of giving them _proper names_; but proper names
must needs be so written, that they may be known as proper names, and not
be mistaken for common terms. I have before observed, that we have some
names which are both proper and common; and that these should be written
with capitals, and should form the plural regularly. It is surprising that
_the Friends_, who are in some respects particularly scrupulous about
language, should so generally have overlooked the necessity there is, of
_compounding_ their numerical names of the months and days, and writing
them uniformly with capitals, as proper names. For proper names they
certainly are, in every thing but the form, whenever they are used without
the article, and without those other terms which render their general idea
particular. And the compound form with a capital, is as necessary for
_Firstday, Secondday, Thirdday_, &c., as for _Sunday, Monday, Tuesday_, &c.
"The first day of the week,"--"The seventh day of the month,"--"The second
month of summer,"--"The second month in the year," &c., are good English
phrases, in which any compounding of the terms, or any additional use of
capitals, would be improper; but, for common use, these phrases are found
too long and too artificial. We must have a less cumbersome mode of
specifying the months of the year and the days of the week. What then?
Shall we merely throw away the terms of particularity, and, without
substituting in their place the form of proper names, apply general terms
to particular thoughts, and insist on it that this is right? And is not
this precisely what is done by those who reject as heathenish the ordinary
names of the months and days, and write "_first day_," for _Sunday_, in
stead of "the first day of the week;" or "_second month_," for _February_,
in stead of "the second month in the year;" and so forth? This phraseology
may perhaps be well understood by those to whom it is familiar, but still
it is an abuse of language, because it is inconsistent with the common
acceptation of the terms. Example: "The departure of a ship will take place
_every sixth day_ with punctuality."--_Philadelphia Weekly Messenger_. The
writer of this did not mean, "_every Friday_;" and it is absurd for the
Friends so to understand it, or so to write, when that is what they mean.

OBS. 4.--In the ordinary business of life, it is generally desirable to
express our meaning as briefly as possible; but legal phraseology is always
full to