179 i' * dictionary. I'j'j 



EXERCISES IN PRACTICAL GRAMMAR. 

 Continued from p. 152. 

 Dictionary. 

 Wide, adj. A term employed to denote relative extent in 

 certain circumstances. Opposed to narrow and strait. 



1. This term is, in its proper sense, applied only to de- 

 note the space contained within any body closed all round 

 on every side, as a house, gate, <b'c; and differs from broad 

 in this, that it never relates to the superficies of solid ob- 

 jects, but is employed to exprefs the capaciousnefs of any- 

 body vfhich containeth vacant space ; nor can capacious- 

 nefs, in this sense, be exprefsed by any other word but 

 ^ide. 



2. As many bodies may be considered either vi'ith res- 

 pect to their capaciousnefs or superficial extent j in all these 

 cases, either the term broaJ, or ivide, may be used j as a 

 i>road or ividestreel, oxditcb, &c. but with a greater or lefser 

 degree of propriety, according to the circumstances of the 

 object, or the idea we wilh to convey. In a street whers 

 the houses are low, and the boundaries open, or a ditch of 

 small depth and large superficies, as this largenefs of su- 

 perficies bears the principal proportion, broad would be 

 more proper •, but if the houses were of great height, or the 

 ditch of great depth, and capaciousnefs is a principal pro- 

 perty that affects the mind, we would naturally say a 

 ^ide street or ditch ; and the same may be said of all simi- 

 lar cases. But there are some cases in which both these 

 terms are applied, with a greater difference of mean- 

 ing : thus we say a broad or a ivide gate ^ but as the gate 

 i> employed either to denote the aperture in the wall, or 

 the matter which closes that aperture, these terms are 

 each of them used to denote that particular quality' to 



VOL. X. 4. J. 



