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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 must be allowed its Share of Time and Labour, in the Proportion only which it bears to the Whole; nor can it be expected that the Stones 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 fo much Application, I cannot but have fome Degree of parental Fondnefs, it is natural to form Conjectures. Those who have been perfuaded to think well of my Defign, require that it fhould fix our Language, and put a Stop to thofe Alterations which Time and Chance have hitherto been fuffered to make in it without Oppofition. With this Confequence I will confefs that I flattered myself for a while; but now begin to fear that I have indulged Expectation, which neither Reafon nor Experience can juftify. When we fee Men grow old and die, at a certain Time, one after another, from Century to Century, we laugh at the Elixir that promifes to prolong Life to a thoufand Years; and with equal Juftice may the Lexicographer be derided, who being able to produce no Example of a Nation that has preferved their Words and Phrafes from Mutability, fhall imagine that his Dictionary can embalm his Language, and fecure it from Corruption and Decay; that it is in his Power to change fublunary Nature, or clear the World at once from Folly, Vanity, and Affectation.

With this Hope, however, Academies have been inftituted, to guard the Avenues of their Languages,

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to retain Fugitives, and repulfe Intruders; but their Vigilance and Activity have hitherto been vain, Sounds are too volatile and subtle for legal Reftraints; to enchain fyllables, and to lafh the Wind are equally the Undertakings of Pride, unwilling to measure its Defires by its Strength. The French Language has vifibly changed under the Infpection of the Academy: the Stile of Amelot's Tranflation of Father Paul is obferved by Le Courayer to be un peu passé; and no Italian will maintain, that the Diction of any modern Writer is not perceptibly different from that of Boccace, Machiavel, or Caro.

Total and fudden Transformations of a Language feldom happen; Conquefts and Migrations are now very rare; but there are other Causes of Change, which, though flow in their Operation, and invifible in their Progrefs, are perhaps as much fuperior to human Refiftance, as the Revolutions of the Sky, or Intumefcence of the Tide. Commerce, however neceffary, however lucrative, as it depraves the Manners, corrupts the Language; they that have frequent Intercourfe with Strangers, to whom they endeavour to accommodate themselves, must in Time learn a mingled Dialect, like the Jargon which ferves the Traffickers on the Mediterranean and Indian Coafts. This will not always be confined to the Exchange, the Warehouse, or the Port, but will be communicated by Degrees to other Ranks of the People, and be at laft incorporated with the current Speech.

There are likewife internal Caufes equally forcible. The Language moft likely to continue long without Alteration, would be that of a Nation raised a little, and but a little, above Barbarity, fecluded from Strangers, and totally employed in procuring the Conveniences of Life: either without Books, or, like fome of the Mahometan Countries, with very few: Men thus bufied and unlearned, having only VOL. II.

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fuch Words as common Ufe requires, would per haps long continue to exprefs the fame Notions by the fame Signs. But no fuch Conftancy can be expected in a People polished by Arts, and claffed by Subordination, where one Part of the Community is fuftained and accommodated by the Labour of the other. Those who have much Leifure to think, will always be enlarging the stock of ideas, and every Increase of Knowledge, whether real or fancied, will produce new Words, or Combinations of Words. When the Mind is unchained from Neceffity, it will range after Convenience; when it is left at large in the Fields of Speculation, it will shift Opinions; as any Cuftom is difufed, the Words that expreffed it muft perifh with it; as any Opinion grows popular, it will innovate Speech in the fame Proportion as it alters Practice.

As by the Cultivation of various Sciences a Language is amplified it will be more furnished with Words deflected from their original Senfe; the Geometrician will talk of a Courtier's Zenith, or the excentrick Virtue of a wild Hero; and the Phyfician of fanguine Expectations, and phlegmatick Delays. Copioufnefs of Speech will give Opportunities to capricious Choice, by which fome Words will be preferred, and others degraded; Viciffitudes of Fafhion will enforce the Ufe of new, or extend the Signification of known Terms. The Tropes of Poetry will make hourly Encroachments, and the metaphorical will become the current Senfe: Pronunciation will be varied by Levity or Ignorance, and the Pen must at length comply with the Tongue; illiterate Writers will at one Time or other, by publick Infautation, rife into Renown; who, not knowing the original Import of Words, will ufe them with colloquial Licentioufnefs, confound Diftinction and forget Propriety. As Politenefs increases, fome Expreffions will be confidered as too grofs and vul

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gar for the Delicate, others as too formal and ceremonious for the Gay and Airy; new Phrafes are therefore adopted, which muft, for the fame Reafens, be in Time difmiffed. Swift, in his petty Treatife on the English Language, allows that new Words must sometimes be introduced, but proposes that none fhould be fuffered to become obfolete. But. what makes a Word obfolete, more than general Agreement to forbear it? And how fhall it be continued, when it conveys an offenfive Idea, or recalled again into Mouths the Mankind, when it has once by Difufe become unfamiliar, and by Unfamiliarity unpleasing.

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There is another Caufe of Alteration more prevalent than any other, which yet, in the present State of the World, cannot be obviated. A Mixture of two Languages will produce a Third, diftinct from both, and they will always be mixed, where the chief Part of Education, and the most confpicuous Accomplishment, is Skill in ancient or in foreign Tongues. He that has long cultivated another Language, will find its Words and Combinations croud upon his Memory; and Haste and Negligence, Refinement and Affectation, will obtrude borrowed Terms and exotick Expreffions.

The great Peft of Speech is Frequency of Tranflation. No Book was ever turned from one Language into another, wtthout imparting fomething of its native Idiom; this is the most mischievous and comprehenfive Innovation; fingle Words may enter by Thousands, and the Fabrick of the Tongue continue the fame, but new Phrafeology changes much at once; it alters not the fingle Stones of the Build; ing, but the Order of the Columns. If an Academy should be established for the Cultivation of our Stile, which I, who can never wifh to fee. Dependance multiplied, hope the Spirit of English Liberty will hinder or deftroy, let them, instead of con

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piling Grammars and Dictionaries, endeavour, with all their Influence, to ftop the Licence of Tranflatours, whofe Idienefs and Ignorance, if it be fuffered to proceed, will reduce us to babble a Dialect of France.

If the Changes that we fear be thus irrefiftible what remains but to acquiefce with Silence, as in the other infurmountable Diftreffes of Humani. ty? It remains that we retard what we cannot repel, that we palliate what we cannot cure. Life may be lengthened by Care, though Death cannot be ultimately defeated: Tongues, like Governments, have a natural Tendency to Degeneration; we have long preferved our Conftitution, let us make fome Struggles for our Language.

In Hope of giving Longevity to that which its own Nature forbids to be immortal, I have devoted this Book, the Labour of Years, to the Honour of my Country, that we may no longer yield the Palm of Philology to the Nations of the Continent. The chief Glory of every People arifes from its Authours! Whether I fhall add any Thing by my own Writings to the Reputation of English Literature, muft be left to Time: Much of my Life has been loft under the Preffures of Difeafe; much has been trifled away; and much has always been spent in Provifion for the Day that was paffing over me; but I fhall not think my Employment useless or ignoble, if by my Affiftance foreign Nations, and diftant Ages, gain Accefs to the Propagators of Knowledge, and understand the Teachers of Truth; if my Labours afford Light to the Repofitories of Science, and add Celebrity to Bacon, to Hooker, to Mil ton and to Boyle.

When I am animated by this Wish I look with Pleafure on my Book, however defective, and deliver it to the World with the Spirit of a Man that has endeavoured well. That it will immediately be

come.

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