CHAPTER V.
OF THE POWER OF LANGUAGE.
"Quis huic studio literarum, quod profitentur ii, qui grammatici vocantur, penitus se dedidit, quin omnem illarum artium paene infinitam _vim_ et _materiam_ scientiae cogitatione comprehenderit ?"--CICERO.

_De Oratore_, Lib.

i, 3.
1.

The peculiar _power_ of language is another point worthy of particular consideration.

The power of an instrument is virtually the power of him who wields it; and, as language is used in common, by the wise and the foolish, the mighty and the impotent, the candid and the crafty, the righteous and the wicked, it may perhaps seem to the reader a difficult matter, to speak intelligibly of its _peculiar power_.