Of similar import to the last quotation is the remark lately made to the Writer by a clerical friend, relative to the words Unscriptural and Anti-scriptural. "Unscriptural doctrine," said he, "is that which is not in the scriptures; Anti-scriptural doctrine, is that which is against or contrary to scripture." [The prefix un, is from the Saxon, and means not; the prefix anti, is from the Greek, and signifies against, or contrary to.] "Much

needless controversy," he continued, "has been caused by a want of due attention to the exact meaning of these and other words."

"I find there is so close a connection between ideas and words; and our abstract ideas and general words have so constant a relation one to another, that it is impossible to speak clearly and distinctly of our knowledge without considering first the nature, use, and signification of language.' Locke on the Human Understanding, Book II. chap. xxxiii. § 19.

"But, after all, the provision of words is so scanty in respect of that infinite variety of thought, that men, wanting terms to suit their precise notions, will, notwithstanding their utmost caution, be forced often to use the same word in somewhat different senses. Locke*, Book III. chap. xi. § 27.

* "It may lead us a little towards the original of all our notions and knowledge, if we remark how great a dependence our words have on common sensible ideas; and how those, which are made use of to stand for actions and notions quite removed from sense, have their rise from thence, and from obvious sensible ideas are transferred to more abstruse significations; and to stand

Etymology often serves to ascertain the original`importance and nature of a word, to elucidate an obscure or doubtful point, and to throw an interesting and amusing light on the general laws, by which, in the subsequent application of primary or proper signs the operations of the human fancy are regulated." Grant.

Upon a right apprehension of words depends the rectitude of our notions, and in order to form our judgment right, they must be understood in their proper meaning, and used in their true sense, either in writing

for ideas that come not under the cognizance of our senses for example, to apprehend, comprehend, adhere, conceive, instil, &c. are all words taken from the operations of sensible things, and applied to certain modes of thinking. Spirit, in its primary signification is breath : angel, a messenger: and I doubt not, but if we could trace them to their sources, we should find in all languages the names which stand for things that fall not under our senses, to have had their first rise from sensible ideas; by which we may give some kind of guess what kind of notions they were, and whence derived, which filled their minds who were the first beginners of language; and how nature, even in the naming of things, unawares, suggested to men the originals and principles of all their knowledge: whilst to give names that might make known to others any operation they felt in themselves, or any other ideas that came not under their senses, they were fain to borrow words from ordinary known ideas of sensation, by that means to make others the more easily conceive those operations they experimented in themselves, which made no outward sensible appearances; and then, when they had got known and agreed names to signify those internal operations of their own mind, they were sufficiently furnished to make known by words all their other ideas." Locke, Book III. chap. i. § 5.

or speaking. For if the words of the speaker or writer, though ever so apposite to the matter, be taken in a wrong sense, they form erroneous ideas in the mind concerning the thing spoken or written of; and if we use words in a false and improper sense, this causes confusion in the understanding of the hearer, and renders the discourse unintelligible. It ought, therefore, to be the special care and study of every one, who would have his mind furnished with the useful knowledge of things of any kind, to get a true and distinct idea of the proper sense and meaning of words, and terms of art, in which they are expressed, without which no good progress can be Watts.

made.

"Of the benefit of artificial language no one will think lightly who can use it: and without contesting the metaphorical proposition-that we think by the medium of words-we are at liberty to affirm, that-words are often used without thinking;-and that much of Education as generally managed, has a strong tendency to produce such a habit. Old as we are we too sufficiently remember the hardships of attending to what we did not understand, and acquiring what we did not value...... we have a vivid recollection of the heartlessness of storing up words without ideas and which we could not possibly imagine to be of any use but to furnish occasions for reproach and chastisement. So much for our dulness it may be said. Be it so: but there are thousands in the same state." Edinburgh Monthly Review, Dec. 1819.

"The proper mode of studying words is one of the most important means of knowledge. Many persons remain in gross ignorance all their lives because they are too vain or too indolent to turn to a dictionary." Intellectual Patrimony, by James Gilchrist.

"Johnson says, 'words are of earth, but things are of heaven.' For the very reason that words are not divine but human, much attention to them is necessary; because being, like every thing human, imperfect and

:

liable to perversion, they occasion, without constant care, much mistake, deception, absurdity, folly, and mischief. Things themselves are in general simple and uniform it is the medium through which they are viewed that renders them obscure, or shows them crookeddouble-in false colours, magnitudes, and relations: it is the medium of vision or perception that occasions all our illusions, false opinions, mental mistiness, and confusion; and therefore it is necessary to study the medium as well as the objects of our knowledge." Intellectual Patrimony.

"The philosophy of language is to every logician á primary object of attention, not only because words are the chief vehicles by which thought is communicated, but because they are the instruments employed in the operations of thinking. We may form judgments without the aid of audible or visible signs of our ideas; but a complicated and extensive train of reasonings cannot be either conducted or expressed without the use of these arbitrary symbols. Among the various causes of error, none is perhaps more fatal in its influence than inattention to the exact meaning of the terms which we apply in the course of our inquiries into abstract subjects; and for this reason, in particular, it is one of the first objects of a rational education to explain the just principles of grammar, and to inculcate a solicitous and unvarying attention to that correctness of expression, which cannot be violated without involving our conceptions and our arguments in obscurity." Jardine on Education.

I am apt to imagine, that were the imperfections of languages, as the instrument of knowledge, more thoroughly weighed and more duly considered, a great many of the controversies that make so much noise in the world, would of themselves cease, and the way to knowledge, and perhaps peace too, lie a greal deal opener than it does. The consideration of ideas and words, as the

great instruments of knowledge, makes no despicable part of their contemplation, who would take a view of human knowledge in the whole extent of it." Locke.

It is not for a moment presumed that this Work will satisfy every inquiry relative to words derived from the Latin; indeed, it may be doubted whether any work however voluminous could accomplish this*. The Author merely hopes to induce young persons to pay attention to the subject, and by the illustrations he has introduced to assist them in acquiring a habit of analyzing words, and reasoning upon the force of them. And he trusts the present little production will meet with the same liberal criticism as its precursor. They who are able to form a correct judgment of the merits and demerits of the present Work are best aware of the difficulty of the undertaking: to prove this assertion the following citations may be adduced.

"A definition is nothing else but an explication of the meaning of words, by words whose meaning is already known; hence it is evident, that every word cannot be defined, for the definition must consist of words." Reid.

"The great object of the etymological art is not to give an account of all words without exception, such indeed would be a preposterous idea. This art is principally commendable, as it furnishes to philosophy materials and observations for raising the grand edifice of the eneral theory of languages."

Salmon.