If we recur to the causes for such extenuating terms, we find them to be principally these: a desire on the part of the wicked to find some less obnoxious and positive term by which their crimes may be in part covered over, false modesty, and the instinct of well-bred society to avoid coarse and unpolished words. Honest old words for crimes are too full of accusation and of condemnation to be relished by the vicious. They are therefore avoided, and others less associated with the notion of sin or disgrace are substituted in their place. When crimes are indulged in alike by the polished and the coarse part of society, the latter will adhere to the old expression, but the former will invent a new term, which conveys in a less degree the notion of vulgar vice. Thus while the polished will usually call a thief a thief, because this is a vice of which they are not guilty, they will have refined terms for drunkenness. The coarser part of society, on the other hand, will make use of the old word drunk, or, if they must originate new ones, these will be suggested by looking at this vice on its comic side. There are certain vices, again, which the instinct of modesty avoids the mention of. To a prurient mind, full of wanton thoughts, the number of immodest words must be greatly increased, for they are associated in greater numbers to such a mind with its habitual train of thoughts. Such words will be avoided, therefore, while the thing will be talked of with pleasure. New words, vague and vapid perhaps, will be the media of intercourse upon such subjects. And prudery will avoid all words, even the most harmless, which can be associated in an impure mind with immodest ideas.

The progress of language is thus uttering loud against "them that call evil good and good evil, that put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter." And in view of the evils which the use of language can produce, by weakening or confounding moral distinctions, does it not become the sober, honest, religious portion of the world, to stick to the old terms by which the indignation of men against sin has been conveyed from of old, instead of diluting the power of truth, and blunting the edge of reproof, by an inoffensive but inane word which circulates in good society? When Philip's soldiers called the venal traitors in his train, who had been false to the interests of Greece, by their true name, they winced under it and complained to the king. He replied, that the Macedonians were coarse people, they called a spade a spade. If all men would call a spade a spade, it would be one of the bulwarks of morality.

The third of Mr Trench's lectures is devoted to the history of words. The historical instruction to be derived from words. is rich and varied; in no language more so than in the Eng

VOL. I.-NO. III.

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lish, which is a piece of mosaic work, made up in the course of time from several sources. First of all, the Celts being enslaved by the Saxons, and reduced chiefly to the condition of agricultural labourers, saved a number of their own words, which denote agricultural processes and indoor and outdoor service. Next, when another race conquered the island, it brought over a new language, which in time made a compromise with the old Saxon, and united with it, as the races united to form the one English people. The Norman terms introduced into our tongue are, to a great extent, just those that might be expected to preponderate. The Norman was the ruling race; and accordingly gave nearly "all the words of dignity, state, honour, pre-eminence," such as "sovereign, sceptre, throne, realm, royalty, homage, prince, count (earl, indeed, is Scandinavian, though he must borrow his countess from the Norman), duke, chancellor, treasurer, palace, castle, hall, dome, and a multitude more." The Norman had been nearer to whatever luxury and civilization there was in middle and southern Europe. Hence, the names which he imported for articles of luxury, the terms connected with the chase, with chivalry, with cooking, are principally of this source. It has often been remarked that the animals commonly used for food were Saxon till they were killed, and Norman when brought upon the table. Cows became beef; calves, veal; sheep, mutton; swine, pork; deer, venison; fowls, pullets. Bacon, the only flesh which perhaps ever came within the Saxon's reach, is the single exception.

Many words contain in themselves the record of the place where something was invented, or whence it was first brought. Thus, "bayonet tells us that it was first made at Bayonne; cambrics, that they came from Cambray; damasks [and damsons], from Damascus; arras, from the city of the same name; cordwain, or cordovan, from Cordovo; pistols and pistoles, from Pistoia; currants, from Corinth; the guinea, that it was originally coined of gold brought from the African coast, so called; camlet, that it was woven of camel's hair. Such has been the manufacturing progress of England, that we now send our calicoes and muslins to India and the East; yet the words give standing witness that we once imported them thence, for calico is from Calicut, and muslin from Mousul." It is not strange that now and then a word conveys a geographical error, like the name for our continent; gypsies, i. e., Egyptians, applied to low caste wanderers from India; turkey used of a fowl from this continent, and blé de Turquie, the French denomination for Indian corn.

Sometimes a word contains within itself the history of the progress and revolutions of knowledge. Almagest is remark

able in this respect. It is a mongrel word, composed of the Arabic article, which is seen in alchemy, alcoran, alcalde, and a Greek word meaning greatest. Now, how was this unnatural union brought about? The Arabs under the Abassids having adopted the learning of Greece, borrowed amongst other works one called ǹ μɛyáλn oúvrağıs (the large treatise), written by the astronomer and geographer Ptolemy. From the fact of his having written a smaller and a larger work, this treatise was also called the greatest (ʼn meyíorn), and this name it bore when it received the rights of citizenship by means of an Arabic translation. When Arabic learning was transmitted to Europe, the book of the famous Greek continued to wear the Arabic title.

Language often preserves a record of customs and states of society which have now entirely passed away. Among the words illustrating this remark, one is stipulation, derived from the Latin stipula, straw, because, on the transfer of landed property, a straw from the land as a symbol of ownership was handed by the seller to the buyer. Another, curfew, sends us back to the harsh ordinance of the Norman conquerors of England. Signing the name is a phrase brought down from times when few could do more with their pens than make their sign-manual. Calculation points back to the pebbles which facilitated the practice of counting. Library and paper refer, the one to the bark of trees, used as books, and the other to an Egyptian reed, which was the chief material used in writing. Pagan reveals a state of society when the townspeople were converted to Christianity; but the villagers and rustics, the inhabitants of the pagi, still held to their heathenism.

Sometimes a proper name gives rise to a general term, and this in various ways. Thus tariff is derived from Tarifa, at the southern point of Spain, where the Moors were accustomed to watch "all merchant ships going into or coming out of the midland sea; and issuing from this stronghold to levy duties according to a fixed scale, on merchandise passing in and out of the Straits." Parchment was a preparation of skins for writing purposes at Pergamos, when the Ptolemies endeavoured to prevent the growth of the royal library at that place by prohibiting the export of papyrus. Rodomontade is a very singular word in its origin. Boiardo, while writing his "Orlando Inamorato," invented during the chase the word "rodamonte," compounded of rodare, a verb in Lombard Italian denoting to grind, and monte, mountain. This mountaingrinder's name was judged by the inventor so apposite to the character of a pompous boaster, that on his return from the chase he caused the bells of his town, Scabiano, to be rung for joy. Ariosto borrowed the name and character from his

predecessor, and its derivative has immortalized the invention. According to Mr Trench, our word dunce is derived from no less a person than the subtle doctor, Duns Scotus, and points to a time when the admired school philosophy and schoolmen had begun to fall into contempt.

Sometimes old exploded theories and errors have left their impress upon language. "Thus the words good humour, bad humour, humorous, and the like, rest altogether on a now exploded but a very old and widely-extended theory of medicine, according to which there were four principal moistures or humors in the natural body, on the due proportion and combination of which the disposition alike of body and mind depended." Astrology has left its traces on language in such words as disaster, ill-starred, mercurial, jovial, saturnine. Even the old German mythology survives in lubber, dwarf, hag, and other words. We believe that the old scratch, a term not to be found in the dictionaries, but of which our readers will need no explanation, is, like the German Schratz, a descendant of Schratto, a wood-demon of the same mythology. It is well known that on the fall of paganism the traits of some of its fabulous beings were transferred to Satan, their kinsman in moral character. In some of the English country dialects another trace of the same mythological person may be discovered.

Mr Trench, in his remaining lectures, considers the rise of new words, the distinctions in words, and other topics of interest. The most important principle in the whole work is that a word never breaks away entirely from its root, but in all its diversities of meaning has one common notion lying at the foundation. The ordinary mode of spelling, as keeping nearest to the history and genealogy of words, is defended by Mr Trench, while phonology, as cleaving to the sound, and taking no account of the affinities in language, has his hearty disapproval. We have read his work with pleasure and profit; and have felt while reading it a wish revived, which we have often entertained before, for an etymological dictionary of the English language, adapted to the present state of philology. A dictionary of this kind, which, on the plan of being restricted to the roots and their principal derivatives, might not need to be very bulky, would be one of the best means possible for promoting the general refinement, and for revealing the extreme beauty and loveliness of that wonderful instrument-language.

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*It is certain that a similar name, "the Old Nick," is also drawn form Teutonic mythology. Nichus, in Anglo-Saxon Nicor, in German Nix, was a water-demon or spirit-monster of the waters. In the Netherlands, Nikker is used in the sense of bad spirit, devil. See Grimm's Deutsch. Mythol., p. 275.

ART. VI.-The Resurrection and Ascension of our Lord. THE great fact of the resurrection of our Lord from the dead, by which "he was declared to be the Son of God with power (Rom. i. 4), and in which "God fulfilled unto the children the promise made unto their fathers" (Acts xiii. 32, 33), stands out every where prominently on the pages of the New Testa ́ment as one of the cardinal doctrines of the Christian's faith, and the earnest of his own future resurrection. The burden of Paul's preaching was, "that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures; and that he was buried, and that, he rose again the third day according to the Scriptures."-(1 Cor. xv. 3, 4.) The apostle goes on likewise strongly to affirm, that "if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain. Yea, and we are found false witnesses of God; because we have testified of God that he raised up Christ; whom he raised not up, if so be that the dead rise not."-(1 Cor. xv. 14, 15.)

Yet with all this certainty as to the great fact itself, it is no less true, that in respect to the circumstances connected with this important event, difficulties are presented to the mind even of the sincere inquirer, by the different manner in which the four evangelists have placed these circumstances on record. Not that the facts recorded by them are in a single instance inconsistent with each other; but the main difficulty lies in harmonizing the four accounts in such a way as to bring out a full and complete order and sequence of the events, so natural and consistent as to commend itself to the understanding of all. To do this in any good degree, there must be introduced something of hypothesis. Certain things must be assumed as links to connect facts otherwise isolated. Now, there is, of course, just here, room for difference of taste and of judgment, as also some scope for fancy; and it has therefore come to pass, that while few, if any, honest minds have ever been driven into unbelief by these alleged difficulties, yet, on the other hand, hardly any two interpreters have ever followed precisely the same tract in harmonizing the four narratives of the sacred writers. It is also true, that more of these apparent difficulties are found in this short section of the gospel history than in almost all the rest.

One fruitful source of apparent or alleged difficulty in the case before us, is the proneness of the reader to take it for granted that each evangelist would naturally present an account of all the circumstances accompanying and following our Lord's resurrection. On the supposition of such an intent, there would indeed be obstacles next to insurmountable in the