damnation.

'Volume,' too, how perfectly metaphorical is it in its present
reception! It is originally just a _volumen_, that is, a 'roll' of
parchment, papyrus, or whatever else the 'book' (i. e., the _bark_--the
'liber') might be composed of. Nor can we regard as aught other such
terms as 'leaf' or 'folio,' which is also 'leaf.' 'Stave,' too, is
suggestive of the _staff_ on which the runes were wont to be cut.
Indeed, old almanacs are sometimes to be met with consisting of these
long sticks or 'staves,' on which the days and months are represented by
the Runic letters.

'Charm,' 'enchant,' and 'incantation' all owe their origin to the time
when spells were in vogue. 'Charm' is just _carmen_, from the fact that
'a kind of Runic rhyme' was employed in _diablerie_ of this sort; so
'enchant' and 'incantation' are but a _singing to_--a true 'siren's
song;' while 'fascination' took its rise when the mystic terrors of the
_evil eye_ threw its withering blight over many a heart.

We are all familiar with the old fable of _The Town Mouse and the
Country Mouse_. We will vouch that the following read us as luminous a
comment thereon as may be desired: 'Polite,' 'urbane,' 'civil,'
'rustic,' 'villain,' 'savage,' 'pagan,' 'heathen.' Let us seek the
moral:

'Polite,' 'urbane,' and 'civil' we of course recognize as being
respectively from [Greek: polis], _urbs_, and _civis_, each denoting the
city or town--_la grande ville_. 'Polite' is _city-like_; while
'urbanity' and 'civility' carry nothing deeper with them than the
graces and the attentions that belong to the punctilious town. 'Rustic'
we note as implying nothing more uncultivated than a 'peasant,' which is
just _pays_-an, or, as we also say, a 'countryman.' 'Savage,' too, or,
as we ought to write it, _salvage_,[9] is nothing more grim or terrible
than one who dwells _in sylvis_, in the woods--a meaning we can
appreciate from our still comparatively pure application of the
adjective _sylvan_. A 'backwoodsman' is therefore the very best original
type of a _savage_! 'Savage' seems to be hesitating between its civil
and its ethical applications; 'villain,' 'pagan,' and 'heathen,'
however, have become quite absorbed in their moral sense--and this by a
contortion that would seem strange enough were we not constantly
accustomed to such transgressions. For we need not to be informed that
'villain' primarily and properly implies simply one who inhabits a ville
or _village_. In Ch