FOOTNOTES:

[2] Bogue, London: 1852.




ARCHBISHOP WHATELY'S BOOK OF SYNONYMS.


Accuracy of language is one of the things which, in ordinary speech and
writing, is but indifferently observed. The reason, perhaps, is to be
sought, not in any general indifference to correctness or precision, but
rather in the want of some recognised authority, some specific rules or
principles, to which the use of words apparently synonymous, yet of
slightly different signification, might be distinctly and easily
referred. It is in regard to the finer shades of meaning, the subtler
touches of expression, the application of words and phrases where the
strictest exactness and perspicuity are required, that an ordinary
English style is apt to become loose and shadowy; and it is precisely
here that we are entitled to expect the severest, chastest form of
utterance. Coleridge used to complain of a general confounding of the
word 'notion' with 'idea,' and was often at great pains to point out the
distinction between the two, as also between many other words similarly
misused. Archdeacon Hare, too, has remarked upon the common
misapplication of such words as 'education' for 'instruction,'
'government' for 'administration,' 'the church' for 'the priesthood' or
'ministry;' and indeed holds that such a confounding of terms leads to
serious practical misunderstandings and confusions.[3] Any one, upon
reflection, will perceive that in the common use of these and numberless