d morality so much as to be almost incapable of
signifying their absence without expressing aversion.

Again, the erroneous theories of mankind have often found their way into
popular speech, and their terms have remained there long after the
rejection of the beliefs they embodied: as--lunatic, augury, divination,
spell, exorcism: though, to be sure, such words may often be turned to
good account, besides the interest of preserving their original sense.
Language is a record as well as an index of ideas.

Language, then, being essentially classificatory, any attempt to
ascertain the meaning of a word, far from neglecting its relations to
others, should be directed toward elucidating them.

Every word belongs to a group, and this group to some other larger
group. A group is sometimes formed by derivation, at least so far as
different meanings are marked merely by inflections, as _short_,
_shorter_, _shorten_, _shortly_; but, for the most part, is a conflux of
words from many different sources. _Repose_, _depose_, _suppose_,
_impose_, _propose_, are not nearly connected in meaning; but are
severally allied in sense much more closely with words philologically
remote. Thus _repose_ is allied with _rest_, _sleep_, _tranquillity_;
_disturbance_, _unrest_, _tumult_; whilst _depose_ is, in one sense,
allied with _overthrow_, _dismiss_, _dethrone_; _restore_, _confirm_,
_establish_; and, in another sense, with _declare_, _attest_, _swear_,
_prove_, etc. Groups of words, in fact, depend on their meanings, just
as the connection of scientific names follows the resemblance in
character of the things denoted.

Words, accordingly, stand related to one another, for the most part,
though very irregularly, as genus, species, and co-ordinate species.
Taking _repose_ as a genus, we have as species of it, though not exactly
co-ordinate with one another, _tranquillity_ with a mental differentia
(repose of mind), _rest_, whether of mind or body, _sleep_, with the
differentia of unconsciousness (privative). Synonyms are species, or
varieties, wherever any difference can be detected in them; and to
discriminate them we must first find the generic meaning; for which
there may, or may not, be a single word. Thus, _equality_, _sameness_,
_likeness_, _similarity_, _resemblance_, _identity_, are synonyms; but,
if we attend to the ways in which they are actually used, perhaps none
of them can claim to be a genus in relation to the rest. If so, we