the word engrave is not of Greek origin. But apart from these considerations, Mr. White ought to have known at what period Greek words began to be transferred directly into English. In the year 1500 there were probably but four men in all England who knew anything of Greek.

Under the head of Enquire, Enclose, Endorse, Mr. White says,

"A much-respected correspondent urges the condemnation of these words, and the advocacy of their disuse, because they are respectively from the Latin inquiro, includo, and in dorsum, and should, therefore, be written inquire, inclose, indorse. He is in error. They are, to be sure, of Latin origin, but remotely; they came to us directly from the French enquirer, encloser, and endosser."

There is, no doubt, a verb endosser, but who ever heard of such monstrosities as enquirer and encloser? Only writers who, in their ignorance of French and of the primary principles of etymology, coin them out of their own brain. The French verbs corresponding to enquire and enclose are enquérir and enclore. These are written with various orthographies, it is true, but never as Mr. White writes them. His remark notwithstanding, Chaucer and his contemporaries wrote enquest, enquere, seldom enquyre.

Mr. White very modestly confesses,

"My having in Sanskrit, like Orlando's beard, is a younger brother's revenue - what I can glean from the well-worked fields of my elders and betters."

That he might have said as much, or even more, of his English and French, judging them by the particular article under consideration, I think I have shown abundantly. I am almost tempted to leave his Latin unimpeached, to spare him "the most unkindest cut of all;" but I cannot. Il a perdu son latin. Under the head of the word Re liable, he says,

"This view of laughable seems to be supported by the fact that the counterpart of that adjective, risible, is not formed from the verb rideo to laugh (although, of course, derived from it);

but from the noun risum — a laugh, or laughter."

I should like to ask Mr. White, first, whether he knows that rideo means I laugh at as well as I laugh; second, whether he does not know that adjectives in bilis are sometimes formed from the stem of the supine as well as from that of the present of verbs; third, in what Latin author he ever found the noun risum, meaning a laugh or laughter; fourth, what risibilis means in Latin.

It would be easy to show ignorance of languages on the part of public instructors by many more examples, but I think the above will suffice to make evident the fact that their knowledge is often of the flimsiest kind. There are, unfortunately, in this country a large number of persons who get a reputation for learning simply because they have the presumption to write on learned subjects; their statements pass among the multitude unchallenged, because the country lacks a learned class, which, by its very presence, might deter sciolists from disgracing themselves by exhibitions of ignorance and presumption. I wait and hope for better things.

January 30, 1869.

Yours very faithfully,

MR. GRANT WHITE CONFESSES.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE ROUND Table.

0.4.

SIR: The Round Table" of February 27, which reached me only this morning, contains a communication, the purpose of which is, first, to maintain that standpoint is a nice English compound, and last (this being the gist of the matter), to make the little argument on stand-point the start-point of a tilt against me, overthrowing entirely my credit for knowledge of Latin, French, English, and other things in general, and ending in a

denunciation of "the public instructors" and "the multitude" of "this country;" which goal, when comfortably reached, is my assailant's sit-point.

That your readers may know whom I mean, I will say that the article to which I refer is signed with the strange characters" 4,” which, as nearly as I am able to discover, are two Greek letters, named theta and delta. Even to a person less ignorant than I am, these characters would only conceal the identity of an assailant who calls me out by my own name. But perhaps he hid his full terrors in kindness to me, or it did not suit his own purpose to let me know who it is that is hunting me for the amusement of the public; for in the latter case I might have seen that I was what the more learned boys at my school called a you xuv," and have come down at once, thus spoiling sport.

66

As to stand-point, I shall have no dispute with him. I shall merely ask to be allowed to say "from a scientific point of view," instead of " viewed from a scientific standpoint," and "the position of philosophy," instead of "the stand-point of philosophy." But I hope that it will not be looked upon by " 4" as an instance of my presumption, that I protest against his telling "J. B." that he "must know, for he has read Mr. White's remarks in the Galaxy, that stand-point is an Anglicized form of the German Stand-punkt." That I said no such thing as to the origin of the compound in question, will be seen by this repetition from the "Galaxy" of what I did say :— "STAND-POINT. To say the best of it, this is a poor compound. It receives some support, but not full justification, from the German Stand-punkt."

"0" may think that because two similar word-combinations or phrases exist in two languages, one must be formed by a mere phonetic change (in this case an Anglicization) of the other. Such is not my view of the formation of language. If your correspondent will con

sult some elementary philological work, he will learn that like forms of expression are found in languages which are not only without kindred, but without contact; and that such forms, being developed according to mental laws common to the race, are said to support each other.

Your correspondent again misrepresents me by saying that I do not seem to know "that telegram is altogether an incorrect formation." Here is what I did say :·

"TELEGRAM. - This word, claimed as an 'American' invention, has taken root quickly, and is probably well fixed in the language. It is convenient, and is correctly enough formed to pass muster."

I have mistaken the force of my language if it did not convey to my readers, every one of them, that in my judgement telegram is an incorrectly formed word, but that the irregularity is of a kind not worth making a point about.

“4” says, in relation to my remarks on the etymology of enquire, enclose, and endorse,

"There is, no doubt, a verb endosser, but who ever heard of such monstrosities as enquirer and encloser? Only writers who, in their ignorance of French and of the primary principles of etymology, coin them out of their own brain."

Certainly I neither heard nor coined them. The mere turning to "Webster's Unabridged" would have saved me from such a blunder. "O's" letter seems like the fruit of a frequent consultation of that work, the learning of which may be had by any one in a few minutes for a few dollars, even in a copy, like mine, of the old edition. To say nothing of knowledge, I must have been very lazy, or very imprudent, not to turn to that cheap "cram," if I did nothing more. I wrote enquerir, enclore, and endosser.*

*The mode and spirit of this critic's attacks-I will not say their purpose, for I sincerely believe that he did not mean to be dishonest-may be inferred from the fact that he again held me up as a pretentious ignoramus because in the passage quoted

Having ruthlessly shown that I know nothing of Eng. lish, or French, or "the primary principles of etymology," he is "almost tempted" to let me off without further exposure. But an opinion I hazarded upon the formation of laughable is too much for his self-denial, and he says of me, “Il a perdu son latin." I cannot be sufficiently grateful for the tenderness and the delicacy that led him to couch in a language unknown to me the terrors of the sentence it became his duty to pronounce. But the designs of benevolence are sometimes defeated, and the mysteries of learning are not always impenetrable. I have discovered in what way is my own secret

that the meaning of this awful denunciation is, that I have lost my Latin.* But even here is hidden balm; even here, benign concession. What I have lost I must once have had. I confess that I have lost something, perhaps without compensating gain, since a body of learned men sent me out from them with a certificate that I was an ingenuous youth, of faultless morals, imbued with humane letters. (If they had but known what they were doing!) But nevertheless I shall endeavor to answer these abstruse questions :

"I should like to ask Mr. White, first, whether he knows that rideo means I laugh at as well as I laugh; second, whether he does not know that adjectives in bilis are sometimes formed

from "Gil Blas" (p. 321 of this volume) sans, témoigna, qu', était, and contente were printed in "The Galaxy" dans, temoigna, q', etait, and content. It would seem that a minute's reflection would have shown him that as I must have written out the passage from the original, I had only to copy the letters that were before me, and be surely correct, even if I were as ignorant of French as I am of the language of the Man in the Moon.

*My judge does not quote the words in which he condemns me, perhaps because he assumed that all his readers would know their origin. Of this, perhaps, I alone among them am ignorant. The earliest use of the phrase that I remember is in the following passage of the "Recueil General des Caquets de l'Accouchée.” 1625.

"Que voulez vous ma Commere, dit une Rousse du mesme cartier, ainsi va la fortune, l'un monte, l'autre descend: pour moy ie ne l'ay iamais esprouvé favorable à mes desirs, i'ay dix enfans en nostre logis, dont le plus grand n'a que xij ans, il me met hors du sens, i'avois fait venir un Pedan de l'Université pour le tenir en bride: mais il y a perdu son latin, il [s] seront en fin contraints d'aller demander l'aumosne si le temps dure."- La Seconde Journée. p. 62.