it is natural to form conjectures. Those who have been persuaded
to think well of my design, will require that it should fix our
language, and put a stop to those alterations which time and chance
have hitherto been suffered to make in it without opposition.
With this consequence I will confess that I flattered myself for
a while; but now begin to fear that I have indulged expectation
which neither reason nor experience can justify. When we see men
grow old and die at a certain time one after another, from century
to century, we laugh at the elixir that promises to prolong life
to a thousand years; and with equal justice may the lexicographer
be derided, who being able to produce no example of a nation that
has preserved their words and phrases from mutability, shall imagine
that his dictionary can embalm his language, and secure it from
corruption and decay, that it is in his power to change sublunary
nature, and clear the world at once from folly, vanity, and
affectation.

With this hope, however, academies have been instituted, to guard
the avenues of their languages, to retain fugitives, and repulse
intruders; but their vigilance and activity have hitherto been
vain; sounds are too volatile and subtile for legal restraints; to
enchain syllables, and to lash the wind, are equally the undertakings
of pride, unwilling to measure its desires by its strength. The
French language has visibly changed under the inspection of the
academy; the stile of Amelot's translation of Father Paul is observed
by Le Courayer to be un peu passe; and no Italian will maintain
that the diction of any modern writer is not perceptibly different
from that of Boccace, Machiavel, or Caro.

Total and sudden transformations of a language seldom happen; conquests