RECENT
EXEMPLIFICATIONS
FALSE PHILOLOGY.
BY
FITZEDWARD HALL,
M.L., HON. D.C.L. OXON.,
FORMERLY PROFESSOR OF THE SANSKRIT LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE, AND OF
INDIAN JURISPRUDENCE, IN KING'S COLLEGE, LONDON.
Hoc est erroris proprium, ut, quod cuique displicet, id quoque existimet oportere
displicere aliis. —S.'August.
Discoverers of truth are, generally, sober, modest, and humble; and, if their discoveries are. less valued, by mankind, than they deserve to be, can bear the, disappointment with patience and equality of temper. But hasty reasoners and
confident asserters are, generally, wedded to an hypothesis, and transported with
joy at their fancied acquisitions, are impatient under contradiction, and grow
wild at the thoughts of a refutation. — Wiliiaiz Cowsper.
No doubt but ye are the people, and wisdom shall die with you.-Job.
NEW YORK:
SCRIBNER, ARMSTRONG, & CO.
1872.




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There is scarce any truth, but its adversaries have made it a n'ugly vizard,
by which it's exposed to the hate and disesteem of superficial examiners.
For an opprobrious title, with vulgar believers, is as good as an argument.
Joseph Glcanvill.
"   AM a woman of an unspotted reputation," protests
the ancient Clelia,l "and know nothing I have ever done
which should encourage such insolence; but here was one,
the other day,-and he was dressed like a gentleman, too,
-who took the liberty to name the words lusty fellow in
my presence."
It is because this lady ventured and failed, that she is
now recalled from the past. The peculiar sphere of her
one recorded  censure, and  its miscarriage, taken  conjointly with her antiquity, determine for her a memorable
position, if not an importance, in literary history.   Of
the rabble of verbal critics, English and American, we
must acknowledge her, unquestionably, as the classical
prototype.
In these latter clays, the propagation of our vernacular
philology is, for the most part, after this wise. The criticaster, having looked for a given expression, or sense of an
expression, in his dictionary, but without finding it there,
or even without this preliminary toil, conceives it to be
novel, unauthorized, contrary to analogy, vulgar, superfluous, or what not.  Flushed with his precious discovery,
he explodes it before the public.  Universal shallowness
wonders and applauds; and Aristarchus the Little, fired
to dare fresh achievements, is certain of new  weeds to
wreathe with his deciduous bays.
Unless we suppose that the patron of a whim is subconscious of the real nature of his pet, it is not easy to
1 Spectator, No. 276., Possibly, Clelia had been reading the pious Edward
Terry, and had borstowed from him her notion of the meaning of lusty. See
A Voyage to East-India (ed. 1655), p. 147.
1




2
account for the fact, that he confines himself but rarely to
calm statement or argument. Defect of substantial reasons
must be compensated somehow; and no compensation for
it is more obvious, or is oftener called into play, than an
air of impatient contempt towards those who disrelish
ipsedixitism.
IWith thus much of preface, I proceed to give illustrations of the style and temper of philologizing characterized
above. Some of these illustrations are drawn, to be sure,
from  the works of writers to whom  we are indebted  for
most sagacious and valuable remarks on our language.
But, the greater our obligations to such writers, the more
desirable is it that their invalid  judgments should be discriminated  from   their valid.   As for  mere seiolists, to
subject one of their number to a strict appreciation may
operate, let it be hoped, as a salutary warning.
" In our own age," says Walter Savage Landor,' " many,
Burke among the rest, say'by this means'.  It would be
affectation to say'by this mean', in the singular; but the
proper expression is'by these mneans'."
From  the time of Sha[kespeare downwards, there are few
writers but have  employed  the  substantive  means as a
singular; 2 and, for a long time, it was, in the use of many,
convertible  with  Vmean.3    Even  Dr. Johnson  has "this
means ",4 though he tells us, with reference to mean: " It
is often used in the plural, and, by some, not very grammatically, with  an adjective singular."   " This  nean " is
1 Last Fruit off an Old Tree, p. 104. Bp. Lowth, in his Grannmmar, after
quoting "by this means " from the Bible, and "by that means" from Atterbury, asks: " Ought it not to be' by these means','I by those means'?  Or
C by th/is mean',' by that mean', in the singular number, as it is used by
Hooker, Sidney, Shakespeare, &c.?"
2 Addison always writes " this mneans ", for the singular; and so almost
everybody has written since the beginning of the last century.
C3 Capgrave, Chronicle of England (1464), pp. 176, 241, 258, 294, 295, 300,
352, 365.  Sir Thomas Elyot, DTe Governour (1531), fol. 15, 42, 49, 70, 75,
135, 146, 150, 164 (ed. 1580). Pasquine in a Traunce (ed. 1566), fol. 5, 11,
13, 30, 33, 71, &c.  B3arnabe Riche,.Farewell to Jiilitarie Profession (1581),
pp. 10, 47, 62, 101, 116, 145, &c. (ed. 1846). Thomas Coghan, Havcen of
Healt]h (1586), chapters 203, 242.  Shakespeare, Winter's Tale, Act 4, Scene
3. William Watson, -A  Decacordon of Ten Quodlibeticall Questions (1602),
pp. 60, 62, 105, 149.  Samuel Hieron, Works (ed. 1624), Vol. 1, pp. 9, 88.
James Hayward, Banish'd VZirgin (1635), pp. 114, 140.  Matthew Lawrence,
Use and Practice of Faitl (1657), pp. 22, 106, 130, 131.  Barrow, HTorks
(ed. 1683), Vol. 2, pp. 65, 134, 377.  Steele, Spectator, Nos. 4, 394, 450.
4 Adventsurer, No. 39.




3
of frequent occurrence in the pages of Coleridge and his
imitators.
According  to Landor, if we wish  to speak of one out of
several means, we may not, in  propriety, even  resort to a
periphrasis; 1 we must express a plurality, though we intend
only a unity.   In preference to what is assumed to be bad
grammar, on the one hand, and in preference to an affectation, on the  other hand, we  are  counselled  to  elect a
misrepresentation of our meaning.   That " this mean" is
an affectation, just as "this. remain " would be, is admitted;
but that " this means" is ungrammaticqa  postulates a criterion  of grammaticalness  other than'the  sole  rational
criterion, general consent.2
1 Gray,-see his Works (ed. Mitford, 1858), Vol. 5, p. 208,-commenting,
in 1760, on WValpole's Lives of the Pcainters, has the following criticism:
"' Geniuses.  There is no such word; and genii means something else." Here
we are denied a plural.  Gray's contemporaries were not, however, so finical
as himself, and used geniuses freely. I name a few of them. Tilson, Cambridge,
J. G. Cooper, and Anon., World, Nos. 67, 119, 159, 152, 171.  Colman and
Thornton, Coznnoisseur, Nos. 19, 28, 47, 54, 70, 72, 139.  Richardson, Correspondence, Vol. 4, p. 138.  Sterne, Tristrasn Shandy, Vol. 2, ch. 19; Seremons, No. 42.  Miss Carter, Letters to Mfiss Talbot, &c., Vol. 3, p. 165.
Jones, of Nayland, Theological and ]ffiscellaneous Works, Vol. 5, p. 403.
Even Glanvill, inthe Address to the Rogadl Society, prefixed to his Seepsis.Scientsfica (ed. 1665), has geniuses; and in his Sadducczismus Trinumphatuzs (ed.
1726), p. 451. And so has Addison, in his remarks on Pavia, Milan, &c., in
his Travels.  In his Dialogzses on 3iedals, however, he uses genies.
2 Perhaps " a means " sprang from an old oblique case, if it did not originate
with the vulgar: compare their ways, in'"a great ways off".  And so, it
may be, we came by our singular pai.ss, as in " much paisns is necessary "
But the singular means has other parallels.
Asmends.  Bp. Pecock, Repressor, (1456), p. 110.  Barrow, WForks, Vol. 2,
p. 41. Addison, Spectator, No. 530.  Hughes, Spectator, No. 311.  Southey,
Life and Correspondence, Vol. 5, p. 86. I might add references to Lyly,
Gabriell Harvey, Hobbes, Milton, Jeremy Collier, and Burke.
Assizes.  Henry More, Mystery of Godliness (ed. 1660), p. 225.  Addison,
Guardian, No. 105. De Foe's Political History of the Devil (ed. 1840), p.
222 (in a quotation).  Charles Johnson, Chrysal (ed. 1777), Vol. 2, p. 90.
Lord Macaulay, Essay on Warren HUastings.
Mews, now a singular, was, originally, a plural; and modern usage sanctions,
to some extent, the plural mewses.
Newzs, to be compared with the French nouvelles, has long been, optionally,
a singular.
Stews is singular in Raphe Robynson's translation of Sir Thomas More's
Utopia (1551), p. 43 (ed. 1869); in Gosson's Schoole of Atbuse (1579), pp.
66, 68 (ed. 1868); and in Lyly's ERuphues (1579-80), p. 43 (ed. 1868).
Add odds, with ethics, politics, physics, snathesnatics, mnechanics, and many
other names of sciences, now singular.
Alms, bellows, jakes, and stnmlnons owe their plural aspect to mere corruption; and such is the case with riches, which once was of either number. A




4
Yet it is Landor who lays down, that " one rash decision
ruins the judge's credit, which twenty correcter never
can restore."
" The epithet' church-going', applied to a bell, and that by
so chaste a writer as Cowper, is an instance of the strange abuses
which poets have introduced into their language, till they and
their readers take theiu as matters of course, if they do not
single theiu out expressly as objects of admiration."
It is the poet Wordsworth' that thoughtlessly  comments thus, by  the  term  "epithet" begging  the  whole
question. Instead of " church-going bell ", Cowper ought
to have written " ch-urchgoing-bell'". " Churchgoing" is
here a substantive; and the expression  arraigned  as an
"abuse" stands on  the  same footing  with  the  elliptical
"drinking-cup ", "laughing-gas ", "riding-whip", I" stumbling-block", 2 "walking-stick", "watering-pot", "wedding-garment ".
like corruption is seen in gallows, for which Capgrave has galow; while Henry
Earl of MIonmouth, in his Advertisements fromn  Parncasss   (1656), has the
plural gallowses repeatedly.  So, too, has John Taylor, the water-poet, at an
earlier date. Shambles is, as in Shakespeare, singular in Lord Macaulay: see
his Essay on Sir Jacszes  iclacintosh.  Nash, in his Christ's Tears over Jerusclem, has shamcble.  Tidcings is singular in Gosson's Schooe of.Abuse, p. 47;
than/ks, in John Taylor's Works (ed. 1630), Vol. 2, p. 170, and in Dr. Donne's
Polydoron (1631), p. 171. " An ephemerides." Burton and Fuller. Addison,
in the first of his ])ialogues on _Medals, has " a tattered colouCrs."
Wage might, also, here be remarked on, with the old victeal, and the comparatively modern msaterial and orgy.  The last is as old as Addison: see the
Spectator, No. 217.  " One arsnes ", meaning' weapon', is found in Pasquine
i~n a T'racnce, fol. 84; and "an arimes ", in Henry Lawrence's Of our
Coassunions ansd cWarre wvitbh _ugels (1646), p. 172.
CorGps, for'body', whether in its primary sense or in its derivative, was
long used as a plural, simply because of its ending in s.  " All the corps of
Chrystendome... have lyved." Sir Thomas More, Alpologye (1533), fol. 70.
Also see Bp. Pearson, Asn Expositions of the Creed (1659), p. 572 (ed. 1845).
Corps is still the form there found, but for' dead body.'  John Taylor, a
generation before, has corpse, in the same sense, and as a plural. WForkls, Vol.
2, p. 299. And so has Fuller.
In the last century, if not a little sooner, arose the vulgar chay, from the
notion that chaise was a plural. Then, too, likewise judging by the ear, the
uneducated considered puclse as a plural, and said " his pulse are weak ". The
singular, if used, must have been, to them, pul.
Iickcshaws, a barbarization of qucelque, chose, and a plural in virtue of its
sound to vulgar ears, has acquired a singular number.
1 Poetical Works (ed. 1846), Vol. 2, p. 342.
2 Mr. Marsh —Lectures on the English sanqz age, p. 656, foot-note,-writes,
not very wisely: "Query for the purists: Ought I rather to say, a'blockthat-is-being-stumbled.-at? "  He fails to see that the first factor of' stumbling-block' is static, and, consequently, is no longer a participle.




Referring to the word atonement, as being explainable by'a being at one', Coleridge annotates:
"This is a mistaken  etymology, and, consequently, a dull,
though unintentional, pun.  Our ftone is, doubtless, of the
same stock with the Teutonic aussolhnen, verslchnen; the AngloSaxon taking the t for the s." 1
From  the air of confidence With which this is said, one
would think there must be good foundation for it. On
the contrary, it is utterly untenable.  At one, for'reconciled', is as old as Roberd Mannyng: "make an onement
with God ", "set at onenient "2, are expressions of the sixteenth  century;  and  I am   not aware  that atonement
and atone. are  of an  earlier date.3    Further, atonement
seems to have preceded atone.  The latter nowhere occurs
in the Bible.
" I believe you will very rarely find, in any great writer before
the Revolution, the possessive case of an inanimate noun used,
in prose, instead of the dependent case; as,' the watch's hand',
for'the hand of the watch'.  The possessive, or Saxon genitive,
was confined to persons, or, at least, to animated subjects."
Thus Coleridge  again.4   Yet, even  in  our Bible  and
Prayer-book, there are such phrases as " day's journey",
"stomach's  sake", and  "wit's  end ", with  "body's",
eye's ",  " gospel's ", "heaven's    Cc, hope's,    " love's'"
" heucre's ", 6 mercey's n, aame's ",  oaths ", " temple's ",
" thing's ", "tooth's ", "truth's,"  "word's ", "work's ",
&c. &c.; and it may be thought sufficient if I adduce like
expressions from  Sir Thomas Elyot,5 Bishop Sanderson,6
1 Statesmrnan's M~anual, Appendix A, foot-note.
"You may understand, by insect," says Coleridge, in his Table-talk,
"'life in sections'-diffused generally over the parts."  Much in like manner,
you may understand, with Joe Miller, womean to be made up of wo and man.
An insect is so called from the insections,' creases', which characterize its
physical structure.
2 Burthogge, in his CUausa Dei (1675), pp. 172-3, uses the word atonable,
which is not in the dictionaries.  "  e,....by his obedience and death,
hath rendred God attonable to man."
3 See The Bible Word-Booc, pp. 42-44. That one was anciently pronounced
with the vowel-sound of o is evident from only-formerly written oney —and
alonse. The latter word is even found for cll one,  all the same'.  "It is
alone as if the Apostle had said," &c. Hieron, TI/ori s, Vol. 1, p. 525.
4 Notes and Lectures upon Shakespeare, &c., Vol. 2, p. 181.
5 C" Fortune's mutability ", "bed's head". Thle Governour, fol. 95, 157.
6 " Life's ",' town's ", "merit's."  Sermons (ed. 1681), Vol. 2, pp. 104,
184, 222.




6
Hobbes,1 and Henry 3lore.2   As to awkward  instances of
such inflected forms as Coleridge thinks to be modern, I
am convinced that they were much more common before
the Revolution of 1688 than they have been since./
"The author asks credit for his having, here and elsewhere,
resisted the temptation of substituting whose for of  7which.  The
misuse of the said pronoun relative vwhose, where the antecedent
neither is, nor is meant to be represented as, personal, or even
animal, he would brand as one among the worst of those mimicries of poetic diction by which imbecile writers fancy they elevate
their prose,-would, but that, to his vexation, he meets with it,
of late, in the compositions of men that least of all need such
artifices, and who ought to watch over the purity and privileges
of their mother-tongue with all the jealousy of high-priests set
apart, by nature, for the pontificate.  Poor as our language is in
terminations and inflections significant of the genders, to destroy
the few it possesses is most wrongful.'
Coleridge, here cited once again,4 implies that he is deal1 " Self-defence's"  "contract's", "society's ", "honour's"  "city's".
WVorks (ed. Sir W. Molesworth), Vol. 2, pp. 109, 110, 118, 223, 266.
2 "Sun's', "moon's ", "hypocrisy's ", "soul's."  lfystery of Godliness,
pp. 344, 345, 385, 440.
* Without interruption, we have had, from the days of Anglo-Saxon till the
present time, such genitives as Coleridge objects to. Bp. Pecock, in his Repressor, pp. 31, 46, 48, &c., prefers " reason's doom " to " doom of reason.
" Feet's measures ", "summer's day," " the Chirchis bileevyng."  Ibid., pp.
25, 89, 137.
We have been altogether capricious with respect to inserting tile s of the
genitive into compounds.  Words like beadsmsan, copesmate, cowslip, daisy,
and daysman are comparatively rare in Old English, while such as herdinan
are very numerous. Thomas Fuller, in his Mixt Contemplations, &c. (1660),
2, 2, ventured seedstimne; but we cling to seedtinse, though we say seedsmsan.
Even golwnsmnan and swordsmasn are modernish; bridemaid has only lately
given place to bridesnmaid; and lifegyuardmens was used in 1756: Connoisseur,
No. 118. Cow-nilk and hen-egg were forms current in the sixteenth century,
and perhaps afterwards. The latter of them was not too antique for Dr.
Johnson, in his Journey to the Westersn Islands of Scotlancl.
The genitive case is found in needs, zoow-ac-days, always, sosetismes, &c. &c.
Our ozne, of old written ones, is the genitive of one. Instead of'for the
noone', we formerly wrote'for the nones', in which the swones is a corruption
of then onses; then being the old dative of the. A like instance of the provection
of Xn is seen in the " ao osother cause of varyaunnce" of Sir Thomas More:
_Apologye, fol. 110. Nowns, for own, occurs in Udal and in Otway; and
Shakespeare, John Taylor, and Foote show that uncle was long depraved into
neuncle.
4 Notes and Lectures szposn Shakespeare, &c., Vol. 2, p. 354.
Dr. Johnson, in his Grammsnar, states that "' WVIhose is rather the poetical
than regular genitive of whice."  Bp. Lowth says: " TWhose is, by some
authors, made the possessive case of which, and applied to things as well as




ing with a mode of expression which has only recently
been authorized by good writers.  Nevertheless, the use of
whose for of wchich, where the antecedent is not only irrational but inanimate, has had the support of high authorities for several hundred years.'
persons,-I think, improperly."  He then quotes Addison as writing: "Is
there any other doctrisse whose followers are punished? "
According to Mr. Marsh, in language which needs qualifying, " Whose was
universally employed, as a neuter, by the best English writers, until a recent
period, as, in certain combinations, it still is by very good authorities." Lectures on the English Lazngucge, p. 396.  And here I am anxious to confess
that I have elsewhere mistaken and misquoted what Mr. Marsh there remarks
about the expression " I passed a house whose windows were open. "  If, however, "we should scruple to say" so, my argument is still unaffected.
Our who and what came from the Anglo-Saxon hwa and hwcet, which were
only interrogative.  Of both hvwa and hwcet the genitive was hwtvs, whence
our whose, which, as a relative, is older than the relative who.  WfZhat, as
strictly equivalent to the relative which, never had much vogue, and has long
been a vulgarism; but its genitive has survived, in preference to whichs, as we
should have modernized the medieval quhilkes.
Dean Alford, in The Quees's English, after asserting, much too roundly,
that " both who and which are, in our older writers, used of persons," asserts,
that our ancestors, by their "Our Father which art in heaven," intended " reference to the relationship, rather than to the Person only; " for " who merely
identifies, whereas which classifies." The fact is, that the translators of our
Bible copied, as far as was practicable, the language of the versions which
served as the groundwork of their labours; and that, in 1611, who, for which
as a relative personal pronoun, was not yet thoroughly established. The distinction which the Dean takes is purely gratuitous.
1 "Langagis whos reulis ben not writen."  Bp. Pecock, Repressor, Introduction, p. lxxxiv., foot-note, Also see pp. 10, 12, 32, 34, 40, 41, &c.
" He mad many bokis of this craft, whos names be these," &c. Capgrave,
Chronicle of Englascml, p. 66.
But I must curtail my references. In those which follow, the words italicized
have whose for their relative.  Romze, court.  Sir Thomas Elyot, Thie &oeernou0', fol. 196, 197.  Vinegar.  Thomas Coghan, Haven of Health, ch. 200.
Antiquity.   Gabriell Harvey, Pierce's Suopererogation (1593), p. 184 (in
Archaica, Vol. 2). 5Things. Hobbes, Yorks, Vol. 7, p. 220.  Chsrch. Henry
More, Mfystery of Iniqseity (ed. 1664), p. 541. _tAmerica, optics. Joseph Glanvill, Scepsis Scientifica, p. 132; Plzus Ultra (1668), p. 46.  Thligzs.  Bp.
Sanderson, Sermozs, Vol. 2, p. 152. Anything.  Cambridge, The tPorld,
No. 102..Age, function, wealth, pesformaznces.  Charles Johnson, C'hryssl,
Vol. 1, pp. 107, 196; Vol. 2, p. 154; Vol. 3, p. 204.  Trees. Gray, Works,
Vol. 4, p. 55.  _Field.  Miss Carter, _Letters to Mlrs. lMontcgu, Vol. 3, p. 22.
Gospel.  William Cowper, Worhs (ed. Southey, 1835-1837), Vol. 4, p. 310.
-Bridge.  Southey, Espriella's Letters, IVol. 2, p. 267: also see Letters, &c.
(1797), pp. 34, 62, 92.  Religion, melawcholy, perception, eohumsls, bluildisgs,
smsoke, mountains, fruit, staircase, laurustizzus, flowers, arches, power, pedestal,
trees. Shelley, Essays, &c., Vol. 1, pp. 34, 234, 242; Vol. 2, pp. 186, 189, 195,
197, 198, 201, 208, 268, 278.   " Wor-shop."   Dr. Arnold, Life and
Corresponzdence (ed. 1846), p. 281. Branch.  Mr. Ruskin, The Seven Lamnps
of Architecture, p. 4: and see pp. iv., 16, 17, 20, 34, 70, 99, 155, 1577
171, 197.




8
"The word ap)artment, meaning, in effect, a compartment of a
house, already includes, in its proper sense, a suite of rooms;
and it is a mere vulgar error, arising out of the ambitious usage
of lodging-house keepers, to talk of one family or one establishment occupying capartments, in the plural.' The queen's aCpartmnet' at St. James's, or at Versailles, not'the queen's capartments', is the correct expression."
Thus dogmatizes that most wayward  of triflers, Mr.
Thomas De Quincey,l delivering himself in his peculiar
manner, as if his own conviction of what is right were
conclusive of the ignorance, snobbishness, idiocy, or some
other equally deplorable defect, of all dissentients, that is
to say, generally, of the world at large.  And again:
"C Our English use of the word apartment is absurd, since it
leads tQ total misconceptions.  We read, in French memoirs innumerable, of' the king's apartnment', of'the queen's apcartmenet',
&c.; and, for us English, the question arises, How. had the king,
had her Majesty, only one room?  EBut, my friend, they might
have a thousand rooms, and yet have only one apjartmnzt.  An
apartmIent means, in the continental use, a section or comparltment of an edifice." 2
Nevertheless, iMr. De Quincey himself stoops, again
and  again, to  "the  ambitious usage  of lodging-house
keepers ", and falls into the " mere vulgar error " of using
the plural apartments for'rooms'.s
The French appartement seems to have meant, originally,
as it still continues often to mean,' a storey4 of a dwellinghouse or the like', and thence acquired the signification of'a suite of rooms'; these being restricted, ordinarily, to
one floor: and so our ancestors once understood the word.
Viewed etymologically, a conmpartment is one of several
parts making up a whole, and may, therefore, be used to
Sir Thomas Elyot has even " diseases... against wvAomn." The Governour,
fol. 150. And Shakespeare makes whom the relative of elements. Temuest,
Act 3, Scene 2.  " Eyelids who" and suchlike phrases are common in
Shakespeare. Dr. Johnson refers wholsm to a fowl, and who to an insect.
Rasselas, ch. 1; Ramnbler, No. 93.
1 TForks (ed. 1863), Vol. 2, p. 238, foot-note.
2 Ibid., Vol. 14, p. 458, foot-note.
3 Ibid., Vol. 10, p. 11; Vol. 11, pp. 62, 66; Vol. 13, p. 241. In Klosterheim (ed. 1832), p. 28, the " absurd " use of the singular apartment, for'room',
also has the authority of Mr. De Quincey.
4 It is so defined in Miege's Great French )Dictionary, 1687-8. M. Littr6
calls this sense vicious.




9
describe any room belonging to a set, just as well as any
set of rooms among those which compose a house. That
which  is by itself is   _ part, or' apart'; and, hence, apartments and comnpartmenzts differ, in  suggesting  aggregates
under the aspects, as concerns their constituents, of disjunction and conjunction, respectively.  But, as the rooms
of a suite, no less than a suite itself, may be regarded
singly, our modern use of capartment has nothing " absurd "
in  it.  That it arose as Mr. De Quineey asserts is very
questionable; it being much more likely that it descended
to lodging-house keepers than that it ascended from  them.
As to its being " a mere vulgar error", or " absurd ", who
but Mr. De Quincey so esteems it?  His "correct expression " is, probably, one of which  he enjoys almost the
monopoly; unless unidiomatic translators from  the French
share it with him.  His adjudication is, here, irrespective
of usage, and, by implication, sets up  a standard which
none but an autocrat is likely to acknowledge.
And then, what though  the French idea of an apartment differs from  our own?   If people who only smatter
French fancy themselves masters of it, and fall into " total
misconceptions ", shall we Gallicize our language, just to
prevent such a calamity?  Why should "the continental
use" of a word be our use, the word having become English? Apartment is no longer appartement, even as alter is
not altcrer. Finally, if apartment, for'room', be " absurd',
funeral, for our ancient fiunerals, from the still existent
funerailles, is no entire word, but only a verbal clipping.
Of civilian 3Mr. De Quincey says:1
1 Torks, Vol. 6, p. 79, foot-note. In Vol. 5, p. 138, foot-note, we are told
of " the ridiculous abuse of this word civilian, in our days."
"' Nobody in the world," says Mr. De Quincey,.... "has less sympathy
than myself with idle cavillers, or less indulgence towards the scruples which
grow out of excessive puritanism in style."  Vol. 5, p. 190. We may believe
him; only he disliked, in others, that which was the express image of one of
his own most marked peculiarities. He must have reckoned on great inattention, or ignorance, or servility, on the part of his readers, or on all three together.
In the spirit which led him to run amuck at civilian, he would have reclaimed errant, for arrant, and thus made it do double duty. His " errant
charlatan and impostor,"-Vol. 5, p. 104, in the edition of 1863, and in two
other English editions,-as he ought to have seen, is, to common apprehension,
almost a tautology; for a charlatan and impostor could scarcely but err.
When errant, as qualifying' rogue', came to differ from wandering, the substitution of the spelling arrant was no worse than the change which the word




10
"Under the fashionable and most childish use of this word, now
current,-viz., to indicate simply a non-military person,.-a use
which has disturbed and perplexed all our past literature for six
centuries, it becomes necessary to explain, that, by civiZlian is
meant, in English: 1. one who professes and practises the civil
clatv, as opposed to the comzonz or municipal law of England;
2. one who teaches or expounds this civil law; 3. one who
studies it."
Mr. De Quincey, by the way, of course means, his preposterous assertion being interpreted, that the intelligibility of our past literature has been disturbed and perplexed by the emergence and predominance of the use
which he stigmatizes as "fashionable and most childish ".
Not only, however, is this use "fashionable ", but its
prevalence is well nigh universal. Nor, from their presumptive infrequency, are the chances worth taking into
account of the danger of any confusion, in common discourse, between the new  sense of the word and its old
senses.  WThy, then, hesitate to accede to so convenient a
neoterism?   As we needed, in soldier, a substantive of
militcary, so we needed a substantive of civil, as contrasted
with mzilitary.  It was aversion to an awkward circumlocution that gave us our modern civilictn;  and no sane
argument can invalidate it.  Wholly futile, in MIr. De
Quincey, otherwise than as throwing light on his unique
idiosyncrasy, is his terming it " childish ".  Such, indeed,
or worse, is his perpetual ambition to rehearse the attitude
of Athanasius contra mundum.
In his paper on Anecdotage, he comments as follows:'
" One thing, at least, Miss Hawkins might have learned from
Dr. Johnson; and let her not suppose that we say it in illnature: she might have learned to weed her pages of many barbarisms in language which now disfigure them; for instance, the
barbarism of' compensate for the trouble',-in the very sentence
before us,-instead of'compensate the trouble'."
Here, again, we meet with that arrogant precipitancy
without which Mr. De Quincey would lose half his idenhad undergone in meaning. Many of our old expressions have a history corresponding with that of er'rant,' thorough-paced'. To reanimate this form is
impossible, and, if it were possible, would be inexpedient.
1 Works, Vol. 12, pp. 100, 101.




tity.' With perfect justice, he elsewhere observes,2 that,
"universally, the class of purists in matters of language
are liable to grievous suspicion, as almost constantly proceeding on half-knowledge and on insufficient principles."
Dr. Johnson himself3 has, by a " barbarism  ", more than
once used  compenscate as a neuter verb; and  so, doubtless,
have scores of reputable writers 4 during the last hundrede! Intuition stood Mr. De Quincey in poor stead, as an alternative to investigation.  Thus, he avers-Vol. 6, p. 157, foot-note, —that, "with the exception of an allusion to the technical usages of horse-racing, and one other, I
do not remember that any specific anachronisms, either as to words or things,
have been yet pointed out in Chatterton." He could not, then, it seems, even
have known, or else he had strangely forgotten, that the spuriousness of Rowley's poems, as productions of the fifteenth century, had been ascertained, past
all refuting, by their anachronous its.
2 Por''S, Vol. 14, p. 201, foot-note.
3See the -Rmbler, No. 143; Acdventurer, No. 62.
4 Spectator, No. 581. Miss Carter, Letters to Miss Talbot, &c., Vol. 1, pa
122. Hawkesworth, Acdventurer, No. 1. Dr. Joseph Warton, _Adventurer,
No. 93.  Colman, Acdventuzrer,  No. 90; Elglish l]Ierchant, Act 4, Scene 2.
Colman and Thornton, Connoisseur, Nos. 8, 26.  Richardson, Sir Charles
Grcclison (ed. 1811), Vol. 2, p. 143.  Bishop Lowth, Life of 7i'lliaen of
7.ylkeham (ed. 1759), p. 322.  Charles Johnson, Chrysal (ed. 1777), Vol. 2,
p. 7; Vol. 3, pp. 22, 87, 239, 273.  Miss Burney, EEvezina (ed. 1779),Vol. 3,
p. 258.  Cumberland, 7West ndican, Act 1, Scene 2. Letters of Junies, Nos.
11, 36, 38.  Burke, On the Subliime and Beautiful, Part 2, Section 10; Part
5, Section 6; and often throughout his writings. Sterne, Letters, No. 91.
Gibbon, ]liscellcneoues Works (ed. 1814), Vol. 3, p. 442; Vol. 4, p. 332.
John Frere, lMicrocosm, No. 9. Jones, of Nayland, Theological and liseellaneouts Works, Vol. 2, pp. vi., 170; Vol. 6, p. 330.  Cowper, TVorkcs, Yol.
3, pp. 243, 270; Vol. 9, p. 180. Paley, eight times in his iloral Philosophy.
Godwin, An Enquiry, &c. (ed. 1793), p. 679. Miss Carter, Letters to MIrs.
Miontccgu, Vol. 2. p. 132; Vol. 3, p. 316.  Charles Lamb, Rosamnund Gray,
Chapter 11.  Coleridge, Essays on His Own Times, pp. 186, 671, 894, 917;
NVotes and Lecttures ztpon Shakespeare, Vol. 1, p. 63; Chzerclh and State, &c.
(ed. 1839), p. 406. Southey, Life of Wesley (ed. 1864), Vol..1, p. 264; Cohiloqusies, &c. (ed. 1831), Vol. 1, pp. 209, 273; Vol. 2, pp. 161, 315; Quzarterly
Review; &c. &c. Wordsworth, Poetical Works, Vol. 5, p. 357. Dr. Arnold,
Life and Correspondence, p. 27; fl~iscellaneous Works, pp. 25, 63.  Landor,
WVorks, Vol. 1, p. 31: Last Fruit off an Old Tree, pp. 150, 301.  Dr. J. H.
Newman', Essay on the Mitracles, &c., p. 214: Ofice atnd Work of Unbiversities;
p. 66: LectGures and Essays on Unsiversity Sobjects, p. 172: Essays Critical
and HZistorical, Vol. 1, p. 9; Vol. 2, pp. 87, 384. Bp. WXilberforce, Addresses,
&c., p. 22. And I might add references to Henry Brooke, Crabbe, Charles
Lloyd, Shelley, Hartley Coleridge, Mr. J. S. Mill, &c. &c.
The oldest instance I know is in Barrow. " As if the cross were not enough
worthy to comnpensatefor our unworthiness."  WVorkcs, Vol. 1, p. 480.
Dr. Johnson, in his Dictionary,-and Dr. Richardson, after him,-overpassed cosnpensate as a verb neuter.  His editor, Archdeacon Todd, supplied
the omission, but on the sole authority of the Rev. Thomas Scott. Saintship,
however, is not literature. Dr. Latham leaves the Archdeacon's meagreness
where he found it.




12
and ninety years, Lord Macaulayl included.  In very many
cases we may make compensate either neuter or active:2
the option, like that between has arrived and is arrived, has
the  warrant of the  best usage.   Of this  fact Mr. De
Quincey either was aware or was unaware.  If aware of it,
he should have left Miss Hawkins alone; if he was unaware of it, the lady's own authority ought to have led
him to suspect that there might be scope for choice in the
matter. Sic volo sic jubeo is, too often, the substance and
the sum total of an opinionist's judicial equipment.
I next quote part of what Mir. De Quincey3 says about
implicil:
" This word is now used in a most ignorant way; and, from
its misuse, it has come to be a word wholly useless: for it is
now never coupled, I think, with any other substantive than
these two,' faith' and' confidence',4 —a poor domain indeed to
have sunk to from  its original wide range of territory.  Moreover, when we say' implicit faith', or'im 2plicit confidence', we
do not thereby indicate any specific kind of faith and confidence,
differing from other faith, or other confidence: but it is d vague
rhetorical word which expresses a great degree of faith and confidence; a faith that is unquestioning, a confidence that is unlimited; i. e., in fact, a faith that is a faith, a confidence that is
a confidence.5  Such a use of the word ought to be abandoned to
women1. "
And how did this use originate? The explanation given
is, that the phrase' im2plicit faith', in other words,' faith
by proxy', employed by  "learned assailants of popery",
while seen, by "ignorant readers "  to be " a term  of reproach ", was misunderstood by them.  "These ignorant
Even in the first chapter of his Histolry there are two instances of it.
2 It is observable that' compensated by', of a thing, not' compensated for
by', is the received idiom. Compare'accepted by' and' approved by', though
accept and approve are neuter as well as active.
The following is unidiomatic: " One drawback they have at present, which,
I hope, zwill be fully compensatedfor in the future."  Mrs. Shelley, in Shelley
Memnorials, p. 107.
W3 Yorlcs, Yol. 16, pp. 485-489.
4 In books written by contemporaries of 3Mr. De Quincey, and which he
must have been acquainted with, I find implicit qualifying' assent',' belief','credit','deference',' exactness','obedience','reception','submission',
&c. &c.
5 With what reason could Mr. De Quincey contend that faith and confidence do not admit of degrees, and, unless they are perfect, cannot properly
be said to exist?




13
readers caught at the  last result  of the  phrase'implicit
faith' rightly; truly supposing it to imply a resigned
and unquestioning faith; but they missed the whole intermediate cause of meaning, by which only the word
implicit could  ever  have  been  entitled  to  express that
result."
The "true meaning" of the term, Mr. De Quincy contends, is " involved  and wrapped up ".   Edmund Burke,
he tells us, employed it in  this signification.1   However,
"since  his day, I know  of no writers who have  avoided
the  slang  and  unmeaning  use  of the  word, excepting
MIessrs. Coleridge and Wordsworth." 2  Likewise: "I will
be bold to affirm, that no man who had  ever acquired a
scholar's knowledge of the English language has used the
word in that lax and unmeaning way."  It follows, therefore, that, so far as 31r. De Quincey was informed, only
1 So far as this sense is conveyed by using implicit in antithesis to express
or  Mct, Mr. De Quincey is right in his assertion: only there his assertions
as to Burke should have stopped.  But who does not use the word in this
sense? Burke will be searched in vain for implicit used " accurately," as in
the passage, quoted in my text, which Mr. De Quincey foists upon Milton. It
will be seen, from the subjoined quotations, that Burke's implicit and implicitly have nothing peculiar in them whatever.
"And, since it has so happened, and that we owe an implicit reverence to
all the institutions of our ancestors," &c.   A  Vindication of lAatucral
Society.
"' To detect every fallacy, and rectify every mistake, would be endless. It
will be enough to point out a few of them, in order to show how unsafe it is to
place anything like an implicit trust in such a writer. " Observations on a Late
State of the Nation.
" To him the whole nation was to yield an immediate and implicit submission."  Thloughts on the Cause of the Present D)iscontents.
" If he does not yield an implicit unreserved obedience to all his commands,"
&c. Speech on Mr. Fox's East-India Bill.' His confidence in AMr. Fox was such, and so ample, as to be almost imfplicit."  Substance of the Speech on the Army-estimates, 1790.
"Mandates issued, which the member is bound blindly and implicitly to
obey."  Speecch at the Conclusion of the Poll, 1774.
"As to the opinion of the people, which, some think, in such cases, is to be
implicitly obeyed," &c. Speech at Bristol, 1780.
"But, had I stood alone to counsel, and that all were determined to be
guided by my advice, and to follow it implicitly," &c. At Letter to a Noble
Lord, 1796.
" Their rights have not been expressly or implicitly allowed."  RemarC s on
the Policy of the Allies.
2 Whether Coleridge is to be excepted may be doubtful.  " I recommend
the fact to the especial attention of those, among ourselves, who are disposed
to rest contented with an implicit faith and passive acquiescence."  Church
and State, &c., p. 204.




14
two persons, himself excepted, had, during about two
generations, known English thoroughly.'
It is further asserted, of implicit, that Milton " always
uses the word accurately ", and that he " speaks of Ezekiel' swallowing his implicit roll of knowledge'; i. e., coming
to the knowledge of many truths, not separately and in
detail, but by the act of arriving at some one master-truth
which involved all the rest."   What }ilton2 really speaks
of is " that vision of Ezekiel rolling up her sudden book
of implicit knowledge, for him  that will to take and swallow  down at pleasure."  M3r. De Quincey gives us a " roll
of knowledge"'wrapping  up' something  undisclosed,
whereas M/ilton  gives us "knowledge"' wrapped  up' in
a visible book.  Exposition of realities we are all thankful for; but we have a fair right to reclaim, when the
subject-matter of a grave effort of interpretation proves to
be a dreamy fiction. Proceeding to build on his forged
precedent, IMr. De Quincey prescribes, that, "if any man
or government were  to  suppress a  book, that man  or
government might justly  be reproached  as the  inmplicit
destroyer of all the wisdom  and  virtue that might have
been  the  remote products of that book."   This may be
received, whenever it shall be evidenced that usage has
ratified the employment, in the  sense of'including', of a
word which began by signifying'included'.
What is more, Mr. De  Quincey calls on us to  credit,
1 Though I have taken but small pains to muster Mr. De Quincey's ignoramuses who have not " ever acquired a scholar's knowledge of the English
language," I may as well name such as, in addition to those named further on,
I have discovered, after a very short search.
Johnson, Ramnbler, Nos. 35, 39, 56, 74, 127, 155, 158, 171, 176, 184; Life
of Savage, for 1 "implicit follower", "implicit confidence ", and 1"in- licit
compliance"; Life of Swift, for "inpylicitly to be admitted".  Cowper,
Wfforks, Vol. 15, p. 136.  Porson, Letters to JN1. Archcdeacon Travis, p.
102: Tracts and lfiscellacneous Criticisms, p. 102,  Southey, Espriella's
Letters, Vol. 2, p. 347; Vol. 3, pp. 139, 230: Life of Wesley (ed. 1864),
Vol. 1, pp. 82, 295; Vol. 2, pp. 63, 215: Colloquies, &c., Vol. 1, p. 167;
Vol. 2, pp. 2, 25. Landor, Last _Fruit of an Old Tree, p. 300. Dr. Newman, -Discussions and Artgimnents on Various Subjects, p. 342.
" Mr. Montagu's faith is sincere and iYmplicit."  I "Where else do so many
human beings inmplicitly obey one ruling mind?"  So writes Lord Macaulay,
in his Essays on Bacon and Xr. Gladstone; and he expresses himself in the
same "1most ignorant way" in which people have expressed themselves ever
since, I suppose, the word implicit came into our language.
Also see the extracts under implicitly, cited by Dr. Johnson.
2 Prefatory Address to Te Doctrine and lDisci2line of -Divorce.




15
that not only Milton, but "his  contemporaries ", always
use implicit " accurately".   That which  Mr. De Quincey
takes to  be its original sense, Milton, on  the  contrary,
very rarely gives to it; I and, as for what is alleged  to be
the sole usage of Milton's contemporaries, considering that
Mr. De Quincey was the very pink of Tories and Churchmen, we are  at liberty  to  smile, when  it turns out that
the precious literary legacy of the Blessed Martyr Charles 2
was not duly present to his memory.'  Sects may be in a true church, as well as in a false, when men follow
the doctrine too much for the teacher's sake, whom they think almost infallible; and this becomes, through infirmity, implicit faith; and the name
sectary pertains to such a disciple."  Of True Religion, Heresy, &c.
"Yet most men,....through unwillingness to take the'pains of understanding their religion by their own diligent study, would fain be saved by a
deputy.  Hence comes imngplicit faith, ever learning and never taught, much
hearing and small proficience, till want of fundamental knowledge easily
turns to superstition or popery." Ibid.
" Besides, of an imnplicit faith which they profess, the conscience also becomes imlnlicit, and so, by voluntary servitude to man's law, forfeits her
Christian liberty.  Who, then, can plead for such a conscience as, being imnplicitly enthralled to man, instead of God, almost becomes no conscience; as
the will, not free, becomes no will? "  A Treatise of Civil Power in Ecclesiastical Causes.
In these passages, implicit means' dependent',' on trust',' submissive','servile','supine'; and that which, of choice, is genuinely so is' unreserved',
entertaining no doubts and asking no questions.  Quite possibly, it was the
consideration of the double sense of imnplicitus-to be spoken of presentlythat operated to give us the acceptation of implicit which I am defending.
2 " But to binde My selfe to a generall and implicite consent to what ever
they shall desire or propound.... were such a latitude of blinde obedience
as never was expected from any freeman, nor fit to be required of any man,
much lesse of a King, by his owne subjects," &c.  Eikon Basilike, chapter 11.
"A perfect slavery of the conscience, and an isnplicit faith that their Prophet
is infallible, without any examination and doubt."  Henry More, fystery of
Godliness, p. 272. Also see p. 546.
" For inplicit faith is a vertue, where orthodoxie is the object."  Glanvill,
Seepsis Scientifiea, p. 95.
V? " One of the first things they did was to deliver their own minds-and to
endeavour the same for others-from the prepossessions and prejudices of complexion, education, and implicit authority." Idem, Essays, &c. (1676), VII.,
p. 11.
"Hereupon he requires an absolute obedience from  all, without allowingp
any judgment of discerning; instead thereof, commanding an imnplicit faith; "
&c. Timothy Puller, The llBoderations of the Church of Engylasnd, &c. (1679),
p. 92 (ed. 1843).
" This curious dish
Implicit Walton calls the swallow-fish."
Richard Franck, Northern Mllemoirs, p. 293.
Two only of these passages call for special remark.  In that from Glanvill's Essays, " im9plicit authority " denotes' authority at second hand,' in con



16
Even in classical Latin, implicitus signifies'perplexed','confused', as well as'enveloped'; and its twin participle,
inplicatus, signifies'obscure'.' Inplicil faith', almost by
a Latinism, defines the faith of the uneducated  and irrefiective,-as  some Frenchman has put it, "the  faith  of a
coal-heaver ",i-which, of necessity, is vague, dim, imperspicuous, indistinct; and implicit, in this expression, comes
to have the same meaning, if taken as the antithet of exl[icit.2  But, notoriously, it is just the assents for which
men are unable to render a reason, and which they take
on trust, that they hold to both most tenaciously and most
unwaveringly; 3 and thus we see that the development of
signification which impslicit has undergone maybe accounted
for on sound metaphysical principles.   For the rest, however this signification arose, the learned world and the
tradistinction to that of personal experience.  Franck's use of implicit, for
C credulously confident,' may be compared with that of Milton, where-see the
last note-he applies it, in the sense of' slavish,' to 1" conscience."
1 " Implicite [Fides iznplieita].  C'est un terme de Th6ologie.  Foi implicite.  C'est une foi obscure, confuse, et qui ne peut etre developee par celui
qui l'a. C'est la foi du charbonnier."  lichelet's Dietionnaire, &c. (Amsterdam edition of 1732).
Miege, in his Great French.Dictioncary, before translating our implicit, defines it by' obscure'.:" Implicit faith is belief or disbelief without evidence." Dr. John Brown,
A4n Estimate, &c. (ed. 1758), Vol. 1, p. 56.
" Nay, there is nothing more undoubtedly true than that great numbers of
one side concur, in reality, with the notions of those whom they oppose, were
they able to explain their implicit sentiments, and to tell their own meaning."
Addison, F'reeholder, No. 54.
6" If I had the ill nature of such authors as love to puzzle, I also might
leave the foregoing enigma to be solved, or, rather, made more implicit, in
such ways as philosophy might happen to account for; " &c. Henry Brooke,
lZie Fool of Quality (ed. 1792), Vol. 1, p. 203.
iomplieit here plainly signifies the opposite of explicit, clear, or distinct.
2 Mr. De Quincey says, of isnplicit: " The history of the word is this.
Imn2licit (from the Latin inmplicitus,' involved in',' folded up') was always
used, originally, and still is so by scholars, as the direct antithet of explicit
(from the Latin exp)licitus,' evolved','unfolded')."
This ignores the fact, that the Latin words had more than one signification
apiece. Im-plicit has always had, with us,' by implication',' illative',' deductive', for one of its senses, as applied to things; but the sense specified by
Mr. De Quincey was never anything but a rare Latinism.
" Since, therefore, upon account of natural consanguinity, of our best inclinations, of common equity, and general advantage, and an isnplicite compact
between men"; &c. Barrow, WVorks, Vol. 1, p. 411.
_Ijnplicit here means' implied,'' constructive.'
3 4 IFoi imnplicite, confiance absolue dans les paroles, dans l'autorit6 de quelqu'un."  M. Littr6, under his second signification of imnzliCite.




unlearned have alike accepted'it; and nothing can be
idler than Mr. De Quincey's applying to it such  designations as " lax ", "unmeaning ", and " slang ".
"Telum imbelle sine ictu
Conjecit,"
But let it be admitted  that implicit reached  the sense
now generally assigned to it, in the way asserted by Mr.
De Quincey; would  he repudiate  lot, for'collection'?
Lot first denoted'portion', and then'fate'   still, though
we may "I miss the whole intermediate cause of meaning 
that led to its being used for'collection', we are not to be
blamed for employing it in that acceptation.  A  thousand
other like instances might easily be adduced. The works
of Mr. De Quincey are as full of them  as the works of
other people; and, if one were to deal by our language at
large as he has dealt by implicit, there is not a page of
his writings but would call for wholesale expurgation.
" Make no mistake, reader,"' he enjoins,2 with  emphasis
1Sort came into our language with some of its significations already deflected from those of the Latin sors, as' kind',' manner?, &c. It is comparable with lot, in that one of its derivative senses has been' collection'.  "Ye
shall be slain, all the sort of you." Psalms, 62, 3, Prayer-book Version.
Its primary sense has never been common with us; but Shakespeare has sanctioned it. And so has Robert Southwell.  " I intended this comfort to hir
whom a lamenting sort hath left most comfortless."  7The I'riuamphs over
Deatlh (1596), p. viii. (in arechaica, Vol. 1).
2 Works, Vol. 6, p. 31, foot-note. Less incautious accounts of the Scriptural meaning of prophet occur in Vol. 1, p. 278, foot-note; and in Vol. 16,
p. 97, foot-note.
Mr. De Quincey, as his readers will not require to be told, esteemed himself a great theologian and biblicist. In this character, he instructs us, in
Vol. 7, p. 218, that " St. Paul is continually referring, in his Epistles, to gifts
of prophecy."  Nowhere does St. Paul speak of "gifts of prophecy"; the
expression " gift of prophecy" occurs but once in all his writings; many good
expositors take prophecy to mean, there,' vaticination'; and the words "gift
of" are an addition by the translators.  The apostle's imagined "gifts of
prophecy " are again met with in Vol. 1, p. 84, foot-note; and in Vol. 16, p.
97, foot-note. Also see Vol. 13, p. 204.
From an anecdote related in Vol. 13, p. 111, it comes out that Noe had
never fallen in Mir. De Quincey's way, in the course of his study of the English New Testament. And what could he have supposed there to be in its
original? For he sends us to the Septuagint for Ns, —" there as plain as a
pikestaff," to copy his own expression of his wonderment. In passing, the
corrupt lVo which he heard in Westmoreland may have been a tradition based
on the Genevan version of the New Testament, once in extensive currency,
which has no form but Noe. Or it may have descended from the Romish days
of England; Nroe being the name throughout the Vulgate, and in our older
literature,  Nor is the Patriarch's name, as a monosyllable, unknown. See
2




18
ludicrously misplaced.   "You, according to modern slang,
understand, probably, by aprophet, one who foretels coming
events. But this is not the Scriptural sense of the word;
nor am  I aware that it is once used, in such a sense, throughout the entire Bible." IMr. De Quincey's Bible must have
been sadly mutilated.' Besides this, he himself gives in,
and  without offering  apology, to  the  "slang"  sense  of
prophet and several of its conjugates.2
"I had observed  him  sometimes pointing  to myself,"
writes Mr. De Quincey,3 " and  was perplexed at seeing
this gesture followed by gloomy looks, and what French
reporters call sensation, in these young men."   Yet elsewhere4  he  has:  "The  sensation  which  was  produced,
throughout Germany, by the works in  question, is sufficiently  evidenced," &c.5  That which he deems to be the
Dr. R. Morris's edition of Tlze Story of Genesis and Exodus, lines 557, 566,
580, &c. The following stanza is from a ballad attributed to Richard Tarlton,
printed in 1570:
" The arke of father Noy
Was had in mincle as than,
When God did clene destroy
Both woman, childe, and man."
In Vol. 7, p. 89, occur, as a quotation, the words "Thereafter as a man
sows shall he reap"; and it is pretty evident that Mr. De Quincey thought
they were from the Bible. Nowhere in the Bible does thereafter occur, in
any sense. We find it twice, however, for'accordingly', in the Prayerbook: Psalqns, 90, 11, and 111, 10.
Nor -was he incapable of the old and vulgar mistake which multiplies St.
John's Apocalypse into " the Revelations ".  See Vol. 6, p. 121, and Vol. 16,
p. 377. Addison, Landor, and Dr. Arnold, in the last century and in the
present, have fallen into the same error; and so has Mr. Marsh, in his Leetures on the English Language, p. 264.
1 See Deut., 18, 22; Jer., 28, 9; 2 Sam., 24, 11; St. Matthew, 1, 22, and
2, 17; &c. &c.
2 Prophet. Vol. 9, p. 288. Prophetic. Vol. 3, pp. 204, 216; Vol. 14, p.
96. Prophecy. Vol. 14, p. 41.  Pro/phesy. Vol. 7, p. 144.
3 WForks, Vol. 14, p. 149.                   4 Ibid., Vol. 16, p. 392.
6 With similar inconsistency,'Coleridge wrote, Feb. 5, 1800, of " the sensation
excited in the public mind", and, in October of the same year, sneered at " the
cant phrase' made a great sensation'."  Essays on Hi.s Own Times, pp. 367,
1021.
Sensation, in the use of it noticed by Mr. De Quincey, is, therefore, much
older than the 1" French reporters " of whom he takes it to be the property.
Completely anachronistic, too, is Landor, where, in an imaginary conversation, he represents Dr. Johnson as saying: "6 The new and strange word an
individual seems rather to signify a dividdal or  particular"'  Works, Vol. 1,
p. 164.
If Landor consulted one of Dr. Johnson's octavo editions of his Dictionary,
he there found, it is true, individuac  called an adjective only; and, in the




19
English of "French reporters " was good enough English,
in  the  last century, for Jeremy  Bentham,1 and  is good
enough, in our century, for Lord Macaulay.2
"instead  of saying'sympathy  wvith  another', many
writers ", to the serious offence of Mr. De Quincey,3 "adopt
the monstrous barbarism of'sympathy for another'."
This "unscholarlike use of the word synZpathy " is accounted
for, he asserts, by the fact, that, "instead of taking it in
its proper sense, as the act of reproducing in our minds
the feelings of another, whether for hatred, indignation,
love, pity, or approbation, it is made a mere synonym  of
the word pity."   Not at all.   Fellowz-feeling is, as nearly as
possible, equivalent to  sympathy; and yet we always put
for after it, just as we may after compassion.   Usage, and
that alone, is to determine our choice of prepositions; and,
in  language, usage is perpetually changing.' Influence
into','contemporary  to', and'independent  upoin' once
were good English; and  such' synonymous to' has been
vwithin  the  last hundred  years.4'To  sympathize  in the
misfortunes  of another' does not appear to  us a whit
stranger than it appeared in the days of Shenstone;5 " any
sympathy in her general principles " was the  expression
preferred  by  Coleridge,6  in   1800;  and  " sympathies
absence of extracts, he had reason to conclude that the author did not recognize the word as a substantive. Nor, in the folio edition, is it marked as such;
many substantives similarly circumstanced as to evolution being regarded, by
the Doctor, as only adjectives.  There, however, Bacon, Dryden, and Pope
are quoted as having used the word substantivally.  But, even if Landor had
not found the substantive individual in the folio edition, why should he have
thought the lexicographer infallible? And does not his etymological objection,
such as it is, bear, as against the substantive individuzal, equally against the
adjective, in its sole sense countenanced in modern English? Johnson himself, like Lord Macaulay, was decidedly partial to the substantive individual.
See the Rambler, Nos. 4, 6, 57, 99, 104, 146, 148, 171; and the Acdvent~urer,
Nos. 39, 45, 67. And there are eight instances of it in his Tazation no
Tyrazny alone.
In Henry Earl of Monmouth's Romulus and Tarquin, a small duodecimo
published in 1637, the substantive individual occurs in pp. 61, 139, 140, 218,
250, 271.
I will add, that, to my amusement, I have been warned against this word,
by a learned Englishman, on the ground of its being an Americanism.
1 The Church of England COatechism  Examined (ed. 1868), p. 2.
2 History of England, Chapters 14, 22.       3 Works, Vol. 13, p. 195,
foot-note.    -i See Bp. Lowth's Isaiah (ed. 1778), Preliminary Dissertation, pp. 38, 39, 40.
5 See his Letters, No. 70.      Essays on His Own Times, p. 390.




20
toward " may claim  the sanction of Landor.1'Sympathy
for' has the consentient authority of Sterne,2 Gray,3 Burke,4
gWordsworth,5 Lord Macaulay,6 Dr. Newman,r and Mr Ruskin; 8 and the world will, in all likelihood, reckon them quite
as good judges, in a matter of " monstrous barbarism," as
Mir. De Quincey.9
In short, our language, as practically exemplified, is in
most deplorable case, if we are to abide by~his opinion.
"With the single exception of William Wordsworth,- who has
paid an honourable attention.to the purity and accuracy of his
English, we believe that there is not one celebrated  author of
this day who has written two pages consecutively, without some
flagrant impropriety in the grammar,-such as the eternal confusionl~ of the preterite with the past participle, confusion of verbs
transitive with  intransitive, &c.,-or solme violation, more or
less, of the vernacular idiom."
We are also apprised  that Coleridge and  Wordsworth,
"but especially the last, have been  remarkably attentive
to the scholarlike use of words, and to the history of their
own language". 11 {Most certainly, their English is, in
1 Last _Fruit off awn Old Tree, p. 195.  2 " Sympathy for the poor fellow's distress."  Tristram Shandy, Vol. 2, Ch. 17.  "A sort of sympathy for
your afflictions."  Letters, No. 120.       3 IV-orks, Vol. 5, p. 304.
4,, In order to awaken something of sympathy for the unfortunate natives."
Speech on Mr. Fox's East-India Bill.
5 " The man who, in this age, feels no regret for the ruined honour of
other nations must be poor in sympathyfor the honour of his own country."
Concerning the Relations of Great Britain, Spain, and Portugal, p. 169.
6 Essays on Hfallaqn, Lord Baecon, and JFarren Hastings.  In two of the
passages here referred to, the sympathy is for persons.  7 Essags c~itical
and htistorical, Vol. 1, Dedication: Disczessionss and Arguments on Various
Subzjects, p. 380.        s Th]e Seven ZLamtps of Architecture, p. 65.
9 We are not expressly forbidden, by Mr. De Quincey, to have sympathy
for an object, ins it, or towards it.  But he as good as disallows these forms of
speech; since, according to him, sympathy, as not being followed by wit/h, is
here misemployed for pity.  He, however, writes-Vol. 1, p. 40,-of "sympathies in the problems suggested by books."  The facts escaped him, that
we often use synpcathy in the sense of' sympathetic interest', and that we
then allow ourselves a variety of prepositions after it.
In Robert Southwell's Triunphs over I)eath, p. 2, piety is said to be " a
mutual sympathy, in each, of other's misery."  This use is, I believe, very
rare.
10 TVorks, Vol. 10, pp. 71, 72. A more exact writer than Mr. De Quincey
would, assuredly, have preferred " perpetual confusion."  Wordsworth's and
Coleridge's holden, by the way, he does not seem to have regarded as imitable.
11 Works, Vol. 16, p. 487. "In Spenser, in Shakespeare, in the Bible of
King James's reign, and in Milton, there are very few grammatical errors."




21
many points, highly commendable; and their judgments
as to what is allowable in phraseology are blemished by
few  crotchets.  For instance, as we have seen, neither of
them  shrank from  what was, to Mr. De Quincey, a "barbarism  ",'compensate for'; and  the  latter could perpetrate " the monstrous barbarism"' sympathyfor'.  At the
same time, it may be gravely doubted whether they would
have  tolerated  Mr. De  Quincey's "he again laid  down,
and addressed himself to sleep ",1 " he must have rode along
with the orchestral charge,2," she was long of returning
to herself",3 and the equally gross Scotticism  of using that
for in that, for that, or because.4   But the reader must have
Vol. 8, p. 15. Elsewhere, one, at least, of these authorities in grammar is
decreed to be impeccable.  " It makes us blush to add, that even grammar is
so little of a perfect attainment amongst us, that, with two or three exceptions,-one being Shakespeare, whom some affect to consider as belonging to
a semi-barbarous age,-we have never seen the writer, through a circuit of
prodigious reading, who has not sometimes violated the accidence or the syntax of English grammar."  Vol. 10, p. 198. The true standard of grammaticalness in English was known, and in its plenitude, to Mr. De Quincey;
only the secret was too choice to be imparted to an unappreciative public.
But why did he cast even a single pearl before swine?
1 Klosterheim, p. 73.     2 WForks, Vol. 13, p. 210.     3 Ibid., Vol.
16, p. 297.
4 Ibid., Vol. 5, p. 160; Vol. 6, p. 235: iElosterheim, p. 112. It is no
defence of a Scotticism, that once it was English.
Page upon page might be filled with specimens of Mr. De Quincey's bad
or dubious English. A few samples are subjoined.
" A recipyrocal messenger between the prophet and heaven."  Vol. 1, p. 47.
" No part, that is to say, but whlat acts on the whole."  Vol. 1, p. 255.
"' Few people have lived on such terms of entire harmony and affection as hle
lived with the woman of his final choice." Vol. 2, p. 190.
" When next you see the bird which now perches above your head, you will
only have five days more to live." Vol. 3, p. 319.
"To sketch the history of the art, and to examine its'principles critically,
now remains as a duty for the connoisseur, and for judges of quite another
stamp from his Majesty's Judges of Assize." Vol. 4, p. 4.
" But the fundus.... must for ever be sought in one and the same field,
viz., the ludicrous of incident, or the ludicrous of situation," &c. Vol. 8, p. 54.
"One man might steal a horse with more hope of indulgence than another
could look over the hede."  Vol. 9, p. 32.
" It was his intention, as I am well assured, just about the time that he
took his flight for Elysium, to have commenced regular contributor to your
journal." Vol. 11, pp. 114, 115. Also see Vol. 16, p. 338.
"But can any gravity stand the ridizule of a father's sitting down to examine his child's features by his own? " Vol. 12, p. 198.
" Even twelve or fifteen years ago, I have seen French circulating libraries
in London," &c. Vol. 13, p. 40, foot-note.
"' And, apart from that objection, at this period, the hasty unfolding of far
different intellectual interests than such as belong to mere literature had," &C.
Vol. 14, p. 359.




22
had enough for once of a man who seldom  takes a word in
hand  to  discourse  on, without  making  some ridiculous
misstatement.   For his knowledge of English, so far as
it surpassed that of his most commonplace neighbours, he
would well have followed the advice of Dogberry, to "' give
God thanks, and make no boast of it'.   The truth appears
to be, that he prized the character of being a correct
writer, in proportion to the pains which it cost him  to support it; and his success in supporting it was not, after all,
of the most brilliant. Something vastly better than that
which, whether as a verbal critic or as a general essayist, he
has bequeathed to us ought, surely, to have been expected
from  one who laid claim  to "the advantage of a prodigious
memory, and the far greater advantage of a logical instinct
for feeling, in a moment, the secret analogies or parallelisms
that connected things else apparently remote ", together
with " an  inexhaustible fertility of topics, and, therefore,
of resources for illustrating or for varying any subject that
chance or purpose suggested"; who complacently ranked
himself among "elaborate  scholars"; 2 who  professed  to
" It is certain that no very great man has ever existed, but that his greatness has been rehearsed and predicted in one or other of his parents." Vol.
15, p. 29.
"After all, that is not of a deeper tinge than I have seen amengst many an
lniglish/man."  Vol. 16, p. 283.
"Sentence was passed; and the punishment was to be inflicted on two
separate days, with an interval between each," &c. Vol. 16, p. 340.
" I have, myself, travelled by coaches wiho were rapidly nearing the point,"
&c. Logice of Political Economy, p. 235.
It may be submitted, with all confidence, whether these blunders are not,
mostly, such as any man of decent education would be ashamed to be guilty of
even in his most unguarded chitchat. Yet Archbishop Trench, in 1859, pronounced Mr. De Quincey to be the person " whom I must needs esteem the
greatest living master of our English tongue."  English, Past and Present
(4th ed.), p. 32.
The authority of Mr. De Quincey, whatever may be my own valuation of
it, is of great weight with many. I shall, therefore, appeal to it, wherever it
may suit my purpose to do so.
1 WYorks, Vol. 1, p. 135.,
2 Ibid., Vol. 9, p. 20.  It must have been from  what Mr. De Quincey
happily calls the overmastering habit of stating everything "in a spirit of
amplification, with a view to the wonder only of the reader ", that he was induced to speak as he has spoken of numerous literary celebrities.  " HIazlitt
had read nothing"  "Rousseau, like William WVordsworth, had read, at the
outside, twelve volumes octavo, in his whole lifetime"; and Porson's'" knowledge of English was so limited, that his total cargo might have been embarked on board a walnut-shell, on the bosom of a slop-bason, and insured
for three half-pence".  Vol. 8, pp. 127, 173, 313. Edmund Burke "was




23
have travelled through " a circuit of prodigious reading";1
and who had " been studying English for thirty years and
upwards ".?  No one has ever demonstrated more satisfactorilv, in his own person, what he was so keenly sensible
of, as concerned others, " the danger, in critical niceties,
of trusting to any single memory, though the best in the
world ". Nor, save that his fame is much greater in
America than it is in England, should I have utilized him
to the end of making manifest the hazard incurred by
such as dogmatize rashly,
"And what their narrow science mocks
Damn with the name of heterodox."
The Atitecutm, a few years ago,4 published a letter in
which the word curious, as now most commonly employed,
was assailed with great vehemence.  The use referred to
is that which, we are told, makes the word a synonym of
"' strange " or "extraordinary'"; though I should prefer
to say,'novel',' unusual', or, more generally,' novel and
noticeable'.  "This use of the word", the letter-writer
objects, " is at once novel and absurd, and, I cannot but
think, unknown in the writings of every good author."
Wrought upon by this supposed discovery, at least a dozen
different correspondents, writing in journals which fell in
my way, rushed into publicity, to assist in its promulgation; and, in some American book 5 which I have not at
hand, the Athenceurn letter was reprinted in full, and without comment.  There seems to be no doubt, that, to many
minds, almost any statement, if not palpably incredible, is
invested with validity by the bare circumstance of being
put in black and white.
The truth, I believe, as concerns the sense of curious
under consideration, is, that, from  Queen Anne's time
down to the present day, very few authors have not employed it.6 That, in the mean time, it has escaped the
the most double-minded person in the world "; and Lindley Murray, an
American, is called " an imbecile stranger."  Vol. 10, pp. 54, 71. Dr. Johnson " had studied nothing "; and Boileau and Addison were " neither of them
accomplished in scholarship ". Vol. 13, pp. 161, 203.
W1 orks, Vol. 10, p. 198. Not the circuit, be it observed, of his reading
was " prodigious ", but the reading itself.
2 WForks, Vol. 8, p. 314.   3 Ibid., Vol. 6, p. 160.   4 March 24, 1866.
5 Mr. Edward S. Gould's Good English, if my memory serves me faithfully.
6 It was not unknown, however, in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries




24
indolence of all our lexicographers but the  most recent
will not seem  remarkable to any one conversant with  the
shortcomings' of our lexicographers. To Addison2 it was
"Some of old time put great superstition in characters curiously engraved
in theyr Pentagonon," &c. Nash, Pierce Penilesse his Szpplicatzion to the
Devill (1592), p. 86 (ed. 1842).
" All [language] must be affected and preposterous,... it is so curious."
Ben Jonson, Timber, -De vere A4rgutis.
"It were no lesse rare to observe some of our women who stand most
affected to curious apparell."  R. Brathwait, A  Boulster-lecture (1640), p.
202.
" For their places of pleasure, they are in their groves, where their curaious
fruit-trees, before described, grow ", &c. Edward Terry, -A Voyage to -East
India, pp. 200, 201.
Also see the translation of 11 Cardinalismo di Santa Chiesa (1670), pp. 6,
45, 77, 95, 246.
Incurious, as the opposite of the objective curious here contemplated, is not
unexampled.  " In confirmation of these truths, we may conclude this part of
our subject with a not inzcurious anecdote."  Dr. John Brown, An Fstimate,
&c., Vol. 1, p. 57.  Also see p. 137; and Vol. 2, p. 99.  Horace Walpole
uses incurious in the same way.
Curiosity was long ago used where we now use, more frequently, curious.:less. -' At a convenient distance from them appear'd the Doriphori,
whom the gorgiousnesse of their habit, and curiosity of their arms, rendred
almost of no defence."  Cassandra (ed. 1652), Vol. 1, p. 182.
1 Writing in 1847, Mr. De Quincey, with his usual bile and bluster, stigmatized this expression as " horridly tabernacular, and such that no gentleman
could allow himself to touch it without gloves."   Works, Vol. 7, p. 89. As
we all know, it is, now, of unchallenged respectability.
The clause just transcribed is adduced, by Dr. Webster's editors, to illustrate their third definition of tabernacular: " Of, or belonging to, a booth or
shop; hence, common; low." A good sample, this, of pure moonshine. It
would be interesting to know how the learned divines aforesaid would elucidate
Crabbe, where he writes:
"See yonder preacher to his people pass,
Borne up and swelled by tabernacle-gas."
The shed in Moorfields, which Whitefield used as a temporary chapel, was
called Thie Tabernsace; and, in the scornful dialect of certain Church-ofEnglandmen, Methodist and such-like places of worship have, since then,
been known as tabernacles.  Hence Mr. De Quincey's tabernacular.
Southey, that pattern of political piety, more than once, in the Quarterly
Review, has the synonymous schism-shop; and the old Puritans termed
churches steeple-houses. An established religion is, of necessity, contemptuous
towards its depressed rivals; these retaliate the disdain of which they are the
objects; and careless Gallios infer that the message which all alike have heard
from the beginning must be, that they should hate one another. See 1 John,
3, 11.
2 " I shall beg leave to explain myself in a matter which is curious in its
kind, and which none of the critics have treated of." Spectator, No. 357.
Also see Nos. 83, 267, 391.
-" Nothing could be more curiozcs than to see those little animals about such
a work."  Guardian, No. 157. Also see No. 156.




25
good  English; and  Gray,' Johnson,2 Burke,3 Cowper,4
Coleridge,5 Southey,6 and Lord Macaulay7 have agreed
with him  in so esteeming it.   As will be seen, on verifying the references given at the foot of the page, expressions having it is, or the like, prefixed to curiotus, which
the censurer of the simple adjective finds peculiarly exceptionable, are, likewise, perfectly classical; and so is
curioztsly, for' observably'.8
Czrious, in  its more modern  acceptation, is not, then,
" novel'"; and it is very far indeed from  being " unknown
in the writings of every good author ".  And no more is
it "absurd". First the word denoted a state of mind,
interest or diligence in inquiry or prosecution; then it
was predicated of things which exhibit evident tokens of
care  (cura), dexterous  application, ingenuity;    and, as
1 "Your opinion of Diodorus is, doubtless, right; but there are things in
him very czurious, got out of better authorities now lost,"  Works, Vol. 3, p.
53. I have observed fifteen like instances in Gray.
2 "I could  command whatever was imported, cszrious or valuable."
1anmbler, No. 181.
" A very curiotus book might be written on the' Fortune of Physicians'."
Zife of Alkenside.
3 " To this purpose Mr. Spon..   gives us a curious story," &c.  On
the Sublisle and Beautiful, Part 4, Sect. 4.
4 " I despair now of making any curious discoveries about him,"   Forks,
Vol. 7, p. 226. Other instances might be added.
5  ssays on His Own Tinmes, pp. 363, 380, 399, &c. &c. "A curious
anomaly."  Chutrch and State, &c., p. 410.
6 Letters, &c. (1797), pp. 10, 15, 109, &c. &c.
7 4 That unfortunate book contained much that was curiouzs and interesting.'"
Essay on Madamwe ]D.'Arblay.
Additionally, I might refer to Henry Carey, Aaron Hill, Richardson, the
Earl of Cork, Miss Carter, Miss Talbot, Miss Burney, Horace Walpole, Colman, Foote, Cumberland, Bentham, Wordsworth, Landor, Dr. Newman, Mr.
J. S. Mill, and Mr. Gladstone.
8 It is curious, &c.  Sir Joshua'Reynolds, Idler, No. 76. Burke, Speech
on Conciliation with America, &c. &c. Porson, letters to zAir. A2rchdeacon
Travis, p. 168: Tracts and Miscellaneous Criticismzs, p. 319.  Southey, Colloqscies, &c,, Vol. 2, p. 240.  Charles Lamb, letters (ed. 1837), Vol. 1, pp.
184, 268.  Landor, -)ry Sticks TFagoted, p. 124: Last fruzit of an Old Tree,
pp. 166, 341. Lord Macaulay, Essays on lord lfahon, Horace Wcalpole, Sir
William Temple, and Mirabeau: Speeches (ed. 1854), p. 82. Mr. Ruskin,
The Seven Za2mps of -Architecture, pp. 110, 173.
Curiously enoutgh, &c.  Southey, Cowper's Works, Vol. 3, pp. 84, 212.
Lord Macaulay, Essay on Addison.  Dr. Newman, 0ffice and WFork of Uni.
versities, p. 210.
9 In the "_curiouts arts " of Acts, 19, 19, curious is objective; but its sense
is peculiar. Magic is there indicated; and its practitioners were reckoned not
simply inquisitive, but unduly so.




26
such things are out of the common, and are apt to arrest
attention, it naturally acquired the sense which has been
thoughtlessly  arraigned  as  contrary  to  reason.'   The
second  signification,'executed  with  thought and  skill',
almost, in fact, denotes the objective correlative of that
which is denoted by the first signification.   Nice,2 before
it meant'agreeable', meant'fastidious';  dreacdful and
fryigltfiul had, of old, the significations'full of dread' and'full of fright'; and all languages supply, in the secondary acceptations of words, liberal illustrations of objective
developments  from   subjective  originals.   If the  person
who objected to the latest use of curziozts had. generalized
his objection, and, especially, if he had applied it impartially to our language at large, he would have found himself hampered by consequences which he little expected.
Even as to curious itself, he would have had  to  alter not
only Shakespeare's " curious bed ", "most c.lrious mantle ",
and  "curious  tale", but  our Bible, with  its  "cuirious
girdle"  and' curious works".   Our familiar curiosities,
for'rarities', would, also, in consistency, fall under the
ban of this unreflecting denunciator.
Curious, in the Apocry2ha,-and only there in the whole Bible,-signifies' inquisitive', and nothing else.: Addison writes of "' a punch-bowl, painted upon a sign near Charing-.
cross, and very curiously garnished with a couple of angels hovering over it,
and squeezing a lemon into it".  Spectator, No. 28.  Curiously here means'in a novel and striking way', quite as well as'artfully',' ingeniously'.
Dr. Johnson's eighth definition of curious is "elegant, neat, laboured,
finished"; and the transition thence to the latest sense of the word-which
he has passed over,-might almost have been predicted.
In French, Italian, &c., the words etymologically corresponding to our
curious have all the three acceptations which I have noted above.
2 "4 Nice and dear are the great To Prepon and To Kalon of feminine conversational moralities."  So writes Lord Lytton, in his EEngland and the
E1nglish.  To Mr. De Quincey,- Vorks, Vol. 16, p. 487, foot-note,-this use
of nice ranks " among the most shocking of the unscholarlike barbarisms now
prevalent ". Nice, by his legislation, " does not and cannot express a quality
of the object, but merely a quality of the subject ".  But the ladies reject all
such straitened views of the limits of possibility; and, as to nice, they have
proved, with the very general concurrence of their lords, that what is infeasible
in theory may easily be realized in practice.
Nor is this use of nice a product of our times.  The learned Miss Carter
wrote, in 1769: " I intend to dine with Mrs. Borgrave, and, in the evening,
take a nice walk."  -Letters to'Mrs. Montagu, Vol. 2, p. 34.  " A very nice
letter."  Ibid., Vol. 3, p. 200. And Charles Johnson wrote " sweet-breadc
and cock's combs... are very nice", "nice bits ", "a nice leg of a fowl ",
"nice little things".  Chrysal, Vol. 2, pp. 9, 153; Vol. 3, p. 72; Vol. 4,
p. 203.




27
The Rev. Mr. Blackley, in his WTord Gossip, has propounded, with all the positiveness befitting accredited
inerrancy, a new faith touching the derivation of parson
and parishioner.  It is unfortunate, for this gentleman,.
that philology is not theology, and that his authority is
otherwise than autocratic.  If, notwithstanding his sacred
character, he will deal with matters of this world, it mustbe on the same conditions, as regards liability to protest,
which attach to those whom  such matters interest more
particularly.
To connect parson, etymologically, with person he boldly
affirms to be a "ridiculous error ".  Blackstone, who so
connected it, "though a good lawyer, was but an indifferent philologer, or he would have observed the necessary
connexion between parson and parish, specially illustrated
by the existence of the word parishioner"; and he is
gratuitously taxed with "implying that the parson of a
parish was, in theory, what he, certainly, is not, necessarily, in fact, the person, the individual, of most importance
in a parish ". And now for-not to shock a clergyman by
profanely applying the term  revelation, —the new  patefaction:
" The word parson, is, in fact, equivalent to parishion, a compression of parochianus, which, as a substantive, means one belonlging to a parish.  We English have taken paarochianus in
one sense, parson, for the minister belolnging to a parish; the
French have taken it in another, paroissien, the inhabitant
belonging to a parish; and, when our language needed to describe members of the parson's flock, the form equivalent to
paroissien being already usurped in parson, it was obliged to
form  the word parishioner, as implying the relation of the
ordinary resident to the appointed minister in a parish."
On the true origin of parson, which has no connexion
whatever with parish, or with any similar word, there is
but little to add to what Dr. John Cowell wrote,l more
than two centuries ago:
1 In The Interpsreter (1637). Coleridge thus explains parson: " Persona
icar' Eioxjv; persona exen',plaris; the representative and exemplar of the
personal character of the community or parish; of their duties and rights, of
their hopes, privileges, and requisite qualifications, as moral persons, and not
merely living things."  Cburch and State, &c., p. 156, first foot-note. Coleridge should have given notice that this was only his personal idea of a parson.




28
"Parson (persona) commeth of the French (personne).  It
peculiarly signifieth, with us, the rector of a church; the reason
whereof selmeth to bee, because hee, for his time, representeth
the church, and susteineth the person thereof, as well in siewing as being siewed in any action touching the same."
We are told  that parishion is compressed from  parochianus; and it is implied that parson is compressed from
parishion.x  But why  go  to  Low  Latin, rather than to
Old French, for the source of parishion?  And what proof
is there that parishion ever meant'parson'?   1Mr. Blackley here palms upon his readers a word which, to him,
was, evidently  enough, a  mere  assumption.   Having,
though unconfessedly, coined it, he proceeds to coin a
sense  for it,;  in  the  next place, he  contracts  it, by
squeezing out two vowels and a consonant; and, lastly,
he is ready to wax uncomplimentary, if you hesitate to
accept his conclusion as to how we came by parson.
I may add, that this term, in the form person, was used,
by M]yre,2 in the,twelfth century, down to which time, as
has been the case ever since, a parson is not known to
have been denominated, in English, by any word allied to
parish.
Forging  history, after the manner here exposed, and
dispensing the spurious product as a genuine article,
would, in a layman, be a somewhat hardy procedure.'
Some choice  eloquence  about priesteraft, with  which
1 Skinner long ago broached this untenable view, taking parson from
P"arishon, ecclesiastes"; and Dr. Richardson adopts it. Neither of them
gives any example of parishone used in the sense required to uphold their
whim.
As will shortly be seen, parishon preceded parishioner, and meant the same.
Charles Lamb uses diocesan, —as a Frenchman might use dioe'sain,-for'a
person living under the head of a diocese'. See his Valentine's )ay, in
Elia's Essays.  And once this was allowable English, according to Dr.
Richardson's Dictionary.
2 Isnstructions for Parish Priests, p. 22.
3 The contents of  aFord Gossip first appeared in a religious magazine for
children. At pp. 65, 66, Mr. Blackley, after saying that "we are unwilling
to speak of a milliner, or a barmaid, as a young lady", adds: " though, indeed, American notions would scout such hesitation ". An English clergyman
would be an unusually favourable specimen of his class, if he denied himself
an opportunity of insinuating contempt for Americans. Whether the truth is
told, or not, is quite a secondary consideration. No slander is more sedulously
inculcated, in England, than the slander that we Americans aim at breaking
down all social distinctions.




29
Mr. Blackley is inspired by the Blackstonian heresy, need
not be quoted. To exalt a clergyman beyond what is due
is, in his eyes, highly pernicious. Is it, however, less
pernicious to depress a layman beyond what is due, in
making a parishioner, on the very showing of his appellative, a mere adjunct to his " parishion " or parson?   The
odd facts, by the by, on  the new  view, first, that our
ancestors went back to parishion and made pariszioner, and
did not, instead, make parsoner from parson, and, secondly,
that, if parissioner was used contemporaneously with
parishion, the longer word should have come down unabridged, and the shorter should have been abridged, MIr.
Blackley sagaciously forbears calling attention to.
To the  Old  French  parrochia, parroquia, paroche,afterwards modified into paroisse,-we owe, directly, the
early English forms of what we have long written parish.
In  the  twelfth  century, we had  paresche, paresch, and
parisse; 1 in the thirteenth century, paroche; and Chaucer
writes parisch.2   Similarly, as the  Old  French  had the
derivatives parrochian, paroquian, we had paresschen, pareschen,3  paraschen, parachen,4 parishen, pearysshen,5 parischen,6 parisscheln,7 pareshon,8 &c., for'inhabitant of a
parish'. By the addition of -er to a corruption of the
French word, it is reasonable to suppose, we obtained our
parishioner; 9 just as we are indebted, for practitioner, to
the addition of -er to a corruption of praticien.l~  This ex1 Myrc's Instructions, &c., pp. 1, 7, 22.
2 See Mlr. Stratmann's Dictionary of the Old English La)nguazge, &c.
Krefeld: 1867.
3 Myrc's Instructions, &c., pp. 25, 26.
" Pecock's Repressor, &c., pp. 391, 393, 416.
5 Political Poems and Somys, &c. (edited by Mr. Thomas Wright), Vol. 1,
p. 327; Vol. 2, p. 217.
6 _Religious Pieces in Prose and Verse (edited by the Rev. G. G. Perry), p.
2. Chaucer and Pecock have the same form.
7 Langland, Thle Vision of William concernizgz Piers Plowmsan (1362), Text
A (ed. Rev. W. A. Skeat), p. 5.
s Revelation to the Jlfonk of Evesham, p. 49. Paryshons and parishons, at
p. 104, seem to stand for parishes: but this cannot well be.
9 Bishop iHall uses parishional, in the expression "parishionall meetings".
Strictly, parishioinal ought to mean' pertaining to paris]hioners', rather than'pertaining to a parish'. It is such a word as our congressional is, and such
a word as processional would be, if used to mean' pertaining to a process'.
10 Coleridge ventured to Anglicize this into practician; and Brathwait, in
A Boulster-lectcre (1640), p. 307, uses the substantive practist. Practition,
the base of poractitioner, though I have nowhere happened on it, very likely




30
planation of the origin of parishioner is, so far as I know,
now first suggested.'
Among the illaudable characteristics of Professor Maximilian  Muiiller,2  his  facility  of assertion  is conspicuous.
For instance,3 he lays down that our word  church  came
into England through the Latin, and that it was brought
by " the Christian missionaries and priests, from  the time
of St. Augustine's landing, in 597, to the time of Alfred ".
But affirmantis est probare; and, before all this can  be
taken as prescribed, a question or two may be allowed to
a sceptic.  Can it be shown-since we are told " iyrialke -
clturch ",-that kyriake  was  ever used  in  ecclesiastical
Latin?   Can  it even be shown that KvptaKj) —though  it
meant' Sunday',-ever meant' church'?   Who can say
that chtrcAh, whatever it was derived from, was not in use,
in some old form, before the days of St. Augustine and
his successors? And who can say that it may not, after
all, be a corruption of EKKXqcita?4  Philology becomes an
easy affair enough, when, from premises to conclusion, it
takes the shape of an  exercise  of the imagination; and
"' the science of language ", as thus illustrated by its chief
hierophant, reveals itself as indeed a science of a brandnew  description.
If I decline to descant on critics such as Dean Alford and
was once used. We have had, somewhat akin to parishional, practitional.
" Ambitious practitionall state Jesuits."  W. Watson, A Decacordon, &c., p.
_201.  And it has been used in modern times. See Selections/from the Letters
of Robert Soutlsey, Vol. 2, p. 1.
l~fagition, mnusition, and phisition, for smagician, &c., were common spell.
ings in the sixteenth century, and on into the seventeenth.
Both parishioner andpractitioner occur in Latimer, as quoted by Dr. Richardson. These forms, in an age when our language was scarcely thought to
come within the purview of philology, may have recommended themselves, as
offering to the eye derivatives of the type of executioner, extortioner, &c.
1 Pruitedrer is a corruption of the French fruitier; and fripperer, shortened
to frippoer, of the French frippier: but, in poulterer, there is a double ending.;
the old word being poulter. So, up1olsterer has been elongated from upholster.
Lesserer is still used, in some parts of England, for lesser or less.  Fischerer,
for fisher, occurs in Capgrave's Chlronsicle, p. 113.  /[utsicianer is not yet obsolete. The modern chichkens contains an s added to chickcen, itself a plural.
2 That he can borrow freely, without recognizable acknowledgment, is
shown in the Transactions of the Philological Society, 1862-3, p. 117, footnote.
3 Lectures on the Science of Language, Vol. 2, pp. 268, 269.
4 More than twenty years ago, I elaborated an argument for this etymology;
and I still think it much more likely that church came from nictcXria than
from any derivative of ticptog.




31
Mir. Mioon, it is not because of any poverty of matter for
remark  in  the headlong sciolism  of the one and in the
piddling pedagoguery of the other. But hasty and shallow philologizing is everywhere common, and no less so
in. America than in England. Partly to keep Mr. Richard
Grant White in countenance, and partly because, on cursorily turning  over the leaves of his  Words and T/ heir
Uses, I was reminded of certain  old-world specimens of
precipitate speculation, I have been at the trouble of this
long preliminary. The special reminders of those specimens shall now be considered; and, if they are made the
subject of some detail, it is with design to show irrefutably,
among divers ends, what is likely, in our day, to happen
to one who puts his faith over-confidingly in dictionaries
and intuition.
The verb experience is, to Mr. White, parroting Dean
Alford,' altogether objectionable.  It is, further, significant, that he thinks it to be of rare occurrence in good
writers.  "I have been able to find, by diligent search,
only one example of any authority ", he informs us; and
that example, taken from  the Guardian, he discovers in
Dr. Richardson's Dictionary.  Since  "diligent search"
may mean, with Mr. White, industry in turning over the
pages of dictionaries, one can scarcely wonder at the
generality of his conclusions.2   Dr. Johnson observes, in
the Preface to his Dictionary: " It is remarkable, that, in
reviewing my collection, I found the word sect unexemplified."   No less remarkable is it, that he has treated the
verb experience inadequately,3 considering his liking for
1 " Some years ago, precise scholars used to exclaim against the verb to
experience; and a very ugly candidate for admission into the language it
was.... No instance of the verb to experience occurs till quite recently."
Again: "Now, in the best English, experience is a substantive, not a sverb at
all."  The Queen's English (second ed.), pp. 115, 116, 252.
A person who can write thus has given an irresistible proof of his utter
want of qualification to set up as a critic of English.
2 In Dr. Latham's edition of Johnson's -Dictionary, he would have found
Bishop Thirlwall quoted for the verb experience; and the Bishop's authority
is, certainly and deservedly, very high.
3 Of the verb experience he gives two definitions, " to try, to practise ", and
" to know by practice". The first he is unable to exemplify; and, under the
second, he confines himself to adducing Milton's " experienced eye ", in which,
if there were no verb experience, the epithet would be considered as an adjective. The positive existence of the verb thus rests upon the Doctor's bare




32
it.'  In the eyes of Mr. White, however, it is a solecism
which would soil any decent page. After having produced, with other supposed offenders, "an incensed farmer ",
real or  imaginary,  as  " experiencing  a  cow", and  two
newspaper-writers, as " experiencing a climate"  and " experiencing a hay-crop ",2 he thus concludes:
"LetTus bear, suffer, try, live through, endure, prove, and undergo; and froml  all this we shall gain experience and become
experienced; but let us not experience either a hay-crop, or a
cow, or anything else."
How  long we have possessed the verb experience I do not
venture to say; but, as long ago as 1531, it was used by
Sir Thomas Elyot; 3 in  1594, by Nash; 4 and, before the
end  of the  sixteenth  century,  it had  become  familiar
enough to find its way into a dictionary.5 I suspect, however, that it had little currency prior to the time of the
Commonwealth.  First, apparently, it meant'test','subject to  experiment',  and then,'know  experimentally, or
assertion. His most inefficient editor, Archdeacon Todd, has nothing here to
add to what he found.
1 In the Rambler alone, he uses the verb experience, active or neuter, in
Nos. 9, 16, 17, 35, 40, 42, 52, 63, 133, 184.  Add the Icdler, Nos. 2, 80;
&c. &c.
2 Inelegant as these expressions are, they have their parallels in writers of
merit.  Graves, the clever author of 5The Spiritual Quixote, makes experience
govern " one fruitful season" and " one seasonable day".  Olla Podrida, No,
30. Coleridge makes it govern " weather ".  Essays on His Own Times, p,
891. And Dr. Johnson, in his Accosent of the Harleian Library, makes it
govern-I do not quote precisely as he wrote-" the use of a catalogue ".
Every word is liable to be employed with bad taste; but it is no argument
against it, that it is liable to such an employment.
3 " And what utilytie should be acquired by suche declaration, it shoulde
not be experienced with diligence? "  The Governour, fol. 77.
4 "No land can so infallibly experience the proverb' The hood makes not
the monk', as thou; for taylors, serving-men, make-shifts, and gentlemen, in
thee are confounded."  Christ's Tears over Jerzesalens, p. 135 (in Archaica,
Vol. 1).
Some years earlier, in his letter introductory to Greene's A4rcadia, Nash uses
the expression iin my inexperienced opinion". Gabriell Harvey, in his Four
-Letters, &c. (1592), has " snmexperienced art".
In Tarlton's Newes out of Pzorgatorie, by an anonymous author, published
in 1590, we find: "I presumed the rather to experience, with them, the hope
of your favours."  Tarlton's Jests, &c. (ed. Mr. J. 0. Halliwell), p. 51.
5 In Florio's Worlde of Wordes (ed. 1598), sperimesntare is defined by "to
trie, to proove, to experience, to put in practise."
6 " It is an eperienced proposition, that all things are loosned with the
same cords wherewith they were bound."  Advertisements fromn Parnasstus,
translated by Henry Earl of Monmouth (1656), p. 225.




33;
from   experience'.   Richard  Brathwait wrote, in  1640':
"This, poore love-inthralled  MIellida felt too well experienc'd in her." 1  The Earl of Monmouth, premising " irreverence towards God, disobedience of magistrates, corruption of manners, alteration of laws", and several other highly deprecable matters, adds: "many of which we, in  the
dominions of England, Scotland, and Ireland, have, of late,
too sadly experienced." 2  This was in 1654.  Immediately
afterwards, we have the authority of Milton 3 for the active
experience; and, within the next thirty years, it was used by
_Matthew Lawrence,4 Richard Franck,5 Joseph Glanvill,6Dr.
Henry More,' Richard  Burthogge,8  and Timothy Puller.9
Richard Franck has " to experience art ". Northern ]uemoirs (ed. 1694), p.
55. Also see p. 105. This book was written, its author informs us, in 1658.
There is an annotated edition of it by Sir Walter Scott.
In the first of these passages, experienced, passive, signifies'which has
passed the ordeal of experiment successfully'.
1 Thie Two Lancashire Lovers (1640), p. 128.  " Experienc'd grounds of
art ", " experienc'd practises ".  Ibid., pp. 225, 238. Also see TAe English
Gentleman,'c. (ed. 1641), p. 7.
tRichard Fleckno, whose authority, chronologically, is as good as that of
anybody else, wrote, in 1647: " I shall be more happy than before, the more
of unhappinesse I have experiene'd since." A Relation of Ten Years Travells,
&c. (1655), p. 41. Another instance occurs at p. 93.
2 The Comnpleat History of the TVarrs of.Flacnders, The Translator's Epistle
to hbis Countrymen, the Readers.  Also see the same translator's ~ldvertiseniesnts
frons Parcnass.us, pp. 131, 151, 351.
3 4' Besides, that your conspicuous piety and charity toward the orthodox,
wherever overborne and oppressed, has been frequently experienced in the most
urging straits and calamities of the churches."  Prose FVorks (Bohn's ed.),
Vol. 2, p. 254. Other instances occur in pp. 263, 267, of the first volume:
they are, all, in letters, one of which bears the date of Jan., 1655. In two of
these passages, experience may be taken to mean' test'.
4 "When we experience the best ordinance sometimes empty, -.. this will
quicken us to look above," &c. Tle Use and Practice of: atith (1657), p. 330.
5 " The barble, though experiensced a resolute fish," &c. Northern Memoirs,
p. 274. Also see p. 60.
6 "4 But its experienc'd sterility through so many hundred years drives hope
to desperation."  Scepsis Scientifica, p. 133. Also see Sadduciszsus Trimunphatus, p. 365.
7 " Such or such a configuration will have such an event, though they never
experienc'd it at all, or very seldom."  Mystery of Godliness, p. 359. Also
see Enthusiasmus Triiumphatus (ed. 1662), p. 45.
" But, it being experienced, of all:hands, that the noise seemed to come from
a force against the door," &c.  Henry More, in Glanvill's Sadducismnus
Triuviphatus, p. 437.
s8 " Nothing is more obvious, or more frequently- experienced,' than this."
CZausa Dei (1675), p. 338.
9 " Christian moderation will govern any, when' they have experienced an
evil, not to run into the same again."  Thie  oderationi of the Chburch of EEngland (1679), p. 317 (ed. 1843). Also see pp. 240, 294, 301, 309.
3




34
And already in the seventeenth century, experienee, as a verb
neuter,-since  then  grown  very  common, but not  yet
recognized by  any  dictionary,-was  sanctioned by  good
writers.' Advancing to the eighteenth century, we encounter the active verb experience in Steele,2 Bishop Berkeley,3 &c. &c.;4 and, still later, it has been used by Samuel
The following, from Shields, is quoted in The Scotch Presbyterian Eloquence
(ed. 1693), p. 24: We have experienced wonders of the Lord's care," &c.
1 ", We experience to the contrary."  Franck's Northern Memoirs, p. 4.
"We experience that those objects occur to the mind tumultuously," &c.
Thomas White, JAn exclusion of Scepticks, &c. (1665), p. 39. Also see p. 66.
Numerous references to the more modern writers could be given; but a few
will, doubtless, be thought sufficient. Addison, Guardian, No. 157. Mandeville, The TFable of the Bees (ed. 1724), p. 330.  Richardson, Sir Charles
Grandison, Vol. 4, p. 128. Johnson, Ramzbler, No. 17. Mrs. Chapone, Adventurer, No. 78.  Edward Moore, WForld, Nos. 2, 182.  Earl of Cork, Connoisseur, No. 17. Gray, WForks, Vol. 5, p. 199. Burke, On the Sublime and
Beautiful, Part 1, Sect. 7. Cowper, Works, Vol. 6, p. 147. Southey, Life of
Wesley, Vol. 2, p. 80. Coleridge, Notes and Lectures tpon Shakesjpeare, &c.,
Vol. 2, pp. 149, 323.
2 Guardian, No. 148.  While, in Queen Anne's time, the verb experienzce
was not yet thoroughly in vogue, the verb experimnent, for' learn from experiment, or by experience', had not become obsolete.  " This I have experimnented, by taking away the grain which they looked for."  Addison, Guardian, No. 156. It is, of course, a mere archaism in Burke's "experimented
fidelity", and in Charles Lamb's Essay entitled Popular Faallacies.
3 Geuardian, No. 27. Here occurs the passage quoted by Mr. White from
Dr. Richardson's Dictionary.
4 Mandeville, The Feable of the Bees, p. 400. Aaron Hill, Correspondence
of Samuel Richardson, Vol. 1, p. 92. For Richardson himself, see Vol. 2, p.
282, and Vol. 5, p. 6; for J. Channing, Vol. 2, p. 333. Richardson, Sir
Charles Grandison, Vol. 1, pp. 228, 253, 294; Vol. 3, pp. 90, 116, 276, 357;
Vol. 5, p. 179; Vol. 6, p. 17; Vol. 7, pp. 218, 246, 269.  Hawkesworth,
Adventurer, Nos. 5, 11, 33, 104. In Nos. 6, 77, 78, 79, are five other instances, by Bathurst and Mrs. Chapone.  Sterne, Sersnons, Nos. 24, 34, 39.
Letters, Nos. 77, 91.  Bishop Lowth, Tisfe of WYilliamn of WTykehan, p. 257.
Henry Brooke, Tze Fool of Quality (ed. 1792), Vol. 1, p. 84; Vol. 3, p. 6;
Vol. 4, p. 223; Vol. 5, pp. 89, 122, 260.  Gray,  lorhks, Vol. 3, p. 200; Vol.
4, p. 22: Corresponzdence of Gray and Mlasons (ed. 1855), p. 213. Foote,
Dedication to The Patron.  Shenstone, Works (ed. 1764), Vol. 2, p. 104:
Ietters, Nos. 17, 83, 90, 109. Kelly, School for Wives, Act 4, Scene 1.
Charles Johnson, C]hrysal, Vol. 1, pp. 124, 142; Vol. 2, pp. 190, 247; &c.
&c. Miss Carter and Miss Talbot, in their letters to each other, use the verb
experience, active and neuter, twenty-six times.  Soame Jenyns, World, No.
178. Lord Chesterfield, 7World, Nos. 29, 98, 111. Edward Moore, in the
same periodical, affords five instances; and there are others by W. Duncombe,
Loveybond, &c. Burke, On the Sutbliste and Beautifsul, Part 4, Sect. 17. I
have remarked at least twenty instances in Burke's Speeches, Letters, &c.
There are five instances in Miss Burney's Evelina.  Robert Smith,.lficrocosmn,
Nos. 8, 20: also see Nos. 9, 27, 40, by various writers. Porson, Tracts asnd
X2/iscellasneous Criticisms, p. 18. Bishop Horne, Olla Podrila, No. 13: also
see Nos. 10, 20, 30, 32, 37, by Grose and others.  In Paley's Natural Theology there are sixteen instances, of which seven are in a single chapter, the




35
Taylor Coleridge, Charles Lamb, Southey, Wordsworth,
Shelley, Dr. Arnold, Mr. De Quincey, Lord  Macaulay,
Landor, Dr. Newman, Mr. Ruskin, and Mr. J. S. Mill.' The
reader will not, I am sure, suppose that this list of references
is cut short for want of available materials to extend it.
Some one writes, that an Armenian archbishop, having
fallen among the savages of Abyssinia, "is experiencing
very rough usage." Hereon Mr. White comments:
" He was receiving or suffering rough usage; and, although
that was part of his experience, he did not explerience it.  Exlperience is the passing through a more or less continuous course of
events or trials.  A  man's experience is the sum  of his life; his
experience in any profession, business, or condition of life, is the
aggregate of the observation he has had the opportunity of mlaking in that profession, business, or condition."
To the two last sentences there is no objection, if we read
that "A  man's total experience is the sum  of his life"   2 an
amendment demanded by the definition given of experience.
Moreover, that definition covers exactly what the Armenian
twenty-sixth. I have noticed eight instances in William Godwin's -Enquiry
concerning Justice.  There are upwards of forty instances in the poet Cowper's
letters alone.
1 Coleridge, Essays on His own Times, pp. 314, 359, 396, 479, 823, 891:
Churreh and State, &c., p. 274. Lamb, Elia's Essays, Popular Fallacies:
Letters, Vol. 1, p. 135; Vol. 2, p. 285.  Southey, Letters, &c. (1797), pp.
78, 271, 320: Espriella's Zetters, Vol. 2, pp. 139, 393, 394; Vol. 2, pp. 103,
166, 311: life of iFWesley (ed. 1864), Vol. 1, pp. 139, 145, 208, 253; Vol. 2,
pp. 33, 40, 146, 191, 212, 243, 248: Colloquies, &c., Vol. 1, p. 310; Vol. 2,
pp. 117, 154, 398: Essays, Iloral' and -Political, Vol. 1, pp. 52, 59, 131,
234, 293, 310, 373, 398, 417; Vol. 2, pp. 87, 126, 394: Cowper's Torkcs, Vol.
1, p. 15; Vol. 2, pp. 9, 276; Vol. 3. p. 207.  Wordsworth, Concerning the
Relations of Great Britain, Spain, and Portugal, p. 94.  Shelley, Essays, &c.,
Vol. 1, pp. 49, 50, 53, 60, 146, 165, 216, 262; Vol. 2, pp. 119, 170, 230:
Shelley l/femorials, p. 78.  Dr. Arnold, Life and Correspondence, pp. 74, 223,
260, 299, 541.  Mr. De Quincey, IElosterheisn, pp. 88, 245: Logic of Political
Economy, pp. 54, 153: WForks, Vol. 16, pp. 81, 236, 365; &c. &c. Lord.
Macaulay, Critical and HJistorical Essays (ed. 1848), Vol. 1, pp. 139, 178,
243, 260, 350: SpLeeches, p. 75': liscellaneouzs Wllitings (ed. 1860), Vol. 1,
pp. 57, 88, 209, 219, 266, 267, 308; Vol. 2, pp. 99, 136, 239.  These references might, probably, be doubled.  Experience, the verb active, is found in
the very first chapter of Lord Macaulay's Jistory.  Landor, Lacst Fruit of an
Old Tree, pp. 6, 74, 128, 198, 317, 363: -Dry Sticks Flagoted, pp. 78, 271,
320.  Dr. Newman, Essays, Critical and Historical, Vol. 1, pp. 25, 47; Vol.
2, pp. 34, 228: Discussions and Argzuznents on Various Subjects, pp. 85, 310,
341, 387.  Mr. Ruskin, The Seven ZLaGnps of Architecture, p. 18.  Mr. J. S.
Mill, On Liberty, p. 23 (people's edition).
2 If a man's experience be nothing less than " the sum of his life ", R.oger
Ascham is nonsensical, with his " daylye experience " and ".this experlience of
the wynde had I ones my selfe".  Toxophilus (ed. 1868), pp. 152, 157.




36
archbishop was "' passing through ", namely, "a more or
less continuous course of events or trials ".~  Of experiments, trials, proofs, observations, or of whatever incidents
befall one, or come to one's knowledge, the more there are,
the greater is one's resulting experience; yet, even from  a
single incident, information, or the like, we gain  expertence.  If the issue is not experience, what is it?  However
crude its form, it is experlience; and we have no more fitting name for it. As to the verb experience, there is,
therefore, no case against it, on any ground  whatsoever.
Those who advisedly use it prefer it, as the Romans preferred fungor, because they wish to speak of a thing as a
mere occurrence, or matter- of: observation, abstracted from
passions and emotions.  Lord Macaulay writes, in his biographical sketch of Bunyan: "~ With the pleasures, however, he experienced some of the pains, of eminence."   Recast the sentence, and substitute, for experienced,'enjoyed'
and' suffered'; the impression produced on the mind: is
altogether different, and that which Lord Miacaulay advertently avoided conveying.
We are told, further:
"From the noun experience is formed the participial adjective
experienced (which is not the perfect participle of a verb exlperience), as mnoneyed from money, landed from  land, talented from
talent, casemnated from  casezmate, battlementecd  from  cbattlement.
Battlemented is not a part of a verb, I battlement, thou battlementest, etc.; or talented from  a verb, I  talent, thou talentest,
etc.  So an experienced man is' a man of experience, not'one
who has been experienced', i. e., according to the dictionaries,'has been tried, proved, observed', but' one who has tried, has
proved, has observed'."
On the theory of Mr. White, experienced, as not being
formed from  a verb, has no more title than  bigoted or
wretched to the designation of " participial adjective ", which
1 Dean Alford is solicitous that the verb e.perience, if we must have it,
should be " at least confined to its proper meaning, which is not simply to
feel, but to have personal knowledge of by trial "; and he objects to the expression " experiences a sensation ". The Quleen's English, p. 252. To this
it is obvious to reply, that, to " feel " a sensation is impossible without " having personal knowledge of it by trial ", unless it can be proved that there is
such a thing as vicarious consciousness. The Dean might as well have urged,
that, since we see a rose to be red, we may not say that we know. it to be so.




37
he gives it.  Also, since "a man's experience is the sum of
his lifel", experienced, unqualified, can be used of himself
by no man, with perfect safety, except at his last breath,
and, so far:forth, belongs, in all propriety, to the vocabulary of the next world.  It is a simple assumption, too,
that e-xperienced "is not the perfect participle of a verb
experience ".  Just as likely as not, it was preceded by the
verb, as Dr. Johnson and others suppose it to have been;
and, in the absence of evidence, BMr. White is precisely as
blamable for precipitation as the lexicographers.  These,
however, if we grant their premises, are not so insensate as
Mr. White hastily takes them  to be, in deducing experienced, to mean  who has experienced', from  a verb active.'
We understand, by a learned man, a man' who has learned'
many things, not one'who has been learned'; and, by a
dissipated man, a man' who has clissipated' something, not
one' who has been diss:ipated', or squandered.  An affected
coxcomb affects something; a determnined ruffian deternuines
something: they are not objects, but subjects, of affectation
and determination.   Sworn enemies have s8worn mutual
enmity; perjured witnesses  have  perjured  themselves.2
Should it turn out-and I dare sav it will,-that experience,
as a verb neuter,' was in use before experienced, an experienced man has its parallels in retired statesman, coalesced
monarchs, wonted'manner, mistakeen eulogist, departed joys,
expired lease, esccped convict, apostatized church, decayed
cheesemonger, relapsed heretic, rotten apple, and fallerb
angel.
"Perhaps an objection to the use of this word as a
verb has no better ground than that of taste or individual
preference, which  should be excluded from  discussions
like the present; yet I am  inclined to make that objection very strongly."  In these terms Mr. White opens
his tirade against the verb experience.  Contrasted with
1 Expertus, like experienced, signifies both'knowing by experi nce' and' known by experience'.' Un m6d6cin fort experimente'a is 6 a ve' eperi -
enced physician', though experimenter is' to test','to put to trial'. From
sperimentare and spermentare come sperimentato and spermentato, denoting
alike' provato' and' the ha esperienza'.
2 Our old seen sometimes meant' versed'; and I might remark on versed,
verse, versa6ztes.
3 Why do our dictionaries still give aged as an adjective, unless it be indubitably settled to be older than the verb neuter age?




38
scientific  deduction, opinion, in  the  quaint phrase  of
Landor, is "like an empty egg-shell in a duck-pond,
turned on its stagnant water by the slightest breath of
air; at one moment the crackt side nearer to sight, at
another the sounder, but the emptiness at all times
visible."
And now the reader may decide for himself, as between
Dean Alford and RMr. White, whose talent, with regard to
his treatment of the verb experience, is the more heroic,
that of the former, for assertion, or that of the latter, for
sequacity; the ignorance of the two being equal.
Mr. White's remarks on a perfectly classical use of
commence here follow, unabridged:
"There is a British misuse of this word which is remarkably
coarse and careless. British writers of all grades but the very
highest will say, for instance, that a man went to London and
commenced poet, or commenced politician.  Mr. Swinburne says
that'Blake commenced pupil'; and Pope, quoted by Johnson:
If wit so much from ignorance undergo,
Ah, let not learning, too, commence its foe.'
A man may commence life, as an author, or a politician, or he
may commence a book, or any other task, although it is better
to say he begins either.J But it is either a state or an action
that he commences.   Commencement cannot be properly predicated of a noun which does not express the idea of continuance. It may be said that a woman commences married life, or
that she commences jilting, but not that she commences wife, or
commences jilt, any more than that she ends hussy."
Clearly, a person who criticizes in this way must look
upon commence, for'begin to be','become','set up as',
or the like,2 as having little justification, so far as justification is determinable by the usage of good writers.3  Yet
it has been employed by first-class authorities for more
than two centuries.4   Generally, it is followed immedi1 How is it, then, that we find, in Mr. White's Life and Genius of Shakespeare, pp. 77, 111, "to conztnence his studies" and "to commence a suit"?
2 Dr. Johnson, in his Life of Swift, writes; "He seems desirous enough of
recommencing courtier ". Recommence, as here, for'begin anew to be', is
unnoticed by the lexicographers.
3 The use of commence here spoken of is not registered in Dr. Richardson's
Dictionary.
4 "Young scholars... commence schoolmasters in the country". Fuller,
Y1/e HEoly State and the Profane State (1642), p. 99 (ed. 1841)...." For,




39
ately by a substantive;  but Budgell, Richardson, Gray,
Dr. Johnson, Hawkesworth, Shenstone, and Cowper, in
some of the passages referred  to below, interpose the indefinite article.' In rare cases, it is followed by an
adjective.2
For any peculiar elegance in the use of comymence which
shall... man... not, whilst living here, commence angel, in his holy and
heavenly affections?" i Id., Good Thoughts in Worse Times (1647), Occasional
Mfeditations, VIII.  Milton, in his title "Accedence commenced Grammar."
Congreve, Epistle Dedicatory to The Double Dealer.  The Scotch  Presbyterian
Eloquence, p. 18. Steele, Tatler, Nos. 19, 187: Spectator, No. 172: Guardian,
Nos. 17, 87.  Budgell, Spectator, No. 150. Hughes, Spectator, No. 525.
iMandeville, Fable of the Bees, p. 87. De Foe, Political History of the Devil,
pp. 25, 27, 40, 69, 88, 184, 254, 295, 356. Bishop Lavington, Enthusiasm of
Methodists aend Papists Comspared (ed. 1833), p. 183. Richardson, Clarissa
Marlowe, Vol. 8, p. 189: PPanela (ed. 1811), Vol. 2, p. 279: Correspondence,
Vol. 2, p. 106. Murphy, All izn the Wrong, Act 3, Scene 1. Bickerstaffe,
Love in a Village, Act 1, Scene 1. Foote, Thbe Commissary, Act 1, Scene 1.
Gray, Works, Vol. 4, p. 109. Horace Walpole, World, No. 160: in the same
periodical, in Nos. 40, 57, 133, 182, by Edward Moore, there are instances;
and others, in Nos. 38, 66, 86, 147, 193, by Parratt, Anon., Cole, Sir David
Dalrymple, and Tilson. Dr. Johnson, Ramnbler, Nos. 1, 93, 116, 179, 182:
Adventurer, No. 102: London: Life of Sydenham: Life of Ascham:
Journey to the Western Islands of ScotlanZd: Lives of the Esnglish Poets,
Milton, Otway, Dryden, Sprat, Prior, Blackmore, Savage, Swift, Akenside.
Dr. Joseph Warton, Adventurer, No. 129. Hawkesworth, Adventuzrer, No.
13. William  Shenstone, Works, Vol. 2, pp. 3, 161, 168, 224: Letters, No.
8.  George Colman, The Comedies of Terence, translated, &c. (ed. 1810), p.
420: also see, in the Connsoissesur, by Colman and Thornton jointly, Nos. 6,
24, 48, 92, 106, 109, 116; and Nos. 82, 104, by Anon.  Charles Johnson,
Chrysal, Vol. 2, pp. 249, 274; Vol. 3, pp. 90, 253; Vol. 4, p. 42.  Henry
Brooke, The Fool of Quzality, Vol. 5, p. 84.  Horne Tooke, in Junius's Letters, No. 53. Gibbon, in a letter to Mr. Holroyd, Feb. 21, 1772.  Cowper,
WForks, Vol. 2, pp. 204, 218, 223, 237.  I have counted seventeen instances
in Cowper's prose alone. Also see his Odyssey, 18, 431. George Canning,
]ficrocosm, Nos. 2, 7. Bishop Horne and Kett, Olla Podrida, Nos. 23, 27.
Jones, of Nayland, Theological and Miscellaneous Worls, Vol. 5, p. 415; Vol.
6, p. 39.  Charles Lamb, Final Mlferorials, &c., Vol. 1, pp. 66, 219: aElia's
Essays, On, the Danger of Confounding Moral with Personal Deformity.  Hazlitt, Lectures on the English Comsic Writers (ed. 1841), pp. 190, 345: Tabletalk (ed. 1846), Vol. 2, pp. 47, 65. Southey, Annual Review, Vol. 3, p. 492:
Quarterly Review, Vol. 16, p. 227; Vol. 27, p. 2: Life of Wesley, Vol. 2, pp.
157, 159: Colloquies, &c., Vol. 2, p. 86: Cowper's Works, Vol. 1, pp. 78,
195; Vol. 2, pp. 12, 169: Tie Doctor (monotome ed.), p. 33.  I might also
refer largely to Southey's letters, &c. &c. Coleridge, Notes and Lecteures upon
Shakespeare, Vol. 1, p. 88. Mr. De Quincey, Works, Vol. 5, p. 78; Vol. 11,
p. 115. Mr. Keble, Hooker's Works (ed. 1841), Preface, p. xlviii.
1 Colman and Thornton once interpose the definite article, in " commenwce
the fine gentlemen ".  Connoisseur, No. 48.
2 " Commence eternal ".  Steele, Tatler, No. 187.  "If any man should
be enticed to follow him, he, too, is thenceforward to commence infallible ".
Jones, of Nayland, Theological and liscellaneous Wtorks, Vol. 1,, p. 145.




40
Mr. White  scouts so contemptuously I  do not contend;
but the locution, far from  being "remarkably coarse and
careless", is perfectly unexceptionable; and  I should be
surprised, if any one else had ever before found fault with
it.l   Nor  has  "commences  wife"  a  parallel in  "ends
hussy",  in  which  expression,  moreover, there  is  nothing  to blame but curt ruggedness.2   In  order to  their
parallelism,  " commences  wife"  should  signify'begins.Aitlf being a wife', a very  different thing  from' begins
to  be  a  wife';  even  as the  nature  of an  appearance
and the  fact of an  appearance are not identical.3    By
way of proving  the  absurdity  of " commences wife ", we
are  instructed  that " ommerncemenz5 cannot be properly
predicated of a noun which does not express the idea of
continuance ". We are forbidden, then, to say that a boy'commences the rule-of-three';  the idea of continuance
not being expressed by the mathematical operation.
What   Ir. White fails to  see is, that the phrases he is
dealing  with  are  elliptical.4    He  might as well argue
i.............
1 4 To cornehnce M.A. ", &c., meaning' to take the degree of M.A.', &c.,
has been a recognized phrase for some three centuries, at least.  " Thei were
able to have comnmenced zmaisters of arte."  Barnabe Riche, Farewell to Militarie Profession, p. 45.  This application of comnmence probably originated in
an imitation of incipere, which, in modern Latin, has long been used to denote
the object of college-commencements; and it is not at all unlikely that it
suggested the extension of employment which the term has obtained in ordinary discourse. See Mr. B. H. Hall's College TWords and Ceestons (2nd ed.), p. 85.
As equivalent to commence M.A., &c., proceed is very common in literature.
2," They may begin censors, and be obliged to end accomplices."  Burke,
Speech on Sir. fox's East-India Bill, near the end.
The following is also in point: " Every affection is, by nature, a short fury,
which, if it growe vehement, and become habituall, concludes madnesse."  Sir
Arthur Gorges, Translation of Bacon's De Scapientia Feterumes (ed. 1619),
p. 114.
3 I can, however, produce an i nstance of conmnence in the sense of'begin
with being'.:' Our divinity, like the grandfather of humanity, was born in
the fulness of time, and in the strength of its manly vigour; but philosophy
and arts conzmessced embryos, and are, by times, gradual accomplishments."
Glanvill, Scepsis Scientifica, p. 140.
Still more unidiomatic is the use of commence in the following sentence:
4' But yet this is so difficult in the impartial and exact performance, that it
may be well reckon'd among the bare possibilities which never conzmence into
a futurity." Id., ibid., p. 56.
4 This lands me, I know, in the conclusion that " commences poet " is for'coenvences to be poet', which is hardly English, save to Scotchmen and
such-like.  See Mr. Marsh's Lectures on the English -language, p. 183, footnote. But equally alien to our idiom is'I will to say', into which, however, we must explain'I will say'. This and " comtences poet" are alike
conventional.




41
against' walking the streets',' rouwing a race','run.zzing
riot,'' trotting  a mile','going  a circuit', or'sitting a
horse'; or contend that we have a verb active in "the
moon showred purple ".
By "a British misuse " of a word he means, in the present instance, a use of it which he does not know to be
sanctioned by many of the best English writers;  just as
some other American might carp at hustings, or at Jring.,
for'fuel', if uninformed of their long-standing currency
in the mother-country. That, from meagreness of literature, badness of memory, or whatever other cause, he could
put forth the paragraph which has been transcribed is
hardly consistent with his possessing those specific qualifications which we expect in one who would teach others
English.  And his cogency of reasoning tallies harmoniously with his knowledge of documentary authority.  Let
his style of argumentation be imitated, in application to
tiurn, for'become'. "This use, contemplated abstractedly,
is utterly preposterous.  We may say that a man turns a
pancake, or turns his back, but not that he turns traveller,
any more than that he returns beggar."
Mr White, though he frowns severely upon telegram,
has not the remotest conception why the learned hold it to
be wrong.  This I shall prove presently, when I quote his
observations on the obnoxious vocable.  In the mean time
I rehearse the argument on which it has been condemned
by scholars.  And here the reader is duly forewarned to
make short work of the next few pages, unless he would
be reminded of dryness compared with  which  that of
" the remainder-biscuit after a voyage " will be voted succulence itself.
In devising a legitimate Greek substantive of the complex order, we are, first, to consider whether, by the
analogy of the Greek language, the idea awaiting expression should be represented by a compound, or by a deI Mr. White is altogether a critic after the fashion of M. Francis Wey,
who thus treats the word paupdrisme: I" Un vilain mot! c'est la paunvrete ea
g6neral, devenue l'objet dun systeme, et exploit6e comme objet de speculafion... Les Anglais, qui nous ont donne ce mot, 6taient bien dig nes de Pinventer... Ce mot est un produit du socialisme qui s'est glisse de notre temps
dans les sciences morales, a l'ombre de la philosophic du dernier siecle."
Bdnmarques sur [a Langue Franpaise, etc., Vol. 1, p. 196.




42
rivative; a verb being, indispensably, the proximate base
on which we operate.'  A person or thing that acts, &c.,2 is
expressible, generally, among complex formatives, by a
compound; but the abstract action, &c., of such person
or thing, and likewise the result of an action, demand derivatives, absolutely.
Further, a verb can, properly, be compounded with no
part of speech but a preposition; in which case, the two
words are simply yoked, unchanged, together.3   A verb in
which the first element is a substantive or adverb is not
compound, but derivative; it being educed from some
preexistent compound substantive.
To obtain a term meaning' the result of writing at a
distance','that which is telegraphed', taking TrAXE and
ypac)ow, we must, to begin, construct the synthetic compound
TrlXEypa4os, 4 substantive and adjective, of which the masculine might denote'a person who writes at a distance',
and the masculine or neuter,'an  instrument for writing
at a  distance'.   Compare XLOoI3Xos,'hurler  of stones',' stone-hurling', and this, or XtOo3i3X'ov,'an engine for
hurling stones'..
iHaving reached rXlkh ypacos, the next step is to form  a
verb from  it; and its verb must be rn1Xeypaqc,e5' to write
Originally it was the substantive, and that a simple, which led.   lMXia
came from tEXi*; but that came from Widow.
2  ere and just below, I refer, by' &c.', to substantives educed from verbs
neuter and passive.
For simplicity, I confine myself, in speaking of compounds, to those consisting of only two members each.
3 In w:vV6Covpa, vavatLXkvro6, &c., there is, also, mere contact of words;
but none of them has a verb as a constituent.
Among Greek compounds,-in their exhaustive distribution into parathetic,
synthetic, and'a transitional class thereto intermediate,-the parathetic are
inorganic, and are resoluble into independent words; while the synthetic
are organic, and, being made up of constituents modified, more or less, with a
view to combination, are not thus resoluble.
In English, overpass, priestcraft, and bridesmaid are parathetics; gossip,
grandam, hussy, nostril, sheriff, and stalwart are synthetics. Beinzan, brimstone, fortnight, gospel, sennight, shepherd, wisdom, worship are synthetic only
in part.  Phonic synthetics we have in abundance; as boatswain, breakfast,
forehead, housewife, rowlock, twopence, vineyard.
4 This compound, like all its kindred, is incapable of resolution into substantive words; for ypawog, ypapta, ypasEw, ypaop/La, and ypalnatS are nothing
by themselves.  And so it is with the ypaptlqarov of rlnXsypauC/ tarov.  Nor
have we, in TrjXEypaCtLIc, idXs + ypaqutI6o, but a development of rnlMypapoc.
5 From rXEsypaqe~w, like rkEXsoXAw, we get, also, rqX7sypapLa,' the act or
art of writing at a distance','telegraphy'.  Compare XtOo3ohAla.  As a




43
at a distance'; the barytone  TrqXEypaqco 1 being  unprecedented.  From  this we develop rTXEypa4nmtqla; as  cowypar'na,
l/ocrdo~)qLa, and Xetpoypacr'     aa are developed  from  (coypakEO),    Xeoa-oo (a), and  XeLpoypa   co.  As its synonym, we
might have riXe'ypaOov,2 the passive.
The words 7rTqXypafos and TrlXkypaqov might shorten, to
become English, into telegraphl; but then, if we accepted
all their possible Greek senses, we should have one word for' sender of a message',' the instrument that conveys the
message', and' the message sent'. 3  Consonantly to rule,'the  message  sent' would  also  be  expressed  by  telegrapheme.    Telegram, however  convenient, is, from   a
philological point of view, a malformation.4
synonym of rn'XEypaOia, we might coin rl)Xsypa'snitC, on the model of oilcoa6,isogll   and  tsXoitzointlq.  After r/XiypaeoS come 7r-Xeypabto S, &c.
From r'Xsypaoiw might, further, be educed rqXEypaci9s, equivalent to
-rnXiypeaoC,' telegrapher'. Compare 7esew rpJ/g.
1 If there could be such a verb, it might have, as a derivative, TrXsyEpatcta.
But rsXiypapqxa, if possible as a compound of -r-Xe and ypadqcya, could signify only some such thing as'a letter at a distance'.  So,  l-riypEaglta,
i7rtypai'), &c., if compounds, would not mean what they do, but' on-letter',' on-figure', &c., or the like: they would want the force which they possess
as being derived from compound verbs and denoting their results. In?iyajs#a and Avor-aplt there is no constituent allied to verbs.
The only substantive nearly resembling, in appearance, rlXiypayeaa that
could be formed is the adjectival TnlkXypaAyLov, from ypap' j; and it would
mean'that which consists of distant lines', &c. Its English form would be
telegram.  Compare parallelogranm.
T.lXsypaci!xzaarov, a neuter substantive from rnXEsypa/,A/arog, would have the
sense of' that which has letters at a distance', or'that.which has letters wide
asunder'.  Compare iovoypdpayarov and rTlXE7rvXov.
2 Since the word begins with an adverb, the accent of the active derivative
and that of the passive derivative are the same, that is to say, proparoxytone.
Mr. Farrar-see note 4, below,-in writing rXseypadoc, misplaces his accent.
3 The French photographe means both' photograph' and' photographer';
and lithographe has, likewise, a double function.
4 Telegram has been discussed, though not very perspicuously, by Dr.
Donaldson, in the last edition of his New Cratylus.
The Rev. F. W. Farrar, in his Brief Greek Syntax (ed. 1870), p. 53, after
stating that abstract substantives like XlOo[oXoV, vavatd'Xn, &c., would be at
war with rule, goes on, with a "hence ", to cashier telegram. As this is a
concrete substantive, it is inscrutable how Mr. Farrar works out its condemnation.
Telegram, to Mr. Farrar, is "a monstrosity", and, in words which he
quotes anonymously, " a spot of barbarity impressed so deep on the English
language, that criticism never can wash it away". Yet, no better is our
everyday dilemmna, which no one scruples at.  For  iXlXuulia can only most
improbably be accounted an arbitrary syncopation of adaXqyia; and the existence of chAstyarov seems to show that it was not accounted to be such.
It is interesting that we find it in bad Latin long before we find it in still
worse Greek.




44
Of telegram  31r. White discourses as follows:'
"This word, which is claimed as an' American' production,
has taken root quickly, and is, probably, well fixed in the'language.  It is both superfluous and incorrectly formed; but it is
regarded as convenient, and has been allowed'to pass muster.
Telegrca2h is equally good as a verb expressing the act of writing,
and as a noun expressing the thing written.  This is according
to a well-known analogy of the language.  But they who must
have a distinct etymology for every word may regard telegraph,
the verb, as from  ypaEstv (graphein)'to write';  and the
noun as from the Greek noun ypaqrn (graphe) -'a writing'.
In monogrcaph, e2pigra2ph, and paragraph, the last syllable, in like
manner, represents 7ypau(p  (gracphS); in monogram, epigracm, and
diagram, the last syllable represents ypalpla (graimma)-'an
engraved character','a letter'.  This distinction, remembered,
will prevent a confusion which prevails, with many speakers, as
to certain words in graph and gram.  A monograc2h is an essay
or an account having a single subject; a monogram, a character
or cipher composed of several letters combined in one figure-: an
epigrapgh is an inscription, a citation, a motto; an e2igram, a
No fewer than twelve letters on telegramh appeared in VTe D7Times newspaper
during the month of October, 1857. Fierce was the controversy waged there.
upon between the two great English Universities. As a learned friend remarks to me, "It is a nineteenth-century parallel to the Phalaris dispute
between Bentley and the Oxonians. All the insolence is on their side, and all
the ignorance, also."
But even those who contended that telegrapheme was, analogically, the right
word felt it to be insupportable for any but holiday use. F, in The Timhes of
October 23, 1857, proposes recourse to rO7XE and 7ris;rw, whence telepomp, to
be shortened into pump!
The armoury to which all scholars have been indebted for their weapons
against telegram is the Parerga appended to Lobeck's edition of Phrynichus.
For an opportunity of studying Lobeck's own words, I am beholden to the
kindness of my friend, Mr. E. B. Cowell, Professor of Sanskrit in the University of Cambridge; and I have also to thank him for several valuable hints,
and solutions of my doubts.
1 Instead of the second sentence of the passage here copied, we learn, at
pp. 416, 420, that Mr. White first wrote: "' It is convenient, and is correctly
enough formed to pass muster." This was understood, by a critic, as indicating ignorance that telegram is "altogether an incorrect formation"'; and Mr.
White's reply is: " I have mistaken the force of my language, if it did not
convey to my readers, every one of them, that, in my judgment, telegramh is an
incorrectly formed word, but that the irregularity is of a kind not worth
making a point about."  Why, then, has he persisted in making a point
about it? And, especially, why has he changed his language? He can only
say, that calling a word, without qualification, " incorrectly formed" is
simply a better way of expressing the opinion that it is " correctly enough
formed to pass muster". It is the fact that telegram has been generally
adopted, and it is this consideration alone, that legitimates it.




45:
short: poem on one subject.  The confusion of these terminations.
has recently led some writers into errors which are amazing and
amusing.  We have had photogram  proposed, and stereogram,.
and-Cadmus save us!   cablegram, not only proposed, but
used.      The first two, although homogeneous, are incorrect;
the proper termination, in both cases, being grap2h, representing
ypUahn (graphe),.'a writing', and not gram, from ypaypla (gramma),' a character'."
That Mr White believes the legitimacy or illegitimacy.
of telegram  to be ascertainable by his most unscholastic
method of procedure affords a very conclusive criterion of
his pretensions as a philologist.  He turns up the words
ypay  and  ypdgga in  "Hlederici Lexicon ", which  he
learnedly quotes, no doubt to the same effect that was
produced by the grandiloquence of Goldsmith's villageschoolmaster;  these substantives, he  discovers, signify,
respectively,  "a writing" and "an engraved character, a
letter";  he  defines certain  familiar English words inl
-graph and  -gram; and, as, on comparison  with  these
words, telegramn ought, he implies, to denote some sort of
"engraved character" or "letter ", he concludes it to be,
in the sense which we attach to it, a misnomer. The word,
as to formation, is, to him, all well enough; only we
give it a wrong signification, and have introduced, in it, a
superfluous synonym.  To his thinking, moreover, it is a
compound; whereas it is an unlicensed derivative.'
Our words in -graphll  and -gram, so far as they conform.
to Mr. lWhite's canon, conform  to it by sheer fortuity;
and accidents are a sorry basis on which to found a principle.  But where did he learn the existence of the impossible /wovoypanij and lovpdypaplqla, as the originals of our
nzonlograph  and. monogram? 2  HIow, too, are we to dispose
1 See note l to p. 43.
2 lSJonograph is a lawful compound, if referred to pov6ypapov, which might
have been Greek. But monogram, with reference to its acceptation, connecting it with yp6ai/ta, stands on the-same footing, etymologically, with telegrahn.
Shortened from!wov/ypa!blAov, a real word, it would come from ypapadi, and
its sense would be'outline','sketch'. The Greek word which we moderns
should have gone to is tovoypdiqparov, for which, in a unique instance in
corrupt Greek,!Aov6yp/aerov is found substituted. Like!ovn6ypap!ovl is the
didrachma of modern numismatologists; the Greek word, from dpaXl0, being
Jiapato~v.
Several of our lawless formations in -graph and -gram were first suggested
in France; and telegrani it is said, is one of them.




46
of digraph and digram,-both of them  like telegram, as to
structure,-between the senses of which  no distinction is
observed?  A  rule to serve the purpose of that so summarily formulated for us could be good for nothing, at
least to try neoterisms by, unless it were deduced from an
examination  of Greek  words as they  were used by the
Greeks; and, even after such an examination, a person
unacquainted with the laws of verbal composition and derivation in Greek could by no possibility escape disastrous
miscarriage, if called to sit in judgment on telegram.
In Greek, the difference between Ertypapil and Jrb'ypau/za, as that between ZlaypafIp and  tadypaypxa, o(vyypa0q1 and
ovyypaqipa,  rappa 4    and  wapaypalilia,  apvaypaqr` and         nd
avcaypapicea, is matter of convention;  the three first pairs
are, sometimes, even used synonymously; in scarcely one
of them can we trace, through its -ypakpqa, reference to
"an engraved character, a letter"; and, in  such of these
words as contain -ypaqb,' the act of writing' is pointed
to, primarily, rather than  "a  writing ".  Besides, what
would M3r. White do with autograph, chirograph, and holograph, the Greek originals of which do not end in -ypaqpr?
Or with paralleloqram, the Greek  original of which  does
not end  in  -ypautka?1  Or with program,2 the -gram  of
which no more than that of eligram  and diagram  supports
his rule by its signification? 3
i ITapaXXA6ypattyov is the Greek original of pcrallelogram.
2 So I spell purposely. If others would rather have programmne, christianise, &c. &c., be it so. By the time we get back to baptising, we shall
again be very fair sham Frenchmen.
3 Mir. Marsh says, of telegram, that, "in spite of the objections of some
Hlellenists against it, as an anomalous formation, the English ear is too
familiar with Greek compounds of the same elements, to find this word repugnant to our own principles of etymology."  Lectures on the English Laegstcege, p. 280.
This may well mortify us, seeing whom it comes from. So indifferent a
Grecian, it appears, is Mr. Marsh, as to think that telegram is not demonstrably past all philological defence. And is " the English ear ", irrespectively
of scholastic cultivation, to be allowed to dictate " our own principles of etymology " for us?
Dr. Worcester, in his Dictionary, and Dr. Webster's editors, in theirs,
quote, with silent approval, the subjoined ignorant vindication of telegrap m:
" The word is formed according to the strictest laws of the language from
which its root comes.  Telegraph means' to write from a distance'; teleg.ram,' the writing itself, executed from a distance'.  lfonograim, logogram,
&c., are words formed on the same analogy, and in good acceptation."
Professor Schele De Yere, in the present year, has asserted that telegram is




47
"They who must have a distinct etymology for every
word" are apprised, by Mr. White, with the condescending benevolence of a good-natured oracle, that they may
regard the verb telegraph as from ypa'EEtv, and the substantive telegraph as from ypaq4{. As one may not suspect
that he teaches what he does not himself believe, it follows, from this, that he thinks we have only to affix
ypa(JeUv to Trke, in order to make a good Greek verb on
which to father our English verb; and that rTXe and ypaqS~,
combined, would give rqXEypa7f,1l as the source of our substantive telegrtph.  Yet r-keypaceLv and TlXEypacfx  are,
both, impossible. To match his synthesis of rTXe and ypaiq
into TljXeypaw', T7qXEypa/os would yield, on analysis, Tri;e
and ypac5og. In like manner, the last member of pacifices
would be ficus; an etymology to be valued literally at a
fig.  Further, Mr. White might easily have found out, as
an historical fact, that our substantive telegraph preceded
our verb telegraph, and led to it.
For the same futile reason, turning on the meaning of
-gram, which he brings against telegram, he condemns
photogram and stereogram.  To convey their current meanings, they are indefensible, certainly. To prove them so,
I should have to add but little to what I have already
written; and I need not dwell on them as hypothetically
referable to  O)TOdypa!tkLOU    and cr-epedypaljtzov.
tBut enough.  Yet, tedious as is all this circumstantiality, it will not fail of its design, if it but serves to impress the wholesome lesson, that a man who meddles with
a subject beyond his competency may look for confusion
rather than for increase of reputation. Besides, it is high
time that I should turn to the introductory pages of the
volume under review. Open the volume, however, where
one may, every new paragraph, as one reads on, contributes something to alienate a predisposition to confidence,
and furnishes its contingent of specific evidence in cumulation towards an unfavourable final verdict.
"formed after the analogy of epigram and monogram, to distinguish the result of the process of telegraphing from the instrument."  A4zericanisms, p.
b59. At p. 488, this gentleman writes of " EXiy7 ", as the original of our
elegy. Plainly, his Greek, and so Mr. Grant White's, is of a stamp which
would have appeared a novelty to Bentley or Porson.
1 So I1. Littr6 takes tledgramine from riXs and ypda/ya.




48
A  letter to, Mr. J. R. Lowell, with which l r. V White
auspicates his book, opens thus:
"When your forefather met mine, as he probably did, some
two hundred and thirty or forty years ago, in the newly laid
out street of Cambridge (and there is reason for believing that
the meeting was likely to be about where Gore  Hall now
stands)," &c.
The very first line excited my suspicions. But I pass
to the parenthesis. The likelihood as to the place of the
meeting hypothesized is a question of the present time;
and the meeting itself is referred to the past.  "Was
likely to be" must, therefore, be altered to' is likely
to have been'.  Again, "reason for believing" is simply
a circumlocution for what is'likely';:  and, hence, the
words are superfluous, unless Mr. White would be understood as intending the likelihood of a likelihood.
Let us now turn to page 5 of the Preface.  There we
read: "A  case in point-trifling and amusing, but not,
therefore, less suggestive,-recently attracted my attention ".* Almost as much as by the words'but, therefore,
not less suggestive', it is here notified, that the case in
point, inasmuch as it is trifling and amusing, is no less
suggestive than it would be, if otherwise; as if a thing
were suggestive in proportion to its triviality and amusingness.  But Mr. White purposed to convey the idea, that
its being trifling and amusing does not detract from its
suggestiveness.  Accordingly, he ought to have put, instead of " therefore'",' for all that', and after the " not ",
or before it, indifferently.2 Further down the page, we
find the expression "to make a visit ", which, whatever it
once was, no longer is English; and also pcarlour, for'drawing-room', a sense which, except in the United
States and in some of the English Colonies, is obsolete.
In so severe and scornful a critic as MiVr. White we have
a, right to count on a knowledge of common vernacular
English; but there is not a little which the teacher himself still has to be taught.  At p. 51, he pronounces would
1 One of Dr. Johnson's definitions of likely is, " such as may, in reason, be
thought or believed."
2 Sentences containing therefore as here used by Mr. White, and also on
that account, might be adduced,. I know, from classical writers. But one
man's carelessness is no plea for another man's.




49
and wchich to be "test-words as to the mastery of idiom "'.
Yet, in his very first page, we read:
"This conclusion, be it new  or old, is sound; but it would
be very weak reasoning that would draw, from  the fact that
language is formed, on the whole, by consent and custom, an
argument in favour of indifference as to the right or wrong of
usage."
Of course, the right word, in  lieu of that which I have
italicized, is shoculdc.2  WVe find, too, at p. 65:
" A man who would write well without training, would write,
not more clearly or with more strength, but with more elegance,
if he were educated."
Again,  adverting  to  a  dissertation  by  Addison, he
writes, at p. 70:
"But he manifestly intended to say, that he would use the
words'imagination' and'fancy' proniscuously."
Once more, at p. 269, having quoted the perfectly
idiomatic " it was requested that no persons woutlcl leave
their seats during dinner ", he adds this absurd comment:
"Here the right word is should; as would and should follow
the regimen of will and shall; and we request that people shall
do thus or so, not that they'will do it ".
Most assuredly, unless the English of Edinburgh, Dublin, and New York be accepted as our standard,3 we do no
1 It would be curious to have Mr. White's opinion as to how which is used
by masters of idiom. Why has he withheld it?
2 " A man would be laugh'd at by most people, who should maintain that
too much money could undo a nation."  Mandeville, Fable of the Bees, p. 213.
"A  concussion that should shatter the pyramid would threaten the dissolution of the continent."  Johnson, Rasselas, Chapter 31.
" A country in which places of dignity and confidence should cease to be at
the disposal of faction, favour, and interest, would not long be the residence
of servility and deceit."  Godwin, -An.Enquiry concerninyg Political Justice,
Book 1, chapter 4.
"That man would do a great and permanent service to the ministry, who
should publish a catalogue of the books in history ", &c. &c. Southey, Life of
TWesley, Vol. 1, p. 309, foot-note.
3 For a profound discussion of shall and soill, should and woued, see Dr.
Shadworth H. Iod gson's Theory of Practice, Vol. 2, Chap. 4, Para. 22.
"Not one Londoner in ten thousand can lay down the rules for the proper
use of will and shall. Yet not one Londoner in a million ever misplaces his
woill and shall.  Doctor Robertson could, undoubtedly, have written a luminous dissertation on the use of those words. Yet, even in his latest work, he
sometimes misplaced them ludicrously."  So writes Lord Macaulay.  Mr.
White has not done what Doctor Robertson perhaps could have done; but,
4




50
such thing.1   Neither in Old England nor in New is there
a plough-boy of ten years old that could not here set Mir.
White right, his proud talk about "mastery of idiom" to
the contrary notwithstanding. And, as in these instances,
so it falls out, not unfrequently, that he is
"Most confident, when palpably most wrong."
Nor is he more fortunate  as relates to  pronunciation.
"It may here be pertinently remarked, that the pronunciation of a in such words as glass, last, fcatlher, and pastor is a
test of high culture ".2  Uncultivated persons, he goes on
to say, are apt to give the  a  of these  words " the thick,
throaty sound of caw ", or else the  sound of the vowel in
aln and at.  I3e concludes:
"Next to that tone of voice which, it would seem, is not to
be acquired by any striving in adult years, and which indicates
breeding rather than education, the full, free, unconscious utterance of the broad  ah sound of a is the surest indication, in
speech, of social culture which began at the cradle".
But "the  broad  alt sound of a" may be out of season
as well as in season.   Glass, last, andpastor, with  their a
sounded, to  satisfy Mr. White's  sense  of politeness, like
that in feather, come  perilously  near being  vulgarisms.3
like the Doctor, he has practically shown that a man who is unaccustomed to
hear will and shell rightly distinguished by the people about him is pretty
certain to blunder with his neighbours.
Cobbett, in his English Grammnar, ~ 258, speaking of the uses of snlall, will,
should, would, &c., calls them  uses which, " various as they are, are as well
known to us as the uses of our teeth and noses; and to misapply which words
argues not only a deficiency in the reasoning faculties, but almost a deficiency
in instinctive discrimination". This was written of Englishmen; and it follows, from it, that even an Englishman, if idiomatic, must be well-nigh a
compound of man and brute; the possession of "reasoning faculties" and
that of "instinctive discrimination" being, respectively, the characteristics
of the former and of the latter.
1 " He requested Mrs. Unwin would invite them to tea."  Southey, Cowper's Wtorks, Vol. 1, p. 299.
2 So far as the Index to Mr. White's book is serviceable, I omit paginal
reference to the passages which I copy or discuss.
3 Hear Mr. White further.  "For the pronunciation i-ther and ni-ther,
with the i long, which is sometimes heard, there is no authority, either of
analogy or of the best speakers. It is an affectation, and, in this country, a
copy of a second-rate British affectation. Persons of the best education andthe
highest social position in England generally say eether and neether."
On the contrary, the analogy of eider, height, and sleight favours the pronunciations 7ther and gnther; and so either and neither are, perhaps, most frequently sounded by cultivated Englishmen and Englishwomen. And in what
sense are these pronunciations " a. British affectation "?




v5
Their a, according to all the orthoepists that I know of, is
exactly that in an and at.  Calf, half, rather,' &c., have, indeed, likefather, the Italian a; and yet I have heard persons of the highest culture, and not less in England than
in America, pronounce these words with the flat sound of
a in pastor. Provincialism is not necessarily vulgarity. If,
manifested either in tone or in diction, it were the mortal
sin which MIr. White appears to reckon it,, his own perdition  would  be  sealed  irreversibly.   The  gossips  that
haunted his cradle must have been miserably underbred.
"Style, according to my observation, cannot be taught, and
can hardly be acquired.  Any person of moderate ability may,
by study and practice, learn to use a language according to its
grammar. But such a use of language, although necessary to a
good style, has no more direct relation to it than her daily
dinner has to the blush of a blooming beauty. Without dinner, no bloom; without grammar, no style.  The same viand
which one young woman, digesting it healthily and sleeping
upon it soundly, is able to present to us again in but a very
unattractive form, Gloriana, assimilating it not more perfectly
in slumbers no sounder, transmutes into charms that make her
a delight to the eyes of every beholder.2   That proceeding is
In general, there is no ground for demur against Mr. B. H. Smart, as a recorder of English orthoepy. He should, however, have given 7ther and ether,
nither and nether.  There are numerous words, too, in the wig- of which he
sounds the i. One of his own pupils has expressed to me her amazement at
his thus tilting against universal usage. In England, high and low alike,
unless foreigners, or unless perverted by Mr. Smart and his followers, say
wat, woee, wence, wich, wirn, &c. &c. And this is the pronunciation which I
learnt, as a lad, on the banks of the Connecticut, in Vermont. Irish and
Scotch influence have pretty thoroughly obliterated it in America, I believe;
but the fact of its prevalence among Vermonters as lately as in the days of
my boyhood may prove that it dates back many generations, and that it may
have crossed the Atlantic with our seventeenth-century ancestors.
"To this day," we are further informed, " educated clergymen, in reading
the Bible, give the past participle its full, and not its contracted, form-lov-ed,
not lov'd."  P. 303.
Many an educated clergyman is, hereby, impliedly relegated to the ranks
of the uneducated. Where did Mr. White procure the patent which authorizes him to say such things?
1 Dr. Webster and Dr. Webster's editors pronounce rather to rime with
lather.  But who would go to them for orthoepy?
2 The more rotund lady friends of the author must be cruelly ungrateful, if
not alive to his appreciation of their good points. At p. 201, Gloriana seems
to reappear,-" whom it was always a pleasure to look upon," with her
"polished plumpness which so delighted my eye."  In whatever sense
"polished" is here to be taken, as applied to this adipose charmer, Mir.




52
Gloriana's physiological style.  It is a gift to her.  Such a gift
is style in the use of language."
Just above, we have seen lMr. White in the character of
elegantime arbiter.   Here we have a practical sample of
his notions of elegance; and I confidently put it to the
reader, whether he does not find it rather of the grossest,a good deal in  the manner of Mr. Charles Reade.  "I
hope your dinner agreed with you?" was once asked by
a  person belonging  to  Mr. White's school of delicacy.
"That is a matter which lies entirely between myself and
my Maker " was the reply.  It does not follow, because it
is lawful to speak of Gloriana's ankles, or even of her legs,
that it is becoming, unless we are utilizing the nymph in
a treatise on dietetics, to go into particulars about the
working  of her chyle and  chyme.   For the  rest, the
thought of Gloriana has proved disastrous to Mr. White,
from a syntactic point of view. Always impetuous, he
loses the grammarian in the devotee, as he feels himself
drawing nigh, in spirit, to this "blooming beauty".  Her
" blush" there is no discoverable pertinence in personifying; and yet it is personified, and femininized, and is declared to be out of direct relation to "her daily dinner ".
" The authority of general usage ", says Mr. WVhite, at
p. 24, " or even of the usage of great writers, is not absolute in language.  There is a misuse of words which can
be justified by no authority, however great, by no usage,
however general." But the critic neglects to furnish us with
any criterion, or set of criteria, his own mandates and ordiWhite's taste in womankind is, confessedly, somewhat a la Turque. But
what was this to his readers?
In his work on Shakespeare, p. 240, Mr. White asserts, that " we do not
hesitate to speak, if it be necessary to do so, of the stomach or bowels; but, in
Elizabeth's time, the best-bred people designated those parts of the body by
words the first of which is now heard only among boys, and the second never
among decent people."  When a writer expresses himself in this way, it is
unavoidable to understand that he supposes himself to be stating what is true
of his English-speaking contemporaries generally. The question of right and
wrong has no place, as concerns the use of the terms on which Mr. White here
remarks; but the fact is, that the freedom with which Americans talk of their
stomachs and bowels is somewhat shocking to English notions of propriety.
The two words which Mr. White only hints at have, also, different conventional values in America and in England. The first is, in England, far from
being " now heard only among boys"; and, as to the other, there are occasions when it would there be accounted either squeamish or pedantic for
" decent people" to cast about for a substitute.




nances excepted, by which to decide when the misuse of a
wvord becomes impossible of justification. His aninadversions, where original, are, I believe, in almost every case,
founded either on caprice, on defective information, or on
both; and, as he is in attack, so he often is in defence, even
where he takes his stand on prescription.  His dogmatism
and positiveness are, at the same time, of that peremptory
stamp which ensures the prompt submission of the unthinking multitude. We shall search in vain,-for all the
world as if he had been bred at Oxford,-to find hirt conceding, as within the compass of the credible, the fallibility
of his private judgments, or the inexhaustiveness of his
meagre inductions.' Whatever he is not, he is always selfconfident, and with the unflinching imperiousness of a
Czar or a Pope. In' tremble and believe' he epitomizes
implicitly his one great precept; and, indeed, so infrequent
are his deviations from this temper and tone, that to have
forgone them would simply have evinced a nice sense of
congruity.
If the constant flourishing, by Mr. White, of the censorial tomahawk and scalping-knife were to provoke some
critic of congenial truculency to turn his favourite weapons
upon him, he would have no title to complain.  To fall
into the clutches of such a Mohawk might, also, possibly
be beneficial to him. But arrogant and ostentatious selfsufficiency, at least in philological questions, is best confronted, with a view to instruction, by a plain statement
of facts ignorantly unrecognized and of analogies which
superficial investigation has failed to discover; and Mr.
White, for all his swaggering carriage, will be found,
when viewed through the dry light of dispassionate truth,
to be anything rather than redoubtable. This position, I
am inclined to think, any intelligent and reflective reader
of his strictures might make good by himself; but, as the
bulk of mankind may be divided into the busy and the
lazy, it has seemed worth while to submit a few specimens
of those strictures to a little scrutiny.
1 I would here remind those who possess Words and Their Uses, particularly
of its eleventh chapter, Is Being -Done. My critique on part of it was read
before the American Philological Association in July, 1871, and was printed,
in an imperfect form, in Scribner's Mronthly for April last. The correct title
of the paper, changed without my authority, is On the Isuperfect Terses of the
Passive Voice in EgUlish.




54'Ize and ist, two useful affixes for the expression of action
and agency, are often ignorantly added when they are entirely
superfluous, and when they are incongruous with the stem. They
are Greek terminations, and cannot properly be added to AngloSaxon words.   Ist is the substantive form; ize, the verbal.
Among the monsters in this form, none is more frequently met
with than jeopardize, a foolish and intolerable word, which has
no rightful place in the language..... It is formed by adding ize to a verb of long standing in the language, and which
means'to put in peril'; and jeo2lardize, if it means anything,
means nothing more or less.
" ExIperimentalize is a word of the same character as the -foregoing.  It has no rightful place in the language, and is both
uncouth and  pretentious.   The termination ize is not to be
tacked indiscriminately to any word in the language, verbs and
adverbs as well as adjectives and nouns, for the purpose of
making new verbs that are not needed.  It has a meaning; and
that meaning seems to be continuity of action; certainly, action,
and action which is not momentary.  Thus, equalize,'to make
equal'; naturalize,'to make as by natural' [sic]; civilize,'to
make civil'; so with moralize, legalize, humanize, etc.  But the
people who use experimentalize use it in the sense'to try experiments'.  Experiment, however, is both noun and verb, and
will serve all purposes not better served by try and trial."
Mr. White should, rather, have begun with saying that
our language exhibits, among words in  -ize and  -ist, but
few of which the stem is not either Greek or Latin. By
the  law  which  he sets  forth, Americanize,  Russianize,
JlMahometanize, iTincluize, Mormonize, Barnumize, galvanize,
mnacadamize, nicotize,l &c. &c., must, all, be cashiered; and
so  alcalize, alcoholize, algebraize, heathtenize, with our old
dastarcldize, sluggardize, and taantonize.2   In  the opinion of
1 5Aapoldoniser, clausmanniser, &c. show that the French coin personal
verbs like ours in -ize as spontaneously as ourselves.
Professor Haldeman, in his -Afixes to English Fords, treats analyse as if
it belonged to the class of verbs derived or imitated from those in -Low. Analyse
-and so paralyse-is anomalous, and is out of place where he introduces it.
2 De Foe uses the verb neuter wizardize. A System of M[agic, &c. (ed.
1840), p. 216. Miss Carter, in her Letters to Mrs. ilostagu, Vol. 1, p. 174,
has the verb neuter witticize; and, if we dislike it, while we do not object to
witticism, it is only because it is unfamiliar.
It seems very arbitrary that IMr. White, while condemning such words as
dastardize and the rest, should in nowise reprehend - for, by implication,
he does not reprehend-such words as bastardize, btmnperize, carrionize, galliardize, gluttonize, gorsacndize, mniniardize, seigniorize, soberize, soldierize,
sovereignize, villanize, and warrantize; since who can ever have felt that they




55
Dr. Johnson, even  womanize, though."not used", is
"proper ".   Exceptions, though they are ever so few, are
not to be overlooked, when one propounds a law.
Jeopardize, however personally  distasteful,l is not a
thing  to  vex one's soul about, after the fashion of Mr.
White, who, as we have seen, classes it among "monsters",
styles it " foolish and intolerable ", and rules that it "has
no rightful place in the language". The origin of jeopcardize which we find positively asserted is only speculative.  And what if it really had grown out of another
verb? 2  Are appropriate, assassinate, conjecture, determine,
futl.minate, and  reptudiate, if they were lengthened  from
appropry, assassin, con'ect, determe, fulmine, and repudy,
"monstrous"?  Are ctultivate, daunt, devastate, exemplify,
extinguish, extirpate, impregnate, inundate, necessitate, and
pulsate, because we had, before their rise, the verbs cultive,
darw, cdevast, example, extinct, extirp, impregn, inunde, necessite,
and pulse, to  be  reckoned  "foolish  and  intolerable"?
Have deadcen, defen, flatten, gladden, happen, lessen, madden,
sharpen, shorten, straiten, strengthen "no rightful place in
the language ", because they were preceded by the verbs
dead, deaf, flat, glad, -hap, less, mad, sharp, short, strait,
strength?  And are we to be denied a fattened  capon, because our fathers feasted the prodigal son on a fatted calf?
Jeopardize, quite as probably as not, set out, like jeopard,3
from  the substantive jeopardy; as colonize, subsiclize, and
summarzze were  based on  colony, subsidy, and summary.4
Again, it is an advantage to language, as precluding
ambiguity, that a verb should have a termination suggestive of its being a verb; and -ize is such a termination.
were at all the more legitimate for not being crosses between Anglo-Saxon
and Greek? I may add that I have met with all these words, in the course
of my reading.
1 Yet it is used by Southey, in Tlhe -Doctor (monotome ed.), p. 32.
2 Instead of apostatize, characterize, christianize, emblematize, patronize,
philosophize, scandalize, sermonize, I have observed, in books written, it would
seem, before they were devised, the verbs apostate, character, christian, emblem,
patron, philosophy, scandal, sermon.
3 Jeopard must have been preceded by jeopardy, ancientlyjeupertye, &c.,.
i. e., jeut parti.
Like jeopard is Fuller's verb active pillor, from pillory.  Abel lRedivivus
(1651), p. 436.
4 To go to foreign languages, I might instance their verbs from which our
sympathize, theorize, &c. were borrowed or imitated.




v56'If we accede to Mr. White's view  as to how  we came by
jeopardize, still the word has exact parallels in the candidate martyrize i and proselytize,2 which, like  it, may belong
to the good English of the future, whether critics patron-ize them, ridicule them, or leave them alone.
The  objections urged  against  eo-perimentalize  are  the
result of bad theorizing and want of discrimination, in
pretty equal proportions.  3Mr. White's definition  of -ize
has been transcribed.   Yet, how, until amended, it applies
even  to  the verbs which he names,-equalize,3 natucralize,
cirilize, moralize, legalize, and kzmcanize,-it is hard  to  see.
Here it isia particular modification of action,' conversion',
that seems to  be implied  by -ize.  But there are  other
active verbs, as anathematize, anatomize, baptize, satirize,
terrorize, of which the -ize must be explained  differently;.and so it must be in the neuter verbs agonize, antagoniize,
apologize, attitudinize, botanize, criticize, dogmatize, geometrize,4philosophize, poetize, &c. &c. In short, our verbs in -ize5
are, to a large extent, of conventional import.' To come back
1 As a verb active, it has been struggling into currency for centuries.
Landor has used it as a verb neuter.
2 Dr. Webster's editors mark proselytize, for   convert', as "rare".  To
the authority, for it, of Burke may be added that of Dr. Arnold, &c.
Scrlpulize, as a verb active and neuter, has been used for scruple.  Enthronize was once preferred, by many writers, to enthrone.  Cantonize is older
than canton. Andfavourize has served as the equivalent offavour. " The queen
mother of France.... praised Ramus, albeit he was known to favourize the
Prince of Cond ".  Gabriell Harvey, Pierce's Supererogation, p. 110. Brath-.wait lengthens the verb active hazard into hazardize.  Tle E'nglish Gentlesoaon, &c., p. 297.  Henry Earl of Monmouth uses paragonize for the verb
active paragon.  Still earlier, the same -use of it occurs in the Scotch English
of Lithgow.  See The Totall Discourse, &c. (1632), p. 286.
3 Equalize was long used where we use equal.  Contrariwise, equacl once
had the sense now borne by equalize.  "For there is not that vessell, in the.
world, that can measure men's tastes, nor that balance that can equall their
likings, or give an even poyze to such uneven humours."  The.Rooque, or, The
Life of Guzman de Allfarache (1623), Part 1, p. 24. See, for equalize = equal,
Sir Arthur Gorges's Translation of Bacon's -De Sap ientia Yeterans, p. 129;.and Richard Fleckno's A Relation, &c., p. 165.
4 Many a word like this might hastily be taken for an adaptation of a,classical term.  rewsErpiw, not yEswytrpitw, is Greek.  And there is no 7roXlri~w, as original of Milton's politize.  Also consider mnythologize, symnpa-.thize, &c. &c.
Some of the old ones were verylawless formations; for instance, endenize,.Shakespeare's infamnonize, Gabriell Harvey's hypocrize, and Dr. Donne's
critize.
6 Signalize, as used, in America, for signal, would, if the word were not
preoccupied by another acceptation, be not only defensible, but preferable.




to exZlerimentalize, why is it not as good as the verbs neuter
mnoralize, ruralize, and  vocalize, which, like  it, are of adjectival origin? And what is there about it either " uncouth " or "pretentious "?   But, what is most important
of all, persons of intelligence who use it — and a word is
not to be impeached because the unintelligent misuse it,do not make it a simple synonym  of experimzent.  A  boy
may experiment in  catching  flies, or a smatterer may experinment in philology; but a philosopher, when he governs
himself, in  his investigations, by  the complex of canons
which constitute the experimental philosophy, experimentalizes.
"Controversialist, conversationalist, and. agriculturalist, too
frequently  heard, are  inadmissible, for reasons like to  those
given against expIerimentalize.  The proper words are controvertist, conversationist, and agriculturist.  The others have no proper place in the English vocabulary."
Far from  concurring, as regards controversialist, in Mr.
WVhite's reprobation of it, we are to look upon the word
as a felicitous instance, among accepted neoterisms, of the
analogical superiority of a new formation to that which it
has superseded. Many of our words in -ist we have borrowed; and others we have developed from substantival,
adjectival, and other bases. The only verbs from which
we have established their evolution are those in -ize. Speculatist, from  s2peculate, never had  any real root in  usage;
and it is fast following controvertist to oblivion.2 As between
Its termination would at once distinguish it as a verb. The same may be
said of parodize, in the thirty-first of Shenstone's Letters; and, if we had not
already the verb rival, we should do well to frame rivalize, like the French
rrivaliser, unless we felt that we might need a verb to signify' make a rival'.
1 As Southey, Mr. J. S. Mill, Dr. Newman. Also see the references in
Dr. Worcester's Dictionary.
2 Both these words were favourites with Dr. Johnson.  Speculatist.
Rambler, Nos. 13, 14, 54, 77, 124, 126, 130, 156: Idler, Nos. 6, 19, 32.
Controvertist. -Rambler, Nos. 95, 106, 206: Idler, Nos. 19, 40, 91.
Dr. Johnson also adopted computist; he and Cowper use rhymist; Gabriell
Harvey, disciplinist; Milton, motionist and notist; Glanvill, cirollist; Samuel
Richardson, enquirist; Burke and others, schemist; Southey, libelist;
Charles Lamb, petitionist  Dean Milman and others, contemplatist; and Dr.
Newman has emzanatist.  Questionist is purely collegiate.  Develo2pist, at this
moment, is almost fashionable; and now and then one chances on emancipist,
just such a portent as Goldsmith's speceulist.
Conformist, reformist, and separatist came from  abroad; and copyist is
a modification of the old copist, from the French copiste.




58
speculatist and controvertist, the former, since its meaning is
unequivocally  suggested by  speculate  and  speculdation, is
the less objectionable. That is controverted which is'made
matter of debate'; but controvertist reminds us directly of
the verb, not of the past participle; and controvert
is almost always used in the sense of' oppugn' or' deny'.
Controversialist we connect immediately with controversial
and controversy, which  denote both  defensive argumentation  and  offensive.   In  substitution  for controvertist, we
might, by starting  with  controversy, have made, from  it,
the harsh-sounding controversist; as we have bigamist,
diacrist, prosodist, and   rhapsodist,'  from   bigamy,  diary,
prosody, and rhapsody.   We recurred, however, in making
the later word, to an adjective, for its base; and hence
our  controversialist,2 in  keeping   with  literalist, loyalist,
materialist, mninistericaist, naturalist, rationalist, royalist, &c.
&c.3   As for conv~ersationist and  conversationalist, agricul.
turist and agricelturalist,4 as all are alike legitimate formations, it is for convention to decide which we are to prefer;
as it has already decided, to take some very modern terms,
in favour of protectionist and secessionist, but also in favour
of nationalist and specialist.
As to mongrels, in like manner as M1r. White dooms, by
wholesale, certain of them in -ize, he would deprive us of
certain of them in -ist.
Rhaepsodist appears to be much older, in our language, than rhapsodixe,
which, however, is not so modern as the Dictionaries might lead one to suppose: it is used, as a verb active, by Sterne.  See his WForks (ed, 1819),
Vol. 2, pp, 45, 128. Dr. Donne, in his Biathanatos, p. 32, has, instead of
rhacpsodist, rhapsoder.
2 Archdeacon Todd quotes, under controversialist, Abp. Newcome, Warton,
and Paley.  I may add Jones, of Nayland, Theological and ilfiscellaneous
Works, Vol. 1, pp. 341 (1769), 226; Vol. 5, p. 372: Cowper, Works, Vol.
15, p. 322: Southey, -Life of WVesley, Vol. 2, pp. 206, 228: Lord Macaulay,
Essay on the Comic -Dramatists of t/he Restoration, and Biography of D)r.
Johnson: and Dr. Newman, Essay on the Lfjiracles, &c., pp. 75, 128, 154,
155; Essays Critical and Historical, Vol. 1, pp. 161, 165, 180, 183, 189, &c.
And who, in these days, Mr. White excepted,-for he scoffs at the word, as
being of those which "have no proper place in the English vocabulary ",would ever hesitate to use it, and not cosntrovertist?
Mr. White, by the way, is not original in his interdiction of controversialist.
Under this word, in Dr. Webster's Dictionary (ed. 1848), we find: " The
proper word is controvertist, which see."  What right had Dr. Webster's
editors to strike out this dictum?
3 Southey has commnercialist; Mr. J. S. Mill, practicalist; Mr. Ruskin,
proportionalist.
4 This form is used by Coleridge.  See his Church ard State, &c., p. 349.




"The ridiculous effect of the slang words shootist, stabbist,
walkist, and the like, is produced by the incongruity of adding
ist to verbs of Teutonic origin."
By this and other dicta, he would allow us neither
clubbist, harpist, red-tapist, timist, nor landscapist.1 Hybrids
of this particular sort are not so much absolutely incongruous as rare. To the general class of which they are
members, that is to say, the class of words in -ist not built
up on Greek or Latin bases, belong algebcaifst, Calvinist,
druggist, feudist, galvanist, Jansenist, jargonist,2 romanticist,
Sanskritist, and tobacconist; 3 and journalist, larcenist, mzannierist, routinist, and tourist almost deserve to be placed in
the same category.  The freedom  with which we attach
-ism  is illustrated by cliqueism, Quakerism, toadyism, and
truism.
" Er, the Anglo-Saxon sign of the doer of a thing, is incorrectly affixed to such words as photograph and telegraph, which
should give us photographist and telegraphist; as we say, correctly, paragrcaph7ist,  not paragrapher; although the latter
would have the support of suich words as geogracpher and biogralpher, which are firmly fixed in the language."
In this we have one of the many evidences which Mr.
White affords, that his views touching the development of
our words are, in the highest degree, unscientific and antihistorical.  Photographer and telegrapher he holds to be
incorrect; similar to them, he says, is the hypothetical
paragrapher; and this, he tells us, bad as it would be,
would find support in geographer and biographer. But did
geographer and biographer spring from geograph and biograph?  The alleged parallelism is, then, without foundation.  As I shall show, photographer and telegrapher, as
English formatives, are far superior to photographist and
telegraphist.
Many of our substantives in -er 4 are observable for their
formation, and, in especial, those ultimately traceable to
1 This accepted word is used by Mr. Ruskin, in The Queen of the Air,
p. 199.
2 Lord Macaulay uses it; but he by no means invented it.
3 In the seventeenth century, the Scotchman Lithgow, imitating Englishmen his contemporaries, used this word for' tobacco-smoker'. See Thle Totall
Discourse, &c., p. 205.
4 Where, by the by, did Mr. White learn that -er is " Anglo-Saxon"?




60
the Greek; 1 inasmuch as we have shaped them as if they
were of any origin but Greek. For example, we have
astrologer, astronomer, bibliographer, biographer, chronologer,
cosmographer, ethnographer, geographer, glossographer, hagiographer, historiographer, lexicographer, pantographer,3 philologer, philosopher, theosopher, topographer, &c. &c.; and the
strikingly  abnormal geometer, idolater, and necromnancer.3
In the case of these words, with a few exceptions, we seem
to have operated directly  on French  forms in  -graphe,
-logute, -nome, -,sophe, -tre, and  -cien.  Differently  from
most of the words particularized above, derivatives from
verbs, no less than other derivatives, were felt to be desiderata, when occasion prompted recourse to the ideal
r-AIXpa(pos 4 and d-rooypaxogs, as sources whence to enrich
our vocabulary.  Photograph, the substantive, very soon
generated photograph, the verb, in  analogy  to  church,
emblem, hymn, phrase, parody, &c. &c.  So far all is plain;
and so is the generation of photographic and of photogcraphy.
To obtain an agential substantive complementing  the
verb photograph., the available processes are various.  By
recurring to qworoypadqos, and taking geographler for a
model, we get photographer.  Or photographer might be
inferred from  our verb photograp~h; as we have cataloguer,
chronicler, glosser, from  the verbs catalogae,5 chronicle, gloss.
Or it might be derived from  the substantive photograph;
as epistler,6 horoscoper, and stomacher were evolved from
epistle, horoscope, and stomach.7  There are divers methods,
likewise, by which photographist might be reached.  A
Greek would have seen, in qporoypaJc-rrTs, a derivative of
The originals of many of these words, it need scarcely be said, are, as
verbal wholes, factitious.
2 One is surprised to find so fastidious a classic as Gray using the corrupt
form pentagrapher. (Yorrespondence of Gray and   erason, p. 285. PentagraPhc
and pe ntcagraphic are found in Sterne's Tristram Shandy, Vol. 1, oh. 23.
3 From YEWP7TrpnC, EsawXeXCirpnS, and veIcp6otavrlg, ultimately.  With
necromancer may be mentioned chiromancer, yeomancer, &c. &c.
4 If rO7s and ypd9w could be compounded, the agential substantive of
-rnXEyp60iw would be rtlXsypaqeig, and there would be no premises for
rsjXiypapoe.  Further, instead of riXEypaoia, we should have 7riXsypaop'.
Vide supra, p. 42, note 5, and page 43, note:,
Long before it, we had the verb catalogize.
6 This old word has lately been revived by English churchmen.
7 Nash has epitapher, in his letter introductory to Greene's Arcadia, p.
xviii. (in Archaica, Vol. 1); and theawmer, for' one who sets a theme', occurs
in T'arlton's Jests, &c., p. 28.




61
qxo-roypravCco, a possible  substitute  for  corToypaE'co,I but
called into existence, as such, very unnecessarily.2  Among
ourselves, photographist, as a natural outgrowth, from  the
substantive photograph, might, to mean'dealer in  photogralphs', have  been  suggested, inexactly, by  cdialogist,
methodist,  organist, physicist, psalmnist,  connected   with
dialogtte, method,  organ, physics, psalm,  but, like  most
words on the same type,-essayist4   being  an exception,imported, ready-made, into our language.5   Its accepted
sense,'one who photographs', is evidence, however, that
it was taken  from   the  verb photograph;  and, though,
among our vernacular formatives, a word in  -ist is often
found coupled with one in -ize,6 we almost never form  an
agential by suffixing  -ist to  a verb.'   Photogract)hist and
telegraphist are, consequently, hardly  better  than  quite
illegitimate.8   Further, Mar. White, in  the passage here
1 n3oXwEQ/', as sometimes equivalent to wroXaE/8o, is poetic.  Regularly,
Owroypaitow would mean Iact like a photograph, photographic machine,
photographer', or the like.
2 As to scores of our words in -ist, only by some such far-fetched deduction
as this can they be wrested into obedience, even as regards form, to Greek
analogies. The free and easy way in which we tack on the affix in question
has been derived to us by the example of the French, Italian, and other
peoples that have drawn their vocabularies from the classical languages.  We
have but few Greekish words in -ist so purely formed as agonist, antagonist,
catechist, exorcist, grammatist, panegyrist, and sophist.
3 Where did Dr. Webster's editors find, as real Greek and Latin words,
their alaXoytarrg and dialogista?
4 Essayist, though not from the Greek, I-name for obvious reasons.
C On the supposition that photography antedated an agential of photograph,
photographist might have been suggested by such words as alchenmist, geologist,
philologist, strategist,-allied to alchemny, geology, philology, stratec/y,-but
could not have been devised, as an English formative, analogically; for here,
again, we have naturalized exotics.
6 As I have shown, at p. 37, the import of many of our verbs in -ize is
wholly conventional.  If, accordingly, we had taken the substantive photograph, and made from  it photogcraphize, photograp2hist would have matched
with it very naturally.  Compare botanize and botanist.  That botanist preceded botanize does not affect my argument. Now that we have botanize,
botanist is, to us,'one who botanizes'.  So, syllogist would be'one who syllogizes','syllogizer'.
7 See p. 67, supra'.  Dietist, however derived, is hardly more English than
accompanist, or than Miss Carter's epistolist.  There remains quaerist, which,
doubtless; set out from the verb query. Yet, to take it as a pattern on whice
to frame new substantives would be like taking starvation, tcalhative, condccive, and nonsensical as patterns for new substantives and adjectives.
8 At p. 416, Mr. White writes: " If engrave (from en and grapheo) gives us
rightly engraver and engraving, photograph or photograve should give us photographer and photographing, and telegraph, telegrapher and telegraphing."




62
annotated, should also have set his stigma on litLographer
and stereotyper, not to mention other kindred modernisms;
for, by his rule, we ought to say lithogrcaphist and stereotypist.1
He prohibits us from annexing the affix -er to the verb
telegraph, because, by the annexation, we produce a cross
between  Greek  and English.  Why  not, then, reprobate
baptizer and sympathizer?  In all consistency, they are to
be reprobated; and it passes ordinary  understanding  to
perceive why he should endure natulralize and civilize, seeing  that the Romans had no verbs in  -izo.2   Why, too,
should  he  not lay  an  injunction  on  alchemist, annalist,
colouzrist, deist, druggist, &clellist, lingutist, mcannerist, tobacconist, tourist, gormandizer, organizer, promoter, modernism,
witticism, and hundreds of other half-castes which have beHere Mr. White, by his photograve, prescribes, as a scientific procedure, a
style of word-construction such as obtains restrictively during the period of a
language when its imported accretions are moulded entirely by the popular
will. As to the base of engrave, to take it directly from ypdow betokens much
more of boldness than of prudence.  The cognate words in Gothic and AngloSaxon had, incontrovertibly, the same ancestor with ypdrwo: but grave belongs
to the oldest English; and, hence, there is no likelihood that we are to trace
it from the Greek. Nor is it at all probable that we have to go further than
to France for the preposition exhibited in such words as engrave, ensphere, and
entArone. At the time Mr. White wrote as above, photoqrapher and telegrapher had not yet seemed to him objectionable, as being mongrels; and, in
his work on Shakespeare, palceographists occurs at p. 95, and palheographers,
at p. 108. At present, it is hard to see why he should abide engraver, instead
of engravist, or, rather, eeyngraphist.
When Mr. White expressed himself as in the passage quoted at the beginning
of this note, there is a violent presumption that he had much to be told touching the antiquity of the verb grave. Still, he puts off a critic, in reward for
pointing out to him that the word is in Chaucer, by saying that this, "to a
man who, having read Chaucer, for pleasure, from his boyhood, has, within the
last six months, reread every word of him, and of Gower, carefully and critically, is valuable, nay, invaluable, information." P. 423. We have seen, in
the case of experience, how far his memory serves him to recall what he must
constantly have been happening on all his life; and could vanity itself suppose that the pretence of knowledge herein implied would not be perfectly
transparent to everybody?
As an argument that our engrave got its preposition from the Greek, Mr.
White tells us: "the English-formed participle engraven I do not know in
literature three hundred and fifty years old." P. 424. In Elyot's Governour
(1531), p. 92, I findeingrave; and the verb engraver, in one sense, is, as
Raynouard proves, very old French.  Will Mr. White still be "inclined to
the opinion, not only that grave is a direct descendant, as it is a perfect
counterpart, of ypfLqw, but that the appearance of engrave in English is a
consequence of an acquaintance with the Greek compound iyypio w"?
The French word is st'reotypeur.
2 They had verbs in -isso; but they were very few.




63
come lexical fixtures? The answer is, that there are very
many words in our language, to ascertain the analogical
soundness of which, it is necessary to visit regions undreamt
of in the philosophy of Mr. White; that, as a philologist,
he has no principles deserving to be called scientific; and
that, therefore, his premises involve the most monstrous
conclusions.
Presidential being  a word which it falls to the lot of
Mr. White to read or hear almost daily, we may judge,
from  his critique on it, how the burthen which we bear, in
common, through this vale of tears must be aggravated to
him by the fancied abomination.
"This adjective, which is used among us now more frequently
than any other not vituperative, laudatory, or boastful, is not a
legitimate word.  Carelessness or ignorance has saddled it with
an i,which is on the wrong horse.  It belongs to a sort of adjectives which are formed from  substantives by the addition of al.
For example, incident, incidental; orient, oriental;  regiment,
reg/imenztal; experiment, experimental.....  The proper form
is presidental, as that of the adjectives formed upon tangent and
exponent is tangental and excponental.  Presidential, tangential,
and exiponential are a trinity of monsters which, although they
have not been lovely in their lives, should yet in their death be
not divided...... Euphony, no less than analogy, cries out for
the correct forms, presidental, tangental, and exponental."
Whoever invented presiclential, Dr. Peter Heylin' used
it in the first year of Charles I.  Whether its originator
had the vernacular word presilence or presidency to serve
for its base, it is needless to  investigate.  Presidentia,
factitious, but yet strictly analogical, taken along with the
existence of president, was quite ground enough to supply
it with a raison d'etre.  Covering  an  abstract, it would
1 s" This institution of these Presidentiall Courts was, at first, a very profitable ordinance, and much eased the people."  A F'ull Relation of Two Jou'rneys, &c. (1656), p. 134.
The part of this book from which the clause adduced is taken was written
in 1625. ieylin intends to represent "sieges prdsidicax ", or " curiae presidiales ", the judges of which were called " juges presidiaux ". At p. 292,
Heylin has "Courts Presidiall".
Archdeacon Todd's earliest authority for presidential is Glanvill. Besides
the passage quoted from him, by the Archdeacon, I find the following, of prior
date, in his Essays, &c. (1676), VI., p. 26: "Thus Origen and others understand that to be spoken by the presidential angels."  In qualifying'angels',
rpesidential has reference to presidency, much rather than to president.




64
also cover the concrete corresponding to that abstract.  Just
so, jzudicial is equally suggestive of judgment and of judge;
min isterial refers  alike  to  minister and  to  ministry; and,
penitential tears must be those of a penitent, while they are
those of penitence.'  Preesidens would regularly give birth
to prcesidentia; and their adjective would be prewsidentialis.2
Our presidential is complementary  to  both president and,
presidency; and presidental3  would  be complementary  to
president only: but we required an  adjective complementary to both that and presidency;, and we have it in presidential.   Tangential4 and exponential,' to  denote equally proConventionally, we limit the reference of deferential, expediential, iful6uential, and presential to deference, &c., only.
2 From adolescens was evolved adolesceentia; and their adjective might have
been adolescentialis; as substantialis was the adjective of substans and substantia.
Fuller uses accidential, as if he assumed the existence of accidentialis and
accidentia.  "The substantiall use of them might remain, when their accidential abuse was removed."  The Appeal of Injured Innocence, &c. (1659),
Part 1, p. 69.
3 Both presidental and presidentie are recognized, by M. Littrl, as good
French. Richelet (1732) knows only the first.
4 It is used by Addison, Tatler, No. 43. Our old word for tangent was
touch-line.
" 4These words and presidential," says  Mr. White, "are the only
examples of their kind which have received the recognition, and have been
stamped with the authority, even of dictionary-makers."  Sweeping statements of this sort are not over-safe.  Some of the dictionaries enter prece.
dential,-on Mr. White's reasoning, fromprecedent, the substantive,-vouching
Thomas Fuller for it; and Fuller has used the word again and again.'" Wherefore all their actions in that time are not precedential to warrant
posterity."  Thze Appeal, &c., Part 1, p. 41.  Also see Part 3, p. 8; and
JMixt Contemplations in Better Tilmes, xvi.  Brathwait has, instead, precedental.  A _Boulster-lecture, p. 272: The EEnglish Gentleman, &c., p. 435:
2'he Turtle's Triumnplh (1641), p. 8.  Further, to Mr1-. White, conssequential
ought to be from the substantive consequent, which we had before consequence.
Tangentiel and expoenentiel are, both, French.  The latter dissatisfied Condillac; but it satisfies MI. Littr6.  And why?  It comes, he says, from  exponens, as potentiel comes from potens! This is almost as bad as Mr. WVhite's
derivation of presidestial.
Our ancestors once used concurrent, coentinget, exigenzt, inconssensient, occurrent, and sequenet, where we use coneurrence, &c.  Precedent, the substantive,
-often carelessly spelled president,-from  the imaginary prtecedentia, was
allowed to remain unchanged, to avoid the duality of meaning,' example' and' priority', which would, otherwise, have devolved on precedence.
Accidence, the grammatical term, is a corruption of accidents.  Like
plurals are not uncommon in oldish authors.  Sir Thomas Elyot, in his
Governour, fol. 8, 66, has inshabitance and experience, for inhabitants and experients; Robert Southwell, in his Trisumphs over -Death, p. 17, has accidence,
for the ordinary accidensts; Brathwait, in The English Gentleman, &c., p. 388,
has ingredience, for inlgredients.  Differently, Brathwait, in ThSe Tzuritle's




65
perties and things, are, in like manner, defensible. Of the
same class with them  is agential, a word of prime utility,
as referring, indifferently, to agent and to agency.  As regards the sound of the words here treated  of, a private
monitress entertained  by  Mr. White, and  whom  he is
pleased to call" Euphony ", " cries out ", we are informed,
for presidental, tcangental, and exipoiental.  The news of this
eccentric clamour may be interesting to the curious; but
the lady, it may be suspected, is wailing a solo; and the
new voice of one crying in the wilderness is not likely to
work conversion beyond the sphere of its present very select
audience.  Is infltential, or provilential, or reverenrtial dissonant?
Condescending to instruct us about some of our commonest verbs, Mr.  Thite prescribes, as exclusively being
correct, the preterites brake, splake, galt, bicle, and the participles d,rtuw.nken, sitten, and  biddlen.  To say "has sat" is
called an error corresponding to "he do)ine it ".'" iany
persons abbreviate gotten into got ".  Also:
"Snew is the regular preterite of snovw, the regular past participle of which is not snowved, but snown...... Snowic, snowed,
snhowed is as irregular as throw, throwed,  throwved would be, or
blow, blowedl, wbloted. 1..... In some parts of Nrew England,
and notably in Boston, we still hear, from  intelligent and not
uneducated people,'he shezo (pronounced shoo) me the  way',
which is sneered at by persons who do not know that shewz is the
regular, and shoqwed an irregular, preterite, the use of which is
justified only by custom."
Charles James Fox speaks of our ancestors' having, on a
certain point, "fairly gained a conquest over the natural
enemy of writers, which I consider strict grammar to be'.2
A  remark more absurd than  this has seldom  been comTlriumvph, p. 23, uses equivcalence for equivalent; and, like many of his predecessors, Henry Earl of Monmouth, in his Advertisements from  cParnassus,
p. 168, uses ingrediences, for ingredients.
Some of the peculiarities noted in the last paragraph are due, perhaps, to
the old printers.
1 Can Mr. White require to be informed that tlhrowed and blowed, for
threw and blew, occur in many a good old author? But who uses s)zew?
2 Works of Sa6zuel Parr, Vol. 1, p. 615. Swift, in his PrMoposal for Correcting, Inmproving, and Ascertainzing the English Tongue, says, with like
absurdity, of our language, that, " in many instances, it offends against every
part of grammar "
5




66
mitted to paper. Any " strict grammar" for which a basis
is claimed apart from usage must be a species of theology,
of which prophets by divine designation alone possess
the key. That awful fetish, "general and abstracted
grammar ", which Fox names with bated breath, and yet
recreantly ejects from  his pantheon, turns out, indeed, on
scrutiny, to be particular and altogether distracted nonsense. The materials which it undertakes to manipulate
are, in large measure, so many independent and irrelate
atoms; and these it attempts to work into a system imported from cloudland. Exceptions, so called,-which
analogize with special providences in the mundane order,
-have a place assigned to them.  But some of the atoms
aforesaid resolutely refuse to fit in where they ought, and
will be square, though they ought to be round; and then
-so much the worse for them.  " General and abstracted
grammar" has, however, been definitively exploded by
rational philology. What this consists of we have dissertations and manuals, by the shelfful, to inform  us.  But,
to these, Words and Thleir Uses bears the same relation
that alchemy bears to chemistry.
Not wholly by way of digression, let us pause, for a
moment or two longer, to examine Mr. White's incoherent
fiction as to the occasional lunatic performance, idle pugnacity, and eventual overthrow of his bugbear, grammar.
" Speech, the product of reason, tends more and more to conform itself to reason; and, when grammar, which is the formulation of usage, is opposed to reason, there arises, sooner or later,
a conflict between logic, or the law of reason, and grammar, the
law of precedent, in which the former is always victorious." 1
Now, by usage of speech we mean the forms of it which
are customarily employed; and, by grammar and lexicography, orderly records thereof. Although, then, speech tended
"more and more to conform itself to reason," grammar could
never be opposed to reason; since, as speech changes, itself
changes.2  We are told, however, that, now  and then, it
1 P. 23.
2 Every assemblage of absurdities must have its climax; and Mr. White
climaxes his in his tenth chapter, The Grammcriless Tongze,-English, to-wit.
Most confused notions of the province of grammar are very common.
Dean Alford remarks, on the phrase "a mean to an end": "This is not
English, though it may be correct in grammatical construction." A Plea for
the Queen's English, p. 29.




67
actually does come to be so opposed; and it is the grammarians that are responsible for the opposition.l Speech, by
this account of it, must be, forsooth, a most froward style
of entity.  "The product of reason", while left to itself,
behaves rationally enough; but, once let a grammarian get
hold of it, and there is no saying that it will not go disloyal and demented out of hand.  Whenever this befalls,
reason takes immediate steps for its coercion and recovery;
and grammar, in the end, resipiscent and sane as of old,
goes forth properly clothed and in its right mind. To
borrow the terminology of the Rev. Philocalvin MIacFrybabe, a sort of indefectible grace thus saves it from the fate
of an utter castaway.
Why the grammarians should be prone to encourage
rebellion against reason is a mystery on which we are
offered no light; and, possibly, it is not worth exploring.
But let us not be ungrateful for the tuition which releases
us from everything like servile dependence on such
dangerous guides.'Are you a grammarian, good sir?''No.''Then it may be credited that you are exempt
from  a fatal aptitude to wrongheadedness, and that you
may have direct commerce with reason.' This presumption, it must be confessed, is comforting, as far as it goes;
only it is not given to every one to enjoy those intimate
relations with reason which have been vouchsafed to MIr.
WThite, as one of the elect.  In  this we have, with  all
clearness, the doctrine of the philological higher law and
inner light,-enthroned aloft, beside King Sigismund, supra
grammaticam.  Identify  it as one may with  reason, it
differs in  nowise from  Fox's  "general and  abstracted
grammar ", a something paramount to usage.
Dismissing mythology, let us now contemplate sober
realities. That which, in contradistinction to the language
By " English ", nothing can Ire meant, here, but the English usage of the
present day; for we all know that the time was when " a mean " was as rife
as' a means', if not more so. Let a thing be " correct in grammatical construction ", and yet " not English ", and it follows that grammar is a fixed
something, to which usage may conform, or may not, as it happens, The
Dean, in the present instance, would not be thought to condemn the "grammatical construction" which he speaks of. What then? Grammar and
usage are, both, good things, in their way; but it is not at all requisite that
they should harmonize. This is marvellously like popular theology.
1 ~s Grammarians... devote themselves to formulating that which use has
already established." P. 338.




68
of the brute creation, we call speech is, unquestfionacbly, a
product of reason. But the products of reason are uniform, or multiform, according to the subject-matter subinitted to its operation.  Where number -and quantity are
concerned, the results at which reason arrives are uniform.
But very different, as data and results, are, respectively,
the original materials of speech and that which reason
shapes out of those materials. The cast of a die is absolutely impossible of prediction; and yet we know that it
obeys the laws of motion: and perhaps the only fact that can
be posited as fundamental, in accounting for the origin and
the mutation of speech, is, that reason is determined, in its
choice of sounds answering to given conceptions, by subtile
properties, in the subject-matter acted upon, which are
perpetually varying.  And hence it is, that perpetual
variation is a characteristic of speech.  Instead, however,
of asserting change to be a law of speech, Mr. White
asserts that speech "tends imore and more to conform
itself to reason "; a singular procedure for that which is
" the produet of reason", and one which we should rather
expect from a product of unreason brought under rationalizing influences. Speech, cultivated, ameliorates; uncultirated, or miscultivated, it deteriorates.  But, on EMr.'White's principles, it is constantly improving, and, provided it were freed from the shackles of grammar, would
imiprove the faster; the ascertainment of usage operating
to distort its rational conformation and to impede its natural development.  The Latin of the iron age should,
therefore, be called Latin of the golden age; and Cicero,
by the side of Jornandes, is a fumbling barbarian.  The
language in which Noah, when he had cast off his hawser,
tried to hearten his friends left out in the wet, was the
most inefficient of jargons, in comparison with the clicking
of a Hottentot; and, about by doomsday, we shall attain
to a rationality of expression no less unimaginable now
than it will be unneeded then.  TheIcase standing thus,
how it is that M1r. \White wishes to revive English which
has become obsolete, and how it is that he is so sorely
grieved by the English of his contemporaries, may well
perplex us.  And this brings us to his antique preterites
and past participles.




69
What if brake, gal, snewt, and sitten were accepted English 1 once? The fact is of interest, certainly, from a
philological point of view; but there is an end. If they
came down from Heaven, let us, by all means, reinstate
them with all possible speed. Unless convinced of their
celestial derivation, our ancestors who used them, if they
had denounced as wrong any forms but their Gothic or
Anglo-Saxon originals, would have done precisely as Mr.
White does. But he is not so hard a master as, at the first
blush, he looks to be.  He discriminates, in tenderness to
us benighted moderns; and it behoves us to be thankful for
small mercies.  "Got having, by custom, been poorly substituted for gat,.. we may say' He  got away', instead of' He gal away'.    It is' a relief to be told so.  Again: 
"' But, got being the reterite of get, as did is of do,' He had
got' is an error of the same class as'He had did'; and, on the
other hand,. if got is the past participle of get, as done is of do,'He got' is really  no worse than' He done',-only  more
common among people of some education."
The'" we " and " the people of some education" are the
same persons; and Mr. White so expresses himself as to be
included among these abjects.  Duly humbled by a sense
of our educational deficiencies, and grateful, withal, for
the consideration shown to them, let us stick, then, to our
preterite got.   The participles gotten and sitten, as belonging to the speech of transcendental grammarians and
the gods, the vulgar may be permitted to honour from
afar.  Slrew,  for shozced, it is melancholy to see that Mr.
White is deterred, by want of proper courage, from  extending his aegis over. Showved, as against slezw,2, "is justified only by custom". The same justification, and no
1 I doubt much whether shew, for the preterite showved, ever was so. I have
seen it but once in any English book not provincial,-the translation of II
Cardinaliswno di iSanta Chiesa (1670), p. 326. As a Scotticism, it is common
enough, alike in old books and in recent. See my second edition of William
Lauder's Ane Comnpendious and Breve Tractate, p. 23; note on line 7.
2 I write in a part of England where the vulgar invariably use shew for the
preterite showed, &c. &c. "This morning, before the dag was off, I sew seed
enow for this week, and then wed two beds ", was the reply returned to me by
my gardener, a few days ago. In the dialect of the same sturdy conservative,
a hare caught in a wire-fence " shruek terrible"; and wenchen is, to him, as
natural a plural as oxen. Provincialisms, which are, in the main, remnants of
antiquity, are objects of curiosity; and there they may be left.




70
other, is all that can be challenged for clatng, crept, Ielped,
hazneJg, might, and a thousand  more words, instead of the
clang, crope, hollpe, hing, moughte, &c., of two or three centuries ago,  WNhy, in the case of these words, are not the
ancient forms pronounced to be the onlytrue ones? Why
half measures, or measures of any other fraction?  Why
mount a cod-piece, but decline trunk-hose and a pig-tail?
The word bounitfi~l, according to M3ir. White,
" is very generally misused both in speech and in writing. The
phrase'a boUntiuEld dinner',' a bountiful breakfast', or, to be
fine,'a bountfaul repast', is continually  met with in  newspapers...    Bountiful applies to persons, not to things,l and
has no reference to quantity."
Long  ago, it may  be presumed, the  reader has discovered, in IMr. White, the peculiarity, that, when he
employs language which, with  ordinary people, indicates
the communication of facts, he is only announcing his own
opinions of what should be facts; and it is rare indeed
that these  are  not officious  idiosyncrasies.    lflunfz icus,
literally,' gift-making', qualified both the giver and his
gift; and our munificent is applied with equal extension.
So, too, liberali.. was, and  liberal now  is;  and  healthtil
means both' free from  sickness' and' salubrious'.  Also
consider lavish, prodigal, prqofusse, &c. &c. Bountniful, similarly, is, in good usage, applied alike to persons and to things.2
That the dictionaries  have  overlooked  the  use  of this
word  which  Mr. White  exostracizes goes  for nothing.
That use has the sanction of the Prazyer-Book,          3 of Steele,4
1 When a thing is personified, it may, of course, be qualified by bountiful,
in its subjective acceptation. Mr. White forgets this.  "?Bountiful hands "
Sir Arthur Gorges, Translation of Bacon's -De Sapientia Veterzun (1619), p.
131: Fuller, Abel Redevivus, p. 435.  "Boz.untiful hand".  Brathwait, YThe
Enqlishl Gentlemzan, &c., p. 89: De Foe, -A Systemn of Magic, p. 336. More
such instances are given further on.
2 Even Dr. Johnson's second definition of bountifully, the perfectly unobjectionable expression " in a bountiful manner ", should have kept Mr. White
from saying that the adjective " applies to persons, not to things ".
3 " Thy bounstiful grace and mercy".  Collect for the Fourth Sunday in
Advent. In II. Cor., 9, 6, bountifully is opposed to spcaringly.
4 " Voice, stature, motion, and other gifts must be very bountif11ly bestowed
by nature; or labour and industry will but push the unhappy endearourer in
that way the further off his wishes." Tatler,, No. 167.
Lady Bradshaigh wrote, in 1750: " I want only power to send you a present
which I would allow  you to call bountifutl."  Correspondene of SaSnuel
Richardson, Vol. 6, p. 56.




71
Johnson,E Henry Brooke,2 Burke,3  Southey,4  and  Mr. De
Quincey,5 and, not improbably, is nearly  as old  as the
word itself.6
1," Others on whom the blessings of life are more bountifully bestowed."
Ramcble}r, No. 186.
" He seems to have been well acquainted with his own genius, and to know
what it was that nature had bestowed upon him more bountifully than upon
others."  Life of Milton.
2 "4 Nurse went up-stairs with a most'bountiful cut of home-baked bread and
butter."  Fool of Quality, Vol. 1, p. 167.
3 ", The late boultiful grant from His Majesty's ministers."  Speech on the
Nabob of Alcot's Debts.
" To make this bozuntiful communication", &c. BReJections on the Revolution in Iecance.
4 " As those distinctions have been more shaded into each other, has there
not been less bountiful patronage on the one side, and less of the kindly and
grateful feeling of dependence on the other? " Colloquies, Vol. 2, p. 45.
5 " From the beginning, it presumed a most bountiJ-il endowment of heroic
qualifications."   Works, Vol. 14, p. 435.' T'his bountiful provision of nature."  Logic of Political Economy (ed.
1844), p. 137.
Bounteous goes with bountifuil; and Dr. Johnson-Rambbler, No. 181-has
" bounteous allotment".  A like use of the word is common in hymns with
which all of us are familiar.  Bounteouis qualifies' rewards ", " liberality ",
&c., in Sir Thomas Elyot's Governour (1531), fol. 39, 114, 173, 195 (ed.
1580). In fol. 67, bounteously means' copiously'. " Bounzteous graces ".
Gabriell Harvey, Pierce's Supereroyation (1593), p. 62 (in _Archoaica, Vol. 2).
" Bounteous goodness ", " boeunteous liberality "   Dr. Donne, Polydoron
(1631), pp. 57, 78, 131.
6 Instances earlier than the oldest of those which follow no doubt exist.
"Those principles be these and such lyke.  That the soule is immortal,
and, by the bountiful goodnes of God, ordeined to felicitie."  Raphe Robynson, Translation of Sir Thomas More's Utopia (1556), p. 106 (ed. 1869).
"By his bountifull liberalitie, professors of dyvers tongues were instituted
and appointed."  Puasquine in a iraunce, fol. 112.
" A large and bozstifulll intrest ". Barnabe Riche, Farewell to zirilitarie eProfession, p. 183.'" To reward liberally, to give bountifully ". Id., ibid., p. 75o.
"' These.. Signior Bartolo. accepted. with great gratfulness, that so
good and bouzntiful a gift merited ".  o'arlton's Jests, &c., p. 78.
" Did I not intend to deal a bountifful alms of courtesy, who, in my case,
would give ear to the law of oblivion, that hath the law of talion in his
hands?"  Gabriell Harvey, A  New letter, &c. (1593), p. 14 (in Archaica,
Vol. 2).
" Free and bounstiful hospitality."   Verstegan, Restitution of Decayed Intelligence, &c. (1605), p. 55 (ed. 1673).
" Bountiful blessings", 1" bountiful entertainment", " bounetiful reflection",'"bountiful favour". John Taylor, the water-poet, FWorks (ed. 1630), Vol. 1,
pp. 119, 137; Vol. 2, p. 101; Vol. 3, p. 77.
" Which proceeded not from that the scituation of Rome was more bountifull then theirs, but onely from the different course they tooke." Edward
Dacres, Translation of allchiavel's Discourses (1636), p. 273.
1"BountifZul disposition", " bosuntifful legacies ".  Brathwait, The English
Gentlemnan, &c., pp. 36, 241.
" And here I may seasonably appeal unto the apprehensions of men,.




72
" Convene is much perverted from  its true meaning by many
people who cannot be called illiterate.  Thus:'The President
convened   Congress'.  Convene (from  conz and venio) means'to
come together'.  The right word, in this case, is convoke, which
(from  con and voco) means'to call together'.  The President
convokes Congress in special session, and then Congress convenes.
Convene is misused in the Constitution of the United  States
itself, which  is  singularly  free from   errors in  the use of
language."
That the  use  here  condemned  was ever before  considered as faulty, or will ever again  be drawn  into  question, is scarcely  supposable.  lNot to  go into  antiquity,'
writers  such  as Dr. Johnson,2  Cowper,3 Southey,4 Coleridge,5  Lord  Miacaulay,6 Abp. Manning,t and  Dr. Newman,s  make convene a verb active; it differs from  convoke,
why the free will of Atove or Ahad should be lesse bouzntSfill then the minds
of well-meaning men ", &c. Henry MIore, P/hiloso1lhicall Poems (ed. 1647), pp.
411, 412.
" Those hands... are now ever open for alms-deeds and bountiful distribution to the needy."  Id., Alstery of Godlizwss, p. 513.
"2 Bountiful maintenance ", " bountiifld contributions ". Fuller, The H/oly
State and the Profane State, pp. 86, 267. Also see Fuller's iJixt Contemplations in Better Times, XIX.
The following phrases are from Abelg Redesivus.  " Bountiful hospitality"
Dr. Featly, pp. 307, 550. " Bountijul charity": Dr. Isaacson, page unnumbered.  " Bountiful manner": Anon., p. 515.
" Whereupon Almiglhty God not onely declares his acceptance of that
pious resolution, but rewards it with a bozuntftill promise."  Barrow, WTorks,
Vol. 1, p. 162.'" This if they cannot do with a quiet mind, they are left free, by the
Church, to enjoy a laical indulgence, which is very large and exceeding
bounztifsal."  Puller, il~ocderation, &c., p. 76.
I Dr. Johnson quotes Clarendon and Pope. Also see REikon ]Basilike, Ch.
1, 4, 20; Hobbes, Works, Vol. 2, p. 91; Pearson, -An Exposition of the
CGreed, p. 466; Sanderson, Sermons, Vol. 1, Preface, ~ 4; and Jeremy Collier,.Essays ucpon Several fforal Subjects, Part III. (ed. 1705), p. 130. To the
names in the text I may add those of Horace WValpole, Edward Moore, and
Lord Chesterfield.  See the WForld, Nos. 160, 182, 197.
Convene was preceded by convset, most generally a verb active, in the sense
of'summon'. No doubt convent is older than Bishop Bale, who used it before
1563.  See his Kynge Johan (ed. 1838), p. 36. Also see Brathwait's English
Gentlemzan, &c., p. 200; Gataker and Fuller, in Abel Redevivus, pp. 198, 200
201, 211, 378; and Heylin, Examen Historizcun (1659), Part 1, pp. 71, 147.
2 Rambler, No. 91.            3 Works, Vol. 1, p. 180.
4 Espriella's Letters, Vol. 2, p. 10.    5 Chs'ch anzd State, &c., p. 334.
6 In his Essays on iXallam's Constitutional H:fistory  and on  i7arren
Hiastizsgs.
7 Th'e Unity of the Cherch, p. 129.
8 Essay on the Miracles, &c., pp. 6, 201: Essays Critical and Hfistorical,
Vol. 2, p. 320.




73
as'cause to come together' differs from' call together' 9;
and, from  the competition of assemble and  meet, the verb
neuter convene, which never was very common, is, at least
in  England, rapidly  obsolescent.    If, for a reason  like
that alleged, "to  convene  Congress" be  incorrect, then,
since florescere, resistere, and revivere have none but neuter
senses,1 and partiri, revolvere, and separare, none but active
senses, it is bad English to speak of'fiourishing a sword',' resisting evil', and' reviving  dormant feelings', or to say' he has parted with his common sense','the earth revolves
rozund the  sun', and'the  friends separaced'.  Mr. White
really does not seem aware that his own good pleasure is
insufficient to brand as wrong that which everybody else
thinks to be right.
Though he admits that divine, in the sense of " clergyman", "is supported by long usage and high authority ",2
Mr. White declares that "This use of this adjective as a
noun has a parallel in the  calling philosopher' a philosophic', which  is done  in a newspaper-article  before me."
There is not only all the difference, here, between what is
established and what is not, but more.   By a divine we do
not mean' a divine person'; 3 but we should mean, by a
It is deplorable how far Mr. White is unacquainted with good usage. At
p. 418, he calls risible " the counterpart" of laughable. Yet erisible, save as
signifying' "able to laugh ", &c., risibilis, has never been accepted English,
notwithstanding Dr. Johnson's "risible scenes in the farce of life", " risible
absurdities", and "risible part" of a play.  Scotch may not be called into
court; and so Mr. White, on his ground for scouting proven, is bound to
admit. At p. 422, shifting his position, he tells us: " Risibilis (which, 1 have
heard it whispered, is not the best Latin) is, of course, the counterpart of
risible, or was when I went to school."  Risible had, then, when Mr. White
went to school, a certain meaning; and that meaning he recollected, on being
reminded that it was not' laugchable'.  He refuses to acknowledge his error,
and would have us believe that all such little matters have been perfectly well
known to him from his boyhood. Whatever philological learning he possesses
is, on the contrary, in all seeming, the latest of opsimathies.
1 The verb active resurrect I cannot admire; and yet it is perfectly legitimate, for all that Mr. White objects to it.  He calls it "this amazing formation ". Quite as much so is correct, erect, or select, as a verb: for the change
from neuter into active, or the reverse, is a trifle, as we see above.  Southey
uses resurrectionize; and it is better than resurrect, since resurrectionist is
fully established.  Richard Franck, in his Northern flemnoirs, p. 202, uses inszerrect of' vapours'.
2 Mr. White here employs both divine and clergymnan in senses now uncurrent in England.
3 Divine, the adjective, and divinely have been used with reference to the
science of divinity and its professors.  Dr. Peter Heylin writes of " philo



74
philosophlic,'a philosophic person'; and, if we had adopted the word in that sense, we should have done as we have
done  by  ascetic, dyspeptic,  ecclesiastic,  itinerant,  lunatic,
mecndicant, mimic, mortal, official, paralytic, resident.  Dr.
Donne,l quite  analogically,  employed, as personal substantives, panegyric  and   satiric;  Heylin,2  academical;
Fuller 3 and  others, clzymic and  fcantastic; Hlobbes,4 democratical; and  De Foe,5 enthusiastic.   Obituary, for'obituary notice', and nonthly, for'monthly publication', are,
in 3Mr. White's estimation, " equally at variance with reason and with good taste." 6  Then it is unreasonable and
vulgar to call babies innocents, to  term  grown-up  persons
adaults, to talk of ancients and moderns, juniors and seniors,
annuals and perennials, and, in  short, to  employ as a substantive any word that was, originally, an adjective or a
participle.7  Scores of substantivized adjectives which were
sophical, civil, or divine discourses ".  Excamen sIistoricnn Part 2, p. 33.
Again, in Part 1, Introduction, ~ 9: " But he that looks upon His Majesties
last Paper will finde that he had learnedly and divinely refel'd all their argumnents."  Also see the full title of Feltham's Resolves.
i Biathanatos (no date), pp. 143, 43.     2 4 1_Full Relation, &c., p. 82.
3 " True it is, he was very wild in his youth, till God,-the best Chymic,
who can fix quicksilver itself,-graciously reclaimed him."  The tHoly State
and the Profane State, p. 80.
"Not like our fantastics, who, having a fine watch, take all occasions to
draw it out to be seen." Ibid., p. 245.
For other instances, older and later, of the substantive fantastic, once a very
common word, see Brathwait, Thle EnglisAb Gentlemnan, &c., p. 390; Glanvill,
Essays, &c., VII., p. 24; Henry More, Annotations upon ZLstux Orientalis,
&c. (1682-3), p. 257.
4 Worhs, Vol. 6, pp. 199, 200, &c.
5 A Systelm of Jcagic, p. 125.  In De Foe's Political History of the Devil,
p. 225, occurs apoplectic, for' apoplectic attack'.  Compare hectic.
6 In these cases,-to which is added juvenile, for' child',-we are told,' the thing is deprived of its substantive name, and designated by an unessential, accidental quality ". If it be unessential and accidental to a philosopher
and to a child to be philosophlic and juvenile, respectively, what is essential to
them?
7 One of the objections urged against editorial, for'leader' or' leading
article', is " its conversion of an adjective, not signifying a quality, as good or
ill, into a noun ". It would be curious to have a classification of adjectives by
Mr. White.
Despite the impressment which ill here suffers, the word is not, to Mr.
White, a proper adjective.  A few pages forward, I quote him to this effect.
Pastoral, whether meaning' pastoral poem' or'pastoral address', is just
like editorial.  The substantives chesnical, classic, constem1sporary, delf, domestic,
epidemzic, exotic, famniliar, frolic, georgic, ideal, individual, lacteal, lyric,
menial, nineral,, narrative, official, particldar, patent, recluse, rustic, vagrant,
vernacular, &c. &c., were, in like manner, born of ellipsis.




75
in vogue with  our ancestors are now  laid aside;1 and we
have, on the other hand, scores that were unknown to our
ancestors.  It is solely for usage, not for Mr. White, to
stamp them as good, or as bad.
A  castigation of the verb donate opens thus:
" I need hardly say that this word is utterly abominable,2one that any lover of simple honest English cannot hear with
patience and without offence. It has been formed, by some presuming and ignorant person, from donation, and is much such a
word as vocate would be from  vocation, orate from  oration, or
grccdate from gradations."
Yet it is maintained that
"no  man  needs the authority of a dictionary  (even such
authority as dictionaries have), or of previous usage, for such a
word as juxtap3ose.  It is involved in juxtapcosition, as much as
interpose and transpose are in inteqposition and transposition."
One of the unavoidable inferences to which the reader
is driven by these two extracts is, that Mr. White has an
unreasonable distaste for one word, and an unreasonable
disposition to  patronize  another.  We  gather, too, from
these extracts, some fresh hints as to what he takes to be
the pedigree of our words, no less theoretically than in fact.
In the case of formal primitives and derivatives, we may
speak of the latter as " involved " in the former; but it is
unphilosophical and, often, practically absurd to speak of
the former as "involved" in  the latter.  Jlxtapose, Mr.
White  teaches, is "involved"  in jtxtaposition; and he
thinks he settles the point by an appeal to analogy. By
this sort of reasoning, cond and  trad are "involvedcl" in
condition and tradition, because we have addition and addc.
1 Many of these were almost always used in the plural; as additionals, con.
jecturals, considerables, dissolutes, equivocals, ignorants, illiterates, impossibles,
memornables, miserables, observables, probables, remarkables, sensibles, speculatives.  Like these are our incurables, &c.
2 Violent language of this stamp repels rather than converts. Mr. De
Quincey writes, in a like strain: " _letual, in the sense of' present', is one of
the most frequent, but also of the most disgusting, Gallicisms." Logic of
Political Economy, p. 122, foot-note. I am not going to advocate for this sense
of actual; but it is worth noting that it occurs in the pages of Junius, Gibbon,
Burke, Lord Broughton, and Dr. Arnold.
3 It is long since our language passed out of the stage during which words
like add were introduced into it. From condere and tradere we should now
form, if we required them, condit and tradit.  Compare our late edit. From
the artificial jluxtaponere we should regularly get juxtaposit, a word used by




76
And  why, pray, on  Mfr. White's principles, is not the
"utterly  abolinable"  donate  "involved"  in  donation?
To him, donate should be a word of unexceptionable genealogy.   The hypothetical "gradate from  gradation"  he
places on a par with " orate from  oration ".   Philology of
this description it is difficult to discuss seriously.  As none
but the veriest tyro has to be apprised, gradate is directly
in breach  of analogy, whereas orate  strictly  conforms   to
analogy. Southey has used this verb in the Quarterly
Review; I and  we may be sure that he did not go, for it,
to oration, but to the supine of oratre; as Shelley, for his
verb festinJate,2 went to the supine of festinare.   Mr. White,
however, inclceates,3 that, in order to form  a verb, " going
to the Greek root of a Greek word from  which an English
Derham.  Juxtacpose-the French have juxtalposer-is Gallic; and modern
verbs on the model to which it conforms are exceptional.  I have often heard
the word in conversation, and seen it in print.
Those who venture to reason about the generation of words should look well
to their general principles.
" If every word ", says William Taylor, of Norwich, " that can be found in
print is, therefore, sterling English, our languarge is at the mercy, not only of
every bungler in composition, but of every compositor's bungling.  Shakespeare may circulate false coin, and often does; and good money may have
escaped the record of any authority. Let us rather ask, concerning a word,
whether it has legitimate parentage, relations, descendants. If so, it is English, though it may never have found a printer for midwife."    ot zthly lf~agazicee, Vol. 11 (1801), p. 290.
Taylor, in thus enunciating his test of what is English, confounds, in the
same category, the actual and the potential.  A century since, deodorize and
hotogrcaph, now English in esse, were English only in posse.  But let us
apply Taylor's test.   ilojp)ere has relations in abundance, fully recognized,
as abr2pt, interrueption, coerruptnzess; and, for descendants, it counts rupture
and rouzt. Yet, in spite of relations, descendants, and legitimate parentage,
the theoretic r-zapt, for' break', is not English.  As little, too, are eurr, pell,
tzrb, and their unnaturalized brethren innumerable.  In deciding whether a
word is analogically fitted  to be English, we may dispense with asking
whether it has ever had existence; but the question whether it is English,
good or bad, cannot be entertained abstractedly from its present currency.
Neither, in passing, does the nummulary metaphor of Taylor go quite on
all fours.  What he calls " good money" may be wrought into such; but,
until so wrought, it is nothing but honest bullion.
"These are ani-mad-versions indeed, when a writer's words are madly
verted, inverted, perverted against his true intent, and their grammaticall
sense." Fuller, Th7e -Appeal, &c., Part 3, p. 21.
Agreeably to Taylor's dictum, by reason of ve-rtere, convert, advertence, vertical, &c., vert is an English verb, not simply potentially, but actually.
1 Vol. 37 (1828), p. 574. In leaders in the 1'i)nes newspaper I have
repeatedly seen perorate.  Mr. De Quincey- -forks, Vol. 6, p. 329,-has
spectate: and who can believe that he went anywhere but to spectare for it?
2 Shelley leinorials, p. 35.3 P. 208.




77
noun had already been formed" is an " illogical process".
What is true of going  to  Greek  roots must be  true of
going to Latin roots; and afiliate and locate, which
have become English  within the last hundred  years, are,
therefore, words of very  dubious  respectability.   For, if
not due to an  " illogical process ", they  must be  due to
the " presuming and ignorant " who took  them  from  ajiliatcion  and  location.  Parallel to  orate, fe.stdnate, qffiliate,
and  locate is dognate, regularly  educible  from   the supile
of donzare.  And how  does 31r. White know  that " it has
been  formed, by  some presuming  and  ignorant person,
from   donation"? 1ias he  discovered  its inventor, and
been toldc  by him   how  it was  generated?  Nor is donzate
mere surplusage.   Far from  it, if used  discriminatively,
it would be a genuine accession to our language.  As we
con tribute  contributions, stbscribe subscriptions, and  giJve
ordinary gifts, why should not we donate money, clothes,
&c., on the occasions when we make what are specifically
known as' donations'?  And very like dozate is evenztcate.
Event has no true  synonym; eventuate expresses an idea
not otherwise expressible  by a single word; and, as perAs an etymologist, Mr. White is always Mir. White.  Criticizing Pollok's
unrepeontable, he objects, as fatal to it, that  " there is no verb snevpent ".  Neor
is there a verb unszccoruezt; and, therefore, he is bound to contend, uctnccountable is false English.
Again, to get a word meaning " make enthusiastic ", I'r. White tells us:
"From the Greek adjective entlisos, an English verb, eneZtuse, nmight be properly formed ".  How he works out this conclusion is shrewdly left to conject-ure.  He says, indeed, in his Preface: "The few suggestions which I have
made in etymology I put forth with no affectation of timidity, but with little
concern as to their fate"; and the assurance and indifference thus professed
are just such as, in default of sound scholarship, might be expected.
Seeing how Mr. White holds words to be deduced, one is not surprised to
find him going astray, when he leaves the beaten track of phraseology. Thus,
he writes, at p. 241: " Something of the same sort is done by the jocular
femsza2iat/ioon of the word Hebrew, and the calling a woman of that race a
Shebrew."  Feminizatioo e  is all right, as connected withfemsina; and so would
semaesisatios   be, as connected with easZS; but, as a word, though it may be
ferninins e, cannot be a fecmae, the proper term, here, is femi'ninizations-like
ssatzsural izatsion not lmaturization..Embryotic, also, —a word used by Sterne, I find,-Mr. White takes under
his patronage, at p. 82.  Our simplest adjective of E'It3pvov would have been
enmbryous, fromn  E,ufIpvo, like agnphibiouls from  aloiopto~g: and add Milton's
atheozs, with aceelalous, anas6 logCeos, anoseGmalous, snoeotoiowus, syj2ony1moUs,
tlyrassnZS, &c..  But the modern Latinists, in adopting the form embryo,
and declining it like sereo and pubsno, prepared the way for the adjective Cembsryomsic; and we shall do well, if, with Coleridge and others, we are satisfied
with it.




78
tains to its form, it sorts with accentuate and graduate.
Eventuate justified, evrentuation is justified inclusively.
Regarding execute, we read:
"A vicious use of this word has prevailed so long, become so
common, that, although it produces sheer nonsense, there is little
hope of its reformation, except in case of that rare occurrence in
the history of language, a vigorous and persistent effort, on the
part of the best speakers and writers and professional teachers,
toward the accomplishment of a special purpose.  The perversion
referred to is the use of executed to mean'hanged',' beheaded','put to death'."
And the final decision, after much inanity which it is
needless to repeat, is, that of this use " there is no justification; its only palliation being that afforded by custom
and bad example."
Like the French  execiuter, our execute,'accomplish','make an end of', has passed to signify, when applied to
a criminal,'put an end to judicially'.  Universal consent
has so willed it; and it would be a mere waste of ink and
paper to do more than remark the egregious inapplicability
of the term  " sheer nonsense " to that which has ten thousand parallels in language, which the most careful writers
authorize, and which nobody can possibly misunderstand.'
Who finds any fault with forgive, or with pardoin, applied
to' an offence'?
" Fellowshiqp, used as a verb (for example,'An attempt to
disfellowskip an evil, but to fellowsthip the evil-doer'), is an
abomination which has been hitherto regarded as of American
origin.... To this use of fellows7hip it would be a perfect
parallel to say that,' Fifteen years ago, the monarchs of Europe
would not kingsh7ip with Louis Napoleon'.... Words ending
in sAip express a condition or state; and fellowsshikp means the
condition or state of those who are fellows, or who fellow with
each other."
In all languages, abstract words largely come to be
concretes, aggregative or particular.  Familiar instances
are seen in ClOristendorn and laity.  Rascality once meant' rascals'; nobility has, for one of its meanings,'collective
nobles'; similar are zknighthood, nagistracy, and peerage;
1 Executioner, which we use in only one sense, would pass clean out of our
language, under Mr. White's purification of it.




79
talent and genius may signify'men of talent' and'men of
genius'; &c. &c.  N~otability, for'notable person', is as
old as Chaucer; and we all speak of celebrities, mediocrities,
and  notorieties.  Add our affiities, antiquities, charities,
facilities, &c., almost without end.  Fellowzship  once had
the sense of'society',' kindred host', as is proved by the
Te Deumn;   and, when it had acquired this signification,
it was just as eligible a candidate for metamorphosis into
a verb, as band, club, crowd, herd, or throng.  Kingship was
never in like manner qualified.   Worship, the verb from
the substantive, affords a strict parallel to the verb fellowship, which, however odious from  association  of ideas, is
entirely a legitimate development; and disworship, an old
mongrel verb from  waorship, gives security  for disfellovwUnder the heading of gratuitous, it is written:
"An affected use of this word has, of late, become too comnmon.  It is used in the various senses'unfoundedC','unwarranted','unreasonable',' untrue', no one of which can be given
to it with propriety. It is not thus used either by the cultivated, or by those who speak plain English in a plain way, they
know  not why or how, and who are content to call a spade a
spade.  Gratuitous xmeans' without payment'; as, for instance,'Professor A. delivered a grctuitous lecture'..... True, dictionaries are found in which gratuitous is defined as meaning'asserted without proof or reason'.  But, in  a moment's reflection, any intelligent person will see that gratuitous cannot
mean' asserted', in any ianner.   Dictionaries have come to
be, in too many cases, the pernicious record of unreasonable,
unwarranted, and fleeting usage."
Even in Cicero, gratuitus signifies'voluntary','spontaneous','free';3 nothing is more natural than the deI" The goodly fellowship of the prophets praise thee ". In Mr. Palmer's
Origines Lit'giece (ed. 1845), Vol. 1, p. 258, the original runs: "Te prophetarum laudabilis nsonerus.`  "Laudat" is suspended, and is to be resumed
from the versicle next succeeding.
For fellowshtip, in the sense of'company', also see Pecock's Repressoer, pp.
376, 377; and Capgrave's Chronicle, pp. 159, 217, 225, 226, 239, 246, 289.
2 Compare, as a mongrel, dishearten. Our older literature swarms with
words like disbrother, discloudl, disman, disstremn.
3 This sense grlatuitozs, also, has had.
"Petrarch was a delicate man, and, with an elegant judgment, gratuitozsly
confined love within the limits of honour, wit within the bounds of discretion,
eloquence within the terms of civility", &c. Gabriell Harvey, Pierce's Superereogation, p. 61.




O80
generation of freedom  into  lawless licence; and  we thus
see how a word that began with meaning'without reward' came to mean'unauthorized',  &c.   And what
reader of our literature is ignorant of the use of gratis for' groundllessly', &c.? 2 As for language used by " the cultivated ", and quite free from  the blemish of being." affected ", it appears that 3fMr. White stands unique in knowing
where to look for it.   Let it lurk where it may, the latest
use of gratuitouts and  its adverb, execrable  as he  deems
it, is good enough for Bishop Warburton,3 John"All our powers and faculties, all the properties and perfections of our
nature, were gratnitozusly given us by the good-will of our Meh:Iar, without our
own asking? or knowing."  Dr. Richard Bentley, GWorks (ed. Rev. Alexander
Dyce), Vol. 3, p. 264.
H' How much he [Pope] was pleased with his gratuitoeus defender [Warburton], the following letter evidently shows."  Johnson, Zbfe of Pope.
" His Grace, like an able orator, as he is, begins with giving me a great
deal of praise for talents which I do not possess. HIe does this, to intitle
himself, on'the credit of this gratuitous kindness ", &c.  Burke, letteri to
Williaml Elliot, Esq.
1 So it meant, with us, more or less frequently, even before Queen Anne's
time.  See Dr. Johnson's _Dictionaey.
The sisnificatio'n in question  has long been borne by the French gcratzit. I
here quote fiom Richelet (ed. 1732): " Gratuit signifie, en termes de Philosophic, qui n'a ancun fobndement.  C'est uane suposition gratuite.'"   Again:
Gratidtemeszt signifie.. sans fondement. Vons avancez cela giratuitemezt."
See M. Littr6, for pertinent extracts from Buffon, MIontesquieu, Voltaire, and
d'Alembert.
In Italian, gcato " talvolta vale senza occasione, senza motiveo ". Cardinali.
2 " Raither should their forwardness to judge thus uncharitably of us make
us to walk the more warily and wisely, not to give them cause....  that,
if yet they -will needs speak evil of us, as of evil doers, they may do it gratis,
and to their own shame, and not ours."   Bishop Sanderson, WYorks, Vol. 2,
p. 64.  The passage is from a sermon preached in 1636.
"T That I allow not Euclid this axiom gratis,       you know to be untrue."  Hobbes, Yoe/rks, Vol. 7, p. 228.  Also see pp. 257, 263.
" For, first, he.... believes geratis, without any ground of his supposal."
Glanvill,,Xciasr` li.n  lNi/,il Est (ed. 1665), p. 38. Also see Glanvill's Essays,
c., II., p. 39;  V., p. 24; VI., p. 2.
"But, with regard to the increase, the matter is very different.  It is all
his own; the public is loaded (for anything we can see to the contrary) entirely gratis."  Burke, Observations oia a late' State of the Yattios'.
"Lord  Shelburne had told me gratis (for nothing led to it), that the
people.... were never in the wrong ", &c.  Idem, Correspondelnce, Vol. 2,
p. 111.
Since the middle ages, gratis dictum has been a common expression; and
" vous dites cela gratis " has long been good French.
"' But was not this gratis dictsov of Abrahamn?"  Fuller, ifixt Contenzplations ie Beetter'imzes, XLII.
" It is gratis diCtum."  Abp. Mianning, The Unzity of the ChuaGrch, p. 145.
Also see Mason, in Th2e Sc/coolfor Satire, p. 41.
3 "' Had the sabbatarian interpretation of this sanctification of the seventh




81
son,' Burke,2  Paley,3 Porson,4 Godwin,' Hazlitt,6  Charles
Lamb,7  Southey,s Dr.  Arnold,9   Sydney  Smith,'o  Lord
Miacaulay,  AIr. )De Quincey,12 and Dr. Newman.13' Grosw  is even more  perverted than get is, in vulgar use,
although the misapplications of it are not so numerous.  It is
day been the true, it must have followed it must have been observed, by the
people of God, from the creation to the giving of the Law. And so, indeed,
the sabbatarians say it was; but they say it gratuitously, and, what is worse,
falsely."  A Selection from Unpublished Papers, &c. (1841), pp. 274, 275.
1 " The story of reducing his exuberance.... seems to have been gratuitously transferred to Milton."  Life of MJilton.
2 4 But, as these occasions may never arrive, the mind receives a gratuitous
taint ", &c. Reyections on the Revolution in France.
3 Their sportive motions, their wanton mazes, their gratuitous activity,
their continual change of place ", &c. Natural Thbeology, Ch. 26.
4 In short, Vigilius's claims to either of these publications are only supported by some weak and gratuitous conjectures of Chiffiet."  Letters to MIr.
Archdeacon Travis, p. 339.
"5  A gratuitous assumption."  Thle lEnquirer (1797), p. 13.
6 Lectures on the:Eglish Comtic iriters, pp. 52, 83, 372: Table-talk,
Vol. 1, p. 226; Vol. 2, pp. 349, 372.      7 Letters, &c., Vol. 2, p. 136.
8 "6 Therapeutics were in a miserable state as long as practitioners proceeded
upon the gratuitous theory of elementary complections."  Colloquies, Vol. 1,
p. 254.  Also see Onnsiana, Vol. 2, p. 329; -Life of Wesley, Vol. 2, p. 198;
and Cowvper's TWorks, Vol. 2, pp. 114, 288.
9 Life and Correspondence (ed. 1846), pp. 300, 546, 551: iiscellaneous
WForks, p. 477.
J lo " The imprisonment of a poor man, because he cannot find bail, is not a
gratuitous vexation, but a necessary severity."  WForks (one-vol. ed., London,
1850), p. 55.
11 4 Supposing quite gratuitously".  First article on Sadler: _Edinburgh#
Review, Vol. 51 (1830), p. 313.
12 " The story was a pure, gratuitocs invention of his own ". TForks, Vol.
12, p. 45.
13 4 But it is needless to dwell on the improbability of an hypothesis which
has been shown to be altogether gratuzitous ".  Essay on the Miracles, &c.,
p. 169.
" Tlis gratuitous insinuation: "his gratucitous accusation ".  Apologia
pro Vita Suez, Appendix, pp. 9, 66. Qualifying " hypothesis ", " assumption ",
"gloss".  Essaysi Critical and HEistorical, Vol. 1, pp. 32, 63, 206; Discuzssions and.Arguments on Variotus Subjects, pp. 169, 370, 381, 382, 384.
I may as well add, here, a passage from  Bentley, in which gratuitously is
used precisely as Cicero uses gratuito, namely, in the sense of'for no partictular reason'.  " But there is a learned Greek professor.... who, after he
has asserted the credit of Euripides's Letters, gratuitously undertakes to apologize for these, too, about this matter of the dialect."  WTorks, Vol. 1, p. 159.
The great Grecian's puny antagonist, the Hon. Charles Boyle, adverting to
the word italicized, "can make no other sense of it " than " without having
anything for his pains", and subjoins: "This looks as if the Dr. thought
learned men were to set a price upon their civilities, and never part with a
favour till they had their fee." Bentley, with just scorn, speaks of this as " a
sorry, but yet a very spiteful, quibble,... which is a privileged slander, and
cannot, with good manners, be answered in the manner it deserves."
6




82
used  in the sense of'become'.  Such phrases are constantly
heard as'the  smooth sea grew  rough','the clear sky grew
black',' the coat had grown soiled', and even' the moon grows
smaller after the full', or' the chances are growing smaller day
by day'.  Now, grow means' increase','the enlargement of a
present quality or condition', not' a change, in character, of that
quality or condition'.  A  rough sea may grow rougher, a dark
sky grow black; but a smooth sea becomes rough, a clear sky
becomes black, a coat becomes soiled, and the moon, or anything
else that lessens, does not grow, but becomes, smaller."
Immediately after the passage just quoted, Mr. White
speaks of the objection to lelp, in the sense of' avoid', as
" a good example of a prim, precise treatment of language,
that would deprive it of all strength and flexibility. There
is no better English than'I can't help it', which is a
compact and homely way of saying'the matter is beyond
my aid'."  On precisely the same footing with this use of
hellp stands grow, to import'become';  only iMr. White
has taken a fancy to the one, and has taken an aversion to
the other.  The latter, as being an object of his dislike,.
belongs, of course, to "vulgar use ".  If it ought to be
discarded, we should  likewise  discard'go  mad','rzM
wild','fiall sick',' ge  well',' tax  angry', &c. &c.
Among  the writers at whom  Mir. White  unconsciously
knits his austere brows, and whom he consigns to the rantk
of vulgarians, are Dr. Johnson and Lord Macaulay.  For
the first writes " grew acquainted ", " grew less pleased ",
and "grow rich ";s  and the latter, "Cgrov smaller" and
"' must be growing a fine girl ".3
It is singular how even men of generally good judgment sometimes allow their fancy to get the upper hand.
1 Mr. White probably rejects this idiom, since he debars "getting crazy"
Yet Dr. Johnson, in his Life of D)orset, writes "' cot drunk,".
2 dler, Nos. 64, 69.:Elsewhere, Johnson has " grow fewer",' grew able ",
I"grow less",  "grown desirous ", "greows  little".  teorks (iMarphy's ed.,
1816), Vol. 2, pp. 33, 231, 304; Vol. 11, p. 123; Vol. 12, p. 260.
3 Speeches, &c., p. 5,: History, Chapter 20. In his Essay on Ranske's
fHistory of the Popes, Lord Macaulay writes: "The zeal of the Catholics
waxed cool"
Steele has " to grow less ".  Guarrdians, No. 76.
Bishop Lowth has " grown poor ". Life of JWilliams of Tyke7ban, p. 300.
Gray has "we grew the best acquaintance," and "g grow less ".  Works,
Vol. 2, p. 174; Vol. 4, p. 172.




83
Bentham, equally with. Mr. White, has his favourite
horrors. Listen to him: 1
"Besides, and again, and this too, and mzoreover,-it is by
words of this sort that the symptom  of weakness, here called
fumbling, is betrayed."
Herein the philosopher forgets, for once, to be philosophic. Inasmuch as, when under the temptation to use
the expressions which he enumerates, he felt himself to
be fumbling, it was right and becoming that he avoided
them; to fumble being, to his mind, vicious. At the
same time, it, was somewhat despotic in him  to demand
that his own consciousness in the matter ought to be the
consciousness of everybody else.  Again, or besides, or
moreover,-and yet I am not aware that I fumble,-how
constantly, on the showing of the great jurisprudent, we
who have written English have, all of us, been fumbling,
for several centuries.  Though, in tacit profession, launching a shaft at loose morality, Bentham really aims, in his
denunciation, at an established usage which nothing but
blind prejudice would ever think of excepting against.
To say'a man is ill', or to speak of the proverbial' ill
wind' or  ill weeds',  of'a house of ill fame', or of' ill
health',' ill luck'',ill will', is, to Sir. White's thinking,
not to be endured.  "For the use of ill, an adverb, as an
adjective,2 —thus,'an ill man',-there is no defence and
no excuse, except the contamination of bad example."  In
our day, the expression instanced is not used in any sense;
but yet, just as much as there, ill, before whatever substantive, is an adjective. That this word, a contraction of
evil, was originally an adverb is a fiction for the nonce;
and, even if it had been at first an adverb, has not usage
converted the adverb forward into an adjective, and even
into a verb?  Moreover, if ill be not a proper adjective,
illness3 can hardly be a proper substantive.  The "bad
Works (ed. Sir John Bowring), Vol. 8, p. 308.
2 At p. 74, note 7, we have seen that Mr. White adduces ill, with good, as a
normal adjective.
The adverb illy-occasionally used in America, and of which Mr. Wright,
in his _Dictionary of Obsolete acnd Provizcial _English, gives an instance under
the date of 1604,-and the old smally, could never become popular. It takes
too long to pronounce them.
3 Mr. Ruskin, in U:nto This Last, p. 126, proposes itlta, as antithetical to




84
examnple" which we are told of has been working its
" contamination" ever since the thirteenth century, and,
probably, longer. Better than in the extract just quoted,
Mr. White has nowhere displayed, in a short compass,
the extravagance of his whimsicality, his recklessness of
facts, and his exorbitant intolerance.
Not unlike Mr. W5hite's position regarding ill is that of
Cobbett regarding than whom:
"' Cromwell, titan w;7hon no man was better skilled in artifice'.  A hundred such phrases might be collected from Hume,
]3lackstone, and even from Doctors Blair and Johnson.  Yet
they are bad grammar.  In all such cases, vwho should be made
use of; for it is nominative, and not objective." 1
There is nothing, in this decision, of Cobbett's usual
independence of his brother-grammarians of English.
Ordinarily, his attitude towards them is that of scornful
dissent; and any careful student of their vagaries can
have little confidence in a race who, to judge from  the
outcome of their labours, seem, in most cases, to have
qualified themselves for their duties by merely learning a
little Latin, and purging themselves of common sense.
Or was it that the attractions of general dissidence here
prevailed, with Cobbett, over the attractions of special
dissidence? Did he here side with the grammarians,
because they furnished him with a weapon against universal custom?  Be this as it may, the grammarians
posit the absence of regimen as one of the differential
features of a conjunction; herein Cobbett concurs with
them; and, therefore, we should write: "Cromwell, than
wzho no man was better skilled in artifice".  That any
one but Cobbett would abide this, as English, is highly
improbable; and how the expression, a quite classical one,
which he discards can be justified grammatically, except
by calling its than a preposition, others may resolve at
their leisure and pleasure.2  Cobbett, and so 3ir. White,
wealth; and, in fl2ss Clavigera, Letter 7, p. 13, he opposes common-illth to
commno-wealth.
Lithgow uses well for'welfare'. " The soyle of HIungary aboundeth infinitly in all things the earth can produce for the well of man ". The Totall
Discoeurse, &c., p. 414.
1 A Grammar of the Englibsh Language, ~ 200. That which Cobbett gives
as a reason must, in order to become such, be construed sylleptically.
2 According to the analogy of the Latin, we ought to say' He is older than




85
treats English much in the manner of a tailor who, instead
of making new coats after the measure of his customers,
should pare down his customers to fit coats ready-made.
C"Many women, and  even  some  men, who  should  know
better, are in the habit of speaking  of their jewelry, when
they mean their jewels. The word thus used is of very low
caste.... As applied to trinkets and  precious stones, the
word means, at best,'jewels in  general', not any particular
jewels. It is of very late introduction, in any sense; not being
in Shakespeare, or the Bible, or Milton, or in Johnson's Dictionary.... But, properly,'jewels' are no more jewelry than' shrubs'are s7hrubbery,' slaves' slavery, or'beggars' beggary.
Jewelry is, properly, the name of the place in which jewels are
kept; as slavery is the name of the condition in which slaves
are kept; as beggcary is that of the condition in which beggars
are; and  as shrubbery is that of grounds filled with shrubs.
These, words belong to a numerous class ending in ry, which
express place, or condition, which is moral place."
A  larger variety  of superficial philology than  is here
exhibited could not easily be condensed within the space
which it occupies. Our termination -ery, often euphonically shortened to -ry,l came to us, directly, from the
French -erie, which frequently denotes a collection. Artillery, cavalry, chicanery, chivalry, fri'ppery, iqfantry, MuSketry, nalgery, for instance, we took, essentially made to
our hands, from  the French; and we have coined ancestry,
blazonry, enginery, imagery,2 knicknackery, pageantry, poultry,
scenery, soldiery, tenantry, tracery, yeomanry, &c. &c., ourselves.3  In  all languages, abstracts are  readily  transme'. But we should have to make our language over, from the beginning, if
we would have it quadrate with other languages.' That man is lhe' accords
with the Latin, and yet not with the French, &c.' That man is hisn', it is
contended by many, is preferable.  One or other of the forms will eventually
be ousted, but by usage, and by usage alone.
1 To other classes of words belong baptistery, directory, legendary, presbytery, psaltery, statuary, treasury, &c. a&.  fairy was, originally, a collective.
2 Ymnagoure, our earliest form of imagery, meaning'images', occurs in
7Yyng Alysauncler, which was written in the thirteenth century. See Weber's
Mnetrical Romances, Vol. 1, p. 313. Pecock, in his Repressor, pp. 139 and
144, has ylmagerie and ynsagirie.
3 Shakespeare has villagery, for' collection of villages';. Richard Brathwait, infantry, for' infants'. Milton uses Irishryy; and so does Lord Macaulay,
with Englishry and helotry (helots). Horace Walpole has giantry and riotry
(rioters); Charles Lamb, citizenry, girlery, pantaloonery; Southey, eattery,
rasalry, trinretry y; Coleridge, branchery; William Taylor, angelry, valetry,




86
formed into concretes; and, hence, such words as drcaperie,
4picerie, and  mnercerie, at first,'cloth-trade', &c., from
drapier, epicier, and mercier, came to mean the articles in
which these traffickers deal. Setting out with the secondary sense of words like those enumerated, in their English
forms dlrapery, spicery, and mercery, we have come by our
braziery,l cutlery, haberdashery, hosiery, mnilli'tery, peddlery,
perfunery, saddclery, SpOholslery,2          &c.; and the analogy
followed, in framing  them, is so well established, that we
do not hesitate to increase their number, as we have
occasion. Accordingly, whether taken as an English
formative, or as a naturalized  exotic, our jewellery 3 is religiously analogical. When, therefore, a lady speaks of
her jecellery, her language is every particle  as proper as
is that of a landlord in speaking of his tenantry 4; and this
vassalry; Mr. Ruskin, legendry and serpent'ry; the Rev. Charles Kingsley,
studentry; and I have seen felonry, for' felons', in the Saturday Review.
Vacgygonry is used contemptuously, by Milton, for waggon; and many an old
writer has harlotry for harlot.
Such is our propensity to give words in -ry an aggregative sense, that, in
domesticating mn&zagerie, we have changed its only present French sense,'place where strange animals are collected', and apply it to the animals
themselves.
"1 For example,.       navigation, from Zebulun; brazery, or smithworks, from Tubal Cain; musick, from Jubal".  Brathwait, The Englyish
Gentleman, &c., p. 72.
2 Vide supra, p. 30, note 1
3 This, if we made the word ourselves, is, by analogy, a better form than
jewelry; for, as we have seen, things that may be objects of trade are denoted
collectively by adding -y-a euphonic shortening of -ry,-to the appellative
of their appropriate tradesman.
Early in the last century, joiialerie (now joaillerie) was defined "marchandise de joiialier ".  M. Littre has: " Des articles de joaillerie ".
4'I Jewelry ", with " confectionary, pastry, and crockery", Mr. White calls
"words which have been perverted by careless speakers".  These,-a sort
of reservation being made in favour of the last,-and also pottery, he indirectly advises to be turned out of the language.  For the retention of
"jewelry," pastry, and pottery, nothing can be pleaded, he says, "except
conformity to a bad custom which perverts meaning, cramps language, and
violates analogy ".
Mr. White writes confectionary,-a spelling which should have led him
to look elsewhere than to confectioner, for its origin.  And so write most
English dictionaries, though English usage now knows no spelling but conectionery.  Confectionary, from  the Low Latin confectionarisus, means, in
Shakespeare and the Bible, confectioner,; and Nash, Shakespeare's contemporary,-in his Lenten Stuffe (in the Harleian Ml iscellany, ed. Oldys and Park,
Vol. 6, p. 158),-writes of "junquetries or confectionaries "; confectionaries
here representing confectionaria. In Nash's CArist's Tears, &c., p. 140, written
in 1594, we already find confectioner: Brathwait, in A Boulster-lecture, p.
160, has confectioness; and Henry Earl of Monmouth, the verb active confec



87
use, " of very low  caste " though  MIr. White calls it,' has
been  accepted by Burke,2  Landor,3  Lord  Macaulay,'4 Mlr.
De  Quincey,5  Mr. lRuskin,5  and  by  our contemporaries
universally.7  In  fact, nothing  is wanting, Mr. White's
simple'placet' excepted, to raise it to the highest patrician rank.s
tionate.  Pensionary, prinsary, and proprietary were succeeded by pensioner,
prismer, and proprietor; and confectionery, the personal substantive, was
superseded by confectioner,-whence our confectionery.  Confectionary, to us,
is much as stationary would be, to designate the wares of a stationer.  Contrariwise to confectionary, supplanted by confectioner, we first had missioner,
and then, owing to the influence of the French nsissionnaire, missionary.
Alissioner is used even by Goldsmith and Horace Walpole; and Romanists
still generally cling to the old word.
Crockery,-unless a collective of the old crocke, for crock, —is, probably, a
like formation, and came from crocker; for the survival of the proper name
so spelled almost proves that crock once had a personal derivative.  Pastry
and pottery were corrupted from the French; and the rule of our language,
long ago established, in dealing with depravations of foreign words, is, to let
them alone.
1 Addison writes, in the Spectator, No. 351: "I am apt to think that the
changing of the Trojan fleet into water-nymphs, which is the most violent
macbhinle in the whole lneid, and has given offence to several critics, may be
accounted for the same way."  When we talk of the nmachinery of a poem, do
we mean anything but the plural of Addison's machine?
2 As is noted by Mr. White, referring to Dr. Richardson's l)ictionary.
3 blast Fruit off an Old Tree, pp. 4, 17, 346.
4 Essays on the Consic Dramzatists of the Restoration, on tarren Hastings,
on Madame d'-Arblay, and on Addison: HSistory, Chapter 10.
6   orks, Vol. 1, p. 86; Vol. 11, pp. 127, 136; Vol. 14, pp. 108,, 162.
6 The Seven  ~amops of Architecturle, p. 3z: Lectures on Architecture and
PainZting, p. 95.
7 In what follows, Mr. White, doubtless, conceives that he is making a
point. "' Think of Cornelia pointing to the Gracchi, and saying' These are
my jewelry'; or read thus a grand passage in the last of the Hebrew prophets:'And they shall be mine, saith the Lord of hosts, in that day when I
make up my jewelry!'"  The effect is ludicrous, it must be granted.  And
so it is, if we read:' I will make you fishermen of men'.  Nevertheless,
fisherman could, in most cases, be changed for fisher, only at the cost of affectation; and jewellery, in its place, which there is little difficulty in finding, is liable to no rational challenge.
8 So far was William Taylor from Mr. White's way of thinking, that he
refused to use rivalry for rivalship, and contended, very erroneously, that it
could properly signify' rivals' only.
What Mr. White says of beggary and slavery is quite correct, as a statement of current usage; but what he says of shrubbery needs amendment.
Beggary and slavery might, however, be decreed, by usage, with perfect regularity, to mean' beggars' and' slaves'.
I have by no means been contemplating all our categories of words in -ery,
-ry, and -y.  Buttery and many other similar words express'place', certainly.  But, among these, Mr. White mistakes in naming gyrocery, which, in
the English of England, does not mean' grocer's shop'.




88
Mr. White is not, however, invariably consistent in his
somewhat overdone preference for the establishments of
former times, or what he takes to be such.  For example,
his views of marrying are quite revolutionary.  Some, he
tells us, marry John Smith to Mary Jones; others denote
the connexion by with; and  others still, by  and.  "I
have no hesitation in saying that all of these forms are
incorrect.  We know, indeed, what is meant by any one
of them; but the same is true of hundreds and thousands
of erroneous uses of language."   It may be anticipated,
that objection would be taken to the Scotch mode of marrying John Smith upon Mary Jones.  What, then, is the
correct thing? "The proper form of announcement is I
Married, MIary Jones to John Smith."  And the reason?
" Properly speaking, a man is not married to a woman, or
married fwith her; nor are a man and a woman married
owith each other.   The woman is married  to the man."
"The etymology of the word agrees entirely with the
conditions of the act which it expresses. To marry is io' give', or to' be given, to a husband', mari." 1
Hapless Mary Jones!  John Smith, though by courtesy
called her husband, is not, for all that, in any sense a
married man.  Neither, except so far as those who gavre
her away are concerned, is Marv Jones, according to Mr.
WVhite's definition of marry,2 intelligibly a mnarried woman.
In marrying John, Mary is "given to a husband ", to be
sure; but, to justify the deluded victim in calling herself,
save as aforesaid, married, we must ascertain fbr her a
passive voice of to be given, itself passive.  The'married
state' must, further, be  a'state  given in  marriage' 
There being, then, no married men, and, otherwise than
I The previous context is as follows: "' ubo: viro trader: to be married
to a man. For it is in the woman's part only'. Lilly's Grammvar. In
speaking of the ceremony, it is proper to say that he married her (dexit inz
mnatrinzonio), and not that she married him, but that she was married to him."
HIere, as in many other places, Mr. White requires a commentator. To a
plain understanding his reasoning is all at sixes and sevens. If " to marry is
to' give', or to' be given to a husband'," how can a man marry a woman?
Moreover, as he grounds his notion of the right use of ~nmarry on its etymology,
his cheap Latin has about the same topical relevance that would belong to
a receipt for making cream-cheese or a black-pudding.
That definition, it will be observed, makes it as impossible for the parson
as for John to marry Mary; for it is not his function to give the lady to a
husband.




89
in a sort of Pickwickian sense, no married women either,
free-lovers may, with good reason, look up.
Iarry, in classical acceptation, has, with reference to
the nuptial pair, all the extension of wed; and it is precisely as proper to speak of a man's marrying as to speak
of his marriage.  The word is, indeed, allied to the French
marier, based on mari,'husband'; but this fact is wholly
inert as to determining our use of it. Marier denotes the
act of giving away a bride, or that of performing the
ceremony which gives her a husband; and se marier is
said alike of the man and of the woman.  Besides this,
our marrty, if it had come directly from  manri, might, on
the analogy of the verb master, have had the exclusive
meaning'become husband  of'; and wive might have
meant' become wife of'.  But such considerations prove
nothing.  All the four senses which we give to marry are
supported by the best writers; and the facts and figments
brought forward by BMr. White are not of the slightest
weight as against the decision of authoritative usage.2
CMilitacte is rarely misused, except that any use of it is
misuse, and  it belongs rather among words which  are not
words..... What couldcl be more absurd than the making of
the Latin milito into an English word, to take the place of
opl}pose, contend, be at variance with..... The absurdity is
the greater, because it is usually a supposition, or a theory, or
something quite as incorporeal, that is militated against.  The
use of this word is, however, not a question of right or wrong,
but one of taste.   It belongs to a bad family, of which are
necessitate, ratiocinate, egfectuate, and eventuate, which, with their
I As, likewise, we say that a man hucsbacnds property, or the like, in being a
husband,'economizer', of it; or that one man rivals another, in being his
rival.
2 Just as this page is going to the press, I find the following in an English
journal: " A new abomination has appeared in the United States vocabulary;
septiated, for'married'." Can this creation be in any way attributable to
Mr. White's polemic against marr~y?
But nsuptiate, except as being unneeded, is not quite an "abomination"
Exuviatec,-from exuvim, —a word in good repute with naturalists, is just like it,
as to genesis; and exitviare would not have shocked a Roman, as irregular.
Vide infra, note' to p. 90..
If, when not content with wed, instead of going to the French for smarry,
we had gone to the Latin, we might have made, on the analogy of divide,
laud, and direct, nsube, nub, and nupt. As it is, we may congratulate ourselves
on not snupting our daughters to suitors, and on our daughters' not nubing
them.




90
substantives,-necessitation, ratiociamation, efect-uction, and event.action (which must be received with their parent verbs),-should
not be recognized as members of good English society."
At last, then, we are confronted with a
Monstrum nulla virtute redemptum
A vitiis.
Milictate, moreover, "does not appear in Johnson's Dictionary ". And what of that? Mr. White will hardly convert
the world to his fashion of picking and choosing his words,
"Like one well studied in a sad ostent
To please his grandam."
Even if militate,l instead of dating from  the seventeenth
century,2 were as modern as M3r. White supposes it to be,
it would go very far towards being classicized by the
sanction   of  Smreollett,3  Burke,4   Jones   of   Nayland,5
1 Sterne, in Tristramc Shandy, Vol. 4, Ch. 22,-and Horace Walpole, likeWise,-has mnilitiate; and the Latins, instead of their mnilitare, from miles,
might have coined an original for it in mnilitiare, from mnilitia; as they made
friare and luxurziare from firia and luxuriea.
2 "I must now perform  what I promis'd in the fourth place, namely,
answer the arguments you apprehend to militate and fight against it."
Burthogge, Caeusa) Dei (1675), p. 151.
Mr. White thinks that nmilitate " must have been creeping into newspaperuse in Johnson's day ", and adds an instance from a journal " of more than
ninety years ago".  But what would it be against it, if it had first appeared
in a newspaper? Words must be born into the world somewhere; and many
a good one has, no doubt, originated from such a source. I have made but
very slight quest for militate in writers more than a century old, as it seemed
especially important to defend it, by appeals to usage, from the standingpoint of taste.  It is used by Sterne, in one of his letters, No. 17, written.
in 1761.  The illustration adduced by Archdeacon Todd is from The Confessional, by Blackburne,-whose name Dr. Worcester corrupts into Blackstone,
-published in 1767. The word occurs, too, in the preface to Robert Baker's
Remarks on the Encglish Langzage, ed. 1770.  Smollett, who, also, uses mnilitate, died in 1771.                 3 Dr. Webster is here my authority.
4 "I shall not consider how forcibly this argument mzilitates with their
whole principle."  Speech on the Acts of Unizformity, 1772.
"The tax.... mnilitates with the assurance authentically conveyed to the
colonies," &c.  Speech on Amnerican Taxation, 1774.
" These are deep questions, where great names nzilitate against each other."
Speech on Conciliations with Amnerica, 1775.
These extracts all date "more than ninety years ago ", and, however they
may harmonize with the "newspaper-use " of that day, are from speeches delivered in Parliament.  Seven other passages might be quoted, from Burke,
where he uses militate followed by' with'; and once he has " msilitate under ",
in his Speech on the Nabob of Arcot's D)ebts.  For "militate against ", see
Thle Epistolary Correspondence of Burke and lDr. laurezce, pp. 103, 143.
It is pertinent to remark, that no one, until he has familiarized himself
with the writings of Burke, should venture to discourse on modern Eng(lish.
"Sometimes they take a text independently, so as to make it militate against




Paley,' Southey,2 Coleridge,3 Mr. De Quincey,4 Landor,5 and
Dr. Newman.6   Its original, nilitare, signifies'serve as a
soldier','strive', from  which  its own  acceptation does
not vary much.7  To give it, with respect to its etymology,
the meaning it now  bears is "absurd ",8 just as much  as
our rodern consul, gazette, journal, outlandish, preposterous,
the tenour of the divine law."  Theological and 2]iiscellaneozs Works, Vol. 2,
p. 243.  This was written between 1771 and 1773. Two similar instances
are seen in Vol. 6, p. 126.
1 In six instances, at least, Paley uses militate followed by' with'; once,
followed by'against', viz., in his Moral Philosophy, Book 4, Chapter 3.
2 Ietters, &c. (1797), p. 273.
3 Essags on ]His Own Times, pp. 344, 472, 833.
4 Morks, Vol. 9, p. 216. "  ilitated for ", there used of the Roman Republic, signifies'fought for'. As I learn from M. Littre, mniliter, in the
fifteenth century, signified' to be a soldier'.
Hobbes usesfight figuratively. " These propositions fight not only against
the King of England, but against all the kings of the world."  Works, Vol.
6, p. 353.  Compare the extract in note 2, p. 90.
5 Last Truit off an Old Treei p. 163.
6 Apologia pro Vita Sca, p. 332.
7 The French formerly employed sziliter with both contre and postr or en
fcaveur de; at present, it appears, it is constructed with the latter only. iMilitare, in Italian, now generally follows the surviving French use. And this
use has been imitated in English.  Bishop Horne writes: "His example
~militates powerfully infavoaur of the plan."  Olla Podrida, No. 12. Mr. Kett,
in No. 39 of the same periodical, also employs militate.
8 The Romans used inmpugnare and repugnare, except that the first is
always active, precisely as we use militate.
More than once it happened to me, when living in India, to fall in with an
enthusiast who, by dint of daily perusing his omphalic node for six or eight
hours on end, constantly repeating the words' Ram, Ram', the while, had
ended with hearing the music of the spheres, scenting the lotoses of the celestial Ganges, and enjoying the beatific vision of Krishna and his multitudinous paramours. In like manner, any person of ill-conditioned mind may, no
doubt, by persevering contemplation of almost anything, bring himself to
believe it quite the reverse of what it seems to that healthful and unclouded
reason which allows to dry and sober facts the consideration they deserve.
A good sample of Mr. White's inexactness is seen in his defining the
neuter militate by " be at variance with ", a phrase essentially tantamount to a
verb active.  This by the way.  As to its being " absurd" to make militare
into militate, why it is not equally so to transfigure any other Latin verb into
an English verb is a matter which Mr. White reserves, seemingly, as part of
his esoteric discipline. And in what does a Latin participle differ, as a subject for importation into our language, from a Latin verb, in case he allows
the expression' church militant'?  Again, because, among the Romans, only
men militated, suppositions and theories, it appears, are not to take, with us,
a liberty unknown two thousand years ago in Italy. By this rule, a fashion
may not dominate or predominate, be domziannt or predominanst; and it is not
at all clear how Words and Their Uses, since the book has not material legs
to propel it, can be a' leadbig authority', with certain sons and daughters of
the thoughtless.




92
pulny, zncouth, and  viands are  "absurd";  and, in  our
making its object "a supposition, or a theory, or something quite as incorporeal ", "the absurdity is the greater ",
pretty  much  as it is when  we talk  of'corroborating  a
statement', or of'the bonldary-line between wisdom  and
folly', the overstepping of which we have not to go far
to see exemplified.  And what objection, free from  fatuity,
or prompted  by anything  but intellectual emasculation,
can be brought against necessitate, ratiocinate, effectacte,l
and their conjugates? 2  Most of them  the best of our
writers have employed for two hundred years and more;
and, short of tedious periphrases, we have nothing to take
their places.   Eve~ntuate and  eventuatiom  I have already
remarked on.3
Obnoxiozus, as in  "to change obnoxious", and the like,
Mr. White would be glad  to  see revived; this use of it
being fast on the wane.4   Its suggestion of poxious 6 told
against it; and, for an analogous reason, the older sense
of impertinent is rapidly falling into disuse.   No sense of
obnoxious but that of "liable  or exposed to harm " was
known, says Mr. White, "until the close of the last century;
as may be seen by reference to Richardson's Dictionary ":
and, in so saying, he makes two gross mistakes. Long before
the year 1800, obnoxiouzs had the sense which it now  most
generally has, and also senses of which Mr. White knows
nothing.6 Even from Dr. Johnson we learn that it was used,
I The Italian has ssecessitare, raziocinare, and effettuare; the French, nicessiter, ratiociner, and effectuer.
2 It is rarely any but bad models that Mr. White can be compared to,
Extremely like his perturbation at polysyllables is the feeling evinced, in the
following passage, by a gentleman whom it is not much of a venture to term
the " inspired idiot" of the nineteenth century. " And, at this day, though I
have kind invitations enough to visit America, I could not, even for a couple
of months, live in a country so miserable as to possess no castles."  Mr.
John Ruskin, Pors Clavigera, Letter 10, p. 9.
3 tide supra, pp. 77, 78.
4 Here, as with reference to conetrovertist, fMr. White figures in the unfavourable character of a conservatist just for the sake of conservatism. The
annexed observation of Bishop Sprat may pertinently be recommended to his
consideration. "There is scarce any thing that renders a man so useless as a
pervers sticking to the same things in all times, because he has sometimes
found them to have bin in season."  The HEistory of the Royal Society, &c.
(ed. 1667), p. 335.
5 Even in the first century, obnoxisus was used to mean the same with
noxius,' hurtful, injurious'.
6 "r To the body diseases are infectious; to the mind are vices no lesse obnoxious."  Brathwait, The English Gentlemae, &c., p. 140.




93
for' reprehensible', by Dr. Fell, in the time of Charles IT.;
and  I  subjoin  like instances from  Dr. Donne,l Glanvill,2
Obnoxious here means'likely to affect'.  Compare the use of subject in the
subjoined extract from  Bp. Sprat:  "A little knowledge is subject to make
men headstrong, insolent, and untractable."    The History of the Royal
Society, &c., p. 429.
"But this interpretation will be found obnoxious to a double errour."
George Ashwell, Tides Apostolica (1653), p. 216.
This obnoxious to bears the sense of' chargeable with'.
" It may shun what is obnoxious, and seek after that which is profitable."
R. White, Translation of XA Late Discoeurse, &c. (ed. 1664), p. 89.'Noxious' or' injurious' is the signification of obnoxious, in this passage.
"This degrading the priesthood into a servile office takes off from that
veneration which is due to the solemn mysteries of religion, and makes them
look common and contemptible, by beingadministered by persons not sui juris,
but obnoxious to the pleasure of those who receive them".  Jeremy Collier,
Essays u2pon Several it[oral Subjects, Part I. (ed. 1703), pp. 205, 206.
In this place, obnoxious imports' subservient'.
In the passages subjoined, obnoxious means, absolutely,' liable','exposed','in peri'.
"'Tis just that all advantage that well can be should be afforded to the
obnoxious party for his justification and deliverance."  Barrow, TWorks, Vol.
1, p. 279.
" For these things are intolerably fastidious in conversation, and obnoxious
to be charged with usurpation and iniquity."  Id., ibid., Vol. 1, p. 394.
" So obnoxious are we to manifold necessities."  Id., ibid., Vol. 1, p. 406.
Also see p. 501.
" But the opinion of witches seems, to some, to accuse Providence, and to
suggest, that it hath exposed innocents to the fury and malice of revengeful
fiends, yea, and supposeth those most obnoxious, of whom  we might most
reasonably expect a more special care and protection," &c. Joseph Glanvill,
Essays, &c. (1676), V., p. 13.  Also see Lux Orientalis (ed. 1682), p. 8 (bis).'" The obnzoxious strength and magnificence of imperial cities, and the less
exposed and humbler abodes of private life, are equally, subject to the general
law which is carried into execution by the very nature of man."   hiss C(arter's Letters to kMrs. Mlfontagu, Vol. 2, p. 80.
" But, from this his suspension (from -the exercise of his jurisdiction), he was,
in his own thoughts, buried; it reviving his obnoxiousness for his former casuall
homicide." Fuller, The Appeal, &c,., Part 3, p. 12.
Southey has " obnoxious to a rhyme"; Charles Lamb, "obnoxious to observation ".
1 " Of which [homicide] I perceive not any kinde to be more obnoxious, or
indefensible, then that which is so common with our delinquents, to stand
mute at the barre."  Biathanatos, p. 123.  Also see p. 163.
Donne is an earlier authority than: Dr. Fell. He died in. 1631.
2 "'Tis fit I should give an account of an action so seemingly obnoxious."
Seepsis Scientifca, An Address, &c.
"The longer I view the most likely of these hypotheses, the more liable and
obnoxious I apprehend them."  Scirt Toum iVihil Est, p. 50. And see pp. 54,
83. Also see Glanvill's Plus Ultra, The Epistle Dedicatory and p. 144: Essays,
&c., II., p. 52; V., p. 19; VI., pp. 6, 45: ~Lux Orientalis, Preface (unpaged), and pp. 14, 126.
Here the sense is, much as at present,'objectionable','exceptionable','objected to', &c.  It is observable, further, that, in the second of these
passages, Glanvill would deflect liable into a sense kindred to that of obnoxious.




94
Bishop  WTilkins,l  Henry  MIore,2 Dr. Bentley,3 De  Foe,4
Bishop  Warburton,5  Samuel  Richardson,6  John   Duncombe,7 Henry Brooke,8 Gibbon,9 Burke,l~ Cowper,ll Paley,l2
Porson,3  and Godwin.'4   On the authority of MBr. W}hite,
"In respect of synonymous words, which male lanuagre tedious, and
are, generally, superfluities,.... there is no particular language but what
is very obnoxious in this kind."'An Essay towZarcls a Real Character, &c.
(1668), p. 18.
2 " Though Simon and the Gnosticks were thus grosly obnoxious in life and
conversation," &c. i7lystery of Iniquity, p. 453.
" By the favour of this ingenious writer, this hypothesis does not need any
such obnoxiouzs appendage as this ", &c. A2nnotations Gpeons Lax Orienetalis,
&c., p. 126. Also see p. 149.
"' Their special obneoxiouesness in that crime."  Ibid., p. 373.
An anonymous author wrote, in 1683: " When anybody prints an obnoxioeus
pamphlet, they first send it to him by the penny-post."  The Loyal Observator, p. 12.
3 "There are some infidels, among us, that,....to avoid the odious
name of atheists, would shelter and screen themselves under a new one of
deists, which is not quite so obnoxiouzs."   Worls, Vol. 3, p. 4.
"4 4 He [Satan] has a great many other names and surnames which he might
be kinown by, of a less obnoxious import than that of Devil, the Destroyer,
&c."  The'Political HJistory of the -Ievil, p. 38.
5 " And, as this was the case, I endeavoured, in these obnoxiozss words, to
shew," &c. A Selectione, &c., p. 172.
"6, As from a man of quality, and the son of a nobleman who had been
obnsoxiotas to ministers," &c.  Corresponcience, Vol. 6, p. 172. Also see
Clarissc6a Harlowe (ed. 1811), Vol. 1, p. 129: SiS Cehares Grandisoen, Vol. 3,
p. 187; Vol. 5, p. 244.
7 4 The uses of the obnoxioeus garments were allowed to be many."  Coznszoissezur, No. 62.
8,  I purposely avoided appearing in her presence, lest the sight of one so
obnoxious should add to her distemper."  The -Fool of Quality, Vol. 2, p. 255.
Also see Vol. 3, p. 257.
9 C' My grandfather could not expect to be treated with more lenity than
his companions.   His Tory principles and connexions rendered him  obesoxious to the ruling powers: his name is reported in a suspicious secret;"
&c.  liemeezoirs of Msey Life tacnd YIVritinegs.
10 " No complaisance to our court, or to our age, can make me believe
nature to be so changed but that public liberty will be, among us, as among
our ancestors, obnsoxious to some person or other."  T/houghts on the Cciaese
of the Presesnt Disconteeqts.
A dozen more instances might be added from Burke.
11 C, I subjoin the lines with which I mean to supersede the obsoxious ones
in Expostulation." " Those obnoxioeus doctrines at which the world is so apt
to be angry."   Wor/cs, Vol. 4, pp. 161, 200.
12 " Obeoxious principles in politics."  itoral Philosoply, Book 6, Ch. 10.
MIany other instances might be adduced from Paley.
13,, I now come to your arguments against these obnoxiotus versions."'
Letters to JTr. Aschcleaeon Travis, p. 159.
14 6" The people of England have assiduously been excited to declare their
loyalty, and to mark every man as obenoxiouts, who is not ready to sign the
shibboleth of the Constitution."  Asn Enquiry concernineg Political Justice,
Preface, pp. x., xi.




95
the word has come to be employed, in its more modern acceptation, " particularly by those who do not know exactly
what it does mean ". Among these ignoramuses, besides
those  already  mentioned, have  been  Coleridge,' Wordsworth,2 Southey,3 Sydney Smith,4 Lord Macaulay,5 and Dr.
Newmnan.6
The connexion, by a comical oversight, being "unless a
man is a crown-prince, or other important public functionary ", Mr. White counsels that he should "reject, disown,
refuse, or condemn what he does not like, but not repudziate it, unless he expects to cause shame, or to suffer it, in
consequence of his action ".
It is by  no  means certain, however, that the  Latin
original of relpudiate has any etymological relationship  to
puzdere  and ptudor.   The  primary  meaning  of repucdiare
seems  to  be'reject','renounce';7   and  reptdiatio  and
repcldiator have no classical acceptations but those of'rejection' and'rejecter'.   Bentley  tells  us  that  atheists
" repudiate all title  to the kingdom  of Heaven".            8   Those
1 Essays o0n His Own Tizes, p. 471.
2 "Yet, while the partisans of the French are thus guarded, not a word is
said to protect the loyal Portuguese, whose fidelity to their country and their
prince must have rendered them obnoxious to the French army."  Colcern ing
the Relations, &c., p. 86. Also see p. 77; and 4 A eteer to a _Friend of Robert
BarnlS,  &c., p. 3.
3 A certain office, he writes, "is, always and justly, ob1ioxious, when performed by an informer ".  Essays, Mloral and Political, Vol. 2, p. 227. Also
see p. 416. In Southey's Life of Wesley I find this use of obnzoxious no fewer
than twelve times.
"4 The officers commanding corps, finding that no steps were taken to
remove the obnoxious insinuations," &c.  Iories, p. 189.
5 "Both were personally obnoxious to the Court."  Essay on Sir Jasnes
M11ackintosh.  "The obnoxioues minister."  Essay ofs thee Earl of Chathacn.
" Oboxiouzs persons were insulted and hustled."  _History, Chapter 10.
6,4 The Stationarii were appointed, in various places and stations, to inform against obnoxious persons."  Flenury's Ecclesiastical History, Vol. 1, p.
325, note Ik.
7 So the French say " repc)udier une succession "; and the Italians, "repnudiccre un' eredith'"
8 Works, Vol. 3, p. 13. At p. 221 of the same volume, Bentley writes of
" repyudiating at once the whole authority of revelation," &c.
"I He is defended by the like practice of other writers who, being Dorians
born, repudiated their vernacular idiom for that of the Athenians."  Ibid.,
Vol. 1, p. 359.
",To  repudciate was, formerly, to put away what disgraced us; it noow
signifies, (in America, at least) to reject the claims of justice and honour."
Least Fruit off asn Old Tree, p. 102.
It is strange that a scholar of Landor's calibre could let such an assertion as




96
who  assert a right to  repu diate their debts will, let us'
hope, fare like the atheists.  At the same time, as to their
English, they are not to  be numbered  among  the transgressors.1
"Restive means'standing stubbornly still', not' frisky', as
some people seem  to think it does.  A  restive horse is a horse
that balks; but horses that are restless are frequently called
restive.  Restivenzess, however, is one sign of rebellion in horses.
Thus, Dryden (quoted by Johnson):'The pampered colt will discipline disdain,
Impatient of the lash, and restif to the rein.'
to our old sense of repudiate escape him, and, especially, that he could have
forgotten Bentley's employment of the verb in his Dissertation on the Letters
of Phalaris, just adduced, and the Hon. Charles Boyle's criticism thereon.
Gibbon, in his ilnemoirs of any Life anid TWriti~ngs, says: "After my return
to England, I continued the same practice, without any affectation, or design
of reepudiating (as Dr. Bentley would say) my- vernacular idiom."
The dormitancy-sit venia verbo-of great classical scholars is, not unfrequently, surprising.  Mr. De Quincey, having used the adjective veterinary,
comments thus on it: " By the way, whence comes this odd-looking word 
The word veterana I have met with, in monkish writers, to express' domesticated quadrupeds'; and, evidently, from that word must have originated the
word veterinary. But the question is still but one step removed: for how
came voterana by that acceptation in rural economy?" WForks, Vol. 14, p.
377, foot-note.
Not to appeal to the astonishing school-boy whom Lord Macaulay so often
summoned, to the confusion of those that knew less than himself about holeand-corner facts, one may be allowed to wonder that Mr. De Quincey was not
familiar with the ancient vete)rinaarius and veterinzus, and was not aware of the
derivation of them which has very plausibvy been conjectured.
1 " I shall shew the convincing, evidence of this truth......which hath
been so universally received by them who have repudiatted or reformed all that
they could find any fault with, after a most severe examination, " &c. George
Ashwell, Fides Apostolica (1653), p. 101. Also see p. 274.
-Repudiate means, here, as in the passages to follow, simply' reject' or' put
away', irrespectively of a sense of shame or disgrace. It points rather to
pure aversion.
"And all reasoning that is not supported so ought to be reicldiated, or,
at least, suspected to be illegitimate."  R. White, Translation of A Late
_Discourse, &c. (ed. 1664), p. 75.
" I detest it, I hate it, I repudiate it."  Sterne, Tristram ShCandy, Vol. 8,
Ch. 11.
" If they had rejected it upon examination, they would have written about
it; they would have given their reasons. Whereas, what men repudiate upon
the strength of some prefixed persuasion," &c. Paley, -Evidences of Christianity, Part 3, Chapter 4.
" They stoutly repudiate those notions of a Priesthood which the Succession
doctrine really involves in it."  Dr. Arnold, Life and Corerespondence, p. 544.
Also see p. 562.  See, further, Dr. Arnold's Xliscellaneous HWor/ks, p. 471.
"In repudiating metaphysics, M. Comte did not interdict himself from
analysing or criticizing any of the abstract conceptions of the mind."   ir.
J. S. Mill,.Auguste Comte and Positivism, p. 15. Also see p. 65.




97
Hence a misapprehension,  by which those who did not understand the word were led to a complete reversion of meaning."
Very few instances, I apprehend, can be produced, from
our literature, of that use  of restive which  Milr. White
thinks to be the only right one; and most of the extracts
which  the dictionaries  cite under the  word  illustrate a
signification  of restive, the  sole  signification it has long
borne, which the lexicographers do not distinctly recognize.
Even the passage which Mr. White takes from Dr. Johnson is nothing to his purpose. Among old meanings of restive
are'disposed  to  draw  baek,2 and, much  more  rarely,
quiescent,'' sluggish'.3   The ordinary sense of the word
has  always  been'unruly','intractable','refractory'.
Proofs  are  subjoined  from   Lord  Brooke,4 Dr.  Featly,6
Fuller,6   Milton,7   Jeremy   Collier,8   Samuel  Richard1 Dr. Johnson's definitions are: " 1. Unwilling to stir; resolute against
going forward; obstinate; stubborn.  2. Being at rest; being less in
motion."
2 Resty, as applied to a horse, is defined, by Miege, " qui recule au lieu
d'avancer".  Dr. Johnson says, less correctly: " It is originally used of an
horse that, though not wearied, will not be driven forward." leltif is thus
defined by M. Littr': " Se dit d'un cheval ou autre bete de monture qui
refuse d'ob6ir h celui qui le monte ou qui le conduit."
3 "What would the ear serve for, if the air were not suitably disposedmade neither too thick nor too thin, neither too resty nor too fleeting, butin a due consistency, and capable of moderate undulations distinguishable
thereby? " Barrow, Works, Vol. 2, p. 92.
"Both fancy and judgment are commonly comprehended under the name of
wit, which seemeth to be a tenuity and agility of spirits, contrary to that
restiness of the spirits supposed in those that are dull."  Hobbes, Works, Vol.
4, p. 56.
4," Since I have shewed you, by reason, that obedience is just and necessary; by example, that it is possible; be not restive in their weake stubburnnesse that will either keepe or lose all."  Certaine Learned and Elegant
WForkes, &c. (1633), p. 286.
Still older is the following: "As a man..delivereth over his horseswhich, because they have been in many skirmishes, are become tests, furious,
and untractable,-to the yomen of his horses," &c. T. Bowes (?), The Freench
Academie (ed. 1589), Vol. 1, p. 320.
5 ", Where mettle colts or restie jades are to be broken, he that holdeth not
a streight raine, and maketh not use of a strong curbe, may be cast out of the
saddle."  Abel Redevivus, p. 487.
6 " Like resty horses, we go the worse for the beating, if God bless not
afflictions unto us."  The fHoly State and the Profane State, p. 187.
7In state, perhaps, they [chaplains] may be listed among the upper
serving-men of some great household, and be admitted to some such place as
may style them the sewers or the yeomen-ushers of devotion, where the master is too resty, or too rich, to say his own prayers, or to bless his own table."
XEilonoklastes, Chapter 24.
s, Socrates had as restive a constitution as his nei"hbours, and yet reclaim'd
7




98
son,' Burke,2 Coleridge,3  ir. IDe Quincey,4 and  Landor.5
As concerns a horse, however he resists an attempt to keep
him  quiet, he shows himself restive.6
It must be superfluous to dwell any longer on such particulars as have hitherto engaged us. In the domain of
generalities, at the same time, it is instructive to see what
Mir. White has to give us, by way of maxims.
"There is a misuse of words which  can be justified by no
authority, however great, by no usage, however general."'
But what considerations  avail to  override  universal
usage? They are known, we are given to understand, by
the intuition proper to philological illuminati.
" When a word, a phrase, or an idiom  is found in use both in
common speech and in the writings of educated men, we may be
almost sure that there is good reason for the usage. But cultivated and well-meaning people sometimes take a scunner against
it, all by the strength of his philosophy."  -Essays upon Several itoral S&bjects, Part III., p. 77.
l 4 My aunt has held him in, till her arms ached.  0, the dear restiff man!"
Sir Charles Grandison, Vol. 6, p. 341.
We have had restive, restif, and resty; and we have had mastie, mnastive,
and nmastiff. Resty is marked, by Dr. Webster's editors, as " obsolete". I
have often heard it, from Englishmen and Englishwomen, in conversation,
especially in the form rusty. " But they paraded the street, and watched the
yard till dusk, when its proprietor ran rusty, and turned them  out."  Mr.
Charles Reade, Hard Cash (ed. 1863), Vol. 3, p. 199. This corruption, as
Dr. Johnson shows, is not modern.
2 " Everything you say of the restive and stubborn temper of America recoils
upon yourself."  Correspondence, Vol. 4, p. 484.
3 "4 But Truth, I remember, is reported to have already lost her front teeth.. by barking too close at the heels of the restive fashion: a second blow
might leave her blind, as well as toothless."  Notes and Lectures upon Shakespeare, &c., Vol. 2, p. 339.
" 4,, Mr. Waterton.... publicly mounted and rode in top-boots a savage
old crocodile, that was restive and very impertinent, but all to no purpose.
The crocodile jibbed and tried to kick, but vainly."  TJVorks, Vol. 4, p. 307,
foot-note. Also see Vol. 3, p. 184'; Vol. 5, p. 63; Vol. 6, p. 308; Vol. 11,
p. 124; Vol. 13, p. 293; Vol. 14, pp. 369, 372.
5 ", Oft, when the Muses would be festive,
Unruly Pegasus runs restive."
Heroic Idyls, p. 188.
e "A restive horse, &c. From  the verb to resist.- Resistive: res'stive:
restive."  Mr. II. Fox Talbot, English Etymologies, p. 199.
This is anti-historical; restive being from the Old French restif, connected
with the Low Latin r.estivus. Yet it is possible that our restive has taken a
tinge from association in idea with resist.
7 P. 24. This passage has been quoted before. Mr. White himself almost
repeats it, at p. 253.




99
some particular word or phrase,.... and they flout it pitilessly,
and think, in their hearts, that it is the great blemish upon the
speech of the day." 1
I have but a vague  apprehension what a scztzner 2 is;
but I strongly suspect it to be the very thing that has animated Mr. White in his numerous raids against allowable
phraseology.
"There  is no surer way to a weak, poor, artificial style than
the sitting in judgment upon the use of words and phrases of
spontaneous growth, which are not at variance with reason, and
which have long been used by all classes of speakers for centuries.  A  man who  uses language as Sampson, the valiant
retainer of the Capulet, bit his thumb, only when he has the
law on his side, will soon come to write like an attorney drawing a law-paper." 3
There is a sound about this which suggests the evangel
of freedom. But who is to sift the rights from the wrong
for us? Mr. White, of all men, we are taught to infer.
-"If Walter Scott, fifty years ago, and Henry Fielding, a
h1undred and twenty-five, called beauties and sensible girls firstrate, surely I, in these days, may, with calm indifference to consequences, so call the journal in which, and the critic by whom,
I am reproved.  But I had, of course, no thought of these precedents, when I wrote, and should have used the phrase without
scruple, even were I sure that it had never been used before." 4
Mr. White being a law to himself, of course his critics
were guilty of the grossest presumption.5
P. 257.
2 The author's scholiasts will fall short of their function, if they forget to
throw light on this vocable. It may be Scotch by origin.
In the same paragraph where Mr. White terms the very expressive and
felicitous metaphor presidential camapaign " a blatant Americanism ", he writcs
of o" armsy-b6usiang bombast ". After twenty-six years' absence from Americas
I read Mr. White's book at some disadvantage, as regards fully appreciating
its vernacular delicacies. But would it not have been better, in a work of
serious import, to avoid local and ephemeral slang?
HIis minor Americanisms-such as aside, fox' apart', p. 20; belittling, for'disparaging', p. 219; and bestead with, for' beset with' or' infested with',
p. 238,-have the good fortune of being interpretable by help of the context.
"People ", he tells us, at p. 220, " do not learn good English, or good
manners, by verbal instruction received after adolescence. Every man is like
the Apostle Peter, in one respect, that his tongue bewrays him." These
words bear every note of having been prompted by an irretentive conscience.
3 Pp. 125, 126.                           4 P. 258.
5 Ships, cart-horses, scholars, and many other gross objects are properly




100
"Any man has the right to use a word, especially a word of
such natural growth and so well rooted as juxtcapose, for the first
time; else we should be poorly off for language." 1
Only woe to the man so authorized, if Mr. White's opinion does not chance to coincide with his own.
Reduced to its simplest expression, the principle on
which  Mr. White criticizes our language is whim.   The
very fundamentals of true philology he has still to acquire.
Of illustrative authority for words and their senses he
knows but very little; 2 and that.little, for the most part,
he invokes for his support, or disdainfully sets aside, solely
in obedience to caprice.
Non amo te, Sabidi, nec possum dicere quare;
Hoc tantum possum dicere, non amo te.
enough called first-rate; and so teas and silks are properly enough called firstchop; and there is not much to choose between the taste which would apply
the former to a lady and that which would thus apply the latter. The point
in question is not one of good English, or bad; and Mr. White runs no risk
of indictment or excommunication, if he thinks good to grovel.  But the fitness of things is a matter which people of culture claim to take cognizance of;
and autocratic bluster is not likely to work its extinction.
That Mr. White is ready to defer to Sir Walter Scott as, independently, an
authority for recent English is significant. Both Fielding and Sir Walter
have written " had spoke ", and have used plenty as an adjective. Mr. White
must, therefore, recommend " calm indifference to consequences ", on the part
of any one that is minded to do likewise.
1 p. 259. But how could Mr. White bring himself to write "poorly off"?
For is not of, here, an adverb become an adjective? I refer to what he says
of ill. Vide szpra, p. 83.
Where it pleases Mr. White, both length and authority of usage are admitted as arguments. Thus, in treating of reliable, he urges that " the usage in
question has been too short and too unautlhoritative to have any weight ".  I
shall only mention, at present, that reliable was used by Coleridge, and in
print, in 1800.
2  For two centuries and a half, since the time when Ifing Lear was writtan,- and our revised translation of the Bible made, the English language has
sufered little change, either by loss or gain.... To his [Shakespeare's]
vocabulary they [English-speaking men] have added little except words which
are names for new things.  The language has not sensibly improved, nor has
it deteriorated."  P. 25.
Such could not be the opinion of one who had given serious thought to the
development of English in modern times. Among our verbs, adjectives, and
adverbs, those which were unknown to Shakespeare may be reckoned by
thousands.
Shakespeare's vocabulary is, substantially, that of his contemporaries,
who cannot be supposed to have been unintelligible to one another; and we
find it remarked, in 1698, that "some who wrote at the beginning of this
century are not now easily understood." Hon. Charles Boyle, -Dr. Bentley's.Dissertations.... Examined, p. 69.




101
Nor are his notions of verbal genetics at all less superficial
than his acquaintance with practical precedents.  Accordingly, as has been abundantly evidenced, where his adjudications do not contravene approved usage, they are
almost certain  to clash with  etymology or with  analogy.
Marvellously is his fortune like  that of Saint Matthew's
lunatic: "for ofttimes he falleth into the fire, and oft into
the water."   To  execute successfully  such  a book  as he
has miscarried in attempting, it is by no means enough to
trust to memory, and to pore upon dictionaries, glossaries,
and concordances. To say anything new, that is also true,
about words and meanings of recent origin, one must not
merely read widely, but must take copious notes on what one
read's; and the indispensable  preparation  for discussions
such as he has essayed, Mr. White would appear to  have
well nigh entirely neglected. And this is not all. Neither
has he explored our literature with the eye of a philologist, nor does he give proof of any but very commonplace
and incogitant excursions beyond the limits of his mothertongue. In a word, he could never be mistaken, except
by the very ill-informed, for anything but what he is. Of
his volume he himself tells us: " Scholars and philologists
need not be told  that it is not addressed  to  them; but
neither is it written for the unintelligent and entirely
uninstructed." 1  From   the  detail and  earnestness  with
I Preface, p. 7. Mr. White, as might have been expected, has been perstringed by sundry of his better-informed readers; and his style of self-defence
speaks amply for itself. For instance, he wrote that risible " is not formed
from the verb rides,'to laugh' (although, of course, derived from it), but
from the noun risegn,'a laugh', or'laughter'." P. 418.  Charged, for this,
with a two-fold display of ignorance, after asserting that adjectives in -bilis
"are sometimes made from nouns ", he has recourse to trite figures of bad rhetoric, hylactismus and oncethmus, and goes on to say: " Risibilis (which, I
have heard it whispered, is not the best Latin) is, of course, the counterpart of
risible, or was when I went to school; and, as to risnm, at that time I met
with the following line in a Latin author, Horace, who was held up to me as
a poet of some repute:
Spectatum admissi risums teneatis, amici P
and this risumn I translated, without reproach,' laughter'; parsing it as the
accusative case or objective form of risus."  P. 422.
On the very lowest of all motives, bare expediency, it is better, when one
has been convicted of blundering, to own it frankly and fully, like an honest
man.  Mr. White wishes, of course, to produce conviction in his own favour;
and, since he addresses this vindication of himself, if to any purpose, to a
degree of inapprehension peculiar to a very ill-informed class of judges, it is
no wonder that he warns off " scholars and philologists" from his lucubrations.




102
which it dwells on such  distinctions as those between lie
and lay, sit and set, one would, rather, conclude that it was
If he knows of any adjectives in -bills that are " made from nouns ", he knows
more than the grammarians; and his deducing risibilis from the substantive
ri.stn is precisely as if he were to deduce mode from mnoduCm.  Whatever was
the Latinity of his earlier years, no doubt he mistook, in his riper years,
risutm for a nominative. And why bring forward the fact that risibilis "is
not the best Latin ", and throw himself into a jaunty attitude, and indulge in
recondite quotation? Dust of this sort will find no eyes but those of the illiterate. Real answer he has none; and he does not even use effectually "' the flat
hand of rhetoric, which rather gives pats than blows ", as Fuller has it. The
word risibilis is analogical; though, even if it were not, the fact would in no
way aid Mr. White towards showing that he had not committed an error of
crass ignorance; and his academical friends, at sight of his subterfuge and
mystification, must be moved to laughter, quite as much as the good people
were whom he resuscitates out of Horace. It is altogether credible, especially
from what follows, that he could hardly afford to adopt the tone of the rollicking old rimester who sings:
"What though brieves, too, be made longos?
What though vowels be diphthongos?
What though graves become acute, too?
What though accents become mute, too?
What though freely, fully, plainly,
I've broke Priscian's forehead mainly?"
Barnabce Itinerarium (ed. 1818), p. 181.
For, at p. 285, he quotes from Catullus:
"Tua nlunc opera men pulls [sic]
Flendto turgiduli rubent ocelli,"
which he translates:  " Now the pretty swollen eyes of my mistress redden
with weeping thy doings."  If Mr. White had learnt a little Latin prosody,
it would have benefited his Latin syntax; but, evidently, the mystery of
Roman hendecasyllahics was not included in the curriculum of his juvenile
studies.  Otherwise, he would have perceived that opera is not from opus, and
that it is not an accusative. Thus much and more has already been pointed
out by one of M3r. White's critics.
Dryden, what between " the tumult of his imagination and the multitude
of his ideas ",-see the Rambler, No. 31,-once slipped into the Hibernianism
of writing:
"I follow fate, which does too fast pursue";
and his defence, when the absurdity was pointed out, might, for its impotent inconclusiveness, have served Mr. White as a model;- as might, again,
the shuffling of Hobbes, when it was observed that he had misunderstood and
misused the word potesntiality.
"Now, men may love their enemies, and do good to them that hate them;
but men will never love their critics, or do anything but evil to them that
ridicule them. As to criticism men are unwise; but, in regard to ridicule,
they have some reason. Accusation of crime is trifling in comparison." -Life
aed Genius of Shakespeare, p. 89.
Thus Mr. White on one of the " dangerous classes ", and a weapon of theirs
which, sometimes, they wield quite warrantably; and the tone is not that of
fiat justitia et ruant celi. Those who treat this gentleman irreverently are
precautioned as to what they may look for. Their lot is not a pleasant one,
certainly; and yet it might be greatly worse. Let them, for instance, picture
to themselves the misery of being audibly and orthoepically designated by the




designed for "the unintelligent and entirely uninstructed ",
more particularly,-persons of the  class of Steele's two
ladies who begged him to explain the difference between
circzumncision and predestination.'  But why such an unmistakable shrinking  from  the inspection of " scholars and
philologists"     Instruction, though  ever so humble and
elementary, ought to  be correct, as far as it goes; and,
if Mr. White had been quite confident of his position, it
would scarcely have occurred to him to deprecate the
notice of the learned. His labours are, consequently, to
be understood as being tentative, experimental; and his
game of hazard has not ended altogether prosperously.
One of ten British writers, belonging to the last century
and to this, whom  Mr. White holds up as models for their
English, is MIr. Thackeray; and, among Mr. White's American models, are MIr. Washington  Irving and Mr. Hawthorne.2 Elsewhere,3 Mr. Thackeray and Mr. Hawthorne are
especially singled out for the correctness of their English;
and  we are  interrogated:  "While  Hawthorne lived,and his grave is not yet as green as his memory,-was
there a British writer who used with greater purity, or
more plastic power, the language that we brought with
us from  the  old  home?"4   Now, on  the  score of the
copiousness  with  which  Mr. Irving  and Mr. Thackeray
exemplify bad English, I have long been accustomed,
when in quest of that disagreeable article, to confine myself to their pages.5 Mr. Hawthorne is better; and yet,
plain English of asini; the epithet crushingly delivered with " the full, free,
unconscious utterance of the broad ah sound of a ", that " surest indication, in
speech, of social culture which began at the cradle ".  Vide supra, p. 50.
See the Tatler, No. 232.
2 P. 55.
3 " Now, that man, if he had been speaking to his wife, would have called
out'Sairy Ann, the carriage has come', and have rivalled Thackeray or
Hawthorne in the correctness of his English."  P. 36.
P. 46. At p. 78, Mr. Hawthorne's English is once more an object of
laudation.
5 As to Mr. Thackeray, a single one of his works will serve my turn amply.
Let it be Vanity Fair, my copy of which was printed in 1856.
But, first, I will quote him for words, uses thereof, and phrases, which Mr.
White himself, aright or amiss, expressly declares against.
"The parson and the Baronet talk about the pigs, and the poachers, and
the county business, in the most affable manner, and without quarrelling in
their cups, I believe."  P. 78. See Words and Their Uses, p. 86.
"While these delicacies were being trauesacted below," &c. P. 212. Also
see pp. 89, 105, 152.




104
in turning over Our OOld Home for a few  minutes, I have
lighted upon beg for insect, demean for disgrace, parties for
"' Our friend returned to London., to comnmence those avocations," &c. P. 382.
yide supra, p. 38, text and note!
6 She cast about among her little ornaments, to see could she sell anything
to procure the desired novelties? "  P. 389.  See Words and Tlheir Uses, p.,52.
" But his face, when he heard it, showed an amazement which was very
different to that look of sentimental wonder," &c. Pp. i82, 183. See Words
and Their Uses, p. 48.
" Lady Jane... ran to her husband's room, directly she heard Mrs. Rawdon Crawley was closeted there."  P. 461.  See Words and Their -Uses, p.
186.
"' There was such a jubilee and sense of relief, in all Miss Crawley's house,
as the company of persons assembled there had not experienced for many a
week before." P. 203. Also see pp. 394, 576.
" Yet she felt a horror and uneasiness in their presence, and longed to fly."
P. 577.  See Words and Their Uses, p. 115.
" There were Irish gentlemen, with the most dashing whiskers and jewellery." P. 520.
"He kept a journal of his voyage, and noted elaborately the defects or excellencies of the various inns at which he put up, and of the wines and dishes
of which he partook."  P. 522. Also see p. 497, for two instances.  See
Words and Their Uses, p. 143.
" Some few score of years afterwards, when all the parties represented are
grown old," &c. P. 188.  Also see p. 278.  See Words and Their Uses, p.
143.
"Amelia, too, might have recovered the shock of losing him." P. 185. See
WFords and Their Uses, p. 52.
"Georgy stopped away from  school."  P. 515.  See Words and Their
Uses, p. 197.
" Amelia.... flung herself into George Osborne's arms with all her soul,
to the astonishment of everybody who witnessed that ebullition of sentiment."
P. 89. Also see p. 373.  See WCords and Their Uses, p. 175.
I now instance specimens of English which, like most of those just given,
it would be imprudent to recommend for imitation.
" One of the domestics was affected to his especial service, attended him at
his toilette," &c. P. 474.
"Thus an alHost reconciliation was brought about," &c. P. 313.
"As they had been in the habit of being together ansy time these fifteen
years," &c. P. 42. Also see pp. 125, 366, 461, 491, 520, 569.
"Even the O'Dowd was silent and subdued, after Becky's brilliant ajparition," &c. P. 233.
"The fact is, he owed more money at London than at Paris." P. 305.
"What has come of Major Dobbin, whose cab was always hankering about
her premises?" P. 320.
"It was, of course, Mrs. Sedley's opinion that her son would dem.ean himself by a marriage with an artist's daughter." P. 40. Also see p. 408.
" He walked all the way home very dismally, and dined alone with Briggs."
P. 437.
" Everybody had been dull, but had been kind in their way."  P. 355.
"She criedfit to break her heart."  P. 117. Also see pp. 239, 532.
"Think of hinz  writing such a hand."  P. 494.
"Perhaps the Doctor's lady had good reason for her jealousy."  P. 324.




105
persons. plenty for plent;ful, and  "he had named his two
children, one for Her Majesty, and  the  other for Prince
Albert."   Dr. O. WV. Holmes is, also, selected  from  what
some one calls "the illustrious family of the Issimi ", as a
writer "whose English, as well as whose thought, merits
the attention  and  admiration of his  readers ".1   In  The
Autocrat of  the  Breakfast-table, I find, however, "step
out here into the grass back qof the church", "swinging
back  and  forward'",  "belittle",,  "I remember  a  young
" He was only good enough to be a fairy prince."  P. 91.
" He could see, with a fatal perspicuity, that there was no place there for
him."  P. 299.
"' Hee,I promise, did not decline the obsequious invitation," &c. P. 497.
"A  few score yards down.... is a little modest back door, which you
would not resntark from that of any of the other stables." P. 391.
"NVeither of us ride so light as we did," &c. P. 457.
"' By Jove, how they made you cry out!' said Joe, caught by the ridicuzle
of the circumstance," &c.  P. 21.
"Well, let us see... if, some day or thle other, I cannot show Miss
Amelia my real superiority over her." Pp. 68, 69.
"The MiJor's windows, who had lodgings opposite, under the Prime Minister, were always open," &c. P. 533.
"This young persson.... loved, with all her heart, the young officer,"
&c. P. 90. Also see p. 101.
Add avocation for'vocation', demise for simple'death', servitude for' domestic service', and szutual tears, with the Scotticisms clavers and vilipenzd.
Nor is our language improved by the substantives appropinquity, divagation,
otiosity, by the adjective snelcancholious, or by the verbs discord, olden, prodigate, streel.
1 p. 252.
2 Somehowv, I meet with this word, at least every week, in New York newspapers, notwithstanding the note, by Dr. Webster's editors: "lRare in
America ".  Besides this, many of my countrymen stand up for it very stiffly.
Hereon I differ from them; and I think it can be shown why they ought to
give it the cold shoulder.
First, though Bishop Sanderson has used beguilty, and though bedismal
and begaudy have got into print, I am not aware that we have ever had, in
our language, a single accepted verb in which be- was prefixed to an adjective
that had not previously become, itself, a verb. So it was with belate, whence
belated. Little is no verb; and belittle is indefensible by any established
analogy.
Secondly, belittle, as defined by Dr. Webster's editors, signifies "to make
little or less in a moral sense; to lower in character". If little always referred to moral estimate or level, belittle would be slightly less bad than it is.
At present, to those who are unversed in American literature, it is often inevitably a puzzle what is intended by it.
Thirdly, it has no visible chance of becoming English; and, as the more
critical writers of America, like all those of Great Britain, feel no need of it,
the sooner it is abandoned to the incurably vulgar, the better.
No less bad, from an analogical point of view, is Lord Macaulay's reflexive
verb bemnean, for denzean, as certain writers, generally correct in their diction,
once used it, and as Mr. Thackeray and Lord Lytton have used it in our own




106
wife who  had  to  part with  her husband  for a  time",
" all opinion predicated on the supposition ", &c.; and, in
T/he Professor at the Breakfast-table, " dasher", "I trust
him  as much  as I should do, if he felt of the  outside of
my  strong-box ",  "her  hair  looked   strangely ",  "the
spiritualists  have  some  pretty  strong  instincts  to pry2
over ", &c. &c.3
time.  Bemnean, I am aware, for'make mean', was in print in 1688: and it
ought to have been left quiet in its grave. Mr. Charles Reade uses it in
Grifith Gaunt.
It is very thoughtless in the lexicographers to quote Shakespeare as authority for the demean connected with nmean. Still, Archdeacon Todd has been able
to adduce a seventeenth-century instance of it.
" He [Ridley] was translated to the bishoprike of London, wherein how he
bemneaned himselfe shall hereafter be related."  Thus, according to what is
printed, writes Gataker, in Abel _Redevivus, p. 193.  I surmise, however, what
Fuller calls a prelal error; for, at pp. 196, 214, 404, 459, 527, Gataker, intending, as there,'comport', uses demzeaz.
The ancient source of demean is unascertained.  That we took the word
from the French, all are agreed. But whence came demener and mnener? Some
deduce nzener from the classical ininari, through the Low Latin minare; Mr.
Wedgwood connects it with manus. M. Burguy, who pronounces for minari,
thinks that mnine,'air',' manner',-the parent of our sniez, another word of
disputed etymology,-is from the same original.  See his Grammaire de la
langue d'oil, Vol. III., p. 244.
Nether,, and accordantly with analogy, has been used, as a verb, in the
sense which some still give to demean.  1" Nethered, brought low, debased."
Verstegan, Restitution, &c., p. 244.
1 In English, splash-board; in Scotch, clash-board.
2 For prize. The barbarism pry still lingers among the common people in
East Anglia; but, elsewhere in England, it is as unintelligible as if it were
Choctaw.
3 Among American writers, Mr. W. D. Howells, we are bid to believe, shows
an "unobtrusive and seemingly unconscious mastery of idiomatic English."
"Directly" for' as soon as', "white-teethed", "ol the street", and "to
settle for the wine ", occurring in his Italian Jozrneys, are, indeed, reprobated;
butt, adds Mr. White: "These four slips are notable, as being all that I remarked, in reading Italian Jozrsneys thoroughly and carefully.  There have
been very few books, if any, published on either side of the water, that would
not furnish more, as well as greater, opportunities to a carping critic."
Mr. White must be a careless reader.  In the work in question I find
"aggravate" for'provoke', p. 66; "Cupids escaping from cages, and beinz
sold from them ", p. 284; "Englishry " and " shrubbery", in the acceptations
of' English people' and' collection of shrubs', respectively, pp. 165, 31; the
verb "experience ", pp. 22, 164, 174, 239; " trying tofiy their bargain ", p.
128; "reliable ", p. 181; "witness " for'see', pp. 24, 97, 196, 238; "I
wonder did Petrarch walk often down this road from his house just above ",
p. 220. All these expressions Mr. White decrees, in his Words and Th/eir
Uses, to be reprehensible.
I find, also, "everybody is anecdoted", p. 170; "attributive " for'putative', pp. 202, 268; "back and forth", p. 71; "he... besoghAt to take
us, as a special favour ", p. 183; "deboshed" for' debauched', p. 254;
" develop " for' reveal', p. 72; " in view of" for' in consideration of', pp.




107
A very long list would be the result, if I were to specify
even a tithe of the solecisms sanctioned by writers whom
MIr. White  extols as exemplary.  On the other hand, it
80, 270;'muletress", a malformation, p. 120; "under wey" for'under
weigh', p. 271; "unrivaledest", p. 253. A few sentences and parts of sentences may be added.
" Their landlord, their porter, their driver, and their boatmen pillage them
with the same impunity that they rob an Inglese."  P. 12.
" If one use his eyes half as much as his wonder," &c. P. 18.
" But, though we were ten days in Naples, I only saw one quarrel," &c.
P. 78.
"We were masters to have taken the steamer, instead of the diligence, at
Civita Vecchia." P. 182.
" We entered the lagoon, and found it a nest of fortresses one with another."
P. 273.
" There were large placards everywhere posted, notifying the people that it
was forbidden," &c. P. 297.
"From  these [notes] I think it no dereliction to quote verbatim."  P.
309. " Dereliction" is here used for'breach of promise'
"This is one of the things that makes a single hour of travel worth whole
years of historic study," &c. P. 316.
Out of a great number of solecisms in an earlier book by Mr. iowells,
Venetiasz Life, I select " accredit" for' credit', p. 93; " each" for' every',
pp. 13, 97, 146; " G. is not good for reading and writing ", p. 104; " as this
excuse gives ouzt, she ceases to respond to his ring at all ", p. 106; "multiple
forms", p. 188; "Cnzetual friends" for' connmmo  friends', p. 309; "the
lowest style of any other", p. 257; "signalize" for'testify', p. 240;
"sparsity", p. 330; "stomach" for'sicken', an obsolete Italianism, pp.
76, 307; "thereafter" for'thenceforward','for the future',' subsequently'.
pp. 238, 289. " He told us he was a Constantinopolitan, and that, in six
months, he wolcd complete his collegiate course, when he would return to his
native city, and take employment in the service of the Turkish Government."
P. 193. "' When I gave him a soldo, he gave me a blessing which I woueld
be ashamed to take, in the United States, for half a dollar". P. 308. These
last sentences are worthy of Mr. White himself, as evincing "mastery of
idiom".  Tide supra, pp. 48, 49.  Among expressions which Mr. WVhite
would especially condemn, is-not to mention 1" bountifuel largess ", p. 16,beggary, for'beggars', p. 262.  Vide supra, p. 85.
Nor does Mr. Howells's English improve much; as witness a few extracts
from his eubzeurban Sketh7es, published last year:
" He said he allowed [i. e., consented] to work it out."  P. 58.
"Think of hinm making me stop the other day."  P. 146.
"How it could have come of that colourlessness.... was a question."
P. 93.
" It seemed long till that foolish voice was stilled."   P. 206.  Is this
barbarous use of till peculiar to the West?  It occurs in Venetianz Life, also,
pp. 96, 114. I know it only as an Irishism, in modern times.
Then we find "cloggist", p. 210; "a cycle since", p. 104; "'discommode ", p. 24; "populatory", p. 57; "our regrettable climate," p. 17. And
we still have, in spite of Mr. White, the Scotch " acupo  a street", "on a
street", pp. 16, 38, 175, 182; "experience relief", p. 54; wvitness, for'see',
p. 64; and was being msade, p. 198.
To say truth, among American writers of rising fame whose English is
noticeably bad, Mr. Howells stands somewhat eminent.




108
has been  seen how  many  fashions of speech  which  he
rejects and ridicules are practically warranted by Lord iMacaulay, a writer whom, at least as an affirmative authority,
-for much which he tacitly stamps as unpermissible other
good  judges account permissible,-all agree, with  Mir.
White, in holding in high  esteem.  Briefly, instead of a
knowledge of precedents, and of the history of words, MIr.
White's chief capital consists of gratuitous personal prejudices;  and, what between  these, an  utter  defect of
scholarly tact and instinct, a sanguine persuasion of his
own faultlessness,' and the most uncompromising intolerance, his criticisms and judgments are what might be anticipated.  If even a small fraction of his arraignments were
well-grounded, no one, within several hundred years, can
have done more than approximate to writing good English; 2 and composition, to himself, must be perpetual torture.  Justice  forbids that he should be summed up as
anything but a word-fancier. Philology, with 3Mr. White,
as political economy, with Mr. Ruskin, seems to rank  as
one of the fine-arts.
To reason from a man's practice as a writer to his antecedents as a heedful reader is, surely, equitable.  Mr.
White is so good as to let us know, in one of his autobiographic digressions, that, dating from a certain point in his
career, " Tiherecfter I studied English, indeed, but only in
the works of its great masters, and, unconsciously, in the
speech of daily companions who spoke it with remarkable
but spontaneous excellence."3 Now, where, one is curious
1 " I might have crucified most of my ci'tics upon crosses made out of their
own heads." P. 394.
This reminds one of the Ernulphian vein of the two doctors in Mr. Longfellow's Golden, Legend.
" Doctor Serafitzo. May the Lord have mercy on your position!
You wretched, wrangling culler of herbs!
Doctor Cherubino. May he send your soul to eternal perdition,
For your treatise on the Irregular Verbs  "
2 The days of Kino James's editors of the Bible satisfy his conditions of that
right English which requires brake, gat, and.spake; but those same days give
us digged and shioed, which he abhors; the verb execute, which, used of a
criminal, "produces sheer nonsense"; and the adjective ill, for which " there
is no defence and no excuse, except the contamination of bad example". All
days, moreover, since there has been such a thing as English, have given us' the sun sets', which he calmly spurns at, as " quite indefensible ". The only
possible inference, from these and similar premises, is, that we lucky mortals
have been born just in the fulness of time, to see our language exemplified in
its perfection-by Mr. White.                     3 P. 276.




109
to ascertain, did he get permission from the " great
masters " to use thereafter as an adverb of time, correlative
to hereafter? 1   Is this use of the word to be met with  in
the  Bible,2  in  Shakespeare, in  Milton, or in  a  single
modern British author of notable value for the purity of
his language? It occurs in Robert of Gloucester, and in
Spenser, I  am   aware; but their successors have almost
wholly relinquished it to the Scotch and other outsiders
to whom the English of England is more or less a foreign
tongue.  Again, when Mr. White writes "she hated
1 Thlenceforth or thenceforward is the word Mr. White should have chosen.
In old writers we find then after, also.  See Bernard's Terence in Engllish
(1588), p. 249 (ed. 1607); a saying attributed to Sir Thomas More, among the
WVise Speeches in Camden's Remains; and Bp. Sanderson's Sermons, Vol. 2,
p. 253.
"' Whereupon, Drake, though a poor private man, hereafter undertook to
revenge himself on so mighty a monarch."  The HEoly State and the Profane
State, p. 124.  Fuller must have had a very strong aversion to thereafter,
or he would not have wrested hereafter to mean' after that'.
Again: " Never he was seen heartily, if at all, to laugh hereafter."  The
Appeal of ljured Innocence, Part 3, p. 12.
Mr. De Quincey, in Vol. 7, pp. 89, 90, asserts, with his usual exaggerativeness, that thereafter, for' after that', is "not even intelligible in England".
He goes on to say: " Tlerecafter, in pure vernacular English, bears a totally
different sense.      The objections are overwhelming to the Scottish use
of the word; first, because, already in Scotland, it is a barbarism, transplanted
from the filthy vocabulary of attorneys, locally called writers; secondly, because, in England, it is not even intelligible, and, what is worse still, sure to
be misintelligible.'  Further on, it is scouted as a property of "leguleian
barbarism "
Certainly, thereafter, in any sense whatever, is not a word in everyday
English use; but any Englishman, on hearing it from another, except in a
quotation from some old or quaint author, would at once take' after that' to be
intended by it. This, of course, Mr. De Quincey knew perfectly well; and,
looking to his fertility of resource, one would suppose that, with less than half
the spleen and splutter he has expended on thereafter, he might have contrived
to impart to his readers the valuable information that he had acquainted himself with its obsolete signification,' accordingly'.
In literature, it has not often been used in this sense, I believe, during the
last century and a half.  "That, madam, is thereafter as they be."  Gay,
Beggar's Opera, Act 2, Scene 1.
Thlereafter, for then2eforward, or after that, is common enough in the English of Scotchmen and Irishmen.  See, for some oldish instances, Lithgow,
Thze Totall Diseoucrse, &c., pp. 84, 149, 202, 273, 346, 347, 375, 407, 432,
448; the Bishop of Kilmore, in Abel Redevivtcs, pp. 59, 62 (ter); and extracts in Glanvill's Saddluisnues Triumphatus, pp. 391, 393.
Even more justifiable, on one ground, is the vulgar nzohow.  TYhereafter
mates with hereafter only; but wohow is in analogy with both anyhow and
sonmehow.  Thfereby, for'near to that', is just as accepted English as Mr.
White's thereafter.
2 See p. 17, note 2, near the end.




110
him  all the same ",1 meaning'nevertheless', he  as little
adheres, in this Scotticism bred out of bad French, as in
his sctunzer and bumming,2 to the phraseology of the " great
masters ".3    Referring   to  America,  " That  there  are
journalists in this country ", he says, "whose English  is
1 p. 184.                  2 Vide supra, p. 99, text and note 2.
3 Let us also look at some passages in Mr. White's Life and Genius of
Shakespeare.
1" It is impossible that he could have written it without thinking of his own
experience; the more, that the seeming lad to whom it is addressed is about
his years," &c. Pp. 53, 54.
This savours of the north of the Tweed.
" Ralph, however, like most disappointed lovers, concludes to live." P. 387.
Concleude means' come to a conclusion', in one sense of the phrase, that
which gives to conclusioln the meaning of'inference'.  Conclhsion, in this
phrase, also signifies'resolution'; but conclude, as equivalent to the phrase
when it attaches this sense to conclusion, has long ceased to be English.
In pp. 31, 114, 149, is the very common Americanism " aside from", for' apart from'; in pp. 19, 227, 351, " belittle ".
Either and neither, for' any one' and' none', are not English.  " That he
wrote the plays which bear his name we know; but, except by inference, we
do not know the years in which they were.written, or even that in which
either of them was first performed." P. 4. "'Peasant, yeoman, artisan,
tradesman, and gentleman could then be distinguished from each other almost
as far as they could be seen. Except in cases of unusual audacity, neither
presumed to wear the dress of his betters." P. 155. Also see pp. 185, 402.
_Amid (p. 1), ere (p. 91), the substantive hate (p. 1), and the verb joy (pp.
258, 262) are out of place in prose. Incefinity (p. 228) is not a pretty word;
plfay-wright (pp. 268, 384) should scarcely be used, save in derision; so
absolutely (pp. 394, 402) and so perennial (p. 400) can hardly be justified.  In
this regard (p. 299), il that regard (pp. 72, 396), are affected.  And so is
zayhap (pp. 16, 83, 138, 191).  If this, why not an occasional belihe, eftsoons, nzuchwhat, or whiloms?
"At school, Shakespeare acquired some knowledge of Latin and of Greek.
For not only does Ben Jonson tell us that he had a little of the former, and
less of the latter, but," &c. P. 31.  " These stories grate upon our feelings
with a discord as much harsher than that which disturbs us when we hear of
Addison suing poor Steele for ~100, as Shakespeare lives in our hearts the
lovelier as well as the greater man than Addison."  P. 146.  "Davenant
was, morally, a poor creature; and, in this, he only did his kited." P. 158.
"When he [Aufidius] first saw his wedded mistress bestride his threshold."
P. 258.  "It is probable that not one in ten of the English plays written
before the time of Shakespeare have escaped destruction."  P. 315.  " -But
the comely dame, who seems to be aC tall woman of her hands," &c. P. 388.
The imagination, as one reads this group of extracts, fastens, involuntarily,
and in spite of Shakespeare, on the straddling pose of Mrs. Aufidius. Tastes
will differ, I know, as to the archaisms here instanced.
Thus fares it with our Zoilus,AXXkov larpkb, abtrb~ iXKcEt pin Ptv.
But, for fear of becoming tedious, I desist, after noting that Mr. White's
bestead and conclude, now unenglish, though once otherwise, have escaped all
the lexicographers.




irreproachable, no one competent to speak upon this subject will deny."' This decision, considering who passes
it, is not necessarily irreversible.
An exhaustive critique on Words and Their Uses would
demand as much space as the work itself occupies. Only
here and there a statement, out of those which, on a careful reading of it, I scored for remark, has been subjected
to animadversion. The last third of the book, and, especially, the chapter entitled The Granimarless Tongue,2 often
degenerates,  with  oases  of rationality, into  downright
silliness.3   Of Mr. White, save as a literator, I know  no1 p. 56.
2 Dr. Johnson is reported to have said: "Foreign idioms... have been
decried as dangerous; and the critics daily object to me my Latinisms, which,
they say, alter the character of our language. But it is, seriously, my
opinion, that every language must be servilely formed after the model of some
one of the ancient, if we wish to give durability to our works."  Monthly
icagazine (1800), Vol. 9, p. 150.
"Another will say, it [our language] wanteth grammer. Nay, truly it hath
that prayse, that it wanteth not grammer: for grammer it might have, but it
needes it not; beeing so easie, of it selfe, and so voyd of those cumbersome
differences of cases, genders, moodes, and tenses, which, I think, was a peece
of the Tower of Babilon's curse, that a man should be put to schoole to learne
his mother-tongue."  Sir Philip Sidney, A4n 4pologie for Poetrie (ed. 1868),
p. 70.
If none but the so-called classical languages can have grammar, or, in other
words, be grammatical, then, as to English, it follows, either that,-seeing
what, in spite of its ungrammaticalness, it has got to be,-it is too noble a
thing to endure grammatical shackles, or else that, however refined it may
become, there is something, in its original nature, which exempts it from the
contemplation of grammar. This alternative we are forced to by taking' grammar' in the absurdly limited acceptation of Sir Philip Sidney and Mr.
White. But Mr. White, by the very fact of his eulogizing, on all practicable
occasions, correct vernacular concord and regimen, that is to say, the main
essentials of grammar, reduces English to the same category with Latin and
Greek. Nay, to go beyond concord and regimen, he espouses, in theory, as
we have seen in his treatment of convene and resurrect, the principle of explicit
servility advocated by Dr. Johnson. Such is his consistency, with his contention that our tongue is " grammarless ".
3 Mr. White's proficiency in English grammar has been rendered extremely doubtful by an admirable series of papers which appeared, soon after
his book came out, in The (ollege Contrant, published at New Haven: No
other review of Wgords and Their Uses has reached me; and much that I have
said may have been said before by others.
Whatever contempt for English grammars may possess Mr. White, he would
not do amiss to be accurate about them. Ben Jonson and Milton, he remarks, " both were misled, very naturally, into writing an English Grammar"
P. 344. As Ben Jonson lived till 1637, and as Milton was born in 1608, the
two might have cooperated in such an undertaking.  But history is silent on
this point; and it is also silent as to Milton's having written an English
Grammar by himself. Did Mr. White ever see the performance? Again, at




112
thing; and  I am  willing  to  believe that he is endowed
with every civic and social virtue. Yet non omnia possumus omnes.   Success in  one department of letters, a
department congenial to his proper aptitude, has emboldened him to venture his cunning in another department,
and one in which he is totally incapable of distinguishing
himself.   Research, logicalness, circumspection, subtilty,
all these are things which it would be flattery to predicate
of him.  His assumption of judicial assessorship, as a critic
of English, is, therefore, to  borrow  a word from  Hazlitt,
altogether ultra-crepidarian. Coleridge says, of some one,
that, after turning  over a few  books, he "puts  on  the
seven-league boots of self-opinion, and strides, at once,
from an illustrator into a supreme judge "; and the type
of adventurer thus delineated  is realized  by Mr.\ White,
even as, in water, face answereth to face. The evidences
are sown  broadcast, that, for his reputed  knowledge of
our language, he has become the cynosure of an admiring
coterie, in which he rules as umpire and oracle; and, as a
critic before the world, to what extent, if unchecked, may
he not propagate, among the unthinking and uninformel,
the contagion of his numberless crotchets and crudities!p. 180, he gives a quotation from "Graham's" WTord Gossip.  The book
quoted is by Mr. Blackley.  At pp. 128 and 200, the interesting old letterwriter Howell figures as "l Howells ".  These are specimens of a heedlessness
which is, plainly, habitual.
I It is amusing to see the imperial air with which he enounces his behests
to applicants for his manuduction. When, however, they presume to doubt
and boggle, it is "Really, I hope my friends will not misapprehend me, when
I say that it is, generally, safe to assume that the court knows a little law."
P. 395.
Something like a panic, it seems, has been occasioned, by the meteoric appearance of Mr. White, among the proprietors of divers old-fashioned schoolbooks, which sundry of his admirers have petitioned him  to supersede by
something sounder.  "Why, even already the priests of the present idols
have begun to denounce a certain pestilent fellow, and their craftsmen to cry
Great is Diana of the Ephesians'."  P. 400.
A new grammar Mr. White appears to have projected with some seriousness; and he drops hints of a new dictionary, likewise.  To think of the good
they might effect, and of the glory they might gaint him, warms the very
cockles of his heart. " It would be delightful to believe that the next generation would rise up and call me blessed." In a much lower key, be adds:' but I am, of necessity, much more interested in the question, whether the
present generation would rise up and put its hand in its pocket, to pay me for
my labour." P. 397. Very fortunately, little harm is to be apprehended,
even though the present generation were not to subserve the beatification of
Mr. White, by utilizing his pedagogic aspirations.




113
To expose baseless pretensions has not, however, been
my motive, in my dealings with this gentleman.   Regard
for the interests of sound learning and common sense has,
alone, induced  this cursory  examination  of some  of his
statements and  deductions.   His teachings, as being, in
the main, grossly erroneous, deserved to be counteracted;
and to counteract them  was impracticable without evincing,
simultaneously, that, whatever be his forte, philology is
his  foible.   Were his  shortcomings  the  result of  sloth
only, such is my preference for impersonality, that
Non partis studiis agimur, sed sumpsimus arma
C(onsiliis inimica tuis, ignavia fallax
mighti serve  as the motto  of my  strictures  on  him.   It
would have been much more agreeable to  me, if his book
had  been  anonymous;  and, besides, his mi isakes,  with
those of M3r. De Quincey and  the rest, would  never have
moved me to  write in a polemic spirit, except that, in an
essay not aiminig at anything like met'hod or completeness,
they were serviceable as introductions to a few  discursive
hints  on  the  necessity, in order to just philological conclusions, of patient inquiry, cautious refection, and  dispassionate judgment.
ADDITIONS.
P. 4, notes, 1. 15.  Fuller, in The Holy State and the _Profnaee State, pp. 4,
422, makes coyosge plural; but, at p. 347, he writes "a dyiny   corpse ". In his
lAbel 2Iedevivns, p. 19, we read (' his corpes were bnrnt ".' Their corps were
burnt." Dr. Featly, ibid., p. 478.' I-is corps was," &c. Gataker, ibid., p. 407.
"It is curious to observe how the English Catholics of the seventeenth
century wrote English like men who habitually spoke French.  CUosTps is
sometimes used for' the living body'."  Southey, OnnianaC, V ol. 2, p. 131.
This remark has, certainly, very little warrant.  AI to e0'u.is, since it
denoted, as it now denotes, a specific collection of liviuno bodies, to make it
import a single living body was to alter its use but sliohtly.    Vestegrau
gives it a wider latitude of meaning than that now attached to it;.  "'he
main corps and body of the realm.... bath still consisted of tle ancient
English-Saxon people," &c. Restitutiolz, &c., p. 203. " The co:.ps or body of
the realm."  Ibid., p. 308.  At p. 250, Verstegan writes, as many authors of
his century write, and not, to their consciousness, tautologically, " a deed corps "
And so Heylin: A  Fltdl  helation, &c., p. 373. Lithgow, a sufficiently exacorbated Protestant for Southey himself, without either Gallicizinlc or Scotticizing, has: "The rememberance of these sweet seasoned songs.. did
recreate my fatigated coaps with many sugred suppositions"'   The Tfotatd.Discourse, &c., p. 69.
8




114
P. 18, note 5. In evidence that Dr. Johnson, as a lexicographer, recognized
individcal in the character of a substantive, we have the fact that his second
definition of the substantive particular is: "Izndividual; private person."
Again, his third definition of person is: "Individual; man or woman."
P. 30, notes, 1. 15. Disliking to make an assertion of which the proof is
not at once producible, I regret that the existence, in English literature, of
musicianer, a word I have again and again seen in old books, must here be
left unestablished.  It is used, however, by the Scotchman Lithgow, in The
Totall Discourse, &c., p. 98.
P. 32, 1. 13.  On looking over my notes, I see that I can allege numerous
other instances of the verb experitsnce, scattered through the literature of four
centuries. A couple of quotations are subjoined, with a few references.
" Your soul will then experieznce the most terrible fears, if you do not recover
yourself into the fold and family of God's Church."  Southwell, Poetical JVorks
(ed. Mr. WV. B. Turnbull, 156), Preface, p. lvi.
Southwell was judicially murdered in 1595, at the early age of three and
thirty. It is worth noting that the poetical remains of this saintly man were
first collected, more than two centuries and a half after his death, by a person
who, like himself, fell a victim to Protestant bigotry.
"All the active power and vigour of the mind, our faculties of reason, imagination, and will, are the wonderful result of this mutual occurse, this pulsion
and repercussion of atoms; just as we experience it in the flint and the steel'';
&c. Bentley, Works, Vol. 3, p. 42.  Also see p. 67 of the same volume.
Two sermons delivered in 1692 are here referred to.
See, further, Htenry More, 21nnotations upon L ux Orientalis, &C., pp. 17,
29, 39 (bis), 51, 52, 53, 81, 123: Bishop Warburton, A  Selection, &c., pp.
27, 372, 431: John Wilkes, The Ngorth -Briton, Numbers 6, 14, 17, 28, 39,
42: Horace Walpole, The Castle of Otranto, chapters 2 and 4: William
Godwin, The Enquirer (1797), pp. 31, 62, 68, 163, 189, 230, 272, 273, 313,
419: Mrs. Godwin, -Posth/umous T;orks (1798), Vol. 1, p. 144; Vol. 2, p.
139; Vol. 3, p. 102: Sydney Smith, Works, pp. 17 (his), 24, 27, 36, 57,
58, 69, 74, 83, 88, 119, 154, 182, 186, 195, 244, 253, 291, &c. &c.
P. 53, note 1.  Since p. 53 was printed off, I have seen it announced that
a new  edition of TVords and Their Uses is in preparation.  I will, therefore, here mention, that, to the authorities for expressions like is being built,
which I formerly adduced, I can now add Shelley, Mrs. Shelley, Dr. Arnold,
Dr. Newman, Mr. Ruskin, and the Rev. Charles Kingsley.  The last name
does nsot, perhaps, deserve recording'.  Still less, at all events, do the names
of Lord Lytton, Mr. Thackeray, Mr. Dickens, and Mr. Froude, as concerns a
point of language.
P. 55, 11. 19, 20.  Some verbs in -en which have been proposed have
failed of being adopted.  Two such are here exemplified.
" To conclude, as your wild fancy (if you were surpriz'd of any) is now
rectifi'd, your coolenesse heatned, your coynesse banished," &c.  3Bratthwait,
The _English Gentlemzan, &c., p. 357.
"For his great heart, instead of fainting and subsidin-, rose and biggened
in proportion to any growing danger that threatened him."  Sir Richard
Steele, The Christian Hero, p. 45 (ed. 1711).
P. 70, notes, 1. 4.  Bedevivzus is the word in Fuller's own title.
P. 94, ll. 1, 2. " If you examine a man that has been well disciplined by
philosophy, you'I find.          no selfish, no obnoxious and absconding
practices."  Jeremy Collier, Th/e Elmperor  lrarcus Antoninzus his Conv2ersation
with Hiozself, &c. (1701), p. 35.
"Any the most obnoxzious argument."   Bishop Hurd, Moral and Political
-Dialogiues (ed. 1760), p. 15.  Also, see pp. 31, 42.




115
AUTHORS, ETC.
*%* The letter f., where attached to the number of a page, is intended to
denote the pages immediately following.
Addison, Joseph, 2, 3, 4, 7, 16, 18,  Cambridge, R. 0., 3, 7.
23, 24, 26, 34, 64, 87.             Canning, George, 39.
Alford, Dean, 7, 30, 31, 36, 38, 66.    Capgrave, 2, 4, 7, 30, 79.
Arnold, Dr. Thomas, 7, 11, 18, 35,  Cardinali, 80.
56, 75, 81, 96, 114.               Carey, Henry, 25.
Ascham, Rogrer, 35.                   Carter, Miss, 3, 7, 11, 25, 26, 34, 54,
Ashwell, Rev. George, 93, 96.           61, 93.
Atterbury, Bp., 2.                    Channing, J., 34.
Bacon, Lord, 19.                      Chapone, Mrs., 34.
Blaker, Robert, 90.                   Charles I., 15.  ASee Eikon Basilike.
Bale, Bp., 72.                        Chatterton, 11.
Barrow, Dr. Isaac, 2, 3, 11, 16, 72,  Chaucer, 29, 62, 79.
93, 97.                            Chesterfield, Lord, 34, 7.2.
Bathurst, Dr. Richard, 34.            Cicero, 79, 81.
Bentham, Jeremy, 19, 25, 83.          Clarendon, Lord, 72.
Bentley, Dr. Richard, 80, 81, 94, 95,  Cobbett, WVilliam, 50, 84.
96, 114.                           Coghan, Dr. Thomas, 2, 7.
Berkeley, Bp., 34.                    Cole, Rev. Thomas, 39.
Bernard, Richard, 109.                Coleridge, HIartley, 11.
Biekerstaffe, Isaac, 39.              Coleridge, S. T., 3, 5, f., 11, 13, 18,
Blackburne, Archdeacon, 90.             19, 20, 25, 27, 29, 32, 34, 35, 39,
Blackley, Rev. VW. L., 27, f., 112.     58, 72, 77, 85, 91, 95, 98, 100, 112.
Blackstone, Sir William, 27, 84.      Collier, Rev. Jeremy, 3, 72, 93, 97,114.
Blair, Dr., 84.                       Colman, George, 11, 25, 39.
Boileau, 23.                          Colman and Thornton, 3, 11, 39.
Boyle, Charles, 81, 96, 100.          Congreve, William, 39.
Bradshaigh, Lady, 70.                 Cooper, J. G., 3.
Brathwait, Richard, 24, 29, 33, 56,  Cork, Earl of, 25, 34.
64, 70, 71, 72, 74, 85, 86, 92, 114.  Cowell, Dr. John, 27.
Brooke, Henry, 11, 16, 34, 39, 71, 94.  Cowper, William, 4, 7, 11, 14, 25, 34,
Brooke, Lord, 97.                       39, 57, 58, 72, 94.
Broughton, Lord, 75.                  Crabbe, Rev. George, 11, 24.
Brown, Dr. John, 16, 24.              Cumberland, Richard, 11, 25.
Budgell, Eustace, 39.                 Dacres, Edward, 71.
Buffon, 80.                           D'A]embert, 80.
Burguy, M., 106.                      Dalrymple, Sir David, 39.
Burke, Edmund, 2, 3, 11, 13, 20, 22,  De Foe, 3, 39, 54, 70, 74, 94.
25, 34, 40, 56, 57, 71, 75, 80, 81,  De Quincey, Mr. Thomas, 8, f., 24,
87, 90, 94, 98.                       26, 35, 39, 71, 75, 76, 81, 87, 91,
Burney, Miss, 11, 25, 34.               96, 98, 109, 113.
Burthogge, Dr. Richard, 5, 33, 90.    Derham, Dr. William, 76.
Burton, Rev. Robert, 4.               De Vere, Prof. Schele, 46.




116
I)ickens, Mr. Charles, 114.         Hodlgson, Dr. Shadwor th H., 49.
Donaldson, Dr. J. WV., 43.          HIolmes, Dr. O. W., 105, f.
Donne, Dr., 4, 56, 58, 71, 74, 93.    Hooker, Rev. Richard, 2.
Dryden, 19, 96, 102.                Horne, Bp., 34, 39, 91.
Duncombe, Rev. John, 94.            Howell, James, 112.
Duncombe, William, 34.              Howells, Mr. Wv. D., 106, 107.
Elyot, Sir Thomas, 2, 5, 7, 8, 32, 62, Hughes, John, 3, 39.
64, 71.                           Hume, David, 84.
Farrar, Rev. F.  r., 43.            Hurd, Bp., 114.
Featly, Dr. Daniel, 72, 97, 113.    Irving, Mr. Washington, 103.
Fell, Dr. J., 93.                   Isaacson, Henry, 72.
Feltham, 74.                        Jenyns, Soame, 34.
Fielding, Henry, 99, 100.           Johnson, Charles, 3, 7, 11, 26, 34, 39.
Fleckno, Rev. Richard, 33, 56.      Johnson, Dr[ Samuel, 2, 6,.8, 10, 11,
Florio, 32.                            14, 18, 19, 23, 25, 26, 31, 32, 34,
Foote, 6, 25, 34, 39.                  37, 38, 39, 48, 49, 55, 57, 70, 71, 72,
Fox, Charles James, 65.                73, 80, 82, 84, 85, 90, 92, 96, 97,
Franck, Richard, 15, 16, 33, 34, 73.   98, 111, 114.
Frere, John, 11.                    Jones, Rev. William, of Nayland, 3,
Froude, Mr. J. A., 114.                11, 39, 58, 90.
Fuller, Dr. Thomas, 4, 6, 38, 55, 64, Jonson, Ben, 24, 111.
70, 72, 74, 76, 80, 93, 97, 102, Junius, 75. See Letters of Junius.
106, 113, 114.                    Keble, Rev. John, 39.
Gataker, Rev. Thomas, 72, 106, 113.  Kelly, Hugh, 34.
Gay, 109.                           Kett, Rev. Henry, 39, 91.
Gibbon, 11, 39, 75, 94, 96.         Kilmore, Bp. of, 109.
Gladstone, Mr. W. E., 25.           Kingsley, Rev. Charles, 86, 114.
Glanvill, Rev. Joseph, 3, 7, 15, 33, Lamb, Charles, 11, 25, 28, 34, 35,
40, 57, 63, 74, 80, 93, 109.        39, 57, 81, 85, 93.
Godwin, William, 11, 35, 49, 81, 94, Landor, W. S., 2, f., 11, 14, 18, 19,
114.                                20, 25, 35, 38, 56, 87, 91, 95, 98.
Godwin, Mrs., 114.                  Langland, Robert, 29.
Goldsmith, 57, 87.                  Latham, Dr. R. G., 11, 31.
Gorges, Sir Arthur, 40, 56, 70.     Latimer, Bp., 30.
Gosson, 3, 4.                       Lavington, Bp., 39.
Gould, Mr. E. S., 23.               Lawrence, Henry, 4.
Graves, Rev. Richard, 32.           Lawrence, Rev. Matthew, 2, 33.
Gray, 3, 7, 20, 25, 34, 39, 60, 82.  Lilly, William, 88.
Greene, Robert, 32, 60.             Lithgow, William, 56, 59, 84, 109,
Grose, Francis, 34.                    113, 114.
Haldeman, Prof. S. S., 54.          Littr6, M., 8, 16, 47, 64, 80, 86,91, 97.
Hall, Bp., 29.                      Lloyd, Charles, 11.
Hall, 1lr. B. H., 40.               Lobeck, C. A., 44.
Harvey, Gabriell, 3, 7, 32, 56, 57, Longfellow, Mr. H. W., 108.
71, 79.                           Loveybond, Edward, 34.
Hawkesworth, Dr. J., 11, 34, 39.    Lowth, Bp., 2, 6, 11, 19, 34, 82.
Hawkins, IMiss, 10, 12.             Lyly, John, 3.
Hawthorne, Mr. N., 103, f.          Lytton, Lord, 26, 105, 114.
Hayward, James, 2.                  Macaulay, Lord, 3, 4, 12, 14, 19, 20,
Hazlitt, William, 22, 39, 81, 112.     25, 35, 36, 49, 58, 59, 72, 81, 82,
Heylin, Dr. Peter, 63, 72, t73, 74,   85, 87, 95, 96, 105, 108.
113.                              Maudeville, Bernard De, 34, 39, 49.
Hieron, Rev. Samuel, 2, 5.          Manning, Abp., 72, 80.
Hill, Aaron, 25, 34.                Mannyng, Roberd, 5.
Hobbes, 3, 6, 7, 72, 74, 80, 91, 97, Marsh, Mr. G. P., 4, 7, 18, 40, 46.
102.                              Mason, Rev. William, 80.




lfie e, 8, 16, 97.                   Shenstone, 19, 34, 39, 57.
Miill, Mr. J. S., 11, 25, 35, 57, 58, Shields, Rev. Alexander, 34.
96.                                Sidney, Sir Philip, 2, 111.
3Milman, Dean, 57.                   Skinner, Dr. S., 28.
Milton, 3, 14, 15, 16, 20, 31, 33, 39, Smart, Mr. B. H., 51.
56, 57, 85, 86, 97, 109, 111.      Smith, Robert, 34.
M[onmouth, Henry Earl of, 4, 19, 32, Smith, Rev. Sydney, 81, 95, 114.
33, 56, 65, 86.                    Smollett, 90.
rMontesquieu, 80.                    Southey, Robert, 3, 7, 11, 14, 24, 25,
Moon, Mr. G. WV., 31.                   30, 34, 35, 39, 49, 50, 55, 57, 58,
Moore, Edward, 34, 39, 72.              71, 72, 73, 76, 81, 85, 91, 93, 95,
More, Dr. Henry, 3, 6, 7, 15, 33, 72,    113.
74, 94, 114.                       Southwell, Rev. Robert, 17, 20, 64,
More, Sir Thomas, 4, 109.               114.
Miiller, Prof. Maximilian, 30.       Spenser, 20, 109.
AMurphy, Arthur, 39.                 Sprat, Bp., 92, 93.
Murray, Lindley, 23.                 Steele, Sir Richard, 2, 34, 39, 70, 82,
ZMyrc, John, 28, 29.                    103, 114.
Nash, Thomas, 4, 24, 32, 86.         Sterne, Rev. Laurence, 3, 11, 20, 34,
Newcbme, Abp., 58.                      58, 60, 90, 96.
Newman, Dr. J. HI., 11, 14, 20, Stratmann, Mr. F. H., 29.
25, 35, 57, 58, 72, 81, 91, 95, Swift, Dean, 65.
114.                               Swinburne, Mr. A. C., 38.
Otway, 6.                            Talbot, Mr. H. Fox, 98.
Paley, Archdeacon, 11, 34, 58, 81, 91, Talbot, Miss, 25, 34.
94, 96.                            Tarlton, Richard, 18.
Palmer, Rev. William, 79.            Taylor, John, 4, 6, 71.
Parratt, 39.                         Taylor, William, 76, 85, 87.
Pearson, Bp., 4, 72.                 Terry, Rev. Edward, 1, 24.
Pecock, Bp., 3, 6, 7, 29, 79, 85.    Thackeray, Mr. W. M., 103, 104,
Pollok, Rev. Robert, 77.                105, 114.
-Pope, 19, 38, 72.                    Thirlwall, Bp., 31.
Porson, 14, 221 25, 34, 81, 94.      Tilson, J., 3, 39.
Puller, Dr. Timothy, 15, 33, 72.     Todd, Archdeacon, 11, 32, 58, 63, 90,
Raynouard, M., 62.                      106.
Reade, Mr. Charles, 52, 98, 106.     Tooke, Rev. Horne, 39.
Reynolds, Sir Joshua, 25.            Trench, Abp., 22.
Richardson, Dr. Charles,l 11, 28, 30, Udal, Rev. Nicholas, 6.
k 31, 34, 38, 87, 92.                Verstegan, Richard, 71, 106, 113.
Richardson, Samuel, 3, 11, 25, 34, 39, Voltaire, 80.
57, 94, 97.                        Walpole, Horace, 3, 24, 25, 39, 72,
Riche, Barnabe, 2, 40, 71.              85, 87, 90, 114.
Richelet, 16, 64, 80.                Warburton, Bp., 80, 94, 114.
Robert of Gloucester, 109.           Warton, Dr. Joseph, 11, 39.
Robynson, Raphe, 3, 71.              Warton, Rev. Thomas, 58.
Rousseau, 22.                        Watson, Rev. William, 2, 30.
Ruskin, Mr. John, 7, 20, 25, 35, 58, Weber, Henry William, 85.
59, 83, 86, 87, 92, 108, 114.      Webster, Dr. Noah, 51, 58, 90.
Sanderson, Bp., 5, 7, 72, 80, 105, Webster's editors, Dr., 24, 46, 51,
109.                                 56, 58, 61, 98, 105.
Scott, Rev. Thomas, 11.              WVedgwood, Mr. H., 106.
Scott, Sir Walter, 99, 100.          Wey, M. Francis, 41.
Shakespeare, 2, 4, 6, 8, 17, 20, 21, White, R., 93, 96.
26, 56, 85, 86, 100, 106, 109.     WVhite, Mr. Richard Grant, 31, f.
Shelley, 7, 11, 35, 76, 114.         WVhite, Rev. Thomas, 34.
Shelley, Mrs., 12, 114.              WVilberforce, lBp., 11.




118
Wilkes, John, 114.                    Wordsworth, William, 4, 11, 20, 22,
Wilkins, Bp., 94.                       25, 35, 95.
Worcester, Dr. Joseph E., 46, 57, 90. Wright, Mr. Thomas, 83.
Barnabah Itinerarium (almost certainly Political Poems and Songs, 29.
by Richard Brathwait), 102.         Prayer-Book, The, 5, 17, 18, 70.
Bible, The, 5, 17, 18, 20, 25, 26, 85, Religious Pieces in Prose and Verse,
86, 108, 109.                         29.
Cardinalismo  di Santa  Chiesa, I1  Revelation to the Monk of Evesham,
(translated by G. HI.), 24, 69.       The, 29.
Cassandra, 24.                        Rogue, or The Life of Guzman de
Eikon Basilike, 15, 72.                 Alfarache, The, 56.
French Academie, The (translated by  Saturday Review, The, 86.
T. B.), 97.                         Scotch Presbyterian Eloquence, The,
1Kyng Alysaunder, 85.                   34, 39.
Letters of Junius, The, 11, 75.       Story of Genesis and Exodus, The, 18.
Loyal Observator, The, 94.            Tarlton's Jests, &c., 32, 60, 71.
Pasquine in a Traunce (translated by  Transactions of the Philological SoW. P.), 2, 4, 71.                     ciety, The, 30.




WORDS AND PHRASES.
*** Of the terms referred to as illustrations, the more commonL are not
here indexed.
A, Italian, &c., 50, 103. Appropry, 55.              Bounteous, 71.
Academical, sb., 74.      Approve, 12.               Bountiful, 70, 107.
Accept, 12.               Arms, sb. sing., 4.     -Brake, 65, 69, 108.
Accidence, 64.            Arrant, 9.                 Branchery, for branches,
Accidential, 64.          Aside, for apart, 99, 110.    85.
Accompanist, 61.          Assassin, v. a., 55.       Braziery, 86.
Accredit, for credit, 107.  Assizes, sing., 3.       Bridemaid,bridesmaid,6.
Actual, for present, 75.   At all, misuse of, 107.    Bug, for insect, 104.
Affable, 103.             At London, 104.            Bumming, 99, 110.
Affected, for appropri-  At one, at onement, 5.   Bomperize, 54.
ated, 104.              Atonable, atone, atone-  Cablegram, 45.
Affiliate, 77.              mellt, 5.                Cantonize, 56.
Again, 83.                Attributive, for putative,  Carrionize, 54.
Aged, 37.                    106.                    Catalogize, 60.
Agential, 65.             Autograph, 46.             Cattery, for cats, 85.
Aggravate, for provoke,  Avocation, for vocation,  Chaise, plu., 4.
106.                      105.                    Character, v. a., 55.
Agonist, 61.              Back and forth, 106.       Chay, origin of, 4.
Agriculturalist, 57.      Back and forward, 105.   Chicken, chickens, 30.
Agriculturist, 57.        Back of, 105.              Chirograph, 46.
All the same, for never-  Baptise, 46.               Chiromancer, 60.
theless, 110.           Barnumize, 54.            Christian, v. a., 55.
Allow, for consent, 107.  Bastardize, 54.            Christianise, 46.
Almost, adj., 104.        Beadsman, 6.               Church, 30.
Alms, sing., 3.           Bedismal, v. a., 105.      Church-going bell, 4.
Alone, for all one, 5.    Begaudy, v. a., 105.       Chymic, sb., 74.
Amends, sb. sing., 3.     Beggary, 85, 87, 107.    Citizenry, for citizens,
Amid, in prose, 110.      Beguilty, v. a., 105.        85.
Amongst many a, 22.       Belate, v. a., 105.        Civilian, 9.
Analyse, 54.              Belike, 110.            L Clang, for clung, 70.
Anecdote, v. a., 106.     Belittle, v. a., 99, 105,  Clavers, 105.
Angelry, for angels, 85.     110.                    Clergyman, 73.
Another from, 21.         Bellows, sb. sing., 3.     Cliqueism, 59.
Antagonist, 61.           Bemean, v. a., 105, 106.  Cloggist, 107.
Any time, for constantly,  Beseech, v. n., 106.      Clubbist, 59.
&e., 104.               Besides, 83.              Colours, sb. sing., 4.
Apartment, 8.             Bestead with, 99, 110.    Come, for become, 104.
Apoplectic, sb., 74.  4   Bestride, misuse of, 110.  Commence, v. a., 38,1104.
Apostate, v. n., 55.. -Bide, 65.                  Commence, for begin to.
Apparition, for appear-  Biggen, 114.                  be, &c., 38, f.
aiice, 104.             Bigoted, 36.              Commercialist, 58.
Appropinquity, 105.  BL3Blowed, 65.                  Common-illtlh, 84.




120
Coompensate for, 10.      Deaf, v. a., 55.          Enow, for enough, 69.
Cornputist, 57.           Deboshed, 106.            Enquirist, 57.
Conclude, for  resolve, Demean,  for  disgrace,  Enthronize, 56.
110.                      &c., 104, 105, 106.     Enthuse, 77.
Concurrent, sbh, 64.      Demise, for death, 105.   Enthusiastic, sb., 74.
Condl, condit, v. a., 75..Denmocratical, sb., 74.    Ephemerides, sing., 4.
Conducive, 61.            Deodorize, 76.            Epigram, 46.
Confectionarius, 86.      Dereliction, misuse  of,  Epistler, 60.
Confectionary,  confec-    107.                     Epistolist, 61.
tionesy, 86,-f.         Determe, 55.              Epitapher, 60.
Confectionate, 86.        Devast, 55.               Equal, v. a., 56.
Confectioner, 86.         Develop, for reveal, 106.  Equalize, 56.
Confectioness, 86.        Developist, 57.           Equivalence, for equivaCongressional, 29.        Diagram, 46.                 lents, 65.
Conject, 55.              Dialogista, 61.           Ere, in prose, 110.
Consequent, sb., 64.      Didrachma, 45.            Errant, 9.
ConsequLential, 64.       Dietist, 61.              Ethics, sinlg., 3.
Contemplatist, 57.        Different than, 21.       Eventuate, 77, f., 89, 92.
Conternporary to, 19.     Different to, 104.         Eventuation, 78, 90, 92.
Contingent, sb., 64.    L -igged, 108.             Everybody-their, 104.
Controversialist, 57.     Digramn, digraph, 46.     Evil, 83.
Controversist, 58.        Dilemma, 43.              Example, v. a., 55.
Controvertist, 57, f., 92.  Diocesan, sb., 28.      Execute, 78, 108.
Convene, v. a. & n., 72, Directly, for' as soon as, Executioner, 78.
f., 111.                  104, 106.               Exigent, sb., 64.
Convent, v. a. andn., 72. Disciplinist, 57.         Exorcist, 61.
Conversationalist, 57.    Discommode, 107.          Experience, the verb, 31,
Conversationist, 57.      Discord, v. n., 105.        f., 62, 104, 106, 107;
Convoke, 72.              Disfellowship, v.a., 78, f.    114.
Copesmate, 6.             Dismally, fordismal, 104.  Experience, sb., 35.
Copyist, how derived, 57. Disworship, v. a., 79.    Experience, sb. plu., 64.
Corps, corpse, plu., 4, Divagation, 105.            Experienced, part. adj.,
113.                   Divine, adj. & sb., 73.      31.
Cowv-milk, 6.             Donate, 75, f.            Experiment, v. a. &  n.,
Cowslip, 6.               Dreadful, 26.                34, 57.
Critize, 56.              Drollist, 57.             Experimentalize, 54.
Crocker, 87.              Each, misuse of, 107.     Experiment6, 37.
Crockery, 86, f.          Editorial, sb., 74.       Expertus, 37.
Crope, 70.                Effectuate, 89, 92.       Exponental, exponential,
Cultive, 55.              Effectuation, 90.            63.
Curiosity, for novel cha-  Effectuer, 92.           Exponentiel, 64.
racter, 24.            Effettuare, 92.            Extinct, v. a., 55.
Curious, for observable, Eftsoons, 110.             Extirp, 55.
&c., 23, f.            Either, how pronounced,  Exuviate, 89.
Curiously,  for observ-    50.                      Fairy, 85.
ably, &c., 24, f.      Either, misuse of, 110.   Fantastic, sb., 74.
Curr, v. n., 76.          Emanatist, 57.            Fat, v. a., 55.
Cycle, misuse of, 107.    Emancipist, 57.          \Favourize, 56.
Dag, for dew, 69.         Emblem, v. a., 55.       IFellowship, v. a., 78, f.
Daisy, 6.                 Embryonic,  embryotic,  Fellowship, for society,
Dash-board, dasher, for    77.                         79.
splash-board, 106.     Endenize, 56.              Felonry, for felons, 86.
Dastardize, 54.           Englishry, 85, 106.       Felt of, for felt, 106.
Daw, v. a., 55.           Engrave, &c., how  de-  Femininization, feminiDaysman, 6.                 rived, 62, 63.             zation, 77.
Dead, v. a., 55.          Engravist,engraphist,62.  Festinlate, 76, f.




121
Firing, sb., 41.        llHeaten, 114.             Jeopardy, etym. of, 55.
Fir'st-chop, 100.        Heathenize, 54.           Jewellery, 86.
First-rate, 99, 100.     Helotry, for helots, 85.  Jewelry, 85, f., 104.
Fisher, fisherman, 87.    Help, for avoid, 82.'Joaillerie, 86.
Fisherer, for fisher, 30.  Hen-egg, 6.             Joy, v. n., in prose, 110.
Fit, for ready, 104.     Herdman, 6.               Juvenile, sb., 74.
Flat, v. a., 55.         Hereafter, for after that,  Juxtapose, 75, f., 100.
Fly, for flee, 104, 106.    109.                   Juxtaposer, 76.
For, misuses of, 105,107. Him, as nom., 85.        Juxtaposit, 75.
Forward, 83.             Him, for his, 104, 107.  Kickshaws, 4.
Frightful, 26.           Hing, for hung, 70.       Kind, did his, 110.
Fripper, fripperer, 30.  -Holden, 20.              Kingship, 78, f.
Fruiterer, 30.           Holograph, 46.            Kyriake, 30.
Fulmine, 55.'lIolpe, 70.               Lady, for woman, 28.
Funeral, funerals, 9.    Hustings, 41.             Lady, for wife, 104.
Galliardize, 54.         Hypocrize, 56.          lLaid, for lay, 21.
Gallow,  gallows,  gal- Idolater, how  derived, Landscapist, 59.
lowses, 4.               60.                     Last, how  pronounced,
Gat, 65, 69, 108.        Ill, adj., 74, 83, 100,    50.
Genies, genii, geniuses,    108.                   Lavish, 70.
3.                    Illness, 83.            L Lay, for lie, 102.
Geomancer, 60.           Illth, 83.                Legendry, for legends,
Geometer, how  derived, Illy, 83.                    86.
60.                    Impertinent, 92.         Less, v. a., 55.
Geometrize, how derived, Implicit, 12, f.          Lesserer, for lesser, 30.
56.                    Impregn, 55.             Liable, 93.
Get, for become, 81, f.   In view of, for in con- Libelist, 57.
Giantry, for giants, 85.   sideration of, 106.     Liberal, adj., 70.
Gifts of prophecy, 17.    Incipere, 40.            Lie, v. n., 102.
Girlery, for girls, 85.  Inconvenient, sb., 64.    Lifeguardmen, 6.
Give out, for fail, 107.   Incurious, for uninter-  Lithographe, 43.
Glad, v. a., 55.           esting, 24.             Lithographer, 62.
Glass, how  pronounced,  Indefinity, 110.          Lithographist, 62.
50.                    Independent upon, 19.   Locate, 77.
Gluttonize, 54.          Individual, sb., 18, 114. Long of, 21.
Gormandize, 54.          Inexperienced, 32.        Lot, 17.
-Got, gotten, 65, 69.     Infamonize, 56.          Loved, how pronounced,
Gownsman, 6.             Infantry, for infants, 85.    51.
Gradate, 75, f.          Influence into, 19.       Ludicrous of, the, for
Grammatist, 61.          Ingrave, how old, 62.       the ludicrousness of,
Gratis, gratis dictum, 80. Ingredience, plu., 64.    21.
Grato, 80.               Ingrediences,  for  in-  Machine, machinery, 87.
Gratuit, gratuitement,80.    gredients, 65.        Mad, v. a., 55.
Gratuito, 81.            Inhabitance, pin., 64.    Magition, for magician,
Gratuitous, gratuitously, Insect, etym. of, 5.       30.
79, f.                 Insurrect, 73.           Major's-who, 105.
Gratuitus, 79.           Interval between each, Make a visit, 48.
Grocery, misuse of, 87.    22.                     Mari, 88, 89.
Grow, for become, 81, f. Inunde, 55.               Marier, 89.
Ilarlotry, for harlot, 86.  Irishry, 85.           Marization, 77.
Harpist, 59.             Is being done, &c., 53,  Marry, 88, f.
Hate, sb., in prose, 110.    103, 106, 107, 114.    Martyrize, 56.
Hausmanniser, 54.        Its, 11.                  Master, misuse of, 107.
IHazardize, 56.          Jakes, sing., 3.          Mastie, mastiff, mastive,
He, 85.                  Jargonist, 59.              98.
Healthful, 70.           Jeopardize, 54.           Mathematics, sing., 3.




122
Mayhap, 110.              Notifying  the  people, Patron, v. a., 55.
Mean, means, sb., 2, 66,    107.                    Paltprismne, 41.
67.                     Notist, 57.               Pell, v. a., 76.
Mechanics, sing., 3.      Now-a-days, 6.            Pensionary, sb., 87.
Melancholious, 105.       Nown., for own, 6.        Pentagraph, 60.
Menagerie, 86.            Nub, nube,nupt, v. a., 89. Pentagrapher, 60.
Mews, mewses, 3,          Nuncle, for uncle, 6.     Pentagraphic, 60.
Militare, 91.             Nuptiate, 89.             Perorate, 76.
Militate, 89, f.          Obituary, sb., 74.        Perpetual, 20.
Militer, 91.              Obnoxious, 92, f., 114.   Perspicuity, for perspiMilitiate, 90.            Obnoxiousness, 93, 94.       cacity, 105.
Miniardize, 54.           Obnoxius, 92.             Petitionist, 57.
Mlissionary,   missioner,  Occurrent, sb., 64.      Philosophic, sb., 73.
87.                     Odds, sing., 3.           Philosophy, v. n., 55.
Monogram, 45.             Of, for by, 107.          Phisition, for physician,
Monograph, 45.            Off, 100.                    30.
Monthly, sb., 74.         Olden, v. a. & n., 105.   Photogram, 47.
Moreover, 83.             On the street, &c., 106, Photograph, 76.
Motionist, 57.               107.                   Photographe, 43.
Moughte, 70.              On that account, misuse  Photographer, 59.
Muchwhat, 110.              of, 48.                 Photographing, for phoMuletress, 107.           Once, ones, 6.               tograph, sb., 61.
Multiple, for manifold,  One-his, 107.              Photographist, 59.
107.                    One with another, 107.   Photographize, 61.
Munificent, 70.           Only, misplacement of, Photograve, 61.
Musicianer, for  musi-    21, 107.                  Physics, sb. sing., 3.
cian, 30, 114.          Only good enough to be, Pillor, v. a., 55.
Musition, for musician,    105.                     Play-wright, 110.
30.                     Orate, 75, f.             Plenty, for plentiful, 100,
Mutual tears, &c., 105,  Orgy, 4.                      105.
107.                    Otiosity, 105.            Politics, sing., 3.
Napery, 85.               Pains, sb. sing., 3.      Politize, 56.
Napol6oniser, 54.         Palaeographer, palmogra- Populatory, 107.
Nationalist, 58.            phist, 61.              Potentiality, 102.
Necessitare, 92.          Panegyric, sb., 74.       Poulter, poulterer, 30.
Necessitate, 89, 92.      Panegyrist, 61.           Practicalist, 58.
Necessitation, 90.        Pantaloonery, 85.         Practician, 29.
Necessite, 55.            Pantographer, 60.         Practist, 29.
Ndcessiter, 92.           Paragonize, 56.           Practitional, 30.
Necromancer, how  de-  Paragraphist, 59.            Practitioner, 29.
rived, 60.              Parallelogram, 43, 46.   Precedent, sb., 64.
Needs, adv., 6.           Paralyse, 54.             Precedental,  precedenNeither,   how    pro-  Parishional, 29.               tial, 64.
nounced, 50.            Parishioner, 27.          Predicated, for grounded,
Neither, misuse of, 110.  Parlour,  for  drawing-    106.
Neither-ride, 105.          room, 48.               Prelal, 106.
Nether, v. a., 106.       Parodize, 57.             Presidental, 63.
News, 3.                  Parson, 27.               Pr6sidental, 64.
Nice, 26.                 Part with, for part from, Presidentiai, 63.
No, Noe, Noy, 17, 18.        106.                   Presidential  campaign,
No nother, 6.             Partake, 104.                99.
Nohow, 109.               Parties, for persons, 104. Prdsidentiel, 64.
Nonce, for the, 6.        Pastor, how pronounced, Presidial, 63.
Nones, original of nonce,    50.                    Primary, for primer, 87.
6.                      Pastoral, sb., 74.        Proceed, v. n., technical
Nonsensical, 61.          Pastry, 86, f.               lse of, 40.




123
Prodigal, adj., 70.      Rhymist, 57.              Soberize, 54.
Prodigate, v. a., 105.    Riches, sing. and plu., 3. Sometimes, 6.
Profuse, 70.             Ridicule, for ridiculous- Sophist, 61,
Programme, 46.             ness, 21, 105.          Sort, sb., 17.
Promise, for engage, 105. Riotry, for rioters, 85.    Sovereignize, 54.
Prophet, 17.             Risibilis, 73, 101, 102. L-pake, 65, 108.
Proportionalist, 58.     Risible, 73, 101.         Sparsity, 107.
Proprietary,  for  pro- Rival, v. a., 57.          Specialist, 58.
prietor, 87.           Rivalize, 57.            Spectate, 76.
Proselytize, 56.         Rivalry, rivalship, 87.    Speculatist, 57.
Protectionist, 58.,  6tode, for ridden, 21.   Speculist, 57.
JPrbven, 73.             Rupt, v. a., 76.          Sperimentato, spermenPry, for prize, 106.     Rusty, for resty, 98.       tato, 37.
Pulse, v. n., 55.        Satiric, sb., 74.      L  *poke, for spoken, 100.
P'ulse, sb. plu., 4.     Scandal, v. a., 55.       Stabbist, 59.
Quakerism, 59.           Schemist, 57.             Starvation, 61.
Querist, 61.             Schism-shop, 24.          Stationery, 87.
Questionist, 57.         Scrupulize, 56.           Steeple-house, 24.
Quhilkes, 7.             Scunner, 99, 110.         Stereogram, 47.
Rascality, for rascals, 78. Secessionist, 58.      Stereotyper, 62.
Rascalry, for rascals, 85. Seedsman, 6.            Stereotypeur, 62.
Rather, how pronounced, Seedstime, seedtime, 6.   Stereotypist, 62.
51.                    Seen, for versed, 37.    Stews, sb. sing., 3.
Ratiocinate, 89, 92.     Seigniorize, 54.          Stomach, for sicken, 107.
Ratiocination, 90.       Sensation, 18.            Stop, for stay, 104.
Ratiociner, 92.          Sequent, sb., 64.         Strait, v. a., 55.
Raziocinare, 92.        -Sermon, v. n., 55.        Strangely, for strange,
Reciprocal, misuse of, 21. Serpentry, for serpents,    106.
Recommence, for begin    86.                       Streel, v. n., 105.
anew to be, 38.        Servitude, for  service, Strength, v. a., 55.
Recover a shock, 104.      105.                    Studentry, for students,
Red-tapist, 59.        - Set, for sit, 102.          86.
Regard, in this, &c., 110. Sets, the sun, 108.     Subject, adj., 93.
Regrettable, misuse of, Settle, for pay, 106.      Summons, sb. sing., 3.
107.                   Sew, for sowed, 69.       Swordsman, 6.
Reliable, 100, 106.      Shall, 49.                Syllogist, 61.
Remark, for distinguish, Shamble, shambles, 4.    Sympathy for, &c., 19,
105.                   Sharp, v. a., 55.           20.
Repudiare, 95.?hew, for showed, 65, 69. Synonymous to, 19.
Repudiate, 95, f.       rShined, 108.              Tabernacle, 24.
Rpudclier, 95.           Shootist, 59.             Tabernacle-gas, 24.
Repudy, 55.              Short, v. a., 55.         Tabernacular, 24.
Restie, 97.              Shortcomings, 24.         Talkative, 61.
Restif, 98.              Should, 49.               Tangental,  tangential,
Restiff, 98.             Shrubbery, 85, 87, 106.    63.
Restiness, 97.          _Shruck, for shrieked, 69. Tangentiel, 64.
Restive, 96, f.          Signal, v. a., 56.        Telegram, 41, f.
Restiveness, 96, f.      Signalize, for signal, 56. Telegramme, 47.
Restivus, 98.            Signalize, for testify, 107. Telegraph, the verb, 47,
Resty, 97, 98.           Sit, 102.                   60.
Resurrect, 73, 111.     *-Sitten, 65, 69.          Telegraph, sb., 43, 60,
Resurrectionist, 73.     Slavery, 85, 87.          Telegrapheme, 43.
Resurrectionize, 73.     Sluggardize, 54.          Telegrapher, 43, 59.
Retif, 97.               Smally, 83.               Telegraphist, 59.
Revelations, the, 18.    ~Snew, snown, 65, 69.    Telegraphy, 43.
Rhapsoder, 58.,o absolutely, &c., 110.  Telepomp, 44.




124
Than whom, 84.           Turb, v. a., 76.          Way, for weigh, 107.
T'hanks, sb. silng., 4.  Unaccount,  unaccount-  Wed, for weeded, 69.
That, for in that, &c.,   able, 77.                Well, for welfare, 84.
21, 110.               Unexperienced, 32.        Wenechen, for wenches,
That, for with which, Unrepent, unrepentable,    69.
107.                     77.                     What, superfluous, 21.
The, superfluous, 105.   Unrivaledest, 107.        What, &c., how  proThemer, 60.              Upholster, upholsterer,    nounced, 51.
Then after, 109.            30.                    Which, 49.
Thereafter, 18, 107, 108, Upholstery, 86.          Whilom, 110.
109.                   Upon a street, 107.       White-teethed, 106.
Thereby, for near to that, Valetry, for valets, 85.   Who, for which, 8, 22.
109.                   Vassalry, for vassals, 86. Whom, for which, 8.
Therefore, misuse of, 48. Versed, &c., 37.         Whose, for of which, 6.
This, too, 83.           Vert, v. a., 76.          Will, the verb, 49.
Throwed, 65.              Veterinary, 96.           Witness, for see, 104,
Tidincs, sing., 4.       Vilipend, 105.               106, 107.'Till, for before, 107.  Villagery, for villages,  Witticism, 54, 62.
Timist, 59.                 85.                    Witticize, 54.
Toadyism, 59.            Villanize, 54.            Wizardize, 54.
Tobacconist, for tobacco- ~Vocate, 75, f.          Womanize, 55.
smoker, 59.            Waggonry, for waggon,  Would, 48, 107.
Touch-line, 64.             86.                    Wretched, 36.
Trad, tradit, v. a., 75.   Walkist, 59.'           Ymagerie, ymagirie, ymTrinketry, for trinkets, Wantonize, 54.               agoure, 85.
85.                    Warrantize, 54.           Young person, for young
Truism, 59.              Watch's hand, 5.             woman, 105.




WORKS BY THE WRITER OF THIS CRITIQUE,
SANSKRIT.
The Atmabodha, with its Commentary, and the Tattvabodha.  Pp. 29 and
9. Mirzapore: 1852.
The Sankhyapravachana, with its Commentary.  Pp. 66, 233, and 44.
Calcutta: 1856.
-The Shaiyasiddhanta, with its Commentary. Pp. 4, 388, and 13. Calcutta:
1859.
The Vasavadatta, with its Commentary.  Pp. 56, 300, and 6. Calcutta:
1859.
The Sinkhyasara.  Pp. 51 and 48.  Calcutta: 1862.
The Dasarutpa, with its Commentary, and four chapters of the atyas.tstra.
Pp. 39 and 241.  Calcutta: 1865.
HINDI.
The Tarkasangraha, translated into Hindi from the Sanskrit and English.
Pp. 24 and 48. Allahabad: 1850.
The Siddhantasangraha, translated into Hindi from the Sanskrit and English. Pp. 7, 72, and 96.  Agra: 1855.
Hindli Reader. Pp. 19 and 184, quarto.  Hertford: 1870.
MISCELLANEOUS.
Lectures on the TNyaya Philosophy, Sanskrit and English. Revised edition.
Pp. 14 and 80. Benares: 1852.
The Rajanliti, in the Braj B1hsha Language. Pp. 7, 167, 10, and 14.
Allahabad: 1854.
Classical Selections. Pp. 2 and 256. Agra: 1855.
A Contribution towards an Index to the Bibliography of the Indian Philosophical Systems. Pp. 2 and 236.  Calcutta: 1859.
A Rational Refutation of the Hindu Philosophical Systems, translated froni
the Hindl and Sanskrit.  Pp. 10 and 284.  Calcutta: 1862.
Ane Compendious and Breve Tractate, &c., By William Lauder (1556).
Plp. 11 and 39. London: 1864.  Second edition, revised, pp. 11 and 43.
London: 1869.
Sir David Lyndesay's Works. Four Parts. Pp. 548. London: 18661869,
Benares, Ancient and Medieval: a Monograph. Pp. 23. Hertford: 1868.
The Vishnupurlna, Annotated Edition of Professor H. H. Wilson's Translation.  Five Volumes. Pp. 140 and 200; 343; 343; 347; 392. London:
1864-1870.
IN PREPARATION.
Modern English.




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