itfed in Natural Hi/lory, , 73 



Varro. ' We fhall therefore hazard the ufe of new words when 

 necelTary, and by your authority.' 



And where the lame neceffity, arifing.from the fame fource, ex- 

 ifts, the fame Ubcrty is to be taken. And as Cicero, on this point, 

 is an unexceptionable authority, let us examine his practice, to fee to 

 what degree it may be carried. The word ^ialhas, derived from 

 ^'ale, is now familiarized to the ear. The firft boldnefs of this 

 derivative is only perceived by reflection ; but its degree will ftrike us 

 more immediately, if we take the Englilh words ii-bai, ox fuch (as), 

 which anfwer to the Latin pronominal adjecStive Sluale, and add one 

 of the fubftantive terminations [hood] or [nefs] to either, to make 

 a philofophical term of it. I aft. the fevere grammarians, who 

 proteft againft the clafs of new derivatives in the philofophical 

 language of Linnseus, to produce among them a bolder example of 

 the creation of a new term. 



And by the fame authority, we may defend his impofing new 

 fignifications on old words ; for in a few lines after the conclu- 

 fion of the extract, there occurs a liberty of this kind, and as re- 

 markable as the former ; for Cicero there gives a new fenfe to the 

 pronominal adjeflive S^ak^ in correfpondence to that of his new de- 

 rivative S^ualiiai ; ufing it fubftantively to fignify any being or thing, 

 as compounded of fubftance and accident, or matter and qualities: 

 *' Et ita effeci quce appellant qualia ; e quibus in omni natura co- 

 " hasrente, ct continuata cum omnibus fuis partibus, effedlum efle 

 *' mundum," 



It deferves to be remarked refpedling thefe innovations, that 

 this aflertion of the legitimacy of the pradlice in all like cafes is 

 here put by Cicero into the mouth of Varro, the greatefl critic and 

 grammarian of the Auguftan age; who wrote on the Latin lan- 

 guage, and addrcffed his works to Cicero himfelf. 

 Vol, III. L Hence 



