Page:Cyclopaedia, Chambers - Volume 1.djvu/35

 xxii The PREFACE.

THE Weaknefs of our Reafon, which we complain fo much of, is in great meafure idle ; the Fault is foreign, and lies wholly in the Confufion of Language ; which would not only puzzle us, but the very Angels in Heaven, to make any thing of : Witnefs abundance of our Explications of Trinity, Hypoftafis, Subftance, Accident, Faculty, Liberty, Caufe, Nature, Attratlion, &c. which Divines and Philofophers fatigue them- felves fo much about. I am confident, that were the Almighty to infpire us with a new Language, agreeable to Thino-s themfelves ; it would amount to a Revelation ; and all our Duties, and Relations would be vifible therein.---The Difeafe, in effect, has fpread fo far, that there is little hopes of feeing it remov'd, or even al- leviated, without a new Language, formed ex poft fatlo, from what we now perceive. But fomething of this

will come under Confideration hereafter ; in the mean time we venture to pronounce, that " The Reforma- " tion of Science, amounts to little more than the Reformation of Language."

THERE are two Manners of writing : In the one, which we may call Scientifical, we proceed from Ideas

and Thino-s, to Words ; that is, firft lay down the Thing, then the Name it is called by. This is the way

of Difcovery, or Invention ; for that the Thing ought to be firft found before it be named. In this way, we come from Ignorance to Knowledge ; from Ample and common Ideas, to complex ones.

T HE other, DidaSic, juft the Converfe of the former ; in which we go from Words, and Sounds, to Ideas, and Things ; that is, begin with the Term, end with the Explanation. — This is the hiftorical Way, or the way of Teaching and Narration ; of refolving the extraordinary Knowledge of one Perfon, into the ordinary of another ; of diftributing artificial Complications, into their fimple Ideas : and thus razing and levelling again what Art had erected.

THE Dictionary comes under the latter Kind. It fuppofes the Advances and Difcoveries made, and comes to explain or relate 'em. The Dictionarift, like an Hiftorian, comes after the Affair ; and gives a Defcrip- tion of what pafs'd. The feveral Terms, are fo many Subjects, fuppofed to be known to him ; and which

he imparts to others, by a Detail of the Particulars thereof. Indeed, the Analogy between a Dictionary and

a Hiftory, is clofer than People at firft fight may imagine : The Dictionarift relates what has pafs'd with re- gard to each of our Ideas, in the Coalitions, or Combinations that have been made thereof: His Bufinefs is to deliver the Progreffes made in the feveral Parts of Knowledge under his Confideration, by an orderly Re- trofpect and Dedudion of the Terms, from their prefent complex, to their original fimple State. The Dic- tionary of an Art, is the proper Hiftory of fuch Art : The Dictionary of a Language, the Hiftory of that Language. The one relates that fuch an Art, or fuch and fuch Parts thereof, Hand fo and fo ; are managed fo and fo ; and the refult fo and fo : The other, that fuch and fuch a Word is ufed as fynonymous to fuch and fuch others. The Dictionarift is not fuppofed to have any hand in the Things he relates ; he is no more concerned to make the Improvements, or eftablilh the Significations, than the Hiftorian to atchieve the Trans- actions he relates.

THE difference between what we commonly call the Hiftory of an Art, and a DiBionary thereof, is only circumftantial ; arifing from the different Views of the two Authors : The one chiefly regards the Time and Order when each Step, each Advance, was firft made, i. e. how it ftood with refpect to fuch and fuch ^Eras, or Periods of Time ; and might more properly be called the Chronology of the Art : the other regarding chief- ly the Object or Intention of the Art, relates its prefent Conftitution, and bow it proceeds to attain the End propofed. You may add, that the former primarily confiders what is paft, or already advanced; the other alfo what is prefent, or remains to be done : The one tells, e. g. how Mercury finding a dead Tortoife on the Shore, took its Shell, added Strings to it, and made it into a Lyre : The other, how a Lyre is, or may be made. And if you will likewife add this, that the Hiftory intermixes divers foreign, and accidental Circum- ftances with the Difcovery ; which the Dictionary abftracts and fets afide, and fo reduces it nearer to Science : you will have the full and adequate Difference between 'em. Thus the making of the firft Lyre is related widi fome Circumftances which have no place in the proper Structure of the Inftrument, and are therefore to be omitted in the Dictionary, which only takes in what belongs to the Art, or Artifts in general ; not what belongs to fome one of 'em.

THE whole, in effect, amounts to this, that the firft time of doing a thing, is related by the Hiftorian with the feveral Particulars which in any wife, tho occafionally only and remotely, affected it : Whereas the Dictionarift, coming afterward, keeps more clofely and feverely to the Point, and relates nothing but what is effential ; that is, the firft time, the thing is confider'd as now arifing ; a new Production or Phenomenon, from fome analogous Principle ; and therefore we attend to the foreign Caufes that brought it forth : whereas afterwards, we confider it as arifing from the pre-exifting Theory, or Prefcriptions of Artifts, and thus refolve the Caufe into the Art it felf.

ANY other difference which there may feem to be between the two ; is only as to more or lefs parti- cular ; which, indeed, is a thing that embarraffes and amufes us on many other occasions : Thus in mere civil Hiftories, if one relates the Series of a Campaign, another the Bombardment of a Town, and a third the Wounding and Death of a general Officer ; tho the two latter Subjects be only Parts of the former, yet the firft will be faid to have compofed a Piece of Hiftory, the fecond a Piece of Fortification, and the third a Piece of Cbi- rurgery. And yet there is no other difference between them, than between the Geography of a Country, and the Topography of a Village, or a Hillock ; the Hiftory of a Nation, and the Biography of a fingle Perfon.

T O fay no more, the Dictionary of an Art ftands in much the fame Relation to the Hiftory thereof ; that the Hiftory of a People, does to the Lives of all the confiderable and active Perfons therein. Their difference is only as to the Point of Sight ; the Eye being fuppofed fo near in the one Cafe, as to fee the Parts dif- tinctly, and in the other fo far off, as to take in the Whole completely : whence the one gives you all the Incidents ; the other only the greater. In effect, the one is all concerted to one point of view, moft favourable to the Whole, and the great Parts ; the other to many ; the Eye being fhifted for each Part, to furnifh an adequate Reprefentation thereof. In the one Cafe, it is fuppofed within the Work ; fo as only to fee thofe Parts next it, which neceffarily hide the reft ; in the other, 'tis without, and can only take cognifance of thofe which lie outwards : So that the one chiefly difcovers how things ftand within ; the other how they ftand with regard to the adjacent ones.

1AM afraid to keep the Reader any longer in this painful way of Difquifition, wherein we are obliged to dig for every ftep we take. It would doubtlefs feem a more agreeable, as well as more reputable Employment, to be raifing things on high ; than thus engaged in finking, and working under ground : A Cattle in the Air is an Object of Pleafure to every body, while it lafts ; and withal is eafily rais'd, and at fmall Expences. Your Mines and fubterranean Matters are mere drudgery, and Pioneers work ; difficult to carry on, dubious of Suc- cefs, and overlook'd when done. Being therefore arrived near the Surface, we take this Opportunity to quit the Courfe, and emerge to open Air.

AFTER fo fevere an Inquiry into the Reafon, Nature, and Perfections of a DiBionary; it may prove dan- gerous and impolitick to fpeak any thing about the prefent one. From the Defign of a Dictionary in general, to the actual Performance of any particular one, the Language mutt be much altered. A Man would make fine

work