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PHILOLOGICAL

TRACT S.

M 2

THE

PLA
A N

OF AN

ENGLISH DICTIONARY.

To the Right Honourable PHILIP DORMER, Earl of CHESTERFIELD, one of his Majefty's Principal Secretaries of State.

My LORD,

W

WHEN firft I undertook to write an English Dictionary, I had no expectation of any higher patronage than that of the proprietors of the copy, nor profpect of any other advantage than the price of my labour. I knew that the work in which I engaged is generally confidered as drudgery for the blind, as the proper toil of artless induftry; a task that requires neither the light of learning, nor the activity of genius, but may be fuccefsfully performed without any higher quality than that of bearing burthens with dull patience, and beating the track of the alphabet with fluggish refolution.

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Whether this opinion, fo long tranfmitted, and fo widely propagated, had its beginning from truth and nature, or from accident and prejudice; whe ther it be decreed by the authority of reafon, or the tyranny of ignorance, that of all the candidates for literary praife, the unhappy lexicographer holds the lowest place, neither vanity nor intereft incited me to enquire. It appeared that the province allotted me was, of all the regions of learning, generally confeffed to be the leaft delightful, that it was believed to produce neither fruits nor flowers; and that, after a long and laborious cultivation, not even the barren laurel had been found upon it.

Yet on this province, my Lord, I entered, with the pleafing hope, that, as it was low, it likewife would be fafe. I was drawn forward with the profpect of employment, which, though not fplendid, would be useful; and which, though it could not make my life envied, would keep it innocent; which would awaken no paffion, engage me in no contention, nor throw in my way any temptation to disturb the quiet of others by cenfure, or my own by flattery.

I had read indeed of times, in which princes and ftatefimen thought it part of their honour to promote the improvement of their native tongues; and in which dictionaries were written under the protection of greatnefs. To the patrons of fuch undertakings I willingly paid the homage of believing that they, who were thus folicitous for the perpetuity of their language, had reafon to expect that their actions would be celebrated by pofterity, and that

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