h somewhat monotonous
musical cadence, usually with closed lips; we speak also of the _hum_ of
machinery, etc.

* * * * *

SKEPTIC.

Synonyms:

agnostic, deist, doubter, infidel, unbeliever.
atheist, disbeliever, freethinker,

The _skeptic_ doubts divine revelation; the _disbeliever_ and the
_unbeliever_ reject it, the _disbeliever_ with more of intellectual
dissent, the _unbeliever_ (in the common acceptation) with indifference
or with opposition of heart as well as of intellect. _Infidel_ is an
opprobrious term that might once almost have been said to be
geographical in its range. The Crusaders called all Mohammedans
_infidels_, and were so called by them in return; the word is commonly
applied to any decided opponent of an accepted religion. The _atheist_
denies that there is a God; the _deist_ admits the existence of God, but
denies that the Christian Scriptures are a revelation from him; the
_agnostic_ denies either that we do know or that we can know whether
there is a God.

Antonyms:

believer, Christian.

* * * * *

SKETCH.

Synonyms:

brief, draft, outline, plan,
design, drawing, picture, skeleton.

A _sketch_ is a rough, suggestive presentation of anything, whether
graphic or literary, commonly intended to be preliminary to a more
complete or extended treatment. An _outline_ gives only the bounding or
determining lines of a figure or a scene; a _sketch_ may give not only
lines, but shading and color, but is hasty and incomplete. The lines of
a _sketch_ are seldom so full and continuous as those of an _outline_,
being, like the shading or color, little more than indications or
suggestions according to which a finished _picture_ may be made; the
artist's first representation of a sunset, the hues of which change so
rapidly, must of necessity be a _sketch_. _Draft_ and _plan_ apply
especially to mechanical drawing, of which _outline_, _sketch_, and
_drawing_ are also used; a _plan_ is strictly a view from above, as of a
building or machine, giving the lines of a horizontal section,
originally at the level of the ground, now in a wider sense at any
height; as, a _plan_ of the cellar; a _plan_ of the attic. A mechanical
_drawing_ is always understood to be in full detail; a _draft_ is an
incomplete or unfinished _drawing_; a _design_ is such a preliminary
_sketch_ as indicates the object to be acco