It is not in our Power to have recourse to any eftablished Laws of Speech; but we must remark how the Writers of former Ages have used the same 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 fhe dye.

When the Conftruction of a Word is explained, it is neceffary to purfue it through its Train of Phrafeology, through thofe Forms where it is ufed in a Manner peculiar to our Language, or in Senfes not to be comprised in the general Explanations; as from the Verb make arife thefe Phrafes, to make Love, to make an End, to make Way; as, He made Way for his 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 Caufe, 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 thefe Words and Phrafes with Brevity, Fullness, and Perfpicuity; a Tafk of which the Extent and Intricacy is fufficiently fhewn by the Mifcarriage of thofe who have generally attempted it. This Difficulty is increased by the Neceffity of explaining the Words in the fame Languages for there is often only one Word for one Idea; and though it be easy 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 Questions have required Confideration. It was

fome

fome Time doubted whether it be neceffary 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 obferving 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 be-. come generally valuable, I have determined to confult the beft Writers, for Explanations real, as well as verbal; and perhaps I may at laft have Reafon 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 firft its natural and primitive. Siguification; 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; as, 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 Observation that arises from the Comparison of one Meaning with another; as, it may be remarked of the Word arrive, that, in confequence of its original and etymological Senfe, it cannot be properly applied but to Words fignify

ing fomething defirable: Thus we fay a Man are rived at Happinefs; 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 Senfe 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 Toast, used to imply the Person whofe Health is drank; as,

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

The familiar may be followed by the burlefque;" 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, 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 Au thority.

-This Duncan

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

The Signification of Adjectives may be often af certained by uniting them to Subftantives; as, fimple Swain, fimple Sheep. Sometimes the Senfe of a Subftantive may be elucidated by the Epithets annexed to it in good Authours; as, the boundlefs 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 gene rally 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 loofe and popular; as in the Word Perfection, which, though, in its philofophical and exact Senfe, it can be of little Ufe among human Beings, is often fo 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 reftrained to the Senfe of Praife, and others to that of Disapprobation; fo commonly, though not always, we exhort to good Actions, we

infligate

infligate to ill; we animate, incite, and encourage in differently to good or bad. So we ufually afcribe Good, but impute Evil; yet neither the Ufe of thefe Words, nor, perhaps, of any other in our licentious Language, is fo eftablished as not to be often reverfed by the correctest Writers. I fhall therefore, fince the Rules of Stile, like thofe of Law, arife from Precedents often repeated, collect the Teftimonies on both Sides, and endeavour to discover and promulgate the Decrees of Cuftom, who has fo long poffeffed, whether by Right or by Ufurpation, the Sovereignty of Words..

It is neceffary likewife to explain many Words by their Oppofition to others; for Contraries are best féen when they stand together. Thus the Verb ftand has one Senfe, as oppofed to fall, and another as oppofed to fly for want of attending to which Dif tinction, obvious as it is, the learned Dr. Bentley has fquandered his Criticifm to no Purpose, on these Lines of Paradife Loft:

In Heaps

Chariot and Charioteer lay overturn'd,

And fiery foaming Steeds. What food, recoil'd,
O'erwearied, through the faint, Satanic Hoft,
Defenfive fcarce, or with pale Fear furpris'd,
"Fled ignominious-

Here,' fays the Critic, as the Sentence is now read, we find that what food, fled:' And therefore he propofes an Alteration, which he might have fpared if he had confulted a Dictionary, and found that nothing more was affirmed than that those fled who did not fall.

In explaining fuch Meanings as feem accidental and adventitious, I fhall endeavour to give an Account of the Means by which they were introduced. Thus, to eke out any Thing, fignifies to lengthen it beyond its juft Dimensions, by fome low Artifice;

becaufe