WOR 
finer of the nearest port, as directed by tl»e 
statute. 
Wool combers. By 35 George III., 
c. 124, all those who have served an ap- 
prenticeship to the trade of a wool coiriber, 
or who are by law entitled to exercise the 
same, and also their wives and children, 
may set up and exercise such trade, or any 
other trade or business they are apt and 
able for, in any town or place within this 
kingdom, without any molestation ; nor 
shall such wool combers, their wives or 
children, while they exeicise such trades, 
be removeable from such place to their last 
legal settlement, till they shall actually be- 
come chargeable to such parish. 
WORD, or Watch word, in an army or 
garrison, is some pectiliar word or sentence, 
by which the soldiers know and distinguish 
one another in the night, &c. and by which 
spies and designing persons are discovered. 
It is used also to prevent surprises. The 
word is given out, in an hrmy, every night 
to the lieutenant, or major-general of the 
day, who gives it to the majors of the bri- 
gades, and they to the adjutants, who give 
it first to the field officers, and afterwards 
to a Serjeant of each company, who carry 
it to the subalterns. In garrisons, it is given, 
after the gate is shut, to the town major, 
who gives it to the adjutants, and they to 
the Serjeants. 
WORDS. As we proposed, in Philoso- 
phy, mental, § 104, we shall lay before our 
readers a view of Hartley’s very important 
principles, respecting some of the leading 
phenomena of the understanding ; and we 
beg to refer our readers to Understand- 
ing, for another branch of those phenome- 
na. These principles illustrate and apply 
the doctrine of association ; and we deem 
it certain, that the philosophy of language 
can be pursued with complete success, only 
by those who have closely attended, prac- 
tically, if not theoretically, to the influence 
of that ever active principle. 
Words may be considered in four lights : 
first, as impressions upon the ear; secondly, 
as the actions of the organs of speech ; 
thirdly, as impressions made upon the eye 
by characters ; fourthly, as the actions of 
the hand in writing. We learn the use of 
them in this order ; for children first get an 
imperfect knowledge of the meaning of 
the words of others ; then learn to speak 
themselves ; then to read ; and, lastly, to 
write. Now it is evident, that in the first 
of these ways many sensible impressions, 
smd exterhal feelings, are associated with 
WOR 
particular words and phrases, so as to give 
these the power of raising the correspond- 
ing ideas; and that the three following ways 
increase and improve this power, with some 
additions to the ideas and variations of 
them. The second is the reverse of the. 
first, the fourth of the third. The first as- 
certains the ideas belonging to words and 
phrases in a gross manner, according to 
their usage in common life. The second 
fixes this, and makes it ready and accurate. 
The third has the same effect as the second ; 
and also extends the ideas and significations 
ot words and phrases, by new associations, 
and in particular, by associations with other 
words, as in definitions, descriptions, &c. 
The fourth, by converting the reader into a 
writer, helps him to be expert in distin- 
guishing, quick in recollecting, and faithful 
in retaining, these ' new significations of 
words. The action of the hand is not, in- 
deed, an essential in this fourth method ; 
composition by persons born blind having 
nearly the same effect; it is, however, a 
common attendant on composition, and has 
a considerable use deducible from associa- 
tion, at the same time making the analogy 
between the four metliods more conspi- 
cuous and complete. 
Hence it appears, that words and phrases 
must excite ideas in us by association ; and 
it further appears, that they can do it by no 
other means, since all the ideas which any 
word excites are deducible from some of 
the sources above tnentioned, most usually 
from the first or third : and because words 
of unknown languages, terms of art not yet 
explained, barbarous words, &c. have either 
no ideas connected with them, or only such 
as some fancied resemblance, or prior asso-, 
ciation suggests. It deserves to be remark- 
ed, that articulate sounds are, by their va- 
riety, number, and ready use, peculiarly fit- 
ted to signify and suggest, by association, 
both our simple ideas, and our complex 
ones formed from them. 
We now proceed to describe the manner 
in which ideas are associated with words, 
beginning with childhood. 
First, then, the association of the names 
of visible objects, with the impressions 
which these objects make upon the eye, 
seems to take place more early than any 
other, and to be effected in the following 
manner. The name of the visible object, 
the mother, for instance, is pronounced and 
repeated by the attendants to the child, 
more frequently when his eye is fixed upon 
his mother, than when upon any other ob- 
