ly fomething. But DANGER and RISQUE are conversation words--the others not ;-and that the first is capable of fublime imagery, and majestic loftinefs when ufed in poetry, Collins's fine verses juft now quoted are a proof. Subftitute any of the other words for it, you convert the paffage into deformity, because they will not, as that does, admit perfonification. DEFINITION AND DESCRIPTION COME next, and upon their fynonymy we did touch lightly in the preface to this book.It is however indifpenfable that they fhould be kept apart, a genus and difference being the two effential and neceffary parts of a DEFINITION; for which reafon we might define the word DEFINITION itself to mean the DESCRIPTION of a thing by its genus and difference, because things are much more ufually defcribed by their adjuncts or causes, and those abundantly ferve for popular information. Here too we may ftop a moment with advantage, to tell our foreign readers, that the moft awkward and vulgar people commonly defcribe by caufes, while eloquent and polite fpeakers are careful to avoid fuch groffnefs; choofing rather to dwell upon the adjuncts of the thing defcribed. For example: If we fpeak of a dejection visible in the countenance, contorfions of the limbs, with weeping eyes and a violent crying out of the voice, voice, our hearers readily from these melancholy ADJUNCTS conclude that we are defcribing pain; and know that nothing higher than a brutal fellow of the coarseft tribe would say when he saw such effects, that his companion had got a griper in his belly-which would be defcribing pain by its final caufe. But were we to advertise that fame day how the famous Rough and Tough, now upon fale, fets two, does three, and quarters four, better than any galloway in the weft riding of Yorkshire, no gentleman or lady, no fcholar or learned man, would underftand half as quickly as a jockey or ftablekeeper, that we were fpeaking of a good horfe; whom these same laft-mentioned critics would recognize with equal promptitude were I to defcribe him by his final caufe, and fay a good roadster at once. Connoiffeurs think it sufficient to call certain pictures an Albano or Vandervelde, knowing that on their efficient caufe it is that their proprietor relies for the profit on their difpofal: but talking in terms of art is never elegant; and though perfons of fashion do adopt the cant of picture-cleaners, I praise them not for it. Every failor meantime, and many a landman knows you are defcribing a ship, when you speak of a firft-rate, or a three-decker I doubt not, though he may not know 'tis by her formal caufe fhe was described perhaps: nor will a jolly companion wait the filling of his glass till he recollects it is fo named from the material caufe, or the matter of which it is compofed pofed-although 'tis no incurious or empty fpeculation to observe, that as a DEFINITION can comprehend no more than one thing within the terms of its differentiating DESCRIPTION, fo it neceffarily follows that the number of definitions in the world muft be equal to the number of the differences of things, and that the object or final caufe of every definition is to fettle and afcertain the true and adequate meaning of words and terms, without which it were impoffible to proceed a ftep in the great science, or, as logic is justly called, ars bene ratiocinandi. DEFORMED, UGLY, HIDEOUS, FRIGHTFUL. DYER derives the fecond of these unlucky adjectives from ough or ouph, or goblin, not without reason, as it was long written ougly in our language. FRIGHTFUL bears much the fame bad fenfe, I think.-Goblins are ftill called frightening in the provinces of Lancaster and Weftmorland; and the third word upon the lift, from hideux French, is but little fofter, if at all fo. DEFORMED has a more positive fignification than the reft; for we know not how eafily delicate people may be FRIGHTED, nor how fmall a portion of UGLINESS will fuffice to call forth from affectation the cry of HIDEOUS! while hyperbolical talkers have a way of giving these rough epithets to many hapless perfons, who are in earnest neither more nor less than plain; by which I mean to exprefs a form wholly divefted of grace, à countenance of coarse colour and vacant look, with a mien poffeffing no comeliness; which quality fhould alone protect them from deferving even that title, because they would then be ornamented.-Thofe however who moft loudly profefs being always feared when they are not allured, will in another humour be eafily enough led to confefs that many an UGLY man or woman are very agreeable, and display fometimes powers of pleafing unbestowed even on the beautiful; which could fcarcely happen fure, were their unfortunate figures and faces ouph like, or terrifying:-it were well then if the English, who hate hyperbole in general, would forbear to ufe it fo conftantly just where 'tis moft offenfive, in magnifying their neighbours' defects. Lord Bacon fays the DEFORMED people are good to employ in bufinefs, because they have a conftant fpur to great actions, that by fome noble deed they may rescue their perfons from contempt: and experience does in fome fort prove his affertion; many men famous in history having been of this clafs-the great warriors, above all, as it should seem in very contradiction to nature-when Agefilaus, King William the Third, and Ladiflaus, furnamed Cubitalis, that pigmy King of Poland, reigned, and fought more victorious battles, as Alexander Gaguinus relates, than all his longer-legged predeceffors had done.-CORPORE PARVUS ERAM, exclaims he CUBITO VIX ALTIOR, SED SED TAMEN IN PARVO CORPORE MAGNUS ERAM. Nor is even Sanctity's felf free from fome obligations to deformity-while Ignatius Loyola losing a limb at the fiege of Pampelona, and conceiving himfelf no longer fit for wars or attendance on the court, betook himfelf to a mode of living more profitable to his foul in the next world, and to his celebrity in this, than that would have been which, had his beauty remained, he might have been led to adopt.That DEFORMED perfons are ufually revengeful all will grant; and the Emprefs Sophia had cause to repent her infulting letter to old Narfes, when the, advising him to return and spin with her maids-he replied, "that he would fpin fuch a thread as her Majefty and all her allies would never be able to untwift."-Nor did he in the leaft fail of fulfilling the menace; which reminds one of Henry the Fifth's anfwer, when the Dauphin of France, defpifing his youth and fpirit of frolicking, fent over tennis balls as a fit prefent for a prince addicted more to play than war. Our young hero's reply being much in the fpirit of that fent by Narfes to the Emprefs, one might have thought it borrowed, had not eight centuries elapfed between the two events. Thefe matters may, for aught I know, be all mentioned in a pretty book I once read when newly published, and have never feen fince: it came out three or four and thirty years ago, and gained to its author the appellation of DEFORMITY Hay. He likewife tranflated fome epigrams G 2 |