nd other
_prints_. A little observation will enable you to carry out these hints,
and profit by them. You have observed the disposition in children, and
foreigners, who are partially acquainted with our language, to make
verbs out of almost every noun, which appears to us very aukward; but
was it common, it would be just as correct as the verbs now used. There
are very few verbs which have not a noun to correspond with them, for we
make verbs, that is, we use words to express action, which are nearly
allied to the agent with which such action agrees.[17] From botany we
have made _botanize_; from Mr. McAdam, the inventor of a particular
kind of road, _macadamize_, which means to make roads as he made them.
Words are formed in this way very frequently. The word _church_ is often
used as a noun to express a building used for public worship; for the
services performed in it; for the whole congregation; for a portion of
believers associated together; for the Episcopal order, etc. It is also
used as a verb. Mr. Webster defines it, "To perform with any one the
office of returning thanks in the church after any signal deliverance."
But the word has taken quite a different turn of late. _To church_ a
person, instead of receiving him into communion, as that term would seem
to imply, signifies to deal with an offending member, to excommunicate,
or turn him out.

But I will not pursue this point any farther. The brief hints I have
thrown out, will enable you to discover how the meaning and forms of
words are changed from their original application to suit the notions
and improvements of after ages. A field is here presented which needs
cultivation. The young should be taught to search for the etymology of
words, to trace their changes and meaning as used at different times and
by different people, keeping their minds constantly directed to the
object signified by such verbal sign. This is the business of
philosophy, under whatever name it may be taught; for grammar, rhetoric,
logic, and the science of the mind, are intimately blended, and should
always be taught in connexion. We have already seen that words without
meaning are like shadows without realities. And persons can not employ
language "correctly," or "with propriety," till they have acquainted
themselves with the import of such language--the ideas of things
signified by it. Let this course be adopted in the education of
children, and they will not be required to spend mont