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PRINTED FOR WILLIAM PICKERING, LONDON;
AND TALBOYS AND WHEELER, OXFORD.

MDCCCXXV.

Grad PR. 2
Evolish

Parker
4-25-28

16811

CONTENTS OF THE FIFTH VOLUME.

MISCELLANEOUS PIECES.

THE plan of an English dictionary.

PAGE

.....

Proposals for printing the works of Shakespeare.

Preface to Shakespeare...

Account of the Harleian library .....

Preface to the English dictionary

Advertisement to the fourth edition of the English dictionary
Preface to the octavo edition of the English dictionary.

Observations on the tragedy of Macbeth

23

52

53

55

95

103

General observations on the plays of Shakespeare..

155

180

Essay on the importance of small tracts

..... 190

Preface to the catalogue of the Harleian library, vol. iii.

198

...

....

Controversy between Crousaz and Warburton ...
Preliminary discourse to the London Chronicle
Introduction to the World Displayed ......
Preface to the Preceptor, containing a general plan of education........ 231

to Rolt's dictionary......

to the translation of father Lobo's voyage to Abyssinia ...

An essay on epitaphs

... 247

255

.... 259

Preface to an Essay on Milton's Use and Imitation of the Moderns in

202

206

....... 210

.....

his Paradise Lost
Letter to the Rev. Mr. Douglas, occasioned by his vindication of Milton,

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Considerations on the plans offered for the construction of Blackfriars bridge

303

Some thoughts on agriculture, both ancient and modern; with an account

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A complete vindication of the licensers of the stage from the malicious and scandalous aspersions of Mr. Brooke

329

THE PLAN

OF AN

ENGLISH DICTIONARY.

TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE

PHILIP DORMER, EARL OF CHESTERFIELD, One of his Majesty's principal Secretaries of State.

MY LORD,

WHEN first I undertook to write an English Dictionary, I had no expectation of any higher patronage than that of the proprietors of the copy, nor prospect of any other advantage than the price of my labour. I knew that the work in which I engaged is generally considered as drudgery for the blind, as the proper toil of artless industry; a task that requires neither the light of learning, nor the activity of genius, but may be successfully performed without any higher quality than that of bearing burdens with dull patience, and beating the track of the alphabet with sluggish resolution.

Whether this opinion, so long transmitted, and so widely propagated, had its beginning from truth and nature, or from accident and prejudice; whether it be decreed by the authority of reason or the tyranny of ignorance, that, of all the candidates for literary praise, the unhappy lexicographer holds the lowest place, neither vanity nor interest incited me to inquire. It appeared that the province allotted me was, of all the regions of learning, generally confessed to be the least delightful, that it was believed to produce neither fruits nor flowers; and that, after a

VOL. V.

B

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