'philosopher' and 'philosophe.'

'Unlettered,' to be sure, is one who is unacquainted even with his
'letters;' but what is 'erudite?' It is merely E, _out of_, a RUDIS,
_rude_, _chaotic_, _ignorant_ state of things; and thus in itself
asserts nothing very tremendous, and makes no very prodigious
pretensions. Surely these words had their origin at an epoch when
'letters' stood higher in the scale of estimation than they do now; when
he who knew them possessed a spell that rendered him a potent character
among the 'unlettered.'

A 'spell' did we say? Perhaps that is not altogether fanciful; for
'spell' itself in the Saxon primarily imports a _word_; and we know that
the runes or Runic letters were long employed in this way. For instance,
Mr. Turner thus informs us ('History of the Anglo-Saxons,' vol. i, p.
169): 'It was the invariable policy of the Roman ecclesiastics to
discourage the use of the Runic characters, because they were of pagan
origin, and had been much connected with idolatrous superstitions.' And
if any one be incredulous, let him read this from Sir Thomas Brown:
'Some have delivered the polity of spirits, that they stand in awe of
charms, _spells_, and conjurations; _letters_, characters, notes, and
dashes.' And have not the [Greek: Alpha] and [Greek: Omega] something
mystic and cabalistic about them even to us?

While on this, let us note that 'spell' gives us the beautiful and
cheering expression 'gospel,' which is precisely _God's-spell_--the
'evangile,' the good God's-news!

To resume:

'Graphical' ([Greek: grapho]) is just what is well
delineated--_literally_, 'well written,' or, as our common expression
corroboratively has it, _like a book_!

'Style' and 'stiletto' would, from their significations, appear to be
radically very different words; and yet they are something more akin
than even cousins-german. 'Style' is known to be from the [Greek:
stylos], or _stylus_, which the Greeks and Romans employed in writing on
their waxen tablets; and, as they were both sharp and strong, they
became in the hands of scholars quite formidable instruments when used
against their schoolmasters. Afterward they came to be employed in all
the bloody relations and uses to which a 'bare bodkin' can be put, and
hence our acceptation of 'stiletto.' Caesar himself, it is supposed, got
his 'quietus' by means of a 'stylus;' nor is he the first or last
character whose 'style' has been his (_literary_, if not _literal_)