1S05.] 



Contribuiions to Englijh Synonymy. 



17 



letter to Debmctlien'e, *' in fhefe reginrs, 

 where the highcft clevatiotis of the globe 

 are fituated, have confirined mc more and 

 more in the grand idea that you threw out 

 ill your Theory of the Earth, the moft 

 complete work we have on that fubje5t, in 

 regard to the formatioti of mnuntains. All 

 the mslTcs of which tiiey confift have united 

 accnrd'ng to theii affinities by the laws of 

 attraction, snd have formed thefe eleva- 

 tions, more or lefs confideiable in different 

 pans on the furface of the earth, by the 

 laws cf general cryilallization. There can 

 reniai!! no dcubt in ;his refjieifl to the tra- 

 veller who confi.lers without prejudice 

 tliefe large maffcs. You will lee in cur 

 relitionstha; there is not one of theohje(?ts 

 you treat of v hich we hive not endeavour- 

 ed to iiiijircve by our labours." 



In all ihtfe excurliors, becun in Janu- 

 ary 1801, our travellers were accompanied 

 by M. Chrirlcs Moniu'"ar, fnn of the Mar- 

 quis de Sclvalegre, of Qu^ito, an individual 

 7eslous for the progrei^• of the fciences, 

 and who caufed to be reco"(bii£led, at his 

 own expenfe, the pyram d» c\ Sarouguier, 

 the boundaries of tiie cekbr' ted bile cf 

 the French and Spanifli aciciemicians. 

 Th s inteiefli g young niaf>, having ac- 

 companitd M. Humboldt duivn,^ the re!l 

 of hi.- exptditicn to Peru and ti^e kingdom 

 of Mexic;-, pr'ceeded with him to Europe. 

 The effor.s of thel'e thre^- travellers vveie 

 fo much favoured by circumrtances, that 

 they reached the greatell heighis to which 

 ni'.n had ever attained in tht-fe moun'airs. 

 On the volcano if Antii'ara tl'.ey carried 

 inltrunitnts 2200, and en Chiir.borazo, 

 June 23, 1802, ■5'5oo feet higher than 

 Condamiiie and Bouguer did on Coraz-'n. 

 They afcendfd to the height of 3036 toifes 

 above the levrl of the Pacific Ocean, 

 where the blood idued fiom their eyes, 

 lips, and giuns, and where thty experi- 

 enced a C'ld not indicated by the ihermo- 

 mtt;i, bu: which arofe from the iiitle ca- 

 loric difen^aoed during the inipiration of 

 air fo much rarefied. A filTure eighty 

 ":; ea in depth and of great bieadth pre- 

 ttd thtm from reaching the fop rf 

 imhorazo when they were didant from 

 Dniy about 224 toi'es. 



(To be conUnued.) 



For the Monthly Magazine. 



CONTRIBUTIONS tO ENGLISH SYNO- 

 NYMY. — NO. I. 



SEVERAL of your Correfpondents are 

 aflcing qucflionj about fynonymy, as 

 if ihey thought thrre was fomethiiig to be 

 «lore m the line. Inf'cad of calling on 

 Monthly Mag. No iii, 



Hercules (or, for this occaflon, on 

 Hermes), fuppole we apply our fiioul- 

 ders to the wheel. 



The worA Jynonym is compounded of the 

 Greek prepoiition cvv, cum, and ono/xa, 

 nomen : it means, therefore, a fe'low-name. 

 Thofe words are termed fynonymoiis 

 which dsfcribe like things by other names. 

 To fynonhnvze is to exprefs one thought in 

 different terms. Synonymy is the ufe of 

 fynonyms. 



Some languages, like the Greek and 

 German, aie le'f-derived. When they 

 have occaflon to defignate frefli objects, 

 they do it by joining, in a new and defini. 

 five manner, terms already in ufe. They 

 have been taughf, for inlfance, to name 

 the elements of modern chemiftry by in- 

 ternal refburciE — ixygcn, Jaticrjloff. In 

 fiich languages no two words are equi- 

 pollent ; no ililtinit expreflions have quite 

 the fame fignification. Other languages, 

 like the Englifh, lave been formed by 

 the confluence of ii veral to.Tgues, Some 

 Gothic dialeft (the Caledonian, proba- 

 bly), forms the bafis of the Englifli 

 fpeech ; and the French, which, with the 

 Italian and SpmiHi, may be confi.lered as 

 a Lat'n diale£l, has mixed with it fo 

 abundantiv, that it depends on a writer's 

 choice vi'hether the northern or fouthern 

 diflion (liall predominate. In fuch Ian- 

 guages many words are wholly equivalent ; 

 when the radical meaning is one, and 

 the metaDhorical application analogous, 

 anv diftincf ion is merely oral. Freedom, 

 happinefs, are G thic terms ; liberty, feli- 

 city, are Latin terms ; whifh are not 

 merely fimilar, but identical, in mea:ung. 

 Cicero, the greateil artilt in compoii- 

 lion, vviliingiy employed himfelf in the 

 difcrimination of fynonyms ; and Qtu'nti- 

 lian, who writes en rht-toric, has cccafion- 

 allv dlgreiied to examine ihem : but the 

 fiifl bork exprefsly confecrartd to the ap- 

 preciation of fynonyms is a Greek wor.< 

 of Ammoniu?, the fon of Hermias, who 

 flourillied in the fixth century. The oii- 

 ginal edition of this trcatile is appended to 

 a Greek Diflicnary, printed at Vtnitein 

 1597 : it was edited, wit-h the w<;;ks of 

 other grammarians, at Lcyden, by Val- 

 kenaer, in 1739 ; and publifhed apart at 

 Ei'langen, in i75!7, by a namefake of the 

 author, under the title Afx.p.onB ^jpi 



Among the AuBores Lingua: Latir.^, 

 colltftfd by Dionytius Gothofrtdus, 

 there is a chapter of fynonymy picked 

 from anc'ent giammajians. Several mo- 

 derns-- Poprr;a, Richfrr, Braun, Duinef- 

 nii, Hill — have compiltd, in this depart- 

 C incut 



