ancy that act of the mind
which all were conscious of, which none had yet named--when this new
'poet' first felt bound and driven to name it! His questionable
originality and new glowing metaphor was found adoptible, intelligible;
and remains our name for it to this day.'[4]

This seems to be a pet etymology of Carlyle, as he makes Professor
Teufelsdroeckh give it to us also.

Nor less of a poet was that Grecian man who first named this beauteous
world--with its boundless unity in variety--the [Greek: kosmos],[5] the
_order_, the _adornment_. But

'Alas, for the rarity
Of Christian charity,'

and

'Ah! the inanity
Of frail humanity,'

that first induced some luckless mortal to give to certain mysterious
compounds the appellation of _cosmetics_! But here is an atonement; for
even in our unmythical, unbelieving days, the god 'Terminus' is made to
stand guard over every railway station! Again, how finely did the Roman
call his heroism his 'virtus'--his _vir_tue--his _manliness_. With the
Italians, however, it became quite a different thing; for his 'virtu' is
none other than his love of the fine arts (these being to him the only
subject of _manly_ occupation), a mere _objet de vertu_; and his
_virtuoso_ has no more virtuousness or manliness about him than what
appertains to being skilled in these same fine arts. With us, our
'virtue' is ... well, as soon as we can find out, we will tell you.

By the way, in what a _bathos_ of mystery are most of our terms
expressing the moral relations plunged! Some philosophers have declared
that truth lies at the bottom of a well;--the well in which the truth in
regard to these matters lies would seem to stretch far enough
down--reaching, in fact, almost to the kingdom of the Inane. The
beautiful simplicity of Bible truths has often become so perverted--so
overloaded by the vain works (and _words_) of man's device--as barely to
escape total extinction. Witness 'repentance'; in what a farrago of
endless absurdities and palpable contradictions has this word (and, more
unfortunately still, the thing itself along with it) been enveloped!
According to the 'divines,' what does it not signify? Its composition,
we very well know, gives us _poenitentia_, from _poenitere_, to _be
sorry_, to _regret_--and such is its true and _only_ meaning. 'This
design' (that of the analysis of language in its elementary forms), says
Wilkins, 'will likewise contribute much to the clearing of som