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 no 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 Language 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 other wife obferved.

Some Words, indeed, ftand unfupported by any Authority, but they are commonly derivative Nouns or Adverbs, formed from their Primitives by regular and constant Analogy, or Names of Things feldom 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 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

Jefs or unfkilful Perufers appear only to repeat the fame Senfe, will often exhibit, to a more accurate Examiner, Diver fities 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 used 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 Hiftory.

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, display 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 fatisfied

fied my own Expectations. The Work, whatever Proofs of Diligence and Attention it may exhibit, is yet capable of many Improvements: The Orthography which I recommend is still 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 distinguished 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 Sense; 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 firft Transcription.

Many Terms appropriated to particular Occupations, though neceffary and fignificant, are undoubtedly omitted; and of the Words moft ftudiously conGidered 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 firft 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 Feafts of Literature, the obfcure Receffes of Northern Learning which I fhould enter and ranfack, the Treasures with which I expected every Search into those neglected Mines to reward my Labour, and the Triumph with which I fhould display 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 Defeription, 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 Tafk, 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 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 pursue Perfection, was, like the firft Inhabitants of Arcadia, to chace the Sun, which, when they had reached the Hill where he seemed to reft, 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 Affiftance: By this I obtained at least one Advantage, that I fet Limits to my Work, which would in Time be finifhed, though not completed.

Defpondency has never fo far prevailed as to deprefs me to Negligence: Some Faults will at last 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 feparating Similitudes. 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 Senfes however there are, which, though pot the fame, are yet fo nearly allied, that they are often confounded. Moft Men think indiftinctly, and therefore cannot fpeak with Exactnefs; 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 Sense 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 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 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 vilit 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 courting

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