Blandus, Dulcis, Lenis, Suavis, Manfuctus, Mitis. BLANDUS fe dit du toucher, flattant, careffant de la main. Lacertis blandis tenere colla. Ovid. Canes blandi. Virg. Au figuré, infinuant. Blandâ oratione falli. Cic. Blanda mendacia linguæ. Ovid. Ut pueris dant olim cruftula blandi doctores. Hor. DULCIS, doue au goût. Muftum dulce. Virg. Dulcior melle. Ovid. Au figuré Dulciffima epiftola, Cic. Dulcis inexpertis cultura potentis amici, expertus metuit. Hor. LENIS, doux au toucher. Lene & afperum. Cic. Au figuré: Non lenis dominus. Hor. Lene confilium. Id. Nunc lenitate dulces fumus. Cic. SUAVIS convient à l'odorat. Odor fuavis & jucundus. Cic. Au figuré: Suavis homo. Ter. Suavis confuetudo. Cic. MANSUETUS, (quafi manui affuetus) doux traitable. Quæro cur tam fubitò manfuetus in Senatu fuerit, cùm in edictis tam fuiffet ferus. Cic. Ex feris & immanibus mites reddidit & manfuetos. Id. Lenitatis & manfuetudinis genus, cui opponitur vehemens & atrox. Id. MITIS fe dit du fruit már. Sunt nobis mitia poma. Au figuré: Patientia mitiorem dolorem facit. Cic. Thucydides fi pofteriùs fuiffet, multò maturior fuiffet ac mitior. Id. On peut oppofer lenis à afper; an figuré, à crudelis; fuavis à graveolens; au figuré, à tetricus; à blandus, moleftus, contumeliofus; à dulcis, amarus; an figuré, à injucundus, invifus ; à mitis, acerbus. ' It is quite unneceffary to remark with what diftinctness the difference between the original and figurative fenfe of all these words is here pointed out, or the neat and appropriate examples by which their respective meanings are illustrated. Dr Hill unfortunately has aimed at moving in a higher and more difficult sphere; and has run fo keenly after metaphyfical and fubtle dif tinctions, as feldom to convey more than vague and indiftinct notions of the propofitions he would with to imprefs upon his readers, and frequently to bewilder himfelf in mazes which have confounded many a clearer head, and led them on Through mire and flanding pools to feek their ruin.' We fhall add a few more inftances. The distinction attempted at p. 79. between aut and vel is ak together unintelligible. If any two words be ftrictly fynonymous, we conceive that thefe are fo. Dr Hill might have remembered that Cæfar, in the fame chapter, has the two following fentences: Cæfar fatis effe cauffe arbitrabatur quare in eum, aut ipfe animadverteret, aut civitatem animadvertere juberet;' and, Petit atque hortatur, ut vel ipfe de eo caufâ cognitâ ftatuat, vel civitatem itatuere jubeat.' What shall we fay of the confiftency of the following obfervations: FERUs always implies that the animal marked by it enjoys his liberty uncontrouled, and fhows a difpofition to prey upon others. This difpofition is not the univerfal concomitant of the quality expreffed by ferus,' &c. Of ferinus, he makes G# 3 another another fynonyme; and informs us, that it denotes fuch qualities of wild beafts as relate to their mode of living, their flesh, their milk, and their cries.' He really does not seem to fufpect that it is the common poffeffive adjective formed from ferus, in the fame way as caninus from canis, vitulinus from vitulus, equinus from equus, &c. The distinction between Interça and Interim appears to be palpably falfe, from the very inftances that are quoted in fup. port of it (p. 460.) It is not clear to us that Interea is plural; the long a in the clofe rather fupports an oppofite conclufion. Pellere and Trudere are strangely confounded (p. 571.); the latter is faid to differ from the former in implying that a greater impulfe is requifite to drive the body receiving it from the point it occupies, and that the line of direction is limited. To us it appears plain that the diftinction is founded in very different confiderations. In trufion, the moving body is supposed to follow in close contact with the body moved, and to continue its action on it; which does not take place in pulfion. In pulfion, again, it is always implied that the impelling body was in motion before it began to act upon the other, which is by no means neceffary in the cafe of trufion. Infitiari is faid (p. 537.) to fignify a known violation of truth; and in confirmation of this, the author not only quotes but tranflates a paffage in which it fignifies to maintain the truth; the words are, Multi mori maluerunt falfum fatendo, quam infitiando dolere.' The author is speaking of the effects of judicial torture. In p. 757. we learn that Fia may be applied to every part of the earth's furface that may be travelled over. He who formed a road where there was none before, was faid Munire viam: the furface was of course a via before any thing was done to it.' This we conceive to be founded entirely on mifconception. Munire viam fignifies to make a way, just as facere viam does: it is of no confequence whether the general word be used, or a more fpecific one, defcribing the method of making. If Dr Hill's reafoning be right, the phrafes pletere coronam, or torquere funem, thould imply that the flowers on the hemp were already entitled to the name of garlands and ropes before the operations defcrib ed by thefe words were begun upon them. Servus and Verna are faid to differ according as the state of flavery is more or lefs oppreffive; the latter is faid to imply more comfort—the former to be confiflent with greater dignity. This really appears to us to be perplexing a very plain diftinc tion. Servus, we understand, is the generic term in which Veris included; Verna is that fpecies of jervus who is reared in the the family. The laft quotation from Plautus is moft perverfely mifinterpreted. The only other inftance we shall give of what we cannot help confidering as very unaccountable negligence or inaccuracy in Dr Hill's performance, is his account of the terms Ufura and Fenus as applied to the intereft of money. To us it appears that these words have precifely the fame meaning, though derived from different views of the fubject. Ufura is the rent or hire paid for the ufe of money; Fanus, derived, according to Feftus and Varre, from the old verb fes, to produce, fignifies the produce of the loan, and is equivalent to the Greek Texos, a term appropriated under the fame analogy. Dr Hill, however, is by no means fatisfied with the fimplicity of this statement. Ufura,' he fays, is applicable to any rate of intereft, whether moderate or oppreffive; but Fanus carries in itself, without the addition of any term, a reference to a regulated intereft,' p. 778. The vaguenefs of Ufura, he adds, is limited by the epithets which are joined to it, and, when ufed along with Fe nus, it always fignifies fomething more oppreflive. It might be fufficient, perhaps, to obferve, that there is no foundation what foever for this diftinction, and that its fallacy is completely eftablished by the paffages which Dr Hill quotes in fupport of it, But there is fomething fo extraordinary in the ufe which the learned author has made of his proofs, that it is worth while to attend to them a little more particularly. To prove that Ufura is the more general term, and that it fignifies fomething more oppreffive than Fanus, he quotes thefe words from Suetonius, Pecunias levioribus ufuris mutuati; and there he ftops. Is it poffible that Dr Hill did not know that the remaining claufe of the fentence is graviore fanare collocaffent?'--which is in direct contradiction to the whole of his theory. He is afterwards pleased to refer, in proof of his pofition that Fœnus always relates to a regulated intereft, to this line of Horace, Dives agris, dives pofitis in fenore nummis. ' And adds, this perfon had laid his money out at intereft, and, we are led to fuppofe, received in return for it neither more nor lefs whan what was ufually given.' Here, again, we find it difficult to conceive how Dr Hill fhould have forgotten that this very line forms part of the character of an ufurer, who is repre-. fented as lending his money to young heirs, &c. at the exorbi tant intereft of Jixty per cent., and making them pay even this in advance; and whofe character appears to have been fo far re moved from any thing that was ufual, that the poet clofes it by faying, Maxime quis non Jupiter exclamat fimul atque audivit?-Sat. I. 2. 12. As to the reft, we find Cicero applying the epithets of magnum, grave, and iniquiffimum, to Fœnus; and in a paffage quoted by Dr Hill himself it is termed avidum. Indeed, he reafons about, it till he comes to this oracular conclufion, that the term Fanus fuppofes the poffible existence of a certain latitude; but not in the degree in which it exifts in Ufura, from which the idea of a limi tation on either fide of a standard is banished.' In the course of his fpeculations on these words, the learned author is led, almoft for the only time in the whole work, to favour his readers with fome difcuffion on the ufages and inftitutions of the people whofe language he is explaining, and en. ters at fome length into an account of the rates of intereft eftablished among the Romans, and of the terms employed to exprefs them. After fome preliminary remarks, he obferves, • Gentefima, which in calculations of this kind was the integral num ber, by being doubled, expreffed a fraction that was precifely the half of its own amount. Thus, the tax impofed upon Cappadocia, at the rate of twelve per cent., was reduced to fix by the emperor Tiberius, "Levare vectigal centefimæ et ducentefimam ftatuit. " What fort of integral number that must be, which, upon being doubled, expreffed a fraction of its own amount, we leave to our readers to conjecture; but it is evident, that here, and throughout the whole difcuffion, Dr Hill entirely overlooks the rationale of the terms he profeffes to interpret. The words Centefima or Ducentefima, do not in reality ftand here in concord with Ufura or Vectigal, with which Dr Hill connects them, but with the word pars understood. Centefima ufura, therefore, ought not to be confidered as a fubftantive and adjective, but as two fubftan, tives put together, like urbs Rona, Cicero orator: and the meaning is, that the hundredth part of the capital was paid monthly as intereft-Centefima pars fortis, ufura, If Centefima lignified the hundredth part, however, there is no difficulty in perceiving that Ducentefima, which fignified the two hundredth part, implied an intereft one half lighter, without fuppofing that an integral number became a fraction of itself by being doubled. Finally, as if it were predeftined that no part of this difcuffion fhould be free from blunder, it may be remarked, that there is no allufion, in the paffage quoted from Ta citus, to any tax of 12 per cent. impofed on Cappadocia, and and reduced by Tiberius to fix: all that the hiftorian fays, is, that by reducing Cappadocia to a province, the emperor was enabled, by this increase of revenue, to reduce the tax of the hundredth penny, formerly levied upon fales all over the en pire, to the two hundredth. Thefe obfervations are minute, we confefs, and may probably appear tedious to the reader; but a collection of fynonymes contains no general doctrine, and muft must be judged of according to the accuracy which prevails in thofe minute difcuffions of which it must be compofed. If our readers are defirous of feeing further proofs of the load of fuperfluous matter with which this work is incumbered, we will refer them to the fix pages which are taken up in ftating the different meanings of Aqualis, Par and Similis, or rather in ftating that thefe words agree in denoting certain diftinct relations by which feparate fubftances may be allied. ' It still remains for us to take fome notice of that part of the work which the author is pleased to term the Philofophy of Prepofitions: this indeed feems his darling topic; it is here that he has fhrouded himself under the most impenetrable veil of myftery; and hence he would fend forth his dictates as oracles to the unenlightened inquirers after truth. After much invefti gation, however, we are under the neceffity of remarking, that the observation of an eminent French writer is applicable to this, as well as to other parts of the work under our con deration. Tout ce que varic, tout ce que fe charge de termes douteux et eve lopés, a toujours paru fufpect, et non feulement frauduleux mais abfolu ment faux-parcequ'il marque un embarras que la verité ne connoit pas.' His plan feems to be, to collect a number of paffages from the Latin claffics, in which the prepofition under confideration is ufed, and, from an inveftigation of all thefe, to deduce and clafs in order the different fignifications he fuppofes it to be ca pable of bearing,-and to conclude by pointing out and illuf trating, by Gimilar examples, the force and power he conceives it to have in compofition. To take the firft, a, ab, abs.-On the philofophy of these words he has favoured us with nearly twelve quarto pages. After two of frivolous and irrelevant matter (in the courfe of which he completely confounds in feveral paffages the meaning of ab with that of prope) he makes this fingular obfervation: These prepofitions a, ab and abs, have in themselves the power of denoting nearnes; and, among other examples adduced to prove this, he gives this one from Cicero's Epiftles, viz. Pleræque Epiftolæ mihi nuntiabant ubi effes quod erant abs te.' Cic. Ep. itt. 4. 16. And then obferves, - If we abstract the notion of vicinity from the prepofition, the a bove fentence would be void of meaning. ' It must be clear, we think, to every unprejudiced perfon, that abs is used here in its ordinary fignification; i. e. it points out imply distance or feparation, however fmall; and instead of de |