him. A pattern of loyalty, one formerly a Captain for the King's interest, seizing Peters's bridle says, "Good Mr. Peters what will you do with the King? I hope that you will do his person no harm! That Peters might be Peters, he replies, He shall die the death of a traitor, were there never a man in England but he.' The Capt. forced to loose his hold of the reins by a blow given him over his hand with Peters' staff, this trumpeter of sorrow rides on singing his sad note, We'll whisk him, we'll wisk him, I warrant you, now we have him.'

Leggiadrous. This word is not in Todd's Johnson, though the author from whom the following illustration is derived, is mentioned by Mr. Todd, in his list of writers at the end of the 4th vol. from whose works examples have been taken.

So leggiadrous were her snowy hands
That pleasure mov'd as any finger stirr'd;
Her virgin waxen arms were precious bands
And chains of love :

Beaumont's Pysche: Canto vi. st. 233.

Pulvillio. Johnson has pulvil, a" sweet scented powder;" but not pulvillio, which he might have found in the following sentence of Addison. "The flowers perfumed the air with smells of incense, amber-grease, and pulvillios." Spectator No. 63.

High-Fulhams. To the single illustration of this cant phrase, from Shakspeare, (which is hardly any illustration of the meaning of the word, only of its use) may be added the following quaint passage from Cleaveland's witty "Character of a Diurnal Maker," or, as we should now phrase it, of a newspaper Editor. "A Scotchman's tongue runs high-fullams; there is a cheat in his ideom; for the sence ebbes from the bold expression; like the citizen's gallon which the drawer interprets but half a pint."

Vulgar. In the following passage from "Lloyd's Memories," this word is used in a sense different from any that is ascribed to it by Johnson, namely, that of being customary or prevalent. Lloyd's general style is so pedantic and affected, however, that his single authority for the use of any word ought not to be much relied upon. "His (Mr. Hammond L'Estrange's) History of King Charles I. a piece compiled with that ingenuity, prudence, and moderation, as were not vulgar in the writers of his time."

Spurn-point. I have never met with this word, (which is evidently the name of some game,) except in the following noble passage by Jeremy Taylor. Johnson has it not. "He that makes a jest of the words of Scripture or of holy things, plays with thunder, and kisses the mouth of a cannon just as it belches fire and death; he stakes heaven at spurn-point, and trips cross and pile whether ever he shall see the face of God or no; he laughs at damnation, while he had rather lose God, than lose his jest ; nay, (which is the horror of all) he makes a jest of God himself, and the Spirit of the Father and the Son, to become ridiculous!"— (Sermon IX. Part II. The Good and Evil Tongue.)

The

Conspersion. Dr. Johnson, and after him, Todd, merely give the definition of this word, "a sprinkling about"-having met with no authority for its use. following is an example, from Jeremy Taylor. "Even the little conspersions and intertextures of evil accidents in their lives, are but like a feigned note of music, by an artificial discord making the ear covetous, and then pleased with the harmony into which the appetite was enticed by passion and a pretty restraint; and variety does but adorn prosperity and make it of a sweeter relish and of more advantage." (Sermon VII. Apples of Sodom; or the fruits of sin.)

To squir. Not in Johnson. "I saw him (Will Honeycombe) squir away his watch a considerable way into the Thames and with great sedateness in his look, put up the pebble he had before found, in his fob." (Addison. Spectator No. 77). Perhaps this word should be spelt skirr, as the meaning in the above is not very remote from that assigned to skirr, and might very easily be so employed in fa. miliar language. To squir, however, is used by many writers besides Addison." To historise. This verb has more analogy with the formation of similar words in our language, (such as to moralise, eternise, poetise, &c.) than to "historify," of which Johnson gives two examples, from Sir P. Sydney and Sir T. Browne.The following is an instance of its use from Howell's "Dodonas Grove, or the Vocal Forest."

"While Druid like conversing thus with Trees
Under their bloomy shade I historize.”

Unready. Johnson says this word is obsolete in its fourth signification, that of being undressed," and gives but one instance of its use, from Shakspeare.The following quotation will shew that it was employed in this sense long after Shakspeare's time:

When all the flaws they strove to hide
Are made unready with the Bride,
That with her wedding clothes undresses
Her complaisance and gentilesses.

Hudibras.

Part III, Canto I.

To look over. "To examine: to try one by one." I am surprised that neither Johnson nor Todd, remembered the frequent and established use of this phrase, to signify pardon, forgiveness; as "to look over a fault, or any impropriety of conduct." i. e. to pass by indulgently. It is a more accurate form of expression than to "overlook," which is not overlooked by our lexicographers. See the fifth definition of this word.

Sudden. Shakspeare uses this word as an adjective to denote anger, rashness, passion, &c.; but I have never met with it as a substantive in the same sense, except in the following passage. "Whereat the Emperor in great sudden bid him get home; and he with no more reverence than such usage required saluted the Emperor and went his way." (Milton; "Brief History of Muscovia." Prose Works, Birch's Edit. vol. ii. p. 145.)

To shadow. The following examples shew that this word was formerly used to signify the same as to conceal or hide, without reference to being shadowed by any thing, as the boughs of trees, an arbor, bush, &c.-" In pursuit of her sister, who, in merriment, after some questions, he had been commanded to kiss, she being shadowed in the ladies chamber, where he went to seek her." (Sanderson's Life and Reign of Charles I.) " There was one Colonel Bamfield came over from the Queen, and closely sent a message to the Duke, (afterwards Charles II.) that at the said door in the walk he would shadow himself without, and whisper to him at the key hole his mother's message, and trust his escape to his design.-The evening come, he accompanies his sister very late, and to have the more freedom, he usually had the sport of hide and keep, children's play; which shadowed his missing till very late, &c." (Ib. p.p. 1061-1062.)

To hasp. Johnson defines this merely "to shut with a hasp;" but the following among other examples which might be quoted, will shew that it was used to signify the state of being fastened in, or secured, without any reference to the mode of fastening or securing. "To speak indiscreetly what we are obliged to hear, by being hasped up with thee in this public vehicle, is in some degree assaulting on the high road.' (Spectator, No. 132.) See also Spectator, No. 155, "What I ask of you is, to acquaint my customers, (who are otherwise very good ones) that I am unavoidably hasped in my bar, and cannot help hearing the improper discourses they are pleased to entertain me with." "He told me much of his cruel usage, as that he had been squeezed and hasped into a thing like a trough in a dungeon under ground." (Malice Defeated, or a brief relation of the accusation and deliverance of Elizabeth Cellier, &c. 1680.)

Braid. There has been some controversy between Horne Tooke, and Shakspeare's commentators, as to the true meaning of this word in All's Well that ends Well. (Act iv. sc. 2.) The author of the "Diversions of Purley" gives the interpretation of beaten up, as it were, in a mortar, from bray to pound, instead of the sense which Johnson and other commentators had assigned it, of deceitful. Assuredly it would be very difficult to pick out a meaning from Shakspeare by the help of Mr. Tooke's explanation, while the meaning is simple and obvious in that of the Commentators. And in support of the latter, I have met with an example at a period much later than the time of Shakspeare; an example which shews that braided was then used in the sense of spurious, false, counterfeit, &c. Sir George Jeffries, (afterwards the notorious Judge Jeffries, but then, Recorder of the City) in passing sentence upon one Elizabeth Cellier, who was found guilty of writing and publishing a libel, (Ann. 1680) says, " And because a pecuniary mulct (a fine of £1000.) is not a sufficient recompence to justice, which you have offended, the Court doth likewise pronounce against you that you be put on the pillory three several days, in three several public places; in the first place, in regard her braided ware, (i. e. the libel) received its first impression and vent at her own house, it is thought fit that she stand (as near her own house as conveniently can be) be

tween the hours of twelve and one, for an hour's space, at the Maypole in the Strand on the most notorious day; I think there is a market near that place; let it be on that day," &c. (See State Trials-Hargrave's Edit. fol. vol. iii. p. 100-ed. 1776). Her "braided ware," evidently means her false, crafty, deceitful libel.

To encroach. It is curious that Johnson, under the word "encroachment," gives a quotation from Cowel, wherein the verb " to encroach" is used in a sense of which has given no definition or example: i. e. to assume, to arrogate, or claim, that which does not of right belong to us. The words of Cowell are these: "So the Spencers encroached to themselves royal power and authority." And I find the same use of the word in the articles of impeachment exhibited by the Lords Appellant in the 11th Richard II., (1388) against Robert De Vere Duke of Ireland, Michael de la Pole, Earl of Suffolk, Tresilian Lord Chief Justice, &c. "That these false traitors had encroached to themselves royal power, by enslaving the King," &c. (Art. I.)" encroaching to themselves royal power, &c." (Art. 3.) Bottom-cake. Not in Johnson, "For to do things without the aforesaid command is like unto the building of a fire without the bottom-cake." (Cowley's Cutter of Coleman-street, Art. iv. sc. v.)

To profuse. Johnson gives no example of the use of this verb. The following is one : "If I had laid out that which I profused in luxury, in wantonness, in acts of generosity or charity." (Spectator, No. 260.)

Map. This word formerly bore a signification, as a substantive, similar to that which belongs to the verb to map, i. e. " to delineate." But Johnson has only one definition of map, its geographical meaning. In Whitelock's Memorials, however, I find the following passages. Speaking of the new great seal which was ordered to be made by the House of Commons, A. D. 1648, he says" that on the other side of the seal shall be the sculpture or map of the House of Commons sitting, with these words engraven on that side, In the first year of freedom by God's blessing, restored, 1648."" This for the most part" he adds, "was the fancy of Mr. Henry Marten, a noted member of the House, more particularly the inscriptions." (Memorials, p. 362.) This use of the word has led a modern writer into a whimsical blunder, who says "the great seal of England was then ordered to be broken in pieces, and another to be graven, with the map of England, Ireland, &c." ("Oliver Cromwell and his Times." by Thomas Cromwell, p. 248. 2d Ed. 1822.) Mr. Cromwell falls, also, into another mistake (ut supra) where he says that on one side of this great seal there was "an elevation of the House of Commons," instead of its being a "representation" of the members sitting. This was no new idea; for when, in 1643, the Lord Keeper Littleton sent the great seal to Charles I. at York, the House then voted that another seal should be made," engraven on the side with the picture of the House of Commons, the members sitting; on the other side the arms of England and Ireland." (Whitelocke, p. 67.) In May's " History of the Parliament of England which began Nov. 3, 1640," published in 1647, there is a curious picture or representation of the "two Houses of the Parliament of England, with King Charles the First on the Throne;" and that of the Commons was probably borrowed from the great seal.

To plunder." Fuller" says Johnson, "considers our word as introduced into the language about 1642." The following passage from May's History of the Long Parliament, would have been a curious illustration of this opinion of Fuller. Many towns and villages he, (Prince Rupert) plundered, that is to say robbed, (for at that time,-i. e. 1642-first, was the word plunder used in England, being born in Germany, when that stately country was so miserably wasted and pillaged by foreign armies) and committed other outrages upon those who stood affected to the Parliament."

Kissing-strings. It appears that our great, great, great grandmothers were wont to wear something, (near their lips of course), which went under this dangerous appellation, though Johnson has neglected to enlighten us on the subject; for the Spectator (No. 277) describing a puppet just arrived from Paris, drest in the newest fashion, and to be seen at a celebrated milliner's in King-street, Coventgarden, says, "Her necklace was of immoderate length, being tied in such a manner that the two ends hung down to her girdle; but whether these supply the place of kissing-strings in our enemy's country, and whether our British ladies have any occasion for them I shall leave to their serious consideration."

Connusance. "A law term," says Johnson, but gives no example of the use of

the word; as if its use were wholly restricted to law books. But the following instances from Clarendon, (and many more might be selected) will shew that it was not thus limited. Many were of opinion that this activity in a business of which they Lad not the least connusance, &c." (Vol. i. p. 395. Oxford Ed. of 1819.) "Not only in meddling with things that in truth were not properly within their connusance, but &c.”, (Ib. p. 398.) The modern word cognizance ís now used in the same sense.

A PEEP INTO THE GRAVE.

It is a mighty change that is made by the death of every person, and it is visible to us who are alive. Reckon but from the sprightfulness of youth, and the fair cheeks and full eyes of childhood, from the vigorousness and strong flexure of the joints of five-and-twenty, to the hollowness and dead paleness, to the loathsomeness and horror of a three days' burial, and we shall perceive the distance to be very great and very strange. But so have I seen a rose newly springing from the clefts of its hood, and, at first, it was fair as the morning, and full with the dew of heaven as a lamb's fleece; but when a ruder breath had forced open its virgin modesty, and dismantled its too youthful and unripe retirements, it began to put on darkness, and to decline to softness and the symptoms of a sickly age; it bowed the head and broke its stalk; and, at night, having lost some of its leaves and all its beauty, it fell into the portion of weeds and outworn faces. The same is the portion of every man and every woman; the heritage of worms and serpents, rottenness and cold dishonor; and our beauty so changed, that our acquaintance quickly know us not; and that change mingled with so much horror, or else meets so with our fears and weak discoursings, that they who, six hours ago, tended on us, either with charitable or ambitious services, cannot, without some regret, stay in the room alone where the body lies stripped of its life and honor. I have read of a fair young German gentleman, who, living, often refused to be pictured, but put off the importunity of his friends' desire, by giving way that, after a few days burial, they might send a painter to his vault, and, if they saw cause for it, draw the image of his death unto life. They did so; and found his face half eaten, and his midriff and backbone full of serpents; and so he stands pictured among his armed ancestors. So does the fairest beauty change, and it will be as bad with you and me; and then, what servants shall we have to wait on us in the grave? What friends to visit us? What officious people to cleanse away the moist and unwholesome cloud reflected on our faces from the sides of the weeping vaults, which are the longest weepers for our funeral?

This is nobly expressed;-solemn, affecting, full of exquisite fancy, and the graces of high poetical feeling. And where does the reader suppose I found it? Where he may find a hundred-aye, a thousand, similar outpourings of a mighty mind and exuberant imagination; but where, if his acquaintance with the book be only title-page deep, he will expect to meet with nothing more than a tedious thread-bare homily. It is from Jeremy Taylor's "Holy Dying." Far from me be the wish, to send the reader to the writings of Taylor, Barrow, South, Hall, in quest only of the brilliant clothing of their thoughts, at the hazard of weakening their devotion to the thoughts themselves. But may not the very opposite effect be produced by shewing, as allurements to those thoughts, the magnificence, and beauty, with which they are surrounded?

W.

KICKING.

A PHILOSOPHICAL ESSAY.

"O! be some other name !"-Shakspeare.

But "What's in a name?" asks the impassioned, love-stricken Juliet, immediately afterwards. "That which we call a rose, by any other name would smell as sweet."- So, kicking would be as honorable, called by some other name, as it is now reputed disgraceful, because of the ideas associated with the word. "I have been kicked sir."- No one can say this, and smile, as if nothing had happened. But how complacently might he acknowledge that he had received a " pedal application;" or knew what it was to "come in pedestrial contact with a choleric boot." Yes, yesMirabeau was right" words are things"-and oftentimes we are more swayed by the words than the things; fear more to be called what we are, than to be that which we are called. He is your only true philosopher and hero who can emancipate himself from this thraldom of words; who is not to be scared with them, as children are at " Old Bogy," or " Rawhead and Bloodybones."

The one half of man, his mind,

Is sui juris, unconfin'd,

And cannot be laid by the heels,
Whate'er the other moiety feels.

"Tis not restraint or liberty,

That makes men pris'ners or free;
But perturbations that possess

The mind, or equanimities.

So reasoned Hudibras, after he had been soundly cudgelled (“" as the vulgar say," instead of "suggil'd," which means the same thing, but then, it does not offend the ear.-) And the same profound casuist tells us,

"That honor's very squeamish,

That takes a basting for a blemish;
For what's more honorable than scars,
Or skin to tatters rent in wars?

Some have been beaten till they know
What wood a cudgel's of by the blow';
Some kick'd, until they can feel whether
A shoe be Spanish or neat's leather.

But by far the most luminous and satisfactory refutation of the still popular error, that kicking, cudgelling, and such like incidents in a man's life, redound to his discredit, is to be found in the "Nice Valour, or the Passionate Madman," of Beaumont and Fletcher, where Lapet reasons the matter irresistibly, in the following soliloquy.

I have been ruminating with myself,
What honor a man loses by a kick.
Why, what's a kick the fury of a foot,
Whose indignation commonly is stamp'd
Upon the hinder quarter of a man-
Which is a place very unfit for honor :
The world will confess so much.

Then what disgrace, I pray, does that part suffer
Where honor never comes? I'd fain know that.

This being well forc'd and urged, may have the pow'r,

To move most gallants to take kicks in time,

And spurn out the duellos out of the kingdom;