This work does not profess to deal much with etymologies; the author thinking that any very strict attention to the derivation of words, in connection with synonyms, would only tend to confuse the subject.  The history of the origin and growth of words must undoubtedly throw light upon their meanings; but he, nevertheless, holds the two questions to be completely distinct and separable; and thinks that, in an inquiry into the actual and present meaning of a word, the consideration of what it originally meant may frequently lead us into error.  A few suggestive remarks are given upon this matter.

’Our question is, not what ought to be, or formerly was, the meaning of a word, but what it now is; nor can we be completely guided by quotations from Shakspeare or Milton, or even from Addison or Johnson.  Language has undergone such changes, even within the last sixty or seventy years, that many words, at that time considered pure, are now obsolete; while others—­of which the word “mob” is a specimen—­formerly slang, are now used by our best writers, and received, like pardoned outlaws, into the body of respectable citizens.’  The standard, accordingly, to which the author refers in the work before us, is the sense in which a word is used by the purest writers and most correct speakers of our own days.

The synonyms are arranged or classed according to the parts of speech to which they belong—­namely, into particles, nouns, adjectives, and verbs.  The uses of all the words are well defined, and sufficiently illustrated by examples; a table of contents and a complete index are also added, rendering reference to any word as easy as looking for it in a dictionary.  The table of contents, indeed, will be found to serve most of the purposes of a vocabulary of synonyms:  a glance at it will frequently give you all the words of similar signification to the particular one for which you may happen to require an equivalent.  From the part of the book relating to verbs, we take the following; the words under notice being, To teach, instruct, inform, educate:—­

’Of these words, the first two are often used synonymously, but they have also a distinct meaning.  “Teaching,” strictly speaking, when distinguished from instruction, is applied to the practice of an art or branch of knowledge:  instruction, to the theory.  A child is, correctly speaking, instructed in the grammar of a language, and taught to speak the language.  Thus, teaching may be merely mechanical; while “instruction” implies a degree of understanding in the pupil, as well as in the master.  A child who has been taught to learn lessons by rote, without understanding them, will find difficulty in comprehending instruction in the principles of what he has learned:  hence, we speak of teaching a brute, but never of instructing it.

’Information,[6] again, is distinguished from instruction, in relation to the truths conveyed by it.  Matters of fact, made known to one who could not have known them before, are called information:  instruction elicits new truths out of subject-matter already existing in the mind—­(see Whately’s Logic, book iv.  Sec. 1.)