"Moses mentions the cause of the Deluge, the rains and the waters; and St. Peter mentions the more remote and fundamental cause, viz the constitution of the heavens." Middle is from the Anglo-Saxon mid, and dael, a part or portion. Midst is the superlative or intensive form of middle, and is a contraction of middlemost; thus: middlemost-middest―midst. The middle is that part of a substance which is at an equal distance from both its ends. Midst is that point in a substance which is at an equal distance from all parts of its circumference. The middle of the street is half-way between the houses on one side, and those on the other. The middle of June is half-way between the beginning and the end of the month. The midst of the forest is that point which is at an equal distance from all parts of its circumference. In an abstract sense, midst is more frequently used. Thus, we have In the midst of danger-of difficulties, &c. The man had laid a wager that he would swim across the river at its widest part in less than ten minutes; he had accomplished half his task with ease, in less than half the allotted time; but just when he had reached the of the stream, he was carried away by the force of the current, and drowned. Extended on the burning sand in the of the desert, and suffering the greatest pain from fever brought on by excessive fatigue and want of proper nourishment, I should have perished, had it not been for the extreme kindness and attention of my Arab guides. In the of these imminent and appalling dangers, he did not betray a sign of fear, but gave his orders with the same calmness and composure as usual. "A station of life is within reach of those conveniences which the lower orders of mankind must necessarily want, and yet without embarrassment of greatness." While is from the Saxon hwile, and sigrifies time. Whilst is a superlative form, or a more intensive degree of while, and is used for during the whole time. "I shall write while you work," means that during the time that you are working, I shall occupy myself (perhaps occasionally) in writing. "I shall write whilst you work," means that during the whole time that you are occupied in working, I shall not cease from writing. Whilst is also used to mark a contrast or strong distinction between two things or actions. "Make your mirth whilst I bear my misery." [Hor. While one with moderate haste might tell a hundred. The two ruffians rushed out upon the traveller unawares; and having the other rifled his pock knocked him down, the one held his hands ets of his watch and money. How did these two men behave in the same circumstances? The one seized with a malicious joy the opportunity thus offered him of gratifying his revenge; the other, with a noble generosity, pardoned his enemies for those offences against him which he could have then so easily punished. — we were all engaged in conversation, we heard some beautiful music under our windows, which was continued at intervals during the remainder of the evening. "Can he imagine that God sends forth an irresistible strength against some sins; in others he allows men a power of repelling his grace?" Cæsar was at Rome, an insurrection broke out among his troops, who were too impatient to wait for the triumph, and the advantages they hoped to derive from it. SECTION IV. POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE SYNONYMES. ANOTHER principle by which we may frequently discover a difference between two approximating meanings, is where one term is positive, and the other negative; that is, where the first expresses some idea independently, and the second, the negation of another idea. The two verbs, to shun and to avoid, show a difference of this sort; to shun is positively to turn away from, to avoid is merely not to approach, or go in the way of. Between many approximating words, we shall have no difficulty in distinguishing, by the application of this test. The difference between unable and not able, inability and disability, and many others, becomes thus immediately clear. The two words have the same idea in common, but the one has a negative quality not found in the other, and thus a distinction can be made. The pairs of words treated in this section differ from each other in consequence of this principle. Despair-Hopelessness. Despair is positive; hopelessness is negative. spairs, once hoped, but has now lost his hope He who deThe hopeless man may never have hoped; desperate is deprived of hope; hopeless is wanting hope. Affairs are said to be hopeless when their state is such as not to raise any hope of their being successful. An enterprise is said to be desperate when all hope is lost which we once entertained of its success. To be desperate, we must have previously hoped. [Hel. Oft expectation fails, and most oft there Where most it promises; and oft it hits, Where hope is coldest and despair most sits. All's Well, &c., ii. L. K. Rich. The hopeless word of-never to return, Breathe I against thee, upon pain of life. Me miserable! which way shall I fly Exercise. Richard II., i. 3 P. L., iv. 74. S. A., 648 WORDSWORTH. 'Dion, 'Lament of Mary, Queen of Scots.'] "In a part of Asia, the sick, when their case comes to be thought are carried out and laid on the earth, before they are dead, and left there." Are they indifferent, being used as signs of immoderate and entation for the dead? I am a man of lam fortunes, that is, a man whose friends are dead, for I never aimed at any other fortune than in friends. "The Æneans wish in vain their wanted chief, of flight, more —————— of relief." is the thought of the unattainableness of any good, which works differently in men's minds, sometimes producing uneasiness or pain, sometimes rest and indolence." 66 of ransom, and condemned to lie In durance, doomed a lingering death to die." "We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in "Before the ships a stand they made, And fired the troops, and called the gods to aid." "[He] watches with greedy hope to find to circumvent us joined, where each Disability Inability. Inability is a natural want of power to act; disability is a want of qualification. One who confesses his inability to account for some phenomenon, gives us to understand that nature has not endowed him with power to explain its cause. One who is disqualified, by reason of his nonage, from entering into a contract, labours under a legal disability. [Val. Leave off discourse of disability. Exercise. Two Gent. of Verona, ii. 4.] There are many questions which have baffled the most sagacious penetration of the human intellect, and which the deepest philosophy is to this day obliged to confess its to fathom. In the tenth and eleventh centuries, the Jews were persecuted in England with unrelenting cruelty, and even at this moment they labour under many legal in that country. He accepted, though much against his will, the office vacant by the death of the professor, as he could plead neither ignorance nor cuse for refusing it. as an ex The party on the other side grounded their hopes of success on the alleged of the plaintiff, and on the presumption that as he was a minor, he could not be a party to the contract in question. One who confesses his some action, or explain some question. He who labours under declares that he is not able to perform unable to enter into certain contracts or agreements. "It is not from in practice." Want of age is a legal is to discover what they ought to do, that men err to contract a marriage. This disadvantage which the Dissenters at present lie under, of a to receive church preferments, will be easily remedied by the repeal of the test. Disbelief-Unbelief. Unbelief is a want of belief; disbelief is an unwillingness or refusal to believe. I express my unbelief of what I am willing to believe, but am not convinced is true. I express my disbelief of what I have reason to think is false. Unbelief is oper to conviction; disbelief is already convinced of the falseness of what it does not believe. Many men have |