ied by the same
success.

{Sidenote: _Greek Words Naturalized_}

Nor indeed can it be said that this adoption and naturalization of
foreign words ever ceases in a language. There are periods, as we have
seen, when this goes forward much more largely than at others; when a
language throws open, as it were, its doors, and welcomes strangers with
an especial freedom; but there is never a time, when one by one these
foreigners and strangers are not slipping into it. We do not for the most
part observe the fact, at least not while it is actually doing. Time,
the greatest of all innovators, manages his innovations so dexterously,
spreads them over such vast periods, and therefore brings them about so
gradually, that often, while effecting the mightiest changes, we have no
suspicion that he is effecting any at all. Thus how imperceptible are
the steps by which a foreign word is admitted into the full rights of an
English one; the process of its incoming often eluding our notice
altogether. There are numerous Greek words, for example which, quite
unchanged in form, have in one way or another ended in finding a home
and acceptance among us. We may in almost every instance trace step by
step the naturalization of one of these; and the manner of this
singularly confirms what has just been said. We can note it spelt for a
while in Greek letters, and avowedly employed as a Greek and not an
English vocable; then after it had thus obtained a certain allowance
among us, and become not altogether unfamiliar, we note it exchanging
its Greek for English letters, and finally obtaining recognition as a
word which however drawn from a foreign source, is yet itself English.
Thus 'acme', 'apotheosis', 'criterion', 'chrysalis', 'encyclopedia',
'metropolis', 'opthalmia', 'pathos', 'phenomena', are all now English
words, while yet South with many others always wrote {Greek: akme:},
Jeremy Taylor {Greek: apotheo:sis} and {Greek: krite:rion}, Henry More
{Greek: chrysalis}, Ben Jonson speaks of 'the knowledge of the liberal
arts, which the Greeks call {Greek: enkyklopadeian}'{59}, Culverwell
wrote {Greek: me:tropolis} and {Greek: ophthalmia}, Preston, {Greek:
phainomena}--Sylvester ascribes to Baxter, not 'pathos', but {Greek:
pathos}{60}. {Greek: E:thos} is a word at the present moment preparing
for a like passage from Greek characters to English, and certainly
before long will be acknowledged as an English word{61}. The only cause
which has hind