quires something in it is vacant. Empty is a natural, vacant, a circumstantial quality. A space is purposely left vacant which is intended to be filled up; a space is empty which is merely not filled up. If we rise from our chair, the seat is empty; if we do not intend to return to it, the seat is vacant. A seat in Parliament becomes vacant by the death of a member. A vacant hour wants filling up; an empty title has nothing solid in it. [Const. Stuffs out his vacant garments with his form Ant. When my good stars, that were my former guides. 66 'Why should the air so impetuously rush into the cavity of the receiver, if there were before no room to receive it?" "I did never know so full a voice issue from so saying is true, the a heart; but the vessel makes the greatest sound." -, thought the eye; when you walk, he "Others, when they admitted that the throne was succession should immediately go to the next heir." "When you speak, he listens with a watches you with a curled lip; if he dines with you, he sends away your best hock with a wry face." "Cold is the hearth within their bowers, And should we thither roam; Would sound like voices from the dead" "The watch-dog's voice that bayed the whispering wind, And the loud laugh that spoke the mind." "If you have two vessels to fill, and you one to fill the other, you gain nothing by that; there still remains one vessel "The pit was "The memory relieves the mind in her any chasms of thought, by ideas of what is past." moments, and prevents Warlike-Martial. Martial qualifies the external appearance, and is used passively; warlike qualifies the spirit, and is active in its meaning. A martial appearance has reference to the " pomp and circumstance" of war; a warlike appearance, to the expression and attitude of warriors. A man who breathes a spirit of hostility has a warlike appearance; a man in armour, or in military uniform, has a martial appearance. victorious lance, were the rewards which the champions claimed from the liberality of their chief." "But when our country's cause provokes to arms, state grows soft and effeminate, they may be sure of a "When a war." "She, using so strange and yet so well-succeeding a temper, made her These two words, though approximating very closely in signification, do not convey exactly the same meaning. The distinction between them depends on the active or passive sense of the words which they qualify. Inevitable respects some fixed law of nature over which no human power can prevail; whereas unavoidable qualifies some measure or step which we cannot help taking. That is unavoidable which circumstances will not allow us to escape from doing; that is inevitable which our condition, as human beings, will not allow us to escape from suffering. Death, fate, and ruin, are represented as inevitable; a bankruptcy or a marriage may be unavoidable. [Cor. 'Tis fond to wail inevitable strokes As 'tis to laugh at them. since fate inevitable Subdues us, and omnipotent decree Coriolanus, iv. 2. P. L., ii. 197. Why with such earnest pains dost thou provoke WORDSWORTH. Ode on Intimations,' &c.] Exercise. The His affairs were so deeply involved, that an exposure was become consequences of extravagance are ruin and misery. In consequence of the non-arrival of the packet, we were at the custom-house. delayed Had not the storm abated, we should have been shipwrecked. -- осса. Oppression on one side, and ambition on the other, are the sions of war. The evils to which every man is daily exposed are This step was, as without it, our ruin was "If our sense of hearing were exalted, we should have no quiet or sleep in the most silent night, and we must a clap of thunder.” -ly be struck deaf, or dead, with "The day thou eat'st thereof, my sole command Transgrest,ly thou shalt die." Single acts of transgression will, through weakness and surprise, be to the best guarded. SECTION III. SYNONYMES OF INTENSITY. IN examining the explanations in this section, it will be found that they are all based upon one leading principle, viz. intensity—that is, the difference between the one and the other word will be, that the second expresses a more intensive degree of the first. Here again, the student must be cautioned against confounding this principle with grammatical comparison. In grammar, the comparative is a more intensive form of the same word, (the adjective,) and is confined to one class of words; but here, the second word is wholly unlike the first in form, though it expresses a more intensive degree in signification. We may refer to this principle the difference be tween the two verbs to hear and to listen. To hear is a simple act, to listen is an intensive act. We cannot help hearing, but we listen with intention. The same may be said of to see and to look. It costs us no effort of the sense, to see—it is but opening the eye, and the scene enters;" but in looking, there is an effort, a desire, an act, in fine, of the mind as well as of the eye, which is not found in the former word. This principle operates to a great extent in language, and a very great number of differences are to be explained by its application. Whenever we find a difference of this sort between two terms, they may be ranged under the head of "Synonymes of Intensity." 66 Act-Action. An act is the simple exertion of physical or mental power. An action is a continued exertion of the faculties. An action takes up more time than an act. Many acts make up an action. We set about doing a kind action, viz. to reconcile two friends. Many acts are requisite to effect this purpose: e. g., the act of speaking to both parties; the act of walking, perhaps, from one to the other, &c. There is this difference between an act of folly and a foolish action: an act of folly is one in which folly is represented as the impulse; a foolish action is one which is qualified or specified as such when done. The degree of our merit depends upon our actions, not upon our acts. Acts are single; actions habitual. [Lod. This heavy act with heavy heart relate Othello, v. 2. when a foot-soldier, perceiving his purpose, rushed in between the combatants, and received the blow upon his arm. For this brave he was handsomely rewarded by his commander, and immediately promoted to the rank of a sergeant. Many persons judge wrongly of their neighbours, from not sufficiently considering the motives of their He was in the of shaking hands with a neighbour, when he was suddenly seized with a fit, and fell back senseless into an arm-chair. Our are generally caused by instinct or impulse; frequently the result of thought or deliberation. 66 Many of those are more which are apt to procure fame are not in their nature conducive to ultimate happiness." |