I Ploy then

T is the Fate of those who toil at the lower Emof Life, to be rather driven by the Fear of Evil, than attracted by the Profpect of Good; to be exposed to Censure, without Hope or Praise; to be disgraced by Miscarriage, or punished for Neglect, where Success would have been without Applause, and Diligence without Reward.

Among these unhappy Mortals is the Writer of Dictionaries; whom Mankind have confidered, not as the Pupil, but the Slave of Science, the Pioneer of Literature, doomed only to remove Rubbish and clear Obstructions from the Paths of Learning and Genius, who press forward to Conquest and Glory, without bestowing a Smile on the humble Drudge who facilitates their Progress. Every other Author may aspire to Praise; the Lexicographer can only hope to escape Reproach, and even this negative Recompence has been yet granted to very few.

I have, notwithstanding this Discouragement, attempted a Dictionary of the English Language, which, while it was employed in the Cultivation of every Species of Literature, has itself been hitherto neglected, suffered to spread, under the Direction of Chance, into wild Exuberance, resigned to the Tyranny of Time and Fashion, and exposed to the Corruptions of Ignorance, and Caprices of Innovagion.

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When When I took the first Survey of my Undertaking, I found our Speech copious without Order, and energetic without Rules: wherever I turned my View, there was Perplexity to be disentangled, and Confufion to be regulated; Choice was to be made out of boundless Variety, without any established Principle of Selection; Adulterations were to be detected, without a fettled Test of Purity; and Modes of Expression to be rejected or received, without the Suffrages of any Writers of classical Reputation or acknowledged Authority.

Having therefore no Assistance but from general Grammar, I applied myself to the Perusal of our Writers; and noting whatever might be of Use to ascertain or illustrate 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, such Rules as Experience and Analogy suggested to me; Experience, which Practice and Observation were continually increasing; and Analogy, which, though in fome Words obscure, was evident in others.

In adjusting the Orthography, which has been to this Time unsettled and fortuitous, I found it necefsary to diftinguish those Irregularities that are inherent in our Tongue, and perhaps coeval with it, from others which the Ignorance or Negligence of later Writers has produced. Every Language has its Anomalies, which, though inconvenient, and in themselves once unneceffary, must be tolerated among the Imperfections of human Things, and which require only to be registered, that they may not be increafed; and afcertained, that they may not be confounded: But every Language has likewise its Improprieties and Absurdities, which it is the Duty of the Lexicographer to correct or profcribe.

As Language was at its Beginning merely oral, all Words of necessary or common Use were spoken before they were written; and while they were unfixed by any visible Signs, must have been spoken with great Diversity, as we now observe those who cannot read to catch Sounds imperfectly, and utter them negligently. When this wild and barbarous Jargon was first reduced to an Alphabet, every Penman endeavoured to express, as he could, the Sounds which he was accustomed to pronounce or to receive, and vitiated in Writing fuch Words as were already vitiated in Speech. The Powers of the Letters, when they were applied to a new Language, must have been vague and unfettled; and therefore different Hands would exhibit the fame Sound by different Combinations.

From this uncertain Pronunciation arise, in a great Part, the various Dialects of the same Country, which will always be observed to grow fewer, and less different, as Books are multiplied; and from this arbitrary Representation of Sounds by Letters, proceeds that Diversity of Spelling observable in the Saxon Remains, and I suppose in the first Books of every Nation, which perplexes or destroys Analogy, and produces anomalous Formations; which, being once incorporated, can never be afterwards dismissed or reformed.

Of this Kind are the Derivatives Length from long, Strength from strong, 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 spinis 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 so 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

that Criticism can never wash them away; refore, must be permitted to remain unbut many Words have likewife been alccident, or depraved by Ignorance, as the ion of the Vulgar has been weakly followTome still continue to be variously written, rs differ in their Care or Skill: Of these er to enquire the true Orthography, which ays confidered as depending on their DeriI have therefore referred them to their origuages: Thus I write enchant, Enchanthanter, after the French, and Incantation Latin; thus entire is chofen rather than inse it passed to us not from the Latin integer, The French entier.

Words it is difficult to say whether they ediately received from the Latin or the ace at the Time when we had Dominions we had Latin Service in our Churches. It r, my Opinion, that the French generally 6: for we have few Latin Words, among of domestick Ufe, which are not French; French, which are very remote from

uamining the
Word, the Mode of
in the Series of the
that to which I give
Preference. I have
Authour his own
Reader may balance
w: But this Queft
mined by reputed o
intent upon greater
Sounds and Deriva

cient Tongues, ha
Words are common

writes Fecibleness fo imagined it derived fome Words, fuck ance, Dependence, ther Language is In this Part of wantoned without by petty Reforma with a Scholar's Grammarian's Re Thave attempted few, perhaps th to the ancient P ed to recommer been, perhaps, Singularities, n or for minute F Fathers. It ha be known, is o 'Change,' fay convenience, in Constancy an

Words of which the Derivation is appa-
ve been often obliged to facrifice Unifor-
stom: Thus I write, in Compliance with
ess Majority, convey and inveigh, Deceit and
ancy and Phantom; fometimes the Deriva-
from the Primitive, as explain and Expla-
eat and Repetition.
ombinations of Letters having the same
e used indifferently without any difcover-
n of Choice; as in choak, choke; Soap, Sope;

Fewel

Fewel, Fuel; and many others; which I have sometimes inferted twice, that those who search for them under either Form, may not search in vain.

In examining the Orthography of any doubtful Word, the Mode of Spelling by which it is inferted in the Series of the Dictionary, is to be confidered as that to which 1 give, perhaps not often rashly, the Preference. I have left, in the Examples, to every Authour his own Practice unmolested, that the Reader may balance Suffrages, and judge between us: But this Question is not always to be determined by reputed or by real Learning; fome Men, intent upon greater Things, have thought little on Sounds and Derivations; some, knowing in the ancient Tongues, have neglected those in which our Words are commonly to be sought. Thus Hammond writes Fecibleness for Feasibleness, because I suppose he imagined it derived immediately from the Latin; and fome Words, such as dependant, dependent; Dependance, Dependence, vary their final Syllable, as one or other Language is present to the Writer.

In this Part of the Work, where Caprice has long wantoned without Controul, and Vanity fought Praise by petty Reformation, I have endeavoured to proceed with a Scholar's Reverence for Antiquity, and a Grammarian's Regard to the Genius of our Tongue. I have attempted few Alterations, and among those few, perhaps the greater Part is from the modern to the ancient Practice; and I hope I may be allowed to recommend to those, whose Thoughts have been, perhaps, employed too anxiously on verbal Singularities, not to disturb, upon narrow Views, or for minute Propriety, the Orthography of their Fathers. It has been afferted, that for the Law to be known, is of more Importance than to be right. • Change, says Hooker, is not made without Inconvenience, even from worse to better.' There is. in Constancy and Stability a general and lasting Advantage,

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