But if I am to mention any particular class or description of readers, that were prominent in my thought during the composition of the volume, my reply must be; that it was _especially_ designed for the studious Young at the close of their education or on their first entrance into the duties of manhood and the rights of self-government. And of these, again, in thought and wish I destined the work (the latter and larger portion, at least) yet more particularly to Students intended for the Ministry; _first_, as in duty bound, to the members of our two Universities: _secondly_, (but only in respect of this mental precedency _second_) to all alike of whatever name, who have dedicated their future lives to the cultivation of their race, as Pastors, Preachers, Missionaries, or Instructors of Youth.
III. FOR WHAT? The worth of an author is estimated by the ends, the attainment of which he proposed to himself by the particular work; while the value of the work depends on its fitness, as the Means. The objects of the present volume are the following, arranged in the order of their comparative importance.
1. To direct the reader's attention to the value of the Science of Words, their use and abuse (see _Note, p. 5_) and the incalculable advantages attached to the habit of using them appropriately, and with a distinct knowledge of their primary, derivative, and metaphorical senses. And in furtherance of this Object I have neglected no occasion of enforcing the maxim, that to expose a sophism and to detect the equivocal or double meaning of a word is, in the great majority of cases, one and the same thing. Horne Tooke entitled his celebrated work, "Επεα πτεροεντα, Winged Words": or Language, not only the _Vehicle_ of Thought but the _Wheels_. With my convictions and views, for πεα I should substitute λογοι, that is, Words _select_ and _determinate_, and for πτεροεντα ζωοντες, that is, _living_ Words. The _Wheels_ of the Intellect I admit them to be; but such as Ezekiel beheld in _the visions of God_ as he sate among the captives by the river of Chebar. _Whithersoever the Spirit was to go, the wheels went, and thither was their Spirit to go: for the Spirit of the living creature was in the wheels also._