COLON.
RULE 1. The three great enemies to tranquillity, are vice, superstition, and idleness: vice, which poisons and disturbs the mind with bad passions; superstition, which fills it with imaginary terrors; idleness, which loads it with tediousness and disgust.
FOOTNOTES.
[1] The word thing, from the Saxon verb thingian, to think, is almost unlimited in its meaning. It may be applied to every animal and creature in the universe. By the term creature, I mean that which has been created; as, a dog, water, dirt. This word is also frequently applied to actions; as, "To get drunk is a beastly thing." In this phrase, it signifies neither animal nor creature; but it denotes merely an action; therefore this action is the thing.
[2] Genii, imaginary spirits: geniuses, persons of great mental abilities.
[3] Indexes, when pointers or tables of contents are meant: indices, when referring to algebraic quantities.
[4] In the note next preceding, it is asserted, that my, thy, his, her, our your, and their, are personal pronouns. What can more clearly demonstrate the correctness of that assertion, than this latter construction of the word theirs? All admit, that, in the construction, "The faith of them," the word them, is a personal pronoun: and for this conclusive reason:—it represents a noun understood. What, then, is their, in the phrase, "their faith?" Is it not obvious, that, if them is a personal pronoun, their must be, also? for the latter represents the same noun as the former.
[5] The second person singular of do, when used as a principal verb, is spelled with an e; thus, "What thou doest, do quickly;" but when employed as an auxiliary, the e should be omitted; as, "Dost thou not behold a rock with its head of heath?"
[6] The men were drunk; i.e. inebriated. The toasts were drank.