English synonymes explained in alphabetical order with copious illustrations and examples drawn from the best writers; to which is now added an index to the words

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1904 Excerpt: ...persons and things; whimsical and capricious are mostly employed for persons, or what is personal. Fanciful is said of that which is irregular in the taste or judgment; fantastical is said of that which violates all propriety, as well as regularity: the former may consist of a simple deviation from rule; the latter is something extravagant. A person may, therefore, sometimes be advantageously fanciful, although he can never be fantastical but to his discredit. Lively minds will be fanciful in the choice of their dress, furniture, or equipage: the affectation of singularity frequently renders people fantastical in their manners as well as their dress. There is something very sublime, though very fanciful, in Plato's description of the Supreme Being, that, " truth is his body, and light his shadow." Addison. Hethinks heroic poesy, till now, Like some fantastic fairy-land did show. Cowley. Fanciful is said mostly in regard to errors of opinion or taste; it springs from an aberration of the mind: whimsical is a species of the fanciful in regard to one's likes or dislikes; capricious respects errors of temper, or irregularities of feeling. The fanciful does not necessarily imply instability; but the capricious excludes the idea of fixedness. One is fanciful by attaching a reality to that which only passes in one's own mind; one is whimsical in the inventions of the fancy; one is capricious by acting and judging without rule or reason in that which admits of both. The English are naturally fanciful. Addison. Tis this exalted power, whose business ltoo In nonsense and impossibilities: This made a whinutical philosopher Before the spacious world a tub prefer. ROCHESTER. Many of the pretended friendships of youth are founded on capricious liking. Blair. FA...