Smith, SIR WILLIAM, eminent for his advancement of classical and biblical learning, was born in London in 1813, distinguished himself highly in Greek and Latin in the examinations of the university of London, and went through the course of law at Gray's Inn. But he began the real work of his life in 1840 with the publication of editions of the Apology, Phædo, and Crito, of Plato, and the Agricola, Germania, and part of the Annals of Tacitus. His great Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities appeared in 1840-42, and was only superseded by its own third edition in 1891 (2 vols.). The Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (3 vols. 1843-49) followed, and this magnificent series of classical handbooks was concluded by the Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (2 vols. 1853-57). Their learned editor next turned, and with still more striking success, to the task of preparing a series of smaller classical dictionaries for schools; and some years later still achieved further successes with his well-known series, Principia Latina and Initia Græca, on a method extended also to German and Italian. Students' manuals of history formed the next series of books he edited, including Greece, Rome, France, Hume, and Hallam. His complete edition of Gibbon's Decline and Fall appeared in 1854 (8 vols.); his serviceable Latin-English Dictionary in 1855; the Student's Latin Grammar in 1863; the Manual of English Literature in 1864; and the English-Latin Dictionary in 1870.
Another monumental group of works is his series of theological dictionaries: the famous Dictionary of the Bible (3 vols. 1860-63; new ed. 1893); A Dictionary of Christian Antiquities, in conjunction with Archdeacon Cheetham (2 vols. 1875-80); and A Dictionary of Christian Biography, Literature, Sects, and Doctrines during the first eight Centuries, in conjunction with Dr Wace (4 vols. 1877-87). He became editor of the Quarterly Review in 1867, held the D.C.L. of Oxford (1870) and other honorary degrees, and was knighted in 1892. He died on the 7th October 1893.