280 Onan Universal written Character. 
figured the English tongue, but have rendered it in 
many cases obscure, and in some absolutely unin- 
_telligible to by far the greatest number of those who 
use it. To give compound words their beauty and 
significancy, it is necessary that their constituent 
parts be known. If otherwise, the new word is not 
a sign, which, from its structure, conveys its own 
meaning: it is nothing more than a new arbitrary. 
mark, which must be explained in a dictionary or 
elsewhere, before the thing it is meant to represent 
can be known. ‘Thus to the mere English reader, 
the words omniscient, omnipotent, predestinatzon, tdo- 
latry, arbitrary, and many others less generally un- 
derstood, do not convey the ideas which in their ori- 
ginal languages they: are well fitted to represent: nay 
we have even the word superstitzon, which, as far as 
I see, the Romans themselves did not understand. 
The Russians use a word to denote. what we call 
superstition, which is easily intelligible. Their 
word is sweverie ,* from sue, vain; and verie, belief. 
And in English we have words universally under- 
stood to denote what is meant by the foreign com- 
pounds above noticed:—thus we know what is 
meant by all-wise, all-mighty, fore-appointment, 
idol-service, free-willful——But to return. 
If visible signs are made to represent the consti- 
tuent vocal signs of language, and if those are ap- 
* Pronounce every letter, asin Latin, 
