![]() ![]() I should produce Instances hereof but I hope this would be needless, as it is endless and that there are sew Pages which will not afford several. Recourse has been had to the Originals themselves on the several Arts and, not to mention what small Matters could be furnished de proprio penu, the Reader will here have Extracts and Accounts from a great Number of Authors of all Kinds, either overlook'd by former Dictionarists, or not then extant, and a Multitude of Improvements in the several Parts, especially of Natural Knowledge, made in these last Years. No part of the Commonwealth of Learning, but has been traffick'd to on this Occasion. I am far from having contented my self to take what was ready procured but have augmented it with a large Accession from other Quarters. To say nothing of a numerous Class of particular Dictionaries which contributed their Share Lexicons on almost every Subject, from Medicine and Law, down to Heraldry and the Manage. What the French Academists, the Jesuits de Trevoux, Daviler, Chauvel, Savary, Chauvin, Harris, Wolfius, and many more have done, has been subservient to my Purposes. I come like an Heir to a large Patrimony, gradually rais'd by the Industry, and Endeavours of a long Race of Ancestors. THE Reader might be here led to suspect something of Disingenuity and think I first put a Book upon him, and then give him Reasons why I should not have done it.-But his Suspicions will cease, when he is appriz'd of the Advantages under which I engaged which, in one Sense, are superior to what had been known in any former Work of the Kind all that had been done in them accruing, of course, to the Benefit of this. ![]() The bare Vocabulary of the Academy della Crusca was above forty Years in compiling, and the Dictionary of the French Academy much longer and yet the present Work is as much more extensive than either of them in its Nature and Subject, as it falls short of 'em in number of Years, or of Persons employ'd. What adds to my Jealousy, is the little measure of Time allow'd for a Performance to which a Man's whole Life scarce seems equal. ![]() Hits: 12770 'TIS not without some Concern that I put this Work in the Reader's Hands a Work so disproportionate to a single Person's Experience, and which might have employ'd an Academy. ![]()
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