DIRECT AND INDIRECT ETYMOLOGY

I have just been exceedingly interested in reading a lecture on the *Origin and Progress of the English Language*, delivered at the Athenæum, Durham, before the Teachers' Society of the North of England, by W. Finley, Graduate of the University of France. The following passage well expresses a caution that should be always kept in mind by the literary archæologist: "In the orthography of English words derived from the Latin, *one great and leading principle* must be kept in view. If the word is of new adoption, it is certain that its spelling will be like that which appears in the original wor…