land, ix. 22. 213. The taste of it infamously corrupted by shoals of those who write for their bread, xii. 440. Swift apprehensive that liberty could not long survive in, xiii. 167. 195. An enumeration of its publick absurdities, x. 303. An abstract of its history before the conquest, xvi. 4. Above nineteen millions expended by England in the war more than its proper proportion, iv. 138. The true way of increasing its inhabitatits to the publick advantage, 147. Character of the people, xvii. 142. xviii. 23. 163. Progress of its government, xix. 104. Its constitution admirably fitted for the purposes of a king, 112. General discontent, that it should be engaged in a very expensive war, while all the other powers of Europe were in peace, xii. 197. What the too frequent practice there with respect to madhouses, xiii. 6. So connected with Ireland, that the natives of both islands should study and advance each other's interest, 118.
English language. Letter to the Earl of Oxford on its Improvement, v. 63. Tongue. Discourse to prove its Antiquity, xvi. 280. The expediency of an effectual method of correcting, enlarging, and ascertaining it, v. 63. Its improvements are not in proportion to its corruptions, 65. Had two or three hundred years ago a greater mixture with the French than at present, 66. Not arrived to such perfection as to occasion any apprehension of its decay, 68. The period wherein it received most improvement, 69. The state of it in king Charles the Second's time, 70. Has been much injured by the poets since the restoration, 71. Reasons why words in it ought not to be spelt as pronounced, 72. The pronunciation of it much more difficult to the Spaniards, French, and Italians, than to the Swedes, Danes, Germans, and Dutch, 73. Means to be used for reforming it, 74. A society of judicious men should be selected for that purpose, 75. To whom the French academy, as far as it is right, might be a model, ibid. Many words ought to be thrown out of the English language; many more corrected; some, long since antiquated, restored on account of their energy and sound, ibid. When the language is fully corrected, it might occasionally be enlarged by the adoption of a new word, which, having once received a sanction, should never be suffered to become obsolete[1], 77. Corruptions of it, 193. The progress of the Dean's plan, xi. 162. 216. 229. 234. The language advanced by sir W. Temple to great perfection, xvi. 352. In Swift's younger days, had produced no letters of any value, 353.
Enthusiasm. The spring-head of it as troubled and muddy as the current, ii. 168. Has produced revolutions of the greatest figure
↑"But what (says Dr. Johnson) makes a word obsolete, more than general agreement to forbear it? and how shall it be continued, when it conveys an offensive idea? or recalled again into the mouths of mankind, when it has once become unfamiliar by disuse, and unpleasing by familiarity?" Preface to English Dictionary.
