A Dictionary of the English Language Johnson Samuel CD

A Dictionary of the English Language by Johnson, Samuel, 1709-1784

IT is the fate of thofe who toil at the lower employments of life, to be rather driven by the fear of
evil, than attradled by the profpect of good; to be expofed to cenfure, without hope of praife;
to be difgraced by mifcarriage, or puniflied for negleft, where fuccefs would have been without
applaufe, and diligence without reward.
- Among thefe unhappy mortals is the writer of didionaries ; whom mankind have confidered, not as
the pupil, but the flave of fcience, the pioneer of literature, doomed only to remove rubbifli and clear
obftrudions from the paths through which Learning and Genius prefs forward to conqueft and glory,
without bellowing a fmile on the humble drudge that facilitates their progrefs. Every other author may
afpire to praife; the lexicographer can only hope to efcape reproach, and even this negative recompcnfc
has been yet granted to very few.
I have, notwithftanding this difccuragement, attempted a Didlionary of the Englijb language, which*
while it was employed in the cultivation of every fpecies of literature, has itfelf been hitherto negleded;
fuffered to fpread, under the diredion of chance, into wild exuberance; refigned to the tyranny of time
and falhion ; and expofed to the corruptions of ignorance, and caprices of innovation.