MILTON.

ABATE (Fr. abattre, to beat down) refers to force, and never to size, or anything in which the idea of force is not more or less implied. A storm, pain, mental emotion or excitement, the vigour of youth, and the like, abate. Of old the verb had a strong transitive force in a physical application, as to abate, that is, beat down the walls of castles. This active force is still preserved, but not in its physical application. The term has grown milder. We speak of abating pride, zeal, expectation, hope, ardour, a demand or claim; and in legal language (though this is of course technical) of abating a writ, a nuisance, or a tax, the idea being that of annulling validity or legal force. The word is employed with singular appropriateness in the following passage from Paley's Moral Philosophy.

"The greatest tyrants have been those whose titles were the most unquestioned. Whenever the opinion of right becomes too predominant and superstitious, it is abated by breaking the custom."

DECREASE (Lat. decrescere-de, down, and crescere, to grow) differs from diminish in denoting a more gradual and sustained process. We might even speak of an instantaneous diminution, but not of an instantaneous decrease. To decrease is gradually to lessen or diminish. Yet we use the term decrease in some cases to express

more strongly the idea of diminution by inherent force, or from an internal cause, as distinguished from external and more palpable influences; at least when speaking of physical matter or subjects, as the cold decreases through the season of the year. Property is diminished by extravagance. To decrease is relatively to diminish absolute and positive. Things diminish which are simply made less through any cause. Things decrease which exist in varying degrees of less or more. Of the nouns, diminution expresses a state, decrease a process. A diminution in the rate of mortality is the result of the decrease of an epidemic. The cause which produces diminution, as it is more external, so is commonly more traceable than that which produces decrease. The royal authority may be diminished by a specific revolution, having such diminution for its object. It may decrease as the result of a variety of causes, e.g., the tendency of subsequent legislation, the development among the people of the sense and the claim of self-government. "The olive-leaf which certainly them told The flood decreased." DRAYTON.

ABERRANT. ABNORMAL. EcCENTRIC. EXCEPTIONAL. ERRATIC.

ABERRANT (Lat. aberrāre, to wander away) denotes that which deviates unaccountably from the uniform law of operation or procedure.

They not only swarm with errors, but vices depending thereon. Thus they commonly affect no man any further than he deserts his reason or complies with their aberrancies."-BROWN'S Vulgar Errors.

The term is applied to natural deviation from the type of a class or order, as an aberrant animal or vegetable form; while as regards the actions of responsible agents, or the thoughts of reflecting beings, it denotes a departure from the line of sober conduct, or consistent thought: so moral and intellectual aberrations. That is abnormal in outward nature which exhibits a structure opposed to the usual structure; and generally speaking, that which exemplifies procedure contrary to the received rule, law, or system.

ECCENTRIC (Lat. er, out, and centrum, a centre; Gr. ix and xévτpov) denotes that which is a departure, or analogous to it, from movement in a natural orbit.

EXCEPTIONAL (Lat. excipere, part. exceptus, to except) is applied generally to anything which strikes common observation as unlike what is familiar in similar cases. Of these, the two first are terms enlisted into modern science, while eccentric and exceptional are applicable to other and unscientific matters. The former of these was astronomical before it became moral or descriptive. In its technical use, an eccentric body is one which moves in a circle, which, though coinciding in whole or in part with another in area or volume, has not the same centre; hence deviating from ordinary methods or usual appearance or practice. It is technically opposed to concentric. The primary and secondary ideas appear combined in the following:

:

For had I power like that which bends the spheres

Te music never heard by mortal ears;
Where in her system sits the central sun,
And drags reluctant planets into tune:
So would I bridle thy eccentric soul,
In reason's sober orbit bid it roll."

WHITEHEAD, on Churchill. Neither ABNORMAL nor EXCEPTIONAL are found in the older English litera

ture.

ERRATIC (Lat. errāticus, errāre, to wander) has a scientific applicationas e.g. to geological material borne away from its original site. Erratic differs from eccentric in being confined to human conduct, while eccentric belongs to character and appearance also. The eccentric character is inoffensive and simply odd; but there is danger that the erratic person may involve himself or others in mischief. Yet this force has been acquired in recent times. Its older use was that of idly wandering, as in the following::

"The season of the year is now come in which the theatres are shut, and the cardtables forsaken; the regions of luxury are for a while unpeopled, and pleasure leads out her votaries to groves and gardens, to still scenes and erratic gratifications."RAMBLER.

ABETTOR. ACCESSORY. ACCOM

PLICE.

An ABETTOR (O. Fr. abetter, to deceive, incite) is one who in any way promotes the execution of a scheme without taking a direct part in it. If he do so, he becomes, according to circumstances, something more than an abettor. He is an ACCESSORY (Lat. Accessorius, DuCANGE) if he assists directly, but in an extraneous capacity; an ACCOMPLICE (Lat. ad, to, and complicare, to fold together) if he is intimately bound up in the project and responsibility of the scheme as a prime mover. It is in this way that in treason there are no abettors, the law not allowing the supposition of indirect agency in the case, but regarding it as necessarily direct. Advice,promises, rewards, or even the observance of silence and a forbearing to oppose may constitute an abettor, but no one can be negatively an accessory or accomplice. Generally speaking, it may be said that abettors urge and promote, accessories aid or assist, accomplices design and execute. Law, an accessory before the fact is one who procures, counsels, or commands another to commit a felony; an accessory after the fact is one who, knowing of the felony, assists, comforts, or conceals the felon. It deserves to be remarked, that these terms are by usage restricted almost universally to bad or unlawful deeds or causes, although Woolaston in his "Religion of Nature" speaks of "abetting the cause of truth.' The older use of Shakespeare is still the

common one:

In

"And you that do abet him in this kind Cherish rebellion, and are rebels all."

"An accessory is he who is not the chief actor in the offence, nor present at its performance, but in some way concerned therein, either before or after the fact committed."-BLACKSTONE.

Dryden uses the term accomplice in the sense of a partner in guilt:— "Link'd hand in hand th' accomplice and the dame

Their way exploring to the chamber came."

The ordinary use is that of Johnson in the following:

"And thou, the curst accomplice of his

treason,

Declare thy message, and expect thy doom."

ABHOR. DETEST. ABOMINATE. LOATHE.

Of these the plainest is LOATHE (A. S. láthian, to loathe). It is also the most purely physical, being in the first place employed to express nausea or physical disgust. The sick man loathes his food. It is employed of moral objects, by a strong metaphor or analogy. In loathing there is a kind of passive disgust, which in the other synonyms is more active and demonstrative.

"A wicked man is loathsome and cometh to shame. The word translated loathsome properly denotes such kind of persons to be as nauseous and offensive to the judgments of others as the most loathsome, unsavory things are to their tastes and smells."BISHOP WILKINS.

To ABOMINATE (Lat. abominor, part. abominatus; ab, from, and omen) is literally to shrink from, deprecate as ominous, and so to turn away from as not to be endured. Abominate occupies a place midway between loathe, which is strongly physical, and detest, which is, as we shall see, emphatically moral; and in either case denotes that kind of strong dislike which would excite protest and avoidance. ABHOR (Lat. abhorrere, to shrink from with a shudder) differs from abominate in being more expressive of strong involuntary recoil, while abominate is more reflective and voluntary. He who abominates would destroy or remove, he who abhors would escape from and avoid. Abominate is more applicable to the concrete forms of things, abhor to the abstract.

"That very action for which the swine is abominated, and looked upon as an unclean and impure creature, namely, wallowing in the mire, is designed by nature for a very good end and use, not only to cool his body, but also to suffocate and destroy noisome and importunate insects."-RAY.

"I may perceive These Cardinals trifle with me; I abhor This dilatory sloth, and tricks of Rome." SHAKESPEARE.

DETEST (Lat. detestāri, to call upon the Deity as a witness against some person or thing) denotes a spontaneous and energetic hatred of what is bad in

principle or which is strongly disapproved, and in our mind condemned; not the feelings only, but the judgment being concerned in it. It is a misapplication of the word to employ it of what is physically impure or personally disagreeable. We abominate what is offensive, we abhor what is essentially uncongenial, we detest what is contemptible or evil, we loathe what is nauseous and disgusting. Thus there is more of feeling in abhor, more of reason in detest. Detestation is a kind of hatred which does not rest in feeling, but tends to find energetic expression in words and protestation. The sick man abhors remedies and food, the miserable wretch detests the day on which he first saw the light.

"For as the gates of Hades I detest The sordid wretch whom want can tempt to lie." COWPER, Homer, ABIDE. STAY. SOJOURN. DWELL. RESIDE. LODGE.

TO ABIDE (A.S. abidan, to stay constantly) expresses no more than a personal halting or dwelling. It is indefinite as to time, and may be temporary or permanent, according to circumstances. We may abide in a place for a time, or for life. The radical idea is, however, that of a persistent stay. To abide by a decision is to adhere to it with moral fixity of purpose. But it involves some counter idea of unsettlement in the habits or acts of the person or persons abiding, and the likelihood of after-removal. An abode is hardly a place of perpetual habitation. STAY marks distinction of place, and has, as it were, a topographical force. I stay (connected with the Lat. stare, to stand) here, or there, in the town, in the country, at home, or in the house of a friend. As to stop is not to proceed, so to stay is not to change one's place. Stay is more conversational than abide, which is more formal and historical. SOJOURN (Fr. séjourner, Lat. subdiurnare) expresses a personal stay necessarily temporary, yet implying a living in that place as regards food and shelter, which are not necessarily implied in either stay or abide. He stayed or abode, but not sojourned, in

the woods all night. It belongs to localities made homes for the time, and not belonging to one's self. A sojourner is by the force of the term a stranger. To DWELL (A. S. dwellan, which however is an active verb, to retard,to leadastray, "the peculiar modern use being Scandinavian": SKEAT, Etym. Dict.) indicates a permanent stay in a place which to some extent at least has become one's own home. The idea of permanent resting may be illustrated, as in the case of abide, by other applications of the term, as when a speaker is said to dwell upon a word, or a singer on a note. To RESIDE (Lat. résidere, re- and sedere, to sit) is a more dignified term, not applicable like abode and dwelling to the inferior animals, and carrying with it a notion of civilization and society, of elegance of living, of responsibilities of office, and of rights of property. The poor man dwells in a humble cottage near the hall where the lord of the domain resides. Hence the force of reside is not so strictly continuous as the others. A person may be said to reside where he has a residence, which he in the main occupies, though he should be even frequently absent. LODGE (Fr. loger) conveys the idea of an occupation of a portion of some larger place of residence, or a spot in a wider area, and so commonly a temporary stay under a common roof. I stay in Paris, I lodge in the Champs Elysées. As stay refers to the place, so lodge to the house in that place. We stay and abide for a long or short time. We sojourn pleasantly or otherwise. We lodge conveniently or not. We dwell continually. We reside continually or occasionally.

"There is no virtue whipt out of the court. They cherish it to make it stay there, yet it will no more than abide."-SHAKE

SPEARE.

"Say, uncle Gloucester, if our brother come,

Where shall we sojourn till our coronation ? SHAKESPEARE.

"He made the Arabians change their manner of living, who are otherwise called Scenites, as much as to say Tent-dwellers, because they are vagrant people that dwell in no other houses but tents, which they ever use to carry with them."-NORTH'S Plutarch, Transl.

"His Grace (Henry VIII.) therefore willing and minding to revoke you all by little and little, except you, Sir Gregory, being his ambassador there continually residing."-BURNET.

"Stay, and lodge by me this night."
SHAKESPEARE.

ABILITY. SKILL. CAPACITY. CAPABILITY. CLEVERNESS. TALENT. GENIUS.

Of these, ABILITY (Fr. habile, Lat. habilis, skilful) is of wide application. It may be shown in things physical, moral, intellectual, social, legal, professional, casual. It deserves, however, to be observed, that while the adjective able is employed in this wide manner in specific connexionas he is an able lawyer, able to commit passages rapidly to memory, or able to lift a great weight-this adjective, when not so connected,is never used (any more than the noun ability) to mean physical power. For instance, we might say, "I doubt your ability to move that stone; but not "He moved the stone with comparative ease, being a person of great ability." Ability is partly a gift of nature, partly a product of training, study, and experience. The able man is he who makes great use of what he knows. An able general must have commanded with success. "Natural abilities," said Bacon, using the term in the plural (after the analogy of parts, talents, wits, and formerly intellects),

66

are like natural plants that need pruning by study." In its widest sense ability is the power of doing, the possession of needful faculties and needful means and opportunities for the performance of a thing, and is opposed to inability; the power of applying knowledge to practical ends. The erudite man, for instance, or the philosopher, however profound, is not able until he brings his knowledge to bear upon a purpose.

"They say that all lovers swear more performance than they are able, and yet reserve an ability that they never perform, vowing more than the perfection of ten, and discharging less than the tenth part of one." -SHAKESPEARE,

Quickness of mind, showing itself especially in readiness to contrive means to an end, whether material or