we confess a wrong, a sin, a crime, while we acknowledge a small degree of delinquency.

(7.) Aver, assert, affirm, declare.

We declare (make known) a fact or opinion; we affirm a fact; assert a truth, a right, a claim, that may have been denied; we maintain a truth, or any position taken, when it is opposed; we affirm, with confidence; we aver, when we declare in a positive determined manner our opinions.

(8.) Austerity, sternness, strictness, severity, rigor.

Strictness or rigor, is applied to exactness in the observance of rules and administration of discipline; severity, implies a readiness to inflict punishment; sternness and austerity, relate to harsh manners, and a self-denying forbidding mode of living. An austere judge is one who punishes slight offences; a severe judge punishes to the utmost; a rigorous judge punishes without respect to persons punished, or to applications for pardon.

(9.) Avoid, shun, escape, elude, eschew, evade.

To avoid, is to keep away from; to shun, is to turn from. We avoid, from prudence; we shun, from dislike, or abhorrence, or fear; we escape (flee) from danger; we elude (avoid by skill or artifice) pursuit and punishment; we eschew (keep out of the way of) evil; we shun vice; we avoid the drinking-saloon.

(10.) Absolve, acquit, exonerate.

To absolve, is to let loose from something that binds-from guilt, or its consequence, punishment; to acquit, is to release from a legal charge, upon trial and judicial decision; to exonerate, is to relieve from a bond, as of debt, or some unfavorable imputation.

(11.) Accuse, arraign, blame, censure, impeach.

We blame or censure a man for what is wrong in conduct; accuse him of crime; charge him with an offence; arraign him for trial; impeach him for crime against civil government.

(12.) Attain, obtain, acquire.

To obtain, is to get possession of a thing; to attain, is to reach after, or arrive at, the possession of what is sought; to acquire, is to gain possession in a progressive and gradual method. We speak of the acquirement of knowledge, or of a language; of the acquisition of property or wealth; and of the attainment of salvation.

(13.) Ability, capacity, talent.

Capacity, is the mind's susceptibility of receiving impressions; ability, is the power of making active and successful exertions. The former is the

gift of God; the latter is the result of education and of effort. The former enables us to devise, the latter to execute, a great enterprise.

(14.) Add, annex, increase, join to, subjoin.

We add quantities or numbers; we join house to house; we annex territory; we increase property; we subjoin (add to the end) an after-thought, another particular.

(15.) Admit, allow, grant, permit.

We admit (receive) a thing as right or true; we admit the force of reasoning; we admit a member into some society or council; we receive a friend into our house; we concede or grant what is demanded or claimed; we grant what we consider reasonable; we allow what we suffer to take place; we allow a person to perform a given act when we do not hinder him, or when we say he may do it; we permit an act, when we consent to its performance,

EXERCISES.

1. Write sentences that shall embrace each of the foregoing synonymous words in their appropriate and peculiar senses, as explained and illustrated.

2. Supply the blanks in the following passages with the words that are appropriate. The bracketed figures refer to the classes of synonyms explained:

(2.)-1. Few animals except man will their young until they are enabled to provide for themselves. 2. When by our dearest relations, by our friends, and by the world, we have always a resource in our Creator. 3. He drove his acquaintance from his table, and wondered why he was 4. me not thus, Adam! (Milton.) 5. A captain may his vessel when he has no means of saving it; but an upright statesman will never - his post when his country is in danger, nor a true soldier his colors. 6. Birds will their nests when they discover them to have been visited. 7. Men often (3.)-1. They have been beating up for recruits at York and the towns ; but nobody will enlist. 2. As he has no estate equal to his own, his oppressions are borne without resistance. 3. We arrived at a wood which lay to a plain.

(1.)-1. The chaste Lucretia the pollution to which she had been exposed. 2. Brutus the oppression and the oppressor. 3. The lie that flatters I the most. (Cowper.) 4. A man does not dread harm from an insect or a worm, but his turns him pale when they approach him. 5. One punishment that attends the liar is the of all those

whom he has deceived. 6. In this dilemma Aristophanes conquered his and determined to present himself on the stage.

(7.) Among ladies he positively

vailing part of eloquence.

(8.)-1. It is not by

that nonsense was the most pre

is the proper an

in your cen

can maintain an ascendency over youthful minds. 2.

tidote to indulgence; the diseases of the mind as well as body are cured by contraries. 3. If you are hard in your judgments,

sures, then, &c.

to

(9.)-1. Prudence enables us to

many of the evils to which we are

his cred

daily exposed. 2. A fixed principle of religion is needed to enable a mian the temptations to evil which lie in his path. 3. Fear will lead us to — a madman. 4. A want of principle leads a man to itors, whom he wishes to defraud. 5. The best means of giving offence. 6. The surest preservative of innocence is to surest preservative of health is to

to

quarrels, is

every in

bad company, and the
temperate practice. 7. Those who have no evil design in view will have
no occasion to the vigilance of the law.

8. The wary Trojan, bending from the blow,
the death, and disappoints his foe. (Pope.)

(12.)-1. A genius is never to be

by art, but is the gift of nature.

2. Rules for - happiness are not so necessary as the arts of consolation. 3. People may expect to make but slender - without a considerable share of industry; and in such case they will be no to the community. 4. To learn a language is an — -; to win a province, an ―. 5. The of literature far exceed the of fortune. 6. We always go

on but we stop when we have (13.)-1. Sir Francis Bacon's

grasped all that was revealed in books Defore. 2. The object is too big for our. 3. Though a man has not the to distinguish himself in the most shining parts of a great character; of being just, faithful, modest, and temperate. ; repentance produces a ; generosity

he has certainly the

(5, 6.) Candor leads to our

or pride occasions an—.

several courtiers of

(11.)-1. Aristogiton, with revengeful cunning, the tyrant. 2. Oh! the horror that will seize a poor sinner, when he stands at the bar of divine justice! 3. Our Saviour was before Pilate, and creatures in the madness of presumption their Creator. 4. It is extremely wrong to another without sufficient grounds, but still worse to- him without the most substantial grounds. 5. We a person of murder; we him with dishonesty. 6. Mr. Locke those of great negligence who discourse of moral things obscurely.

LESSON LXXV.

PRECISION CF EXPRESSION.-USE OF SYNONYMS.

(1.) Absorbed, engrossed.

We are absorbed in grief; we are engrossed in business.

(2.) Bestow, grant, present, offer, &c.

We grant permission, bestow charity, present compliments, offer an apology, afford protection, confer a favor, concede a right, and accord considera

tion.

(3.) Consent, comply, &c.

We consent to a proposal, comply with a desire, accede to a request, and acquiesce in a decision.

(4.) Abstain, forbear, &c.

We abstain from an indulgence, forbear to enforce a right, refrain from committing an injury, and withstand a temptation.

(5.) Behavior, conduct, &c.

Car

Behavior refers to actions that fall under the notice of others; conduct regards our moral proceedings generally, whether observed or not. riage, deportment, and demeanor, are different species of behavior.

(6.) Clear, distinct.

We see an object clearly when we are able to form a correct idea of its general figure or appearance; we see it distinctly when we can fairly distinguish its parts.

(7.) Custom, habit.

Custom refers to the action; habit, to the agent. Custom expresses the frequent repetition of the same act; habit expresses the effect which such repetition produces on the mind or body of the agent. A custom is followed; a habit is acquired. Custom is voluntary; habit implies an invol

untary movement.

(8.) Desist, renounce, &c.

We desist, from difficulty in our task; we renounce an object or pursuit, When disagreeable; we quit, for the sake of a more interesting object of pursuit; and we leave off, from becoming weary of the design.

(9.) Difficulty, obstacle, &c.

A difficulty, is something not easy to do; an obstacle, is something that stands in our way; an impediment, signifies something entangling to our feet. The difficulty lies in the thing itself, the obstacle and impediment in what is external to it. The first hinders the completion of a work, the second hinders the attainment of an end, the third interrupts the progress of our efforts. We speak of encountering a difficulty, of surinounting an obstacle, and removing an impediment. A difficulty embarrasses; an obstacle stops us.

(10) Discover, find, invent.

We discover what existed, but which was unknown before; we invent what before did not exist. We discover a thing entire; we invent by newly applying or modelling the materials, which exist separately. To find or find out, is said of things which do not exist in the forms in which a person finds them.

EXERCISES.

1. Write one or more sentences embodying correctly each of the aforementioned synonyms, in their precise sense. 2. Fill up the blanks below with the fitting word from each class of synonyms, according to the numbers.

he

(8.) A politician

from his designs on finding them impracticable; the court, having been slighted by it; he ambition, for study and retirement, and - his attendance on the great, as he becomes old

and discontented.

(7.) 1. By the

idleness. 2. The
short time become such a

of

of walking in the streets, one acquires the of early rising is conducive to health, and may in a as to render it no less agreeable than useof imitating the look, tone, or gesture of of doing the same himself. 4. As is said to be second nature, it is important to guard against all which we are not willing to become

ful. 3. Whoever follows the another, is liable to get the

to

(5.) 1. We speak of a person's — at table, or in company; we speak of his in the management of his private concerns, or in his different relations to his fellow-creatures. 2. The of young people in society, is of prime importance. 3. The suitable of a judge on the bench, and

of a minister in the pulpit, dignifies the office of each. (6.) I greatly value a sound imagination, next to a judgment. (9.) The disposition of the mind often occasions more - in negotiations than the subjects themselves. The eloquence of Demosthenes was the greatest which Philip of Macedon experienced in his political career. Ignorance with respect to the language is the greatest which a foreigner experiences in the pursuit of any object out of his own country.