugled as "the New Definition of Dictionary," the "newest, biggest and best."

Жаль, что Самюэля Джонсона нет с нами сейчас.
На правах варианта

[alk]

http://www.answers.com/main/ntquery?s=Samuel+Johnson&gwp=13
...
He had modest success writing poems, political essays and plays during the 1740s, but after his publication of A Dictionary of the English Language (1755) he was a national sensation.
...

Ему следовало бы ожить (чтобы даже он в конце концов пришел в замешательство от такого огромного словаря).

[triplet]

lesdn+1
Жаль, что он не дожил до этого часа

[nephew]

видел бы это...