won 
siceef, good, pretty, fine, &c. en the one 
hand; and the words bad, ugly, frightful, 
&c. on the other, being applied by the 
nurse and attendants in tlie child’s hearing, 
almost promiscuously, and without these 
restrictions that are observed in correct 
speaking ; the one set to all the pleasures, 
the other to all the pains of the several 
senses, must by association raise up general 
pleasant and painful feelings, in which no 
one part. can be distinguished above tire 
rest; and when applied by further associa- 
tions to objects of a neutral kind, they must 
transfer a general pleasure or pain upon 
them. 
5. Since words thus collect ideas from 
various quarters, unite them together, and 
transfer them both upon other words, and 
upon foreign objects, it is evident that the 
use of words adds much to the number and 
complexity of our ideas, and is the principal 
means by which we make mental and moral 
improvement. This is. verified abundantly 
by the observations which are made upon 
persons born deaf, and continuing so. It is 
probable, however, that these persons make 
use of some symbols to assist the memory, 
and fix the imagination; and they must 
have a great variety of pleasures and pains 
transferred upon visible objects from their 
associations with one another, and with sen- 
sible pleasures of all kinds ; but they are 
very deficient in this, upon the whole, 
through the want of the associations of visi- 
ble objects and states of mind, &c. with 
words. Learning to read must add greatly 
to their mental improvement ; yet still their 
intellectual capacities cannot but remain 
very narrow. 
Persons blind from birth must proceed 
in a manner different from that before de- 
scribed, in the first ideas which they affix 
to words. As the visible ones are wanting, 
the others, particularly the tangible and 
audible ones, must compose the aggregates 
which are annexed to words. However as 
they are capable of learning and retaining 
as great a variety of words as others, and 
can associate with them pleasures and pains 
from the four remaining senses, they fall 
little or nothing short of others in intellec- 
tual accomplishments, and may arrive even 
at a greater degree of spirituality and ab- 
straction in their complex ideas. 
6. Hence it follows that when children, 
or ethers, first learn to read, the view of 
the words excites ideas, only by the me- 
diation of their sounds, with which alone 
their ideas liave hitherto been, associated. 
WRE 
And thus it is that children and illiterate 
persons best understand what they read by 
reading aloud. By degrees the interme- 
diate links being left out, the written or 
printed characters suggest the ideas di- 
rectly and instantaneously ; so that per- 
sons who are much in the habit of reading, 
understand more readily by passing over 
the words with the eye only ; since this me- 
thod, by being more expeditious, brings the 
ideas closer together. However all are 
peculiarly affected by words pronounced in 
a manner suitable to their sense and design ; 
which is still an associated influence. 
WORKING, in fatrmf. A person may 
go abroad to work in harvest, carrying witli 
him a certificate from the minister, and one 
churchwarden, or overseer, that he hath a 
dwelling-house or place, in which he inha- 
bits, and hath left wife and children, or 
some of them, there, (or otherwise as his 
condition shall require) and declaring him 
an inhabitant there. 
WORMS. See Veumes. 
Worm, in gunnery, a screw of iron, to 
be fixed on the end of a rammer, to pull 
out the wad of a firelock, carabine, or pis- 
tol, being the same with the wad-hook, only 
the one is more proper for small arms, and 
the other for cannon. 
Worm, in chemistry, is a long, winding, 
pewter pipe, placed in a tub of water, to 
cool and condense the vapours in the distil- 
lation of spirits. 
W'oRM, a cable or haw'ser, in the sea 
language, is to strengthen it by winding a 
small line, or rope, all along between the 
strands. 
WORSTED, a kind of woollen thread, 
which, in the spinning, is twisted harder 
than ordinary. It is chiefly used either 
wove or knit into stockings, caps, gloves, or 
the like. 
WREATH, in heraldry, a roll of fine 
linen or silk (like that of a Turkish turban) 
consisting of the colours borne in the es- 
cutcheon, placed in an atchievement be- 
tween the helmet and the crest, and imme- 
diately supporting the crest. 
WRECK, such goods as, after a ship- 
wreck, are cast upon the land by the sea, 
and left there within some couqty, for they 
are not wrecks so long as they remain at 
sea, being within the jurisdiction of the 
Admiralty. 
Various statutes have been made relative 
to wreck, which was formerly a perquisite 
belonging to the King, or by special grant 
