Jefs or unfkilful Perufers appear only to repeat the fame Senfe, will often exhibit, to a more accurate Examiner, Diverfities of Signification, or, at least, afford different Shades 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 Senfe; one will prove the Expreffion genuine from an ancient Authour; another will fhew it elegant from a modern: A doubtful Authority is corroborated by another of more Credit; an ambiguous Sentence 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 Stability or Enlargement of the Language.

When Words are ufed equivocally, I receive them in either Senfe; when they are metaphorical, I adopt them in their primitive Acceptation.

I have fometimes, though rarely, yielded to the Temptation of exhibiting a Genealogy of Sentiments, by fhewing how one Author copied the Thoughts and Diction of another: Such Quotations are indeed little more than Repetitions, which might juftly be cenfured, did they not gratify the Mind, by affording a Kind of intellectual History.

The various fyntactical Structures occurring in the Examples have been carefully noted; the Licence or Negligence with which many Words have been hitherto ufed, has made our Style 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 have I laboured to fettle the Orthography, difplay the Analogy, regulate the Structures, and afcertain the Signification of English Words, to perform all the Parts of a faithful Lexicographer: But I have not always executed my own Scheme, or fa

tisfied

fed my own Expectations. The Work, whatever Proofs of Diligence and Attention it may exhibit, iş yet capable of many Improvements: The Orthography which I recommend is ftill controvertible, the Etymology which I adopt is uncertain, and perhaps frequently erroneous; the Explanations are fometimes too much contracted, and fometimes too much diffused; the Significations are diftinguished rather with Subtility than Skill, and the Attention is harraffed with unneceffary Minuteness.

The Examples are too often injudiciously truncated, and perhaps fometimes, I hope very rarely, alledged in a mistaken Senfe; for in making this Collection I trusted 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 most studiously confidered and exemplified, many Senses have escaped Obfervation.

Yet these Failures, however frequent, may admit Extenuation and Apology. To have attempted much is always laudable, even when the Enterprize is above the Strength that undertakes it: To reft below his own Aim is incident to every one whofe Fancy is active, and whofe 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 pleased myself with a Profpect of the Hours which I fhould revel away in Feasts of Literature, the obfcure Receffes of Northern Learning which I should enter and ranfack, the Treasures with which I expected every Search into thofe neglected Mines to reward my Labour, and the Triumph with which I fhould difplay my Acquifitions to Mankind. When I had thus

enquired

enquired into the Original of Words, I refolved to fhow likewife my Attention to Things; to pierce deep in every Science, to enquire the Nature of every Subftance 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 these were the Dreams of a Poet, doomed at laft 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 Task, with those I must finally perform it. To deliberate whenever I doubted, to enquire whenever I was ignorant, would have protracted the Undertaking without End, and, perhaps, without much Improvement; for I did not find by my first 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 pursue Perfection, was, like the firft Inhabitants of Arcadia, to chace the Sun, which, when they had reached the Hill where he seemed to rest, was ftill beheld at the fame Distance from them.

I then contracted my Defign, determining to confide in myself, and no longer to folicit Auxiliaries, which produced more Incumbrance than Affistance: 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: Some Faults will at laft 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 Ne

ceffity

ceffity of difentangling Combinations, and feparata ing Similitudes. Many of the Distinctions 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 shall be accurately compiled, or fkilfully examined.

Some Senfes however there are, which, though not the fame, are yet fo nearly allied, that they are often confounded. Moft Men think indiftinctly, and therefore cannot fpeak with Exactness; and confequently fome Examples might be indifferently put to either Signification: This Uncertainty is not to be imputed to me, who do not form, but regifter the Language; who do not teach Men how they fhould think, but relate how they have hitherto expreffed their Thoughts...

The imperfect Senfe 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 fhining with Sparks of Imagination, and fome replete with Treatures of Wisdom.

The Orthography and Etymology, though imperfect, are not imperfect for want of Care; but becaufe Care will not always be fuccessful, and Recollection or Information come too late for Ufe.

..That many Terms of Art and Manufacture are omitted, muft be frankly acknowledged; but for this Defect, I may boldly alledge 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 Shops of Artificers, to gain the Names of Wares, Tools, and Operations, of which no Mention is found in Books; what favourable Accident, or eafy Enquiry, brought within my Reach, has not been neglected; but it had been a hopeless Labour to glean up Words, by

7

courting

courting living Information, and contefting with, the Sullennefs of one, and the Roughness 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 Omiflions. 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 perifh 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 pass by unregarded, which he expects hourly to return; he that . is fearching for rare and remore Things, will neglect those that are obvious and familiar: Thus many of the most common and curfory Words have been inferted with little Illuftration, becaufe in gathering the, Authorities, I forbore to copy thofe which I thought likely to occur whenever they were wanted. It is remarkable 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, haftily withdraws herfelf from painful Searches, and paffes with fcornful Rapidity

over