ON CERTAIN AFFIRMATIVE AND NEGATIVE PARTICLES OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. One of the characteristics of Home Tooke^s Diversions of Parley is the extreme confidence with which he pronounces his opinion even when its grounds are at least very doubt- ful, and the arrogant manner in which he distributes his scorn on all who have differed, or may hereafter differ, from himself. In the case of Samuel Johnson indeed, there are so many instances in which he merited chastisement, that we do not feel very indignant at his getting a lash or two more than the specific charge warrants. We are disposed as a jury sometimes is, to find him guilty on the ground of ge- neral character rather than of the evidence before us. There is one unimportant case in which Home Tooke has parti- cularly shown this rashness, and has gone out of his way to pronounce that " ridiculous'* which he could have had no means of judging. I allude to the place where he says, " But I believe they will be as little able to justify their innovation, as Sir Thomas More would have been to explain the foundation of his ridiculous distinction between nay and wo, and between yea and yes^^ In the note he quotes the following passage — a passage far more remarkable as illus- trating how the principles of abstract toleration will desert the best and wisest when the opinions they dislike become embodied and attached to the person of an individual oppo- nent, than in any philological view. " I woulde not here note by the way that Tyndall here translateth no for nay^ for it is but a trifle and mistaking of the Englishe worde : saving that ye shoulde see that he whych in two so plain Englishe wordes, and so common as in naye ^ Div, of Purley, ii. p- 496.
