Изображения страниц
PDF
EPUB

TO CALCULATE, COMPUTE, RECKON, COUNT, OR ACCOUNT, NUMBER.

Calculate, in Latin calculatus, participle of calculo, comes from calculus, Greek xáλg a pebble; because the Greeks gave their votes, and the Romans made out their accounts, by little stones; hence it denotes the action itself of reckoning; compute signifies the same as in the preceding article; reckon, in Saxon reccan, Dutch rekenen, German rechnen, is not improbably derived from row, in Dutch reck, because stringing of things in a row was formerly, as it is now sometimes, the ordinary mode of reckoning; count, in French compter, is but a contraction of computer, but signifies a forming into an account, or setting down in an account; to number signifies literally to put into a number.

These words indicate the means by which we arrive at a certain result in regard to quantity.

*

To calculate is the generic term, the rest are specific computation and reckoning are branches of calculation, or an application of those operations to the objects of which a result is sought to calculate comprehends arithmetical operations in general, or particular applications of the science of numbers, in order to obtain a certain point of knowledge: to compute is to combine certain given numbers in order to learn the grand result: to reckon is to enumerate and set down things in the detail to count is to add up the individual items contained in many different parts, in order to determine the quantity.

Calculation particularly respects the operation itself; compute respects the gross sum; reckon and count refer to the details. To calculate denotes any numerical operation in general, but in its limited sense; it is the abstract science of figures used by mathematicians and philosophers; computation is a numerical estimate, a simple species of calculation used by historians, chronologists, and financial speculators, in drawing great results from complex sources : reckon and count are still simpler species of calculation, applicable to the ordinary business of life, and employed by tradesmen, mechanics, and people in general; reckoning and counting were the first efforts made by men in acquiring a knowledge of number, quantity, or degree.

The astronomer calculates the return of the stars; the geometrician makes algebraic calculations. The Banians, Indian merchants, make prodigious calculations in an instant on their thumb nails, doubtless after the manner of algebra, by signs, which the calculator employs as he pleases. The chronologist computes the times of particular events, by comparing them with those of other known events. Many persons have attempted from the prophecies to make a computation as to the probable time of the millennium: financiers compute the produce of a tax according to the measure and circumstances of its imposition. every new consulate the Romans used to drive a nail

At

into the wall of the capitol, by which they reckoned the length of time that their state had been erected : tradesmen reckon their profits and losses. Children begin by counting on their fingers, one, two, three.

An almanack is made by calculation, computation, and reckoning. The rising and setting of the heavenly bodies are calculated; from given astronomical tables is computed the moment on which any celestial phenomenon may return; and by reckoning are determined the days on which holidays, or other periodical events fall. Buffon, in his moral arithmetic, has calculated tables as guides to direct our judgements in different situations, where we have only vague probability, on which to draw our conclusions. By this we have only to compute what the fairest gain must cost us; how much we must lose in advance from the most favorable lottery; how much our hopes impose upon us, our cupidity cheats us, and our habits injure us.

Calculate and reckon are employed in a figurative sense; compute and count in an extended application of the same sense.

Calculate, reckon, and count, respect mostly the future; compute, the past.

Calculate is rather a conjectural deduction from what is, as to what may be; computation is a rational estimate of what has been, from what is; reckoning is a conclusive conviction, a complacent assurance that a thing will happen; counting indicates an expectation. We calculate on a gain; compute any loss sustained, or the amount of any mischief done; we reckon on a promised pleasure; we count the hours and minutes until the time of enjoyment arrives.

A spirit of calculation arises from the cupidity engendered by trade; it narrows the mind to the mere prospect of accumulation and self-interest; • In this bank of fame, by an exact calculation, and the rules of political arithmetic, I have allotted ten hundred thousand shares; five hundred thousand of which is the due of the general; two hundred thousand I assign to the general officers; and two hundred thousand more to all the commissioned officers, from the colonels to ensigns; the remaining hundred thousand must be distributed among the non-commissioned officers and private men; according to which computation, I find serjeant Hall is to have one share and a fraction of two fifths.' STEELE. Computations are inaccurate that are not founded upon exact numerical calculations; The time we live ought not to be computed by the number of years, but by the use that has been made of it.' ADDISON. Inconsiderate people are apt to reckon on things that are very uncertain, and then lay up to themselves a store of disappointments; 'Men reckon themselves possessed of what their genius inclines them to, and so bend all their ambition to excel in what is out of their reach.' SPECTATOR. Children who are uneasy at school count the hours, minutes, and moments for their return home;

The vicious count their years, virtuous their acts.

* Vide Roubaud: "Calculer, supputer, compter."

JONSON.

Those who have experienced the instability of human affairs, will never calculate on an hour's enjoyment beyond the moment of existence. It is difficult to compute the loss which an army sustains upon being defeated, especially if it be obliged to make a long retreat. Those who know the human heart will never reckon on the assistance of professed friends in the hour of adversity. A mind that is ill at ease seeks a resource and amusement in counting the moments as they fly; but this is often an unhappy delusion that only adds to the bitterness of sorrow.

To reckon, count, or account, and number, are very nearly allied to each other in the sense of esteeming or giving to any object a place in one's account or reckoning; they differ mostly in the application, reckoning being applied to more familiar objects than the others, which are only employed in the grave style; Reckoning themselves absolved by Mary's attachment to Bothwell, from the engagements which they had come under when she yielded herself a prisoner, they carried her, next evening, under a strong guard to the castle of Lochlevin.' ROBERTSON. Applause and admiration are by no means to be counted the necessaries of life.' JOHNSON. There is among no bishop of the Church of England but accounts it his interest, as well as his duty, to comply with this precept of the Apostle Paul to Titus, " These things teach and exhort."" SOUTH. He whose mind never pauses from the remembrance of his own sufferings, may justly be numbered among the most miserable of human beings.' JOHNSON.

6

reckoning with their work-people; tradesmen send in their bills at stated periods.

Account, from the extensive use of the term, is applicable to every thing that is noted down; the particulars of which are considered worthy of notice, individually or collectively: merchants keep their accounts; an account is taken at the Custom House of all that goes in and out of the kingdom; an account is taken of all transactions, of the weather, of natural phenomena, and whatever is remarkable;

At many times I brought in my accounts,

Laid them before you; you would throw them off, And say you found them in my honesty. SHAKSPEARE. Reckoning, as a particular term, is more partial in its use it is mostly confined to the dealings of men with one another; in which sense it is superseded by the preceding term, and now serves to express only an explanatory enumeration, which may be either verbal or written; 'Merchant with some rudeness demanded a room, and was told that there was a good fire in the next parlour, which the company were about to leave, being then paying their reckoning.' JOHNSON. Bill, as implying something charged or engaged, is used not only in a mercantile, but a legal sense: hence we a bill of speak of a bill of lading; a bill of parcels; exchange; a bill of indictment, or a bill in parliament; Ordinary expense ought to be limited by a man's estate, and ordered to the best, that the bills be may less than the estimation abroad.' BACON.

[ocr errors]

ACCOUNT, RECKONING, BILL.

Account, compounded of ac or ad and count, signifies to count to a person, or for a thing; an account is the thing so counted: reckoning, from the verb to reckon, signifies the thing reckoned up: bill, in Saxon bill, in all probability comes from the Swedish byla, to build, signifying a written contract for building vessels, which in German is still called a beilbrief; hence it has been employed to express various kinds of written documents. These words, which are very similar in signification, may frequently be substituted for one another.

Account is the generic, the others the specific terms: a reckoning and bill is an account, though not always vice versa: account expresses the details, with the sum of them counted up; reckoning implies the register and notation of the things to be reckoned up; bill denotes the details, with their particular charges. An account should be correct, containing neither more nor less than is proper; a reckoning should be explicit, leaving nothing unnoticed as to dates and names; a bill should be fair.

We speak of keeping an account, of coming to a reckoning, of sending in a bill. Customers have an account with their trades-people; masters have a

CALENDAR, ALMANACK, EPHEMERIS. Calendar comes from calendae, the Roman name for the first days of every month; almanack, that is al and mana, signifies properly the reckoning or thing reckoned, from the Arabic mana and Hebrew na to reckon; ephemeris, in Greek eoqueris, from ɩ and nuspa the day, implies that which happens by the day.

These terms denote a date-book, but the calendar is a book which registers events under every month: the almanack is a book which registers times, or the divisions of the year: and an ephemeris is a book which registers the planetary movements every day. An almanack may be a calendar, and an ephemeris may be both an almanack and a calendar; but every almanack is not a calendar, nor every calendar an almanack. The Gardener's calendar is not an almanack, and sheet almanacks are seldom calendars: likewise the nautical ephemeris may serve as an almanack, although not as a calendar; He was sitting upon the ground upon a little straw, in the furthest corner of his dungeon, which was alternately his chair and bed; a little calendar of small sticks were laid at the head, notched all over with the dismal nights and days he had passed there.' STERNE. • When the reformers were purging the calendar of legions of visionary saints, they took due care to defend the

[ocr errors]

niches of real martyrs from profanation. They preserved the holy festivals which had been consecrated for many ages to the great luminaries of the church, and at once paid proper observance to the memory of the good, and fell in with the proper humour of the vulgar, which loves to rejoice and mourn at the discretion of the almanack.' WALPOLE. That two or three suns or moons appear in any man's life or reign, it is not worth the wonder; but that the same should fall out at a remarkable time or point of some decisive action; that those two should make but one line in the book of fate, and stand together in the great ephemerides of God, beside the philosophical assignment of the cause, it may admit a Christian apprehension in the signality.' BROWN'S VULGAR Errors.

COUPLE, BRACE, PAIR.

Couple, in French couple, comes from the Latin copulo to join or tie together, copula, in Hebrew a a rope or a shackle, signifying things tied together; and as two things are with most convenience bound together, it has by custom been confined to this number; brace, from the French bras arm, signifies things locked together after the manner of the folded arms, which on that account are confined to the number of two; pair, in French paire, Latin par equal, signifies things that are equal, which can with propriety be said only of two things with regard to each other.

From the above illustration of these terms, it is clear that the number of two, which is included in all of them, is, with regard to the first, entirely arbitrary; that with regard to the second, it arises from the nature of the junction; and with regard to the third, it arises altogether from the nature of the objects couples and braces are made by coupling and bracing; pairs are either so of themselves, or are made so by others: couples and braces always require a junction in order to make them complete; pairs require similarity only to make them what they are: couples are joined by a foreign tie; braces are produced by a peculiar mode of junction with the objects themselves.

Couple and pair are said of persons or things; brace in particular cases, only of animals or things, except in the burlesque style, where it may be applied to persons. When used for persons, the word couple has relation to the marriage tie; the word pair to the association or the moral union: the former term is therefore more appropriate when speaking of those who are soon to be married, or have just entered that state; the latter when speaking of those who are already fixed in that state: most couples that are joined together are equally happy in prospect, but not so in the completion of their wishes; it is the lot of comparatively very few to claim the title of the happy pair; Scarce any couple comes together, but their

[ocr errors]

nuptials are declared in the newspaper with encomiums on each party.' JOHNSON.

Your fortune, happy pair, already made, Leaves you no farther wish. DRYDEN. The term pair may be used in the burlesque style for any two persons allied to each other by similarity of sentiment or otherwise;

Dear Sheridan! a gentle pair

Of Gaulstown lads (for such they are),
Besides a brace of grave divines,

Adore the smoothness of your lines. SWIFT. When used for things, couple is promiscuously employed in familiar discourse for any two things put together; In the midst of these sorrows which I had in my heart, methought there passed by me a couple of coaches with purple liveries. ADDISON. Brace is used by sportsmen for birds which are shot, and supposed to be locked together; by sailors for a part of their tackling, which is folded crosswise; as also in common life for an article of convenience crossed in a

singular way, which serves to keep the dress of men in its proper place;

First hunter then, pursu'd a gentle brace,

Goodliest of all the forest, hart and hind. MILTON. Pair is of course restricted in its application to such objects only as are really paired.

Six wings he wore, to shade
His lineaments divine; the pair that clad
Each shoulder broad, came mantling o'er his breast
With regal ornament. MILTON.

RATE, PROPORTION, RATIO.

Rate, signifies the thing rated, or the measure at which it is rated; ratio has the same original meaning as rate; proportion, v. Proportionate.

Rate and ratio are in sense species of proportion: that is, they are supposed or estimated proportions, in distinction from proportions that lie in the nature of things. The first term, rate, is employed in ordinary concerns; a person receives a certain sum weekly at the rate of a certain sum yearly; At Ephesus and Athens, Anthony lived at his usual rate in all manner of luxury.' PRIDEAUX. Ratio is applied only to numbers and calculations; as two is to four, so is four to eight, and eight to sixteen; the ratio in this case being double; The rate of interest (to lenders) is generally in a compound ratio formed out of the inconvenience and the hazard.' BLACKSTONE. Proportion is employed in matters of science, and in all cases where the two more specific terms are not admissible; the beauty of an edifice depends upon observing the doctrine of proportions; in the disposing of soldiers a certain regard must be had to proportion in the height and size of the men; Repentance cannot be effectual but as it bears some proportion to sin.' SOUTH.

[ocr errors]

6

PROPORTIONATE, COMMENSURATE,

ADEQUATE.

Proportionate, from the Latin proportio, compounded of pro and portio, signifies having a portion suitable to, or in agreement with, some other object; commensurate, from the Latin commensus or commetior, signifies measuring in accordance with some other thing, being suitable in measure to something else; adequate, in Latin adæquatus, participle of adæquo, signifies made level with some other body. Proportionate is here a term of general use; the others are particular terms, employed in a similar sense, in regard to particular objects: that is proportionate which rises as a thing rises, and falls as a thing falls; that is commensurate which is made to rise to the same measure or degree; that is adequate which is made to come up to the height of another thing. Proportionate is employed either in the proper or improper sense; in all recipes and prescriptions of every kind proportionate quantities must always be taken; when the task increases in difficulty and complication, a proportionate degree of labor and talent must be employed upon it; All envy is proportionate to desire.' JOHNSON. Commensurate and adequate are employed only in the moral sense; the former in regard to matters of distribution, the latter in regard to the equalizing of powers: a person's recompence should in some measure be commensurate with his labor and deserts; Where the matter is not commensurate to the words all speaking is but tautology.' SOUTH. A person's resources should be adequate to the work he is engaged in; Outward actions are not adequate expressions of our virtues.' ADDISON.

[ocr errors]

DISPARITY, INEQUALITY.

Disparity, from dis and par, in Greek napa with or by, signifies an unfitness of objects to be by one another; inequality, from the Latin æquus, even, signifies having no regularity.

Disparity applies to two or more objects which should meet or stand in coalition with each other; inequality is applicable to objects that are compared with each other: the disparity of age, situation, and circumstances, is to be considered with regard to persons entering into a matrimonial connexion; the inequality in the portion of labor which is to be performed by two persons, is a ground for the inequality of their recompense: there is a great inequality in the chance of success, where there is a disparity of acquirements in rival candidates: the disparity between David and Goliah was such as to render the success of the former more strikingly miraculous; Between Elihu and the rest of Job's familiars, the greatest disparity was but in years.' HOOKER. The inequality in the conditions of men is not attended with a corresponding inequality in their happiness; Inequality of behaviour, either in prosperity or adversity, are alike ungraceful in man that is born to die.' STEELE.

6

SYMMETRY, PROPORTION. Symmetry, in Latin symmetria, Greek ovμμerpía, from our and uerpov, signifies a measure that accords; proportion, in Latin proportio, compounded of pro and portio, signifies every portion or part according with the other, or with the whole.

The signification of these terms is obviously the same, namely, a due admeasurement of the parts to each other and to the whole but symmetry seems to convey the idea of a beautiful adaptation; and proportion is applied in general to every thing which admits of dimensions and an adaptation of the parts: hence we speak of symmetry of feature, or symmetry abstractedly;

She by whose lines proportion should be
Examin'd, measure of all symmetry;

Whom had that ancient seen, who thought souls made
Of harmony, he would at next have said
That harmony was she. DONNE.

[blocks in formation]

EQUAL, EVEN, EQUABLE, LIKE, OR
ALIKE, UNIFORM.

Equal, in Latin æqualis, comes from æquus, and probably the Greek sixò, similis, like; even is in Saxon efen, German eben, Sweden efwen, jafn, or aem, Greek oos like; equable, in Latin equabilis, signifies susceptible of equality; like, in Dutch lik, Saxon gelig, German gleich, Gothic tholick, Latin talis, Greek Taixos such as; uniform, compounded of unus one, and forma form, bespeaks its own meaning.

All these epithets are opposed to difference. Equal is said of degree, quantity, number, and dimensions, as equal in years; of an equal age; an equal height: even is said of the surface and position of bodies; a board is made even with another board; the floor or the ground is even: like is said of accidental qualities in things, as alike in color or in feature: uniform is said of things only as to their fitness to correspond; those which are unlike in color, shape, or make, or not uniform, cannot be made to match as pairs: equable is used only in the moral acceptation, in which all the others are likewise employed.

6

As moral qualities admit of degree, they admit of equality; justice is dealt out in equal portions to the rich and the poor; God looks with an equal eye on all mankind. Some men are equal to others in external circumstances; Equality is the life of conversation, and he is as much out who assumes to himself any part above another, as he who considers himself below the rest of society.' STEELE. As the natural path is rendered uneven by high and low ground, so the even

ness of the temper, in the figurative sense, is destroyed by changes of humor, by elevations and depressions of the spirits; Good-nature is insufficient (in the marriage state) unless it be steady and uniform, and accompanied with an evenness of temper.' SPECTATOR. The equability of the mind is hurt by the vicissitudes of life, from prosperous to adverse; There is also moderation in toleration of fortune which of Tully is called equabilitie.' SIR T. ELYOT. This term may also be applied to motion, as the equable motion of the planets; and figuratively to the style; In Swift's works is found an equable tenour of easy language, which rather trickles than flows.' JOHNSON. Even and equable are applied to the same mind in relation to itself; like or alike is used to the minds of two or more: hence we say they are alike in disposition, in sentiment, in wishes, &c. ;

E'en now familiar as in life he came;

6

Alas! how diff'rent, yet how like the same. POPE. Uniform is applied to the temper, habits, character, or conduct: hence a man is said to preserve a uniformity of behaviour towards those whom he commands. The term may also be applied to the modes which may be adopted by men in society; The only doubt is about the manner of their unity, how far churches are bound to be uniform in their ceremonies, and what way they ought to take for that purpose." HOOKER. Friendship requires that the parties be equal in station, alike in mind, and uniform in their conduct; wisdom points out to us an even tenor of life, from which we cannot depart either to the right or to the left, without disturbing our peace it is one of her maxims that we should not lose the equability of our temper under the most trying circumstances.

[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small]

smooth is free from every degree of roughness, however small: a board is even which has no knots or holes; it is not smooth unless its surface be an entire plane: the ground is said to be even, but not smooth; the sky is smooth, but not even; • When we look at a naked wall, from the evenness of the object the eye runs along its whole space, and arrives quickly at its termination.' BURKE. The effects of a rugged and broken surface seem stronger than where it is smooth and polished.' BURKE.

[ocr errors]

Even is to level (v. Flat) when applied to the ground, what smooth is to even: the even is free from protuberances and depressions on its exterior surface; the level is free from rises or falls: a path is said to be even; a meadow is level: ice may be level, though it is not even; a walk up the side of a hill may be even, although the hill itself is the reverse of a level: the even is said of that which unites and forms one uninterrupted surface; but the level is said of things which are at a distance from each other, and are discovered by the eye to be in a parallel line: hence the floor of a room is even with regard to itself; it is level with that of another room;

The top is level, an offensive seat
Of war. DRYDEN.

A blind man would never be able to imagine how the several prominences and depressions of a human body could be shown on a plain piece of canvass that has on it no unevenness.' ADDISON.

respects the direction of bodies and their freedom from Evenness respects the surface of bodies; plainness indentures or footmarks; a path is plain which is not external obstructions: a path is even which has no stopped up or interrupted by wood, water, or any other thing intervening.

When applied figuratively, these words preserve their analogy: an even temper is secured from all violent changes of humor; a smooth speech is divested of every thing which can ruffle the temper of others; but the former is always taken in a good sense; and the latter mostly in a bad sense, as evincing an illicit design or a purpose to deceive; A man who lives in a state of vice and impenitence can have no title to that evenness and tranquillity of mind which is the health of the soul.' ADDISON.

6

This smooth discourse and mild behaviour oft Conceal a traitor. ADDISON.

A plain speech, on the other hand, is divested of every thing obscure or figurative, and is consequently a speech free from disguise and easy to be understood;

Express thyself in plain, not doubtful words,
That ground for quarrels or disputes affords.
DENHAM.

Even and level are applied to conduct or condition; the former as regards ourselves; the latter as regards others: he who adopts an even course of conduct is in no danger of putting himself upon a level with those

« ПредыдущаяПродолжить »