Be not surprised when I tell you this is the same word as _air_, for
such is the fact. It signifies to inhale air, to _air ourselves_, or
_breathe air_. "God _breathed_ into man the _breath of life_, and man
became a _living soul_." The new born infant _inhales air_, _inflates
its lungs_ with _air_, and begins to live. We all know how essential
_air_ is to the preservation of life. No animal can live an instant
without it. Drop a squirrel into a receiver from which all _air_ has
been extracted, and it can not live. Even vegetables will die where
there is no air. _Light_ is also indispensable to _life_ and _health_.
_Air_ is _inhaled_ and _exhaled_, and from it life receives support. The
fact being common, it is not so distinctly observed by the careless, as
tho it was more rare. But did you never see the man dying of a
consumption, when the pulmonary or breathing organs were nearly decayed?
How he labors for breath! He asks to have the windows thrown open. At
length he _suffocates_ and dies. Most persons struggle hard for
_breath_ in the hour of dissolving nature. The heaving bosom, the hollow
gasp for _air_, tells us that the lamp of life is soon to be
extinguished, that the hour of their departure has come.

When a person faints, we carry them into the _air_, or blow _air_ upon
them, that nature may be restored to its regular course. In certain
cases physicians find it necessary to force air into the lungs of
infants; they can after that _air_, themselves, _imbibe_ or _drink in
air_, or _inspirit_ themselves with air. But I need not enlarge. Whoever
has been deprived of air and labored hard for breath in a stifled or
unwholesome air, can appreciate what we mean.

_We were_; _he was_.

I have said before that these words are the same, and are used in
certain cases irrespective of number. I have good authority for this
opinion, altho some etymologists give them different derivations.

_Were_, _wert_; _worth_, _werth_; _word_ and _werde_, are derived from
the same etymon and retain a similarity of meaning. They signify
_spirit_, _life_, _energy_. "In the beginning was the _word_, and the
_word_ was with God." "By the _word_ of his grace."

"_They were_," they _inspirited_ themselves, _possessed_ the life,
vitality, or _spirit_, the Creator gave them, and having that spirit,
life, or energy, under proper regulation, in due degree, they were
_worthy_ of the esteem, regard, sympathy, and good _word_ of others.

_To be