There is more point in the definition adopted by Gesner: "Schola af. (oxλ) Literarum ludum significat; ad verbum otium, quia cæteris rebus omissis, vacant liberalibus studiis, qui eas frequentant." Such a definition is certainly appli cable only to academies for grown gentlemen-not to receptacles for children, whose only business is to learn; and it must ever happen that where, from a change of manners and customs in nations, the thing is altered, the primitive etymological meaning is overpowered by the actual present sense: hence varieties of import sometimes spring out of what is at first identical, as in other instances variety subsides in sameness where the diversity in fact is lost. It will also frequently happen that the primitive radical idea is lost in the accidental adjunct. Mr. Taylor is correct in deriving torrent from torrere, to dry up; and he is etymologically justified in asserting, that the overwhelming character is the accident, and the subsequent exhaustion is the essence; but how few have ever this fact in their mind!

A larger proportion of Mr. T.'s etymologies, however, are deduced from the German, frequently with great felicity, but oftentimes they seem advanced merely as a trial of skill. There is much ingenuity certainly-perhaps of whimsicality also, in these derivations.

"Gross. Bulky. Stout. Huge.

"Gross excites the idea of coarse corpulency; it came to us from France with that association: it is originally the same word with the Low-Dutch groot and the English great, which are past participles of to grow; but as the Germans are a corpulent, and the Gauls a slender race, their word for grown means fat, whereas the French grand (also a participle of grandir) means tall.

"Bulky is from the substantive bulk, which is used for the torso, or trunk, of a man, as well as for size in general. Authorities derive it from balg, belly; but it is more likely to be the same word as bullock, or bull-ox, a castrated bull, a steer gelding. These animals being remarkable for growing fat and large, would naturally supply the descriptive adjective: a man-bullock for a corpulent man, a bullock-pack of wool for a large or bulky bale. Yet the sea-phrase, "to break bulk," favours the derivation from belly.

"Stout is said by Johnson to mean striking: it describes an appearance characteristic of strength and vigour: it is metaphorically become a word of dimension. A stout cloth, for a thick strong texture; a stout timber, for a tree in its prime, which promises to grow large; a stout plank for a thick strong board; a stout vessel, for a tight strong ship. The ideas of thick and strong seem to have coalesced in the word. Adelung is not for referring this word, like Johnson, to the Gothic etymon stautan, to strike; but rather, with CRIT. REV. VOL. IV. Dec. 1816.

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the Swedish stolt, and the German stolz, to some root signifying to up-swell. Opitz has a passage: Die stolze fluth verschwemmet ganz und gar: the stout river swims quite away: where the fundamental idea turgid, not the fundamental idea striking, can be accommodated to the epithet. On the other hand, the Flemings say of an ox that tosses, Die os is stootsch; where striking, and not turgid, is applicable. Perhaps some such idea as horny lies at the bottom of this adjective. The Latins use cornea corpora for stout bodies; and the Hebrews use the derivatives of horn for proud, which is the meaning of the German stolz. Stosstange is a pitch-fork, which would be naturally named if the words signify horn-pole. Stot is old English for a bull. These indications being converged, it seems that some word, which in maso-gothic would have been spelled staut, signified (1) a bull, (2) a horned beast, (3) a horn; and that from this sense was derived the verb stautan or stossen, to thrust, push or toss. Bull being the largest animal among the Goths, is often used by them for an augmentative; bull-finch, bull-fly, bullrush, bull-trout, bull-weed: the adjective into which such a prefix would gradually be shapen must signify large. But if, by a process of abstraction, the word bull had acquired the meaning horn before it was employed as an epithet; the adjective into which such a prefix would gradually be shapen, might mean strong, overbearing, proud: or it might mean tough, enduring, robust; the Germans have employed it in the former, the English in the latter sense. And thus, by pre-supposing the etymon staut bull, all the significations of the allied words in the different Gothic dialects may be accounted for naturally,

"Huge is derived by Johnson from the Hollandish hoogh, high but this does not explain the use of the word.

-Part, huge of bulk,

Wallowing unwieldy, enormous in their gait,

Tempest the ocean.

Where is there any symptom that height makes a part of the idea of the word? A high tree is one whose stem is tall; a huge tree one whose trunk is large. High forests consist of tall trees; huge forests of spreading woods. The word is not applied to graceful, but only to awkward bulk and unseemly appetites: a huge whale, a huge mountain, a huge serpent; and Shakspeare, a huge feeder. Hooch is Welsh for a hog; and this is no doubt the true beginning of the adjective. A huge man, is a hog of a man; a huge mountain, a hog of a mountain; a huge feeder, a hog of a feeder.

"Bulky, stout, and huge, are all epithets borrowed from eattle: the ox tends to corpulency, the bull to strength, and the hog to awkwardness; and these accessory ideas are accordingly mingled with the general idea of large-sized, which they all convey." (p. 166--169.)

We copy Mr. Crabb's article, for the sake of comparison.

"Corpulent, Stout, Lusty.

"CORPULENT, from corpus the body, signifies having fulness of body.

SŤOUT, in Dutch stou, is no doubt a variation of the German stätig, steady, signifying able to stand, solid, firm.

"LUSTY, in German, &c. lustig, merry, cheerful, implies here a vigorous state of body.

Corpulent respects the fleshy state of the body; stout respects also the state of the muscles and bones; corpulence is therefore an incidental property, stoutness is a natural property; corpulence may come upon us according to circumstances, stoutness is the natural make of the body which is born with us. Corpulence and lustiness are both occasioned by the state of the health; but the former may arise from disease, the latter is always the consequence of good health; corpulence consists of an undue proportion of fat, lustiness consists of a due and full proportion of all the solids in the body." (p. 296.)

Equally singular and strange is the imputed origin of two words, which the author was perhaps ambitious to exemplify as well as explain. Mr. Taylor thus explains wit and humour, having before noticed the popular distinction,

"Wit is etymologically connected with the old English verb I weet, I wot, I have witten; and to weet, or to wit, for it occurs in both forms, means to know, to perceive, or something like this. All abstract terms acquire a vague signification, when the sensible idea is forgotten of which they are the ghosts. Is it in this instance irrecoverably lost? There is a German verb, technical among hunters, wittern, to smell. 'Das wild wittert den jäger. The game smells the huntsman. Wie schiffer pflegen, sieht er much luft und wind, und wittert sturm und regen. As sailors use, he looks at the sky and wind, and smells storm and rain.' Wit, then, is that faculty of the mind which answers to the sense of smelling; a sagacity somewhat imperceptibly exerted in detecting delicate and concealed phenomena, whose inferences are mostly stated in hints, or in pantomime, but which is not the less trust-worthy, from the difficulty, or inexpediency, of translating into language, and bringing to definition its perceptions.

"Humour means moisture. When snuff, mustard, or onions, are applied to the nose, an increased secretion is occasioned in the sali. val glands: they make the mouth water, as the phrase is. When the wit is occupied in coarse and stimulant discriminations, surely this same organic affection comes on insensibly-laughter cures thirst. However, this is an etymology which Plato would class among the illustrative. Historically speaking, humour was applied by physicians to designate the various fluids secreted and circulated in the human frame. The predominance of a choleric or phlegmatic, of a sanguine or melancholy temperament, was supposed to de

pend on a greater or less abundance of particular humours: hence humour came to signify disposition, character. By degrees it stood for prominent tendencies: he was called a humourist who indulged his genius. At length it was applied to ludicrous peculiarity, and thus took its present station in English nomenclature." (p. 62-63.)

Mr. Crabb has contented himself with deriving wit from weissen, to know; and with saying, that "humour is a species of wit which flows out of the humour of a person. Wit, as distinguished from humour, may consist of a single brilliant thought, but humour runs in a vein; it is not a striking, but an equable and pleasing flow of wit." Mr. C. deals much in this kind of explanation. In truth, humour appertains alone to character, and wit to thought. The exquisite traits of sentiment, in My Uncle Toby and Sir Roger de Coverley, or the Tory Fox-hunter, lose all their effect and charm unconnected with the individual; while the wit of Congreve, for instance, is so uncharacteristic, that it matters not in whose lips it is placed. Of course, the more capital specimens are compounded of both kinds

As specimens of a more sober etymology, and of the laudable brevity of Mr. Taylor's style, we copy the following.

"Surprised. Astonished. Amazed. Confounded.

"I am surprised at what is unexpected; I am astonished by what is striking; I am amazed in what is incomprehensible; I am confounded with what is embarrassing.

Surprised means overtaken; astonished means thunderstruck; amazed means lost in a labyrinth; and confounded means melted together. For want of bearing in mind the original signification of these words, our writers frequently annex improper prepositions, such as are inconsistent with the metaphor employed." (p. 34-35.)

Mr. C. supplies the Latin originals which Mr. T. had declined filling his sheets with; and is copious in his illus trations; but he ventures on one derivation, much more in Mr. T.'s style than his own.

"WONDER, in German wundern, &c. is in all probability a variation of wander; because wonder throws the mind off its bias." (p. 769.) !!!

We must not, however, omit a few specimens of our Authors' respective modes of treating words which are the shibboleths of our religious, political, and literary parties.

Mr. T. in these, evinces a mind accustomed to arrive at its conclusions by its own exertions. Mr. C. on the contrary,

seems proud of saying what he supposes the majority of his readers think already.

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Religion, Devotion, Piety, Sanctity."

"Religion is the bond which ties us to the Deity; it is the ex3 ternal contract, the alliance made by others. Devotion is the wish to become obedient to the Deity; it is the internal subjection of man_to his God. Piety is that filial sentiment, which we feel for the Father of all. Sanctity is the habit of interior coercion, which a constant sense of duty to the Godhead inspires.

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"He is religious, who adheres to the ordinances of his country, or his sect. He is devout, whom this adherence has trained to allegiance. He is pious, who regards the Deity as his father. Sanétity is to piety what devotion is to religion-the state of mind which results from acquiescence in the feeling.

Some men are pious, without being religious; and some are religious without being pious. For a worldly person it is sufficient to be religious. Those are devout whose purposes embrace their interests in other worlds. There is a fear of God observable in these times among Calvinists, which is no less hostile to piety, than that rude familiarity with the Almighty which is observable among Methodists. Yet all these sentiments grow out of religion.

"Religion is considered as a duty; piety as a merit: devotion and sanctity as equivocal excesses. This arises from the scepticism of the world, which questions the eventual retribution of the industry spent in devotion, or of the privations incurred from sanctity. One 'may infer a man's creed from his using the words devotion and sanctity with deference, or with a sneer." (TAYLOR, p. 100-101.) "HOLINESS, SANCTITY.

"HOLINESS, which comes from the northern languages, has altogether acquired a Christian signification; it respects the life and temper of a Christian.

"

SANCTITY, which is derived from the Latin sanctus and sancio to sanction, has merely a moral signification, which it derives from the sanction of human authority.

"Holiness is to the mind of a man what sanctity is to his exterior; with this difference, that holiness to a certain degree ought to belong to every man professing Christianity; but sanctity, as it lies in the manners, the outward garb, and deportment, is becoming only to certain persons, and at certain times.

"Holiness is a thing not to be affected; it is that genuine characterestic of Christianity which is altogether spiritual, and cannot be counterfeited; sanctity, on the other hand, is, from its very nature, exposed to falsehood, and the least to be trusted: when it displays itself in individuals, either by the sorrowfulness of their looks, or the singular cut of their garments, or other singularities of action or gesture, it is of the most questionable nature; but in one who performs the sacerdotal office it is a useful appendage to the solem