Spain is bounded on one side by Portugal, on another side by the Mediterranean, and on the third by the Pyrenees. Limit applies to any artificial boundary: as landmarks in fields serve to show the limits of one man's ground from another; so may walls, palings, hedges, or any other visible sign, be converted into a limit, to distinguish one spot from another, and in this manner a field is said to be limited, because it has limits assigned to it. To confine is to bring the limits close together; to part off one space absolutely from another: in this manner we confine a garden by means of walls. To circumscribe is literally to surround: in this manner a circle may circumscribe a square: there is this difference however between confine and circumscribe, that the former denotes not only visible limits, but such as may also prevent egress and ingress; whereas the latter, which is only a line, is but a simple mark that limits.

From the proper acceptation of these terms we may easily perceive the ground on which their improper acceptation rests: to bound is an action suited to the nature of things or to some given rule; in this manner our views are bounded by the objects which intercept our sight: we bound our desires according to principles of propriety. To limit, confine, and circumscribe, all convey the idea of control which is more or less exercised. To limit, whether it be said of persons limiting things, or persons being limited by things, is an affair of discretion or necessity; we limit our expences because we are limited by circumstances. Confine conveys the same idea to a still stronger degree: what is confined is not only brought within a limit but is kept to that limit

which it cannot pass; in this manner a person confines himself to a diet which he finds absolutely necessary for his health, or he is confined in the size of his house, in the choice of his situation, or in other circumstances equally uncontrollable; hence the term confined expresses also the idea of the limits being made narrow as well as impassable or unchangeable. To circumscribe is figuratively to draw a line round; in this manner we are circumscribed in our pecuniary circumstances when our sphere of action is brought within a line by the want of riches. In as much as all these terms convey the idea of being acted upon involuntarily, they become allied to the term restrict, which simply expresses the exercise of control on the will: we use restriction when we limit and confine, but we may restrict without limiting or confining: to limit and confine are the acts of things upon persons, or persons upon persons; but restrict is only the act of persons upon persons: we are limited or confined only to a certain degree, but we may be restricted to an indefinite degree: the limiting and confining depend often on ourselves; the restriction depends upon the will of others: a person limits himself to so many hours' work in a day; an author confines himself to a particular branch of a subject; a person is restricted by his physician to a certain portion of food in the day: to be confined to a certain spot is irksome to one who has always had his liberty; but to be restricted in all his actions would be intolerable.

It is prudent to limit our exertions, when we find them prejudicial to our health; The operations of the mind are not, like those of the hands, limited to one individual object, but at once extended to a whole species.' BARTLET. It is necessary to confine our attention to one object at a time; 'Mechanical motions or operations are confined to a narrow circle of low and little things.' BARTLET. It is unfortunate to be circumscribed in our means of doing good;

Therefore must his choice be circumscrib'd
Unto the voice and yielding of that body,
Whereof he's head. SHAKSPEARE.

It is painful to be restricted in the enjoyment of innocent pleasure; 'It is not necessary to teach men to thirst after power; but it is very expedient that by moral instructions they should be taught, and by their civil institutions they should be compelled to put many restrictions upon the immoderate exercise of it.' BLACKSTONE.

Bounded is opposed to unbounded, limited to extended, confined to expanded, circumscribed to ample, restricted to unshackled.

BORDER, EDGE, RIM OR BRIM, BRINK, MARGIN, VERGE.

is probably connected with bret, and the English board, from brytan, in Greek pigem to split; edge, in Saxon ege, low German egge, high German ecke a point, Latin acies, Greek axń sharpness, signifies a rahmen a frame, riemen a thong, Greek pupa a tract, sharp point; rim, in Saxon rima, high German from púw to draw, signifies a line drawn round; brim, brink, are but variations of rim; margin, in French margin, Latin margo, probably comes from mare the sea, as it is mostly connected with water; verge, from the Latin virga, signifies a rod, but is here used in the improper sense for the extremity of an object.

Border, in French bord or bordure, Teutonic bord,

Of these terms border is the least definite point, edge the most so; rim and brink are species of edge; margin and verge are species of border. A border is a stripe, an edge is a line. The border lies at a certain distance from the edge, the edge is the exterior termination of the surface of • Mesubstance; any thought the shilling that lay upon the table reared itself upon its edge, and turning its face towards me Whatever is wide opened its mouth. ADDISON. enough to admit of any space round its circumference have a border;

may

Whatever comes to a narrow extended surface has an edge. Many things may have both a border and an edge; of this description are caps, gowns, carpets, and the like; others have a border but no edge, as lands; and others have an edge but no border, as a knife or a table.

A rim is the edge of any vessel;

But Merion's spear o'ertook him as he flew,
Deep in the belly's rim an entrance found
Where sharp the pang, and mortal is the wound.

BOUNDS, BOUNDARY.

Bounds and boundary, from the verb bound (v. To bound), signify the line which sets a bound, or marks the extent to which any spot of ground reaches. The term bounds is employed to designate the whole space including the outer line that confines: boundary comprehends only this outer line. Bounds are made for a local purpose; boundary for a political purpose: the master of a school prescribes the bounds beyond which the scholar is not to go;

So when the swelling Nile contemns her bounds,
And with extended waste the vallies drowns,
At length her ebbing streams resign the field,
And to the pregnant soil a tenfold harvest yield.
СІВВЕН.

The parishes throughout England have their bounda ries, which are distinguished by marks; fields have

out by a hedge or a ditch; Alexander did not in his progress towards the East advance beyond the banks of the rivers that fall into the Indus, which is now the Western boundary of the vast continent of India.' ROBERTSON.

Bounds are temporary and changeable; boundaries permanent and fixed: whoever has the authority of prescribing bounds for others, may in like manner contract or extend them at pleasure; the boundaries of places are seldom altered, but in consequence of great political changes.

In the figurative sense bound or bounds is even more frequently used than boundary: we speak of

INFINITE.

knowing a boundary: it is necessary occasionally to set bounds to the inordinate appetites of the best disposed children; There are bounds within which our concern for worldly success must be confined.' BLair, Children cannot be expected to know the exact boundary for indulgence; It is the proper ambition of heroes in literature to enlarge the boundaries of knowledge by discovering and conquering new regions of the intellectual world.' JOHNSON.

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LIMIT, EXTENT.

Limit is a more specific and definite term than extent by the former we are directed to the point where any thing ends; by the latter we are led to no

bounded;

limits are in their nature something finite; the extent is either finite or infinite: we therefore speak of that which exceeds the limits, or comes within the limits; and of that which comprehends the extent, or is according to the extent: a plenipotentiary or minister must not exceed the limits of his instruction; when we think of the immense extent of this globe, and that it is among the smallest of an infinite number of worlds, the mind is lost in admiration and amazement: it does not fall within the limits of a periodical work to enter into historical details; Whatsoever a man ac

counts his treasure answers all his capacities of pleasure. It is the utmost limit of enjoyment.' SOUTH. A complete history of any country is a work of great extent; It is observable that, either by nature or habit, our faculties are fitted to images of a certain extent.' JOHNSON.

TERM, LIMIT, BOUNDARY,

* Term, in Latin terminus, from the Greek Tépua an end, is the point that ends, and that to which we direct our steps: limit, from the Latin limes a land mark, is the line which we must not pass: boundary, from to bound, is the obstacle which interrupts our progress, and prevents us from passing.

We are either carried towards or away from the term; we either keep within limits, or we overstep them; we contract or extend a boundary.

The term and the limit belong to the thing; by them it is ended; they include it in the space which it occupies, or contain it within its sphere; the boundary is extraneous of it. The Straits of Gibraltar was the term of Hercules' voyages: it was said, with more eloquence than truth, that the limits of the Roman empire were those of the world: the sea, the Alps, and the Pyrenees, are the natural boundaries of France. We mostly reach the term of our prosperity when we attempt to pass the limits which Providence has assigned to human efforts: human ambition often finds a boundary set to its gratification by circumstances which were the most unlooked for, and apparently the least adapted to bring about such important results.

We see the term of our evils only in the term of our life;

No term of time this union shall divide. DRYDEN. Our desires have no limits; their gratification only serves to extend our prospects indefinitely; The wall of Antoninus was fixed as the limit of the Roman empire.' GIBBON. Those only are happy whose fortune is the boundary of their desires; Providence has fixed the limits of human enjoyment by immoveable boundaries. JOHNSON.

CONTRACTED, CONFINED, NARROW. Contracted, from the verb contract, in Latin contractus, participle of contraho to draw or come close together, signifies either the state or quality of being shrunk up, lessened in size, or brought within a smaller compass; confined marks the state of being confined; narrow is a variation of near, signifying the quality of being near, close, or not extended. Contraction arises from the inherent state of the

object; confined is produced by some external agent: a limb is contracted from disease; it is confined by a chain we speak morally of the contracted span of a man's life, and the confined view which he takes of a subject.

Contracted and confined respect the operations of things; narrow their qualities or accidents: whatever is contracted or confined is more or less narrow; but many things are narrow which have never been contracted or confined; what is narrow is therefore more positively so than either contracted or confined: a contracted mind has but few objects on which it dwells to the exclusion of others; Notwithstanding a narrow, contracted temper be that which obtains most in the world, we must not therefore conclude this to be the genuine characteristic of mankind.' GROVE. A confined education is confined to few points of knowledge or information; In its present habitation, the soul is plainly confined in its operations.' BLAIR. The presence of every created being is confined to a certain measure of space, and consequently his observation is stinted to a certain number of objects.' ADDISON. A narrow soul is hemmed in by a single selfish passion; Resentments are not easily dislodged from narrow minds.' CUMBERLAND,

TO ABRIDGE, CURTAIL, CONTRACT.

Abridge, in French abréger, Latin abbreviare, is compounded of the intensive syllable ab and breviare, from brevis short, signifying to make short; curtail, in French courte short, and tailler to cut, signifies to diminish in length by cutting; contract, in Latin contractus, participle of contraho, is compounded of con and traho, signifying to draw close together.

By abridging, in the figurative as well as the literal sense, the quality is diminished; by curtailing, the magnitude or number is reduced; by contracting, a thing is brought within smaller compass. Privileges are abridged, pleasures curtailed, and powers contracted.

When the liberty of a person is too much abridged, the enjoyments of life become curtailed, as the powers of acting and thinking, according to the genuine impulse of the mind, are thereby considerably contracted; This would very much abridge the lover's pains in this way of writing a letter, as it would enable him to express the most useful and significant words with a single touch of the needle.' ADDISON. I remember several ladies who were once very near seven foot high, that at present want some inches of five: how they came to be thus curtailed I cannot learn." ADDISON. He that rises up early and goes to bed late only to receive addresses is really as much tied and abridged in his freedom as he that waits all that time to present one.' SOUTH. • God has given no man

a body as strong as his appetites; but has corrected the boundlessness of his voluptuous desires, by stinting his strength and contracting his capacities.' SOUTH.

CONFINEMENT, IMPRISONMENT,

CAPTIVITY.

Confinement signifies the act of confining, or the state of being confined; imprisonment, compounded of im and prison, French prison, from pris, participle of prendre, Latin prehendo to take, signifies the act or state of being taken or laid hold of; captivity, in French captivité, Latin captivitas from capio to take, signifies likewise the state of being, or being kept in possession by another.

Confinement is the generic, the other two specific terms. Confinement and imprisonment both imply the abridgment of one's personal freedom, but the former specifies no cause, which the latter does. We may be confined in a room by ill health, or confined in any place by way of punishment; but we are never imprisoned but in some specific place appointed for the confinement of offenders, and always on some supposed offence. We are captives by the rights of war, when we fall into the hands of the enemy.

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Confinement does not specify the degree or manner as the other terms do; it may even extend to the restricting the body of its free movements. Imprisonment simply confines the person within a certain extent of ground, or the walls of a prison; Confinement of any kind is dreadful: let your imagination acquaint you with what I have not words to express, and conceive, if possible, the horrors of imprisonment, attended with reproach and ignominy. JOHNSON. Captivity leaves a person at liberty to range within a whole country or district;

There in captivity he lets them dwell

The space of seventy years; then brings them back,
Rememb'ring mercy. MILTON.

For life, being weary of these worldly bars,

Never lacks power to dismiss itself;

In that each bondman, in his own hand, bears

The power to cancel his captivity:

But I do think it cowardly and vile. SHAKSPEare. Confinement is so general a term, as to be applied to animals and even inanimate objects; imprisonment and captivity are applied in the proper sense to persons only, but they admit of a figurative application. Poor stray animals, who are found trespassing on unlawful ground, are doomed to a wretched confinement, rendered still more hard and intolerable by the want of food: the confinement of plants within too narrow a space will stop their growth for want of air;

But now my sorrows, long with pain supprest, Burst their confinement with impetuous sway. YOUNG. There is many a poor captive in a cage who, like Sterne's starling, would say, if it could," I want to get out."

FINITE, LIMITED.

Finite, from finis an end, is the natural property of things; and limited, from limes a boundary, is the artificial property: the former is opposite only to the infinite; but the latter, which lies within the finite, is opposed to the unlimited or the infinite. This world is finite, and space infinite; Methinks this single consideration of the progress of a finite spirit to perfection will be sufficient to extinguish all envy in inferior natures, and all contempt in superior. ADDISON. The power of a prince is sometimes limited; Those complaints which we are apt to make of our limited capacity and narrow view, are just as unreasonable as the childish complaints of our not being formed with a microscopic eye.' BLAIR.

It is not in our power to extend the our control. We are finite beings, and our capacities bounds of the finite, but the limited is mostly under are variously limited either by nature or circumstances.

TO RESERVE, RETAIN.

Reserve, from the Latin servo to keep, signifies to keep back; and retain, from teneo to hold, signifies to hold back: they in some measure, therefore, have the same distinction as hold and keep, mentioned in a former article.

:

To reserve is an act of more specific design; we reserve that which is the particular object of our choice to retain is a simple exertion of our power; we retain that which is once come into our possession. To reserve is employed only for that which is allowable; we reserve a thing, that is, keep it back with care for some future purpose; Augustus caused most of the prophetic books to be burnt, as spurious, reserving only those which bore the name of some of the sybils for their authors.' PRIDEAUX. To retain is often an unlawful act, as when a debtor retains in his hands the money which he has borrowed; sometimes it is simply an unreasonable act; They who have restored painting in Germany, not having seen any of those fair reliques of antiquity, have retained much of that barbarous method.' DRYDEN.

Reserve, whether in the proper or improper application, is employed only as the act of a conscious agent; retain is often the act of an unconscious agent: we reserve what we have to say on a subject until a more suitable opportunity offers; Conceal your esteem and love in your own breast, and reserve your kind looks and language for private hours." SWIFT. The mind retains the impressions of external objects, by its peculiar faculty, the memory; certain substances are said to retain the color with which they have been dyed; Whatever ideas the mind can receive and contemplate without the help of the body, it is reasonable to conclude it can retain without the help of the body too.' LOCKÉ. The beauties of Homer are difficult to be lost, and those of Virgil to be retained.' JOHNSON.

RESERVE, RESERVATION. Reserve and reservation, from servo to keep, both signify a keeping back, but differ as to the object and the circumstance of the action. Reserve is applied in a good sense to any thing natural or moral which is kept back to be employed for a better purpose on a future occasion: reservation is an artful keeping back for selfish purposes: there is a prudent reserve which every man ought to maintain in his discourse with a stranger; equivocators deal altogether in mental reservation; There is no maxim in politics more indisputable than that a nation should have many honours in reserve for those who do national services.' ADDISON. There be three degrees of this hiding and veiling a man's self: first reservation and secrecy; second dissimulation in the negative; and the third, simulation.' BACON.

TO KEEP, PRESERVE, SAVE.

To keep has the same original meaning here as explained under the article To hold, keep; to preserve, compounded of pre and the Latin servo to keep, signifies to keep away from all mischief; save signifies to keep safe.

The idea of having in one's possession is common to all these terms; which is, however, the simple meaning of keep: to preserve is to keep with care, and free from all injury; to save is to keep laid up in safe place, and free from destruction. Things are kept at all times, and under all circumstances; they are preserved in circumstances of peculiar difficulty and danger; they are saved in the moment in which they are threatened with destruction: things are kept at pleasure; We are resolved to keep an established church, an established monarchy, an established aristocracy, and an established democracy, each in the degree it exists and no greater.' BURKE. Things are preserved by an exertion of power; A war to preserve national independence, property, and liberty, from certain universal havock, is a war just and necessary.' BURKE. Things are saved by the use of extraordinary means; • If any thing defensive can possibly save us from the disasters of a regicide peace, Mr. Pitt is the man to save us.' BURKE. The shepherd keeps his flock by simply watching over them; children are sometimes wonderfully preserved in the midst of the greatest dangers; things are frequently saved in the midst of fire, by the exertions of those present.

KEEPING, CUSTODY.

Keeping is as before the most general term; custody, in Latin custodia and custos, comes in all probability from cura care, because care is particularly required in keeping. The keeping amounts to little more than having purposely in one's possession; but custody is a particular kind of keeping, for the pur

pose of preventing an escape: inanimate objects may be in one's keeping; but prisoners or that which is in danger of getting away, is placed in custody: a person has in his keeping that which he values as the property of an absent friend; Life and all its enjoyments would be scarce worth the keeping, if we were under a perpetual dread of losing them. SPECTATOR. The officers of justice get into their custody those who have offended against the laws, or such property as has been stolen; Prior was suffered to live in his own house under the custody of a messenger, until he was examined before a committee of the Privy Council.' JOHNSON.

TO SAVE, SPARE, PRESERVE, PROTECT.

To save signifies the same as in the preceding article; spare, in German sparen, comes from the Latin pareo, and the Hebrew ps to free; to preserve signifies the same as in the preceding article; and protect, the same as under the article To defend, protect.

The idea of keeping free from evil is common to all these terms, and the peculiar signification of the term save; they differ either in the nature of the evil kept off, or the circumstances of the agent: we may be saved from every kind of evil; but we are spared only from those which it is in the power of another to inflict: we may be saved from falling, or saved from an illness; a criminal is spared from the punishment, or we may be spared by Divine Providence in the midst of some calamity: we may be saved and spared from any evils, large or small; we nitude: we may be saved either from the inclemency are preserved and protected mostly from evils of magof the weather, or the fatal vicissitudes of life, or from destruction here and hereafter;