long intermixture and frequent ufe, by which the ear is accuftomed to the found of words till their original is forgotten, as in equator, fatellites; or of the change of a foreign to an English termination,' and a conformity to the laws of the fpeech into which they are adopted, as in category, cachexy,' peripneumony.

Of thofe which ftill continue in the ftate of aliens, and have made no approaches toward affimilation, fome feem neceffary to be retained, because the purchafers of the Dictionary will expect to find them. Such are many words in the common law, as capias, habeas corpus, præmunire, nifi prius: fuch are fome terms of controverfial divinity, as hypoftafis; and of phyfick, as the names of difeafes; and in general, all terms which can be found in books not written profeffedly upon particular arts, or can be fuppofed neceffary to thofe who do not regularly ftudy them. Thus, when a reader not fkilled in phyfick happens in Milton upon this line,

pining atrophy,

Marafmus, and wide-wafting peftilence,

he will, with equal expectation, look into his dictionary for the word marafmus, as for atrophy, or peftilence; and will have reason to complain if he does not find it..

It feems neceffary to the completion of a dictionany defigned not merely for criticks, but for popular ufe, that it should comprise, in fome degree, the peculiar words of every profeffion; that the terms of war and navigation fhould be inferted, fo far as they can be required by readers of travels, and of history;

hiftory; and thofe of law, merchandise, and mechanical trades, fo far as they can be fuppofed ufeful in the occurrences of common life.

But there ought, however, to be fome diftinction made between the different claffes of words; and therefore it will be proper to print thofe which are. incorporated into the language in the ufual character, and those which are ftill to be confidered as foreign, in the Italick letter.

Another question may arife with regard to appellatives, or the names of fpecies. It feems of no great ufe to fet down the words horfe, dog, cat, willow, alder, daify, rofe, and a thousand others, of which it will be hard to give an explanation, not more obfcure than the word itself. Yet it is to be confidered, that, if the names of animals be inferted,: we muft admit thofe which are more known, as well as those with which we are, by accident, lefs acquainted; and if they are all rejected how will the reader be relieved from difficulties produced by allufions to the crocodile, the chameleon, the ichneumon, and the hyæna? If no plants are to be mentioned the moft pleafing part of nature will be excluded, and many beautiful epithets be unexplained. If only thofe which are lefs known are to be mentioned, who fhall fix the limits of the reader's learning? The importance of fuch explications, appears from the miftakes which the want of them. has occafioned. Had Shakespeare had a dictionary of this kind he had not made the woodbine entwine the honey-fuckle; nor would Milton, with fuch affiftance, have difpofed fo improperly of his ellops and his fcorpion.

Befides,

Befides, as fuch words, like others, require that their accents fhould be fettled, their founds afcertained, and their etymologies deduced, they cannot. be properly omitted in the dictionary. And though the explanations of fome may be cenfured as trivial, because they are almost universally underftood, and thofe of others as unneceffary, because they will feldom occur, yet it feems not proper to omit them, fince it is rather to be wished that many readers fhould find more than they expect, than that one should miss what he might hope to find.

When all the words are felected and arranged, the first part of the work to be confidered is the orthography, which was long vague and uncertain; which at laft, when its fluctuation ceafed, was in many cafes fettled but by accident; and in which, according to your Lordship's obfervation, there is ftill great uncertainty among the beft criticks: nor is it easy to ftate a rule by which we may decide between custom and reafon, or between the equiponderant authorities of writers alike eminent for judgment and accuracy.

The great orthographical conteft has long fubfifted between etymology and pronunciation. It has been demanded, on one hand, that men fhould write as they speak; but as it has been fhewn that this conformity never was attained in any language, and that it is not more eafy to perfuade men to agree exactly in fpeaking than in writing, it may be asked with equal propriety, why men do not rather speak as they write. In France, where this controverfy was at its greatest height, neither party, however ardent, durft adhere fteadily to their own rule; the etymologist

etymologist was often forced to spell with the people; and the advocate for the authority of pronunciation found it fometimes deviating fo capriciously from the received ufe of writing, that he was constrained to comply with the rule of his adver, faries, left he fhould lofe the end by the means, and be left alone by following the crowd.

When a question of orthography is dubious, that practice has, in my opinion, a claim to preference which preferves the greatest number of radical letters, or feems moft to comply with the general cuftom of our language. But the chief rule which I propofe to follow is, to make no innovation without a reason fufficient to balance the inconvenience of change; and fuch reasons I do not expect often to find. All change is of itfelf an evil, which ought not to be hazarded but for evident advantage; and as inconftancy is in every cafe a mark of weakness, it will add nothing to the reputation of our tongue. There are, indeed, fome who defpife the inconveniences of confufion, who seem to take plea fure in departing from cuftom, and to think alteration defirable for its own fake; and the reformation of our orthography, which thefe writers have attempted, should not pass without its due honours, but that I fuppofe they hold fingularity its own reward, or may dread the fafcination of lavish praife.

The prefent ufage of fpelling, where the prefent ufage can be diftinguished, will therefore, in this work be generally followed; yet there will be often occafion to obferve, that it is in itfelf inaccurate, and tolerated rather than chofen; particularly when," by a change of one letter, or more, the meaning of

a word

a word is obfcured, as in farrier, for ferrier, as it was formerly written, from ferrum, or fer; in gibberish, for gebrish, the jargon of Geber and his chymical followers, underftood by none but their own tribe. It will be likewife fometimes proper to trace back the orthography of different ages, and fhew by what gradations the word departed from its original.

Clofely connected with orthography is pronunciation, the ftability of which is of great importance to the duration of a language, because the first change will naturally begin by corruptions in the living fpeech. The want of certain rules for the pronunciation of former ages, has made us wholly ignorant of the metrical art of our ancient poets; and fince those who study their fentiments regret the lofs of their numbers, it is furely time to provide that the harmony of the moderns may be more permanent.

A new pronunciation will make almost a new fpeech; and therefore, fince one great end of this undertaking is to fix the English language, care will be taken to determine the accentuation of all polyfyllables by proper authorities, as it is one of thofe capricious phænomena which cannot be eafily reduced to rules. Thus there is no antecedent reafon for difference of accent in the two words dolorous and fonorous; yet of the one Milton gives the found in this line,

He pafs'd o'er many a region dolorous;

and that of the other in this,

Sonorous metal blowing martial founds.