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In my view, the Christian religion is the most important and one of the first things in which all children, under a free government ought to be instructed... No truth is more evident to my mind than that the Christian religion must be the basis of any government intended to secure the rights and privileges of a free people. Preface to 1828 Dictionary
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CONTEMPTIBLE, a. [L.]
Worthy of contempt; deserving of scorn or
disdain; mean; vile; despicable.
Milton.
The arguments of tyranny are ascontemptible
as its force is dreadful. Despised; scorned; neglected;
abject.
Locke. Insolent; scornful;
contemptuous.
[Obs.]
If she should make tender of her love, 't is very
possible he 'll scorn it; for the man . . . hath a
contemptible spirit. Syn. -- Despicable; abject; vile; mean; base; paltry; worthless; sorry; pitiful; scurrile. See Contemptuous. -- Contemptible, Despicable, Pitiful, Paltry. Despicable is stronger than contemptible, as despise is stronger than contemn. It implies keen disapprobation, with a mixture of anger. A man is despicable chiefly for low actions which mark his life, such as servility, baseness, or mean adulation. A man is contemptible for mean qualities which distinguish his character, especially those which show him to be weak, foolish, or worthless. Treachery is despicable, egotism is contemptible. Pitiful and paltry are applied to cases which are beneath anger, and are simply contemptible in a high degree. | ||||||||