phrafes of this fort, as fome writers have affected to do, under the ridiculous notion of a familiar and eafy manner, is not to fet off the riches of a language, but to expofe its rags. As fuch idioms, therefore, err alike against purity, fimplicity, perfpicuity, and elegance, they are entitled to no quarter from the critic. A few of thefe in the writings of good authors, I fhall have occafion to point out, when I come to fpeak of the folecifm and the impropriety.

So much for the canons of verbal criticifm, which properly fucceed the characters of good ufe, propofed in the preceding chapter for the detection of the moft flagrant errors in the choice, the construction, and the application of words. The first five of thefe canons are intended to fuggeft the principles by which our choice ought to be directed, in cafes wherein ufe itfelf is wavering, and the four laft to point out thofe farther improvements which the critical art, without exceeding her legal powers, may affift in producing. There are, indeed, who feem difpofed to extend her authority much further. But we ought always to remember, that as the principal mode of improving a language, which he is empowered to employ, is by condemning Dd 2

and

B. H. and exploding, there is a confiderable danger, left the carry her improvements this way too far. Our mother-tongue, by being too much impaired, may be impoverished, and fo more injured in copioufnefs and nerves, than all our refinements will ever be able to compenfate. For this reafon there ought, in fupport of every fentence of profcription, to be an evident plea from the principles of perfpicuity, elegance, or harmony.

IF fo, the want of etymology, whatever be the opinion of fome grammarians, cannot be reckoned a fufficient ground for the fuppreffion of a fignificant term, which hath come into good ufe. For my part, I should think it as unreafonable to reject, on this account, the affiftance of an expreffive word, which opportunely offers its fervice, when perhaps no other could fo exactly answer my purpose, as to refuse the needful aid of a proper person, because he could give no account of his family or pedigree. Though what is called cant is generally, not neceffarily, nor always, without etymology, it is not this defect, but the bafenefs of the ufe which fixeth on it that difgraceful appellation. No abfolute monarch hath it more in his power to nobilitate a perfon of obfcure birth, than it is in the power

405 of good use to ennoble words of low or dubious extraction; fuch, for inftance, as have either arifen, nobody knows how, like fib, banter, bigot, fop, flippant, among the rabble, or like flimfy, fprung from the cant of manufacturers. It is never from an attention to etymology, which would frequently mislead us, but from cuftom, the only infallible guide in this matter, that the meanings of words in prefent ufe must be learnt. And indeed, if the want in question were material, it would equally affect all those words, no inconfiderable part of our language, whose defcent is doubtful or unknown. Befides, in no cafe can the line of derivation be traced backwards to infinity. We must always terminate in fome words of whofe genealogy no account can be given †.

+ Dr. Johnfon, who, notwithstanding his acknowledged Yearning, penetration, and ingenuity, appears fometimes, if I may adopt his own expreffion, " loft in lexicography," hath declared the name punch, which fignifies a certain mixt liquor very well known, a cant word, because, being to appearance without etymology, it hath probably arisen from fome filly con ceit among the people. The name sherbet, which fignifies ancther known mixture, he allows to be good, because it is Arabic ; though, for aught we know, its origin among the Arabs, hath been equally ignoble or uncertain. By this way of reckon ing, if the word punch, in the sense wherein we use it, should by any accident be imported into Arabia, and come into use Dd 3 there,

IT ought, at the fame time, to be observed, that what hath been faid on this topic, relates only to fuch words as bear no diftinguishable traces of the bafenefs of their fource; the cafe is quite different in regard to thofe terms, which may be faid to proclaim their vile and despicâble origin, and that either by affociating disagreeable and unfuitable ideas, as bellytimber, tho rowflitch, dumbfound; or by betraying fome fri volous humour in the formation of them, as tranfmogrify, bamboozle, topfyturvy, pellmell, helterfkelter, hurlyburly. Thefe may all find a place in burlesque, but ought never to show themfelves in any serious performance. A perfon of no birth, as the phrafe is, may be raised to the rank of nobility, and, which is more, may be come it; but nothing can add dignity to that man, or fit him for the company of gentlemen, who bears indelible marks of the clown in his look, gait, and whole behaviour,

there, it would make good Arabic, though it be but cant Englith; as their herbet, though in all likelihood but cant Arabic, makes good English. This, I own, appears to me very cas pricious,

CHAP.

IT

CHA P. III.

Of grammatical purity.

T was remarked formerly *, that though the grammatical art bears much the fame relation to the rhetorical, which the art of the mafon bears to that of the architect, there is one very memorable difference between the two cafes, In architecture it is not neceffary that he who defigns fhould execute his own plans; he may therefore be an excellent artist in this way, who has neither skill nor practice in mafonry: on the contrary, it is equally incumbent on the orator to design and to execute. He ought therefore to be mafter of the language which he speaks or writes, and to be capable of adding to grammatic purity, those higher qualities of elocution, which will give grace and energy to his discourse. I propofe, then, in the first place, by way of laying the foundation, to confider that purity which he hath in common with the grammarian,

* Chap. II. + Solum quidem et quafi fundamentura oratoris, vides locutionem emendatam et Latinam. Cic. De clar, Orat. The fame holds equally of any language which the erator is obliged to use.