CHAPTER IV; 25'3 8. Words are applied to various seiises,.by nézv ideas ap.. pearing or arising faster than newwords are framed. So when gunpowder was found out, the word:powder, which before sig- nified only dust, was made then to signify that mixture or com- position of nitre, charcoal, &c. And the name canon, which before signified a law or a rule, is now also given to a great gun, which gives laws to nations. So foot -boys, who had frequently the common name of Jack given them, were kept to turn the spit, or to pull off their master's boots; but when instruments were invented for both those services, they wore'both called jacks, though one was of iron, the other of wood, and very dif- ferent in their form. 7. Words alter their significations according to the ideas cf the various persons, sects, or parties, who use them as we have hinted before; so when a papist uses the word heretics, he ge- nerally means the Protestants : when a protestant uses the word, he means any persons who were zeil%ulby (and perhaps contenti- ously) obstinate in fundamental error -s. When a Jew speaks of the true religion, he means the institution of Moses ; when a Turk tnentinus it, he intends tho doctrine of Mutinant : but when a christian makes use of it, he designs to signify christi- unily, or the truths and precepts of the gospel. 8. Words have different significations according to the book, writing, or discourse in which they stand. So in a treatise of anatomy, a foot signifies that member in the body of a man : but in a book of geometry or mensuration, it signifies twelve inches. If I had room to exemplify most of these particulars itt one single word, I know not where to choose a fitter than the word sound, which seems, as it were by chance,. to signify three dis- tinct ideas, namely, healthy, (from sanas) as a sound body; noise, (from &anus) as a shrill sound;, and to sound the sea (per- haps from the French sonde, a probe, or an instrument to find the depth of water.) From these three, which I may call origi- nal senses, varions derivative senses arise ; as sound sleep, sound lungs, sound wind and limb, a sound heart, ,a sound mind, sound doctrine, a sound divine, sound reason, a sound cask, souit,i timber, a sound reproof, to beat one soundly, to sound one's meaning or inclination, and a sound or narrow sea ; turi these all_into Latin, and the variety will appear plain. I confess, some few of these which I have mentioned as the, different springs of equivócal wordy may be reduced in some cases to the saine original: but it must aleo be granted, that there may be other ways besides these whereby a word comes to ex- tend its signification, to include various ideas, and become equi- vocal. And though it is the business of a grammarian to pursue VOL. i'II. -,,,
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