for a piece of Money, to prostitute their bad fenfe for or against any Caufe prophane or facred; or in any Scandal public or private: -Thefe meeting with little encouragement from Men of account in the Trade, (who even in this enlightened Age are not the very worst Judges or Rewarders of merit) apply themfelves to People of Condition ; and fupport their importunities by falfe complaints against Bookfellers.

But I fhould now, perhaps, rather think of my own Apology, than bufy myself in the defence of others. I fhall have some Tartuffe ready, on the first appearance of this Edition, to call out again, and tell me, that I fuffer myfelf to be wholly diverted from my purpose by these matters lefs fuitable to my clerical Profeffion. "Well, but, fays a Friend, why not take fo "candid an intimation in good part? With"draw yourself, again, as you are bid, into the "clerical Pale; examine the Records of facred " and prophane Antiquity; and, on them, erect "a Work to the confufion of Infidelity. Why, I have done all this, and more: And hear now what the fame Men have faid to it. They tell me, I have wrote to the wrong and injury of Religion, and furnished out more handles for Unbelievers. "Oh now the secret's 1 out; and you may have your pardon, I find, Hupon eafier terms. 'Tis only, to write no Good Gentlemen! and fhall I

"more."

not oblige them? They would gladly obftruct

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 reprefent this Work, I fufpect their modesty would not infift on a fcrutiny of our feveral 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 prefenting them with these amusements. Which, if I am not much mistaken, may be excufed by the beft and faireft Examples; and, what is more, may be juftified on the furer reafon of things.

The great Saint CHRYSOSTOM, 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 beft wit is but buffoonry; and, in comparison of Ariftophanes's Freedoms, ShakeSpear

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 Hiftory 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 ufe or entertainment of the World, there are none of fo much importance, or what are more our immediate concern, than thofe which let us into the knowledge of our Nature. Others may exercise the Reafon or amufe 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 juft 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 greateft men of Antiquity never thought themfelves better employed than in cultivating their own country idiom. So Lycurgus did honour to Sparta, in giving the first compleat Edition of Homer, and Cicero, to Rome, in correcting

the

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 Compass, 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 beft 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 thefe aids, a Grammar and Dictionary, planned upon the best rules of Logic and Philofophy, (and none but

fuch