cle _cozened_
Of comfort"{244},

will be found to contain not a pun, but an etymology{245}. The real
relation between 'bliss' and 'to bless' is in like manner at present
obscured{246}.

The omission of a letter, or the addition of a letter, may each
effectually do its work in keeping out of sight the true character and
origin of a word. Thus the omission of a letter. When the first syllable
of 'bran-new' was spelt 'bran_d_' with a final 'd', 'bran_d_-new', how
vigorous an image did the word contain. The 'brand' is the fire, and
'brand-new' equivalent to 'fire-new' (Shakespeare), is that which is
fresh and bright, as being newly come from the forge and fire. As now
spelt, 'bran-new' conveys to us no image at all. Again, you have the
word 'scrip'--as a 'scrip' of paper, government 'scrip'. Is this the
same word with the Saxon 'scrip', a wallet, having in some strange
manner obtained these meanings so different and so remote? Have we here
only two different applications of one and the same word, or two
homonyms, wholly different words, though spelt alike? We have only to
note the way in which the first of these 'scrips' used to be written,
namely with a final 't', not 'scrip' but 'scrip_t_', and we are at once
able to answer the question. This 'script' is a Latin, as the other is
an Anglo-Saxon, word, and meant at first simply a _written_ (scripta)
piece of paper--a circumstance which since the omission of the final 't'
may easily escape our knowledge. 'Afraid' was spelt much better in old
times with the double 'ff', than with the single 'f' as now. It was then
clear that it was not another form of 'afeared', but wholly separate
from it, the participle of the verb 'to affray', 'affrayer', or, as it
is now written, 'effrayer'{247}.

{Sidenote: '_Whole_', '_Hale_', '_Heal_'}

In the cases hitherto adduced, it has been the omission of a letter
which has clouded and concealed the etymology. The intrusion of a letter
sometimes does the same. Thus in the early editions of _Paradise Lost_,
and in all writers of that time, you will find 'scent', an odour, spelt
'sent'. It was better so; there is no other noun substantive 'sent',
with which it is in danger of being confounded; while its relation with
'sentio', with 're_sent_'{248}, 'dis_sent_', and the like, is put out of
sight by its novel spelling; the intrusive '_c_', serves only to
mislead. The same thing was attempted with 'site', 'situate',
'situation', spelt for a t