Imatges de pàgina
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and having, as all the world knows, the exaltation of slavery for its chief end? Why should I sit still and see this fair republic, made one alike by the hand of nature and the wisdom of its founders, divided into two hostile nations, with some thousands of miles of border territory; each side striving to surpass the other in fleets and armies; the people groaning under taxes for their maintenance without hope of relief; and, what is worse than all, the great nations of Europe complacently looking on and saying: Aha! so would we have it; for now we can use one republic to keep the other under.' I am contending for national existence, and for this reason I deserve the respect of the world. I am contending, too, for free institutions against a rebellion whose corner-stone is the institution of slavery. For this reason I have a right to claim the sympathy, at least, of England, for she has filled the world with her denunciations of slavery. O England, the land of free institutions, whose voice has been lifted so high against American slavery, shalt thou now falsify all thy teachings for the past century by giving thy sympathies to the side of American slavery, against both the Constitution of the United States, and the cause of freedom in the United States? If thou do, God judge between me and thee."

In bringing to a close our previous article on "the Bible and Slavery," we remarked that the consideration of the manifold evils which grow out of the system naturally and necessarily, would come up more appropriately under the head of the Relations of Slavery to the State; and that the institution, like every other, must be judged by its resultsits results not in certain select cases and in limited periods of time, but its results as they manifest themselves on the broad scale. The evil results of slavery to the state we have now endeavored to point out, though in a very summary and imperfect manner. We have shown that it is of necessity an incubus on the prosperity, material and moral, of the states that cherish it; and that in the line of both the slaves themselves and of the free population. We have

further shown that it has been from the beginning the great disturbing power in the American Union, and has finally plunged the nation into a bloody civil war. Such are the fruits of slavery. "Their vine," then, "is of the vine of Sodom, and of the fields of Gomorrah; their grapes are grapes of gall, their clusters are bitter; their wine is the poison of dragons, and the cruel venom of asps." Let him that has understanding judge whether such a plant of gall and wormwood can be of heavenly origin; and whether, also, with its poisonous shoots overrunning the nation, it can ever have true peace and prosperity. May God, in his infinite goodness, show us a way in which it can be extirpated, root and branch, from this fair Republic!

ARTICLE V.

ENGLISH ETYMOLOGY, AS ADAPTED TO POPULAR USE:

ITS LEADING FACTS AND PRINCIPLES.

WITH A BRIEF SYNOPSIS OF ILLUSTRATIVE EXAMPLES.

BY BENJAMIN W. DWIGHT, LL.D., CLINTON, N. Y.

(Continued from page 309.)

MANY have begun to hear with admiration of the wonders of the new philology, and perhaps themselves "see men, as trees, walking" within its sphere of grand and everenlarging discovery. Fain would they see more facts as facts, and these both more definitely and widely than they now do. Words they want in large numbers; and if they can have them in a thorough, reliable form, will greet so welcome a contribution with gladness. It has been a great gratification to the author, in the midst of other abounding labors, to undertake to meet, in even the partial manner here employed, so natural and urgent a desire on the part of those scholarly minds that highly appreciate the vast

inward wealth of words themselves, and yet have not the time or materials for any satisfactory explorations of their own among their riches. The list here furnished is designed only to be a specimen list, which might be almost indefinitely multiplied.' The purpose has been, to give to the reader as wide and full and varied a view of the lingual riches of our noble mother tongue as could be compassed within the contracted bounds of a single brief Article. In the more than fifteen hundred words here explained, there will be found, by any inquisitive student, to be much material for both investigation and speculation. Curious, indeed, will the affiliations of words be often found to be, and odd their multiform combinations, alike of form and sense. Nothing but the most rigid logic of facts, and the force of manifest verities, could satisfy one who loves truth indescribably more than any novelties however imposing, that the existing relations and correlations of words in each single language, as well as in many combined, are really, in ever-changing forms and aspects, what they actually are. Behold, then, a few words gathered together, among many others, in hours of studious research, for the purpose of finding and enjoying the light that words bear in themselves, and of comprehending them in the inwardly constituted harmony of their mutual relations.

A.

1. Absurdus, Eng. absurd, commonly guessed to represent ab, from, and surdus, a deaf person (whose voice, being unregulated by the ear, is abnormal in its action), is probably from the same root as Sk. svri and svar, to sound, and svaras, sound (cf. Lith. surme, a flute), and, like absonus, means dissonant. From the same root is Gr. σûpuys, a pipe, a musical reed, Eng. syringe. Cf. for similar variation of sense, L. pipire, to pipe or peep, and a pipe (as for smok ing, etc.).

1 The following abbreviations occur in this Article: Cf. for Lat. confere, meaning compare; Eng. for English; Fr. for French; Germ. for German; Goth. for Gothic; Gr. for Greek; Ital. for Italian; L. for Latin; M. L for Middle Latin; Lith. for Lithuanian; Span. for Spanish; Sk. for Sanskrit.

2. Acies, a point or barb (Sk. açri-s, the edge of a sword, Gr. ȧkís and ȧký, Germ. ecke), Eng. edge. Of similar origin is acme (Gr. ȧruń, a point); as are also the following words, immediately derived from L. acere (obs.), to be sour (as being sharp or biting; as Eng. word bitter comes from bite), acid, acetic as also from L. acer, sharp, of same ultimate source (cf. Sk. akra-s, brisk, lively, and açu-s, swift, and Gr. ¿xús, as also ỏğús, from which Gr. #apovoμós, lit. sharp irritation, Eng. paroxysm, and L. acus. a needle), come acerbity and exacerbate, and vinegar (Fr. vinaigre = vinum acre, sharp or sour wine), and eager (L. acer, Fr. aigre, like Eng. meagre, from L. macer, Fr. maigre) and alacrity (L. alacerala + acer), and allegro and allegretto (Ital.); while from acuere, to sharpen, come acute, acumen, and acuminate (M. L. acuminare).

3. Aequus (pron. as if ēkus), level, equal (Sk. êka-s, one, Gr. eixos, lit. one with itself), equal, equable, equation, equator, equity, and iniquity (L. iniquus), adequate (ad +aequus), inadequate, equanimity (+ animus), equivalent (+valere), equivocate (+ vox).

4. Aevum, time, life, age (Sk. êva-s, a course, a way, etc. cf. ayu-s, long life, perhaps for orig. aivas, and Gr. ales and aiei, always, and aláv, a life-time, etc.), ever (Germ. ewig); never (not ever), age (Lat. aetas for aevitas, Fr. âge), eternal (L. aeternus for aeviternus).

5. Ager, a field (Sk. ajra-s, a plain or field, Gr. ȧypós, Germ. acker), acre (M. L. acra), agrarian, agriculture (+colere, to cultivate); peregrinate (per+ager); pilgrim (L. peregrinus, Fr. pelerin, Germ. pilger).

6. Agere, actum, to lead or drive (Sk. aj, to go, to drive, Gr. ayo and ayivéw), agent, agile, act, actual (M. L. actualis), actuate, actuary (M. L. actuarius); ambiguous (amb, round about); cogent (L. cogere = con + agere); exigency (exigere), and also exigesis, exact, and exaction; react; transact; agitate (L. agitare, intensive form of agere); cogitate (L.cogitare con agitare); cash (Fr. cacher, to hide, from L. coactare); attitude (Span. actitud, Ital. attitudine); castigate (L. castigare = castum + agere); litigate, (litem + agere);

mitigate (mitem + agere); purge and purgative (purum + agere). Examine (L. examen, for exagimen, a balance or measure, cf. exigere, to measure carefully, to weigh), also, and embassy and ambassador (M. L. ambascia, entrusted business, and ambasciator, from ambactus, part. of ambigere, to go about) radicate themselves in the Lat. verb agere.

7. Aio, or ajo, I say (Sk. ah, to speak, Gr. ui; so the Gothic aika is Sk. âha, I have said). This verb, in its present form, represents, as in adagium, also, an adage, an earlier form, agio, like major, in Latin, for an original magior (cf. Gr. μείζων for μεγιων). To this same primitive root ag, belongs, with aio, the word axamenta also, or hymns sung by the Salii, derived from a frequentative form axare, lit. to say or repeat much; in aio or ajo (for agio), the common root ag having had the half-vowel i or y added to it. Indigitare, to call upon the gods, and indigitamenta, religious books, containing the names of the gods, belong also to this same root. From aio come Eng. aye (lit. I say it), nay (aye, with the negative ne), negation (negare == ne-ig-are), deny (denegare), abnegate (M. L. abnegatio), adage (adagium).

8. Alius, another (Gr. aλos; cf. L. ollus, archaic form of ille, and adv. olim, old acc. form of ollus, as partim of pars; and aliquis also alius + quis. Cf. also ἀλλάσσω and Eng. parallax, and aλλýλwv, Eng. parallel), alien (L. alienus), alienate, alter (L. alter, comp. form of alius), alternate (M. L. alternare), and altercate and alibi, a law term (L. alibi, an old dat. of locative signification, from alius, like ibi of is and ubi, for quubi, of quis, as in alicubi, and as also in tibi and sibi from tu and sui, and mihi, for mibhi, of ego). Other, also, is but L. alter, Fr. autre, Span. otro. Here, too, belong the following compounds: solitude and solitary (L. solusse, without, and alius, another-like socordia, laziness, from secors, lit. without heart, and sobrius, Eng. sober, or se ebrius- and hence the gen. form, solius); adultery (= ad alteram, sc. uxorem).

9. Alere, part. altus, to nourish (Gr. áλdaive, andw, and ἀλθαίνω. Cf. also, L. olescere, to grow; from which come adolescent, L. adolescens; abolish, L. abolere; prolific, L. pro

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