See Sullivan's Dictionary; (Introduction, p. lxiv. &c.) in which the Latin and Greek roots of words in English are enumerated.

LECTURE II. 39

" accessary" to it, and is aiding and abetting the
person who does it; he yields his assent to the
deed, and this is giving his " accession" to it. The
" antecedent" is that which goes before. To
" concede" is to comply with, and " concession"
is the yielding of a point; that is, going along
with another. To " exceed" is to go beyond, or
out of bounds, and the result is "excess," and the
proceeding is " excessively" bad. To " intercede"
is to go between, with a view to reconciliation, to
mediate; and from the participle we have the
noun " intercession." To " precede" is to go
before; " precedence" is the right of going be­
fore, and a " precedent" is an example, having
gone before. To " proceed" is to go forth or for­
ward; and the noun " procession," from the par­
ticiple, means a going forward. A " process" is
something going forward, as in a court of law,
&c: a " procedure" is of similar signification. To
" recede" is to go back; and a " recess" is that
which goes back, as a place of concealment; the
word is also used to describe going back, a retire­
ment from business—as we speak of a Parliamen­
tary " recess." A " seceder" is one who " secedes"
or goes apart from. To " succeed," in its pri-

mary meaning, is simply to go under or beneath;
hence it means to follow after; and in the same
sense we have "succession" and "successive." But
the word is also applied in the sense of attain­
ing one's object- It then means to be " suc-

LECTURE II.

cessful," that is, to have " success," which is that which is come to, or attained. This word was originally applicable to a good or bad end; but being now limited to good fortune, it has become unnecessary to specify that the result is good; and if it be not, we pronounce the efforts made to attain it " unsuccessful." For­merly, however, it was necessary to specify that it was " good success."* From the same root we have " decease," that is, departing from, used to describe death. A " predecessor" is one that has gone before, having the same signification as an " ancestor," a word contracted from ante-cessor; while a " successor" is one who follows after. The term "ancestor" has come to be ap­plied only to predecessors by birth. An hereditary monarch succeeds to his ancestors, an elective, to his predecessors.

From censeo, to think, estimate, or value, and census, judged, we have " census," meaning an estimate of the number of the people. A " censor" was a Roman officer who had authority to degrade any senator, who did not worthily behave him­self. Hence we have the word " censorious," to describe a disposition to detect and expose faults, and to pass severe judgment. To " censure" is to find fault with conduct deserving of blame,

* "Then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thon shalt have good success." — Joshua i. 8.

LECTURE II. 41

and hence described as " censurable." In old authors to " censure" merely meant to form a judgment on any subject, and the substantive signified only an opinion so formed.

Several English words are derived from the Latin verb cerno, the original meaning of which is to sift and separate as by a sieve; and hence came to signify, to judge, to distinguish. The participle of this verb is cretus, from which also we have derived to us many English words. The words " concern" and " certain" may perhaps be traced to this root. What " concerns" one is that which,having been anxiously considered, is judged worthy of regard; and the noun " concern" indi­cates that which has been so adjudged. We call that " certain" which, having been well sifted and examined, is placed beyond all doubt, and is thence decided upon as firmly established. A " decree," or " decretal," is that which is deter-mined after full investigation; " discernment" implies that the truth has been arrived at by sifting the evidence, that is, " discerning" and separating truth from falsehood, and a "discerner" is one who does this honestly. " Discreet" and " discretion" also come from this verb, and in like manner convey the idea of a separating of the chaff from the wheat. Of the same meaning are " discriminate" and " discrimination." To " secrete" is to set aside or apart, and a " secret" is that which is so put apart or concealed. In

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