This is specious, but not always practicable; kindred Senfes may be so interwoven, that the Perplexity cannot be disentangled, nor any Reason be afsigned why one should be ranged before the other. When the radical Idea branches out into parallel Ramifications, how can a consecutive Serics be formed of Senfes in their Nature collatera!? The Shades of Meaning fometimes pass imperceptibly into each other; so that though on one Side they apparently differ, yet it is impossible to mark the Point of Contact. Ideas of the fame Race, though not exactly alike, are sometimes so little different, that no Words can express the Diffimilitude, though the Mind eafily perceives it, when they are exhibited together; and fometimes there is such a Confufion of Aссерtations, that Discernment is wearied, and Distinction puzzled, and Perfeverance herself hurries to a End, by crouding together what she cannot feparate.

These Complaints of Difficulty will, by those that have never confidered Words beyond their popular Ufe, be thought only the Jargon of a Man willing to magnify his Labours, and procure Veneration to his Studies by Involution and Obscurity. But every Art is obfcure to those that have not learned it: This Uncertainty of Terms, and Commixture of Ideas, is well known to those who have joined Philosophy with Grammar; and if I have not expressed them very clearly, it must be remembered that I am speaking of that which Words are insufficient to explain.

The original Sense of Words is often driven out of Use by their metaphorical Acceptations, yet must be inferted for the Sake of a regular Origination. Thus I know not whether Ardour is used for material Heat, or whether flagrant, in English, ever signifies the same with burning; yet such are the primitive Ideas of these Words, which are therefore set first, though without Examples, that the figurative Senses may be commodiously deduced,

Such

Such is the Exuberance of Signification which many Words have obtained, that it was scarcely poffible to collect all their Senses; sometimes the Meaning of Derivatives must be fought in the Mother Term, and sometimes deficient Explanations of the Primitive may be supplied in the Train of Derivation. In any Cafe of Doubt or Difficulty, it will be always proper to examine all the Words of the fame Race; for fome Words are flightly passed over to avoid Repetition, some admitted easier and clearer Explanation than others, and all will be better understood, as they are confidered in greater Variety of Structures and Relations.

All the Interpretations of Words are not written with the fame Skill, or the fame Happiness: Things equally easy in themselves, are not all equally eafy to any single Mind. Every Writer of a long Work commits Errours, where there appears neither Ambiguity to miflead, nor Obscurity to confound him; and in a Search like this, many Felicities of Expreffion will be cafually overlooked, many convenient Parallels will be forgotten, and many Particulars will admit Improvement from a Mind utterly unequal to the whole Performance.

But many seeming Faults are to be imputed rather to the Nature of the Undertaking, than the Negligence of the Performer. Thus some Explanations are unavoidably reciprocal or circular; as Hind, the Female of the Stag; Stag, the Male of the Hind: Sometimes easier Words are changed into harder; as Burial into Sepulture or Interment, drier into deficcative, Dryness into Siccity or Aridity, Fit into Paroxyfm; for the easiest Word, whatever it be, cannot be translated into one more easy. But Easiness and Difficulty are merely relative; and if the prefent Prevalence of our Language should invite Foreigners to this Dictionary, many will be assisted by those Words which now feem only to encrease or procure Obscurity,

F 4

Ets, must be fought in the Examples, fubme various Senfes of each Word, and rangag to the Time of their Authours.

ift I collected these Authorities, I was deevery Quotation should be useful to some than the Illustration of a Word; I thereted from Philosophers Principles of SciHistorians remarkable Facts; from Chyolete Proceffes; from Divines striking Ex-. ; and from Poets beautiful Descriptions. fign, while it is yet at a Distance from ExWhen the Time called upon me to range mulation of Elegance and Wisdom into an al Series, I foon discovered that the Bulk umes would fright away the Student, and I to depart from my Scheme of including as pleasing or useful in English Literature, e my Transcripts very often to Clusters of ■ which scarcely any Meaning is retained; Weariness of Copying, I was condemned Vexation of Expunging. Some Passages spared, which may relieve the Labour of rches, and intersperse with Verdure and e dusty Defarts of barren Philology. amples, thus mutilated, are no longer to red as conveying the Sentiments or Doceir Authours; the Word for the Sake of are inferted, with all its appendant Clauses, carefully preserved; but it may someben, by hasty Detruncation, that the geHency of the Sentence may be changed: e may defert his Tenets, or the Philofoystem.

nent for Purity, can culture be found Purpose, than tha: Words; and are th louiness than thofe and Relations.

My Purpose was Authours, that I and that none of n fon to complain; folution, but wher Excellence excited mory supplied m ample that was w Tenderness of Fr favourite Name. So far have I Pages with moc dioufly endeavou rities from the W Works I regard the pure Sources for almost a Ce many Caufes, be ginal Teutonick Gallick Structu ought to be our our ancient Vol mitting among fuch as may fup dily adopted b corporate eafily But as ever antecedent to

Some

Some of the Examples have been taken from Writers who were never mentioned as Masters of Elegance or Models of Stile; but Words must be fought where they are used; and in what Pages, eminent for Purity, can Terms of Manufacture or Agriculture be found? Many Quotations serve no other Purpose, than that of proving the bare Existence of Words; and are therefore felected with less Scrupulousness than those which are to teach their Structures and Relations.

My Purpose was to admit no Testimony of living Authours, that I might not be misled by Partiality, and that none of my Cotemporaries might have Reason to complain; nor have departed from this Resolution, but when some Performance of uncommon Excellence excited my Vekoration, when my Memory supplied me, from late Books, with an Example that was wanting, or when my Heart, in the Tenderness of Friendship, folicited Amiffion for a favourite Name.

So far have I been from any Care to grace my Pages with modern Decorations, that I have studioufly endeavoured to collect Examples and Authorities from the Writers before the Restoration, whose Works I regard as the Wells of English undefiled, as the pure Sources of genuine Diction. Our Language, for almost a Century, has, by the Concurrence of many Causes, been gradually departing from its original Teutonick Character, and deviating towards a Gallick Structure and Phraseology, from which it ought to be our Endeavour to recal it, by making our ancient Volumes the Ground-work of Style, admitting among the Additions of later Times, only fuch as may fupply real Deficiencies, such as are readily adopted by the Genius of our Tongue, and incorporate eafily with our native Idioms.

But as every Language has a Time of Rudeness antecedent to Perfection, as well as of false Refinement and Declenfion, I have been cautious left my Zeal for Antiquity might drive me into Times too remote, and croud my Book with Words now no longer understood. I have fixed Sydney's Work for the Boundary, beyond which I make few Excurfions. From the Authours which rose in the Time of Elizabeth, a Speech might be formed adequate to all the Purposes of Use and Elegance. If the Larguage of Theology were extracted from Hooker and the Tranflation of the Bible; the Terms of Natural Knowledge from Bacon; the Phrafes of Policy, War, and Navigation, from Raleigh; the Dialect of Poetry and Fiction from Spenser and Sidney; and the Diction of common Life from Shakespeare ; few Ideas would be lost to Mankind, for want of English Words, in which they might be expreffed.

It is not fufficient that a Word is found, unless it be fo combined as that its Meaning is apparently determined by the Tract and Tenour of the Sentence; fuch Passages I have therefore chosen; and when it happened that any Authour gave a Definition of a Term, or fuch an Explanation as is equivalent to a Definition, I have placed his Authority as a Supplement to my own, without Regard to the chronological Order, that is otherwise observed.

Some Words, indeed, stand unsupported by any Authority, but they are commonly derivative Nouns or Adverbs, formed from their Primitives by regular and conftant Analogy, or Names of Things seldom occurring in Books, or Words of which I have Reafon to doubt the Existence.

There is more Danger of Censure from the Multiplicity than Pacuity of Examples; Authorities will fometimes seem to have been accumulated without Neceffity or Ufe, and perhaps some will be found, which might, without Loss, have been omitted. But a Work of this Kind is not hastily to be charged with Superfluities: Those Quotations which to careless