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a triumph, from a conteft with united academies, and long fucceffions of learned compilers. I cannot hope, in the warmest moments, to preserve so much caution through fo long a work, as not often to fink into negligence, or to obtain fo much knowledge of all its parts as not frequently to fail by ignorance. I expect that fometimes the defire of accuracy will urge me to fuperfluities, and fometimes the fear of prolixity betray me to omiffions: that in the extent of fuch variety, I fhall be often bewildered; and in the mazes of fuch intricacy, be frequently entangled: that in one part refinement will be fubtilised beyond exactnefs, and evidence dilated in another beyond perfpicuity. Yet I do not defpair of approbation from thofe who, knowing the uncertainty of conjecture, the fcantinefs of knowledge, the fallibility of memory, and the unfteadiness of attention, can compare the caufes of error with the means of avoiding it, and the extent of art with the capacity of man; and whatever be the event of my endeavours, I fhall not eafily regret an attempt which has procured me the honour of appearing thus publicly,

MY LORD,

Your Lordship's most obedient,

and moft humble fervant,

SAM. JOHNSON,

PREFACE

TO THE

ENGLISH DICTIONARY.

Tis the fate of those who toil at the lower employments of life, to be rather driven by the fear of evil, than attracted by the profpect of good; to be expofed to cenfure, without hope of praife; to be difgraced by mifcarriage, or punished for neglect, where fuccefs would have been without applaufe, and diligence without reward.

Among thefe unhappy mortals is the writer of dictionaries; whom mankind have confidered, not as the pupil, but the flave of science, the pioneer of literature, doomed only to remove rubbish and clear obftructions from the paths through which Learning and Genius prefs forward to conqueft and glory, without beftowing a fmile on the humble drudge that facilitates their progrefs. Every other author may af pire to praife; the lexicographer can only hope to ef cape reproach, and even this negative recompence has been yet granted to very few.

I have, notwithstanding this difcouragement, attempted a Dictionary of the English language, which,

while

while it was employed in the cultivation of every fpecies of literature, has itself been hitherto neglected; fuffered to spread, under the direction of chance, into wild exuberance; refigned to the tyranny of time and fashion; and expofed to the corruptions of ignorance, and caprices of innovation.

When I took the firft furvey of my undertaking, I found our speech copious without order, and energetick without rule: wherever I turned my view, there was perplexity to be difentangled and confufion to be regulated; choice was to be made out of boundless variety, without any eftablished principle of felection; adulterations were to be detected, without a fettled teft of purity; and modes of expreffion to be rejected or received, without the fuffrages of any writers of claffical reputation or acknowledged authority.

Having therefore no affiftance but from general grammar, I applied myfelf to the perufal of our writers; and noting whatever might be of use to afcertain or illuftrate any word or phrafe, accumulated in time the materials of a dictionary, which, by degrees, I reduced to method, establishing to myself, in the progress of the work, fuch rules as experience and analogy fuggested to me; experience, which practice and obfervation were continually increafing; and analogy, which, though in fome words obfcure, was evident in others.

In adjusting the Orthography, which has been to this time unfettled and fortuitous, I found it neceffary to distinguish thofe irregularities that are inherent in our tongue, and perhaps coëval with it,

from

from others which the ignorance or negligence of later writers has produced. Every language has its anomalies, which though inconvenient, and in themfelves once unneceffary, must be tolerated among the imperfections of human things, and which require only to be registered, that they may not be increased, and afcertained, that they may not be confounded: but every language has likewife its improprieties and abfurdities, which it is the duty of the lexicographer to correct or profcribe.

As language was at its beginning merely oral, all words of neceffary or common ufe were fpoken before they were written; and while they were unfixed by any vifible figns, muft have been fpoken with great diversity, as we now obferve those who cannot read to catch founds imperfectly, and utter them negligently. When this wild and barbarous jargon was first reduced to an alphabet, every penman endeavoured to exprefs, as he could, the founds which he was accustomed to pronounce or to receive, and vitiated in writing fuch words as were already vitiated in fpeech. The powers of the letters, when they were applied to a new language, muft have been vague and unfettled, and therefore different hands would exhibit the fame found by different combina, tions.

From this uncertain pronunciation arife in a great part the various dialects of the fame country, which will always be obferved to grow fewer, and lefs different, as books are multiplied; and from this arbitrary reprefentation of founds by letters proceeds that diverfity of spelling, obfervable in the Saxon reVOL. II. mains,

D

1

mains, and I fuppofe in the firft books of every nation, which perplexes or deftroys analogy, and produces anomalous formations, which, being once incorporated, can never be afterward difmiffed or reformed.

Of this kind are the derivatives length from long, ftrength from frong, darling from dear, breadth from broad, from dry, drought, and from high, height, which Milton, in zeal for analogy, writes highth: Quid te exempta juvat fpinis de pluribus una? to change all would be too much, and to change one is nothing.

This uncertainty is most frequent in the vowels, which are fo capriciously pronounced, and fo differently modified, by accident or affectation, not only in every province, but in every mouth, that to them as is well known to etymologifts, little regard is to be fhewn in the deduction of one language from another,

Such defects are not errours in orthography, but fpots of barbarity impreffed fo deep in the English language, that criticifin can never wash them away : thefe, therefore, must be permitted to remain untouched; but many words have likewife been altered by accident, or depraved by ignorance, as the pronunciation of the vulgar has been weakly followed; and fome ftill continue to be variously written, as authors differ in their care or fkill: of thefe it was proper to enquire the true orthography, which I have always confidered as depending on their derivation, and have therefore referred them to their original languages thus I write enchant, enchantment, enchanter, after the French, and incantation after the

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