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Show e T is the fate of thofe wh toil at the lower employment C. of life, to b rather driven by the fear o evil, than attracted by the profpect of good; to be expofed to cenfure, without hope of praife ; to b difgraced by mifcarriage, or punifhed for neglect, where fuccefs would have been without applaufe and diligence without reward Among thefe unhappy mortals is the writer of ditionaries; whom mankind have confidered, not as th pupil, but the flave of {cience, the pioneer of literature, doomed only to remove rubbifh and clear obflructions from the paths through which Learning and Genius prefs forward to conqueft and glory, withou beftowing a {mile on the humble drudge that facilitates their progrefs. Every other author may afpire t praife ; the lexicographer can only hope to efcape reproach, and even this negative recompenfe has been ye granted to very few I have, notwithftanding this difcouragement, attempted a Dictionary of the Englifb language, which while it was employed in the cultivation of every fpecies of literature, has itfelf been hitherto negleéted fuffered to fpread, under the direction of chance, into wild exuberance ; refigned to the tyranny of tim and fafhion ; and expofed to the corruptions of ignorance, and caprices of innovation Wken I took the firft furvey of my undertaking, I found our fpeech copious without order, an energetick without rules: wherever I turned my view, there was perplexity to be difentangled, and confufion to be regulated; choice was to be made out of boundlefs variety, without any eftablithed principl of fele€tion; adulterations were to be detected, without a fettled teft of purity ; and modes of expreflio to be rejected or received, without the fuffrages of any writers of claffical reputation or acknowledge authority Having therefore no afliftance but from general grammar, I applied myfelf to the perufal of our writers and noting whatever might be of ufe to afcertain or illuftrate any word or phrafe, accumulated in time th materials of a di¢tionary, which by degrees I reduced to method eftablifhing to myfelf, in the progref of the work, fuch rules as experience and analogy fuggefted to me; experience, which praétice and obfervation were continually increafing ; and analogy, which, though in fome words obfcure, was evident i others In adjufting the ORTHOGRAPHY, which has been to this time unfettled and fortuitous, I found it neceffary to diftinguifh thofe irregularities that are inherent in our tongue, and perhaps coeval with-it, fro others which the ignorance or negligence of later writers has produced. Every language has its anomalies which, though inconvenient, and in themfelves once unneceflary, muft be tolerated among the imperfections of human things, and which require only to be regiftered, that they may not be increafed, and afcer tained, that they may not be confounded: but every language has likewife its improprieties and abfurdities which it is the duty of the lexicographer to corret or profcribe As language was at its beginning merely oral, all words of neceffary or common ufe were {poken before they were written; and while they were unfixed by any vifible figns, muft have been fpoken wit great diverfity, /as w negligently no obferv thofe wh canno rea to catch founds imperfectly, and utter the When this wild and barbarous jargon was firft reduced to an alphabet, every penman endea voured to exprefs as he could, the found which he wa accuftomed to pronounc or to receive, and yi tiated in writing fuch words as were already vitiated in fpeech. The powers of the letters, when the were applied to a new language, muft have been vague and unfettled, and therefore different hands woul ¢xhibit the fame found by different combinations e G ¥Fro |