In hope of giving longevity to that which its own nature forbids
to be immortal, I have devoted this book, the labour of years,
to the honour of my country, that we may no longer yield the palm
of philology, without a contest, to the nations of the continent.
The chief glory of every people arises from its authours: whether
I shall add any thing by my own writings to the reputation of
English literature, must be left to time: much of my life has been
lost under the pressures of disease; much has been trifled away;
and much has always been spent in provision for the day that was
passing over me; but I shall not think my employment useless or
ignoble, if by my assistance foreign nations, and distant ages,
gain access to the propagators of knowledge, and understand the
teachers of truth; if my labours afford light to the repositories
of science, and add celebrity to Bacon, to Hooker, to Milton, and
to Boyle.

When I am animated by this wish, I look with pleasure on my book,
however defective, and deliver it to the world with the spirit of
a man that has endeavoured well. That it will immediately become
popular I have not promised to myself: a few wild blunders, and
risible absurdities, from which no work of such multiplicity was
ever free, may for a time furnish folly with laughter, and harden
ignorance in contempt; but useful diligence will at last prevail,
and there never can be wanting some who distinguish desert; who
will consider that no dictionary of a living tongue ever can be
perfect, since while it is hastening to publication, some words are
budding, and some falling away; that a whole life cannot be spent
upon syntax and etymology, and that even a whole life would not be
sufficient; that he, whose design includes whatever language can