This is fpecious, but not always practicable; kindred Senfes may be fo interwoven, that the Perplexity cannot be disentangled, nor any Reafon be affigned why one should be ranged before the other. When the radical Idea branches out into parallel Ramifications, how can a confecutive Serics be formed of Senfes in their Nature collateral? The Shades of Meaning fometimes pafs imperceptibly into each other; fo that though on one Side 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 exprefs 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 a End, by crouding together what fhe cannot feparate.

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 Studies by Involution and Obfcurity. But every Art is obfcure to those that have not learned it: This Uncertainty of Terms, and Commixture of Ideas, is well known to thofe 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 Sense of Words is often driven out of Ufe 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 fignifies the fame with burning; yet fuch are the primitive Ideas of thefe Words, which are therefore fet 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 fcarcely poffible to collect all their Senfes; 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, fome admitted eafier 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 fingle Mind. Every Writer of a long Work commits Errours, where there appears neither Ambiguity to miflead, 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 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, Drynefs into Siccity or Aridity, Fit into Paroxyfm; for the cafieft Word, whatever it be, cannot be tranflated into one more eafy. But Eafinefs and Difficulty are merely relative; and if the prefent Prevalence of our Language fhould invite Foreigners to this Dictionary, many will be affifted by thofe Words which now feem only to encrease or procure Obfcurity,

F 4

rity. For this Reason I have endeavoured frequently to join a Teutonick and Roman Interpretation, as to CHEER, to gladden, or exhilirate, that every Learner of English may be affifted by his own Tongue.

The Solution of all Difficulties, and the Supply of all Defects, must be fought in the Examples, fubjoined to the various Senfes of each Word, and ranged according to the Time of their Authours.

ence;

When firft 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 Scifrom Hiftorians remarkable Facts; from Chymifts complete Proceffes; from Divines ftriking Exhortations; and from Poets beautiful Defcriptions. Such is Defign, while it is yet at a Distance from Execution. When the Time called upon me to range this Accumulation of Elegance and Wisdom into an alphabetical Series, I foon difcovered that the Bulk of my Volumes would fright away the Student, and was forced to depart from my Scheme of including all that was pleafing or useful in English Literature, and reduce my Transcripts very often to Clufters 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 Searches, and interfperfe with Verdure and Flowers the dufty Defarts of barren Philology.

The Examples, thus mutilated, are no longer to be confidered as conveying the Sentiments or Doctrine of their Authours; the Word for the Sake of which they are inferted, with all its appendant Claufes, has been carefully preferved; but it may fometimes happen, by hafty Detruncation, that the general Tendency of the Sentence may be changed: The Divine may defert his Tenets, or the Philofopher his Syftem.

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 ferve no other Purpofe, than that of proving the bare Existence of Words; and are therefore felected with lefs Scrupujousness 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 Reafon to complain; nor have I departed from this Refolution, but when fome Performance of uncommon Excellence excited my Veheration, when my Memory fupplied 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 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 Sources of genuine Diction. Our Language, for almoft a Century, has, by the Concurrence of many Causes, been gradually departing from its original Teutonick Character, and deviating towards a Gallick Structure and Phrafeology, 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 easily with our native Idioms.

But as every Language has a Time of Rudeness antecedent to Perfection, as well as of false Refine

ment

ment 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 ne longer understood. I have fixed Sydney's Work for the Boundary, beyond which I make few Excurfions. From the Authours which rofe in the Time of Elizabeth, a Speech might be formed adequate to all the Purposes of Ufe 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 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 Sentence; fuch Paffages I have therefore chofen; 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 otherwife obferved.

Some Words, indeed, ftand unfupported by any Authority, but they are commonly 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 the Exiftence.

There is more Danger of Cenfure from the Multiplicity than Pacuity of Examples; Authorities will fometimes feem to have been accumulated without Neceffity 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 Superfluities: Thofe Quotations which to care

lefs