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    will escape them , and this poem is peculiar in having an interest lying beside its mere poetry . It may be read as a prose treatise on the Nature of Things . Much that is therein set forth will strike the reader as crude , fanciful , false ; modern science has played havoc with its science , but its philosophy remains still worthy of meditation . To take but one example , the " doctrine of final causes , " which still , in spite of Bacon , finds energetic adherents , eren among men of science—as Cuvier and Whewell—was distinctly and forcibly repudiated by Lucretius : and so of many other current errors .

    Of this translation we may say that it is carefully executed , well annotated , and , wherever we have compared it with the original , decidedly faithful . As a specimen of how a literal version may be made to read pleasantly , take this from the noble opening of the second book : — " It is sweet , when the winds disturb the waters on the vast deep , to behold from the land , the great distress of another ; not because it is a joyous pleasure that any one should be made to suffer , but because it is agreeable to see from what evils thou latthe

    thyself art free . It is also sweet to contempe contending forces of war arrayed over the plains , without any share of thy own in the danger . But nothing is sweeter than , to occupy the well-defended serene nights raised by the learning of the wise , from whence thou may eat look down upon others , and see them straying in all directions , wandering about to find the best path of life ; contending in intellectual power , vying with each other in nobleness of birth , and striving by excessive labour night and day , to rise to the highest power , and obtain the government of affairs .

    • ' O wretched minds of men ! O blind souls ! In what darkness of life , and in how great dangers is this existence , of whatever duration it is , passed l £ ay -we not see that the nature of every man demands nothing more for itself , but that he , from whose body pain is removed and absent , may c xercise his mind with a pleasurable feeling , exempt from care and fear ? ' * We are sensible , therefore , that very few things are necessary to the nature of the body ; those things , namely , which are of such , a kind that they may keep off pain , and that they may afford , at the same time , many pleasures ; nor does nature herself ever require higher gratification . If there are not in the houses

    of men golden images of youths , holding in their right hands blazing lamps , in order that light may be supplied for the nocturnal feast ; and if their dwelling neither gleams with silver nor glitters with gold , nor harps cause the arched and gilded roof ' s to resound ; nevertheless , when they have stretched themselves upon the soft grass near a stream of water under the boughs of a high tree , they socially , though with no great wealth , gratify their senses with pleasure , especially when the weather smiles upon thorn , and the seasons of the year sprinkle the green grass with flowers . Nor do hot fevers sooner depart from the body , if you are tossed on woven figures and blushing purple , than if you are obliged to lie under a plebeian covering .

    " For which reason , since neither riches , nor nobility , nor the glory of a kingdom , are of any profit as to our body , we must further suppose that they are of no profit to the mind ; unless , perchance , when you see your legions moving with energy over the surface of the plain , Btirring up the images of war ; or , when you see your fleet sailing with animation , and spreading far abroad upon tho water , Toligious fears , alarmed at these things , Hee affrighted from your mind , and the dread of death then leaves your time undisturbed and free from cure . But if we see that such suppositions and expectations are ridiculous and merely objects of derision , and that in reality the fears and pursuing cares of men dread neither the sound of

    arms nor cruel weapons , and mingle boldly among kings and rulers of affairs , nor shrink before the brightness gleaming from gold , or the shining splendour of a purple garment , why do you doubt but that to produce the- * c effects is wholly the oflice of reason , especially wht ^ ri ull our life luburnt * under the darkiiens of ignorance ? For , an children tremble and fear everything in thick darkness , so we , in the light , fear sometimes things which are not more to bo feared than those which children dread , and imagine about to happen in the dark . This terror of the mind , therefore , it i « not the rays of the sun or the bright arrows of tho day that must dispel , but the contemplation of nuture , and tho exorcise of reason . "

    For thpse who desire a more rhythmic form , even at the expenne of accuracy , tho poetical version , published by Dr . Good , in two ponderous quartow , is given in this volume .

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    ffctC *" ' ? ! TKKNCII ON THK STUDY OF W <) RI > H . VCr - Qn tht Study of fTordt- Vive lectures « W « -flM < l l <>•¦»»« |' "l » " i'W 1 ,, ^' v ^ lt ' iillM > l < ic « iaii Training : School , tt malientcr . l » y Kl «» . » . < l J ^* ! V- ^ . ^| 5 ^ 5 i * T «« cl .. Ii . l ) . . l ' urkcr . i /' [ f . ^ rJ / jfclBfiipENT with the growing carelessness alwm t \^ V r , ^ $ * W jgW « , —the contentodneas with which mrn rend "• " ^¦¦* J i' \] yf $ KjK \ t ( i bad grammar and worse style , —there is m a a v at tl rf&C ^ ik

    also a growing vigilance of criticism m some writers , and a more attentive study of the resources , changes , and limits of our language . We are sadly deficient in good treatises on the subject ; but how eager large classes are to welcome any well-considered opinion may be estimated by the rapfd sale of Whateley ' s little book on Synonyms j and in a minor degree by the discussions which varied the columns of this journal awhile ago on the word " talented . " We

    are not sufficiently a literary nation to set much store by Fart de bien dire . O ur narrow conception of what is practical makes us careless of the form , careful only of the matter . We have consequently few good writers , in the scholarly sense of the term . That our language is not in fault , may be seen in the splendour , strength , and delicacy of our great writers ; and , by way of contrast , in the number of stylists among the French , in spite of their intrinsically poor language .

    Any work devoted to the better enlightenment of the public on the subject of our Language , deserves hearty encouragement ; Mr . Trench's work not only deserves it , but will gain it by interesting a very large class . His thoughtful and suggestive volume treats , not only of the changes which take place in the signification of words , but in the moral meanings gathered up into words , and the distinctions between synonyms . A more charmingly instructive volume rarely gladdens the reviewer ; and we emphatically commend it to your notice . It would be pleasant to follow Mr . Trench through each of these lectures , extracting and commenting in a light desultory manner ; but we have so many passages we wish to quote , that our brief space must be given up wholly to them .

    Curious and startling are the changes noted in the meanings of words ; as " lewd , * ' which at one time meant " lay " or unlearned ; and the " lewd " or unlearned people have become the sinful , sensual people : — " Let me illustrate that which I have been saying by the word ' tribulation . ' We all know in a gfeneral way that this word , which occurs not seldom in Scripture and in the Liturgy , means affliction , sorrow , anguish ; but it is quite worth our while to know how it means this , and to question the word a little cloBer . It is derived from the Latin '

    tribulum '—that word signifying the threshing instrument , or roller , by which the Romans separated the corn from the husks ; and ' tribulatio , ' in its primary significance , was the act of this separation . But some Latin writer of the Christian Church appropriated the word and image for the setting forth of a higher truth ; and sorrow , and distress , and adversity being the appointed means for the separating in men of their chaff from their wheat , of whatever in them was light , and trivial , and poor , from the solid and the true , therefore he called these sorrows and griefs ' tribulations , ' threshings , that is , of the inner spiritual man , without which there could be no fitting him for the heavenly garner . " Again : —

    " What a multitude of words , originally harmless , have assumed an harmful as their secondary meaning ; how many worthy have acquired an unworthy . Thus * knave' meant once no more than lad , ' villain ' than peasant ; ' a boor' was only a farmer , * a churl ' but a strong fellow . ' Timeserver * was used two hundred years ago quite as often for one in an honourable , as in a dishonourable sense ' serving the time . ' There was a time when ' conceits ' had nothing conceited in them ; ' officious had reference to offices of kindness , not of busy

    meddling ; ' moody' was that which pertained to a man ' s mood , without any gloom or sullenness implied . ? Demure' ( which is dos moours , of good manners ) conveyed no hint , as it does now , of an over-doing of the outward demonstrations of modesty ; in * crafty' and ' cunning' there was nothing of crooked wisdom implied , but only knowledge and skill ; ' cruft , ' indeed , still retains very often its more honourable uhc , a man ' s ' craft' being his skill , and then the trade in which he ia well skilled . And think you ihut the Magdalen could have ever {» iven us inuudlin' in its present contemptuous application , if the tears of penetential weeping had been held in duo honour in the world ?

    A . like deterioration through use may be traced in tho word ' to resent . ' It was not very long ago that Harrow could spenk of the good mun at * u faithful ' ri'senter' and rcquitcr of benefits , of tho duty of testifying an affectionate ' resentment' of our obligations to ( Jod . Hut , alas ! the memory of bonetits fallen and failn from us ik > much more quickly than thut of injuries ; that which wo aftcrwurds remember and revolve in our minds is so much more predominantly tho wrongs real or imaginary which men huve dono us , than tho favours they have bestowed on uh , thut * to resent' in our modern English lias como to bo confined entirely to thut deep , reflective dinplcasuro which men entertain against thoeu that hav « done , or whom they believe to have

    done , them wrong . And this leads us to inquirlTr it comes to pass that we do not speak of the ? * £ hation' of benefits as often as the ' retalia tion * , injuries ? The word does but signify the aS nrpn ° denng as much as we have received ; but this if much seldomer thought of in regard of benefit ! a ,. " of wrongs , that the word , though not altogether IT u « ed in this its worthier sense , has yet a ¦ tran B"S somewhat unusual sound in our ears when so Z p oyed . Were we to speak of a man TetaliaC " Kindnesses , I am not sure that every one would „« derstand us . un "

    •• Neither is it altogether satisfactory to take note that animosity , according to its derivation , mean ! no more than spiritedness ; that in the first use Z the word in the later Latin to which it belones i was employed in this sense ; was applied , for '« , stance , to the spirit and fiery courage of the horsebut that now it is applied to only one kind of visow and activity-that , namely , which is displayed in enmity and hate , and expresses a spiritedness in these . Does not this look too much as if these oftenest stirred men to a lively and vigorous activity ?"

    Language , called by some one " fossil poetry " has been called by Mr . Trench "fossil history "; and , indeed , we may see the past imbedded , as it were , in certain words used unsuspectingly by us . Remember that the Franks possessed themselves of Gaul ;—" They were the ruling , conquering people , honouTably distinguished from the Gauls and degenerate Romans among whom they established themselves by their independence , their love of truth , their love of freedom , their hatred of a lie : they had , in short , the virtues which belong to a conquering and

    dominant race in the midst of an inferior and conquered . And thus it came to pass that by degrees the name ' frank , ' which originally indicated a merely national , came to involve as well a moral , distinction ; and a frank' man was synonymous , not merely with a man of the conquering German race , but was an epithet applied to a person possessed of certain high moral qualities , which for the most part appertained to , and were found only in , men of that stock ; and thus in

    men ' s daily discourse , when they speak of a person as being ' frank , ' or when they use the words ? franchise , ' enfranchisement , ' to express civil liberties and immunities , their language here is the outgrowth , the record , and the result of great historic changes , bears testimony to facts of history , whereof it may well happen that the speakers have never heard . Let me suggest to you the word ' slave , ' as one which has undergone a process entirely analogous , although

    in an opposite direction . Again : — " Thus we should confidently conclude that the Norman was the ruling race , from the noticeable fact that all the words of dignity , state , honour , and preeminence , with one remarkable exception ( to be adduced presently ) , descend to us from them—sovereign , sceptre , throne , realm , royalty , homage , prince , duke , count (' earl' indeed is Scandinavian though from the Norman )

    he must borrow his ' countess' , chancellor , treasurer , palace , castle , hall , < dome , ana a multitude more . At the same time the one remarkable exception of ' king' would make us , even did we know nothing of the actual fact ,, »«{«* ^ J the chieftain of this ruling race came in , not U P ° " new title , not as overthrowing a former dy ™^* ° . claiming to be in the rightful line of ** »«*««<* , that the true continuity of the hbtonJ « d »« . fact any more than in word , been entirely broken , u survived , in due time to assert itself anew . tturvivcU | ha vino uiiii ^ iaj ' . * ctdv . * ~ - ~— f tho

    " And yet , while the statelier superstructure or language , almost all articles of luxury , all that : j » to do with the chase , with chivalry , *[ * P ™^ adornment , is Norman throughout ; vviui 1 _ ^ basis of tho language , and therefore 1 ot the 1 , otherwise . The great features of nature , me » u , ^ moon , the stats , the earth , the wnter , the > nr ^ prime social relations , father , mother , husban , ion , daughter , these are Saxon . ' hep alace ana ^ ^ castle may have come to us from the r * ' ' thc the Saxon we owe far dearer names , tne 1 ^^ hearth , the houne , tho roof . His »> ; ' , > ,. H () un < l probably it was no more , has a more liospit «« ^ than the other's ' table . ' His sturdy arms tu ^ sail ; he is the boor , tho hind , the churl , h ^^ 7 " 1 it Ifl fill ^ - for 11

    Norman master him 11 name mm , ^ . j , r 0-on his lipa becomes more and more a in . ncntB brium and contempt , the villum- inc ¦ k , P ( used in cultivating the earth , tho flail , plouR . t ) lt ! spade , are exprewed in hi « lan 8 "a « ° ' ° oftUi , l" * ' main products of the earth , as wh «« t , rye , ^ _ ^ i . « . barky ; and no leas tho names o ' donK ^^ raalB . Concerning th « o lajjt it is «<> t a H x temtic to obBerve , and Walter Scott ft » J ebc , d observation into the " «> r of , ^ " fj i , ho long - in Ivanhoe . thut the names of 7 " ' " n \ JrftH » cd and they aro alive , aro thus Saxon , b «^ ffl < Jt in , l * < l prepared for food become Norman-a » „ , « which wo might have expected beforehw , g Saxon hind had the charge and 1 abour « r and feeding them , but only *" til 0 X £ * <* , »«* << on tho table of his Norman lord . H »««

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    1140 gEftl 1 LC at ! ft . [ Saturday , I

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Nov. 29, 1851, page 1140, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1911/page/16/