i^9^' remarks on grammar. 275 



improving those which fhall be written in future. 

 Every attempt of this sort must be perfected bj de- 

 grees. Those who come first, pave the way for o- 

 thers i the very errors of former writers serve to di- 

 rect those who come after thein ; so that it may of- 

 ten happen, that the earliest v/riters of dictionaries, 

 may have a much better claim to merit than their 

 SLiccefsors, though the writings of these last be much 

 more perfect than the others. Peculiarities which con- 

 tribute in a high degree to give elegance and beauty 

 to a language, when that language is perfectly known 

 by the person who employs it, frequently are the 

 causes of obscurity and inelegance in the hands of 

 persons who know not how to avail themselves of 

 the treasures that language contains. This is re- 

 markably the case, in respect to all those words 

 which are nearly synonymous. There is not per- 

 haps to be foun^ in any language, two words that 

 are exactly synonymous, so that a person w>o is cri- 

 tically accurate in the use of words, will scarcely 

 find an occasion in which one word can be substitu- 

 ted for another, without either marring the sense, di- 

 mniifhing the energy, or hurting the- elegance of the 

 phrase ; but, to a carelefs and inaccurate writer, iive 

 or six words will often be accounted entirely sy- 

 nonymous. It may indeed happen, that when an 

 object is considered in one point of view only, two 

 words may be indifferently used, because the circum- 

 stance that constitutes the discriminating idea be- 

 tween tliese two words is not intended to be noticed. 

 But on another occasion, the one word would be 

 infinitely more proper than the other 5 and how is a 



