THE
P R E F A C
'/ ft* Mr " W fome Concern tkt I put this Work in the Reader's Hands, a Work fo
disproportionate to a f.ngle Perfon's Experience, and which might have employ'd an Academy
What adds to my Jealoufy is the little meafure of Time allow'd for a Performance to which
M a Mans whole Life fcarce feems equal. The bare Vocabulary of the Academy della Crufca
- ™ abov f f "?/ ;:;", compiling, and the Dictionary of the French Academy much longer -,
c u- fl- V f n nJ" th f e ,P refent W ° rk ls r as much mor <= extenfive than either of them in its Nature and
Subjed, as it rails fhort of 'em in number of Years, or of Perfons employ'd
THE Reader might be here led to fufpeft fomething of Difingenuity ; and think I firft put a Book upon him and then give him Realons why I mould not have done it.— But his Sufpicions will ceafe, when he is ap- pnzd of the Advantages under which I engaged ; which, in one Senfe, are fuperior to what had been known in any former Work of the Kind ; all that had been done in them accruing, of courfe, to the Benefit of this I come like an Heir to a large Patrimony, gradually rais'd by the Induftry, and Endeavours of a long Race of Anceftors. What the French Academljh, the Jefuits de Trevoux, Daviler, Cbomel, Saturn, Cbauvu, Harris Wolfing and many more have done, has been fubfervient to my Purpofes. To fay nothing of a numerous Clafs of particular Dictionaries which contributed their Share ; Lexicons on almott every SuBjecL from Medicine and Law, down to Heraldry and the Manage.
Yet this is but a. Part. I am far from havfng contented my felf to take what was ready procured ; but have augmented it with a large Acceffion frorn other Charters. No part of the Commonwealth of Learning, but has been traffick d to on this Occafion. Recourfe has been had to the Originals themfelves on the feveral Arts - and not to mention what fmall Matters could be furnifhed de propria penu, the Reader will here have Ex- trafts and Accounts from a great Number of Authors of a ll Kinds, either overlook'd by former Diftionarifts or not then extant; and a Multitude of Improvements m the feveral Parts, efpecially of Natural Knowledge madem thefe laft Years. I mould produce Inftances hereof; but I hope this would be needlefs as it h endleis ; and that there are few Pages which will not afford feveral.
SUCH are the Sources from whence the Materials of the prefent Work were derived; which it ,mft be allowed, were rich enough not only to afford Plenty, but even Profufion : So that the chief Difficult lav an the Form ; in the Order and CEconomy of the Work : To difpofe fuch a Variety of Materials in fuch
manner, as not to make a confufed Heap of incongruous Parts, but one confident Whole And here it mull be
confefs'd there was no Afiiftance to be had ; but I was forced to ftand wholly on my own Bottom Former Lexicographers have not attempted any thing like Strufture in their Works ; nor feem to have been aware that a Dictionary was 111 fomc meafure capable of the Advantages of a continued Difcourle. Accordingly we fee nothing like a Whole in what they have done : And hence, fuch Materials as they did afford for the prefenc Work, generally needed further Preparation, ere they became fit for our Purpofe ; which was as different from theirs, as a Syftem from a Cento-.
THIS we endeavoured to attain, by confidering the feveral Matters not only abfolutely and independently as to what they are in themfelves ; but alfo relatively, or as they refpeft each other. They are both treated as fo many Wholes, and as fo many Parts of fome greater Whole ; their Connexion with' which is pointed out by a Reference. So that by a Courfe of References, from Generals to Particulars ; from Premif-s to Conclufions ; from Caufe to EftecT: ; and vice verfa, i.e. in one word, from more to lefs complex and from lefs to more : A Communication is opened between the feveral Parts of the Work ; and the feveral Articles are m fome meafure replaced in their natural Order of Science, out of which the Technical or Alphabetical one had remov'd them. r
FOR an Inftance----The Article Anatomy is not only confider'd as a Whole, i. e. as a particular Com- bination or Syftem of Ideas ; and accordingly divided into its Parts, Humane and Comparative: and Humane again fubdivided into the Analyfis of Solids and Fluids, (which are referr'd to in the feveral Places in the Book where they themfelves being treated of, refer to others ftill lower, and fo on) but alfo as a Part of Med i-
c I n e ; which accordingly it refers to, and which it felf refers to another higher, fc?r. By which means a Chain is
carried on from one End of an Art to the other, i. e. from the firft or fimpleft Complication of Ideas appropria- ted to the Art, which we call the Elements or Principles thereof ; to the moft complex or general one, the JSame or Term that denotes the whole Art.
NOR is the Purfuit dropt here : but as the Elements or Data in one Art, are ordinarily quafita in fome other fubordmate one, and are furnifhed thereby ; (as here for Inftance, the Elements of Anatomy are furnifhed by Natural Hjtory, Fhyjuks, and Mecbanich ; and Anatomy may be confidered as a Datum, or Element fur- nifhed to Medicine) We carry on the View farther, and refer out of one Art or Province into the adjoining ones, and thus lay the whole Land of Knowledge open : It appears indeed with die Face of a Wildernefs •, but tis a Wildernefs thro' which the Reader may purfue his Journey as fecurely, tho not fo expeditioufly and eafily, as thro' a regular Parterre. v i
IT may be even laid, that if die Syftem be an Improvement upon the Dictionary ; the Dictionary is fome Advantage to the Syftem; and chat this is perhaps the only Way wherein the whole Circle or Body of Know- f F^o- J T ■ In an ? other Form > man y thousand Things muft neceflarily be hid and overlook'd- All the Pins, the Joints, the binding of the Fabrick muft be invifible of courfe ; all the leffer Parts, on* mi^ht lay an the Parts whatsoever, muft be in fome meafure fwallowed up in the Whole. The Imagination ftretch'd
and
