Dr. Priestley employed a forcible, but not an elegant term, to mark the
general information which had begun in his day; this he frequently calls
"the _spread_ of knowledge." Burke attempted to brand with a new name
that set of pert, petulant, sophistical sciolists, whose philosophy the
French, since their revolutionary period, have distinguished as
_philosophism_, and the philosophers themselves as _philosophistes_. He
would have designated them as _literators_, but few exotic words will
circulate; new words must be the coinage of our own language to blend
with the vernacular idiom. Many new words are still wanted. We have no
word by which we could translate the _otium_ of the Latins, the
_dillettante_ of the Italians, the _alembique_ of the French, as an
epithet to describe that sublimated ingenuity which exhausts the mind,
till, like the fusion of the diamond, the intellect itself disappears. A
philosopher, in an extensive view of a subject in all its bearings, may
convey to us the result of his last considerations by the coinage of a
novel and significant expression, as this of Professor Dugald
Stewart--_political religionism_. Let me claim the honour of one pure
neologism. I ventured to introduce the term of FATHER-LAND to describe
our _natale solum_; I have lived to see it adopted by Lord Byron and by
Mr. Southey, and the word is now common. A lady has even composed both
the words and the air of a song on "Father-land." This energetic
expression may therefore be considered as authenticated; and patriotism
may stamp it with its glory and its affection. FATHER-LAND is congenial
with the language in which we find that other fine expression
MOTHER-TONGUE. The patriotic neologism originated with me in Holland,
when, in early life, it was my daily pursuit to turn over the glorious
history of its independence under the title of _Vaderlandsche
Historie_--the history of FATHER-LAND!
If we acknowledge that the creation of some neologisms may sometimes
produce the beautiful, the revival of the dead is the more authentic
miracle; for a new word must long remain doubtful, but an ancient word
happily recovered rests on a basis of permanent strength; it has both
novelty and authority. A collection of _picturesque words_, found among
our ancient writers, would constitute a precious supplement to the
history of our language. Far more expressive than our term of
_executioner_ is their solemn one of the _deathsman_; than our
_vagabond_, their _scatterling_; than our _idiot_ or _lunatic_, their
_moonling_,--a word which, Mr. Gifford observes, should not have been
suffered to grow obsolete. Herrick finely describes by the term
_pittering_ the peculiar shrill and short cry of the grasshopper: the
cry of the grasshopper is pit! pit! pit! quickly repeated. Envy
"_dusking_ the lustre" of genius is a verb lost for us, but which gives
a more precise expression to the feeling than any other words which we
could use.
The late Dr. Boucher, in the prospectus of his proposed Dictionary, did
me the honour, then a young writer, to quote an opinion I had formed
early in life of the purest source of neology, which is in the _revival
of old words_.
Words that wise Bacon or brave Rawleigh spake!
We have lost many exquisite and picturesque expressions through the
dulness of our lexicographers, or by the deficiency in that profounder
study of our writers which their labours require far more than they
themselves know. The natural graces of our language have been
impoverished. The genius that throws its prophetic eye over the
language, and the taste that must come from Heaven, no lexicographer
imagines are required to accompany him amidst a library of old books!