Review of an Essay on the Writings and Genius of Pope 357 THE PLAN OF AN ENGLISH DICTIONARY. To the Right Honourable PHILIP DORMER, 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 burthens with dull patience, and beating the track of the alphabet with sluggish resolution. |