The Sun.
London, England, 1812-10-01 00:00:00

ternal perfection, a tirtuinstahce hig ly cations
in the history.of language, cons'equentiv in therh is-
tory of the human mind itself; and the complete
demonstration of which of course reflects . great
credit upon its atithor. .
" What he thinks be has proved is; that the
etymological history of words is our true .guide,
both as to the present import of the words them-.
selves, and as to the nature of things which they
are intended to signify—a proposition so mon-
strous, that he has no where ventured, to enunci-
ate it in its general form, but. has rather left it to
be collected from the ten-our of his remarks upon
different instances- In truth, the iffierences at
which Mr. Tooke arrived, so far from being warms
ranted by his facts, are directly the contrary of
these to which he ought naturally to have been led
by the result of his own studies, when they were
most successful.

"In tracing upwards through the ma/es- of
etymology, the origin of words he ought to have
seen more clearly, if possible, than any body else;
that their real present sense.is not to be. sought
for in their primitive signification, or in the ele-
ments of whiCh they. were originally composed;
but, on the contrary, their actual import, with
which alone in reasoning we have to do; hardly
ever corresponds with their etymological -mean=.
ing, although the one always bears to the other a
certain resemblance, more.or less accurate, accord..
ing to the greater or.leas effect. of.: time and acei-;
dent. One could without diffiCAty understand
how a person unaccustomed to such Considerati-
ons, and misled by a few instances partially chc).=
sen, should adopt a~ theory like _that which•Mr:
Tooke was desirous of establishing ; but how a,
philosopher minutely acquainted- with the whole
subject, and proceeding upon a most copious in-
duction of particulars, should not have perceived.
that in ninety-nine instances out of .a hundred,
such a doctrine would)ead to absolute absurdity,
is, to us at least inconceivable. We will, take a,
single instance, which willisatter explain what we
mean'. .It is ,one of those which have been select=
ed by- Mr. Stewart ;. (vide .Diversions of Purley,
vol. 2,:p.
True, as we now write it, or trew, as it was
formerly Written, means simply and ines:ely—that
which is trowed. -And, instead of its being a rare
commodity on earth, except only in words, there
is nothing but truth in the world.
That every man, in communication with
others should speak that which he trowel), is of
so great importance to that it
.ought not
to surprise us, if we find the most extravagant
and exagerated praises bestowed upon truth.'
" Now we apprehend' that this passage con-
tains one very questionable proposition, and two
more that are absolutely false.
" In the first place, we think it doubtful, whe-2
ther those who first formed the noun truth,
froM the verb to trove' meant to limit their new
coined•word to the sense, which in strictness it
seems to bear. It appears a much more natural
account of the matter to say, that having found
or believing they had found that what is trowed,'.
as commonly the same as what is,' they were
content that the one expression should be con-
sidered universally as synonimous with the
other, and therefore used the word truth'
from the very beginning, in precisely the same
sense as that in which we now employ it.
To speak what one thinks or trows is in a moral
sense to speak truth,—that is, not to conceal or
disguise what is in the mind ; and the word being
once generally adopted for expicssing moral truth,
was in process of time naturally extended to phy-
:sical ; nothing being more common in popular
practice than -to include a whole class of kindred
ideas under one term; especially where the dis-
tinction between theta is of a subtle abstract na-
ture, and out of the range ,of vulgar observation.
But supposing (what for the sake of the argument
we will admit), that they intended to use the word
in its more confined and strictly derivative mean'-':
ing; still, what becomes of Mr. Tooke's infe—
rence, that it is, or ought to be (for we are not•
quite sure which he means) employed in no other
meaning now ? What 'is this but to set. op :the
supposed practice of a barbarous period, against
the universal consent of whole, ages of civilization
and learning ?, Is .not language purely conven-
tional ? And are not words merely the signs by
which men ha.ve agreed to convey (as well as they
can) certain' ideas ? And is it not therefore to
the last degree idle to talk of the precise etymolo-
, logical signification, or the intention'of the Anglo
Saxons, as that which ought to outweigh the
unbroken custom of a whole nation through eight
or nine centuries. ?, But it is only wasting time to
argue against such a doctrine ; let us however ad-
vance a stepfather in concession, and allow not
only that the word truth' was originally used in
its: strict etymological.signification, but that out of
respect to the Ileptarchy,.it ought to he used only
in that signification,-T-and still we :should not be
one. particle. nearer to Mr. Tooke's last and most
monstrous conclusion; namely, that there is no
such thing as truth, in the sense in which -we
have erroneously presumed to use the word for
several-hundred years past. Nothing more could
be inferred from either proposition, than that
which is directly stated in them—that the subjects
of Ethelwolf and Wurgan had no intention. of
eternal immutable truth, and that we have no
business to use their word to convey ideas diffe-
rent from tbax which they annexed to it ; in
short it woulirbe shewn that the language was im-
perfect ; but the metaphysical question about.
truth would remain just where stood before."

(To be continued.)

SEPT. 26.—0 n Thursday last the Rev. Dr. rLA-
34ANK yvas unanimously elected Mayor of Budtnin,
Cornwall, for the year ensuing: •