Sivut kuvina
PDF
ePub

the fubject. Poffbly you prefer the ufage that prevailed in the reign of queen Elizabeth; another may, with as good reason, have a partiality for that which fubfifted in the days of Chaucer. And with regard to etymology, about which grammarians make fo much ufelefs buftle; if every one hath a privilege of altering words, according to his own opinion of their origin, the opinions of the learned being on this fubject fo various, nothing but a general chaos can enfue.

[ocr errors]

On the other hand, it may be said, ' Are we to catch at every new-fashioned term and phrafe which whim or affectation may invent, and folly circulate? Can this ever tend to give either dignity to our ftyle, or permanency to our language? It cannot, furely. This leads to a further explanation and limitation of the term prefent use, to prevent our being misled by a mere name. It is poffible, nay, it is common, for men, in avoiding one error, to run into another and a worfe*. There is a mean in every thing. I have purposely avoided the expreffions re.ent use and modern ufe, as these feem to ftand in direct oppofition to what is ancient. But I

In vitium ducit culpæ fuga, fi caret arte.

HOR. De Arte Poet.

ufed the word prefent, which, in respect of place, is always opposed to abfent, and in respect of time, to past or future, that now have no exiftence. When, therefore, the word is ufed of language, its proper contrary is not ancient but cbfolete. Befides, though I have acknowledged language to be a fpecies of mode or fashion, as doubtless it is, yet, being much more permanent than articles of apparel, furniture, and the like, that, in regard to their form, are under the dominion of that inconftant power, I have avoided alfo ufing the words fashionable and modifh, which but too generally convey the ideas of novelty and levity, Words, therefore, are by no means to be accounted the worfe for being old, if they are not obsolete; neither is any word the better for being new. On the contrary, fome time is abfolutely neceffary to conftitute that custom or ufe, on which the establishment of words depends.

If we recur to the ftandard already affigned; namely, the writings of a plurality of celebrated authors; there will be no fcope for the comprehenfion of words and idioms which can be denominated novel and upftart. It must be owned, that we often meet with fuch terms and phrafes,

[ocr errors]

in news-papers, periodical pieces, and political pamphlets. The writers to the times, rarely fail to have their performances ftudded with a competent number of these fantastic ornaments. A popular orator in the Houfe of Commons, hath a fort of patent from the public, during the continuance of his popularity, for coining as many as he pleafes. And they are no fooner iffued, than they obtrude themselves upon us from every quarter, in all the daily papers, letters, effays, addreffes, &c. But this is of no fignificancy. Such words and phrases are but the infects of a feafon at the moft. The people, always fickle, are juft as prompt to drop them, as they were to take them up. And not one of a hundred furvives the particular occafion or party-ftruggle which gave it birth. We may juftly apply to them what Johnson fays of a great number of the terms of the laborious and mercantile part of the people, "This fugitive cant cannot be regard"ed as any part of the durable materials of a

[ocr errors]

language, and therefore must be fuffered to perish, with other things unworthy of prefer"vation *."

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

As ufe, therefore, implies duration, and as even a few years are not fufficient for ascertainPreface to his Dictionary.

ing

1

ing the characters of authors, I have, for the moft part, in the following fheets, taken my profe examples, neither from living authors, nor from those who wrote before the Revolution; not from the first, because an author's fame is not fo firmly eftablished in his lifetime; nor from the last, that there may be no fufpicion that the style is fuperannuated. The vulgar tranflation of the Bible I must indeed except from this restriction. The continuance and univerfality of its ufe throughout the British dominions, affords an ob vious reason for the exception.

THUS I have attempted to explain what that ufe is, which is the fole miftrefs of language, and to afcertain the precife import and extent of thefe her effential attributes, reputable, national, and prefent, and to give the directions proper to be observed in searching for the laws of this emprefs. In truth, grammar and criticism are but her ministers; and though, like other minifters, they would fometimes impofe the dictates of their own humour upon the people, as the commands of their fovereign, they are not fo often fuccefsful in fuch attempts, as to encourage the frequent repetition of them.

CHAP.

CHA P. II.

The nature and use of verbal Criticism, with its principal canons.

THE firft thing in elocution that claims our

attention, is purity; all its other qualities have their foundation in this. The great ftandard of purity is ufe, whofe effential properties, as regarding language, have been confidered and explained in the preceding chapter. But before I proceed to illuftrate and specify the various offences against purity, or the different ways in which it may be violated, it will be proper to inquire fo much further into the nature of the fubject, as will enable us to fix on fome general rules or canons, by which, in all our particular decifions, we ought to be directed. This I have judged the more neceffary, as many of the verbal criticisms which have been made on English authors, fince the beginning of the present century (for in this island we had little or nothing of the kind before), feem to have preceded either from no fettled principles at all, or from fuch as will not bear a near examination. There is this further advantage in beginning with establishing certain canons, that, if they fhall be found rea

fonable,

« EdellinenJatka »