ftance while they alter their Appearance, and be varied and compounded, yet not destroyed.

But this is a Privilege which Words are scarcely to expect: for, like their Author, when they are not gaining Strength, they are generally lofing it. Tho' Art may fometimes prolong their Duration, it will rarely give them Perpetuity; and their Changes will be almost always informing us, that Language is the Work of Man, of a Being from whom Permanence and Stability cannot be derived.

Words having been hitherto confidered as feparate and unconnected, are now to be likewife examined as they are ranged in their various Relations to others by the Rules of Syntax or Conftruction, to which I do not know that any Regard has been yet fhewn in English Dictionaries, and in which the Grammarians can give little Affiftance. The Syntax of this Language is too inconftant to be reduced to Rules, and can be only learned by the diftin&t Confideration of particular Words as they are used by the best Authors. Thus, we fay, according to the prefent Modes of Speech, The Soldier died of his Wounds, and the Sailor perifhed with Hunger; and every Man acquainted with our Language would be offended by a Change of these Particles, which yet seem originally affigned by Chance, there being no Reason to be drawn from Grammar why a Man may not, with equal Propriety, be faid to die with a Wound, or perish of Hunger.

Our Syntax therefore is not to be taught by general Rules, but by fpecial Precedents; and in examining whether Addifon has been with Juftice accufed of a Solecifm in this Paffage,

The poor Inhabitant

Starves in the midst of Nature's Bounty curft,
And in the loaden Vineyard dies for Thirst.

it is not in our Power to have Recourse to any establithed Laws of Speech; but we must remark how the Writers of former Ages have ufed the fame Word, and confider whether he can be acquitted of Impropriety, upon the Teftimony of Davies, given in his Favour by a fimilar Paffage,

She loaths the wat'ry Glafs wherein the gaz'd,
And fhuns it ftill, although for Thirst she dye.

When the Conftruction of a Word is explained, it is neceffary to pursue it through its Train of Phrafeology, through thofe Forms where it is used in a Manner peculiar to our Language, or in Senfes not to be comprised in the general Explanations; as from the Verb make arise these Phrafes, to make Love, to make an End, to make Way; as, He made Way for This Followers, The Ship made Way before the Wind; to make a Bed, to make merry, to make a Mock, to make Prefents, to make a Doubt, to make out an Affertion, to make good a Breach, to make good a Cause, to make nothing of an Attempt, to make Lamentation, to make a Merit, and many others which will occur in reading with that View, and which only their Frequency hinders from being generally remarked.

The great Labour is yet to come, the Labour of interpreting these Words and Phrases with Brevity, Fullness, and Perfpicuity; a Task of which the Extent and Intricacy is fufficiently fhewn by the Mifcarriage of those who have generally attempted it. This Difficulty is increased by the Neceffity of explaining the Words in the fame Language; for there is often only one Word for one Idea; and though it be eafy to tranflate the Words bright, fweet, falt, bitter, into another Language, it is not eafy to explain them.

With regard to the Interpretation, many other Queftions have required Confideration.

It was

fome

fome Time doubted whether it be neceflary to explain the Things implied by particular Words; as under the Term Baronet, whether, inftead of this Explanation, a Title of Honour next in Degree to that of Baron, it would be better to mention more particularly the Creation, Privileges, and Rank of Baronets; and whether, under the Word Barometer, inftead of being fatisfied with observing that it is an Inftrument to discover the Weight of the Air, it would be fit to spend a few Lines upon its Invention, Conftruction, and Principles. It is not to be expected, that with the Explanation of the one the Herald fhould be fatisfied, or the Philofopher with that of the other; but fince it will be required by common Readers, that the Explications fhould be fufficient for common Ufe; and fince, without fome Attention to fuch Demands, the Dictionary cannot become generally valuable, I have determined to confult the best Writers, for Explanations real, as well as verbal; and perhaps I may at last have Reason to fay, after one of the Augmenters of Furetier, that my Book is more learned than its Author.

In explaining the general and popular Language, it seems neceffary to fort the feveral Senfes of each Word, and to exhibit first its natural and primitive Signification; as,

To arrive, to reach the Shore in a Voyage: He arrived at a fafe Harbour.

Then to give its confequential Meaning, to arrive, to reach any Place, whether by Land or Sea; s, He arrived at his Country-Seat.

Then its metaphorical Senfe, to obtain any Thing defired; as, He arrived at a Peerage.

Then to mention any Obfervation that arifes from the Comparison of one Meaning with another; as, it may be reinarked of the Word arrive, that, in confequence of its original and etymological Senfe, it cannot be properly applied but to Words fignify

1

ing fomething desirable: Thus we fay a Man ar rived at Happiness; but cannot fay, without a Mixture of Irony, he arrived at Mifery.

Ground, the Earth, generally as opposed to the Air or Water. He fwam till he reached Ground. The Bird fell to the Ground.

Then follows the accidental or confequential Signification, in which Ground implies any Thing that lies under another; as, he laid Colours upon a rough Ground. This Silk had blue Flowers on a red Ground.

Then the remoter, or metaphorical Signification; as, the Ground of his Opinion was a falfe Computation. The Ground of his Work was his Father's Manufcript.

After having gone through the natural and figurative Senfes, it will be proper to fubjoin the poetical Sense of each Word, where it differs from that which is in common Ufe; as, wanton, applied to any Thing of which the Motion is irregular without Terror; as,

In wanton Ringlets curl'd her Hair.

To the poetical Senfe may fucceed the familiar; as of Toaft, used to imply the Perfon whofe Health is drank; as,

The wife Man's Paffion, and the vain Man's Toaft. POPE

The familiar may be followed by the burlesque; as of mellow, applied to good Fellowship.

In all thy Humours, whether grave or mellow.

Or of Bite, used for Cheat.

ADDISON.

-More a Dupe than Wit,

Sappho can tell you how this Man was bit. POPE.

And,

And, laftly, may be produced the peculiar Senfe, in which a Word is found in any great Author: As Faculties, in Shakespeare, fignifies the Powers of Authority.

-This Duncan

Has borne his Faculties fo meek, has been
So clear in his great Office, that, &c.

The Signification of Adjectives may be often afcertained by uniting them to Subftantives; as, fimple Swain, fimple Sheep. Sometimes the Sense of a Subftantive may be elucidated by the Epithets annexed to it in good Authors; as, the boundless Ocean, the open Lawns: And where fuch Advantage can be gained by a fhort Quotation, it is not to be omitted.

The Difference of Signification in Words generally accounted fynonimous, ought to be carefully obferved; as in Pride, Haughtiness, Arrogance; and the ftrict and critical Meaning ought to be diftinguished from that which is loose and popular; as in the Word Perfection, which, though in its philofophical and exact Senfe, it can be of little U fe among human Beings, is often so much degraded from its original Signification, that the Academicians have inferted in their Work the Perfection of a Language, and, with a little more Licentioufnefs, might have prevailed on themselves to have added the Perfection of a Dictionary.

There are many other Characters of Words which it will be of use to mention. Some have both an active and paffive Signification; as fearful, that which gives or feels Terror; a fearful Prodigy, a fearful Hare. Some have a perfonal, fome a real Meaning; as in Oppofition to old, we use the Adjective. young, of animated Beings, and new of other Things. Some are restrained to the Sense of Praise, and others to that of Difapprobation; fo commonly, though not always, we exhort to good Actions, we inftigate