the stuff of a _coarse grain_ or
woof. How many now understand 'woodbin_e_'? but who could have helped
understanding 'woodbin_d_' (Ben Jonson)? What a mischievous alteration
in spelling is 'd_i_vest' instead of 'd_e_vest'{240}. This change is so
recent that I am tempted to ask whether it would not here be possible to
return to the only intelligible spelling of this word.

{Sidenote: '_Pigmy_'}

'P_i_gmy' used formerly to be spelt 'p_y_gmy', and so long as it was so,
no Greek scholar could see the word, but at once he knew that by it
were indicated manikins whose measure in height was no greater than
that of a man's arm from the elbow to the closed _fist_{241}. Now he may
know this in other ways; but the word itself, so long as he assumes it
to be rightly spelt, tells him nothing. Or again, the old spelling,
'diam_ant_', was preferable to the modern 'diam_ond_'. It was
preferable, because it told more of the quarter whence the word had
reached us. 'Diamant' and 'adamant' are in fact only two different
adoptions on the part of the English tongue, of one and the same Greek,
which afterwards became a Latin word. The primary meaning of 'adamant'
is, as you know, the indomitable, and it was a name given at first to
steel as the hardest of metals; but afterwards transferred{242} to the
most precious among all the precious stones, as that which in power of
resistance surpassed everything besides.

{Sidenote: '_Cozen_', '_Bless_'}

Neither are new spellings to be commended, which obliterate or obscure
the relationship of a word with others to which it is really allied;
separating from one another, for those not thoroughly acquainted with
the subject, words of the same family. Thus when '_j_aw' was spelt
'_ch_aw', no ne could miss its connexions with the verb 'to chew'{243}.
Now probably ninety-nine out of a hundred who use both words, are
entirely unaware of any relationship between them. It is the same with
'cousin' (consanguineus), and 'to cozen' or to deceive. I do not propose
to determine which of these words should conform itself to the spelling
of the other. There was great irregularity in the spelling of both from
the first; yet for all this, it was then better than now, when a
permanent distinction has established itself between them, keeping out
of sight that 'to cozen' is in all likelihood to deceive under show of
kindred and affinity; which if it be so, Shakespeare's words,

"_Cousins_ indeed, and by their un