tween two persons or parties, often the result of a chance meeting, and is never employed of unresisting or inanimate material, as the walls of a fortification But in the sense of coming upon something by chance, we employ the term of inanimate things; as, to encounter a difficulty. In this application the term is seldom used but of the abstract-that is, the difficulty, not that which constitutes it. So a ditch being a possible obstruction, we might speak of encountering an obstacle in the form of a ditch, but hardly of encountering the ditch itself.

"As when in Indian forests wild,
Barbaric armies suddenly retire
After some furious onset.

An exception to this is in a legal use of the term ASSAULT, which implies no attack or stroke, but even excludes them.

"Assault is an attempt or offer to beat another, without touching him; as if one lifts up his cane or his fist in a threatening manner at another, or strikes at him but misses him."-BLACKSTONE.

OPENING. APERTURE.

OPENING means, generally, any place naturally made, or purposely left, open (A. S. openian, to open).

APERTURE (Lat. apertura, an opening) is the same thing, but used in an exacter and, as it were, more scientific sense. To say nothing of OPENING in the sense of beginning or introduction, nor of the fact that OPENING may express the process or art of opening, while aperture expresses only the result or fact, OPENING may be very loosely employed; as, "An opening in the mountains, with nothing but sky beyond." An aperture is commonly an opening of the nature of a perforation, being surrounded by the substance which exhibits it, as an

aperture to admit light into a hut. An opening may be extremely slight; an aperture is of some considerable size. We occasionally see openings

in bad masonry or ill-seasoned woodwork, which we should not call APERTURES. An opening is called an aperture when it answers a natural purpose. Yet it seems that art makes openings and nature makes apertures in smaller objects. The surgeon who opens a vein would hardly be said to make an aperture, yet it might naturally be said that blood discharged itself through the aperture.

"A person that is short-sighted in look. ing at distant objects, gets the habit of contracting the aperture of his eyes by almost closing his eye-lids.""-REID.

Large was the cave, but scarce at noon of

day

The winding mouth received a feeble ray,
Yet from an opening to the right appeared
A beam of sunshine that the dwelling
cheered."

HOOLE, Orlando Furioso. OPERATE. WORK. ACT. WORK (A. S. weorcan) is employed of the systematic and regular exhibition of force, whether conscious or mechanical.

OPERATE (Lat. operāre, to work, labour) is a term more definitely involving rule and purpose or effect than work. A fermenting fluid might be said to work, or the muscles of the face under agitation; but OPERATE, for the most part, includes moral influences or abstract forces, as a law may be said to operate for the harm or benefit of society, or a system of institution is in full or partial operation.

ACT (Lat. agere, to do, part. actus), when not employed of the result of moral motives, but in a physical sense, is ordinarily used to denote the mechanical operation of that which is working as it ought, or so as to produce the required result; as a part of a machine which has been obstructed, when the obstruction is removed, begins to act. Action is uniform movement according to appointment and design. A diseased joint, when healed, might be said to work or to act, not to operate. Act commonly refers to

structural working or freedom of play in a complex or organized subject. WORK is applied to the whole, ACT to the parts. A machine is said to work well when all its parts act properly.

"Nature and grace must operate uniformly, even as gravitation operates uniformly upon matter."-JORTIN.

"Oh, thou hast read me right, hast seen me well;

To thee I have thrown off that mask I wore ;

And now the secret workings of my brain Stand all revealed to thee.' ROWE.

39

"An increase of the electrical matter adds much to the progress of vegetation. It probably acts there in the same manner as in the animal body."-BRYDONE.

OPINION. SENTIMENT. NOTION. As the sensations stand to the ideas of men, so are their SENTIMENTS (Fr. sentiment, Lat. sentire, to feel) to their OPINIONS (Lat. opinionem). Each involves the exercise of judgment; the former concerning sensations and external, the latter concerning ideas and internal, phenomena. An opinion is maintained by the pure intellect on the subjects of science, argument, principles, or facts and occurrences. The sentiments are opinions entertained in matters of feeling and taste. A sentiment may therefore be either an erroneous opinion, or an unformed one, according as it is not or is verified by the pure judgment. Judgments formed of the truth or falsehood of religious doctrine are opinions; judgments formed of the spirit of its precepts, and of practices flowing out of them, are sentiments. Sentiments depend upon the moral constitution and habits; opinions are of the nature of inferences and deductions, which fall short of absolute knowledge. Sentiments are things of the heart and mind; opinions, of the mind alone. There is more of instinct in sentiment; more of definition in opinion. "I contemplate a work of art, and myself feel the admiration to which I consider it to be generally entitled." This is a sentiment. "I see in it a style of art which seems to betoken a foreign artist. I refer it to an Italian school of sculpture." This 18 an opinion.

"Opinion is the result of obscure and in

"I am apt to suspect that reason and sentiment concur in almost all moral determinations and conclusions."-HUME.

NOTION (Lat. notionem, a taking cognizance, a conception), in this sense, denotes the uninformed or immature decision of the mind, resulting rather from the appearances of things, and such opinion as the existent state of our knowledge inclines us to entertain. Metaphysically, a notion is that which is expressed by a logical proposition, as idea is that which is expressed by a logical term. It is sometimes extended to the process of forming the judgment which is expressed by the proposition.

"Notion, again, signifies either the act of apprehending, signalising, that is, the remarking or taking note of the various notes, marks, or characters of an object which its qualities afford, or the result of that act."-SIR W. HAMILTON.

To OPPOSE (Lat. opponere, part. oppositus) is always active, and implies a direct object.

RESIST (Lat. resistère, to stand against) is both active and passive, and may have an indirect object. The former is the exertion of conscious force; the latter is employed of inanimate objects, as water of itself might be said to resist the action or progress of fire, while its progress might be said to be opposed by those who are engaged in extinguishing it. Opposition consists in bringing to bear an adverse force of our own; resistance, merely in neutralizing an adverse force. With- in WITHSTAND is equivalent to the re- in RESIST. The term has a purely negative sense. We oppose by active force. We resist by inherent power. We withstand by inherent firmness.

To THWART (A. S. thweor, oblique, transverse, verb thweorian) denotes, not in particular any kind or degree of force, and denotes such action as defeats a purpose, design, or scheme

ORAL. VERBAL. VOCAL.

ORAL (Fr. oral, Lat. os, ōris, the mouth) means spoken by word of mouth; VERBAL (verbum, a word), the same thing; VOCAL (Lat. vocalis), belonging to the voice (Lat. vocem). The difference is in the application. They stand each in opposition to other ideas. Oral is opposed to written or printed in volumes and documents, and stands related to history, records, and tradition; verbal, to common and brief communications; vocal, to instrumental in music, or to sounds produced in other ways, or to silence.

"Before the invention of the arts of writing, carving, and painting, oral tradition must have been the only vehicle of historical knowledge; and with respect to this, it is well worth our notice that the wisdom of Providence has made provision for the instruction of youth in the dispositions and circumstances of their aged parents."-PRIESTLEY.

"These verbal signs they (children) sometimes borrow from others, and sometimes make themselves, as one may observe among the new and unusual names children often give to things in their first use of language."-LOCKE.

"Nothing can be said to be dumb but what naturallyspeaks; nothing canspeak naturally but what hath the instruments of speech, which, because spirits want, they can no otherwise speak vocally than as they take voices to themselves in taking bodies."BISHOP HALL.

ORBIT. CIRCUIT. CIRCLE. COMPASS. CYCLE.

The ORBIT (Lat. orbita) is the path described by the orb or heavenly sphere. It may be spherical or elliptical.

"Only there is this difference, that the bodies of the great system were projected at great distances from each other, and in such a manner that the planets revolve in orbits almost circular, so as not to come too near to the sun, or to be carried too far from him in their revolutions."-MACLAURIN.

The CIRCLE (Lat. circulus) is pri marily a mathematical figure, being a curved line at all points equidistant from the centre. It has its secondary application denoting a company bound together and associating by some common tie; the domestic circle, a large circle of acquaintance.

"It is in the nature of things that they who are in the centre of a circle should ap pear directly opposed to those who viewed them from any part of the circumference."

-BURKE.

CIRCUIT (Lat. circuitus) is movement round some tract or circumscribed district. It is employed of the act, the space, and the outline of the revolution; as, a planet's circuit, to complete the circuit, and the like. To make a circuit of a district is analogous to the drawing of a circle not in geometrical exactitude, but in the fact of returning finally to the starting point. A circuit is made for some of survey, systematic purpose, as measurement, inspection, and is prescribed as well as circumscribed.

COMPASS (Fr. compus, L. Lat. compussus) combines the idea of circularity with that of enclosure. The verb to compass has the senses of to environ, to go round, and metaphorically to bring about as a design. In old English the verb to compass had the meaning of get the better of, in which it resembles that of the present word circumvent, though with a less unfavourable meaning morally. When we have fetched a compass we have enclosed something in a circuit. This need not be mathematically a complete circular

movement.

"So the circuit or compass of Ireland is

1,800 miles, which is 200 less than Cæsar doth reckon or account."-STOW.

CYCLE (Lat. cyclus, Gr. núnλos, a ring or circle) is subjective. It is a conceived circle or imaginary orbit; a conception of periodic movement and recurrence. If, for instance, it were believed that all things happen by a chain of necessity in fixed and immutable sequence, it would be conceivable that the same things should occur and the same forms reappear, each in its own place and order, though the cycles should be of enormous circumference, that is, consist of enormous intervals of time between the exhibition and re-exhibition of the same phenomena. In common language we sometimes speak of a cycle of fashion; as, if what is in vogue at one time may after many changes be expected to become so again. The cycle of the seasons.

"The last bad cycle of twenty years. BURKE.

A wise and harmonious disposition of things is expressed by these words, but the RULE (Lat. regula) is prior in the order of thought. It relates closely to the authority and the form of such disposition, while ORDER belongs to its result. The rule is the principle, the order is the application of the principle. Where we see order, we may have the operation of rule. One observes order, and follows a rule; and to do the latter is the surest way of effecting the former. An institution is obviously in excellent order. If the cause were inves

tigated, it would be found that its rules were carefully attended to.

ORIGINAL. PRIMARY. PRISTINE. PRIMITIVE. PRIMORDIAL.

ORIGINAL (Lat. originem, an origin) denotes that which is connected with the origin or beginning of a thing. The original meaning of a word is that which it bore at or near its first employment, without of necessity involving the ideas of priority or succession.

PRIMARY (Lat. primārius, of the first rank) essentially involves succession; as the primary meaning of a word implies other derived or secondary senses; while its original meaning may be that which it retains still; so a primary consideration comes first in order of importance. That which is primary is first morally; that which is original is first historically. The former denotes gradation of force, the latter native association.

PRIMORDIAL (Lat. primordiālis, belonging to first beginnings, primordia) is applied only to such matters as have a history or a development. So in botany a primordial leaf is that which is immediately developed from the cotyledon; in geology the term is sometimes applied to the lowest beds of the Silurian period; in history or physiology we speak of the primordial condition of man; and in metaphysics of the "primordial facts of an intelligent nature" (Sir W. Hamilton).

PRISTINE (Lat. pristinus) has relation to the morals, manners, and customs of men.

PRIMITIVE (Lat. primitivus) conveys the idea of what is original in mode, fashion, or form; so we speak of the primary meaning, and the primitive form, of a word; primitive manners; primitive simplicity.

"His form had not yet lost All its original brightness." MILTON.

"Those I call original or primary quali ties of body, which I think we may observe to produce simple ideas in us, namely, solidity, extension, figure, motion or rest, and number."-LOCKE.

"Parliaments never recover their pris tine dignity, honour, power, privileges, this should miscarry."--PRYNNE.