It is necessary to try the fidelity of a servant before you place confidence in him; it is wicked to tempt any one to do that which we should think wrong to do ourselves our strength is tried by frequent experiments; we are tempted, by the weakness of our principles, to give way to the violence of our passions.

EXPERIENCE, EXPERIMENT, TRIAL, PROOF, TEST.

Experience, experiment, from the Latin experior, compounded of e or ex and perio or pario to bring forth, signifies the thing brought to light, or the act of bringing to light; trial signifies the act of trying, from try, in Latin tento, Hebrew n, to explore, examine, search; proof signifies either the act of proving, from the Latin probo to make good, or the thing made good, proved to be good; test, from the Latin testis a witness, is that which serves to attest or prove the reality of a thing.

By all the actions implied in these terms, we endeavour to arrive at a certainty respecting some unknown particular: the experience is that which has been tried; the experiment is the thing to be tried: the experience is certain, as it is a deduction from the past for the service of the present; the experiment is uncertain, and serves a future purpose: experience is an unerring guide, which no man can desert without falling into error; experiments may fail, or be superseded by others more perfect.

Experience serves to lead us to moral truth, the experiment aids us in ascertaining speculative truth; we profit by experience to rectify practice; A man may, by experience, be persuaded that his will is free; that he can do this, or not do it.' TILLOTSON. We make experiments in theoretical inquiries; Any one may easily make this experiment, and even plainly see that there is no bud in the corn which ants lay up.' ADDISON. He, therefore, who makes experiments in matters of experience rejects a steady and definite mode of coming at the truth for one that is variable and uncertain, and that too in matters of the first moment: the consequences of such a mistake are obvious, and have been too fatally realized in the present age, in which experience has been set at nought by every wild speculator, who has recommended experiments to be made with all the forms of moral duty and civil society; It is good also not to try experiments in states, except the necessity be urgent, or the utility evident.' BACON.

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The experiment, trial, and proof, have equally the character of uncertainty; but the experiment is employed only in matters of an intellectual nature; the trial is employed in matters of a personal nature, on physical as well as mental objects; the proof is employed in moral subjects: we make an experiment in order to know whether a thing be true or false; we make a trial in order to know whether it be capable or incapable, convenient or inconvenient, useful or the

contrary; we put a thing to the proof in order to determine whether it be good or bad, real or unreal: experiments tend to confirm our opinions; they are the handmaids of science; the philosopher doubts every position which cannot be demonstrated by repeated experiments; That which sheweth them to be wise, is the gathering of principles out of their own particular experiments; and the framing of our particular experiments, according to the rule of their principles, shall make us such as they are.' HOOKER. Trials are of absolute necessity in directing our conduct, our taste, and our choice; we judge of our strength or skill by trials; we judge of the effect of colors by trials, and the like;

But he himself betook another way,
To make more trial of his hardiment,
And seek adventures, as he with prince Arthur went.

SPENSER.

The proof determines the judgement, as in common life, according to the vulgar proverb, "The proof of the pudding is in the eating; so in the knowledge of men and things, the proof of men's characters and merits is best made by observing their conduct;

O goodly usage of those ancient tymes!
In which the sword was servant unto right:
When not for malice and contentious crymes,
But all for praise and proof of manly might.
SPENSER.

The experiment is a sort of trial; When we are
searching out the nature or properties of any being by
various methods of trial, this sort of observation is
called experiment.' WATTS. The proof results from
the trial; 6
My paper gives a timorous writer an op-
portunity of putting his abilities to the proof.' AD-
DISON. When the word test is taken in the sense of a
trial, as in the phrases to stand the test, or to make a
test, it derives its meaning from the chemical process
of refining metals in a test or cupel, testa being in
The test is therefore
Italian the name of this vessel.

a positive and powerful trial;

comes from try (v. Experience); endeavour, compounded of en and the French devoir to owe, signifies to try according to one's duty; essay, in French essayer, comes probably from the German ersuchen, compounded of er and suchen to seek, written in old German suachen, and is doubtless connected with sehen to see or look after, signifying to aspire after, to look up to; effort, in French effort, from the Latin effert, present tense of effero, compounded of e or en and fero, signifies a bringing out or calling forth the strength.

To attempt is to set about a thing with a view of affecting it to try is to set about a thing with a view of seeing the result. An attempt respects the action with its object; a trial is the exercise of power. We always act when we attempt; we use the senses and the understanding when we try. We attempt by trying, but we may try without attempting: when a thief attempts to break into a house he first tries the locks and fastenings to see where he can most easily gain admittance.

Men attempt to remove evils; they try experiments. Attempts are perpetually made by quacks, whether in medicine, politics, or religion, to recommend some scheme of their own to the notice of the public; which are often nothing more than trials of skill to see who can most effectually impose on the credulity of mankind. Spirited people make attempts; persevering people make trials; players attempt to perform different parts; and try to gain applause.

An endeavour is a continued attempt. Attempts may be fruitless; trials may be vain; endeavours, though unavailing, may be well meant. Many attempts are made which exceed the abilities of the attempter; trials are made in matters of speculation, the results of which are uncertain; endeavours are made in the moral concerns of life. People attempt to write books; they try various methods; and endeavour to obtain a livelihood.

An essay is used altogether in a figurative sense for an attempt or endeavour; it is an intellectual exertion. A modest writer apologizes for his feeble essay to contribute to the general stock of knowledge and cultivation: hence short treatises which serve as attempts to illustrate any point in morals are termed essays, among which are the finest productions in our language from the pen of Addison, Steele, and their successors. An effort is to an attempt as a means to an end; it is the very act of calling forth those powers which are employed in an attempt. In attempting to make an escape, a person is sometimes obliged to make desperate efforts.

Attempts at imitation expose the imitator to ridicule when not executed with peculiar exactness; 'A natural and unconstrained behaviour has something in it so agreeable that it is no wonder to see people endeavouring after it; but at the same time it is so very hard to hit, when it is not born with us, that people often make themselves ridiculous in attempting it.' ADDISON. Trials of strength are often foolhardy; in

some cases attended with mischievous consequences to the trier;

To bring it to the trial, will you dare

Our pipes, our skill, our voices to compare? DRYDEN. Honest endeavours to please are to be distinguished from idle attempts to catch applause; Whether or no (said Socrates on the day of his execution) God will of approve actions I know not; but this I am my sure of, that I have at all times made it my endeavour to please him.' ADDISON. The first essays of youth ought to meet with indulgence, in order to afford encouragement to rising talents; This treatise prides itself in no higher a title than that of an essay, or imperfect attempt at a subject.' GLANVILLE. Great attempts, which require extraordinary efforts either of body or mind, always meet with an adequate share of public applause; The man of sagacity bestirs himself to distress his enemy by methods probable and reducible to reason: so the same reason will fortify his enemy to elude these his regular efforts: but your fool projects with such notable inconsistency, that no course of thought can evade his machinations." STEELE.

ATTEMPT, UNDERTAKING,

ENTERPRISE.

An attempt is the thing attempted (v. To attempt); an undertaking, from undertake, or take in hand, is the thing taken in hand; an enterprise, from the French enterpris, participle of entreprendre to undertake, has the same original sense.

The idea of something set about to be completed is common to all these terms. An attempt is less complicated than an undertaking; and that less arduous than an enterprise. Attempts are the common exertions of power for obtaining an object: an undertaking involves in it many parts and particulars which require thought and judgement: an enterprise has more that is hazardous and dangerous in it; it requires reso lution. Attempts are frequently made on the lives and property of individuals; undertakings are formed for private purposes; enterprises are commenced for some great national object.

Nothing can be effected without making the attempt; attempts are therefore often idle and unsuccessful, when they are made by persons of little discretion, who are eager to do something without knowing how to direct their powers;

Why wilt thou rush to certain death and rage, In rash attempts beyond thy tender age? DRYDEN. Undertakings are of a more serious nature, and involve a man's serious interests; if begun without adequate means of bringing them to a conclusion, they too frequently bring ruin by their failure on those who are concerned in them; "When I hear a man complain of his being unfortunate in all his undertakings, I shrewdly suspect him for a very weak man in his affairs." ADDISON. affairs. ADDISON. Enterprises require personal sa

crifices rather than those of interest; he who does not combine great resolution and perseverance with considerable bodily powers, will be ill-fitted to take part in grand enterprises.

The present age has been fruitful in attempts to bring premature genius into notice: literary undertakings have of late degenerated too much into mere commercial speculations: a state of war gives birth to naval and military enterprises; a state of peace is most favorable to those of a scientific nature; There would be few enterprises of great labor or hazard undertaken, if we had not the power of magnifying the advantages which we persuade ourselves to expect from them.' JOHNSON.

FOOLHARDY, ADVENTUROUS, RASH.

Foolhardy signifies having the hardihood of a fool; adventurous, ready to venture; rash, in German.

rasch, which signifies swift, comes from the Arabic

raaschen to go swiftly.

The foolhardy expresses more than the adventur. ous; and the adventurous than the rash.

The foolhardy man ventures in defiance of consequences: the adventurous man ventures from a love of the arduous and the bold; the rash man ventures for want of thought: courage and boldness become foolhardihood when they lead a person to run a fruitless risk; an adventurous spirit sometimes leads a man into unnecessary difficulties; but it is a necessary accompaniment of greatness. There is not so much design, but there is more violence and impetuosity in rashness than in foolhardihood: the former is the consequence of an ardent temper which will admit of correction by the influence of the judgement; but the latter comprehends the perversion of both the will and the judgement.

An infidel is foolhardy, who risks his future salvation for the mere gratification of his pride;

If any yet be so foolhardy,

T'expose themselves to vain jeopardy,
If they come wounded off and lame,

No honour's got by such a maim. BUTLER.

Alexander was an adventurous prince, who delighted in enterprizes in proportion as they presented difficulties; he was likewise a rash prince, as was evinced by his jumping into the river Cydnus while he was hot, and by his leaping over the wall of Oxydrace and exposing himself singly to the attack of the enemy;

T'was an old way of recreating,

Which learned butchers called bearbaiting,
A bold advent'rous exercise. BUTLER.

Why wilt thou, then, renew the yain pursuit, And rashly catch at the forbidden fruit?. PRIOR.

TO ENDEAVOUR, AIM, STRIVE,

STRUGGLE.

To endeavour (v. Attempt) is general in its object; aim (v. Aim) is particular; we endeavour to do whatever we set about; we aim at doing something which we have set before ourselves as a desirable object. To strive (v. Strife) is to endeavour earnestly; to struggle, which is a frequentative of strive, is to strive earnestly.

An endeavour springs from a sense of duty; we endeavour to do that which is right, and avoid that which is wrong: aiming is the fruit of an aspiring temper; the object aimed at is always something superior either in reality or imagination, and calls for particular exertion: striving is the consequence of an ardent desire; the thing striven for is always conceived to be of importance: struggling is the effect of necessity; it is proportioned to the difficulty of attainment, and the resistance which is opposed to it; the thing struggled for is indispensably necessary.

Those only who endeavour to discharge their duty to God and their fellow creatures can expect real tran

quillity of mind; "Tis no uncommon thing, my good Sancho, for one half of the world to use the other half like brutes, and then endeavour to make 'em so." STERNE. Whoever aims at the acquirement of great wealth or much power opens the door for much misery to himself;

However men may aim at elevation,

'Tis properly a female passion. SHENSTONE. As our passions are acknowledged to be our greatest enemies when they obtain the ascendancy, we should always strive to keep them under our control;

All understand their great Creator's will,
Strive to be happy, and in that fulfil,
Mankind excepted, lord of all beside,

But only slave to folly, vice, and pride. JENYNS. There are some men who struggle through life to obtain a mere competence; and yet die without succeeding in their object;

So the boat's brawny crew the current stem,

And slow advancing struggle with the stream. DRYDEN.

We ought to endeavour to correct faults, to aim at attaining Christian perfection, to strive to conquer bad habits: these are the surest means of saving us from the necessity of struggling to repair an injured reputation.

ENDEAVOUR, EFFORT, EXERTION.

The idea of calling our powers into action is common to these terms: endeavour (v. Attempt) expresses little more than this common idea, being a term of general import: effort, from the Latin effert, from effero to bring forth, signifying the bringing out of power; and exertion, in Latin exero, signifying the

putting forth power, are particular modes of endeavour; the former being a special strong endeavour, the latter a continued strong endeavour. The endeavour is called forth by ordinary circumstances; the effort and exertion by those which are extraordinary. The endeavour flows out of the condition of our being and constitution; as rational and responsible agents we must make daily endeavours to fit ourselves for an hereafter; as willing and necessitous agents, we use our endeavours to obtain such things as are agreeable or needful for us: when a particular emergency arises we make a great effort; and when a serious object is to be obtained we make suitable exertions.

The endeavour is indefinite both as to the end and the means the end may be immediate or remote; the means may be either direct or indirect: but in the effort the end is immediate; the means are direct and personal: we may either make an endeavour to get into a room, or we may make an endeavour to obtain a situation in life, or act our part well in a particular situation; To walk with circumspection and steadiness in the right path ought to be the constant endeavour of every rational being.' JOHNSON. We make efforts to speak, or we make efforts to get through a crowd, or we make efforts to overcome our feelings; The influence of custom is such, that to conquer it will require the utmost efforts of fortitude and virtue.' JOHNSON. The endeavour may call forth one or many powers; the effort calls forth but one power: the endeavour to please in society is laudable, if it do not lead to vicious compliances; it is a laudable effort of fortitude to suppress our complaints in the moment of suffering. The exertion is as comprehensive in its meaning as the endeavour, and as positive as the effort; but the endeavour is most commonly, and the effort always, applied to individuals only; whereas the exertion is applicable to nations as well as individuals. A tradesman uses his best endeavours to please his customers: a combatant makes desperate efforts to overcome his antagonist: a candidate for literary or parliamentary honors uses great exertions to surpass his rival; a nation uses great exertions to raise a navy or extend its commerce; The discomfitures which the republic of assassins has suffered have uniformly called forth new exertions.' BURKE.

TO EXERT, EXERCISE.

The employment of some power or qualification that belongs to oneself is the common idea conveyed by these terms; but exert (v. Endeavour) may be used for what is internal or external of oneself; exercise, in Latin exerceo, from ex and arceo, signifying to drive or force out, is employed only for that which forms an express part of oneself: hence we speak of exerting one's strength, or exerting one's voice, or exerting one's influence, of exercising one's limbs; exercising one's understanding, or exercising one's

tongue; tongue; How has Milton represented the whole Godhead, exerting itself towards man in its full benevolence, under the threefold distinction of a Creator, a Redeemer, and Comforter.' ADDISON. 'God made no faculty, but also provided it with a proper object upon which it might exercise itself.' SOUTH.

Exert conveys simply the idea of calling forth into action; exercise always conveys the idea of repeated or continued exertion coupled with that of the purpose or end for which it is made: thus a person who calls to another exerts his voice; he who speaks aloud for any length of time exercises his lungs. When the will has exerted an act of command upon any faculty of the soul, or member of the body, it has done all that the whole man, as a moral agent, can do for the actual exercise or employment of such a faculty or member.

TO EXERCISE, PRACTISE.

Exercise signifies the same as in the preceding article; practise, from the Greek páσow to do, signifies to perform a part.

These terms are equally applied to the actions and habits of men; but we exercise in that where the powers are called forth; we practise in that where frequency and habitude of action is requisite: we exercise an art; we practise a profession; The Roman tongue was the study of their youth; it was their own language they were instructed and exercised in.' LOCKE. A woman that practis'd physic in man's clothes.' TATLER. We may both exercise or practise a virtue; but the former is that which the particular peculiar effort of the mind; the latter is that which is occurrence calls forth, and which seems to demand a done daily and ordinarily thus we in a peculiar manner are said to exercise patience, fortitude, or forbearance; to practise_charity, kindness, beneVolence, and the like; Every virtue requires time and place, a proper object, and a fit conjuncture of circumstances for the due exercise of it.' ADDISON. All men are not equally qualified for getting money; but it is in the power of every one alike to practise this virtue (of thrift).' BUDGELL.

A similar distinction characterizes these words as nouns the former applying solely to the powers of the body or mind; the latter solely to the mechanical operations: the health of the body and the vigor of the mind are alike impaired by the want of exercise, 'Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body.' ADDISON. In every art practice is an indispensable requisite for acquiring perfection;

Long practice has a sure improvement found,
With kindled fires to burn the barren ground.

DRYDEN.

;

The exercise of the memory is of the first importance in the education of children; constant practice in writing is almost the only means by which the art of penmanship is acquired.

CUSTOM, FASHION, MANNER,

PRACTICE.

Customs, fashions, and manners, are all employed for communities of men: custom (v. Custom, habit) respects established and general modes of action: fashion, in French façon, from facio to do or make, regards partial and transitory modes of making or doing things: manner, in the limited sense in which it is here taken, signifies the manner or mode of men's living or behaving in their social intercourse.

Custom is authoritative; it stands in the place of law, and regulates the conduct of men in the most important concerns of life: fashion is arbitrary and capricious, it decides in matters of trifling import: manners are rational; they are the expressions of moral feelings. Customs are most prevalent in a barbarous state of society; fashions rule most where luxury has made the greatest progress; manners are most distinguishable in a civilized state of society.

6

Customs are in their nature as unchangeable as fashions are variable; manners depend on cultivation and collateral circumstances: customs die away or are abolished; fashions pass away, and new ones take their place; manners are altered either for the better or the worse: endeavours have been successfully employed in several parts of India to abolish the custom of infanticide, and that of women sacrificing themselves on the funeral piles of their husbands; The custom of representing the grief we have for the loss of the dead by our habits, certainly had its rise from the real sorrow of such as were too much distressed to take the care they ought of their dress.' STEELE. The votaries of fashion are not contented with giving the law for the cut of the coat, or the shape of the bonnet, but they wish to intrude upon the sphere of the scholar or the artist, by prescribing in matters of literature and taste;

Of beasts, it is confess'd, the ape
Comes nearest us in human shape;
Like man, he imitates each fashion,

And malice is his ruling passion. SWIFT.

The influence of public opinion on the manners of a people has never been so strikingly illustrated as in the instance of the French nation during and since the Revolution;

Their arms, their arts, their manners, I disclose, And how they war, and whence the people rose. DRYDEN.

Practice, in Latin practicus, Greek рaxτixòs, from apáσow to do, signifies actual doing or the thing done, that is by distinction the regularly doing, or the thing regularly done, in which sense it is most analogous to custom; but practice simply conveys the idea of actual performance; custom includes also the accessory idea of repetition at stated periods: a practice must be defined as frequent or unfrequent, regular or irregular; but a custom does not require to be qualified by any such epithets: it may be the practice of a

person to do acts of charity, as the occasion requires ; but when he uniformly does a particular act of charity at any given period of the year, it is properly denominated his custom; Savage was so touched with the discovery of his real mother, that it was his frequent practice to walk in the dark evenings for several hours before her door, with hopes of seeing her as she might cross her apartments with a candle in her hand.' JOHNSON.

Both practice and custom are general or particular, but the former is absolute, the latter relative: the practice may be adopted by a number of persons without reference to each other; but a custom is always followed either by imitation or prescription: the practice of gaming has always been followed by the vicious part of society; but it is to be hoped for the honor of man that it will never become a custom.

CUSTOM, HABIT.

Custom signifies the same as in the preceding article; habit, in Latin habitudo, from habeo to have, marks the state of having or holding.

Custom is a frequent repetition of the same act; 'It is the custom of the Mahometans, if they see any printed or written paper upon the ground, to take it up and lay it aside carefully, as not knowing but it may contain some piece of the Alcoran.' ADDISON. Habit the effect of such repetition; 'If a loose and careless life has brought a man into habits of dissipation, and led him to neglect those religious duties which he owed to his Maker, let him return to the regular worship of God.' BLAIR. The custom of rising early in the morning is conducive to the health, and may in a short time become such a habit as to render it no less agreeable than it is useful.

Custom applies to men collectively or individually; habit applies to the individual only. Every nation has customs peculiar to itself; I dare not shock my readers with the description of the customs and manners of these barbarians (the Hottentots).' HUGHES. Every individual has habits peculiar to his age, station, and circumstances.

Custom, in regard to individuals, supposes an act of the will; habit implies an involuntary movement : a custom is followed; a habit is acquired: whoever follows the custom of imitating the look, tone, or gesture of another, is liable to get the habit of doing the same himself: as habit is said to be second nature, it is of importance to guard against all customs to which we do not wish to become habituated: the drunkard is formed by the custom of drinking intemperately, until he becomes habituated to the use of spirituous liquors: the profane swearer who accustoms himself in early life to utter the oaths which he hears, will find it difficult in advanced years to break himself of the habit of swearing: the love of imitation is so powerful in the human breast, that it leads the major part of mankind to follow custom even in ridi