derived from other languages, and not our own. The most thoro scholars
have found this task no easy affair. Most grammarians have let it pass
unobserved; but every person has seen the necessity of some explanation
upon this point, to afford a means of ascertaining the etymological
derivation and meaning of these words. I would here enter farther into
this subject, but I am reminded that I am surpassing the limits set me
for this course of lectures.

The attention I have bestowed on this part of the present subject, will
not be construed into a mere verbal criticism. It has been adopted to
show you how, in the definition or description of things, the mind
clings to one thing to gain some information concerning another. When we
find a thing unlike any thing else we have ever known, in form, in size,
in color, in every thing; we should find it a difficult task, if not an
impossibility, to describe it to another in a way to give any correct
idea of it. Having never seen its like before, we can say little of its
character. We may give it a _name_, but that would not be understood. We
could say it was as large as--no, it had no size; that it was like--but
no, it had no likeness; that it resembled--no, it had no resemblance.
How could we describe it? What could we say of it? Nothing at all.

What idea could the Pacha of Egypt form of ice, having never seen any
till the french chemists succeeded in freezing water in his presence?
They told him of ice; that it was _cold_; that it would freeze; that
whole streams were often frozen over, so that men and teams could walk
over them. He believed no such thing--it was a "christian lie." This
idea was confirmed on the first trial of the chemists, which failed of
success. But when, on the second attempt, they succeeded, he was all in
raptures. A new field was open before him. New ideas were produced in
his mind. New qualities were learned; and he could now form some idea of