"Victoria," was compelled to retract the appellation and offer another. An acute and learned Italian physician, some time in the last century, discovered a new- physical force, and some one called it galvanism, after his name. Many of us well remember how, not long ago, a French savant devised a novel and universally interesting application of certain chemical processes; and here, again, by some person to whose act the community gave its assent, the product was named for its inventor a daguerreotype: and galvanism and daguerreotype, with their derivatives, are now as genuine and well established parts of the English language as are sun and moon, or father and mother. If Galvani had denominated his new principle abracadabra, or if Daguerre had styled his sun-pictures aldiborontiphoscophornios, these names would, indeed, have been not less inherently suitable than the ones actually chosen, in the view of the great majority of those who have since learned to use the latter; for comparatively few have ever heard of the two eminent discoverers, or learned enough of Greek to be able to perceive the etymological aptness of type; yet those who are accustomed to direct public opinion upon such subjects would have revolted, and insisted upon the substitution of other titles, which should seem to them to possess an obvious reason and applicability. The public has looked on quietly, during the last half-century, while the geologists have been bringing into our English speech their flood of new words, nouns, adjectives, and verbs, of various origin and not seldom of uncouth and barbarous aspect, wherewith to signify the new knowledge added by them to the common stock that we all draw from: these gentlemen know best; if they agree among themselves that necessity and propriety require us to say Silurian, palæontological, oölite, post-pleiocene, and the like, we are ready to do so, whether our acquaintance with ancient and modern geography and with the classical tongues be or be not sufficient to enable us to discover or appreciate the reason of each term.
But even in respect to the more intimate and sacred part of language, the words and phrases of universal and every-day use, the community confers some measure of authority upon
