By a fimilar mistake endurance hath been used for duration, and confounded with it; whereas its proper fenfe is patience. It is deri from the active verb to endure, which fignifies to fuffer, and not from the neuter which fignifies to laft. As far back as the days of queen Elizabeth, the word endurance was fynonymous with duration, whereas now it is in this acceptation obfolete, Nay, even in a later period, about the middle of the laft century, feveral words were used fy-. nonymously, which we now invariably, difcriminate. Such are the terms ftate and estate, property and propriety.

HUMAN and humane are fometimes confounded, though the only authorised fenfe of the former is, belonging to man; of the latter, kind and compaffionate. Humanly is improperly put for humanely in thefe lines of Pope :

Tho' learn'd, well-bred; and tho' well-bred, fincere;
Modeftly bold, and bumanly fevere.

The abstract humanity is equally adapted to both fenfes.

By an error of the fame kind with the former, the adjectives ceremonious and ceremonial are fome

• Effay on Criticism.

times ufed promifcuoufly, though by the best and moft general ufe they are diftinguished. They come from the fame noun ceremony, which fignifies both a form of civility, and a religious rite. The epithet expreffive of the firft fignification is ceremonious, of the fecond ceremonial.

THE word conftruction ferves as the verbal noun of two different verbs, to conftrue and to conftruct. The firft is a grammatical term, relating folely to the difpofition of words in a sentence; the fecond fignifies to fabricate or build. The common relation in which the two verbs ftand to the fame appellative, hath misled some writers to confound them; fo far at least as to use improperly the word conftruct, and speak of conftructing, instead of conftruing a fentence; for I have not obferved the like mifapplication of the other verb. We never hear of conftruing a fabric or machine.

ACADEMICIAN is frequently to be found in Bolingbroke's works for academic. The former denotes folely with us a member of a French academy, or of one established on a fimilar footing; the latter a Platonic philofopher, one of that fect which took its denomination from the Grecian academy; or more properly, from the

grove of Academus, where the principles of that philofophy were firft inculcated.

By a like error, the words fophift and fophifter are fometimes confounded; the proper sense of the former being a teacher of philofophy in ancient Greece; of the latter, a fpecious, but falfe reafoner,

E'ER, a contraction of the adverb ever, hath, from a refemblance, or rather an identity in found, been mistaken for the conjunction ere, before; and in like manner it's, the genitive of the pronoun it, for 'tis, a contraction of it is.

In the fame way bad is fometimes very improperly used for bade, the preterit of the verb bid, and fate for fat, the preterit of fit. The only proper use of the word bad is as a fynonyma for ill; and to fate is the fame in fignification as to glut.

THE word genii hath by fome writers been erroneously adopted for geniuses. Each is a plural of the fame word genius, but in different fenfes. When genius in the fingular means a feparate fpirit or demon good or bad, the plu

ral

ral is genii; when it denotes mental abilities, or a perfon eminently poffeffed of these, the plural is geniuses. There are fome fimilar inftances in our tongue of different plurals belonging to the fame fingular in different fignifications. The word brother is one. The plural in modern language, when used literally for male children of the fame parent or parents, is brothers; when used figuratively for people of the fame profeffion, nation, religion, or people, confidered as related by sharing jointly in the fame human nature, is brethren. Anciently this laft term was the only plural.

I SHALL next fpecify improprieties arifing from a fimilitude in fenfe, into which writers of confiderable reputation have fometimes fallen. Veracity you will find, even among fuch, applied to things, and used for reality; whereas in ftrict propriety, the word is only applicable to perfons, and fignifies not phyfical, but moral truth.

EPITHET hath been used corruptly to denote title or appellation; whereas it only fignifies fome attribute expreffed by an adjective.

IN the fame way, verdict hath been made to ufurp the place of teftimony; and the word ri

fible hath of late been perverted from its original fenfe, which is capable of laughing, to denote ridiculous, laughable, or fit to be laughed at. Hence these newfangled phrases rifible jefts, and risible abfurdities. The proper difcrimination between rifible and ridiculous, is that the former hath an active, the latter a paffive fignification. Thus we fay, Man is a rifible animal.' A fop is a ridiculous character.' To substitute the former inftead of the latter, and fay A fop is a rifible ⚫ character,' is, I fufpect, no better English, than to fubftitute the latter inftead of the former, and fay Man is a ridiculous animal.' In confirmation of this diftinction, it may be further remarked, that the abstract risibility, which analogically ought to determine the import of the concrete, is ftill limited to its original and active fenfe, the faculty of laughter. Where our language hath provided us with diftinct names for the active verbal and the paffive, as no diftinction is more ufeful for preventing ambiguity, so no diftinction ought to be more facredly obferved.

But to proceed; the word together often fupplies the place of fucceffively, fometimes awkwardly enough, as in the following fentence. "I do not remember that I ever fpoke three fen

"tences