nt : Putin’ FM vk seks site belly ul » Mg iliieronige nt Beitie iret Lanegan rt sot a fost ww handierowy Aye Whale? 2h ipa aces and We ate o rf dea ee Beihip Hee chor oh = eth) eerie OD ih oo Ree ac nec ites jeiteh ib Brahe i iby Pd eM hes Hf Gtk Payal dashent Aika t} rh ete ge i ge PA ae bah hei ong Wana Re {aka pag y is oD: h he danke ROR by — UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA BOOK CARD Please keep this card in book pocket 99999999 78 7) 72 73:74 75 78 77 7h a wi 68 69 7 é Gt ai 45 350 Hi PARTIAL TITLE on o ao co al ~~ “ = “> ~ -_ = - ~~ oe ~ — ~ = = a a mt m— oot os nd ad es ce — we o> asa =~ we coal a rr) ee > — i) “= r=) “2 rey ed “ ™~ ° >) = a = — J = ~ e a ~— ws — + ~~ sed — ~ <= - 41 42.43 44 45 46 47 a8 THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA ENDOWED BY THE DIALECTIC AND PHILANTHROPIC SOCIETIES PE1591 ~A2 UNIVERSITY OF N | il iii SALE) This book is due at the LOUIS R. WILSON LIBRARY on the last date stamped under “Date Due.” If not on hold it may be renewed by bringing it to the library. DATE DUE DATE | DUE ae RET. > rs A OO = 4 SSS SS RE OE Re SEE SS SEE OY SE 0 SS SEE EE ee SPREE SEE ee =a e \ - a > Roos % Safle { psec E " _ ee oot €3 a ee | oma ee, ee qua ® , id Sm e 5 a we ¢ > Ms com i ret wonnate Be % 7. ob Si > ‘Digitized by the Internet Archive | in 2022 with funding from: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill https://archive.org/details/britishsynonymyo02pioz ayes fo Ae) BRITISH SYNONYMY; —— OR, } fain Per eAN iD. be VE) et AT REGULATING THE CHOICE OF WORDS IN FAMILIAR CONVERSATION, | INSCRIBED, ‘ With Sentiments of Bo dvude and RefpeG, to fuch of her | Foreign Friends as have made Englifh Literature . their peculiar Study, fe ay AG f Vy y * é ) 9 BY ‘ 2 | i * WESTER LYNCH PIOZZI \4;_, iN. TWO VO LU MES. y Wo ONE ET. ere ee eae ee 4 Li ON. Dy ON, 4 PRINTED FOR Ge. Gs AND J» ROBINSON, PATERNOSTER*ROW. MDCCXCIY¥. Minetvam narrat Homerus, poetarum princeps, inter bel- lantium turmas Diomedi apparuifle ; oculorumque caliginem, ut bellantes Deos ab hominibus poffet difcernere, difcuffiffe. Quod figmentum Plato in Alcibiade Secundo, p. 1 50, tom. Ile nihil interpretatur quam rationem ipfam, que, difcufla caligine qua quifque tenetur, animum fecibus purgat, ut mala bonave poflit propius contemplari. Sanctiz MInERyA. BRITISH SYNONYMY. MADNESS, INSANITY, LUNACY, PHRENZY, MENTAL DERANGEMENT, DISORDERED SPIRITS, DISTRACTION, € : 8 Ta ESE words, éven in comthon conver- fation are among well-bred péople nicely and cautioufly ufed—with much fefleGtion too, although to a foreign ear they may pof- fibl found as if fynonymous.—Yet Italians in particular fhould recolleé, that their own - Cicero is much of the fame opinion with our Johnfon, who fays that were we to {peak rigoroufly, perhaps no human mind is exactly in its right ftate ; becaufe there is no man whofe imagination does not fome~ times predominate over his reafon; no man VOL. Il B who EE ee ‘ 2 BRITISH. SYNONYMY. who can regulate his attention wholly by his will, and whofe ideas will come and gO at his command; no man in whofe mind airy notions do not fometimes tyrannize, and force him to hope or fear beyond the limits of fober probability. All power of fancy over reafon, is a degree of INSANITY; ‘but while this power is fuch as we can controul.: and reprefs, it is not vifible to others, or coni hidered as any proof of MENTAL DE- RANGEMENT: nor. can. we juftly pro- nounce it. MADNESs,_ till it becomes ungo- vernable, and influences apparently the Speech or action of the perfon in queftion, Qui fit adfedtus (fays the Roman orator, ) eum-dominum efle rerum fuarum. vetant duodecim tabula. Itaque non eft ferip- tum fi insanus, fed. fi. rurtosus fle incipit.—-For it appears that the laws of the twelve tables confidered it as poflible enough - and fo itis no, doubt—-that. people may 0 through the common forms of life,-and its. BRITISH SYNONYMY. —_°3. its ftated duties too, in many cafes without being confidered as out of their minds at all ; yet, to the penetrating eye of Willis, or phi- lofophical arrangements of Arnold, would foon betray fymptoms of DIsoRDERED SPI- pits. A friend once told me in confidence, that for two years he durft not-ever eat an apple, for fear it fhould make him drunk; but ‘as he took care to affign no reafon for his forbearance, and as no man is much fo= licited to eat apples, the oddity efcaped no- tice ; arid would not have been known at this hour, but that he told me many years after he had recovered his fenfes to perfec- tion, and told it as an inftance of concealed INSANITY. The famous Chriftopher Smart, who was both a wit and a {cholar, and vie fited as fuch while under confinement for MADNESS, would never have had a com- miffion of LuNAcY taken out againft him, had he managed with equal ingenuity— for Smart’s melancholy fhewed itfelf only in | bee a pre- ™% 4 BRITISH SYNONYMY. a preternatural excitement to prayer, whiclt he held it as a duty net to controul ,or re» prefs—taking aw pied de la lettre our blefled Saviour’s injunction to gray without Ceafing —So that beginning by regular addrefles at “flated.times to the Almighty, hie went on to. call his friends from their. dinners, or beds,. or, places of recreation, whenever that mpulfe towards prayer prefled upon -his mind. __In-every other tranfation of life no man’s. wits could be more regular than thofe of Smart ; for this prevalence of one.idea pertinacioufly keeping the firft place in his head, had in no fenfe except what imme- diately related to itfelf, perverted his judg- ment at all; his opinions were unchanged as before, nor did he feem more likely to fall into a ftate of DisrRACTION than any other man ; lefs. fo perhaps, as he calmed’ every fart of violent paffion by prayer. Now, had this eminently unhappy patient been. equally feized Py the RiSieet of pray- ee BRITISH SYNONYMY. —ss 5 ing in fecret; as no one would then have been difturbed by: his irregularities, it would have been no one’s intereft to watch over or cure them; ~and the abfurdity would: poflibly have confumed itfelf in private, like that of my friend who feared an apple: fhould intoxicate him. I well remember how after the commiffion was put in force, poor fellow! he got money from the keep- er of the mad-houfe for teaching his little boys Latin,—a proof, as vulgar people would imagine, that ‘his intelle&s were found; for mean obfervers fuppofe all MADNEss to, be PHRENZzyY, and think a perfon INSANE in proportion as he is wild, and difpofed to throw the things about— whereas experience fhows that fuch tempo- rary fufpenfions of the mental faculties are oftener connected with delirium than with mania, and, if not encouraged and ftimu- lated. by drunkennefs, are feldom of long duration: whereas in notional and ideal B3 MADNESS, "6 BRITISH SYNONYMY. MADNESS, particularly the firft, many fymptoms are only cunningly fuppreffed, “not cured; couched like a cataraét in the eye, but not eradicated, and ftill percepti- ble enough to thofe who make fuch mala- dies their own peculiar ftudy. With regard to mere ufe of words, I think LUNACY feems to be the legal term, INSANITY, and fometimes MELANCHOLY, the medical ones ; while PHRENZY, MADNESS and DISTRAC- TION are the poetical expreflions of what we call MENTAL DERANGEMENT, Or DIs- ORDERED SPIRITS, in elegant converfa- _ MAIN, OCEAN, SEA, APPEAR fynonymous, yet are not fo in firicinefs ;—the firft being rather a poetical than a converlation word, and which ought to BRITISH SYNONYMY. i, bao be applied even in verfe I think only to the Pacific or Atlantic ocean ; becaufe “MAIN, deriving its etymology folely from its bulk and extenfion of parts, MAGNUS, fhould not be applied to the Baltiek, the | Cafpian, or other inferior and inland SEAS, | which, fpeaking with geographical exactnefs, are rather to be called eulphs and lakes :— and though Milton does fomewhere make mention of the Girythrean MAIN, ’tis in an | early compofition—he grew more attentive “when he wrote the Paradife Loft. One might, however, without imputation of ‘pe- dantry, or affectation of unufual correétnefs, tell how a friend’s only fon had fuch a paf- fionate defire to go to SEA, that undeter’d by every argument his friends could poflibly : urge concerning the well known dangers and terrors of the MAIN, which doubtlefs tormented their imagination with equal _ force, as hope of change, and confidence of conquering thofe perils feduced the ie) Ba4 warmer 3 BRITISH SYNONYMY., warmer fancy of the boy,—he rie out upon a difcovering party, with a {quadron, intended to make the circuit of our Earth, and fuffering a variety of hardthips, dif- trefles and fatigues, at length arrived fate at home, having with difficulty furvived the vefiel he fet fail in, and having after her fhipwreck been obliged to crofs the ock AN in a little {kiff, with fhort allowance, and no accommodation. We hope for, his poor mo- ther’s fake he will now content himfelf ta ftay quietly in England, and feek for wealth or fame in paths lefs perilous : this is the more to be expected as his father died two years ago, fo that all pleafure in thwarting his authority is at an fade fay which pur- pofe alone many frolicks are committed by thoughtlefs youths who run into ruin only. to prove their {pirit of independance, MALAPERT, BRITISH SYNONYMY, 9 MALAPERT, SAUCY, IMPERTINENT. THE laft of thefe has by corruption be- come the common converfation word, and turned the firft, which is the proper one, out of good company: for by IMPERTINENT is meant in frit propriety the man whom La Bruyere, tranflating the characters of Theophrattus, calls le Contretems, who goes to fupper with his miftrefs when he hears fhe has an ague, and inveighs againft the marriage ftate when invited to celebrate a wedding ‘dinner—with a hundred fuch tricks, the completeft of which in the origi- nal feems to be his looking on gravely while a gentleman to whom he profeffes friendfhip corrects his favourite flavé, encouraging him to proceed by magnifying the fellow’s fault, applauding the mafter’s attention to good difcipline, &c,—till turning fuddenly | and 10° BRITISH SYNONYMY. ey and {peaking to..a ftander-by, he adds ° i took juft this very fame method nye, once with. the clevereft lad you ever faw, and ne ran away from me the next day - nor could I ever catch hold of him more: I’m fure ’twas acting precifely in the fame manner coft me juft the beft fervant I ever had in my life. Now nothing of this perverfenefs is: re- quired to form what we at prefent are con- tent to call IMPERTINENCE,’ falfely enough, —for the MALAPERT mifs, or sAuCY cham- bermaid, often poffefs {kill fufficient to time their {prightly infolence and lively raillery reafonably well—that fudden burft of con- fident felf-fufficiency, by the vigorous failly of which, virtue herfelf may be fometimes, confounded, and learning often feels abafh- ed and overwhelmed ; while the antagonift, fafe in her own fex and ftation, enjoys the triumph of levity, and titters delighted with the difgrace of her fuperiors. Such feems to have been the behaviour of gentlewomen 2 In BRITISH SYNONYMY. u1 in Swift's time,—Irith ones at leaft; and fuch feem likewife the damfels defcribed by Mr. Boyle, when Eufebius fays, “ In truth good Lindamour I feel my civility as much “endangered by the company of fuch females, “however beautiful, as is my chaftity,—feeing that we muft acknowledge it difficult in fuch cafes to controul that {pirit of reprehenfion, which if let loofe would poffibly more quick- ly excite their mirth than’ their refentment.” —Sjich fair ones may ftill be found, with diligent fearch I believe—and to be ferious, ‘-whoever wifhes to learn the full meaning of the word MALAPERT, may ftudy the ready refponfes' of an Englith mifs, or an Italian - chambermaid. MALICE, $2 BRITISH. SYN ONY MY. MALICE, MALICIOUSNESS, MALIGNITY, THESE words run rather in a climax than a parallel: the firft has the fofte?t {ig nification of the three, and conveys fome- what like an- idea of buffoonery mingled with the other more pernicious ingredients, But while ill-educated and naturally coarfe people are tempted to laugh at tricks of merry MALICE, all with to be thought in- capable of ferious and intentional MALICI- OUSNESS; and even the man who would not {cruple to confefs that once in his life perhaps he had felt impulfes towards even this deviation from virtue and from ho- nour, provoked by fome: perfon who had. crotled¢his ambitious defigns, or thwarted through MALICE his‘ amorous purtuits—-. would refent a charge of MALIGNITY as the heavieit of all imputations. For my y own BRITISH SYNONYMY, Re own part I think the. whole triumvirate fo hateful, that. when. I-fee babies not’ diféou- raged from, playing each other fome mA+ Lictous trick, I tremble left fuch tempers fhould ripen into difpofitions of the worf fort ; and, if combinied with feeblenefs of nature, fhew early fymptoms of that vile MALIGNITY, which poifons what it can« not fubdue,. and faps the “charaéter it dares not to artaign. MANT NERS, MORALS, “MORALITY. _NOT ftrictly fynonymous fure, while we fay, the MANNERS Of a great people, the MORALITY of an individual, and call a book of MORALS one. which. profeffes to teach either the doGtrine. or practice of ethicks, In-oppofition to religious duties, we call & \- 14 BRITISH SYNONYMY. call thofe the MORAL ones. which refer to the laft fix commandments of the Decalogue, and apparently relate to focial life alone, but which our Saviour has enforced by faying that whatfoever you do to thefe my brethren you do it unto me—by this means connecting piety with virtue; while the moralift is made to: underftand, that his works—(to be received as fuch,)—muft emanate from faith, and be fanctified through obedience ; and the mere ritualift, or enthufiaftic votary of religious folitude, is informed, that no commutation will be accepted for breach of MANNERS,—I know you not (fays our. Lord), depart from me all ye workers of iniquity. —So careiully indeed has Jefus Chrift provided to keep entire this union which bigots and feepticks alike labour -to deftroy, that. one may obferve throughout. the whole biography, how. his moft ftriking- and immediate rewards were beftowed on thole who excelled in faith, his heaviett judgments BRITISH SYNONYMY: 15 jadgments denounced on thofe whofe con- duct ran counter to MORALITY. MARRIAGE, WEDDING, NUPTIALS, ALTHOUGH thefe are all common converfation words, they can {carcely be ufed fynonymoutly. There is a treaty of MARRIAGE going forward in fuch a family, fay we, and I expect an invitation to the WEDDING dinner, as ’tis reported the pa- rents are difpofed to celebrate thefe nup- TIALS with great feftivity, and very few friends of the family will be left out.’ ‘Meantime our great triumph over fo- reigners, who vifit us from warmer climates, is in the fuperior felicity of our married cou- ples} nor do! praife thofe fuperficial writers. who fo lament the infidelities committed among ws—in papers which carried to the ‘4 Continent 16 BRITISH SYNONYMY. Continent tend to make them believe there is no more conjugal attachment in Britain; than at Genoa otf Venice. —Truth. is, we find in all great capitals an ill example fet by a dozen women of diftinction who give the fon as ‘tis called; and with regard to fuch, Londen: confefles her fhare :—yet is the mafs of middling people left untainted: and even among our nobility, thofe of the firft fortune and dignity in England live with an Arcadian conftaney. and true affec- tion, fuch as can very rarely happen in na= tions where a contrary conduct is neither punifhed by the Legiflature, nor cenfured by Society ; for there is no need to refolve virtue and vice into effect of climate, unlefs we are fuppofed: to improve or degenerate like animals which whiten | as they approach the Pole—human nature will. go wrong if religion forbears’ to reftrain, and govern- ment neglects to punifh. MATURITY BRITISH SYNONYMY. rz MATURITY anno RIPENESS ARE each of them converfation words, but we ufe the firft chiefly as a figure of the fecond, and apply it fomething more feriouf- ly.—If you gather fruit (fay we) in fuch a ftate of exceflive RIPENESS that your fin- gers are in danger of breaking them during the operation, they never can be expected | to ftand the proceis of preferving ie becaule when parts will admit no more expait- fion, the very brandy you put to keep them, will caufe them to burft: in like manner will a wife man put his intents or {chemes in execution before they arrive at that full MATURITY which is likely to bring for- ward a difcovery at the very inftant of pro- jeCtion, and ruin his defign in its crifis. VOL. IJ, C MAZE, 18 BRITISH SYNONYMY. MAZE, LABYRINTH, PERPLEXITY. ‘THE curious ftrudtures formed of old in Fgypt, Crete, and ages afterwards in Tul- eany, by Porfenna, have given the two firft of thefe words to every modern lan- guage as a fynonyme for the third. They have now none but a figurative fenfe, I think ; becaufe a labyrinth conftruéted to puzzle in a garden, is confidered, and juftly, as a childith plaything —I know of no fuch trifle in any Englifh pleafure ground, un- jefs that left ftanding in Hampton-Court Gardens be confidered as one; proof of King William's Dutch tafte—And why is it fo confidered ? merely becaufe it is impoffi- ble for fuch a MAZE to be made, in the pre- fent fituation of life and manners, large enough to anfwer the real purpofes of con- - cealment BRITISH SYNONYMT. 19 éealment and myftery, which would take up.a fpace of twenty miles in-circumference, and might be appropriated to ufes; or at leaft be liable to fufpicions, of a terrifying natute: In old ariftocratic days, and in femi-barbarous nations, grofs violations of every virttie lived unnoticed; and died away undetected, from the permiflion man~ kind tacitly gave to every idea of privacy ‘and feclufion: where man unwatched by man, brutified for very want of obfervance ; talents languifhed for lack of cultivation ; and while rich minds were fuffered to run over with weeds, poor ones perifhed in their ort ginal nakednefs, from that cold which never was thawed by confolation. It is, however, worthy to be remarked, that upon quitting this dark LABYRINTH, we find ourfelves fuddenly tranfported into a broad light fo ftrong and violent that our eyes; unable to’ contend with its power, are dazzled into * ‘G2 .- PERPLEXITY;. 20 BRITISH SYNONYMY. PERPLEXITY, little lefs dangerous than the tenebrous flate we left behind: while every petty tranfaction is torn forth and expofed to public view; lives of our neighbours written before they are ended, and letters of our own publifhed and fold to our very felves; .anecdotes of one another become the only reading, and, true or falfe, are now the welcome exchange for money, time, and peace. But furely the reverfe of wrong is not right, while truth and common fenfe lie in the middle way ; and he who wilful- ly drives his Pegafus out of that path, will in time fire the ‘world about his ears, like Phaeton. when he neglected the precepts of his parent Apollo, ruler of defliny, that faid fo wilely, ey : : Medio tutiflimus ibis, Neu te dexterior tortum declinet in anguem, — Neve finifterior preffam rota ducat ad avam 3 Juter utrumgue tene. MELODY; BRITISH. SYNONYMY., 21 MELODY, HARMONY, MUSICK. THESE terms are ufed as ‘fynonymes only by people who revert not totheir deri- vation ; when the laft is foon difcovered to contain the other two, while the firft means merely the air—or, as Italians better exprefs it, Ja cantilena—becaufe our very word ME- LODY implies honey-/weet _finging, mellifiuous fucceffion of fimple founds, fo as to produce agreeable and fometimes almoft enchanting effect. -Meanwhile both co-operation and combination are underftood to meet in the terms HARMONY; which, like every other {cience, is the refult of knowledge operating upon genius, and adds in the audience a- degree of aftonif{hment to approbation, en- riching all our fenfations of delight, and cluf- tering them into a maturity of perfection. Gea” MELODY a J BRITISH SYNONYMY. MELODY is to HARMONY what inno-y cence is to virtue; the laft could not exift without the former, on which they are founded ; but we efteem him who enlarges fimplicity into excellence, and prize! the opening chorus of Acis and Galatea beyond the Voi Amanti of Giardini, although this laft-named compofition is elegant, and, the other vulgar. Where the original thought, however, like Corregio’s Magdalen in the Drefden Gallery fet round with jewels, is loft in the blaze of. accompaniment, our lofs is the lefs if ‘bai thought fhould: be fomewhat coarle or indclicate; but musick of this ‘kind pleafes an Italian ear far lefs than do Sac- chini’s fweetly foothing MELODIES, never overlaid by that fulnefs of HARMONY with which German compofers fometimes per~ plex inftead of informing their hearers. His chorufles i in Erifile, though nothing deficient. either BRITISH SYNONYMY. 23 either in richnefs or radiance, are ever tran{- _ parent; while the eindinide fubje& (not an inftant loft to view) reminds one of fonte fine fhell coloured by Nature’s hand, but feen to moft advantage through the clear ‘waves that wafh the coaft of Coromandel when mild monfoons are blowing. With regard to MUSICK, Plato faid long , OFFICIOUS, FORWARD TO RENDER UNDE. SIRED SERVICES, IMPORTUNATELY KIND, TROUBLESOME. THE firft word here is commonly ufed in a bad fenfe certainly, and fo _Johnfon un- derftood it in his Dictionary ; yet we find him many years after confidering it more tenderly, when fpeaking of a dead depen- dant whom he loved, he f{ays, | Well tried through many a varying year, See Levett to the grave defcend ; OFrFIcious, innocent, fincere, Of every friendlefs name the friend. ~ Johnfon, indeed, always thinking negleét the worft misfortune that could befall a man, looked on a charafter of this defcription with lef averfion than I do, who am apt to think that among the petty pefts of fo- ciety, after a weak foe comes an OFFICIOUS friend — fo BRITISH *SYNONYMY. friend—who, like the man in Theophraftus, holds his acquaintance by the button to en- treat his care for his own /j/er’s health, till the caufe is loft which he was going to de- fend— who. crams your fick children with cake, advifes immediate inoculation, and ‘fetches in the furgeon himfelf, that the bufi- nefg may. not’ be delayed —who hurries peo- | ple into marriage before the fettlements are drawn, advifing them not to put off their happinefs, but {teal a wedding while the old folks are confulting, &c.—who proclaims a bankruptcy which might have been pre- vented, and gives you notice to fave what you have in his hands, by taking up goods initead of cafth—who, in his zeal for the re- conciliation of his two beft friends, traps ' them into a.fudden meeting, {huts them inte a room together before their refentment is cooled, crying Now kifs and ke friends, you honeit dogs, do; and ftands amazed to hear in an hour’s time that they have cut each other’s BRITISH SYNONYMY. 8: | _-Other’s throat, Thefe men deferve a rougher appellation than TROUBLESOME : yet’tis the ‘‘courge of their acquaintance to be obliged now aiid then to look civil upon and even to thank them for their impoRTUNATE KINDNESs3--while, FORWARD TO RENDER UNDESIRED seavices—tfuch they pretend to think them—fellows of this defcription fit at home wondering at the world’s ingrati- tude, when every houfe which has common fenfe within its walls fhuts them out at the rate. : | . aa ae es ~~ ORATORY, ELOQUENCE, RHETORICK. » , TO curfory readers thefe words may pofs fibly feem to approach nearer to fynonymy than they will be found to do on clofer in {peGtion and feverer ferutiny. Rach term looks back perpetually to its derivation; and VOL: IIs G | the. whe 82 BRITISH SYNONYMY. the firft of ther is even in our common talk ‘naturally applied to him who folicits, re- queits, befeeches, pleading fome caufe of the ‘helplefs or diftreffed, with ELOQUENCE of addrefs and fkill in RHETORICK. The ori- ginal fenfe, as ufed in our courts of chan- ‘cery, when the perfon fupplicating 1s ftyled your ORATOR OF ORATRIX, lies full con- -cealed under our colloquial language, and “we yield the palm of orATORYto him who beft knows the arts of per/uafion. For War- wick is a fubtle ORATOR, fays one who fears his powers of entreaty, in Shakefpeare’s “Henry the Sixth; whilt ELoqueNcE im- plies more properly a plenitude of words, ‘and adroitnefs in arranging them, with a {weet voice and pleafing volubility of utter- ances Without all thefe’tis difficult te-thing as a perfet RHETORICIAN; though I have ~ feen filent ORATORY more capable of touch- " Ing*our hearts than any tropes or figures— aye; or than all-the graces of neat articu- lation, BRITISH SYNONYMY. 83 lation, added to all the ‘fcience of RHETO- RIcK. As proof of this, who would not rather choofe Mrs. Siddons to plead a caufe for immediate pardon from one’s fovereign than Sheridan or Fox? Phrafeology is con- founded and invention frozen before the ge- nuine expreflion of a throbbing heart ; and - Quintilian faid truly, that to {peak well we mutt feel fincerely, This was in cafes of ORATORY, however. ELOQUENCE is fhewn in defeription chiefly ; and though it does not fet the place defcribed before your eyes more exaCtly than lefs ornamented difcourfe would have done, it gives a momentary eX altation and delight to the mind, calls round a pleafing train of imagery, and furnifhes | elegant ideas for future combination, I have a friend particularly eminent in fuch powers of charming her audience; who, although they leave her fociety more dazzled. perhaps than inftructed, find perpetual - fources of entertainment by reflecting Me the CS ae {cenes $4 BRITISH: SYNONYMY. feenes fo fweetly brought before their views in words fo choice and well adapted, yet poured forth with fluency. which knows not, and copioufnefs which needs not hefitation. When the reads this, however, Mrs. P- wil! acknowledge that’ the very rules and terms of RHETORICK are unknown to er, i’ reat is the diftance between our candi- dates for fynonymy. Tis in the Houfe of Commons we muft feek inverfion and prolepfis, every figure of the art, employed with all the fkill of thofe who feek to baffle where they fcarcely mean to convince—or where, convinced already, they mean to main- tain the fide they have chofen to fupport, in defiance of the champions oppofite, to whofe triumph they with not to bear witriefs, Here ORATORY has no place, according to Dr. Johnfon ; who faid no man was ever per- “fuaded to sive a vote contrary to what he “intended in the morning, by any arguments, er any’ ELOQUENCE ‘heard. within thofe walls, BRITISH SYNONYMY. 85 walls, He faid too that no preacher, hows ever popular, ever prevailed on one of the congregation to give more at a charity fer- mon than he had refolved. on at leaving home. Thefe pofitions may be true; yet is ‘ORATORY acharming thing, ELOQUENCE a fine thing, and RHETORICK a great thing— for it comprifes them both, ORDER, METHOD, REGULATION, ARRANGEMENT. THAT thefe words were or were not fy- nonymous might have been always doubtful; that the qualities they defcribe are neceflary to fociety, remained uncontroverted till a very fhort time ago. ‘Truth is, that in every ARRANGEMENT there muit be METHOD, | and to obtain oRDER we mutt begin by RE- GULATION. For although it was'well af- Ge, ferted 86 BRITISH SYNONYMY. ferted in an admirable fermon preached at one of our great London churches, and printed at the requeft of an affociating com- mittee, that equalization was a thing impof- fible, and that whenever the attempt is made fata! will be the confequences; but the event muft always be the fame: becaufe agitation cannot alterthe nature of fluids or their fpe- cific gravity— when the agitation has ceafed, fays this excellent writer, the true level of each will be found—Some experiments mili- tating againft this apparently certain pofition prompt my fears, left in moral as in natural philofophy, there is more danger of fome parts being devoured by the reft, than this author feems to apprehend. Yet ’tis well known that one ounce of camphor will be fo diffolved and apparently fo annihilated, that neither fcent, nor tafte, nor alteration of tranfparency can be found in the phial, if grated into an ounce of alcohol ; ’tis likewife known, that by addition of fome fair clean 2 water BRITISH SYNONYMY. 8% water the camphor fhall again be difengaged from the {pirit, and rife to the furface once more, white, folid, perfect, without diminu- tion of its weight, fmell, or medical efficacy from the experiment. Things have, I fear, a natural tendency to relapfe into that chaotic ftate whence they _ firft were called forth by the voice of God, ‘for the comfort and advantage of his reafon- ing creatures ; and when they impiouily re- ject thofe comforts and deny thofe advan- tazes, one trembles left the WorD which fe- parated the confufion into various ORDERS, and METHODIZED the beautiful ARRANGE- MENT, fhould by repeated infults be pro- voked to withdraw the infpiring breath, at touch of which, When Nature underneath a heap Of jarring atoms lay, And could not heave her head ; The tuneful voice was heard on high, Arife, ye more than dead! Oe Re oi "Then $8 BRITISH SYNONYMY. » Then hot, and cold, Nae moift, and dry, In ogpeRr to their ftations leap, j And mufick’s pow ‘robey. DRYDEN. When God in aittah no longer fends me - grace among mankind, we fee them foon de- generate into much worfe than beafts. Na-~ ture’s limits are quickly leaped over, when the curb of religious worthip is flung afide : as our cool camphor is no longer fonted where the incalefcent furor prevails over: every particle, and melts it undiftineuifhed in the general miafs. There would it lie eter- nally, if the clear element was not once more thrown in, to prove thofe powers of refufci-_ tation which only can belong to purity im- maculate. Lofs of ORDER in the ARRANGE- MENTS of civil fociety would produce, nay does produce, the moft fatal of all confe- quences; while rewards for induftry and ex- _citements to honourable a€tionsare no more; the very words Lofs and Gain, Virtue and “Vice, muff be erafed from our new vocabu- Se 7 , Lyon aay BRITISH SYNONYMY. 89 jJary, and Dante’s Infcription on the Gates of Hell fet in their place; for where all are equal within, thefe words do well without ; Lafciate ogni {fperanza voi ch’ entrate. * Leave Hope behind, all you who enter here. ieauenems eee ls — ORNAMENT, EMBELLISHMENT, DECORATION, MUNDITIIS capimur, fays Ovid; and- our ftern philofopher Johnfon confeffed that the world was a pill no mortal could endure without gilding, Tet then life’s theatre en- joy its due DECORATIONS, nor hope that . any acting will make it fupportable without. them : for although every ORNAMENT does not contribute towards the EMBELLISH= MENT of that which it is deftined to adorn, we fhould attribute the failure to unfkilful- nefs—— 50 _ BRITISH SYNONYMY. nefs—remembering that the words are not ftricly fynonymous, and that Pope faid wifely, Even in an ORNAMENT its place remark, Nor in an hermitage fet Doctor Clarke. Neither of the other fubftantives would here have expreffed the poet’s meaning; becaufe fetting the ftatue of a courtier in a hermitage, or lone cell devoted to retirement and folitary fpeculation, was a manifeft breach of pr- coRuM, whence the laft word upon the lit takes its derivation—and as EMBELLISH- MENT of the Queen’s garden was the pur- pofe aimed at, Pope reafonably enough rail- lies the awkward difplay of ORNAMENT, where nothing was made more beautiful by the addition, To pecorars life however with honours, orders, titles, and fhews of well regulated feftivity, has ever been ac- counted politic and rational; nor can J think thofe individuals either wife or good who feek BRITISH SYNONYMY, _ gt feek fo feduloufly to level all diftinctions, to deftroy all the oRNAMENTS of life, and re- duce man to his primeval ftate of favage hunger and unfeeling ferocity. Such fpirit of returning to a fituation long efcaped from argues no philofophic vigour in this age, but rather exhibits fomewhat of fenile debility. The ferpent’s tail here comes too near the mouth ; and when original notions fpun out to thinnefs, or ficklied over by dotage, dif- cover a difpofition of reverting weakly to the firft colour, *tis a bad fign indeed : .an ugly fymptom, proving the world’s old age, and confequent tendency of going back to baby- hood ; imitating as the year does at fall of the leaf that fhed of bloffoms which precedes the fpring. Oh! let us ftill beware a wintry fun, wHole oblique rays but ferve to dazzle and confound our fight, and never rifes high enough to warm or cheer us! ORTHODOXY, 92 BRITISH SYNONYMY. ORTHODOXY, SOUNDNESS OF OPINION, NOT HERETICAL. | THE firft of thefe only expreffes in a word what the others explain periphrafti- cally, and is become a word much out of fathion, as is the quality underftood by it: nor can I guefs where foreigners could ever have heard it named, among good company, had not the late attempts againtt its very ex- iftence forced it into notice. Swift fhould have faid concerning ORTHODOXY ‘that which he predicated not fo truly of Religion herfelf—that fhe refembled q foot-ball left in the dirt neglected, till fome one. kicking it began the game, which oftentimes was carried on with hazard to the players’ lives, when once well entered. This is all admi- rably expreffed with regard to religious OPINION ; while the true worfhip of God may a BRITISH SYNONYMY. — 9g tay well refide in the heart, and the four firft commandments be devoutly obeyed, yet éfcape man’s obfervation of our condudt: for myftic piety confers with heaven, little difturbed by controverfial reafoning ; but Church Eftablifhment is in ifs own nature a eaufe of public concern, and if good order is to be preferved, and Ecelefiaftical Authority, ordained by God himfelf—let us refolve to maintain ORTHODOXY, and keep HERETIW €AL OPINIONS from being publicly broach- ed among us, by every means confiftent with Chriftian charity—of which it is a branch - to preferve our youth from being tainted with a defire of difputing or deriding holy ordinances, long complied with by their betters, after examinations which the prefent. contemners of them have I truft fcarce time or fcholarfhip enough to inveftigate before they throw them afide. Long indeed has our old Anglican epifcopalian church ftood ake the rock among the rapids of Niagara, ee increafing ; O4 BRITISH SYNONYMY. increafing in fize and ftrength from every effort to overturn it: and although for that purpofe fanaticifm fhould fer a while co- operate with infidelity, long will it yet remain, fpite of the plan which Mr. Burke difcovered before its open avowal—the re- cular and not ill-laid plan, invented latterly by French philofophers, for deftroying the Chriftian religion in this quarter of the elobe—defiring, as we now plainly fee they do, to leave the church of Chrift a lifelefs clay, a caput mortuum, or at beft, like their own haplefs prince, a fine nomine corpus— torn by the tiger, drawn dry by the weafel, and preyed upon when putrid by buzzing mufquitoes, non-deferipts in pigmy vora- city. OSTEN- BRITISH SYNONYMY. _—g OSTENTATION, PRIDE, VANITY, SELF) | . SUFFICIENCY, CAN fearcely be called in a ftri& fenfe fynonymous; if one may fay with truth, as ture ‘tis eafy, that though a man fhall be well-bred enough fincerely to defpife the making empty OSTENTATION of his ta- Jents, he may neverthelefs feel fecret com- placency, and even PRIDE in them , which oppofition from an equal, or any other well-_ managed collifion, will infallibly force out, with unequivocal marks of that laft-named quality’s conftant refidence in his heart; while boyith VANITY often prompts people of muck: meaner abilities to attra notice in conver- fation, from ill-underftood paradoxes, &c, till they have been clearly fhewn how SELF- SUFFICIENCY forms deeper refentment al- moft in every breaft than even ferious inju- tics by fraud or force; and that it is the peculiar a6 BRITISH SYNONYMY. peculiar province of good breeding to tea ftrain thofe violent attacks it makes upon one’s peace, and upon what the French em= phatically call a man’s amour-propre: Other examples might be given of thefe offenfive difpofitions ; for we refufe to falute an infe- tior through PRIDE I believe, and meanly folicit attention from people of higher rank out of pure fimple vanity: but gayer OS~ TENTATION difplays her pretenfions tc ‘notice with abfurd pomp, while brutal seLFr- SUFFICIENCY defpifing help, and hooting away inftruCtion, gréfsly aflumes that which the reft are courting, and, {iff in brafly im- pudence, thrufts all afide, feizes the firft poft; and keeps it till kicked out. The different cures for thefe different dif- eafes of the mind point out their various _ pathognomic fymptoms—as in corporeal ma- ladies, the marking fymptom points out the ‘mode of cure; for OSTENTATION. will ever be beft extinguifhed by ridicule, and. pas PRIDE BRITISH SYNONYMY. 97 PRIDE by mortification. Vanity, light in her own nature, takes wing immediately at the firft fight of contempt, or even neglect ;_ while SELF-SUFFICIENCY owns no confua tation but a cudgel. Doétor Young fays prettily, That the vain man fs a beggar of admiration—Now to be a beggar, adds he, is no creditable profeffion ; yet is he more noble who begs bread, than he who begs a bow, for the bread is more worth. , Theo- phraftus meantime, than whom no man feems more deeply to have penetrated the receffes of the human heart, gave the world, - three thoufand years ago almoft, the fketch of an OSTENTATIOUS character, very happily, when he fays, that, to fhow all Athens how he lad facrificed an ox that day, 4zs hero ftuck up the creature’s head’ and horns upon the front of his houfe, that no paffer by might mifs feeing it, or fail to witnefs his opulence and piety. I have, however, feen this inftance of folly furpafled VOL. I H by ee I eS Da 8 BRITISH SYNONYMY. by an acquaintance of my own, whofe OS< TENTATION, combined with VANITY and lying, prompted him to purchafe pea-bulls of the great fruiterers early in April, at eigh- teen-pence the bafket, only to fling before his door, that thofe who pafled through Par- liament Street to the Houfe of Commons might be led to think he had been eating green peas at a guinea the pint—elegancies he very wifely avoided, as he was in his own perfon neither a profufe man nor an epicure, though for the fake of being ad- mired’ by fuch characters he wifhed to he thought both. TO OVERREACH, TO CHEAT, TO DEFRAUD; TO DECEIVE, TO TRICK. THESE verbs, though almoft equally. difcreditable, are not for that reafon wholly fynony= BRITISH SYNONYMY. 99 fynonymous, while a man fometimes DE- FRAUDS, who never for a moment DECEIV- ED one: and the juggler that CHEATS our fenfes only, but that with neatnefs of finger well called leger-de-main, is eafily OvER- REACHED the very next morning at market, by fome of the fpe@ators whom he TRicK= ED the night before, getting their money from one hand, or one pocket, to the other, without their own knowledge or confent. The ftory of Decius and Alcander is the completeft extarit, I believe, to the purpofe of keeping the firft of thefe words clear of all the reft—Here is a fumthary of it Mile from memory : Deciiis then; a man of gteat figure, that had large commiflions for fugar froin abroad, treats with Alcander a Weft India merchant: both underftand thé. market, yet cannot quickly agree, as Decius, being a man of fubftance, thought reafonably that no ore | pee to buy.cheaper than himfelf, and Al- | Hivay cander 10e BRITISH SYNONYMY. cander not wanting money had certainly a right to ftand for his price. While they talk on, however, Alcander’s fervant brings him a letter, informing him of a much larger quantity of fugars coming over than was before expected. Alcander now withed for nothing better than to fell at Dectus’s price, before the news was known ; but, fearing to appear precipitate, drops the difcourfe, and, commending the weather, artfully propofes they fhould enjoy it together at his country feat. The affair happening on a Saturday early in May, Decius accepts the invitation, and away they drive inj Alcander’s coach, agreeing to return om Tuefday morning to London. | Meanwhile Decius, riding out upon an , eafy pad of his friend’s to get him an appe- tite for Monday’s dinner, meets a gentleman who tells him the Barbadoes fleet was all deftroyed by a ftorm; and adds, that before he left the city that morning fugars were rifing BRITISH SYNONYMY. 10k rifing apace, and that 25 per cent. at leaft would be the advance by ’change time. - Decius now returns, and refumes the dif- courfe which Alcander was moft defirous to bring forward: and however eager one was to buy, the other felt no lefs paffionate defire to fell :—weary alike too of counter- feiting indifference, Decius, the moment dinner was removed, throwing a guinea gayly on the table, ftruck the bargain at Alcander’s price, and gained next morning 200l. by his fugars. . Here was no CHEATING, no DEFRAUD-. ‘ING; yet Alcander, while he ftrove to ovER- REACH his neighbour, was paid in his own coin, s There is a phrafe congenial to fouls like thefe, and ufed too often; faking a man IN is the expreffion: I only print it that it may be avoided for ever. iH 3 PACE, 102 BRITISH SYNONYMY: x _ PACE, STEP, GAIT, MARCH, WALK, Come, but keep thy wonted ftate, With eyen step, and mufing GaIT, Says Milton in his Penferofo; and in fuch fenfe thefe words are colloquially ufed too, for they, though apparently, are not in {tric- nefs fynonymous. The firft is always ap- plied to brittes, and the horfe upon fale 1s commended for doing his PACES well, whilft | "the boarding-{chool milfs receives praife for | the elegance of her Gait. The sTEP aa a DANCER attracts our applaufe; but the: foldier’s frm MARCH calls for our efteem, and conneéts with ideas of dignity, courage, a every fource of the fublime. The hafty WALK of a penny-poftman, or the folemn WALK at a funeral proceflion, is appropti« ated to the laft word upon the lift; _ | And by her graceful warx the queen of love was known. I ye- BRITISH SYNONYMY. 103 T recolle& but one paflage where PACE is made poetical, and that is in Hawkefworth’s beautiful Ode upon Life, where the fhadows xife— | Age! my future felf I trace, Stealing flow with feeble pack; Bending with difeafe and cares, All the load of life he bears. While Pope’s famous triplet places the fourth svord upon our catalogue in the moft happy light, when he fays fo truly, that Waller was {mooth, but Dryden taught to join. The varying verfe, the full refounding line, The long majeftic MARCH, and energy divine, PAIR, COUPLE, BRACE, ALL mean two of one fort, yet cannot they be deemed true fynonymes, while FI 4 fucl., 104 BRITISH SYNONYMY. fuch arbitrary modes of ufing them prevail, A PAIR of eggs, or a COUPLE of coach- horfes, would be ridiculous ; and though every Englifh gentleman, fportfman, lady, | or fervant, in our king’s dominion, naturally calls two carp, two pheafants, or two orey= hounds, a BRACE; yet foreigners muft be told fuch trifles, or they never can learn them; becaufe a PAIR of ducks, and a COUPLE of woodcocks, is equally common and regular.—lItalians are as arbitrary ; they fay un par duovi in familiar talk; and though little difpofed to laugh at fuch mif- takes, I truft a Roman Abate would fcarce keep his countenance, if he heard one call the couple of eggs brought up for one’s {upper at an inn wna bella copia. PART I- BRITISH SYNONYMY. 10 PARTICULAR, PECULIAR, SINGULAR, APPEAR fynonymous adjectives adver- bially ufed, yet can {carcely be rated fuch upon clofe inveftigation. We fay that Timon is a SINGULAR fellow, nice in his felection of intimates, but firmly attached to thofe he has once chofen, and oddly refolute to believe nothing in their disfavour, though the accu- {ations may be fupported by proofs undenia- ble to the reft of mankind. He adheres with equally inftin@ive clofenefs, however, - to a fathion as he does to a friend, and by fo doing gives himfelf a mighty parTicu- LAR appearance in his manners and drefs, ‘which looks like the date of the year 1759 upon his back, and fets the boys and girls o laughing —very little to his concern; for having a confcioufnefs PECULIAR to him- {elf that he is not defpicable, he has no no- 2 tlon 406 ~=©—-s BRITISHT SYNONYMY. tion how completely he is defpifed by per- fons, whofe approbation greater men than Timon are contented to court at the ex- pence of things-eflential to their true hap. pinefs, PARTS, POWERS, MENTAL QUALITIES, AC. COMPLISHMENTS, TALENTS, GENIUS, FACULTIES OF MIND. DOCTOR Jounson always faid there ‘was a fex in words; if fo, the firft of thefe has, belonged by cuftom immemorial to the men, the third of them to the ladies. By a man of PARTS however, or a ‘woman’ of ACCOMPLISHMENTS, is not meant one whole powerful and overruling GENIUS impels him to the exercife of any particular art or fcience, Her/chel or-Siddons. No; fuch a defcription fuits the late earl of Hunt- ingdon,