Synopsis
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1882 edition. Excerpt: ...verb a noun was coined and F sometimes used in later Latin, 'dilectio,' whence we get the word 'predilection.' The words 'amor,' 'amare,' are used to express all kinds of earthly love, good or not. Divine love in any pure and lofty sense was not known to the heathen world in general, only perhaps to a few philosophers. Owing to the frequent abuse of those words by some licentious Latin writers, Jerome was, we think, unwilling to apply them to the pure and virtuous love of Christian brethren, or to the high and holy love which links the creature with the Creator, the redeemed with the Redeemer. Hence he adopted instead of 'amor' another classical word, distorting its sense, and applying it too largely. I mean the word 'caritas.' You know that 'carus ' (Ital. caro, French cher) means in English 'dear,' and its substantive 'caritas' means therefore 'dearness,' and has properly an objective sense only, that character or quality which causes some person or thing to be dear. Thus a Roman would say, 'My country attaches me to itself by a strong dearness;' or two friends might be said to be united by a mutual dearness, and the like. This noun, I say, Jerome, avoiding 'amor,' thought proper to misuse by adopting it in all the senses, subjective and objective, which s 'amor' can assume. He has therefore used it throughout the whole of his Latin translation (the Vulgate), even in St. John's epistles and other places, where the love of God and of Christ are set forth. He has not shrunk even from writing 'Deus est caritas,' God is carity (charity). But what was he to do for a verb? If he used'caritas,' dearness, for 'amor,' love, he could not say 'caritare to charity,' for ' amare to love,' seeing that 'caritas' is objective in its proper use, and has...
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