178 THE 1MPROOEMENT OF THE MIND. sufficiently- and mingled with the language which we speak or write. It is true, that in teaching the sciences in English, we must- sometimes use words borrowed from the Greek and Latin, for we have not in English names for a variety of subjects which belong to learning ; but when a man affects upon all occasions, . to bring in long sounding words from the ancient languages with- out necessity, and mingles French and other outlandish terms and phrases, where plain English would serve as well, he betrays a vain and foolish genius unbecoming a teacher. II. Avoida fantastic learned style, borrowedfrom the vari- oussciences, where the subject andmatter do not require the use of them. Do not affect terms of art on every occasion, nor seek to show your learning by sounding words and dark phrases ; this is properly called pedantry. Young preachers just come from the schools, are often tempted to fill their serinons with logical and metaphysical terms in explaining the text, and feed their hearers withsonorouswords of vanity. This scholastic language, perhaps, may flatter their own ambition, and raise a wonderment at their learning among the staring multitude, without any manner of influence toward the instruction of the ignorant, or the reforma- tion of the immoral or impious : these terms of art are but the tools of an artificer, by which his work is wrought in private ; but the tools ought not to appear in the finished workmanship. There are some persons so fond of geometry, that they bring in lines and circles, tangent and parabolas, theorems, prob- lems and postulates, upon all occasions. Others who have dealt in astronomy, borrow even their nouns and their verbs, in their common discourse, from the stars and the planets ; instead of saying Jacob had twelve suns, they tell you, Jacob had as many sons as there are signs in the zodiac. If they describe an incon-. stant person, they make a planet of him, and set him forth in all his appearances, direct, retrograde and stationary. Ifa candle be set behind the screen, they call it eclipsed ; and tell you fine stories of the orbit and the revolutions, the radii and the limb, or circumference of a cart - wheel. Others again dress up their sense in chymical language ; extracts and oils, salts and essences, exalt and invigorate their discourses : a great wit with them, is sublimated spirit ; and a blockhead, is caput tnortuum. Acertain doctor in his bill, swells in his own idea when he tells the town. that he has been counsellor to the counsellors of several kings and princes, and that he has arrived at the knowledgeof the green, black, and golden dragon, known only to magicians and hermetic philosophers. It would be well if the quacks alone had a patent for this language. III. There are some fine affected words that are used.only at court, and some peculiar phrases that are sounding or gaudy, and belong only to the theatre ; these should not come into the lectures of instruction, the language of poets has too much of
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