Item 151 - William Whewell to Richard Jones

WW is 'somewhat amused at seeing you relapsing into the human frailty of definitions after having just finished a most eloquent and convincing sermon against them; but I am also some what alarmed at seeing you in so dangerous a path'. WW is surprised that RJ should need 'a formal definition, expressed in studied terms, not afterwards to be modified. If you use wealth or any other term of which the signification is too lax or too wide in common language to convey your meaning properly by all means give a description of what you intend it to include, and refer to and recall this description', but do not look for an 'English word and conspiring with another man to make it mean some part only or modification of its usual meaning'. WW will fight against it and tells RJ what Thomas Malthus ought to say to such a move: 'After receiving this long lecture from your economical pastor and master, you would I suppose strike out all the formalities of your definition and content yourself with saying that when wealth is spoken of in the following reasonings it is not intended to include any but material possessions etc etc'.