350 An Examination of Dr PARR'S Observations 



knowledge to bear in so many shapes, and in such a variety of 

 ways, as to confound and appal his opponents. 



To Dr PARR'S notions respecting the origin of the word 

 Sublimis, Mr STEWART has given his assent more hastily, and in 

 more unqualified terms, than might have been expected from his 

 habitual caution, and the low estimate he had previously formed 

 of the common derivation of the word. " As for the etymology 

 of Sublime" (Sublimis), says he, " I leave it willingly to the con- 

 jectures of lexicographers. The common one, which we meet 

 with in our Latin dictionaries (q. Supra limum) is altogether un- 

 worthy of notice." This note, in the 1st edition of the Essays, 

 called forth, it is understood, a long and learned dissertation from 

 Dr PARK, the substance only of which Mr STEWART has given in 

 the Appendix above alluded to. In the 2d edition, he says, " I 

 have allowed the foregoing sentence to remain as it stood in the 

 former edition of this book, although I have since been satisfied, 

 by some observations kindly sent me by my very learned, philo- 

 sophical, and reverend friend Dr PARR, that the opinion which I 

 have here pronounced with so much confidence is unsound. The 

 mortification I feel in making this acknowledgment is to me 

 more than compensated, by the opportunity afforded me of gra- 

 tifying my readers with a short extract from his animadversions," 

 &c. When two men of such celebrity, the one generally reckoned 

 the greatest classical scholar of his age, the other the most dis- 

 tinguished metaphysician of this or any other country, concur in 

 the same opinion respecting the etymology of a word, which has 

 been so long and so often disputed, it may seem to be presump- 

 tion of no ordinary kind, to attempt to call in question their de- 

 cisions. I derive, however, no small degree of encouragement, 

 from finding that I am supported in my opinions by one of the 

 most acute scholars of the present day, Dr HUNTER, the Pro- 

 fessor of Humanity in the University of St Andrew's, who, in 

 some notes, lately put into my hands by a common friend, to 



