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my way to those things which every Man, who endeavours well in his Profeffion, must needs think he has fome claim to, when he fees them given to those who never did endeavour; at the fame time that they would deter me from taking thofe advantages which Letters enable me to procure for myself. If then I am to write no more; (tho' as much out of my Profeffion as they may please to represent this Work, I fufpect their modesty would not infift on a fcrutiny of our several applications of this prophane profit and their purer gains) if, I fay, I am to write no more, let me at least give the Public, who have a better pretence to demand it of me, fome reafon for my presenting them with these amusements. Which, if I am not much mistaken, may be excused by the best and fairest Examples; and, what is more, may be juftified on the furer reafon of things.

The great Saint CHRYSOSTOм, a name confecrated to immortality by his Virtue and Eloquence, is known to have been fo fond of Ariftophanes as to wake with him at his ftudies, and to fleep with him under his pillow: and I never heard that this was objected either to his Piety or his Preaching, not even in those times of pure Zeal and primitive Religion. Yet, in refpect of Shakespear's great fenfe, Ariftophanes's best wit is but buffoonry; and, in comparifon of Ariftophanes's Freedoms, Shake

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Spear writes with the purity of a Vestal. But they will fay, St. Chryfoftom contracted a fondnefs for the comic Poet for the fake of his Greek. To this, indeed, I have nothing to reply. Far be it from me to infinuate fo unfcholarlike a thing, as if We had the fame Ufe for good English that a Greek had for his Attic elegance. Critic Kufter, in a taste and language peculiar to Grammarians of a certain order, hath decreed, that the History and Chronology of Greek Words is the most SOLID entertainment of a Man of Letters.

I fly, then, to a higher Example, much nearer home, and ftill more in point, The famous University of OXFORD. This illuftrious Body, which hath long fo juftly held, and, with fuch equity, difpenfed, the chief honours of the learned World, thought good Letters fo much interested in correct Editions of the best English Writers, that they, very lately, in their public Capacity, undertook one, of this very Author, by fubfcription. And if the Editor hath not discharged his Task with fuitable abilities for one fo much honoured by them, this was not their fault but his, who thruft himfelf into the employment. After fuch an Example, it would be weakening any defence to feek further for Authorities. All that can be now decently urged is the reafon of the thing; and this I fhall do, more for the fake of that truly venerable Body than my own.

Of all the literary exercitations of fpeculative Men, whether defigned for the use or entertainment of the World, there are none of fo much importance, or what are more our immediate concern, than those which let us into the knowledge of our Nature. Others may exercise the Reason or amuse the Imagination; but these only can improve the Heart, and form the human Mind to wisdom. Now, in this Science, our Shakespear is confeffed to occupy the foremoft place; whether we confider the amazing fagacity with which he investigates every hidden fpring and wheel of human Action; or his happy manner of communicating this knowledge, in the just and living paintings which he has given us of all our Paffions, Appetites and Purfuits. These afford a leffon which can never be too often repeated, or too conftantly inculcated: And, to engage the Reader's due attention to it, hath been one of the principal objects of this Edition.

As this Science (whatever profound Philofophers may think) is, to the reft, in Things; fo, in Words, (whatever fupercilious Pedants may talk) every one's mother tongue is to all other Languages. This hath ftill been the Sentiment of Nature and true Wisdom. Hence, the greatest men of Antiquity never thought themfelves better employed than in cultivating their own country idiom. So Lycurgus did honour to Sparta, in giving the firft compleat Edition of Homer; and Cicero, to Rome, in correcting

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the Works of Lucretius. Nor do we want Examples of the fame good fenfe in modern Times, even amidst the cruel inrodes that Art and Fashion have made upon Nature and the fimplicity of Wisdom. Menage, the greatest name in France for all kinds of philologic Learning, prided himself in writing critical Notes on their best lyric Poet, Malherbe: And our greater Selden, when he thought it might reflect credit on his Country, did not difdain even to comment a very ordinary Poet, one Michael Drayton. But the English tongue, at this Juncture, deferves and demands our particular regard. It hath, by means of the many excellent Works of different kinds compofed in it, engaged the notice, and become the study, of almost every curious and learned Foreigner, fo as to be thought even a part of literary accomplishment. This must needs make it deferving of a critical attention: And its being yet deftitute of a Teft or Standard to apply to, in cafes of doubt or difficulty, fhews how much it wants that attention. For we have neither GRAMMAR nor DICTIONARY, neither Chart nor Compafs, to guide us through this wide fea of Words. And indeed how fhould we? fince both are to be compofed and finished on the Authority of our best established Writers. But their Authority can be of little ufe till the Text hath been correctly fettled, and the Phraseology critically examined. As, then, by these aids, a Grammar and Dictionary, planned upon the beft Fules of Logic and Philofophy, ( (and none but

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fuch will deferve the name) are to be procured; the forwarding of this will be a general concern: For, as Quintilian obferves, "Verborum proprietas ac differentia omnibus, qui fermonem

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curæ habent, debet effe communis." By this way, the Italians have brought their tongue to a degree of Purity and Stability which no living Language ever attained unto before. It is with pleasure Iobferve, that these things now begin to be understood amongst ourselves; and that I can acquaint the Public, we may foon expect very elegant Éditions of Fletcher and Milton's Paradife Loft from Gentlemen of diftinguished Abilities and Learning. But this interval of good fenfe, as it may be short, is indeed but new. For I remember to have heard of a very learned Man, who, not long fince, formed a defign of giving a more correct Edition of Spenfer; and, without doubt, would have performed it well; but he was diffuaded from his purpose by his Friends, as beneath the dignity of a Profeffor of the occult Sciences. Yet thefe very Friends, I fuppofe, would have thought it had added luftre to his high Station, to have new-furbished out fome dull northern Chronicle, or dark Sibylline Ænigma. But let it not be thought that what is here faid infinuates any thing to the difcredit of Greek and Latin criticism. If the follies of particular Men were fufficient to bring any branch of Learning into difrepute, I don't know any that would ftand in a worse than that for which I now apologize.

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