ABSTINENT. SOBER. ABSTEMIOUS. TEMPERATE. MODERATE. ABSTINENCE expresses the power and the habit of refraining from indulgence of the appetites.

"Be abstinent, show not the corruption of thy generation. He that feeds shall die, therefore he that feeds not shall die, therefore he that feeds not shall live."-BEAUMONT AND FLETCHER.

When abstinence refers to matters of food and drink, it is called ABSTE

MIOUSNESS.

"Promised by heavenly message twice descending

Under her special eye
Abstemious I grew up, and thrived amain."
MILTON.

SOBER (Lat. sõbrius, i.e., se-, prefix, meaning separation, and ebrius, drunken), denotes the character which by its natural gravity is constitutionally untempted to excesses of any kind, being content with what is moderate and sufficient. It has, however, two characters, according as it is employed of abstinence from intoxicating liquors and of the character generally. In the former use it denotes no more than the opposite to intoxicated, so that a man may be called sober who is not drunk, though he be not at all abstemious, and, through strength of constitution, or even habitual drinking, may be able to drink much without being affected by any degree of intoxication. In its more widely moral significance, sober applies to all situations, and even to thoughts and opinions as well as outward behaviour. In this way sobriety includes reserve, discretion, moderation, restraint. It consists in not saying, doing, thinking, feeling excessively, but in all these things being according to the rule of right reason.

"Sobriety is sometimes opposed in Scripture to pride, and sometimes to sensuality." -GILPIN.

TEMPERATE (Lat. temperare, to temper) expresses the character which is well-balanced in its appetites, and to which moderation, even though it be the result of effort, is yet congenial. As abstinence is the power of refraining altogether, so temperance is the power of enjoying with moderation. We are temperate in what is good, we

abstain from what is not good. Some are compelled to take refuge in abstinence, feeling their inability to be temperate. MODERATION (Lat. mŏděrationem, a limiting) and temperance are very nearly alike; but moderation is a somewhat wider term, belonging both to the desires and to the subjectmatter of their gratification. So we might say a person of moderate desires, temperate habits, and sober disposition, character, or life. But we must press yet farther the distinction between temperance and moderation. Temperance is the regulative measure of the person, moderation of the thing. Temperance is the mean between overabstemiousness and over-indulgence. Moderation is the mean between too much and too little. The temperate man is content with that which is moderate. Generally speaking, people are abstinent from rule or policy, sober from natural constitution, temperate from virtue and upon principle, moderate from reason and sound judgment, and frugal by philosophy.

"What goodness can there be in the world without moderation, whether in the use of God's creatures or in our own disposition and courage? Without this justice is no other than cruel rigour, mercy unjust remissness, pleasure brutish sensuality, love frenzy, anger furv, sorrow desperate mopishness, joy distempered wildness, knowledge saucy curiosity, piety superstition, care wracking distraction, courage mad rashness."-BISHOP HALL, Christian Moderation.

"Temperance permits us to take meat and drink not only as physic for hunger and thirst, but also as an innocent cordial and fortifier against the evils of life, or even sometimes (reason not refusing that liberty) merely as matter of pleasure. It only confines us to such kinds, quantities, and seasons as may best consist with our health, the use of our faculties, our fortune, and the like, and show that we do not think ourselves made only to eat and drink here." -WOOLASTON, Religion of Nature.

ABSTRACTION.

ABDUCTION. These terms are expressive of surreptitious or unlawful carrying away. The difference lies in their application. The former is applied to articles of value, the latter only to persons. To pick another's pocket of a purse, or to carry away for one's own use and possession some commodity out

of his nouse, is ABSTRACTION (Lat. abstractionem, abstrahere, to draw off or away). The taking away of his wife, child, or ward, whether by fraud, persuasion, or open violence, is ABDUCTION (Lat. abductionem, abducere, to lead away).

ABSTRUSE. CURIOUS. RECONDITE. QUAINT.

These terms are employed of matters of art or learning. In the things of knowledge, that is abstruse (Lat. abstrudere, part. abstrusus, to thrust away, hide) which is thrust away, and as it were out of common sight removed from easy understanding-with_an occult, rather than a plain meaning. In this way ideas, knowledge, reasoning, expressions may be abstruse. Anything is abstruse which for any cause is remote from apprehension, as from an involved or enigmatical style, as well as from the generally inaccessible character of the department of knowledge to which the matter belongs. It must be observed, however, that some character of remoteness or profundity in the subject-matter is needed to constitute the abstruse, and that the term would not be applicable to common every-day matters expressed with a want of clearness. RECONDITE, on the other hand (Lat. recondere, part. reconditus, to stow away), belongs purely to the subjectmatter of thought and knowledge, and in no degree to the mode of uttering it. The recondite is that which lies out of the plain path of observation, or the beaten track of inquiry, and is known to the few who care to search for it without being of necessity, when found, perplexing to the understanding, like the abstruse. A matter recondite in itself may sound abstruse to him before whom it is put, or from the way of putting it. The CURIOUS (Lat. cura, care) wears, so to speak, a double aspect, according as it implies minute care in formation or composition on the one hand, or minute care in inquiry and investigation on the other. Strictly and etymologically, the artist is curious; and, by consequence, the work which shows traces of his care and exact

ness. Then a third element is imported into the word, viz., minuteness and care in investigating such things. The curious denotes that which is the result of specific investigation or accidental discovery, and when found impresses the mind with a mingled feeling of familiarity and use. Curious and cunning artists produce curious works, which by lovers of such arts are made the objects of curious search and study. Such objects are called curiosities. They are neither quite strange and new, nor quite common and familiar, but for the most part strange renderings of familiar things. They excite interest and stimulate inquiry; they appeal to the faculty of inquisitiveness, and gratify it.

"Let the Scriptures be hard; are they more hard, more crabbed, more abstruse than the Fathers ?"-MILTON.

"It is true our bodies are made of very coarse materials; of nothing but a little dust and earth. Yet they are so wisely contrived, so curiously composed."-BEVE

RIDGE.

QUAINT is from the O. Fr. coint, neat (Lat. comptus). Its primary meaning is, artificially elegant or ingenious, then affectedly artificial, and finally, odd, antique, yet retaining always an element of the pleasing. The idea of quaintness belongs at present most commonly to style of thought and verbal expression in which appears a combination of fancy, originality, delicacy, and force, yet a disharmony with present modes. Quaint architecture, for instance, is in detail antiquated and curious, showing an obsolete beauty and an unfashionable ingenuity.

improbable expectations, or conduct themselves in an absurd manner, that is, one in which even common persons would perceive a palpable unfitness. The ridiculous or ludicrous are not of the essence of the absurd, though the absurd, especially when exhibited in matters of demeanour, dress, action, and the like externals, will be probably attended with ludicrous effects. An absurd remark is out of tune with the general subject, and comes from one who does not see the point at issue. It is like a note struck in a different key from that of a piece of music.

"That we may proceed yet further with the atheist and convince him that not only his principle is absurd but his consequences also as absurdly deduced from it, we will allow him an uncertain extravagant chance against the natural laws of motion."BENTLEY.

IRRATIONAL (Lat. irrationālis, devoid of reason) is employed to express sometimes the want of the faculty of reason by nature, as in the phrase "the irrational animals;" sometimes a deficiency in its exercise, and, like the rest of these synonyms, is applicable to persons, to principle, and to conduct. It is a more serious term than absurd, involving more serious results as a dereliction of that reason which is the distinctive light and guide of men. As absurdity lies in false relation, so irrationality lies in absurd conception. Hence it is applied rather to matters theoretical than practical, principles, schemes, suppositions, notions. Expectations may be irrational. Profound ignorance or inexperience, or extravagant credulity may lead us to entertain what is irrational. Absurdity belongs to things, irrationality to our estimate of them. If we could not see a manifest absurdity, we should be ourselves irrational.

"These are all of them suggestions of internal sense, consciousness, or reflexion, which we believe because we believe them to be true; and which, if we were not to believe them, would bring upon us the charge of irrationality."-BEATTIE.

As irrational denotes the contradiction of reason, so FOOLISH denotes the insufficient exercise of it. So the conduct of children is not called irra

tional, but silly or foolish. As the irrational is unsound in principle, and contrary to experience, so the foolish is contrary to the practical understanding. The fool speaks and acts absurdly and irrationally in things practical and moral. Hence folly is closely allied to wickedness, as wisdom to virtue. As the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, so the fool says in his heart there is no God. He wants, or has lost the natural light which enables a man to choose the better way which coincides with his higher, truer, and more solid interests. The fool mistakes the relative value of things. As wisdom is reason perfected by knowledge, so folly is reason deluded or uninformed. Even irrational animals are called foolish when they seem to be neglecting the light of instinct in self-preservation. Some men of low mental ability are nevertheless too shrewd to be called fools. Some who are philosophers in intellect are fools in practice.

"It is foolishly imagined in France that to deprive one great man of his dishes of silver and gold, and another of his money, will be of advantage to the poor."-Fox.

As the absurd contradicts everyday notions of fitness, so the PREPOSTEROUS (Lat. præposterus, reversed in order), the putting, as it were, of the cart before the horse, contradicts every-day notions of right relationship. To say that a thing is preposterously absurd is to say that it exhibits such gross unfitness as amount to a contradiction of the common sequences of causes and effects. The term is now used as a mere synonym for very absurd, as by Dryden :"What's more preposterous than to see A merry beggar, mirth in misery?"

to

The following exhibits the exact use of the term:

"Some indeed preposterously misplace these, and make us partake of the benefit of Christ's priestly office in the forgiveness of our sins and our reconcilement to God, before we are brought under the sceptre of His kingly office by our obedience."SOUTH.

PARADOXICAL (maçádogos, contrary to opinion, paradoxical), belongs to forms

of statement. When Southey speaks of a "perverse and paradoxical intellect," he only means one which likes to express itself in paradox. A paradox is a proposition which in form is out of harmony with common conceptions, yet is not so in substance. It is truth, reason, or consistency wearing the garb of the false, unreasonable, or absurd. By analogy, the term paradoxical may be extended beyond matters of verbal expression to anything which conveys an impression or a meaning in a manner contrary to expectation. For instance, to many persons a man dressed in yellow for mourning would present a paradoxical appearance. The paradox vanishes when he is told that the man is a native of a country where yellow means mourning.

"A gloss there is to colour that paradox, and make it appear in show not to be altogether unreasonable.'" ."-HOOKER.

ABUSE. MISUSE.

As verbs and synonyms (the root of both being the Lat. uti, part. usus, to use) these words seem to be, in the following manner, distinguished. To MISUSE is simply to use in a wrong way, to ABUSE is to misuse in such a way that hurt accrues to the thing misused, or to some other. To misuse may be the consequence of inexperience or unfamiliarity with the thing used; to abuse is intentionally to use it in wrongdoing. In misuse one offends against reason, order, propriety, method, interest; in abuse against justice or honesty. In misuse there is derangement, in abuse excess. Excess is the characteristic in the idea of abusing one's powers, or the patience and forbearance of others. It deserves, however, to be remarked, that the abusing of one's own powers may arise from imprudence or even generosity, as where the anxiety to serve or benefit others has made us forget the care and consideration due to ourselves.

But, generally speaking, to misuse is to use with waste of power; abuse is to use with wrongfulness of purpose. Language is abused when it is employed to deceive, to advocate injustice, to excite bad passions, in

blasphemy, and the like. It is misused when it is spoken unidiomatically or ungrammatically.

"The gravest and wisest person may be abused by being put into a fool's coat."- TILLOTSON.

"How much names taken for things are apt to mislead the understanding, the attentive reading of philosophical writers would abundantly discover, and that perhaps in words little suspected for any such misuse."-LOCKE.

ACADEMY. SCHOOL. COLLEGE. UNIVERSITY. SEMINARY. INSTITUTE. ACADEMY is a term borrowed from the Greek ἀκαδήμεια, a gymnasium in the suburbs of Athens where Plato taught. Hence the Platonic schools were called academies, and societies of learned men have since been called academies. The term is also applied to societies for promoting the fine arts and sciences, as the Academy of France, the Royal Academy of Painters in England, and many others. It is an affectation to call a school for young boys an academy. It is evident that no common living together is involved in the simple idea of an academy, which is constituted simply on the principle of a community in learning or art, and denotes more than their first rudiments.

"In a conference of the French Academy, one of the Academicians desired to have their opinions on the conduct of Paul Veronese, who, though a painter of great consideration, had, contrary to the strict rules of art, in his picture of Perseus and Andromeda, represented the principal figure in shade." SIR J. REYNOLDS.

A SCHOOL (Greek, oxon, leisure), commonly expresses among ourselves the idea of youthful students and the discipline and instruction of elders, except where the word is used in the sense of a school of art, as of painting, meaning a succession of artists of the same style. Even here, however, the earlier painters or founders of the style are spoken of as masters, and their imitators as pupils. Like academy, but more strictly, common study is implied in school, but not of necessity common living together. Academy and school are also applicable to places where bodily accomplishments are practised, as a School of Fencing, or a Riding Academy.

"This place should be at once both School and University, not needing a remove to any other house of scholarship, except it be some peculiar College of Law or Physic, where they mean to be practitioners."-MILTON.

In COLLEGE (Lat. Collegium, colleagueship; and so any kind of corporation) is involved, on the other hand, a society of persons living together or acting officially in concert. And this is the essence of the idea, that of learning being accidental. Some colleges are not institutions of learning or science, as the College of Cardinals. A college in the educational sense is supposed to be more under public government than a school, which may be strictly private.

"When we consider the greatness of our wants in this kind, we should be tempted to wish for a College destined for the supplial of a sufficient number of able missionaries in constant succession, brought up from their early youth in such a discipline as may be judged best fitted for such a service."-WARBURTON.

An aggregate of colleges may form an UNIVERSITY, which, however, is not thereby constituted, but rather by being a place of universal learning (Lat. universitatem, orig. a guild corporation) has commonly a corporate existence and rights which are recognized by the State to which it belongs. A university may consist of one or more than one college. The building called the University of London is not a college, but represents a central seat of learning to which colleges are affiliated.

"As it resembled a royal court in regard of those many noblemen and persons of quality that lived in it, so one might esteem it an University, for those many accomplished men in all kinds of knowledge and good learning that were his domestics."STRYPE.

ACCEDE. ASSENT. CONSENT. AGREE. COMPLY. ACQUIESCE. CON

FORM.

ACCEDE (Lat. accedere, to go to or join) expresses a voluntary going forth of the mind, to attach itself to some proposed matter. That to which we accede is of the nature of something proposed to our consideration, as a request, or a plan of action. We accede when we go over to the side, as it were, of another, in consequence

of his representations made to us. We accede when we agree to the terms of a person or party or a convention. "And vain were reason, courage, learning, all,

Till power accede; till Tudor's wild caprice Smile on their cause."-SHENSTONE.

As we accede to practical proposals, So we ASSENT(Lat, assentire) to matters of judgment as enunciated in speculative propositions. We assent to a thing when we admit it to be true, or recognized as such, whether formally proposed to our acceptance or not. It is opposed to dissent, which is to express an opposite or different opinion, as assent a similar or the same. It is purely mental, but is also taken for the voluntary expression of concurrence, as an act of the judgment.

"Subscription to articles of Religion, though no more than a declaration of the subscriber's assent, may properly enough be considered in connexion with the subject of oaths, because it is governed by the same rule of interpretation."-PALEY.

CONSENT (Lat. consentire) is to concur to some practical purpose, to agree to act according to the will of another. But the noun consent bears the meaning of collective assent, as in the phrase," the universal consent of mankind." Consent is given to others in some matter in which they are interested, and which is promoted by such agreement on our part. Some superiority, either personal or of position, springing out of the circumstances is implied in consent. Assent may be the result of some proposal or request to express it. Consent is always consequent upon request. The effect of assent is to involve in the responsibility of expressed opinion; the effect of consent is to implicate in a course of action.

"My poverty and not my will consents." SHAKESPEARE.

AGREE (Fr. agréer prendre à gré, i.e.ad gratum,to receive favourably, from Lat. gratus,) is the most comprehensive. Assent is agreement of opinion; consent, agreement of action; acceding, agreement to proposals; conformity, agreement to outward rules or practices; compliance, agreement to