The Works of Samuel Johnson, LL.D. A new edition ... with an essay on his life and genius by Arthur Murphy

Front matter

THE WORKS O F Samuel Johnson, ll.d. A NEW EDITION, IN TWELVE VOLUMES. WITH An ESSAY on his LIFE and GENIUS, By ARTHUR MURPHY, Eso^ VOLUME THE SECOND. LONDON: Printed for T. Longman, B. White and Son, B. Law, J. Dodlley, H. Baldwin, T. Robson, J. Johnson, C Dilly, T. Vernor, G. G. J. and J Robinson, T. Cadell, J. Nichols, R. Baldwin, N. Conant, P. Elmsly, F. and .. Rivington, T. Payne, W. Goldsmith, R. Faulder, Leigh and Sotheby, G. Nicol, T. Murray, A. Strahan, W. Lowndes, T. Evans, W. Bent, S. Hayes, G. and T. Wilkie, T. and J. Egerton, W. Fox, P-Jr'^n> Ogilvie and Speare, Darton and Harvey, G. and C Kearsley, W. Millar, B. C Collins, and E. Newbery. M DCC XCIL CONTENTS OF THE SECOND VOLUME. PHILOLOGICAL TRACTS. Page CfHE Plan cf an English Dictionary — — 3 Preface to the Englijh Dictionary — — 31 Proposals for printing the Works of Shakespeare — 68 Preface to Ditto — — — 77 General Observations on Shakespeare's Plays — 141 Account of the Harleian Library — — 171 EJfay on the Origin and Importance of Fugitive Pieces 184 Account of the Life of Benvenuto Cellini — 195 View of the Controversy between Crousaz and Warburton — — — 198 Preliminary Discourse to the London Chronicle ; 1757 203 Introduction to the World Displayed — — 208 Preface to the Preceptor — — 235 Preface to Rois s Dictionary — — 256 Preface to the 'Translation of Father hobo's Voyage 265 EJfay on Epitaphs — — — 270 POLITICAL ESSAYS.

Observations on the State of Affairs in 17 56 — 281 Introduction to the Political State of Great Britain 294 5 M I S C E L- CONTENTS MISCELLANEOUS ESSAYS. Review os Memoirs of the Court of Augustus — 319 Review of Four Letters from Sir Isaac Newton to Dr. Bentley — — — 328 Review of a Journal of Eight Days Journey from Portsmouth to Kingston upon Thames, lie. — 333 Review of an Effay on the Writings and Genius of Pope — — — — 349 Reply to a Paper in the Gazetteer — — 360 Introduction to the Proceedings of the Committee for cloathing French Prisoners of War — 368 On the Bravery of the English Common Soldiers — 37 1 Consider aliens on the Plans for the Construction of Black Friars Bridge — — 375 Some Thoughts on Agriculture, Ancient and Modern 384 Further Thoughts on Agriculture — — 391 The Vision of Theodore, the Hermit of Teneriffe — 398 The Picture of Human Life, from the Greek of Cebes 416 PHILO- PHILOLOGICAL TRACTS.

Vol. II B THE PLAN O F A N ENGLISH DICTIONARY. To the Right Honourable Philip Dormer, Earl of Chesterfield, one of his Majesty's Principal Secretaries of State. My Lord, WHEN first I undertook to write an English Dictionary, I had no expectation of any higher patronage than that of the proprietors of the copy, nor prospect of any other advantage than the price of my labour. I knew that the work in which I engaged is generally considered as drudgey for the blind, as the proper toil of ardess industry ; a task that requires neither the light of learning, nor the activity of genius, but may be successfully performed without any higher quality than that of bearing burthens with dull patience, and beating the track of the alphabet with stuggist resolution. B 2 Whether TFIEPLANOF 4 Whether this opinion, so long transmitted, and so widely propagated, had its beginning from truth and nature, or from accident and prejudice ; whether it be decreed by the authority of reason, or the tyranny of ignorance, that of all the candidates for literary praise, the unhappy lexicographer holds the lowest place, neither vanity nor interest incited me to enquire.

Preface

TO THE ENGLISH DICTIONARY. IT is the fate of those who toil at the lower employments of life, to be rather driven by the fear of evil, than attracted by the prospect of good; to be exposed to censure, without hope os praise ; to be disgraced by miscarriage, or punished for neglect, where success would have been without applause, and diligence without reward. Among these unhappy mortals is the writer of dictionaries ; whom mankind have considered, not as the pupil, but the slave of science, the pioneer of literature, doomed only to remove rubbish and clear obstructions from the paths through which Learning and Genius press forward to conquest and glory, without bestowing a smile on the humble drudge that facilitates their progress. Every other author may aspire to praise ; the lexicographer can only hope to escape reproach, and even this ne gative recompence has been yet granted to vey few.

I have, notwithstanding this discouragement, attempted a Dictionay of the English language, which, which, while it was employed in the cultivation of every species of literature, has itself been hitherto neglected ; suffered to spread, under the direction of chance, into wild exuberance ; resigned to the tyran ny of time and fastion ; and exposed to the corruptions of ignorance, and caprices of innovation. When I took the first survey of my undertaking, I found our speech copious without order, and ener getick without rule: wherever I turned my view, there was perplexity to be disentangled, and confu sion to be regulated ; choice was to be made out of boundless variety, without any establisted principle of selection ; adulterations were to be detected, without a settled test of purity ; and modes of expression to be rejected or received, without the suffrages of any writers of classical reputation or acknowledged au thority.

Having therefore no assistance but from general grammar, I applied myself to the perusal of our writers ; and noting whatever might be of use to ascertain or illustrate any word or phrase, accumulated in time the materials of a dictionary, which, by degrees, I reduced to method, establishing to myselfi in the progress of the work, such rules as experience and analogy suggested to me ; experience, which practice and observation were continually in creasing ; and analogy, which, though in some words obscure, was evident in others. In adjusting the Orthography, which has been to this time unsettled and fortuitous, I found it necessary to distinguish those irregularities that are in herent in our tongue, and perhaps coeval with it, from from others which the ignorance or negligence of later writers has produced.

Every language has its anomalies, which, though inconvenient, and in themselves once unnecessary, must be tolerated among the imperfections of human things, and which require only to be registered, that they may not be increased, and ascertained, that they may not be confounded : but every language has likewise its improprieties and absurdities, which it is the duty of the lexicographer to correct or proscribe. As language was at its beginning merely oral, all words of necessary or common use were spoken be fore they were written ; and while they were unfixed by any visible signs, must have been spoken with great diversity, as we now observe those who cannot read to catch sounds imperfectly, and utter them negligently. When this wild and barbarous jargon was first reduced to an alphabet, every penman endeavoured to express, as he could, the sounds which he was accustomed to pronounce or to receive, and vi tiated in writing such words as were already vitiated in speech.

The powers of the letters, when they were applied to a new language, must have been vague and unsettkd, and therefore different hands would exhibit the fame sound by different combina tions. From this uncertain pronunciation arise in a great part the various dialects of the fame country, which will always be observed to grow fewer, and less different, as books are multiplied ; and from this ar bitrary representation of sounds by letters, proceeds that diversity of spelling, observable in the Saxon re- Vol. II. D mains, mains, and I suppose in the first books of every na tion, which perplexes or destroys analogy, and pro duces anomalous formations, that, being once in corporated, can never be afterward dismissed or re formed. Of this kind are the derivatives length from long, strength from strong, darling from dear, breadth from broad, from dry, drought, and from high, height, which Milton, in zeal for analogy, writes highth : Quid te exempta juvat spinis de pluribus una ? to change all would be too much, and to change one is nothing.

This uncertainty is most frequent in the vowels, which are so capriciously pronounced, and so differently modified, by accident or affectation, not only in every province, but in every mouth, that to them, as is well known to etymologists, little regard is to be stewn in the deduction osone language from another. Such defects are not errours in orthography, but spots of barbarity impressed so deep in the English language, that criticism can never wash them away : these, therefore, must be permitted to remain un touched ; but many words have likewise been altered by accident, or depraved by ignorance, as the pro nunciation of the vulgar has been weakly followed ; and some still continue to be variously written, as authors differ in their care or skill : of these it was proper to enquire the true orthography, which I have always considered as depending on their derivation, and have therefore referred them to their original languages : thus I write enchant, enchantment, en chanter, after the French, and incantation after the 3 Latin ; Latin; thus entire is chosen rather than intire, be cause it passed to us not from the Latin integer, but from the French entier.

Of many words it is difficult to fay whether they were immediately received from the Latin or the French, since at the time when we had dominions in France, we had Latin service in our churches. It is, however, my opinion, that the French generally supplied us ; for we have few Latin words, among the terms of domestick use, which are not French ; but many French, which are very remote from Latin. Even in words of which the derivation is apparent, I have been often obliged to sacrifice uniformity to custom ; thus I write, in compliance with a numberless majority, convey and inveigh, deceit and receipt, fancy and phantom ; sometimes the derivative varies from the primitive, as explain and explanation, repeat and repetition. Some combinations of letters having the fame power, are used indifferently without any discoverable reason of choice, as in choak, choke ; soap, sope ; Jewel, fuel, and many others ; which I have sometimes inserted twice, that those who search for them under either form, may not search in vain.

In examining the orthography of any doubtful word, the mode of spelling by which it is inserted in the series of the dictionary, is to be considered as that to which I give, perhaps not often rafnly, the preference. I have left, in the examples, to every author his own practice unmolested, that the reader may ballance suffrages, and judge between us : but this question is not always to be determined by re puted or by real learning ; some men, intent upon D 2 greater greater things, have thought little on sounds and derivations ; some, knowing in the ancient tongues, have neglected those in which our words are com monly to be sought. Thus Hammond writes fedble nefs for feasibleness, because I suppose he imagined it derived immediately from the Latin ; and some words, such as dependant, dependent ; dependance, dependence, vary their final syllable, as one or another language is present to the writer.

In this part of the work, where caprice has long wantoned without control, and vanity sought praise by petty reformation, I have endeavoured to pro ceed with a scholar's reverence for antiquity, and a grammarian's regard to the genius of our tongue. I have attempted few alterations, and among those few, perhaps the greater part is from the modern to the ancient practice ; and I hope I may be allowed to recommend to those, whose thoughts have been perhaps employed too anxiously on verbal singula rities, not to disturb, upon narrow views, or for minute propriety, the orthography of their fathers. It has been asserted, that for the law to be known, is of more importance than to be right. Change, fays Hooker, is not made without inconvenience, even from worse to better. There is in constancy and stability a general and lasting advantage, which will always overbalance the slow improvements of gradual correction.

Much less ought our written language to comply with the corruptions of oral utterance, or copy that which every variation of time or place makes different from itself, and imitate those changes, which will again be changed, while imitation is em ployed in observing them. This This recommendation of steadiness and uniformity does not proceed from an opinion, that particular combinations of letters have much influence on hu man happiness ; or that truth may not be successfully taught by modes of spelling fanciful and errone ous : I am not yet so lost in lexicography, as to for get that words are the daughters of earth, and that things are the sons of heaven. Language is only the instrument of science, and words are but the signs of ideas : I wish, however, that the instrument might be less apt to decay, and that signs might be permanent, like the things which they denote.

In settling the orthography, I have not wholly neglected the pronunciation, which I have directed, by printing an accent upon the acute or elevated syl lable. It will sometimes be found, that the accent is placed by the author quoted, on a different syl lable from that marked in the alphabetical series ; it is then to be understood, that custom has varied, or that the author has, in my opinion, pronounced wrong. Short directions are sometimes given where the sound of letters is irregular; and if they are sometimes omitted, defect in such minute observations will be more easily excused, than super fluity. In the investigation both of the orthography and signification of words, their Etymology was necessarily to be considered, and they were therefore to be divided into primitives and derivatives.

A primitive word, is that which can be traced no further to any Engliffi root ; thus circumspect, circumvent, circum stance, delude, concave, and complicate, though compounds in the Latin, are to us primitives. Deriva- D 3 tives, tives, are all those that can be referred to any word in English of greater simplicity. The derivatives I have referred to their primitives, with an accuracy sometimes needless ; for who does not see that remoteness comes from remote, lovely from love, concavity from concave, and demonstrative from demonstrate ? But this grammatical exuberance the scheme of my work did not allow me to repress. It is of great importance, in examining the general fabrick of a language, to trace one word from ano ther, by noting the usual modes of derivation and inflection ; and uniformity must be preserved in systematical works, though sometimes at the expence of particular propriety.

Among other derivatives I have been careful to insert and elucidate the anomalous plurals of nouns and preterites of verbs, which in the Teutonick dialects are very frequent, and, though familiar to those who have always used them, interrupt and embarrass the learners of our language. The two languages from which our primitives have been derived are the Roman and Teutonick: under the Roman I comprehend the French and provincial tongues; and under the Teutonick range the Saxon, German, and all their kindred dialects. Most of our polysyllables are Roman, and our words of one syl lable are very often Teutonick. In assigning the Roman original, it has perhaps sometimes happened that I have mentioned only the Latin, when the word was borrowed from the French ■_. and considering myself as employed only in the il lustration of my own language, I have not been very careful to observe whether the Latin word be pure pure or barbarous, or the French elegant or obsolete.

For the Teutonick etymologies I am commonly in debted to Junius and Skinner, the only names which I have forborn to quote when I copied their books ; not that I might appropriate their labours or usurp their honours, but that I might spare a perpetual re petition by one general acknowledgment. Of these, whom I ought not to mention but with the reve rence due to instructors and benefactors, Junius appears to have excelled in extent of learning, and Skinner in rectitude of understanding. Junius was accurately stalled in all the northern languages, Skin ner probably examined the ancient and remoter dia lects only by occasional inspection into dictionaries ; but the learning of Junius is often of no other use than to stew him a track by which he may deviate from his purpose, to which Skinner always presses for ward by the stiortest way.

Skinner is often ignorant, but never ridiculous : Junius is always full of know ledge ; but his variety distracts his judgment, and his learning is very frequently disgraced by his ab surdities. The votaries of the northern muses will not per haps easily restrain their indignation, when they find the name of Junius thus degraded by a disadvanta geous comparison ; but whatever reverence is due to his diligence, or his attainments, it can be no criminal degree of censoriousnefs to charge that etymologist with want of judgment, who can seriously derive dream from drama, because life is a drama, and a drama is a dream; and who declares with a tone of defiance, that no man can fail to derive D 4 moan moan from /*<>»«?, tnonos, single or solitary, who con siders that grief naturally loves to be alone .

Our knowledge of the northern literature is so scanty, that of words undoubtedly Teutonick, the original is not always to be found in any ancient lan- * That I may not appear to have spoken too irreverently of Junius, I have here subjoined a few specimens of his etymological extravagance. Banish, religare, ex banno <vel territorio exigere, in exihum agere. G. bannir. It. bandire, bandeggiare. H. bandtr. B. ban nen. Ævi medii fcriptores bannire dicebant. V. Spelm. in Bannum & in Banleuga. Quoniam vero regionum urbiumq; limites arduis plerumq; montibus, altis fluminibus, longis deniq; flexuofifq; angustissimarum viarum amfractibus includebantur, fieri potest id genus limites ban dici ab eo quod B..». c-t*. & B«»»a1joi Tarentinis olim, ficuti tradit Hefychius, vocabantur al ko&i xa) ft. iSvnvui oJ'oi, " obliquæ ac minime in rectum tendentes viæ."

Stammerer, Balbus, blæsus. Goth. STAMMS. A. S. pra meji, ]-ramup. D. stam. B. stameler. Su. stamma. 1st. stamr. Sunt a ruy.vkEit vel rufj.lh'huv, nimia loquacitate alios ofFendere ; quod impedite loquentes libentissime garrire soleant; vel quod aliis nimii semper videantur, etiam parcisiim. loquentes. guage ; guage; and I have therefore inserted Dutch or Ger man substitutes, which I consider not as radical, but parallel, not as the parents, but sisters of the English. The words which are represented as thus related by descent or cognation, do not always agree in sense ; for it is incident to words, as to their au thors, to degenerate from their ancestors, and to change their manners when they change their coun try. It is sufficient, in etymological enquiries, if the senses of kindred words be found such as may easily pass into each other, or such as may both be referred to one general idea.

The etymology, so far as it is yet known, was easily found in the volumes where it is particularly and professedly delivered ; and, by proper attention to the rules of derivation, the orthography was soon adjusted. But to collect the Words of our language was a task of greater difficulty : the deficiency of dictionaries was immediately apparent ; and when they were exhausted, what was yet wanting must be sought by fortuitous and unguided excursions into books, and gleaned as industry stould find, or chance should offer it, in the boundless chaos of a Jiving speech. My search, however, has been either skilful or lucky; for I have much augmented the vocabulary. As my design was a dictionary, common or ap pellative, I have omitted all words which have relation to proper names ; such as Arian, Socinian, Calvinists, Benedictine, Mahometan ; but have retained those of a more general nature, as Heathen, Pagan, Of Os the terms of art I have received such as could be found either in books of science or technical dictionaries ; and have often inserted, from philo sophical writers, words which are sopported perhaps only by a single authority, and which being not ad mitted into general use, stand yet as candidates or probationers, and must depend for their adoption on the suffrage of futurity.

The words which our authors have introduced by their knowledge of foreign languages, or ignorance of their own, by vanity or wantonness, by compli ance with fastion or lust of innovation, I have re gistered as they occurred, though commonly only to censure them, and warn others against the folly of naturalizing useless foreigners to the injury of the natives. I have not rejected any by design, merely because they were unnecessary or exuberant ; but have received those which by different writers have been differently formed, as viscid, and viscidity, viscous, and viscosity. Compounded or double words I have seldom noted, except when they obtain a signification dif ferent from that which the components have in their simple state. Thus highwayman, woodman, and horsecourser, require an explanation ; but of thieflike or coachdriver no notice was needed, because the primitives contain the meaning of the compounds.

Words arbitrarily formed by a constant and settled analogy, like dimunitive adjectives in ish, as greenish, bluish -, adverbs in ly, as dully, openly ; substantives in ness, as vilemss, faultinefs ; were less diligently sought, and sometimes have been omitted, when I had had no authority that invited me to insert them; not that they are not genuine and regular offsprings of Englist) roots, but because their relation to the primitive being always the fame, their signification cannot be mistaken. The verbal nouns in ing, such as the keeping of the castle, the leading of the army, are always neglected, or placed only to illustrate the sense of the verb, ex cept when they signify things as well as actions, and have therefore a plural number, as dwelling, living ; or have an absolute and abstract signification, as colouring, painting, learning.

The participles are likewise omitted, unless, by signifying rather habit or quality than action, they take the nature of adjectives ; as a thinking man, a man of prudence; a pacing horse, a horse that can pace : these I have ventured to call participial adjec tives. But neither are these always inserted, because they are commonly to be understood, without any danger of mistake, by consulting the verb. Obsolete words are admitted, when they are found in authors not obsolete, or when they have any force or beauty that may deserve revival. As composition is one of the chief characteristicks of a language, I have endeavoured to make some reparation for the universal negligence of my predecessors, by inserting great numbers of compounded words, as may be found under after, fore, new, night, fair, and many more.

These, numerous as they are, might be multiplied, but that use and curiosity are here satisfied, and the frame of our language and modes of our combination amply discovered. Of Of some forms of composition, such as that by which re is prefixed to note repetition, and un to sig nify contrariety or privation, all the examples cannot be accumulated, because the use of these particles, if not wholly arbitrary, is so little limited, that they are hourly affixed to new words as occasion requires, or is imagined to require them. There is another kind of composition more frequent in our language than perhaps in any other, from which arises to foreigners the greatest difficulty. We modify the signification of many words by a particle subjoined; as to come off, to escape by a fetch; to fail on, to attack; to fall off, to apostatize; to break off, to stop abruptly; to bear out,- to justify; to fall in, to comply ; to give over, to cease ; to set off, to embellift ; to set in, to begin a continual tenour ; to set out, to begin a course or journey ; to take off, to copy; with innumerable expressions of the fame kind, of which some appear wildly irre gular, being so far distant from the sense of the simple words, that no sagacity will be able to trace the steps by which they arrived at the present use.

These I have noted with great care ; and though I cannot flatter myself that the collection is complete, I believe I have so far assisted the students of our language, that this kind of phraseology will be no longer insuperable ; and the combinations of verbs and particles, by chance omitted, will be easily ex plained by comparison with those that may be found. Many words yet stand supported only by the name of Bailey, Ainsworth, Philips, or the contracted Dict. for Dictionaries subjoined ; of these I am not always certain that they are read in any book but the works of of lexicographers. Of such I have omitted many, because I had never read them ; and many I have in serted, because they may perhaps exist, though they have escaped my notice : they are, however, to be yet considered as resting only upon the credit of former dictionaries.

Others, which I considered as useful, or know to be proper, though I could not at present support them by authorities, I have suffered to stand upon my own attestation, claiming the same privilege with my predecessors, of being sometimes credited without proof. The words, thus selected and disposed, are gram matically considered ; they are referred to the differ ent parts of speech; traced, when they are irre gularly inflected, through their various termina tions ; and illustrated by observations, not indeed of great or striking importance, separately considered, but necessary to the elucidation of our language, and hitherto neglected or forgotten by English grammarians. That part of my work on which I expect malig nity most frequently to fasten, is the explanation ; in which I cannot hope to satisfy those, who are per haps not inclined to be pleased, since I have not al ways been able to satisfy myself.

To interpret a language by itself is very difficult ; many words can not be explained by fynonimes, because the idea signified by them has not more than one appellation ; nor. by paraphrase, because simple ideas cannot be described. When the nature of things is unknown, or the notion unsettled and indefinite, and various in various minds, the words by which such notions are conveyed, or such things denoted, will be ambiguous biguous and perplexed. And such is the fate ot hapless lexicography, that not only darkness, but light, impedes and distresses it; things may be not only too little, but too much known, to be happily illustrated. To explain, requires the use of terms less abstruse than that which is to be explained, and such terms cannot always be found ; for as nothing can be proved but by supposing something intui tively known, and evident without proof, so nothing can be defined but by the use of words too plain to admit a definition.

Other words there are, of which the fense is too subtle and evanescent to be fixed in a paraphrase ; such are all those which are by the grammarians termed expletives, and, in dead languages, are suf fered to pass for empty sounds, of no other use than to fill a verse, or to modulate a period, but which are easily perceived in living tongues to have power and emphasis, though it be sometimes such as no other form of expression can convey. My labour has likewise been much increased by a class of verbs too frequent in the English language, of which the signification is so loose and general, the use so vague and indeterminate, and the senses de torted so widely from the first idea, that it is hard to trace them through the maze of variation, to catch them on the brink of utter inanity, to circumscribe them by any limitations, or interpret them by any words of distinct and settled meaning; such are bear, break, come, cast, full, get, give, do, put, set, go, run, make, take, turn, throw.

If of these the whole power is not accurately delivered, it must be re membered, that while our language is yet living, and and variable by the caprice of every one that speaks it, these words are hourly shifting dieir relations, and can no more be ascertained in a dictionary, than a grove, in the agitation of a storm, can be accurately delineated from its picture in the water. The particles are among all nations applied with so great latitude, that they are not easibly reducible under any regular scheme of explication : this dif ficulty is not less, nor perhaps greater, in Englistj, than in other languages. I have laboured them with diligence, I hope with success ; such at least as can be expected in a task, which no man, however learned or sagacious, has yet been able to perform. Some words there are which I cannot explain, be cause I do not understand them ; these might have been omitted very often with little inconvenience, but I would not so far indulge my vanity as to de cline this confession : for when Tully owns himself ignorant whether leffus, in the twelve tables, means a funeral song, or mourning garment; and Aristotle doubts whether euf _.., in the Iliad, signifies a mule, or muleteer, I may surely, without shame, leave some obscurities to happier industy, or future information.