the eloquence which they promoted would be employed in their praife. But I confider fuch acts of beneficence as prodigies, recorded rather to raise wonder than expectation; and content with the terms that I had ftipulated, had not fuffered my imagination to flatter me with any other encouragement, when I found that my defign had been thought by your Lordship of importance fufficient to attract your favour.

How far this unexpected diftinction can be rated among the happy incidents of life, I am not yet able to determine. Its firft effect has been to make me anxious, left it fhould fix the attention of the public too much upon me, and, as it once happened to an epick poet of France, by raifing the reputation of the attempt, obftruct the reception of the work, I imagine what the world will expect from a fcheme, profecuted under your Lordship's influence; and I know that expectation, when her wings are once expanded, eafily reaches heights which performance never will attain: and when he has mounted the fummit of perfection, derides her follower, who dies in the purfuit.

Not therefore to raife expectation, but to reprefs it, I here lay before your Lordfhip the Plan of my undertaking, that more may not be demanded than I intend; and that, before it is too far advanced to be thrown into a new method, I may be advertised of its defects or fuperfluities. Such informations I may juftly hope, from the emulation with which thofe, who defire the praife of elegance or difcernment, muft contend in the promotion of a defign

that you, my Lord, have not thought unworthy to share your attention with treaties and with wars.

In the first attempt to methodise my ideas I found a difficulty, which extended itself to the whole work. It was not easy to determine by what rule of diftinction the words of this Dictionary were to be chofen. The chief intent of it is to preferve the purity, and afcertain the meaning of our English idiom; and this feems to require nothing more than that our language be confidered, fo far as it is our own; that the words and phrases used in the general intercourfe of life, or found in the works of those whom we commonly ftile polite writers, be felected, without including the terms of particular profeffions; fince, with the arts to which they relate, they are generally derived from other nations, and are very often the fame in all the languages of this part of the world. This is, perhaps, the exact and pure idea of a grammatical dictionary; but in lexicography, as in other arts, naked fcience is too delicate for the purposes of life. The value of a work must be eftimated by its ufe: it is not enough that a dictionary delights the critick, unlefs, at the fame time, it inftructs the learner; as it is to little purpose that an engine amufes the philofopher by the fubtilty of its mechanism, if it requires fo much knowledge in its application as to be of no advantage to the common workman.

The title which I prefix to my work has long conveyed a very mifcellaneous idea, and they that take a dictionary into their hands, have been accustomed to expect from it a folution of almoft every difficulty.

difficulty. If foreign words therefore were rejected, it could be little regarded, except by criticks, or those who afpire to criticism; and however it might enlighten thofe that write, would be all darkness to them that only read. The unlearned much oftener confult their dictionaries for the meaning of words, than for their ftructures or formations; and the words that moft want explanation, are generally terms of art; which, therefore, experience has taught my predeceffors to fpread with a kind of pompous luxuriance over their productions.

The academicians of France, indeed, rejected terms of science in their firft effay, but found afterwards a neceffity of relaxing the rigour of their determination; and, though they would not naturalize them at once by a fingle act, permitted them by degrees to fettle themselves among the natives, with little oppofition; and it would furely be no proof of judgment to imitate them in an error which they have now retracted, and deprive the book of its chief ufe, by fcrupulous diftinctions.

Of fuch words, however, all are not equally to be confidered as parts of our language; for fome of them are naturalized and incorporated, but others ftill continue aliens, and are rather auxiliaries than subjects. This naturalization is produced either by an admiffion into common fpeech, in fome metaphorical fignification, which is the acquifition of a kind of property among us; as we fay, the zenith of advancement, the meridian of life, the cynofure of neighbouring eyes; or it is the confequence of

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

Of those which ftill continue in the ftate of aliens, and have made no approaches towards 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, pramunire, 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 skilled in phyfick happens in Milton upon this line,

pining atrophy,

Marafmus, and wide-wafting peftilence,

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

It seems neceffary to the completion of a dictionary defigned not merely for criticks, but for popular ufe, that it should comprife, 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 hiftory;

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

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

Another queftion may arife with regard to appellatives, or the names of fpecies. It feems of no great use to set down the words horfe, dog, cat, willow, alder, daify, rofe, and a thoufand others, of which it will be hard to give an explanation, not more obfcure than the word itfelf. 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 thofe 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 leader's learning? The inportance 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 honeyfuckle; nor would Milton, with fuch affiftance, have difpofed fo improperly of his ellos and his Jcorpion.

Befides,