In every word of extensive use, it was requifite to mark the progrefs of its meaning, and fhow by what gradations of intermediate fenfe, it has paffed from its primitive to its remote and accidental fignification; fo that every foregoing explanation fhould tend to that which follows, and the feries be regularly concatenated from the first notion to the last.

This is fpecious, but not always practicable; kindred fenfes may be fo interwoven, that the perplexity cannot be difentangled, nor any reafon be affigned why one fhould be ranged before the other. When the radical idea branches out into parallel ramifications, how can a confecutive feries be formed of fenfes in their nature collateral? The shades of meaning fometimes pafs imperceptibly into each other; fo that though on one fide they apparently differ, yet it is impoffible to mark the point of contact. Ideas of the fame race, though not exactly alike, are fometimes fo little different, that no words can express the diffimilitude, though the mind eafily perceives it, when they are exhibited together; and fometimes there is fuch a confufion of acceptations, that difcernment is wearied, and diftinction puzzled, and perfeverance herself hurries to an end, by crouding together what the cannot separate.

Thefe complaints of difficulty will, by thofe 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 ftudies by involution and obfcurity. But every a art is obfcure to thofe that have not learned it: this uncertainty of terms, and commixture of ideas, is well known to those who have joined philofophy with grammar; and if I have not expreffed them very clearly, it must be remembered that I am speaking of that which words are infufficient to explain.

The original fenfe of words is often driven out of ufe by their metaphorical acceptations, yet must be inferted for the fake of a regular origination. Thus know not whether ardour is used for material heat, or whether flagrant, in Eng lib, ever fignifies the fame with burning; yet such are the primitive ideas of these words, which are therefore fet firit, though without examples, that the figurative fenfes may be commodiously deduced.

Such is the exuberance of fignification which many words have obtained, that it was scarcely poffible to collect all their fenfes; fometimes the meaning of derivatives must be fought in the mother term, and fometimes 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 paffed over to avoid repetition, feme admitted easier and clearer explanation than others, and all will be better understood, as they are confidered in a greater variety of ftructures and relations.

All the interpretations of words are not written with the same skill, or the fame happinefs: things equally eafy in themfelves, are not all equally easy to any fingle mind. Every writer of a long work commits errours, when there appears neither ambiguity to milead, nor obfcurity 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 feeming faults are to be imputed rather to the nature of the undertaking, than the negligence of the performer, Thus fome explanations are unavoidably reciprocal or circular, as bind, the female of the fag; ftag, the male of the bind: fometimes eafier words are changed into harder, asburial into fepulture or interment, drier into deficcative, dryness into ficcityor aridity, fit into paroxyfm; for the cafieft word, whatever it be, can never be tranflated into one more easy. But cafinefs and difficulty are merely relative, and if the prefent prevalence of our lan

guage

guage fhould invite foreigners to this dictionary, many will be affifted by thofe words which now seem only to encrease or produce obfcurity. For this reason I have endeavoured frequently to join Teutonick and Roman interpretation, as to CHEER to gladden, or exhilarate, that every learner of English may be affifted by his own tongue.

The folution of all difficulties, and the supply of all defects, must be sought in the examples, fubjoined to the various fenfes of each word, and ranged according to the time of their authors.

When first I collected thefe authorities, I was defirous that every quotation fhould be useful to fome other end than the illuftration of a word; I therefore extracted from philofophers principles of science; from hiftorians remarkable facts; from chymifts complete proceffes; from divines ftriking exhortations; and from poets beautiful descriptions. Such is defign, while it is yet at a dif tance from execution. When the time called upon me to range this accumulation of elegance and wisdom into an alphabetical feries, I foon difcovered that the bulk of my volumes would fright away the ftudent, and was forced to depart from my scheme of including all that was pleafing or useful in English literature, and reduce my tranfcripts very often to clusters of words, in which scarcely any meaning is retained; thus to the wearinefs of copying, I was condemned to add the vexation of expunging. Some paffages I have yet fpared, which may relieve the labour of verbal fearches, and interfperfe with verdure and flowers the dufty defarts of barren philosophy.

The examples, thus mutilated, are no longer to be confidered as conveying the fentiments or doctrine of their authors; the word for the fake of which they are inferted, with all its appendant clauses, has been carefully preferved; but it may fometimes happen, by hafty detruncation, that the general tendency of the fentence may be changed: the divine may defert his tenets, or the philofopher his fyitem.

Some of the examples have been taken from writers who were never mentioned as mafters of elegance or models of stile; but words must be fought where they are ufed; and in what pages, eminent for purity, can terms of manufacture or agriculture be found? Many quotations ferve no other purpofe, than that of proving the bare exiftence of words, and are therefore felected with lefs fcrupuloufnefs than those which are to teach their structures and relations,

My purpofe was to admit no teftimony of living authors, that I might not be mifled by partiality, and that none of my contemporaries might have reafon to complain; nor have I departed from this refolution, but when fome performance of uncommon excellence excited my veneration, when my memory fupplied me, from late books, with an example that was wanting, or when my heart in the tendernefs of friendship, folicited admiflion for a favourite

name.

So far have I been from any care to grace my pages with modern decorations, that I have ftudioufly 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 fources of genuine diction. Our language, for almott a century, has, by the concurrence of many caufes, been gradually departing from its original Teutonick character, and deviating towards a Gallick ftructure and phraseology, from which it ought to be our endeavour to recal it, by making our ancient volumes the ground-work of ftile, admitting among the additions of later times, only fuch as may supply real deficiencies; fuch are readily adopted by the genius of our tongue, and incorporate eafily with our native idioms.

But as every language has a time of rudenefs antecedent to perfection, as well as of false refinement and declenfion, I have been cautious left my zeal for anti

quity might drive me into times too remote, and croud my book with words now no longer understood. I have fixed Sidney's work for the boundary, beyond which I make few excurfions. From the authors which rofe in the time of Elizabeth, a fpeech might be formed adequate to all the purposes of use and elegance. If the language of theology were extracted from Hooker and the translation 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 Spenfer and Sidney; and the diction of common life from Shakespeare, few ideas would be loft 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 fentence; fuch paffages I have therefore chofen, and when it happened that any author gave a definition of a term, or fuch an explanation as is equivalent to a definition, I have placed his authority as a fupplement to my own, without regard to the chronological order, that is otherwife obferved.

Some words, indeed, ftand unfupported by any authority, but they are com monly derivative nouns or adverbs, formed from their primitives by regular and conftant analogy, or names of things feldom occurring in books, or words of which I have reafon to doubt their exiftence.

There is more danger of cenfure from the multiplicity than paucity of examples; authorities will fometimes feem to have been accumulated without neceflity or ufe, and perhaps fome will be found, which might, without lofs, have been omitted. But a work of this kind is not haftily to be charged with fuperfluities: thofe quotations which to careless or unfkilful perufers appear only to repeat the fame fenfe, will often exhibit, to a more accurate examiner, diverfities of fignification, or, at least, afford different fhades of the fame meaning: one will fhew the word applied to perfons, another to things; one will exprefs an ill, another a good, and a third a neutral fenfe; one will prove the expreffion genuine from an ancient author; another will fhew it elegant from a modern: a doubtful authority is corroborated by another of more credit; an ambiguous fentence is afcertained by a paffage clear and determinate; the word, how often foever repeated, appears with new affociates and in different combinations, and every quotation contributes fomething to the ftability or enlargement of the lan

guage.

When words are used equivocally, I receive them in either fenfe; when they are metaphorical, I adept them in their primitive acceptation.

I have fometimes, though rarely, yielded to the temptation of exhibiting a genealogy of fentiments, by fhewing how one author copied the thoughts and diction of another: fuch quotations are indeed little more than repetitions, which raight justly be cenfured, did they not gratify the mind, by affording a kind of intellectual hiftery,

The various fyntactical ftructures occurring in the examples have been carefusly noted, the licence or negligence with which many words have been hitherto wied, has made our ftile capricious and indeterminate; when the different combinations of the fame word are exhibited together, the preference is readily given to propriety, and I have often endeavoured to direct the choice.

Thus I have laboured to fettle the orthography, difplay the analogy, regulate the fructure, and afcertain the fignification of English words, to perform all the parts of a faithful lexicographer: but I have not always executed my own fcheme, or fatisfied my own expectation. The work, whatever proofs of diligence and attention it may exhibit, is yet capable of many improvements: the orthography which I recommend is ftill controvertible, the etymology which I

adopt

adopt is uncertain, and perhaps frequently erroneous; the explanations are fometimes too much contracted, and fometimes too much diffufed, the fignifications are diftinguished rather with fubtilty than fkill, and the attention is haraffed with unneceffary minuteness.

The examples are too often injudiciously truncated, and perhaps fometimes, I hope very rarely, alleged in a miftaken fenfe; for in making this collection I trutted more to memory, than, in a state of difquiet and embarraffment, memory can contain, and purposed to supply at the review what was left incomplete in the first transcription.

Many terms appropriated to particular occupations, though neceffary and fignificant, are undoubtedly omitted; and of the words moft ftudioully confidered and exemplified, many fenfes have escaped obfervation.

Yet thefe failures, however frequent, may admit extenuation and apology. To have attempted much is always laudable, even when the enterprize is above the ftrength that undertakes it: To reft below his own aim is incident to every one whole fancy is active, and whose views are comprehenfive; nor is any man fatisfied with himself because he has done much, but because he can conceive little. When first I engaged in this work, I refolved to leave neither words nor things unexamined, and pleafed myfelf with a profpect of the hours which I thould revel away in feafts of literature, the obfcure receffes of northern learning which I should enter and ranfack, the treasures with which I expected every fearch into thofe neglected mines to reward iny labour, and the triumph with which I thould difplay my acquifitions to mankind. When I thus enquired into the original of words, I refolved to fhow likewife my attention to things; to pierce deep into every fcience, to enquire the nature of every fubftance of which I inferted the name, to limit every idea by a definition ftrictly logical, and exhibit every production of art or nature in an accurate defcription, that my book might be in place of all other dictionaries whether appellative or technical. But thefe were the dreams of a poet doomed at last to wake a lexicographer. I foon found that it is too late to look for inftruments, when the work calls for execution, and that whatever abilities I had brought to my tafk, with those I muft finally perform it. To deliberate whenever I doubted, to enquire whenever I was ignorant, would have protracted the undertaking without end, and, perhaps, withcut much improvement; for I did not find by my firft experiments, that what I had not of my own was easily to be obtained: I faw that one enquiry only gave occafion to another, that book referred to book, that to fearch was not always to find, and to find was not always to be informed; and that thus to purfue perfection, was, like the first inhabitants of Arcadia, to chafe the fun, which, when they had reached the hill where he feemed to reft, was ftill beheld at the fame diftance from them.

I then contracted my defign, determining to confide in myself, and no longer to folicit auxiliaries, which produced more incumbrance than affiftance: by this I obtained at least one advantage, that I fet limits to my work, which would in time be finished, though not completed.

Defpondency has never fo far prevailed as to deprefs me to negligence; fome faults will at least appear to be the effects of anxious diligence and perfevering activity. The nice and fubtle ramifications of meaning were not eafily avoided by a mind intent upon accuracy, and convinced of the neceflity of difentangling combinations, and feparating fimilitudes. Many of the diftinctions which to common readers appear ufelefs and idle, will be found real and important by men verfed in the school philofophy, without which no dictionary ever fhall be accurately compiled, or fkilfully examined

Some fenfes however there are, which, though not the fame, are yet fo nearly allied,

allied, that they are often confounded. Moft men think indiftinctly, and therefore cannot speak with exactnefs; and confequently fome examples might be indifferently put to either fignification: this uncertainty is not to be imputed to me, who do not form, but regifter the language; who do not teach men how they should think, but relate how they have hitherto expreffed their thoughts.

The imperfect fenfe of fome examples I lamented, but could not remedy, and hope they will be compenfated by innumerable paffages felected with propriety, and preferved with exactnefs; fome shining with sparks of imagination, and some replete with treasures of wisdom.

The orthography and etymology, though imperfect, are not imperfect for want of care, but becaufe care will not always be fuccefsful, and recollection or information come too late for use,

That many terms of art and manufacture are omitted, must be frankly acknowledged; but for this defect I may boldly allege that it was unavoidable. I could not vifit caverns to learn the miner's language, nor take a voyage to perfect my skill in the dialect of navigation, nor vifit the warehouses of merchants, and fhops of artificers, to gain the names of wares, tools, operations, of which no mention is found in books; what favourable accident, or enquiry brought within my reach, has not been neglected; but it had been a hopeless labour to glean up words, by courting living information, and contefting with the fullenness of one, and the roughnefs of another.

To furnish the academicians della Crufca with words of this kind, a series of comedies called la Fiera, or the Fair, was profeffedly written by Buonaroti; but I had no fuch affiftant, and therefore was content to want what they must have wanted likewife, had they not luckily been fo fupplied.

Nor are all words which are not found in the vocabulary, to be lamented as omiffions. Of the laborious and mercantile part of the people, the diction is in a great measure cafual and mutable; many of their terms are formed for fome temporary or local convenience, and though current at certain times and places, are in others utterly unknown. This fugitive cant, which is always in a state of increase or decay, cannot be regarded as any part of the durable materials of a language, and therefore must be fuffered to perish with other things unworthy of prefervation.

Care will fometimes betray to the appearance of negligence. He that is catching opportunities which feldom occur, will fuffer thofe to pafs by unregarded, which he expects hourly to return; he that is fearching for rare and remote things, will neglect thofe that are obvious and familiar: thus many of the most common and curfory words have been inferted with little illuftration, because in gathering the authorities, I forbore to copy thofe which I thought likely to occur whenever they were wanted. It is remakable that, in reviewing my collection, I found the word SEA unexemplified.

Thus it happens, that in things difficult there is danger from ignorance, and in things eafy from confidence; the mind, afraid of greatnefs, and difdainful of littlenefs, hastily withdraws herself from painful searches, and paffes with scornful rapidity over tasks not adequate to her powers, fometimes too fecure for caution, and again too anxious of vigorous effort; fometimes idle in a plain path, and fometimes diftracted in labyrinths, and diffipated by different intentions.

A large work is difficult because it is large, even though all its parts might fingly be performed with facility; where there are many things to be done, each muft be allowed its fhare of time and labour, in the proportion only which it bears to the whole; nor can it be expected, that the ftones which form the dome of a temple, fhould be fquared and polished like the diamond of a ring.

Of the event of this work, for which, having laboured it with so much appli

cation,