most place; whether we consider the amazing sagacity
with which he investigates every hidden spring 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 Passions, Appetites, and
Pursuits. These afford a lesson which can never be too often repeated, or
too constantly 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 Philosophers may think) is, to the
rest, _in Things_; so, _in Words_ (whatever supercilious Pedants may
talk), every one's mother tongue is to all other Languages. This hath
still been the Sentiment of Nature and true Wisdom. Hence, the greatest
men of Antiquity never thought themselves 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 Works of _Lucretius_. Nor do we want Examples of the
same good sense in modern Times, even amidst the cruel inrodes that Art
and Fashion have made upon Nature and the simplicity of Wisdom. _Menage_,
the greatest name in _France_ for all kind 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 disdain even to comment a very ordinary Poet, one
_Michael Drayton_. But the _English_ tongue, at this Juncture, deserves
and demands our particular regard. It hath, by means of the many excellent
Works of different kinds composed in it, engaged the notice, and become
the study, of almost every curious and learned Foreigner, so as to be
thought even a part of literary accomplishment. This must needs make it
deserving of a critical attention: And its being yet destitute of a Test
or Standard to apply to, in cases of doubt or difficulty, shews how much
it wants that attention. For we have neither GRAMMAR nor DICTIONARY,
neither Chart nor Compass, to guide us through this wide sea of Words. And
indeed how should we? since both are to be composed and finished on the
Authority of our best established Writers. But their Authority can be of
little use till the Text hath been correctly settled, and the Phraseology
critically examined. As, then, by these aids, a _Grammar_ and
_Dictionary_, planned upon the best rules of Logic and P