Secondly, there is the historical accident by which _implicit_, with
_faith, obedience, confidence_, and such words, has come to mean
absolute or full, whereas it originally meant undeveloped or potential
or in the germ. The starting-point of this usage is the ecclesiastical
phrase _implicit faith_, i.e. a person's acceptance of any article of
belief not on its own merits, but as a part of, as 'wrapped up in',
his general acceptance of the Church's authority; the steps from this
sense to unquestioning, and thence to complete or absolute or exact,
are easy; but not every one who says that implicit obedience is the
first duty of the soldier realizes that the obedience he is describing
is not properly an exact one, but one that is involved in acceptance
of the soldier's status.--[H.W.F.]

It seems to us (by virtue of this 'historical accident') that in such
a phrase as the _implied_ or _implicit conditions_ of a contract,
there is a recognized difference of meaning in the two words.
_Implied_ conditions, though unexpressed, need not be hidden, they are
rather such as any one who agreed to the main stipulation would
recognize as involved; and the word _implied_ might even carry the
plea that they were unspecified because openly apparent. On the other
hand _implicit_ conditions are rather such as are unsuspected and in a
manner hidden.--[ED.]




PRACTICALLY

A correspondent complains that the adverb 'almost' is being supplanted