him, it may be thought wrong to have given him fo much commendation, it is only meant to fhew that the author is not led to reprobate his principles from infenfibility to his talents. The remark is rather made to put the reader on remembering that no brilliancy of genius, no diverfity of attainments, fhould ever be allowed as a commutation for defective principles and corrupt ideas.*

CHAP. X.

On the Ufe of Definitions, and the Moral Benefits of Accuracy in Language.

PERSONS having been accustomed from their

"cradles to learn words before they knew the ideas "for which they ftand, ufually continue to do fo all "their lives, never taking the pains to fettle in their "minds the determined ideas which belong to them. "This want of a precife fignification in their words, "when they come to reafon, especially in moral matters, "is the cause of very obfcure and uncertain notions. They ufe thefe undetermined words confidently, "without much troubling their heads about a certain "fixed meaning, whereby, befides the cafe of it, they "obtain this advantage, that as in fuch difcourse they "are feldom in the right, fo they are as feldom to be "convinced that they are in the wrong, it being just "the fame to go about to draw thofe perfons out of "their mistakes, who have no fettled notions, as to dif "poflefs a vagrant of his habitation who has no fettled "abode.The chief end of language being to be "understood, words ferve not for that end when they "do not excite in the hearer the fame idea which they "ftand for in the mind of the speaker."+

Goldfmith's Hiftory of animated Nature has many references to a Divine Author. It is to be wished that fome judicious perfon would publish a new edition of this work, purified from the indelicate and offenfive parts.

+ Locke,

I have chofen to fhelter myself under the broad fanction of the great Author here quoted, with a view to apply this rule in philology to a moral purpofe; for it applies to the veracity of converfation as much as to its correctness; and as strongly recommends unequivocal and fimple truth, as accurate and juft expreffion. Scarcely any one perhaps has an adequate conception how much clear and correct expreflion favours the elucidation of truth; and the fide of truth is obviously the fide of morals; it is in fact one and the fame caufe; and it is of course the fame caufe with that of true religion alo.

It is therefore no worthlefs part of education, even in a religious view, to ftudy the precife meaning of words, and the appropriate fignification of language. To this end I know no better method than to accuftom young perfons very early to a habit of defining common words and things; for, as definition feems to lie at the root of correctnefs, to be accustomed to define English words in English, would improve the understanding more than barely to know what those words are called in French, Italian, or Latin. rather, one use of learning other languages is, because definition is often involved in etymology; that is, fince many English words take their derivation from foreign or ancient languages, they cannot be fo accurately understood without fome knowledge of thofe languages: but precifion of any kind, either moral or philological, too feldom finds its way into the education of women.

Or

It is perhaps going out of my province to obferve, that it might be well if young men alfo, before they entered on the world, were to be furnished with correct definitions of certain words, the ufe of which is be come rather ambiguous; or rather they fhould be inftructed in the double fenfe of modern phrafeology. For inftance; they should be provided with a good definition of the word honour in the fashionable fense, fhewing what vices it includes, and what virtues it does not include: the term good company, which even the courtly Petronius of our days has defined as fometimes including not a few immoral and difreputable characters: religion, which in the various fenfes affigne.

ad it by the world, fometimes means fuperftition, fometines fanaticifm, and fometimes a mere difpofition to attend on any kind of form of worship: the word goodnefs, which is made to mean every thing that is not notoriously bad; and fometimes even that too, if what is notoriously bad be accompanied by good humour, pleafing manners, and a little alms-giving. By these means they would go forth armed against many of the falfe opinions, which, through the abufe or ambiguous meaning of words, pafs fo current in the world.

:

But to return to the youthful part of that fex which is the more immediate object of this little work. With correct definition they fhould alfo be taught to study the fhades of words, and this not merely with a view to accuracy of expreflion, though even that involves both fenfe and elegance, but with a view to moral truth. It may be thought ridiculous to affert, that morals have any connection with the purity of language, or that the precifion of truth may be violated through defect of critical exactness in the three degrees of comparifon yet how frequently do we hear from the dealers in fuperlatives, of "moft admirable, fuper-ex"cellent, and quite perfect" people, who, to plain perfons, not bred in the school of exaggeration, would appear mere common characters, not rifing above the level of mediocrity! By this negligence in the juft application of words, we fhall be as much milled by these trope and figure ladies, when they degrade as when they panegyrize; for to plain and fober judgment, a tradefman may not be "the most good-for-nothing fellow that ever exifted," merely because it was impoffible for him to execute in an hour an order which required a week; a lady may not be the most hideous fright the world ever faw," though the make of her gown may have been obfolete for a month ; nor may one's young friend's father be "a monster of cruelty," though he may be a quiet gentleman who does not choose to live at wateringplaces, but likes to have his daughter stay at home with him in the country.

Of all the parts of fpeech the interjection is the most abundantly in ufe with the hyperbolical fair ones.

Would it could be added that these emphatical expletives (if I may make ufe of a contradictory term) were not fometimes tinctured with profanenefs! Though I am perfuaded that idle habit is often more at the bottom of this deep offence than intended impiety, yet there is fcarcely any error of youthful talk which merits feverer caftigation. And an habit of exclamation fhould be rejected by polished people as vulgar, even if it were not abhorred as profane.

The habit of exaggerating trifles, together with the grand female failing of exceffive mutual flattery, and elaborate general profeffions of fondnefs and attachment, is inconceivably cherished by the voluminous private correfpondences in which fome girls are indulged. In vindication of this practice it is pleaded that a facility of ftyle, and an eafy turn of expreffion, are acquifitions to be derived from an early interchange of fentiments by letter-writing; but even if it were fo, thefe would be dearly purchafed by the facrifice of that truth, and fobriety of fentiment, that correctness of language, and that ingenuous fimplicity of character and manners fo lovely in female youth.

Next to pernicious reading, imprudent and violent friendships are the most dangerous fnares to this fimplicity. And boundless correfpondences with different confidantes, whether they live in a diftant province, or, as it often happens, in the fame street, are the fuel which principally feeds this dangerous flame of youthful fentiment. In thofe correfpondences the young friends often encourage each other in the falfeft notions of human life, and the moft erroneous views of each other's character. Family affairs are divulged, and family faults aggravated. Vows of everlasting attach- || ment and exclufive fondness are in a pretty juft proportion bestowed on every friend alike. Thefe epiftles overflow with quotations from the moft paffionate of the dramatic poets; and paffages wrefted from. their natural meaning, and preffed into the fervice of fentiment, are, with all the violence of mifapplication, compelled to fuit the case of the heroic tranfcriber.

But antecedent to this epiftolary period of life, they hould have been accustomed to the moft fcrupulous

exactness in whatever they relate. They fhould maintain the most critical accuracy in facts, in dates, in numbering, in defcribing, in fhort, in whatever pertains, either directly or indirectly, clofely or remotely, to the great fundamental principle, Truth. It is fo very difficult for perfons of great livelinefs to reftrain themfelves within the fober limits of ftrict veracity, either in their affertions or narrations, especially when a little undue indulgence of fancy is apt to procure for them the praise of genius and fpirit, that this restraint is one of the earlieft principles which fhould be worked into the youthful mind.

The converfation of young females is also in danger of being overloaded with epithets. As in the warm feafon of youth hardly any thing is feen in the true point of vifion, fo hardly any thing is named in naked fimplicity; and the very fenfibility of the feelings is partly a caufe of the extravagance of the expreffion. But here, as in other points, the facred writers, particularly of the New-Teftament, prefent us with the pureft models; and its natural and unlaboured ftyle of expreffion is perhaps not the meaneft evidence of the truth of the Gofpel. There is throughout the whole narratives, no overcharged character, no elaborate defcription, nothing ftudioufly emphatical, as if truth of itself were weak, and wanted to be helped out. There is little panegyric, and lefs invective; none but on great, and awful, and justifiable occafions. The authors record their own faults with the fame honesty as if they were the faults of other men, and the faults of other men with as little amplification as if they were their own. There is perhaps no book in which adjectives are fo fparingly ufed. A modeft ftatement of the fact, with no colouring and little comment, with little emphafis and no varnish, is the example held out to us for correcting the exuberances of paffion and of language, by that divine volume which furnishes us with the ftill more important rule of faith and standard of practice. Nor is the truth lowered by any feeblenefs, nor is the fpirit diluted, nor the impreffion weakened by this foberness and moderation; for with all this plainnefs there is so

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