into the criteria by which barbarism and impropriety are to be judged; for the present, we shall go by the authority of the best dictionaries,-Johnson's, Webster's, Reid's, &c.; and consider those words barbarisms which they have not included, and those improperly used which are meant to convey a different signification from any assigned to them by these or other well established lexicographers. For original writers this rule would be by far too limited; but it is not altogether to guide original writers that rules of grammar are laid down.

270. Of pure barbarisms I do not mean to give examples, not having met with any in a reputable writer. But somewhat allied to barbarisms are low expressions, which ought to be avoided in works of a serious nature, and these do occasionally occur. The lowness or vulgarity of the expression need not consist in any of the words individually; it may be in the combination. And in the same way, a combination of words, each individually good, and put together by the strictest rules of syntax, may be objectionable. "There is to me a father kind," is not the mode in which an Englishman would express himself, although it would be impossible to object to any part of the sentence separately. All we can say about it is, that as a whole, it is not the English idiom.

271. In using words, we must be careful to employ them in their recognised acceptation (here supposed to be ascertainable by consulting a dictionary). To use them otherwise is to mislead, not to enlighten. The philosophy of this part of our subject is so beautifully expounded by Locke, that I shall transcribe his words, and recommend them to the careful study of the reader. To Locke's account I shall append a considerable number of examples of words used properly and improperly. In this way the student has before him both the theory and the practice.

272. "It is not enough that men have ideas, determined ideas, for which they make these signs [words] stand, but they must also take care to apply their words, as near as may be, to such ideas as common use has annexed them to. For words, especially of languages already framed, being no man's private possession, but the common measure of com

merce and communication, it is not for any one, at pleasure, to change the stamp they are current in, nor alter the ideas they are fixed to; or at least, when there is a necessity so to do, he is bound to give notice of it. Men's intentions in speaking are, or at least should be, understood, which cannot be without frequent explanations, demands, and other the like incommodious interruptions, where men do not follow common use. Propriety of speech is that which gives our thoughts entrance into other men's minds with the greatest ease and advantage, and therefore deserves some part of our care and study, especially in the names of moral words. The proper signification and use of terms is best to be learned from those who, in their writings and discourses, appear to have had the clearest notions, and applied to them their terms with the exactest choice and fitness. This way of using a man's words according to the propriety of language, though it have not always the good fortune to be understood, yet most commonly leaves the blame of it on him who is so unskilful in the language he speaks, as not to understand it, when made use of it as it ought to be."Essay on the Human Understanding, book iii. ch. xi.

273. That the reader may see clearly what is meant, I shall give, in parallel columns, instances in which a word is used properly and improperly. It is but fair to say that complete uniformity is scarcely to be expected in the use of words relating to any subject non-mathematical; yet this does not justify the extreme carelessness of many writers in substituting one word for another because in some respects the two convey nearly the same meaning.

Correct Use.

1. Erasmus, at the instigation of those who were resolved to dislodge him from a neutral station his timidity rather affected, published, &c.-Hallam, vol. i. p. 492.

2. Probably no one person living believes in the authenticity of the Rowley poems.-Hallam, vol. i. p. 230.

Improper Use.

1. Solon enacted a law for the capital punishment of every citizen who should continue neuter when parties ran high in Athens. -Hall's Apology, &c.

2. The councils seemed at that time convened rather to give authenticity to the king's decrees than to enact laws that were to bind their posterity. - Goldsmith's England.

3. The institution of marriage is coeval with the formation of society.-Tytler's Elements.

4. The office of the Dey was not hereditary; sometimes it descended to the son, more generally to the favourite officer of the deceased commander.-Alison, vol. iii. p. 422.

5. I adhere to the authority of Dion, the truth of whose calculations is undeniable.-Gibbon.

6. The process of learning without books was tedious and difficult, but not impracticable practicable, see 254) for the diligent.-Hallam.

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7. A powerful citadel, stored with all the muniments of war. -Alison, vol. viii. p. 282.

8. After the retreat of the Greeks, the idolaters have retrieved their losses and possessions.-Gibbon, chap. xlvi.

3. Hume's simple but profound history will be coeval with the long and eventful thread of English story.-Alison, vol. viii. p. 5.

4. The monarch is hereditary; but his power is defined and limited by the constitution.Alison, vol. viii. p. 712.

5. Whatever may be thought of the veracity of this story.Goldsmith.

6. Though all parties were willing to negociate, none were sufficiently lowered in their pretensions to render an understanding practicable.-Alison.

7. Even the myriads of Attila or Genghis Khan exhibited no similar combination of the muniments of war, and foreboded not such permanent subjection to the liberties of mankind. - Alison, vol. viii. p. 763.

8. Some pains have been thrown away in attempting to retrieve the names of those to whom he alludes.—Hallam, vol. i. p. 132.

Low EXPRESSIONS TO BE CORRECTED.-270.

1. It could not have been written later than that year, because in the next the tables were turned on those who now exulted, by the complete discomfiture of their party in the battle of Evesham. -Hallam.

2. Soldiers, baggage-waggons, chariots, cannon, and camp followers, who, pell-mell and in utter confusion, crowded the road, &c.-Alison.

3. Alcibiades cared neither for oligarchy nor democracy; all he wanted was some change which would enable his cronies to recall him.-Keightley.

4. Above all, his spirit was essentially patriotic: his ruses and subterfuges, and they were many, were all directed, &c.—Alison. 5. His father, on account of these repeated scrapes, having forbid him his house, &c.-Alison.

6. The dissemination of opinion, as the vend of commodities, is claimed to be free, equal, and unprivileged.-Wade.

7. But greater events were now on the wing.-Alison.

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8. During these vigorous proceedings of the Protestants, they stood confounded and at a gaze, and persevered in a silence which was fatal to their cause.-Robertson.

IMPROPRIETIES.-271.

(From Hallam's Introduction to the Literature of Europe.)

1. It seems questionable whether any printing-press existed in Ireland; the evidence to be collected from Herbert is precarious ; but I know not if any thing more satisfactory has since been discovered. Vol. ii. p. 63.

2. The Muses were honoured by the frequency if not by the dignity of their worshippers. A different sentence will be found in some books; and it has become common to elevate the Elizabethan age in one undiscriminating panegyric.-Vol. ii. p. 305.

3. Peter Ramus gave a fresh proof of his austerities and originality by publishing a Greek grammar, with many important variances from his precursors.-Vol. ii. p. 24.

4. In using the word printed it is of course not intended to prejudice the question as to the real art of printing.--Vol. i. p. 207.

5. The progress of that most important invention which illustrated the preceding ten years, &c.-Vol. i. p. 217.

6. A universal inference peremptorily derived from some particular case, &c.-Vol. i. p. 522.

7. The universities had fallen in reputation and in frequency of students. Vol. i. p. 257.

8. Grotius does not borrow many quotations from Gentilis, though he cannot but sometimes allege the same historical examples.—Vol. ii. p. 249.

9. The blessed spirits that inform such living and bright man- · sions behold all things, &c.-Vol. iii. p. 147.

10. Few books indeed of that period are more full of casual information.-Vol. iv. p. 96.

11. It is well known that a disbelief in Christianity became very frequent about this time.-Vol. iv. p. 155.

12. This logic is perhaps the first regular treatise that contained a protestation against the Aristotelian method.-Vol. iv. p. 210. 13. It is very convenient to those who want access to the original writers, or leisure to collate them.-Vol. iv. p. 128.

(From Alison's History of the French Revolution, &c.)

1. A line of fortresses was calculated to afford to Napoleon the inappreciable advantage of transferring the seat of his operations at pleasure from one bank to the other.-Vol. ix. p. 362.

2. The forces which the British empire put forth were singularly

diminutive, and so obviously disproportioned to the contest, &c. -P. 685.

3. The poet Körner, who had recovered of the wound he had so perfidiously received, &c.-P. 470.

4. The scanty supplies which they [Napoleon's soldiers] could themselves extract by terror from the inhabitants, &c.-P. 446. 5. Nothing was wanting but vigour in following up the measure, adequate to the ability with which it had been conceived.

6. But the want of paternal care was more than supplied by Napoleon's mother, to whose early education and solicitude he, in after-life, mainly attributed his elevation.-Vol. iii. p. 3.

7. The cavalry, who were only two hundred in number, and still extenuated by the fatigues of the voyage, were placed in the centre of the square.-Vol. iii. p. 431.

8. As the French plenipotentiaries had not arrived, Napoleon, of his own authority, signed the treaty.-Vol. iii. p. 275.

9. The Blacks, taught by experience, perfectly acquainted with the country [St Domingo], and comparatively inaccessible to its deadly climate, maintained a successful war with European forces, who melted away under its fatal gales.-Vol. iii. p. 186.

(From Various Authors.)

1. The desire of wealth and emulation, or the desire of equalizing or surpassing others, are neither of them, in themselves (?) either virtuous or vicious. Whately.

2. I find I have been preoccupied by Dr Jortin in noting this parallel.-Warton's Milton.

3. The Carthaginians were remarkably precious of the blood of their own citizens, while they lavished that of their mercenaries with reckless prodigality.-Keightley.

4. Schiller looked forward to the sacred profession with alacrity. -Carlyle.

5. The case is urgent, peremptory.—M'Cullagh.

6. You may guide a dark man, but who can lead one that fancies he is fit to steer himself?-Idem.

7. Mr Pitt contends, that though the sovereign may land foreign troops at his pleasure, he cannot subsist them without the aid of parliament.-Hall.

8. The populousness of Rome cannot perhaps be exactly ascertained.-Gibbon.

9. Some said that he had always been an excellent citizen, and that he had been deprived of his country by a conspiracy of bad men.-Keightley.

10. By yielding to just complaints, and humanely redressing flagrant abuses, the patricians might have easily anticipated every ground of dissatisfaction.-Tytler.