ever better understand the popular ufage of thefe words by fuch an example as the following. We LIKE all companions that are in themselves agreeable; but CHOOSE WITH PREFERENCE thofe whofe ftudies and habits are congenial to our own. We APPROVE the men who employ much of their time upon aftronomical obfervations; but are moft apt to BE PLEASED WITH people who converfe about what touches our intereft more nearly, and lies as we fay closer to our own level.

TO LINGER, TO PROTRACT.

THESE elegant verbs, in the fenfe I mean to speak of them here, are certainly not far from being fynonymous. PROCRASTINATION and DELAY fhall be spoken about in their places; while the LINGERING poifon with which the Guinea Blacks touch their arrows, and produce in those who are wounded by them long PROTRACTED and innumerable difeafes, we have now at length found out to be no other than the putrid matter emanating from dead bodies; which matter laid on the weapon's head, like that of the fmall pox upon a furgeon's lancet, inoculates with certain efficacy the hapless perfon whofe fkin is razed by an arrow thus prepared, and who hopes in vain for cure from year to year,

-and fhuns to know

That life PROTRACTED is PROTRACTED Woe.

LIVERY

LIVERY AND UNIFORM.

WE make the difference confift merely now o' days in obferving that fervants wear the first of thefe, and gentlemen the other; for although all LIVERIES muft neceffarily be UNIFORM, yet is not every UNIFORM a LIVERY: witness the king of England, who wears one almoft conftantly.

Meantime 'tis certainly no dictionary word, nor would Dr. Johnson have endured with patience to hear this adjective fubftantized, as I may fay-though 'tis faid Dion gives a hint of regular colours worn as badges of diftinction, given to those troops who fought mock battles in the Circus at Rome.

Louis Quatorze firft brought them into fashion for these modern days; and it was a device of his own suggesting too, when he new modelled his army, and appointed each regiment fome mode of dress and colour by which they should be distinguished and known.

The cavalier of older times thought no fcorn of wearing a lady's LIVERY, and of profeffing himself her true and loyal fervant; nor was the conqueft of the Low Countries effected but by a vow made by the Duke d'Alva to a high-born dame, that he would lay those provinces at her feet. I cannot tell whether 'tis generally known that romance lived fo very late in the world as this, although an Italian lady ftill calls the

gentleman

tleman who waits to receive her commands, her cavalier fervente; and often requires from him an attendance painful and exact enough to weary one who did not confider fuch commands as an honour, although he no longer wears her UNIFORM or LIVERY. Till Henry Bolingbroke's reign here in England, the great nobles' colours were worn by many dependent gentlemen, not vaffals, who thought the diftinction, reputable, not disgraceful-who espoused the quarrels of the house, and were deficient in every virtue rather than fidelity.

Shakespeare's Mercutio bears teftimony to this usage in Verona, where no doubt he knew it still subsisted, and nearly in full force;-when the quarrelfome Tybalt cries out on feeing Romeo-a Montague, and his enemy of courfe— "Oh! God be wi' you, Sir; here comes my man:"-to which the other replies with a quibble expreffive of contempt-" But I'll be hanged, Sir, if he wear your LIVERY."

LOTH, UNWILLING, DISLIKING, NOT INCLINED.

THESE adverbs are not ftrictly though nearly fynonymous; for a young woman may reafonably enough be very UNWILLING to disclofe her paffion for a man, without any fuch cause as the abfolutely DISLIKING his perfon, or finding herself seriously NOT INCLINED to marriage; but fhe is delicate to confefs her difpofitions in

his favour, and prudently LOTH to put her peace into the power of another, when it could fcarcely be called safe even in her own.

LOUD, NOISY, CLAMOROUS, TURBULENT,
STORMY, VEHEMENT, BLUSTERING.

NATIVES of England know instinctively, but foreigners must be informed, that these attributives have moft effect being appropriated fome to things and fome to perfons: we cannot, for example, call the weather CLAMOROUS, let tempefts rage never fo high; and though Shakefpeare fays" Have done, have done, you're LOUDER than the weather!" it is faid but to express the outcry of the people-that word being apparently adapted to ftrife of tongues, while the reft do moft properly belong to elementary contentions, altho' fometimes brought forward to exprefs verbal difputes and violence of argument by a figure common enough.

Let us try for an example likely to include them all. A failor who efcaped the wreck of the Indiaman, was faying how unhappy a case it was for those ships to be fo laden. as they fometimes are with female paffengers; for that nothing furely ever equalled the distress of its unfortunate commander, who bringing home his daughters and niece for education, almoft in fight of land a hard gale rofe, and roughened old Ocean in a tremendous manner;

while

while thunderbolts falling frequently about them, and the winds, LOUDER and more BLUSTERING than he had ever heard, ftruck terror into all on board: nor could the ftouteft heart refift a tender impulfe, when three beautiful girls, who at night lay down upon their beds void of care and full of hope, ftarted from them at morning twilight, roufed by the dreadful call of CLAMOROUS tongues trying to be heard among the fhock of waves breaking over the veffel with NOISY violence and TURBULENT excess-and coming upon deck clung round the captain, begging from his encumbered arm, with fpeechlefs though VEHEMENT agony, that protection which Heaven alone in fuch emergence can beftow ;-till the weather now more STORMY at fun-rifing fhewed them their native fhore-then, fplitting the fhip afunder, precluded all poffibility of efcape for them; and took from the too-wretched parent all defire of furviving fuch deftruction. The failor who told the tale faw them no more.

LOWLY, MODEST, MEEK, BASHFUL, HUMBLE.

ADJECTIVES defcriptive all of qualities fo charming, that every one prizes them beyond every excellence attainable, when they are found in fome one elfe; though none, but those who really run the great race, defirous to advance themselves in Chriftian perfection, much

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appear