Vll. 



our prince of lexicographers I may say, " I dismiss it with frigid tranquil- 

 lity, having little to fear or hope from censure or from praise." 



The necessity created, by preparing such a book for the press, for care- 

 fully looking into and examining the opinions of various authors on the 

 same subject, has made me acquainted with many works which, otherwise, 

 I never might have perused ; and I have, from this circumstance alone, 

 reaped a rich reward of the purest pleasure ; and, though critics may in 

 unmeasured terms condemn, it is more than probable that 



" Seu ine tranquilla senectus 

 Exspectat, seu mors atris circumvolat alls; 

 Dives, inops, Romae, seu fors ita, jusserit, exsul; 

 Quisquis erit vitae, scribara, color." 



