Nugae literariae: prose and verse

381쪽

theme of whicli the mi ty strains seem thus arrested and fixodin ever-pealing harmony. The musician enters at orice into it,and, according to the accustomed method of speaking, easilyreads it. By the determinate representation os certain musicalpoWers under these signs, the harmonisi perceives iis Wondrous combinations; threads iis perilous approach to discords whichresolve thenaseives into more melling and persect enchaniments of exquisite grace; construes each passage a S trilly, at leaSt, RS

any classical Writing admits of being interpreted; Whilo the

Whole sWelis up, With iis transpori os founds reali sed to his mitid, as though aerial voices floated around him. The disentangloment of these figurative expressions passes On Without essori in his mind. But ask the perfectly unscientisc man in What muniter the musical scale can guide the singer Θ Ηe narrowlyloolis, and his ustonishment increases. He sees a Lind of S,

and thiniis it strango that it should be at the beginning of the musical letters when it used to be at the end of his. Or, boliolding an invertod or ori tho nexi line, and knowing that

ment Whicli can mention and particularise the et cetera, When allis oked out to the very potnt of a Staccato. Ηe proceedS, and

382쪽

There are varieties, hoWever, in our habitation, susscient tocompei varieties of language. In equatorial nations you do notexpect a term for ice or SnoW. Under despotio goverriments

of immemorial sera we need not hope to find the fuit phrase, or the poetic rhythm, of Deedom. Yet as generalty men musteXpress the fame ideas, and must denote the Same things,-what is a foreigia language but a disserent nomenclature Θ Thodisseretice is in the words, not With any uniformity in the signification. And is we belleve that the speech of man was

Pounded, So Strangely directed, So peculiarly employed, that nothing of iis sirst pronunciation or appearance, nothing of iis sirst intention and bearing, might be retained. The corresponding poWers of disserent languages sortii a seid for nobio study and set Drepaying toll. These We denominate Correlates. Thus, sor instance, the 8Un, Sol, te Soleti, are Euglisti, Latin, and French correlates, though it Would not be improper to cali them synonyms. A DW illustrations may be

ous hind. It wili frequently be ascertained that the correlate Woriis os different langu ages have not only an eques meaning, but derive that meaning hom a similar analogy. Mor8h, or adorationseems to bring before our mirid a bending altitude and prostration of tho body. This will be found the prevalling derivation

383쪽

ON CORRE LATES AND SYNONYΜ8. 371

Wo Woriis Whicli signify to ask pardon venia and oro), or is an enlargement of Vereor, I fear. The Hebrew word , NU conveys the idea of the futurestate, that it is closed against ali Enquiry and seareh. The wordwhicli is frequently rendered Heli in tho New Testament, is Aδης, the invisibi e state. Γεεννα is strictly the region of punishment. No , the old Saxon Delle Helle), bears exactly the

that the idea os vision pervades many langua geS in their eX- pression of the act of thinhing and judging. The three dead

languages than one. The si si idea of sapio in Latin, is to acquire flavour,-its root we use in speaking of our domestichashes. Only the broad or toast of the hasti is improperly pronounced sipid,-it is the sapid, Dom sapidus, the adjective derivation froni sapor. The fame allusion is to be noticed in what Quintilian, and besoro him Cicero, called Attic salt. Itiaeed scaroe bo addod that this form of speahing obtains muchamong Us. When We speali of a man os iuste, of a taste forpainting and sculpture, We know What is intended; though ws commonly sorget that the gest of the bodily palate supplies tho trope. Where there Was originalty a particular state of li , and that state of lisse existed in the infancy of civiligation, and con- Sequently os language, We may expect tertiis drawn hom it. Though centuries have elapsed, and those ternis have been most Unaccountably transposed and transformeli, the primitive thought wili frequently elicit itself. Aγω, and Ago, in the Greeli and Latin, Will illustrate this position. The root of bothis pastores: the driving os a floch. Perhaps no tWo Words have a greater latitude of meaning. But the Roman one Seems absolutely to lose itself. I copy the following hom Gouldman sDictionary : To do, to go abolat, to labour, to contend, to Sueat laW, to accuse, to handie or deat ira, to observe, to hear, to

384쪽

ON CORRELATES AND SYNONYMS.

interpretations, Such as Violence, a current, an army,-R BOCh.

The secondary idea of ali is rule, but the primary idea is

pastoral rute. And when We remember the inepherd kings of Egypt; and that Homer loves to cali Agamemnon the shepherdos his people,-this extraction Will Deither feem urinatural nor constrained. Sometimes the correlates of disserent languageswill bo found to convey the fame Sely contradictory meantngS,- and there must be to them ali the fame custom or institutionwhicli these self-contradictions express, and by Whicli only th can be justised. It is very remarhable that the fame words intho learned languages signify blessed or Sacred, and accursed. ti, Whicli has been Hready quoted, signifies somelimes to bless, and somelimes to blaspheme. Aγος may be construed Venerabie, holy, or eXecrabie. Sacer is piat forti, either in a good or a badsense. The enquiry ariSes hoW this contrariety of senses shallocccur in such repeated instances 8 Sacrifice Was considered asthe cle Sing aWay of Some grievous offence by the substitutionos a victim. That victim Was sacred iis devoted, and as theblind unconsciolis author os blessings to the community: it Washatefiat as the representative of the offence. It was thus the subject os benediction and abhorreiice. In many of the ancient rituals both these sentiments Were vocatly proclaimed. Hencethe complex meaning ; and the other tertiis in Latin somewhatanswer to this compleXity,- piaculum, expiatio. LuStro, has the fame Varieties: to purisy, and to traves. Why 8 becausetho victim of the lustration, or iis biood, Was ted or carried out to the sacriscing parties. Ι shali only adduce one example more. It might be imagined that the human solii, being impalpabie to SenSe, Somefigurative expression Would be found sor it in ali languages; but

385쪽

it could not bo imagined that the figurative expression Should proVe the fame. in Hebrew is Wind as Woli as spirit. Πνευμα, hom πωω, is of the fame doubie force. Spiritus, DomSpiro, Whence our inspiration and respiration, is exactly of the

fame two-sold mlness. The common consent must have been, that nothing Was more sit to denote this essetice than the invisibis circumambient atmosphere. Hence those substanceS are

There is another view of these correlative values to whichil may be proper stightly to advert. When you translate out of one language into another, you Seek the moSt appropriate corresponding Word. But Sometimes a Word, siXed in iis mean-ing, must be rendered by another that is more equivocat.

Jehovah, tho Living one, is the name of the Deity in thoold Testamoni. When the writers of the New Testament Scripturos had to sind a Word corresponding in sententiolis

only my own fauit of inconsideration, for our neighbours have not a Stronger or more sultable method and style of devotionalappeat, Without resorting to circumlocution. Very frequentlyit is bellor to grati a foroign term into our language is We cannoteXchange With it. Attempis to accommodate such things by mutuat sacrifice is impossibi0. Litoral translation is absurd ; noriS one of our phrases, in the absince of ali congruity in iis application, less So. There Was a victous use of langua ge

386쪽

imported into Attica froni Solos, a city bulli in Cyprus undertho auspices of Solon. This barbarous provincialism Wascalled by iis strictly proper name; and the parent-land shoWedits taste by giving it iis duo ouilandisti appellation. To this day it SurVives, When We say 0s an abuse of language, it is

a Sole i8m. There are certain fabrios manufactured in this district called by names that no European language Can matCh. Yot Bockings do not fortia a bad name When We consider thatthey Were sirst made ut Bocking, in EsseX, Where the tradeis stili conducted ; nor are Wild-bores so boorist, a litte When We remember that a person of this name invented them, Who

It would havo been woli had a Dutch translator of Caesar's Commentaries retained the very Words in his texi, which his mother-guttural sorbade him adequalesy to do into it; buteonvinced of his own ability, and of the capabilitios of his

languam, Whereuer he found the term Consul, this web-sooted barbarian rendered ii, Burgoniaster lIn endeavouring to transfuse the meaning of one langvago into another, it Will be necessary to ascertain Whether Some common expressions in it reatly belong to it, or reatly are any part of it. Wo in this country say that a man eats like a

drink a bumper, and suppose that this implies a glass fuit of

cellent one, so ali ichthyophagi Will pronounce it, the Johia Dory. Νow this sinny luxury, by the inhabitants on the stiores of the Μediterranean, Where it ab auiads, is supposed tO have

387쪽

ON CORRELATES AND SYNONYMs. 375brought the tribute-money to Peter. It is called by them St. Pietro. But assigning to the Apostle another higher dii tyof loching and unlocking Heaven, they somelimes catl the

how Would they figure, occurring in one of Galignani's editions ΘWo know that when a celebrated wit harangued the Partiatament against some public peculators, and charged them witn

388쪽

οΝ CORRELATES AND SYNONYIIS.

Idioms osten set the poWers os translation at defiance. Thestrong healthy colloquial style of our langvago abound s With specimens. We indulge them, and Drget that they are ostenthe most metaphoricat, florid, portions of our style. By idiom, of course, I do not mean the particular collocation or inflectionos language Whicli is iis more scholarly use, but What is intonded to be conve3ed by iis fuit, Dee, copiolisne88 and Vigour.

We Spes k in tropes When least me suspect it. That man comes to US under colour os suci, an excuse. We Will proceed in the face of danser. Conversation taDes a tum. It is necessary We Should take Steps to complete it. Wω have no stomach

389쪽

ΟΝ CORRELATES AND SYNONYMS.

There is a just idioni in French, laire ramiablo. Todo the ami te is now one of the sopperies of modern Speaking. It is biit a sample of a Wide-spread assectation os foretgn phrase. And there mill bo no end of this expori and impori trade ofabsurdity, untii British good sense and right Deling shali domand the language of their sathers, Which was diversi sed enough sortho universat drama of Shak8peare, the magnificent epic ofΜilton, the philosophic cogitation of Bacon, the gloWing beautyos Taylor, the exhaustiess variety of BarroW, the dignis sed perspicuity of Blachstone; Whose Commentaries perhaps exhibitour langu age With a justne8S of precision and a severity of

ille Generat in ordinam time. They sinished their Walk at an

390쪽

io an ample rent. The frume-Work is so called front whichoatilo Ded. Bards thias describe the driven cloud of the tempest. It comes down to express an infusion in puncti. Suit. It may be a laW suit, and love Suit. Togetherwith service it is What sonae clansmen owe their chiestain. Acomplete set of clothes. To agree and Sati80. Post. It is immovoabie. It ali but sies. Main is the sea, but thousands of Worthy persons, in thematii, stili live on Shore.