exact fenfe it can be of little ufe among human beings, is often fo much degraded from its original fignification, that the academicians have inferted in their work, the perfection of a language, and, with a little more licentioufness, might have prevailed on themselves to have added the perfection of a dictionary.

There are many other characters of words which it will be of ufe to mention. Some have both an active and paffive fignification; as fearful, that which gives or which feels terror: a fearful prodigy, áfearful hare. Some have a perfonal, fome a real meaning; as in oppofition to old we ufe the adjective young of animated beings, and new of other things. Some are restrained to the sense of praise, and others to that of disapprobation; fo commonly, though not always, we exhort to good actions, we inftigate to ill; we animate, incite, and encourage indifferently to good or bad. So we ufually afcribe good, but impute evil; yet neither the use of these words, nor perhaps of any other in our licentious language, is fo established as not to be often reverfed by the correcteft writers. I shall therefore, fince the rules of ftyle, like thofe of law, arife from precedents often repeated, collect the teftimonies on both fides, and endeavour to discover and promulgate the decrees of custom, who has fo long poffeffed, whether by right or by ufurpation, the fovereignty of words.

It is neceffary likewife to explain many words by their oppofition to others; for contraries are beft feen when they stand together. Thus the verb ftand has one fenfe, as oppofed to fall, and another as opposed to fly; for want of attending to which diftinc

tion, obvious as it is, the learned Dr. Bentley has fquandered his criticifm to no purpose, on thefe lines of Paradife Loft:

In heaps

Chariot and charioteer lay overturn'd,

And fiery foaming steeds. What flood, recoil'd,
O'erwearied, through the faint fatanic host,
Defensive scarce, or with pale fear furpris'd
Fled ignominious -

'Here,' fays the critic, as the fentence is now read, we find that what food, fled:' and therefore he proposes an alteration, which he might have fpared if he had confulted a dictionary, and found that nothing more was affirmed than that those fled who did not fall.

Inexplaining fuch meanings as feem accidental and adventitious, I shall endeavour to give an account of the means by which they were introduced. Thus, to eke out any thing, fignifies to lengthen it beyond its juft dimenfions by fome low artifice; because the word eke was the ufual refuge of our old writers when they wanted a fyllable. And buxom, which means only obedient, is now made, in familiar phrases, to ftand for wanton; because in an ancient form of marriage, before the Reformation, the bride promised complaifance and obedience in thefe terms: 'I will 'be bonair and burom in bed and at board,'

I know well, my Lord, how trifling many of these remarks will appear, feparately confidered, and how eafily they may give occafion to the contemptuous merriment of fportive idleness, and the gloomy cenfures of arrogant ftupidity; but dulnefs it is easy to defpife, and laughter it is easy to repay. I fhall not

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be folicitous what is thought of my work by fuch as know not the difficulty or importance of philological ftudies; nor fhall think thofe that have done nothing qualified to condemn me for doing little. It may not, however, be improper to remind them, that no terreftrial greatnefs is more than an aggregate of little things; and to inculcate, after the Arabian proverb, that drops added to drops constitute the ocean.

There remains yet to be confidered the distribution of words into their proper claffes, or that part of lexicography which is ftrictly critical.

The popular part of the language, which includes all words not appropriated to particular fciences, admits of many diftinctions and fubdivifions; as, into words of general ufe; words employed chiefly in poetry; words obfolete; words which are admitted only by particular writers, yet not in themselves improper; words ufed only in burlesque writing; and words impure and barbarous.

Words of general ufe will be known by having no fign of particularity, and their various fenfes will be fupported by authorities of all ages.

The words appropriated to poetry will be diftinguished by fome mark prefixed, or will be known by having no authorities but those of poets.

Of antiquated or obfolete words, none will be inferted but fuch as are to be found in authors who wrote fince the acceffion of Elizabeth, from which we date the golden age of our language; and of thefe many might be omitted, but that the reader may require, with an appearance of reafon, that no difficulty fhould be left unrefolved in books which

he

he finds himself invited to read, as confeffed and established models of ftyle. These will be likewife pointed out by fome note of exclufion, but not of difgrace.

The words which are found only in particular books, will be known by the fingle name of him that has ufed them; but fuch will be omitted, unless either their propriety, elegance, or force, or the reputation of their authors, affords some extraordinary reafon for their reception.

Words used in burlefque and familiar compofitions, will be likewife mentioned with their proper authorities; fuch as dudgeon, from Butler, and leafing, from Prior; and will be diligently characterifed by marks of distinction.

Barbarous, or impure, words and expreffions, may be branded with some note of infamy, as they are carefully to be eradicated wherever they are found; and they occur too frequently even in the best writers: as in Pope,

in endlefs error hurl'd, 'Tis these that early taint the female foul.

In Addison:

Attend to what a lesser muse indites.

And in Dryden,

A dreadful quiet felt, and worfer far

Than arms

If this part of the Work can be well performed, it will be equivalent to the propofal made by Boileau to the Academicians, that they fhould review all their polite writers, and correct fuch impurities as might be found in them, that their authority might not contribute, at any distant time, to the depravation of the language.

With regard to queftions of purity or propriety, I was once in doubt whether I fhould not attribute too much to myself, in attempting to decide them, and whether my province was to extend beyond the propofition of the queftion, and the difplay of the fuffrages on each fide; but I have been fince determined, by your Lordship's opinion, to interpofe my own judgment, and fhall therefore endeavour to support what appears to me moft confonant to grammar and reafon. Aufonius thought that modefty forbad him to plead inability for a task to which Cafar had judged him equal.

Cur me poffe negem poffe quod ille putat?

And I may hope, my Lord, that fince you, whofe authority in our language is fo generally acknowledged, have commiffioned me to declare my own opinion, I fhall be confidered as exercifing a kind of vicarious jurifdiction, and that the power which might have been denied to my own claim, will be readily allowed me as the delegate of your Lordship.

In citing authorities, on which the credit of every part of this Work muft depend, it will be proper to obferve fome obvious rules; fuch as of preferring writers of the first reputation to those of an inferior rank; of noting the quotations with accuracy; and of felecting, when it can be conveniently done, fuch sentences, as, befides their immediate use, may give pleasure or inftruction, by conveying fome elegance of language, or fome precept of prudence, or piety.

It has been afked, on fome occafions, who fhall judge the judges? And fince, with regard to this defign, a question may arife by what authority the authorities