it printing it, which I was not willing to neglect, for, with all its faults, I really do think may be eminently useful to the publick, in correcting and fetting right the taste of young writers, and of young gentlemen at the academy and univerfity, who are fo naturally led aftray by the false glitter of Mr. J—n's profe, and the fublime nonfenfe of Mr. A---de's verfe. For there is good reason to believe, that were the Ramblers and Pleasures of Imagination on the one hand, and the Spectators and Dryden's Fables on the other, the one the most faulty and affected, the other the best and pureft of all works of their kind, to be ballotted for as fchool-books, in an af fembly of all the mafters and school-boys of the nation; there is good reafon to believe, I jay, that the former would carry it against the latter, by a majority of at least ten to one. There has been much talk about correcting, improvingand afcertaining a living tongue, as well in our own country, as among the French and Italians. Many great writers, and if I miftake not, Doctor Swift among the reft, have thought a Grammar and Dictionary neceffary for that purpose, and have therefore lamented the want of them. I have declared my opinion of thefe in the Dialogue, but shall bere do it more at large. 'Tis certain that a Grammar or Dictionary, if good for any thing, must be compiled or extracted from good authors; but that thefe again should become necessary, and even indifpenfible to form, or rather to create good authors, appears to me, I confefs, fomething like a circle in logick, or the perpetual motion in mechanicks; the one a vicious mode of reafoning, and the other a downright impoffibility. 'Tis true, they may be useful to ladies or country fquires, to avoid an error in fpelling, and now and then a grofs blunder or impropriety in fpeech. And farther I conceive their utility, however boasted of, does not extend; unless, indeed, in a dead language, or to a foreigner who studies a living one, in the fame manner we are obliged to Study Greek or Latin. But an author or an orator, who takes upon him to write or speak to the people in their own tongue, ought to be above confulting them. Befides, if we have recourfe to experience and matter of fact, the fureft criterion in all Such affairs, we shall perceive, that as the want of them has been no loss, so when procured, they have done as little fervice. Ha-. mer mer and Virgil, Demofthenes and Cicero, Thucydides and Livy, all wrote without Grammar or Dictionary, and most of them without fo much as knowing what they were. So have all the best writers of Italy, France and England. Nor do I hear that the Dictionaries of the two former, though compiled by bodies of men, the most illuftrious for their learning, have done any mighty feats fince their appearance; that they have fixed or eftablished their respective languages, or made the writers in either a whit more elegant and correct than they would have been without them. We too, in imitation of them, muft also have our Dictionary. But by whom is it compiled? By Lexiphanes himself, the great corrupter of our taste and language. I own I have never had opportunity to confult either the French or Italian Dictionaries; but Mr. J—n's, I am certain, falls infinitely short of what I conceive it ought to be, to answer any purpose it is pretended to ferve. It ought to contain, in a manner, a diftin&t treatise on every word that is, or ever has been in ufe, branched out into a thousand particulars very difficult to enumerate, but almost impossible to execute. And what man or body of men are equal equal to fuch a task? Befides, were it executed, who could ufe it, or reap any benefit from it? It would be in itself a library, infinitely more voluminous than the abridgment of our laws in twenty Volumes Folio, or even than our. laws themselves at large. In short, we may pronounce a perfect Dictionary to be like the Philofopher's Stone, once a great Defideratum among fome people, impoffible to obtain, and which, perhaps, we are better without. The celebrated Doctor Swift,in his Propofal forcorrecting, improving, and ascertaining the English Tongue, ftrenuously recommends the inftitution of a fociety compofed of fuch perfons, as are generally allowed to be beft qualified for fuch a work, namely, the fixing, correcting, and enlarging our language, without any regard to quality, party, or profeffion, and who, to a certain number at least, should assemble at some appointed time and place, and fix on rules by which they defigned to proceed. That fuch a fociety inftituted at that time, and compofed of perfons, appointed by Swift himself, or by the great man to whom the propofal is addressed; might have been eminently useful for the purposes there mentioned, I shall not, by any means, means, bring into question. But then, whe wouldwarrant the immortality ofthofe perfons, or that their fucceffors should be poffeffed of the fame abilities, and animated with the fame Spirit? In that fuppofition, indeed, it is poffible fuch Lexiphanick fuftian, as we have lately been pestered with, might never have bad exiftence, at least, never been heard of. But in the fituation things now are, I think I may venture to affert, without any danger of rashness, that if such a society had been inftituted a few years ago, and I know not but it would be the fame at prefent, our great Lexicographer, the excellent Rambler, would have been elected Secretary, and, perhaps, the Britifb Lucretius, of whom more hereafter, appointed Register of it. Then, indeed, matters would have been much worse, and really past redemption. For who would have been fo bardy as to attack, and on the fcore of their language too, the Secretary and Register of an Academy erected for correcting, improving and afcertaining that very language; and at the bead of which, most certainly would have been every the most illuftrious name and character in the nation. Even as the cafe now ftands, this attempt is, by fome, I know, thought teo daring |