Samuel Johnson Preface
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EnglishVoice Age
Middle Aged (35-54)Accents
North American (Canadian-General) North American (General)Transcript
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from Samuel Johnson's preface to his 17 55 work Dictionary of the English Language. When we see men grow old and die at a certain time, one after another from century to century, we laughed at the elixir that promises to prolong life to 1000 years and with equal justice. May the lexicographer be derided who, being able to produce no example of a nation that has preserved their words and phrases from mutability, shall imagine that his dictionary can embalm his language and secure it from corruption and decay that it is in his power to change salutary nature and clear the world at once from folly, vanity and affectation.