When the Subject of which my Authour was treating was naturally crabbed and abftrufe, as in the two first Books, in which he difputes chiefly of the Nature and Properties of his Atoms; I thought it not convenient to dwell too long upon it; but endeavour'd only to render it plain and intelligible with as much Brevity as the Province of an Interpreter, which I had undertaken, would allow: But when he came to treat of Things which I judg'd would be more entertaining, as of the Origine of the World; of the Motion of the Heavens; of the Sun, Moon and Stars; of the first Men, and of their Manners and Way of Life; of the first Inftitution of Kings, Magiftrates and Laws; of the first Invention of Arts and Sciences; of the Things we call Meteors, as Thunder, Lightning, Whirlwinds, Earthquakes, &c. Of the Causes of Rain, Wind, Hail, Snow, and Frost; Of the Flames that are ejected from the Bowels of Mount Etna; Of the annual Increase of the River Nile; Of the Averni; Of certain miraculous Fountains; Of the Loadstone; and of the Caufe and Origine of Plagues and Difeafes; of all which, as well as of many other Subjects of the like Nature, Lucretius has difputed in thefe two last Books; when he came, I say, to treat of these Matters, he afforded me a wider Field to inlarge and expatiate upon; and I have laid hold of the Opportunity be gave me, to illuftrate all thofe feveral Subjects, with the Opinions of all the most celebrated, as well antient as modern, Philofophers, concerning them: In which I prefume I fhall not be deem'd to have tranfgrefs'd the Bounds, which were formerly prefcrib'd to an Interpreter, who, as Ammonius allows, Neque benevolentia ductus conari debet, quæ perperam dicuntur confentanea facere, eaque veluti à tripode excipere, neque rectè prodita pravo fenfu per odium carpere; fed eorum effe incorruptus judex, atque auctoris fenfum aperire imprimis, illiufque placita interpretari ; tum quod alij, & ipfe fentiat afferre. Befides; I can not apprehend, but that it will be acceptable to the Publick to fee at one View the different Opinions of the Learned Men in all Ages, on the above Subjects ; and this is what I have endeavour'd

deavour'd to oblige my Readers with in the following Sheets.

my

Leave.

I will conclude this Preface with a few Lines in my own Vindication, and then take I foresee that I have render'd my felf liable to be carp'd at, and that I shall be cenfur'd by fome Criticks, on Account of fome particular Words, and certain Ways of Expreffion, which I bave conftantly obferv'd and made use of, through the whole Course of this Work; contrary to the generally receiv'd Custom and Practife of many, nay perhaps of most, of our prefent Writers.

I need not be told, that, in Matter of Speech, when Cuftom bas once prevail'd, we are abfolutely oblig'd to fubmit to whatever it has impos'd upon us; and that it is not lawful, on any Pretence whatsoever, to refift the Laws of that Soveraign, I had almost faid Tyrant of Languages,

Cui penes arbitrium eft & jus & norma loquendi,

Horat.

But on the other Hand, in Language, as in moft Things elfe, there is a good Custom and a bad; The good ought to be the Standard of Propriety and Correctneß of Speech; and the bad ought carefully to be avoided, as the Corrupter of it: fo that the main Difficulty lies in difcerning rightly between them: But how this may be done is not our prefent Bufines to inquire.

Dr. Swift, in his Letter to the Lord High Treasurer, with good reafon complains, That our Language is extreamly imperfect, that its daily Improvements are by no Means in proportion to its daily Corruptions, and that the Pretenders to polish and refine it have chiefly multiply'd Abuses and Abfurdities; and fo far he is certainly in the right: but I can not agree with him when he goes on, and Jays, That in many Instances it offends against every Part of Grammar: He feems to impute to the Language itself the Faults of our uncorrect Writers. All Languages, but more especially

especially the modern, and ours among the reft, bave certain Idioms and Proprieties of Speech peculiar to each of them, in which nevertheless they offend against the general Rules of Grammar: Of this so many Instances might be given, that it is needleß to give any.

Modern and living Languages are not to be fix'd by the Standard, nor afcertain'd by the Maxims and Rules of the antient and the dead; and their chief Beauties confift in frequent Emancipations from the fervile Laws of antient Grammar. A Man may write ungrammatically, and yet write very good English; according to this excellent Saying of Quintilian, Aliud est grammaticè, aliud Latinè loqui

I now return to what gave Occafion to these Reflections, and, among feveral other Inftances that my Readers may obferve, will mention only one or two, in which I have vary'd from fome other Writers of these Days. Phenomenon is a Word that has been introduc'd into our Language: Neceffity brought it in to avoid a Circumlocution: For it is originally Greek, and fignifies an Appearance in the Heaven, or in the Air. Now fome, instead of Phenomenon, leaving out the two final Letters, make it Phenomen, and fay in the Plural, Phenomens; both which I take to be altogether abfurd: Others, who write Phenomenon in the fingular Number, when they have Occafion to ufe it in the Plural, fay Phenomena, which, in my Opinion, is contrary to the Analogy if our Language; and others again, in the fame Number, Phenomena's, which I almost dare pronounce to be a Monster in Speech: For my own Part, whenever I have been oblig'd to use it in the Plural, I have not stuck to fay, Phenomenons, rather than Phenomena, as it is in the Original: and this I am fure is more conformable to the Analogy of our Language, in which the Difference between the Singular and the Plural Number, even in the Words borrow'd from the learned Languages, confifts not in any Variation of the final Syllable, but in the Addition of the Letters to the fingular Number. Thus in the following Words, Idea, Anathema, Chimera,

Com

Compendium, Epithalamium, which, together with many other, we have taken from the learned Languages, and naturalix'd in our own, we fay not in the Plural, Idea, Anathemata, Chimera, Compendia, Epithalamia, even tho' we have retain'd their original Terminations in the Singular, but Ideas, Anathemas, Chimeras, Compendiums, Epithalamiums. Befides; Since there is no Method yet propos'd, nor any Rules yet agreed upon, and setled among us, for the afcertaining and fixing of our Language for ever, why has not every Man an equal Share of Liberty, not only to introduce and fet up a new Word, if there be Occafion for it, but even to use one that is already introduc'd, in a different manner from the rest of his contemporary Writers, especially fince they themselves use it differently from one another? Licuit, femperque licebit. This, I hope, is fufficient to excufe, if not to justify, my baving us'd the Word Phenomenons in the plural Number: at least it will make it appear to be an Errour, not of Ignorance, but of Judgment, and which I declare my felf always ready to recant and rectify, whenever I can be better inform'd, and convinc'd by good Reasons that I am in the wrong.

Again: Nothing is more frequent with our present Writers than the following Way of Expreffion: They greedily embrace that Doctrine, be it never fo erroneous. This Example is taken from one of our most celebrated Authours for Correctness of Style; nevertheless I take the Word never in that place to be a Barbarifm in Speech: It ought to be ever; be it ever fo erroneous: This Way of Expreffion is an Idiom of our Language; partly elliptick, partly a tranfpofition of the Words; which, when plac'd in due Order, and without any Word understood, will run as follows; How erroneous foever it be. I have not Room in this Place to undertake the Difquifition of this Doubt, nor to give my Reasons at large, why, whenever I have had Occafion to make Ufe of the like Expreffion, I have diffented from most of our other Writers, and employ'd the Word ever, rather than never: But this, together

tegether with some Hundreds of Obfervations, relating to our native Language, and which I have been many Years digesting in my Thoughts, I intend to publish in a short time, as an Effay towards the correcting, improving, and afcertaining of it, under this Title, REMARKS upon the ENGLISH TONGUE.

T. LUCRE