glide over the eye and the ear, without exciting attention. It is from this cause that we are so surprised at the metaphors employed by distant nations, whether that distance be in time, or in space; and even in those tongues with which we are, in a great degree, familiar, we distinguish, by the name of Idioms, numerous phrases, that differ from our own modes of expression, He is drowned in debt,'-' He is over head and ears in love; 'He is plunged in grief,' &c. are noticed as English idiomatical phrases, by our continental neighbours. Virgil says that the Trojans were buried in sleep and wine when they were surprised by the Greeks:

"Invadunt urbem somno vinoque sepultam."

It has been observed that the salutations of different countries are derived from different metaphors. The English say How do you do?' literally, 'How do you act?'; the French, comment vous portez-vous? How do you carry yourself?'; and the Dutch, Hoe vaart gy? How do you sail?'

Translations are the chief sources of the introduction of foreign words; and the early authorized translations of the Bible, following principally the text of St. Jerom, inundated the

language with Latin compounds

The pulpit

(and the press, which was, at one time, almost entirely theological) adopted those new-fangled derivations, and, assisted by the Lawyers and Physicians, we, soon after the invention of printing, had, in many cases, duplicates of words from which we could make a choice. But a language cannot long exist under two forms. One of the synonymous words is either speedily forgotten, or it takes a different department. The Latin intruders are now almost wholly confined to metaphorical meanings. It was not so, however, in former times; in proof of which we shall cite a few examples:

TO PROMOTE (Latin promovere) is simply to bring forward; but we could not now say in bringing forward a young actor on the stage, or a culprit to the bar, that he was promoted. To promote is now to move a person forward to a more advantageous situation in life:-for instance, to make a Bishop of a Dean. Milton used the Word literally:

"Did I request thee, Maker, from my clay

To mould me man? Did I solicit thee
From darkness to promote me?"-

TO PREVENT (Latin prævenire) is to come before; and as to come before is to be in one's way, the

word now signifies to hinder, that is, to keep another behind. The Liturgy of the church (composed in the time of Edward VI.) has " prevent us, O Lord, in all our doings," &c. being a prayer that the Lord would go before them, and guide them in all their actions. This literal use of the verb to prevent was not lost sight of in the beginning of the last century; for we find the following lines in Rowe's Lucan :

"Where'er the Battle bleeds, and Slaughter lies, Thither, preventing Birds and Beasts, she hies; Nor then content to seize the ready Prey,

From their fell Jaws she tears the Food away."

To CONVINCE (Latin convincere) is to conquer. It is now used only to conquer in argument; but Shakspeare has its literal sense in Cymbeline:

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Your Italy containes none so accomplish'd a Courtier to convince the Honour of my Mistris." TO PROVOKE (Latin provocare, to call forth) was once understood literally,-as in the Tempest: "Miranda. Wherefore did they not That howre destroy us?

Pros. Well demanded, wench:
My tale provokes that question."

AFFLUENCE (Latin affluentia, from ad and fluens, flowing to) is now appropriated to denote Riches; from which it is distinguishable by considering those riches as continually increasing, or flowing

in. CONFLUENCE is still used literally to denote the junction of streams, which then flow together; and Johnson, in his Dictionary, quotes examples of AFFLUENCE and AFFLUENT with their primary significations.

ANGEL (Latin angelus from the Greek aggelos) originally signified a messenger, and was so understood by Ben Jonson, when he termed the Nightingale

"The dear good angel of the spring."

We might add hundreds of other instances in which foreign words have left the literal, and confined themselves to the metaphorical, meanings. Indeed, the double set of words, thereby produced, constitutes the peculiar characteristic of the English tongue; and, he who is not well aware of the distinctions thus created is incapable of appreciating the language of his country. Even in those words which are purely English, that is, such as were known to our Saxon ancestors, the literal signification is generally laid aside, wherever the monosyllables are compounded. The verb TO FULFILL may serve as an example: its present acceptation is to accomplish completely (or fully) the object intended. But the words taken singly (to fill full) denote the filling of a vessel until it can hold no more; and

G

in this sense they were, at one time, generally written. Thus, in Cranmer's version of Isaiah:

"Let there a way be sought to destroy their children that be in their fathers' wickedness, that they come not up again to possess the land, and fill the world full of enemies.'

To fill would now be reckoned sufficient, without the additional word full.

In the prologue to Troilus and Cressida, supposed to have been written by Ben Jonson, the words are conjoined:

"Their braue Pauillions, Priam's six-gated City, Dardan and Timbria, Helias, Chetas, Troien,

And Antenonidus with massie Staples,

And corresponsive and fulfilling Bolts
Stirre up the Sonnes of Troy."

To fulfill, in its figurative sense, was chosen by divines to signify the final accomplishment of a prophecy, which, for ages, was gradually accom→ plishing, or filling, and became complete (filled up) in what they called the fulness of time. To fill, as in a vessel, is the primary usage of the word, while all its metaphorical applications may be, and generally are, expressed by compounds of the Greek plao (and its old Latin derivative pleo) I fill; from which our Dictionaries