general way, medial statement or estimate derived from several specific cases. If A contributes ten pounds, B twelve, and C fourteen, the sum is thirty-six, and the average twelve. It is the opinion of some persons that a principle of compensation runs through human affairs; that if one enjoys more than another, that other suffers less; that if one has more 'esires gratified, another has fewer aesires; and so that, though it is not capable of demonstration, yet an average of human happiness may be conceived to exist.

A MEAN (Fr. moyen, Lat. mědium) is the point or place intermediate between two extremes-the middle rate or degree. If nine and seven are the extremes, eight is the mean. The mean is sometimes the same as the average, that is, it is formed by adding the quantities together and dividing by their number. This is the arithmetical mean. The geometrical mean is the square root of the product of the quantities. But a mean is not always a quantity having an intermediate value between several others from which it is derived; it is sometimes expressive of that which is morally equidistant between opposite extremes. Thus moral virtue, according to Aristotle, lay in a mean state or condition, each particular virtue being a mean between a vice of defect and a vice of excess; as liberality between niggardliness and prodigality, courage between fear and foolhardiness; and so on. MEDIUM, in addition to the sense of mean, has also that of an intervening substance-as an atmospheric medium, circulating medium. Where this intervening object is an instrument by which a thing is done, it is nearly equivalent to the plural means, but the medium may be an agent as well as an instrument.

persons of opposing interests, the adjudication is an AWARD (O. Fr. eswardeir, formed from O. H. G. warten, to look at, guard). The term ADJUDGE (Lat. adjudicare) is applicable to the case as well as the object; AWARD, only to the object. Accordingly, those who adjudge act upon law and rule, to which they are bound exactly to adhere; those who award act often upon their own judgment, or their views of the comparative merits of cases and persons.

AWARE. CONSCIOUS. SEnsible. AWARE (A. S. gewær, wary) belongs to the knowledge which is needful for one's own sake in the regulation of conduct or the regulation of interests. It refers to matters of ordinary, com mon, or practical information, or to any facts or truths as bearing upon ourselves. We are not said to be aware of what is matter of pure science, unless it practically concerns us in some I am aware of a thing, when my knowledge of it is such as to lead me to take it into due consideration. Such knowledge is the result of observation and experience. When we are aware of a thing, we bear in mind its relative nature and consequences. I know a certain scientific truth: if I enter into argument connected with it, it is necessary that I should be aware of it, otherwise a false step in the reasoning may be the result.

way.

"Fastidious or else listless, or perhaps Aware of not ng arduous in a task They never undertook, they little note His dangers or escapes, and haply find There least amusement where he found the most." COWPER.

CONSCIOUS (Lat. conscius) belongs to reflexive, as SENSIBLE (Lat. sensi bilis, perceptible to the senses) to per ceptive knowledge. I am sensible of a thing when I feel it. I am conscious of it when I reflect upon it. I am aware of it as a fact which concerns me, but is external to myself. Both conscious and sensible imply the personal nature of the matter of knowledge and its character as intrinsic to one's self. A sick man is sensible of a change for the better when he experiences a bodily improvement. He is conscious of it when he could not with truth

AWKWARD. CLUMSY. UNGAINLY. UNCOUTH.

AWKWARD (0. E. awk, contrary, wrong; and termination, ward-i.e. in the direction of) denotes untowardness of movement, which is also to some extent expressed by CLUMSY, which seems, originally, to have meant benumbed, cramped; cf. Du. klemmen, to pinch. AWKWARD has an active, CLUMSY a passive meaning. Clumsiness comes of natural heaviness of limb and want of symmetry of figure. Awkward

ness is specific in relation to some particular action which may be the result simply of want of experience as the novice in the use of an implement is necessarily awkward till he has become familiar with it, though he may even have a natural aptitude for it. A person is awkward in movement, clumsy in shape. The latter is a natural cause of the former.

"Awkwardness is a more real disadvantage than it is commonly thought to be. It often occasions ridicule. It always lessens dignity."-CHESTERFIELD.

"The manufacture would be tedious, and at best but clumsily performed."-Spectator. In the phrase "an awkward excuse we regard the maker of it. A clumsy excuse points to the nature of it when made. In the colloquial expression “an awkward affair." the etymological

force of the word seems kept up. It is an affair that goes wrong, and in a contrary way to the right way.

UNGAINLINESS is a chronic awkwardness of manner. It is the want of that which was once expressed by the word gainly, now obs., meaning gracious; and, though in form of expression negative, like almost all such negatives, expresses a positive defect.

"Flora had a little beauty and a great deal of wit, but then she was so ungainly in her behaviour, and such a laughing hoy. den."-Tatler.

In the moral sense Hammond speaks of "misusing knowledge to UNGAINLY," that is ungracious, unsuitable, ends."

UNCOUTH (A. S. uncúd, unknown, uncouth) is in matters of general demeanour, what awkward and clumsy are in movement or action. Strange, odd, awkward things are said by the uncouth, and unconventional things done, from want of knowledge and familiarity with the ways of the trained society in which he finds himself. It belongs to style of language and thought, as well as manner and dress. The uncouth person gives the notion of one who has been allowed to run wild without systematic education.

"The dress of a New Zealander is certainly to a stranger at first sight the most uncouth that can be imagined."-Cook's Voyages.

"The uncouthness of his language and the quaintness of his thoughts will not, it is hoped, disgust the delicacy of readers unaccustomed to the writings of our old divines."-KNOX.

B

BABBLE. PRATTLE. CHATTER. CHAT. PRate.

but

TO BABBLE (onomatop. cf. Fr. babiller) is to talk small talk in an easy monotonous flow. Babbling is а fluency which takes no note of the relative importance of matters of conversation. As the object of the babbler is rather to relieve himself than to instruct others, he is apt to become indistinct and unintelligible in his speech, and to speak in a murmurous flow. Old men who have lost energy, and employ speech merely as a vent to mental impressions and recollections as they successively arise, or are revived, are apt to babble. As babbling excludes reflexiveness and restraint in speech, a babbler sometimes means an indiscriminate talker, hence a tale-bearer or gossip. Poetically, the term has been applied to the perpetual babbling sound of running water, "babbling brooks."

"When St. Paul was speaking of Christ and His Resurrection, the great Athenian philosophers looked upon all he said to be mere babbling."-BEVERIDGE.

CHATTER (onomatop. cf. Fr. caqueter.) The English chatter is employed of the inarticulate sounds of some animals, as of birds; hence talk which consists of the rapid repetition of sounds without much sense. An old form of the word was chitter. As babbling is often the product of infirmity, as in the aged, so chatter comes from over-activity of mind in little matters. When quick perception and nervous activity are combined with want of mental power, they produce that which is called chatter.

CHAT, a shorter form, is confined to the easy and social interchange of conversation on matters of no high moment, but sufficiently interesting to the parties engaged. Chattering is especially manifest among women and children in parties of themselves. The chatterer is a person of fussy selfimportance. As babbling is subdued, so chattering is loud and harsh. As a single person babbles, an assembly

"She found as on a spray she sat
The little friends were deep in chat.'
COTTON'S Fables.

PRATE and PRATTLE are connected with the Dutch praaten; prov. Ger. praten. Prattling is the innocent talk of young children, while prating belongs more to elders, and is talking much but to little purpose. The former is innocent, lively, childlike ; the latter is graver, impertinent, and obtrusive. Solemn or pompous talk combined with a shallow knowledge of the subject is prating.

"This is the reason why we are so much charmed with the pretty prattle of children. and even the expressions of pleasure or uneasiness in some part of the brute creation." -SIDNEY'S Arcadia.

"These praters affect to carry back the clergy to that primitive evangelic poverty which in the spirit ought always to exist in them (and in us too, however we may like it), but in the thing must be varied."BURKE.

BAD. EVIL. WICKED. NAUGHTY. Of these, BAD (cf. Cornish, bad, stupid, insane; and Gael. baodh, vain, giddy: SKEAT, Etym. Dict.) is the simplest and widest term. Every thing is presumed to have, in its true and normal state, a distinctive nature, character, and force, by which it manifests itself aright, and answers its proper idea and purpose. When this is so, it may be pronounced good, when the contrary, it is bad. The term BAD denotes that which is wanting in good qualities in any sense, moral or physical, and this in any degree hurtful, defective, or only unfavourable. A man is bad when, instead of the characteristic qualities of human nature in its rightful stateas, for instance, sobriety, humanity, equity, justice, kindness-he exhibits habitually the contrary vices, or any

stract character, and to the conception of things rather than their execution. If we wished to disapprove a matter both in purpose and performance, we might say that it was ill-conceived and badly executed. A thing may be ill-judged without being badly donethat is, it may be objectionable, not in itself, but in regard to the season or circumstances of it.

BAFFLE. DEFEAT. DISCONCERT. FRUSTRATE. DISCOMPOSE. FOIL.

BAFFLE (a corr. of Lowland Scotch, bauchle, to treat contemptuously; for change of ch to ff, cf. tough, rough, &c.: SKEAT, Etym. Dict.), like the rest of these synonyms, is used both of the schemer and the scheme. He who baffles does so by skill, forethought, address. The baffled finds that the baffler has been before him, and has taken just so much out of his arrangements as to make his plan ineffectual. Hence, BAFFLING commonly implies versatility in the baffler, and repeated little counteractions. Baffling winds seem to shift with the ship's course. It is evident that it is only as employed of persons that baffling involves skill. An obstinate disease may baffle the skill of the physician.

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Experience, that great baffler of speculation."-Gov. of the Tongue.

The chess-player who plays a losing game is baffled by the play of his adversary, but he is not of necessity thereby defeated (O. Fr. défait, part. of defaire, to undo). DEFEAT is final, while BAFFLING may be final or progressive, unless it be used of some one design said to be baffled. Baffling, then, is a kind of defeat, not, as defeat may be, by superior force or skill, but by skill only; so that one may be baffled yet still strive, but when one is defeated, the strife is over.

"Too well I see and rue the dire event That with sad overthrow and foul defeat Hath lost us heaven.' MILTON.

DISCONCERT (O. Fr. disconcerter; originally, from Lat. conserere, to join together), whether applied to persons or their plans, is to throw into confusion, such as may or may not terminate the proceeding. He is disconcerted, whose ideas fall, as it were, to pieces, and cease to be ioined together. Se

quence, continuity, consistency, are destroyed for the time, and the actor or speaker, if he is not to be entirely baffled, must institute them anew. Those persons who have strong selflove, but no great readiness of mind, are apt, in the common intercourse of life, to be disconcerted by trifles Disconcerting falls far short of defeat. The disconcerted man is thrown off the line of thought, speech, or action, and does not know how to find his way back.

"Far from being overcome, never once disconcerted, never once embarrassed, but calmly superior to every artifice, to every temptation, to every difficulty."-BISHOP PORTEUS.

What DISCONCERT is to the purpose and the plan, DISCOMPOSE (Lat. disapart, and componere, to put together is to the feelings. He who is discomposed is thrown out of a state c serenity, as he who is disconcerted is thrown out of self-possession. A man may be discomposed without being in the smallest degree disconcerted. He may have his feelings disturbed, while his judgment remains unaffected. Persons of irritable temper are apt to be discomposed. He who is disconcerted becomes more or less silent. He who is discomposed may become more energetic in speech.

"Every opposition of our espoused opinions discomposeth the mind's serenity." -GLANVILL.

FRUSTRATE (Lat. frustrari, or -re) is to make a purpose miss its end-tc cause that it shall not attain or secure that which it sought. In common parlance, schemes, designs, or movements, are baffled, efforts are defeated, arrangements are disconcerted, policy is confounded, purposes or hopes are frustrated, feelings or thoughts are discomposed, attempts are foiled.

The term FOIL, which most resembles baffle (Fr. fouler, to trample upon, to hurt) seems to imply an undertaking already begun, but defeated in the course of execution. One may be baffled by anticipation, one is foiled by counteraction.

"Is it to be supposed that He should disappoint His creation, and frustrate this very desire (of immortality) which He has Himself implanted ?"-BEATTIE.

"I have endeavoured to find out, if