264 OPERATIONS SUBSIDIARY TO INDUCTION. 



conduct, character, habits, and outward appearance, in 

 whomsoever found, which, according to the ideas of 

 that age, belonged or were expected to belong to 

 persons born and educated in a high social position. 



It continually happens that of two words, whose 

 dictionary meanings are either the same or very 

 slightly different, one will be the proper word to use 

 in one set of circumstances, another in another, with- 

 out its being possible to show how the custom of so 

 employing them originally grew up. The accident 

 that one of the words was used and not the other on 

 a particular occasion or in a particular social circle, 

 will be sufficient to produce so strong an association 

 between the word and some speciality of circum- 

 stances, that mankind abandon the use of it in any 

 other case, and the speciality becomes part of its sig- 

 nification. The tide of custom first drifts the word 

 on the shore of a particular meaning, then retires and 

 leaves it there. 



An instance in point is the remarkable change 

 which, in the English language at least, has taken 

 place in the signification of the word loyalty. That 

 word originally meant in English, as it still means in 

 the language from whence it came, fair, open dealing, 

 and fidelity to engagements : in that sense the quality 

 it expressed was part of the ideal chivalrous or 

 knightly character. By what process, in England, the 

 term became restricted to the single case of fidelity to 

 the throne, I am not sufficiently versed in the history 

 of courtly language to be able to pronounce. The 

 interval between a loyal chevalier and a loyal subject 

 is certainly great. I can only suppose that the word 

 was, at some period, the favourite term at court to 

 express fidelity to the oath of allegiance, until at 

 length those who wished to speak of any other, and 



