MISTAKE, ERROR, MISCONCEPTION. WHOEVER thinks these words ftrictly fynonymous will find himself in an ERROR; while he who fays he wandered out of his way between London and Bath, from mere MISCONCEPTION, makes a comical MISTAKE-for he -only committed an ERROR in neglecting to punish those who turned him out of the right road for a joke. Thefe are the niceties of language that books never teach, and converfation alone can eftablish. Let foreigners however fettle it in their minds, that the word firft ufed in this catalogue of falfe apprehenfion, is ufed when one man or one thing is taken for another: the fecond applies much wider, and we fay it of all who deviate from the right path, whether that deviation is or is not caused by a mere MISTAKE the latter feems lefs an act of the will than either of the other two; 'tis more a perverfion of the head than any thing elfe, and its refiftance against conviction carries with it fomewhat laughable. A nobleman, for instance, employing his architect to fhew him the elevation of a house he intended to build, the artist produces a drawing made with Indian ink. This is no bad form of a houfe, fays my lord, but I don't like the colour-my houfe fhall be white. By all means, replied the builder, this is a white houfe. No, this is black and white, methinks-evidently fo, indeed-and ftriped ftriped about somehow in a way that does not please me. Oh dear! no fuch thing, my lord -the houfe will be white enough. That I don't know, Sir; if you contradict my fenfes now, you may do the fame then: but my house fhall not be patched about with black as this paper is-it fhall be all clean Portland ftone. Doubtlefs, my lord; what you fee here is perfely white, I affure you. You are an impudent fellow (anfwers the proprietor), and endeavour to impofe upon me, because I am not converfant in thefe matters, by perfuading me that I do not know black from white, but I do know an honeft man from a rogue-so get about your bufinefs directly, no fuch fhall be my archite&t. When the faux This was MISCONCEPTION, Martin Guerre came to France from India, and took poffeffion of the houfe, lands, wife, &c. of a man whom he ftrongly resembled, and who, by four or five years abfence from his family, was fo forgotten by them that neither brother nor fifters found out the impofture-their careffes and obedience, their rents and profits were all intended to the perfon of another man, and were only paid to him by a fatal but innocent MISTAKE. But when the jury condemned a man wholly unconcerned in the bufinefs to fuffer for a crime one of themselves had committed, nor ever found out that good evidence was wanting to prove his guilt, till the real perpetrator of the murder owned it himself himself in private to the judge-they acted with too little caution and delicacy, and have been always juftly cenfured for the ERROR, facts are all acknowledged ones. The MOB, POPULACE, THE LOW PEOPLE, THE DENOMINATIONS by which feveral conditions of men delight in defcribing those below them in regard to talents, birth, or fortune-the great VULGAR and the small, fays Cowley, fpeaking of ignorant perfons; but we commonly apply it to those whofe coarseness of manners and meannefs of behaviour preclude them from admiffion into elegant or civil fociety. And so true is this pofition, that descent, however illuftrious, will not be found fufficient to keep perfons out of low life and company who have an innate propensity as it were towards debafing themfelves; witness fome unhappy females, who, although highly born and decently educated, are contented to lead and finifh their lives amongst the dregs of fociety, apparently from original tafte. Meantime nothing is fo offenfive to English men or women in general (for exceptions only serve to prove the rule), as to be rated among the LOW PEOPLE or the VULGAR, confcious that every native of our happy country may die a gentleman if he will but learn to live like one. Even Even thofe whom every foul but themselves count as members of the POPULACE, with not to be thought fuch; but, if touched on that ftring which vibrates at the word honour or genteel behaviour, will speedily join in defpifing a мOв, and unite themselves to that party which boafts better education. It is indeed a proof of the vileft depravity when man is so far debased as to delight in his own meannefs, and fay with the French, for whom that baseness was referved, Long live the fans-culottes! We will however hope better illumination even to them; and as 'tis the firft characteristic of their fect to be unstable, the old grammatical axiom may end perhaps at last in a maxim of politics, when we fay, Neutrum modo, mas modo VULGUS, MONEY, CASH, COLE, ASSETS, READY RINO, FORM a ftring of hateful words-fynonymous enough, however, or nearly fo, in the vulgar and defpicable dialect of coarfe traders in the hour of merriment; but to be ever feduloufly avoided by those who mean to be thought eminent for choice of phrafe and elegance of converfation. The first is, after all these heavy denunciations, a neceffary and proper term, when bufinefs comes to be seriously spoken upon the fecond is always pert and pedantic, unless used in its native foil, the banker's fhep, where where it means coin, opposed to notes; fuch MONEY às may be kept in a CAISSE or ftrongbox, is properly and from that derivation juftly denominated CASH. The fourth word on this unpleafing lift is likewise of French etymology, and belongs rather to the cant of lawyers than of merchants. When a man dies, his executors and their attorney begin to enquire if he has left ASSETS (meaning ASSEZ) fufficient for payment of legacies, debts, dues, &c.: The others are nothing better than a mere jargon of school-boys, 'prentices, &c. and fo furely are these terms excluded civil fociety, and fo attentive must foreigners be never to pronounce them, that I am confident a nobleman would fcruple to introduce the best recommended fon of his own best friend in England, to Sir William Hamilton or Sir Robert Murray Keith at Naples or Vienna, fhould the youth in his first vifit give my lord to understand that he "took care not to fet out from home without having touched the COLE, provided the READY RINO, and tipt Old Squaretoes for the CORIANDERS." Nothing is fo certain a brand of beggary in our country as coarse and vulgar language. We know almoft the ftreet a man refides in here at London-at least the company he has kept-by a peculiar ftrain of discourse, which though endurable enough fo long as the talk is ferious, relapfes into wretchednefs the moment a jeft is attempted. I have heard Dr. Johnson say there was |