principle or duty, he who relinquishes bas ceased to hope or to endeavour. As the others are applicable both to things and persons, so relinquish belongs to things alone. In troublous times men have sought to preserve their treasure by concealing it under the earth; if, after a while, it should he discovered by another, the law will not allow him to assume on the part of the original owner an intention to abandon it. Prosperity quickly raises about us a crowd of flatterers, who would be the first to forsake us in time of adversity. It is an aggravation of misfortune, if one who had long professed attachment should not only capriciously forsake us but also desert us in a moment of difficulty and danger. How often do we engage ourselves in pursuits which bring us far more anxiety and labour than profit or pleasure, which yet from habit or some other cause we cannot persuade ourselves to relinquish. ABANDONED. PROFLIGATE. REPROBATE. UNPRINCIPLED. DE PRAVED. ABANDONED (see ABANDON) is strictly a part. passive of the verb abandon, though used as an independent adj. In the former capacity it follows, of course, all the meanings of its verb. As an adj. it has the meaning of self-abandoned, and that to vice; for the ways of wickedness are easy, and not to struggle is to sink. It is used of persons and character, and so, by association, of life and conduct. It is a voluntary surrender of self to the temptation of self-indulgence; self-control and the estimation of others being disregarded and defied. The abandoned man is emphatically not the misguided, seduced, or overborne man. The abandoned man is impatient of discipline and even of reflexion; he is wanting in virtuous ambition; he is without asiration, and has nothing worthy to be called belief. Pleasure and ease are his only happiness, and all else is either a labour or a dream. His Social nature seeks relief in the companionship of others like himself. This systematic character renders the term inapplicable to single acts, however atrociously bad. "Nor let her tempt that deep nor make the shore Where our abandoned youth she sees Shipwrecked in luxury and lost in ease." PRIOR. REPROBATE (Lat. reprobatus, triei and rejected) expresses that character in which a course of self-abandonment to vice results; one cast away without hope of recovery, the very desire and recognition of good being lost, all repentance cast off, the bitter be coming sweet and the light darkness, by a confirmed blunting of the moral perception. The reprobate is regarded as one whom it would be fruitless to attempt to reclaim. This state the abandoned may not yet have reached. And strength and art are easily outdone By spirits reprobate." MILTON. The PROFLIGATE man (Lat. profligare, to dash down) is he who has thrown away, and becomes more and more ready to throw away, all that the good and wise desire to retain, as principle, honour, virtue, possessions. Hence it follows that the very poor or obscure man, though he might be abandoned and even reprobate, could not be profligate. For profligacy is a vice of the great, the powerful, and the rich. We speak of a profligate monarch, nobleman, court, ministry, aristocracy; of a corrupt or demoralized, but not profligate, peasantry. Profligacy is characterized by shamelessness and a defiant disregard of morals. The old physical use of the term has disappeared, as in Bishop Hall's letter to the Pope: "Is it for thee to excite Christian Princes, already too much gorged with blood, to the profligation and fearful slaughter of their own subjects ? The modern use of it appears in the following: "Hitherto it has been thought the highest pitch of profligacy is to own instead of concealing crimes, and to take pride in them instead of being ashamed of them."-BOLINGBROKE. The UNPRINCIPLED man is not necessarily abandoned to ways of licentious self-indulgence, or profligate of expenditure. He may, in the affairs of sensual enjoyment, be even abstemious, and in those of expenditure penurious. But as the abandoned man sins against self-control and the profligate against sobriety, so the unprincipled against justice and integrity. The abandoned man injures himself primarily and others only indirectly; the unprincipled is ready to erect his own interests on the ruins of the interests of others. The term unprincipled, not an ancient one in our language, has a twofold meaning; first, wanting in good principle, or conspicuously marked by an absence of it; in which sense it is, negatively, applicable to acts, plans, or proceedings; and secondly, not acting on good principle or acting upon the contrary toward others; in which sense it is applicable to persons only. The first employment appears in the following: "Whilst the monarchies subsisted this unprincipled cession was what the influence of the elder branch of the House of Bourhon never dared to attempt on the younger."-BURKE, The second in the following: "Others betake themselves to State Affairs with souls so unprincipled in virtue and true generous breeding, that flattery, and courtships, and tyrannous aphorisms appear to them the highest points of wisdom."-MILTON. DEPRAVED is a term which points to external circumstances or continued practices which have gradually perverted the nature. (Lat. deprūvare, to pervert, distort.) Depravity is perversion of the standard of right, and the term is employed not only of morals, but also of manners, taste, and the arts; and in a peculiar physical sense (which however is technical) of the humours of the body; a phrase which illustrates the radical meaning of the term, corruptly departing from a state of wholesome function. Depravity involves the substitution of false for true principles, or the less worthy for the more worthy, the pretentious for the meritorious, the showy for the intrinsically solid and valuable, the meretricious for the chaste; that which attracts the admiration of the ignorant and vulgar for that which will bear the test of exact criticism; a conventional stan. dard of morality for the true, the virtuous, and the right. It is that defective estimation which follows the assumption of a corrupt test. "When Reason and understanding are depraved, and as far corrupted as the very passions of the heart-when then the blind lead the blind, what else can we expect than that both fall into the ditch!"SHERLOCK. By the constant keeping of evil company a man's taste and character will of necessity become depraved. There is danger that he may grow unprincipled in his dealings, that he may abandon himself to allurements and temptations, that he may go on to exhibit an open profligacy of conduct, and finally sink into the condition of a reprobate, whom conscience ceases to encourage or to warn. In old English the verb deprave was often used in the sense of to malign. ABASE. HUMBLE. DEGRADE. DISGRACE. DEBASE. HUMILIATE. DISHONOUR. DEPOSE. DEPRESS. LOWER. There was a time when the word abase (Fr. abaisser, bas, low) was used in a purely physical sense, as by Shakespeare: "And will she yet abase her eyes on me?" To abase is now only applied to persons. It is to bring low or to lower in such a way as that the person lowered shall be deeply conscious of the lowering. But this is not of necessity on account of great guilt or disgraceful conduct. That of which the person abased is primarily conscious is unworthiness in reference to others' estimation of him or to his own. In abasement we suffer a contradiction of, or voluntarily forego, as the case may be, our own peculiar pretensions. It may even be meritorious to abase or humble one's self (of these two abase is the stronger term). This could never be said of degrade or disgrace. The penitent man humbles himself, the remorseful penitent abases himself. In either case a conquest is gained over pride, arrogance, or self-will. He is abased who suffers a diminution of his dignity, merit, or repute. To HUMBLE (Lat. humilis, low), though not in one way so strong a term as abase, has a fuller moral meaning. He who is abased is brought low, he who is humbled recognizes the right of being so brought. It bears reference to some former condition of exaltation or estimate of self, as the proud man may be humbled by the reverses of fortune. He who suffers no more than overwhelming shame in his reverses or change of condition is abased without being humbled. He is humbled, who is forced to become acquainted with those vicissitudes of nature or fortune, to which hitherto he had been blinded by unreflectiveness or pride. He is abased, whom conscience or circumstances have undeceived in his claims to moral or social superiority. "The plain meaning of the Apostle is to declare in one continued sentence that Christ when He was in the form of God humbled Himself by condescending to take upon Him the form of man, and not only so but humbled Himself yet further by condescending to die even the death of a male factor."-CLARKE. DEGRADE (Lat. de, down,and grådus, step) hears reference to some standard or level, moral or social, below which the person degraded or who nas degraded himself is supposed to have fallen. Unlike abase and humble, which belong to sentient beings, degrade is not confined to persons, but is applicable to anything capable of an accession or diminution of dignity. Art is degraded when it is treated only as a trade. The higher the social position, or the moral responsibility of the person, the more degrading is the dereliction. The higher the standard to which persons may reasonably be expected to conform, the more degrading is the forfeiture of self-respect. Sensuality, for instance, is peculiarly degrading in those who have great powers of mind, meanness of dealing in the affluent, low companionship in the nobly born. "Moments there must be when the sinder is sensible of the degradation of his state, when he feels with pain the slavish dependence under which he is brought to fortune and the world, to violent passions and settled habits, and to fears and appre hensions arising from conscious guilt."BLAIR. DISGRACE is to deprive of respect (0. Fr. disgrace, dis- and grace, Lat. gratia, favour). He who disgraces another deprives him of such social regard as would otherwise belong to him. He who disgraces himself deprives himself of the respect of others. Disgrace is to the feeling of respect what DisHONOUR is to its outward token. Hence disgrace is rather in a man's self, dishonour depends rather upon others. While conscience may excite in us a feeling of disgrace, we can have none of dishonour except it be inflicted upon us by others. Yet in the term disgrace there seems to be a blending of the two ideas of the Latin gratia and the English grace, namely, internal comeliness and external favour. The minister who is capriciously dismissed by his sovereign is said to be disgraced. Yet it is plain that he is in no other sense so than as being merely thrown out of favour, while as regards his own character he is rather dishonoured than disgraced. The general who is taken captive after a gallant resistance never could be disgraced, though he might, by an ungenerous victor, be dishonoured or insulted. Dishonour may be only for a moment, disgrace is more permanent. We have an exemplification in the following of the twofold idea of grace, from which the double aspect of disgrace arises : "And with sharp quips joy'd others to deface, Thinking that their disgracing did him grace." SPENSER. "He that walketh uprightly is secure as to his honour and credit; he is sure not to come off disgracefully either at home in his own apprehensions, or abroad in the estimation of men."-BARROW. When a man is so humbled that his state becomes externally manifest or conspicuous, and is reflected in the condition and circumstances of the person humbled, he may further be said to be HUMILIATED, that is, brought to a condition and a sense of humility. So strong a part does this external element play in the word, that one who is only self-conceited may be humiliated by being thrown suddenly into an undignified and ludicrous position. The proud man is humbled, the vain humiliated. He who humbles himself endeavours to cherish a feeling of humility, he who humiliates himself places himself in the attitude of humility. Hence we are seldom said to humiliate ourselves. Persons or circumstances may humble us; but it is circumstances, commonly speaking, that humiliate us. The case is a little different with the noun humiliation, which is the only substantive form of the verb to humble, whose meaning therefore it follows. Yet in such a phrase as a "Day of Fasting and Humiliation," the term conveys the idea of both internal and external self-humbling. "The former was a humiliation of Deity, the latter a humiliation of manhood."HOOKER. TO DEBASE (De and Eng. base), though of the same etymology as abase, is to deteriorate or make base not the position but the internal nature as regards worth, or essential purity. Debased coin is so mixed with alloy as to have lost much of its intrinsic value. A debased style of architecture has become corrupt by deviation from the type and principles of the pure. In all things debased a normal condition, form, character, principles, or model is implied which has been forgotten, deserted, or violated. The systematic deviation from the standard of virtue leads to moral debasement, from the standard of correct rule and pure taste to artistic debasement. "The great masters of composition know very well that many an elegant word becomes improper for a poet or an orator, when it has been debased by vulgar use." ADDISON. DEPOSE (Fr. deposer) expresses the formal act of authority or of a superior, and is a complete taking away of the office, or dignity; while degrade may express a partial lowering in rank, or removal to an inferior grade. "A tyrant over his subjects, and thereAre worthy to be deposed."-PRYNNE. DEPRESS (Lat. deprimere, part. dr❤ pressus, to press down) is physical and analogous. It denotes the exercise of some uniform influence to lower permanently. The muzzle of a gun is depressed which is kept pointing towards the ground, the mind is depressed which is weighted by some burden of thought or reflexion. He is depressed whose merits, though they entitle him to promotion, are stiffed by the jealousy of superiors. "The Gods with ease frail Man depress or raise." РОРЕ. LOWER, formed from the adj. low, follows the various meanings of that adj. Its forces are in the main three: 1, to reduce in physical elevation, as to lower a flag; 2, to abate the feeling of exaltation, as to lower pride; 3, to bring down in value, amount, rank, dignity or estimation, as the price of goods, the rate of interest, professional position, or the respect of individuals, or of the public. Like the simpler and Saxon words generally, its application in proportion to its extensiveness is weak specifically. It stands opposed to "raise," and is as comprehensive and no more pointed in its force. ABASEMENT. LOWNESS. An idea of degradation common to these two terms makes them synonyms; but they have strong differences. ABASEMENT (Fr. abaisser, to lower) expresses the act of bringing low or the state consequent upon this, and always implies a former state more elevated. LOWNESS (allied to lie and lay) expresses simply the condition of that which is low in any of the numerous senses of the word low, such as physical depression, meanness of condition or character, absence of sublimity, meekness, mental depression, an inferiority of degree, a deep pitch or inaudible character of sound. The physical meanings of lowness are not in modern English shared by abasement, which has only a moral application. A basement is a condition of inferiority bearing reference to our own possible position, lowness or inferiority to others. A basement is moral or social degradation, and by an extension of meaning the painful consciousness of this. Jesus Christ was willing to be born in a condition of weakness and abasement. Abasement is voluntary or involuntary. Voluntary abasement is a virtuous act of the soul, by which it seeks to counteract and repress the natural tendency to pride. A low disposition on the other hand is incompatible with honour, and begets contempt. The low is opposed to the lofty in principle and sentiment, and the refined in taste and manners. A low character is one which might be expected to associate and sympathize with the basest of mankind, a low style is such as would commend itself to the vulgar. That abasement which is the result of misfortune does not forfeit the right to consideration. Lowness is not deserving of consideration. Virtuous sentiment may reconcile the ambitious to a low estate in life, and assure them that by itself it involves no abasement, while yet it is a legitimate object of effort to exchange a lower condition for a higher, if it be done by just and honest means. Lowness consists in want of birth, merit, fortune, or condition. It may be observed that the noun lowness has not the strong character of disparagement which belongs to the adjective low. The latter is always derogatory except when employed either physically or of social inferiority of rank. ABASH. CONFOUND. CONFUSE. To be ABASHED is the O. Fr. Eshahir, to astonish, part. esbahissant; connected with the English bay, to gape, whence to stand at bay. To be abashed 18 to be under the influence of shame, and therefore will vary according to the degree and character of the shame felt. The over-modest are abashed in the presence of superiors, the guilty at the detection of vice or misconduct. Abase stands to the reason and the judgment as abash to the feelings. The former implies a sentence of un 7 worthiness felt to be passed against Her shining neck beheld, and radiant eyes, To be CONFUSED (Lat. confundere, part. confusus, to pour together, to perplex) denotes a state in which the faculties are more or less beyond control, when the speech falters and thoughts lose their consistency. This may be from a variety of causes, as failure of memory, conflicting feelings, a bewildered judgment, over-modesty, shame, surprise, a sense of detection to one's dishonour. It is an embarrassing self-consciousness accompanied by a humiliating sense of shortcoming. We have formed our plan and arranged our materials; the former is perhaps forestalled, the latter by some accident disordered. We are thrown into disturbance, the time is lost, whither shall we look for help? "Till I saw those eyes I was but a lump; a chaos of confusedness dwelt in me."BEAUMONT AND FLETCHER. To be CONFOUNDED, though another form of the same word, is far stronger, denoting an utter inability to exercise to any practical purpose the power of thought and speech, the reason being overpowered by the shock of argument, testimony, or detection. To confuse is in its primary and simpler sense a milder term than confound. Things are confused, when they are in a state of promiscuous disorder. They are confounded, when they are so mixed up together that they become undistinguished and indistinguishable, their individuality being lost. "So spake the Son of God, and Satan stood A while as mute, confounded what to say." MILTON. ABATE. LESSEN. DIMINISH. DE |