Words having been hitherto considered as separate and unconnected, are now to be likewise examined as they are ranged in their various relations to others by the rules of syntax or construction, to which I do not know that any regard has been yet shown in English dictionaries, and in which the grammarians can give little assistance. The syntax of this language is too inconstant to be reduced to rules, and can be only learned by the distinct consideration of particular words as they are used by the best authors. Thus, we say, according to the present modes of speech, The soldier died _of_ his wounds, and the sailor perished _with_ hunger; and every man acquainted with our language would be offended with a change of these particles, which yet seem originally assigned by chance, there being no reason to be drawn from grammar why a man may not, with equal propriety, be said to die _with_ a wound or perish _of_ hunger.
Our syntax, therefore, is not to be taught by general rules, but by special precedents; and in examining whether Addison has been with justice accused of a solecism in this passage,
The poor inhabitant-- Starves in the midst of nature's bounty curst, And in the loaden vineyard _dies for thirst_--.
it is not in our power to have recourse to any established laws of speech; but we must remark how the writers of former ages have used the same word, and consider whether he can be acquitted of impropriety, upon the testimony of Davies, given in his favour by a similar passage:
She loaths the wat'ry glass wherein she gaz'd, And shuns it still, although for thirst she dye.
When the construction of a word is explained, it is necessary to pursue it through its train of phraseology, through those forms where it is used in a manner peculiar to our language, or in senses not to be comprised in the general explanations; as from the verb _make_ arise these phrases, to _make love_, to _make an end_, to _make way_; as, he _made way_ for his followers, the ship _made way_ before the wind; to _make a bed_, to _make merry_, to _make a mock_, to _make presents_, to _make a doubt_, to _make out an assertion_, to _make good_ a breach, to _make good_ a cause, to _make nothing_ of an attempt, to _make lamentation_, to _make a merit_, and many others which will occur in reading with that view, and which only their frequency hinders from being generally remarked.