122 



Locutius in Fabrica. 



that it consists of a term invented in Belgium not much more than 

 two hundred years ago, and a word from classical Greek, welded 

 together, nobody knows why, by the letter o — is of no consequence ; 

 but what is of consequence is, that it means a measurer of gas and is 

 understood as indicating a reservoir of gas. In the name of common 

 sense, when one means a gas-holder, why not say so ? Hydropathy, 

 too, is a disgrace to the language. Homoeopathy (similar sickness) is 

 correct, indicating as it does a method of treatment based on the 

 belief that "like cures like"; and allopathy (different sickness), 

 though of course rather a nickname than a scientific term, may pass 

 muster as designating the practice that commonly relies on agencies 

 which are found to reverse the symptoms of the patient. Hydropathy 

 (water sickness) can only be accounted for by supposing that the 

 inventor of the word imagined that it might mean water-care, which 

 of course it cannot. 



But by far the most important suggestion offered by the analogies 

 of the little shop, relates to the folly of misusing our verbal tools ; and 

 just here is the one great point of dissimilarity between the English 

 language and the equipment of my friend's work-room. A mallet may 

 be highly polished as to its head and rough-hewn as to its handle, and 

 yet give entire satisfaction. But it would hardly work well on chisels, 

 if the owner were in the habit of using it to drive nails. That is 

 exactly what we not unfrequently do in speech, and the natural result 

 follows ; the nails are not driven straight, and we presently find that 

 we have spoiled our mallet. We speak for instance of preposterous 

 statements, meaning only that they are incorrect or absurd. Now 

 preposterous is not properly synonymous with either of these adjec- 

 tives, but has a definite meaning of its own which can be expressed 

 by no other word, signifying as it does the putting of something first 

 which ought to be last — the getting of the cart before the horse, as it 

 were. We are badly compensated for losing the power of expressing 

 this idea in a single word, by gaining a new and hardly distinguishable 

 synonym for absurd. 



A mallet which has been so persistently used as a hammer by the 

 legal profession, without sense or necessity, as to be pretty effectually 

 ruined, is enjoin. It can hardly be necessary to remark that to enjoin 

 a course of conduct is to urge that it be followed; the lawyers, oddly 

 enough, have so perverted the meaning as to reverse it completely ; in 

 their dialect, to enjoin an act is to forbid it! Thus I read in the 

 Albany Law Journal (vol. 28, page 43) that "in Leete v. Pilgrim 

 Church, St. Louis Court of Appeals, the ringing of church chimes 

 between 9 p. m. and 7 a. m. was enjoined. The court refused to enjoin 

 the ringing for worship on Sunday or in the daylight hours, and con- 



