70 Rev. Mr Wixx14ms on the Force of the prefix Ve or Ve 
names and qualities of the substances with which we are conver- 
sant. To each word, therefore, a particular idea is attached, and 
as these roots take various forms, from the addition of simple 
and well known prefixes and affixes, the shades of meaning gra- 
dually multiply, and yet the transition is never so sudden as to 
prevent the original idea from being still presented to the hearer’s 
mind, as his principal guide, in ascertaining the new meaning. 
This can proceed only fora limited period. Political convulsions, 
originating in disgust with the past, and in sanguine hopes for 
the future, a rage for novelty, and consequently the necessity 
imposed upon the orators and poets of the day of courting the 
public favour by new metaphors, new versions of the old, and 
fresh importations of new words, operate so powerfully, that, im 
many cases, the original idea entirely disappears, and nothing 
remains for our guidance but the gratuitous meaning which 
every body is supposed to attach to a certain term. I need not 
say, that, in such a case, no two individuals will agree in attach- 
ing the same meaning to a word thus let loose from its moorings, 
and sent forth to wander in the boundless ocean of possible com- 
binations. That hence misapprehensions must arise, with all 
their inevitable train of strifes, quarrels, and combats. 
To prevent the deterioration of language is impossible. To 
fix it down on certain principles, and to guard it from the caprice 
of fashion, the thirst of notoriety, and the slow but sure attacks 
of time, is beyond our power. But the evil can be confined 
within a certain range ; the transgressor can be forced to err with- 
in certain limits, and the path may be pointed out through 
which, in better times, a return to first principles may be secured. 
Thanks to the Great God who made language the main instru- 
ment of rational man, its substance (as far as the lapse of ages 
during which the great Caucasian family of man has existed can 
lead us to infer) is indestructible. Although apparently the most 
fleeting, the most evanescent of all the accidents connected with 
man in his temporal state, it has hitherto proved the most im- 
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