Courting living Information, and contefting with the Sullennefs of one, and the Roughnefs of another.

To furnish the Academicians della Crufca with Words of this Kind, a Series of Comedies, called la Fiera, or the Fair, was profeffedly written by Buonaroti; but I had no fuch Affiftant, and therefore was content to want what they must have wanted likewife, had they not luckily been fo fupplied.

Nor are all Words which are not found in the Vocabulary, to be lamented as Omiffions. Of the laborious and mercantile Part of the People, the Diction is in a great Measure cafual and mutable; many of their Terms are formed for fome temporary or local Convenience; and though current at certain Times and Places, are in others utterly unknown. This fugitive Cant, which is always in a State of Increase or Decay, cannot be regarded as any Part of the durable Materials of a Language, and therefore must be fuffered to perifh with other Things unworthy of Preservation.

Care will fometimes betray to the Appearance of Negligence. He that is catching Opportunities which feldom occur, will fuffer those to pass by unregarded, which he expects hourly to return; he that is fearching for rare and remote Things, will neglect those that are obvious and familiar: Thus many of the most common and curfory Words have been inferted with little Illuftration, becaufe in gathering the Authorities, I forbore to copy thofe which I thought likely to occur whenever they were wanted. It is remarkable that, in reviewing my Collection, I found the Word Sea unexemplified.

Thus it happens, that in Things difficult there is Danger from Ignorance, and in Things eafy from Confidence; the Mind, afraid of Greatnefs, and difdainful of Littleness, haftily withdraws herself from painful Searches, and paffes with fcornful Rapidity

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over Tasks not adequate to her Powers; fometimes too fecure for Caution, and again too anxious of vigorous Effort; fometimes idle in a plain Path, anď fometimes diftracted in Labyrinths, and diffipated by different Intentions.

A large Work is difficult because it is large, even though all its Parts might fingly be performed with Facility; where there are many Things to be done, each must be allowed its Share of Time and Labour, in the Proportion only which it bears to the Whole; nor can it be expected that the Stones which form the Dome of a Temple, fhould be squared and polished like the Diamond of a Ring.

Of the Event of this Work, for which, having laboured it with fo much Application, I cannot but have fome Degree of parental Fondness, it is natural to form Conjectures. Those who have been perfuaded to think well of my Defign, require that it fhould fix our Language, and put a Stop to thofe Alterations which Time and Chance have hitherto been fuffered to make in it without Oppofition. With this Confequence I will confefs that I flattered myself for a while; but now begin to fear that I have indulged Expectation, which neither Reafon nor Experience can juftify. When we fee Men grow old and die, at a certain Time, one after another, from Century to Century, we laugh at the Elixir that promifes to prolong Life to a thousand Years; and with equal Juftice may the Lexicographer be derided, who being able to produce no Example of a Nation that has preferved their Words and Phrases from Mutability, fhall imagine that his Dictionary can embaim his Language, and fecure it from Corruption and Decay; that it is in his Power to change fublunary Nature, or clear the World at once from Folly, Vanity, and Affectation.

With this Hope, however, Academies have been instituted, to guard the Avenues of their Languages,

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to retain Fugitives, and repulfe Intruders; but their Vigilance and Activity have hitherto been vain ; Sounds are too volatile and fubtle for legal Reftraints; to enchain fyllables, and to lafh the Wind are equally the Undertakings of Pride, unwilling to measure its Defires by its Strength. The French Language has visibly changed under the Inspection of the Academy: the Stile of Amelot's Tranflation of Father Paul is obferved by Le Courayer to be un. peu passé; and no Italian will maintain, that the Diction of any modern Writer is not perceptibly different from that of Boccace, Machiavel, or Caro.

Total and fudden Transformations of a Language feldom happen; Conquefts and Migrations are now very rare; but there are other Causes of Change, which, though flow in their Operation, and invisible in their Progrefs, are perhaps as much fuperior to human Refiftance, as the Revolutions of the Sky, or Intumefcence of the Tide. Commerce, however neceffary, however lucrative, as it depraves the Manners, corrupts the Language; they that have frequent Intercourfe with Strangers, to whom they endeavour to accommodate themselves, must in Time learn a mingled Dialect, like the Jargon which ferves the Traffickers on the Mediterranean and Indian Coafts. This will not always be confined to the Exchange, the Warehouse, or the Port, but will be communicated by Degrees to other Ranks of the People, and be at laft incorporated with the current Speech.

There are likewife internal Caufes equally forcible, The Language most likely to continue long without Alteration, would be that of a Nation raised a little, and but a little, above Barbarity, fecluded from Strangers, and totally employed in procuring the Conveniences of Life: either without Books, or, like fome of the Mahometan Countries, with very few Men thus bufied and unlearned, having only VOL. II.

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fuch Words as common Ufe requires, would per haps long continue to exprefs the fame Notions by the fame Signs. But no fuch Conftancy can be expected in a People polifhed by Arts, and claffed by Subordination, where one Part of the Community is fuftained and accommodated by the Labour of the other. Those who have much Leifure to think, will always be enlarging the stock of ideas, and every Increase of Knowledge, whether real or fancied, will produce new Words, or Combinations of Words. When the Mind is unchained from Neceffity, it will range after Cenvenience; when it is left at large in the Fields of Speculation, it will fhift Opinions; as any Cuftom is difufed, the Words that expreffed it muft perifh with it; as any Opinion grows popular, it will innovate Speech in the fame Proportion as it alters Practice.

As by the Cultivation of various Sciences a Language is amplified it will be more furnished with Words deflected from their original Senfe; the Geometrician will talk of a Courtier's Zenith, or the excentrick Virtue of a wild Hero; and the Phyfician of fanguine Expectations, and phlegmatick Delays. Copioufnefs of Speech will give Opportunities to capricious Choice, by which fome Words will be preferred, and others degraded; Viciffitudes of Fafhion will enforce the Ufe of new, or extend the Signification of known Terms. The Tropes of Poetry will make hourly Encroachments, and the metaphorical will become the current Senfe: Pronunciation will be varied by Levity or Ignorance, and the Pen muft at length comply with the Tongue; illiterate Writers will at one Time or other, by publick Infautation, rife into Renown; who, not knowing the original Import of Words, will ufe them with colloquial Licentiousness, confound Diftinction and forget Propriety. As Politenefs increases, fome Expreffions will be confidered as too grofs and vul

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gar for the Delicate, others as too formal and ceremonious for the Gay and Airy; new Phrases are therefore adopted, which muft, for the fame Reafons, be in Time difmiffed., Swift, in his petty Treatife on the English Language, allows that new Words muft fometimes be introduced, but proposes that none fhould be fuffered to become obfolete. But. what makes a Word obfolete, more than general Agreement to forbear it? And how fhall it be continued, when it conveys an offenfive Idea, or recalled again into Mouths the Mankind, when it has once by Difufe become unfamiliar, and by Unfamiliarity unpleafing.

There is another Caufe of Alteration more prevalent than any other, which yet, in the prefent State of the World, cannot be obviated. A Mixture of two Languages will produce a Third, diftinct, from both, and they will always be mixed, where the chief Part of Education, and the moft confpicuous Accomplishment, is Skill in ancient or in foreign Tongues. He that has long cultivated another Language, will find its Words and Combinations croud upon his Memory; and Haste and Negligence, Refinement and Affectation, will obtrude borrowed Terms and exotick Expreffions.

The great Peft of Speech is Frequency of Tranflation. No Book was ever turned from one Language into another, wtthout imparting fomething of its native Idiom; this is the most mischievous and comprehenfive Innovation; fingle Words may enter by Thoufands, and the Fabrick of the Tongue continue the fame, but new Phrafeology changes much at once; it alters not the fingle Stones of the Building, but the Order of the Columns. If an Academy fhould be established for the Cultivation of our Stile, which I, who can never wifh to fee, Depend ance multiplied, hope the Spirit of English Liberty will, hinder or deftroy, let them, inftead of conpiling

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