merchandise. I have given thee timber and iron to build the hulls of ships; tall trees for masts, flax and hemp for sails, cables and cordage for rigging. I have armed thee with courage and hardness to attempt the seas, and traverse the spacious plains of that liquid element; I have assisted thee with a compass to direct thy course when thou shalt be out of all view of land, and have nothing in view but sky and water. Go thither for the purposes forementioned, and bring home what may be useful and beneficial to thy country in general, or thyself in particular. I persuade myself that the bountiful and gracious Author of man's being and faculties, and all things else, delights in the beauty of his creation, and is well pleased with the industry of man in adorning the earth with beautiful cities and castles, with pleasant villages and country houses; with regular gardens and orchards, and plantations of all sorts of shrubs, and herbs, and fruits for meat, medicine, or moderate delight: with shady woods and groves, and walks set with rows of elegant trees; with pastures clothed with flocks, and valleys covered over with corn, and meadows burdened with grass, and whatever else differenceth a civil and well cultivated region from a barren and desolate wilderness. If a country thus planted and adorned, thus polished and civilized, thus improved to the height by all manner of culture for the support and sustenance and convenient entertainment of innumerable multitudes of people, be not to be preferred before a barbarous and inhospitable Scythia, without houses, without plantations, without corn fields or vineyards, where the roving hordes of the savage and truculent inhabitants transfer themselves from place to place in waggons, as they can find pasture and forage for their cattle, and live upon milk, and flesh roasted in the sun at the pommels of their saddles; or a rude and unpolished America, peopled with slothful and naked Indians, instead of well built houses living in pitiful huts and cabins, made of poles set end wise; then surely the brute beast's condition and manner of living, to which what we have mentioned doth Learly approach, is to be esteemed better than man's, and wit and reason was in vain bestowed on him. Wisdom of God. Lond., 1691. Twelfth edition, 1759. Syllables. The Grammarians have a rule that in dividing words by syllables wherever there is a consonant or two before a vowel, the syllable must begin with the consonant. Against this rule I would put in two exceptions. 1. In compound words I would have the preposition (prefix) to be separated from the radical word-Ab-use, not a-buse; Dis-turb, not di-sturb. 2. In words formed from verbs by a syllabical adjection (suffix) I think it proper that the syllable that is added should in spelling and dividing the word be separated from the radical verb, as lov-ed, not lo-ved, etc. This I think most rational and convenient. A Collection of English Words not generally Used. 126. Isaac Barrow, 1630-1677. (Handbook, par. 391.) Author of a Treatise on the Pope's Supremacy, Expositions of the Creed and Lord's Prayer, and Sermons. His style is remarkable for clearness and force his sermons for fulness and good sense. Government of the Tongue. From hence, that the use of speech is itself a great ingredient into our practice, and hath a very general influence upon whatever we do, may be inferred, that whoever governeth it well, cannot also but well order his whole life. The extent of speech must needs be vast, since it is nearly commensurate to thought itself, which it ever closely traceth, widely ranging through all the immense variety of objects; so that men almost as often speak incogitantly, as they think silently. Speech is indeed the rudder that steereth human affairs, the spring that setteth the wheels of action on going; the hands work, the feet walk, all the members and all the senses act by its direction and impulse; yea, most thoughts are begotten, and most affections stirred up thereby; it is itself most of our employment, and what we do beside it is, however, guided and moved by it. It is the profession and trade of many, it is the practice of all men, to be in a manner continually talking. The chief and most considerable sort of men manage all their concernments merely by words; by them princes rule their subjects, generals command their armies, senators deliberate and debate about the great matters of state; by them advocates plead causes, and judges decide them; divines perform their offices, and minister their instructions; merchants strike up their bargains, and drive on all their traffic. Whatever almost great or small is done in the court or in the hall, in the church or at the exchange, in the school or in the shop, it is the tongue alone that doeth it: it is the force of this little machine that turneth all the human world about. It is indeed the use of this strange organ which rendereth human life, beyond the simple life of other creatures, so exceedingly various and compounded; which creates such a multiplicity of business, and which transacts it; while by it we communicate our secret conceptions, transfusing them into others; while therewith we instruct and advise one another; while we consult about what is to be done; contest about right, dispute about truth; while the whole business of conversation, of commerce, of government, and administration of justice, of learning, and of religion, is managed thereby; yea, while it stoppeth the gaps of time, and filleth up the wide intervals of business, our recreations and divertisements (the which do constitute a great portion of our life) mainly consisting therein, so that, in comparison thereof, the execution of what we determine, and all other action, do take up small room; and even all that usually dependeth upon foregoing speech, which persuadeth, or counselleth, or commandeth it. Whence the province of speech being so very large, it being so universally concerned, either immediately as the matter, or by consequence as the source of our actions, he that constantly governeth it well may justly be esteemed to live very excellently. To govern the tongue well is a matter of exceeding difficulty, requiring not only hearty goodness, but great judgment and art, together with much vigilance and circumspection: whence the doing it argues a high pitch of virtue. For since the tongue is a very loose aud versatile engine, which the least breath of thought doth stir and set on going any way, it cannot but need much attention to keep it either in a steady rest or in a right motion. Since numberless swarms of things roving in the fancy do thence incessantly obtrude themselves upon the tongue, very much application of mind and great judgment are requisite to select out of them those few which are good and fit, rejecting all that is bad and improper to be spoken. Since continually temptations occur provoking or alluring to miscarriage in this kind (for, beside internal propensions and commotions of soul, every object we behold, every company we are engaged in, every accident befalling us, doth suggest somewhat inviting thereto; the condition of our neighbour moving us, if high, to flatter; if low, to insult our own fortune prompting, if prosperous, to boast; if cross, to murmur: any action drawing from us, if it pleaseth us, fond admiration; if it disliketh, harsh censure: since, I say, we are thus at every turn obnoxious to speak amiss), it must be matter of huge skill and caution, of mighty industry and resolution, to decline it. We, for that purpose, need to imitate that earnest and watchful care of the holy Psalmist, which he thus expresseth I have,' saith he, 'purposed that my mouth shall not offend;' and I said, saith he again, I will take heed to my ways, that I sin not with my tongue; I will keep my mouth with a bridle while the wicked is before me.' And thus to maintain a constant guard over his heart and ways, thus, in consequence thereof, to curb and rule his speech well, must assuredly be the mark of a very good person. What is Wit? Sermons, No. xiii. To the question what the thing we speak of is, or what this facetiousness doth import? I might reply as Democritus did to him that asked the definition of a man, 'Tis that which we all see and know: any one better apprehends what it is by acquaintance than I can inform him by description. It is indeed a thing so versatile and multiform, appearing in so many shapes, so many postures, so many garbs, so variously apprehended by several eyes and judgments, that it seemeth no less hard to settle a clear and certain notion thereof, than to make a portrait of Proteus, or to define the figure of a fleeting air. Sometimes it lieth in pat allusion to a known story, or in seasonable application of a trivial saying, or in forging an apposite tale: sometimes it playeth in words and phrases, taking advantage from the ambiguity of their sense, or the affinity of their sound: sometimes it is wrapped in a dress of humorous expression: sometimes it lurketh under an odd similitude: someter it is lodged in a sly question, in a smart answer, in a quirkish reason, in a shrewd imitation, in cunningly diverting, or cleverly retorting an objection: sometimes it is couched in a bold scheme of speech, in a tart irony, in a lusty hyperbole, in a startling metaphor, in a plausible reconciling of contradictions, or in acute nonsense: sometimes a scenical representation of persons or things, a counterfeit speech, a mimical look or gesture passeth for it: sometimes an affected simplicity, sometimes a presumptuous bluntness, giveth it being: sometimes it riseth from a lucky hitting upon what is strange: sometimes from a crafty wresting obvious matter to the purpose: often it consisteth in one knows not what, and springeth up one can hardly tell how. Its ways are unaccountable and inexplicable, being answerable to the numberless rovings of fancy and windings of language. It is, in short, a manner of speaking out of the simple and plain way (such as reason teacheth and proveth things by), which, by a pretty surprising uncouthness in conceit or expression, doth affect and amuse the fancy, stirring in it some wonder, and breeding some delight thereto. Facetiousness. Sermons, No. xiv. 1. Such facetiousness is not absolutely unreasonable or unlawful, which ministereth harmless divertisement and delight to conversation (harmless I say, that is, not intrenching upon piety, not infringing charity or justice, not disturbing peace). For Christianity is not so tetrical, so harsh, so heinous, as to bar us continually from innocent, much less from wholesome and useful pleasure, such as human life doth need or require. And if jocular discourse may serve to good purposes of this kind; if it may be apt to raise our drooping spirits, to allay our irksome cares, to whet our blunted industry, to recreate our minds; if it may breed alacrity or maintain good humour among us; if it may conduce to sweeten conversation and endear society, then is it not inconvenient or unprofitable. 2. Facetiousness is allowable, when it is the most proper instrument of exposing things apparently base and vile to due contempt.... When to impugn them with downright reason, or to check them by serious discourse, would signify nothing; then representing them in a shape strangely ugly to the fancy, and thereby raising derision at them, may effectually discountenance them. Thus did the prophet Elias. By which one preg nant instance it appeareth that reasoning pleasantly-abusive in some cases may be useful. The Holy Scripture doth not, indeed use it frequently (it not suiting the divine simplicity and stately |