1825.) © 
primitive to which (with or without 
contraction) it is affixed (as vandal, 
vandalism, barbarian, barbarism ; egotist, 
egotism ; fatality, fatalism ; true, true- 
ism, &¢c.), so should idiotism be exclu- 
sively used to signify the state or con- 
dition of being idiotic, or that which 
pertains to the nature or condition of 
idiots. The word, indeed, is now but 
rarely used at all—having been almost 
supplanted, perhaps with no very good 
reason for the preference, by the word 
idiotcy or idiocy. There is, however, 
one sense in which it might with the 
utmost propriety still be used to sig- 
nify “a peculiarity of expression” —-to 
wit, such a peculiarity of expression, as 
a@ foolish, ignorant, or illiterate person 
alone would make use of. In this sense 
the word hasno synonyme; and in such 
sense it ought, therefore, still to be pre- 
served; and we should certainly be 
well satisfied with a rule that it never 
should be used as meaning any thing 
else: for we recur again to the maxim 
—the propriety of which our corres- 
pondent has admitted,—that the same 
word should never be used in two different 
senses, if another can be found by which 
either of those senses can be expressed ; 
to which we will add, that two different 
words (for that we can always avoid) 
should never be used precisely in the 
same sense: absolute synonymes being 
as great an incumbrance to language, 
as comparative synonymes are a grace. 
There is another circumstance which 
we should also notice,—particularly, as 
it is to a foreigner that we are writing. 
There can be little doubt that the word 
idiotism passed into our language from 
the French; and it is undisputed, that 
in the French language the word is oc- 
easionally used to signify idiomaticism 
(a word, by the way, which we use for 
the necessity of the occasion, without 
the least intention of passing it either as 
current English or French).—“ Idioma- 
tisme, s.m. propriété, maniére de parler 
particulicre d une langue :’—Boyrr: 
a definition which we find thus lamely' 
and absurdly translated, in Mitand’s 
London edition, 1816—“ peculiarity of 
speech,” But it is to be observed, that 
words adopted from the French so fre- 
quently change their shades of signifi- 
cation in the soil into which they are 
transplanted, that it is even reeommend- 
ed as an important precaution to trans- 
lators, never to use a word of French 
derivation, when translating French 
into English, if a word of Saxon, i. e. 
primitive English derivation, can be 
Gradation of Universal Being. 
421 
found to express the sense. It is one 
of the abominations of our translated 
literature, that, in the hasty and slovenly 
way in which it is too frequently .exe- 
cuted, our language is barbarized, or 
Babelized, and the sense confounded, by 
the perpetual use of words of French 
derivation in an wnanglicized sense. 
There is much that might be_ said 
upon this subject, both of what is cu- 
rious and what is important ; but we 
have already trespassed too far on the 
space which belongs to our correspon 
dence: and yet we should, perhaps, 
have been deficient in what is due to 
ourselves and to M. Duvard, if we had 
passed- over his observations without 
reply. 
———- 
Onthe Grapation of UNiveRSALBEING. 
[Concluded from page 310. J 
O sound philosopher will con- 
found instinct with reason, be- 
cause an ourang outang has used a walk- 
ing-stick, or a trained elephant a lever, 
Reason imparts powers that are \pro- 
gressive, and, in many cases, without 
any assignable limit—instinct only mea~ 
sures out faculties which arrive at a ver- 
tain point, and there invariably slop, 
Thus the elephant, the most sagaciyus 
of the brute creation, delights in jhe 
sugar-cane, and giyes evident india 
tions that this is a food which he je- 
lishes in the highest degree ; and, whin 
he once discovers where it can. te 
found, will expose himself to any dangr 
in order to obtain it. But no elephait 
has ever yet been able to discover, tht 
if the joints of this plant be buried 
a certain depth in the earth, they w 
there revive, and produce shoots, which, 
In due time, will afford abundance 
his favourite food, if it be not destroye 
before that period. This kind of rea 
soning, although it be simple and ob, 
vious to all mankind, is far beyond th¢ 
limited faculties of brutes; on whick 
account they are, and ever must. be, 
subservient to man, whenever he 
chooses to exert his powers for that 
purpose.—Anderson’s Recreations. 
Five thousand years have added no 
‘improvement to the hive of the bee, 
nor to the house of the beaver: but 
look at the habitations and achieve- 
ments of man; observe reflection, ex-| 
perience and judgment, at one time 
enabling the head to save the hand; at 
another dictating a wise and prospec- 
tive economy, exemplified in the most 
lavish expenditure of means, but to be 
repaid with the most usurious interest 
by 
