teacher of all Christians, he authoritatively defines what should be adhered to by the whole Church in matters of faith and morals; and that this prerogative of incapability to err, or infallibility of the Roman Pontiff, is equally extensive with the infallibility of the Church. If any one should presume to contradict this our definition, let him know that he thereby falls away from the truth of the faith." If this language be adopted by the Council, mild though it may be in comparrison with other texts which have been projected, the Infallibilists will have gained the day.'-(March, 1870.)

But fond as we appear to be of the Greek verbs in -ize and the Greek nouns in -ism, -ist, we have drawn very little from a Greek form that lies close beside these. There are Greek verbs in -aze, and corresponding noun-forms in -asm, -ast, which have been almost neglected by us. Perhaps we ought to rank among our English nouns those

In -asm, having lately heard so much of protoplasm, and having also the well-established words chasm, spasm, pleo

nasm.

chasm.

'On the night

When Uther in Tintagil past away

Moaning and wailing for an heir, the two

Left the still king, and passing forth to breathe,
Then from the castle gateway by the chasm

Descending thro' the dismal night-a night

In which the bounds of heaven and earth were lost-
Beheld so high upon the dreary deeps

It seem'd in heaven, a ship, the shape thereof

A dragon wing'd, and all from stem to stern
Bright with a shining people on the decks,

And gone as soon as seen.'

Alfred Tennyson, The Coming of Arthur.

And felt the boat shock earth, and looking up,
Beheld the enchanted towers of Carbonek,

A castle like a rock upon a rock,

With chasm-like portals open to the sea,
And steps that met the breaker!'

Id. The Holy Grail.

And also -ast. For the recent protoplasm has its counterpart in an elder protoplast, which had its day under the reign of other theories. The word was used to designate the

Men

'first-formed' (Tрwróпλaσros), that is to say Adam. theorised in the days of protoplast just as hardily as they do in these days of protoplasm. For Richardson quotes Glanvill in a book entitled The Vanity of Dogmatizing, saying:

Upon such considerations, to me it appears to be most reasonable, that the circumference of our protoplast's senses should be the same with that of nature's activity: unless we will derogate from his perfections, and so reflect a disparagement on him that made us.'

In conclusion, we will notice a group of nouns of a peculiarly national stamp. They are easy and familiar expressions formed by a curtailment of longer words, and are mostly monosyllabic. It is generally but not always the first part that has been retained. Thus for 'speculation' we hear spec, for 'omnibus' bus, for 'cabriolet' cab, for 'incognito' incog. The curt expression of tick for credit is as old as the seventeenth century, and is corrupted from ticket, as a tradesman's bill was formerly called. John Oldham (1683) has:

:

'Reduced to want, he in due time felt sick,
Was fain to die, and be interred on tick.'

If it appear below the dignity of philology to notice such half-recognised slang, let it be remembered that this science is quite as much concerned with first efforts, of however uncouth an aspect, as it is with those mature forms which enjoy the most complete literary sanction. The words which one generation calls slang, are not unfrequently the sober and decorous terms of that which succeeds. The term bus has made for itself a very tolerable position, and cab is absolutely established. The curt form of gent as a less ceremonious substitute for the full expression of 'gentleman,' had once made considerable way, but its career was blighted in a court of justice. It is about twenty years ago that two young men, being brought

before a London magistrate, described themselves as 'gents.' The magistrate said that he considered that a designation little better than 'blackguard.' The abbreviate form has never been able to recover that shock.

A more respectable example of a curt form is the title Miss, which, though nothing but the first syllable of Mistress, has won its way to an honoured position.

Already in 1711, Mr. Spectator, in an interesting paper for the study of the English language, No. 135, commented upon the tendency of these curt forms to get themselves established.

It is perhaps this humour of speaking no more than we needs must, which has so miserably curtailed some of our words, that in familiar writings and conversations they often lose all but their first syllables, as "mob. rep. pos. incog." and the like; and as all ridiculous words make their first entry into a language by familiar phrases, I dare not answer for these, that they will not in time be looked upon as part of our tongue.'

In fact, these words have a crude and fragmentary look only while they are recent. Give time enough, and the abruptness disappears. Who now thinks of mole (talpa) as a curt form of moldiwarp the mouldcaster? Who finds it vulgar to say Consols, though this is but a curt way of saying Consolidated Annuities? A peal of bells is even an elegant expression, although it is curtailed from appeal. Story is a pretty word, though curt for history. But it has always. borne a comparatively familiar sense, as it does to the present day. It is only used twice in the text of our Bible, and then to represent midrash, that is, commentary upon history rather than history. But into the contents of the chapters, which are couched in homelier speech, we find it more readily admitted. Thus in Deuteronomy:—

'CHAP. I. Moses' speech in the end of the fortieth yeere, briefly rehearsing the story, &c.'

CHAP. II. The story is continued, &c.'

CHAP. III. The story of the conquest of Og king of Basban.'

Curtailments which are now obsolete, are in some cases preserved to us in compound words. Thus the word cobweb seems to indicate that the atter cop (old word for spider) was curtly called a cop or cob.

We have been very easy in our admission of long classic words; nay, we have exhibited a large appetite for them. But there still lingers the Saxon taste for the monosyllable, and it often breaks out in the writer of fine taste, when for a moment he feels unawed by critical observers. A clear example of this occurs in a letter of Keble's, wherein he has adopted the highly expressive word splotch.

We have two girls and little Edward with us, and a great splotch of sunshine they make in the house.'-Life of Keble, p. 394.

This word has its habitat in Oxfordshire, where schoolchildren may be heard to use it in speaking of a blot on their copybooks.

There has been in our time a visible reaction against the tyranny of long words, in favour of the despised monosyllable. We have not indeed arrived at the decision

But ostentation and pride of invention is now seen at least as often in short or Saxon-like words as it is in the longrobed words of classic sweep. Perhaps it may be the case that the Americans are leading the way in this. Certain it is that words of this character do win their way into English literature from across the Atlantic. The following introduction of a new word is in point.

'Boston is the hub of the world. So say those who, not being Massachusetts men themselves, are disposed to impute extravagant pretensions to the good old Puritan city. The bub, in the language of America, is the

nave, or centre-piece of the wheel, from which the spokes radiate, and on which the wheel turns. As the Americans make with their hickory wood the best wheels in the world, they have some right to give to one of the pieces a name of their own. But, however, Boston need not quarrel with the saying. Nations, like individuals, are generally governed by ideas, and no people to such a degree as the Americans: and the ideas which have governed them hitherto have been supplied from New England. But Massachusetts has been the wheel within New England, and Boston the wheel within Massachusetts. It has therefore been the first source and foundation of the ideas that have moved and made America; and is, in a high and honourable sense, the hub of the New World.'-F. Barham Zincke, Last Winter in the United States (1868), p. 279.

Familiar abbreviations of Christian names belong here. They are commonly made, with alteration or without, from the first syllable1. Will, Tom, Wat (from Walter, according to its old faded-French pronunciation Water), Sam, &c.

These are specially liable to alteration from the caprices of the little folk among whom they are most current, and to this cause (mixed with the imperfection of the childish organs of speech and the fondness which elder brothers and sisters have for propagating the original speeches of the little ones) must be assigned such forms as Bob for Rob, Bill for Will, Dick for Rich. Mr. Charles Dickens signed his writings 'Boz' after a childish alteration of the first syllable of Moses, which was a Christian name in his family. In the case of names beginning with a vowel, the curt form takes a consonant, as Ned, Noll, Nell, for Edward, Oliver, and Ellen.

While we are upon these familiar appellations, we may as well complete the list by noticing some which do not spring from the causes here under consideration. Harry for Henry is a rough English imitation of the sound of the French Henri; Jack is the French Jacques, which has attached itself somehow to the English John.

1 The Germans, having a diminutival form =chen, which attaches to the end of a word, are thus naturally led to preserve the final syllable in their familiar abbreviations of Christian names, as Gretchen, Löttchen, Trudchen, from Margarethe, Charlotte, Gertrude.