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DISSERTATIONS
ON THE
ENGLISH LANGUAGE:
WITH NOTES,
HISTORICAL AND CRITICAL.
To which is added,
BY WAY OF APPENDIX,
AN ESSAY ON
A
REFORMED MODE OF SPELLING,
WITH
DR. FRANKLIN'S ARGUMENTS ON THAT SUBJECT.
BY NOAH WEBSTER, JUN. ESQUIRE.
----PRIMA DISCENTIUM ELEMENTA, IN QUIBUS ET
IPSIS PARUM ELABORATUR. TACITUS.
PRINTED AT BOSTON, FOR THE AUTHOR,
BY ISAIAH THOMAS AND COMPANY,
MDCCLXXXIX.
TO HIS EXCELLENCY,
Benjamin Franklin, Esq; LL.D. F.R.S.
Late President of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania,
The following DISSERTATIONS
Are most respectfully Inscribed,
By His Excellency's
Most obliged and most obedient Servant,
The Author.
Dedications are usuallydesigned to flatter the Great, to acknowlegetheir services, or court their favorand influence. But very different motiveshave led me to prefix the venerablename of Franklin to this publication.
Respect for his Excellency's talentsand exertions, as a great Philosopher anda warm Patriot, I feel in common withall the lovers of science and freedom; butmy peculiar admiration of his character,arises from considering it as great incommon things.
His Excellency has not labored toperplex himself and confound his countrymenwith ingenious theories in ethics,and unintelligible speculations in theologyand metaphysics. He has not compiledvolumes to prove or disprove the probabilityof universal salvation, or the eternalduration of future punishments; contentwith a plain doctrine, taught by philosophyand common sense, and confirmed bychristianity, that virtue and happiness,vice and punishment, are inseparably connected,and that "if we do well here, weshall fare well hereafter." In the mostelevated stations of life, his Excellencyhas never been above a constant applicationto some useful business; thus complyingwith that precept of the fourth command,"six days shalt thou labor and do allthy work," which is as positive an injunction,and as binding upon all men, as thefirst article, "remember the Sabbath day, tokeep it holy."
In his philosophical researches, he hasbeen guided by experiment, and soughtfor practical truths. In the world, he hasbeen industrious to collect facts, (whichcompose all our knowlege) and applythem