ESSEX INSTITUTE.

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IN almost every age of the ~lJorld, amongst civilized lIa­
,tions, eloquence half been held in distinguished ntimatioll;
.both as a jlleasing accomjllisn7llent, and uSfflll acquisition, Its
advantages llavr; been aftflreciated both by Church and State.
The jlrimitive Church ha¢her Aftollos; and Guue and Rome,
their Demosthenes and Cicero; France has had her Bour­
'dalom:, lur Mas;illon, and her Maury; and England can
boast of the Pitts, ofManlffield, ifBurke, andifFox, But
under no circumstances can its jlrincijlles be cultivated, or it..,
/lOwets disftlayed to greatel' advantage; than in rejlublican
institutions Hke those of the United States ofAmerica.
Lexicogra/lhy is an indisjlensable auxiliary to the m't of
Rhetoric1c; the ru.diments of which consist in a judiciOUS selection
of ~lJol'ds tf) eX/lress our ideas, as ~lJell as in a .suitable
collocation ofthem in sentences. But injitTnisldng the means
ifillljlro:ving and. embellishing their language, ~lJe should not
be,inattenti'Ve to th,e mOl'als if those ~lJho al'e the objects of
instruction,
In ftublications more immedia:tely designed fo~' scminaries'
iflea171,ing; and esjleciallyforftuftilsjust entcring the tln'esll:
old if the ,!.itemry edifice; ~lJhere early, and frequently
permanent im/lressi01l8 arc made ujlOn tlte tender mind; tile,
most sedulous attention should be jwid, to guard against eve'­
ry thing that might .ha'Ve a tendency to convey an imjl117C
idea, .01' to corru/lt the morals,
" Imftressed ~vith these scntiments, tlie com/lifer of the PictlOna,:y
now olTered to the jlub{ick, wldch is /l1incijwlly designed
fOT tile.. use if Schools, has not only bun carljit! to
banish 'Vulgarisms, low cant-words, obsfilete'tenlls, anti such
exftres..~ionsas ar.e fteculiar t