Chapter 16

It did in particular exasperate Tacitus, and otherpoliticksof his temper, to see so many natural Romans renounce their name and country for maintenance of Jewish religion.—Jackson,The Eternal Truth of Scriptures, b. i. c. 20.Let them [spiritual persons] have the diligence and craft of fishers, the watchfulness and the care of shepherds, the prudence ofpolitics, the tenderness of parents.—BishopTaylor,Life of Christ, part ii. § 12.If this arch-politician[the Devil] find in his pupils any remorse, any feeling or fear of God’s future judgment, he persuades them that God hath so great need of men’s souls that He will accept them at any time and upon any conditions.—SirW. Raleigh,History of the World, b. i. c. 7, § 9.Why, look you, I am whipped and scourged with rods,Nettled and stung with pismires, when I hearOf this vilepoliticianBolingbroke.Shakespeare,1 Henry IV., act i. sc. 3.Apoliticianis the devil’s quilted anvil;He fashions all sins on him and the blowsAre never heard.Webster,Duchess of Malfi, act iii. sc. 2.Thepolitician, whose very essence lies in this, that he is a person ready to do anything that he apprehends for his advantage, must first of all be sure to put himself in a state of liberty, as free and large as his principles, and so to provide elbow-room enough for his conscience to lay about it, and have its full play in.—South,Sermons, 1744, vol. i. p. 324.

Let them [spiritual persons] have the diligence and craft of fishers, the watchfulness and the care of shepherds, the prudence ofpolitics, the tenderness of parents.—BishopTaylor,Life of Christ, part ii. § 12.

If this arch-politician[the Devil] find in his pupils any remorse, any feeling or fear of God’s future judgment, he persuades them that God hath so great need of men’s souls that He will accept them at any time and upon any conditions.—SirW. Raleigh,History of the World, b. i. c. 7, § 9.

Why, look you, I am whipped and scourged with rods,Nettled and stung with pismires, when I hearOf this vilepoliticianBolingbroke.

Why, look you, I am whipped and scourged with rods,

Nettled and stung with pismires, when I hear

Of this vilepoliticianBolingbroke.

Shakespeare,1 Henry IV., act i. sc. 3.

Apoliticianis the devil’s quilted anvil;He fashions all sins on him and the blowsAre never heard.

Apoliticianis the devil’s quilted anvil;

He fashions all sins on him and the blows

Are never heard.

Webster,Duchess of Malfi, act iii. sc. 2.

Thepolitician, whose very essence lies in this, that he is a person ready to do anything that he apprehends for his advantage, must first of all be sure to put himself in a state of liberty, as free and large as his principles, and so to provide elbow-room enough for his conscience to lay about it, and have its full play in.—South,Sermons, 1744, vol. i. p. 324.

‘Pomp’ is one of the many words which Milton employs with a strict classical accuracy, so that he is only to be perfectly understood when we keep in mind that a ‘pomp’ with him is always πομπή, a procession. He is not, however, singular here, as he often is, in the stricter use of a word. It is easy to perceive how ‘pomp’ obtained its wider application. There is no such favourable opportunity for the display of state and magnificence as a procession; this is almost the inevitable form which they take; and thus the word first applied to the most frequent display of these, came afterwards to be transferred to every display. In respect to ‘pompous’ and ‘pompously’ there is something else to note. There is in them always now the suggestion of that which is more in show than in substance, or, at any rate, of a magnificence which, if real, is yet vaingloriously and ostentatiously displayed. But they did not convey, and were not intended to convey, any such impression once.

[Antiochus] also provided a great number of bulls with gilt horns, the which he conducted himself with a goodlypompand procession to the very gate of the city [ἄχρι τῶν πυλῶν ἐπόμπευσε].—Holland,Plutarch’s Morals, p. 417.With goddess-like demeanour forth she went,Not unattended; for on her, as queen,Apompof winning Graces waited still.Milton,Paradise Lost, viii. 59.The planets in their stations listening stood,While the brightpompascended jubilant.Id.,ib.vii. 563.Whatpompouspowers of ravishment were here,22What delicate extremities of pleasure.Beaumont,Psyche, can. xv. st. 299.All expresses related that the entertainment [of Prince Charles at Madrid] was verypompousand kingly.—Hacket,Life of Archbishop Williams, part i. p. 119.He [Hardecnute] gave his sister Gunildis, a virgin of rare beauty, in marriage to Henry the Alman Emperor; and to send her forthpompously, all the nobility contributed their jewels and richest ornaments.—Milton,History of England, b. vi.

With goddess-like demeanour forth she went,Not unattended; for on her, as queen,Apompof winning Graces waited still.

With goddess-like demeanour forth she went,

Not unattended; for on her, as queen,

Apompof winning Graces waited still.

Milton,Paradise Lost, viii. 59.

The planets in their stations listening stood,While the brightpompascended jubilant.

The planets in their stations listening stood,

While the brightpompascended jubilant.

Id.,ib.vii. 563.

Whatpompouspowers of ravishment were here,22What delicate extremities of pleasure.

Whatpompouspowers of ravishment were here,22

What delicate extremities of pleasure.

Beaumont,Psyche, can. xv. st. 299.

All expresses related that the entertainment [of Prince Charles at Madrid] was verypompousand kingly.—Hacket,Life of Archbishop Williams, part i. p. 119.

He [Hardecnute] gave his sister Gunildis, a virgin of rare beauty, in marriage to Henry the Alman Emperor; and to send her forthpompously, all the nobility contributed their jewels and richest ornaments.—Milton,History of England, b. vi.

He was ‘popular’ once, not who had acquired, but who was laying himself out to acquire, the favour of the people. ‘Popularity’ was the wooing, not, as now, the having won, that favour; exactly the Latin ‘ambitio.’ The word, which is passive now, was active then.

Of a senator he [Manlius] becamepopular, and began to break his mind and impart his designs unto the magistrates of the commons, finding fault with the nobility.—Holland,Livy, 224.And oft in vain his name they closely bite,Aspopularand flatterer accusing.P. Fletcher,Purple Island, c. 10.Divers were of opinion that he [Caius Gracchus] was morepopularand desirous of the common people’s good will and favour than his brother had been before him. But indeed he was clean contrary.—North,Plutarch’s Lives, p 690.Cato the Younger charged Muræna, and indited him in open court forpopularityand ambition.—Holland,Plutarch’s Morals, p. 243.Harold, lifted up in mind, and forgetting now his former shows ofpopularity, defrauded his soldiers their due and well-deserved share of the spoils.—Milton,History of England, b. vi.

Of a senator he [Manlius] becamepopular, and began to break his mind and impart his designs unto the magistrates of the commons, finding fault with the nobility.—Holland,Livy, 224.

And oft in vain his name they closely bite,Aspopularand flatterer accusing.

And oft in vain his name they closely bite,

Aspopularand flatterer accusing.

P. Fletcher,Purple Island, c. 10.

Divers were of opinion that he [Caius Gracchus] was morepopularand desirous of the common people’s good will and favour than his brother had been before him. But indeed he was clean contrary.—North,Plutarch’s Lives, p 690.

Cato the Younger charged Muræna, and indited him in open court forpopularityand ambition.—Holland,Plutarch’s Morals, p. 243.

Harold, lifted up in mind, and forgetting now his former shows ofpopularity, defrauded his soldiers their due and well-deserved share of the spoils.—Milton,History of England, b. vi.

There lies in ‘portly’ a certain sense of dignity of demeanour still, but always connoted with this a cumbrousness and weight, such as Spenser in his nobleEpithalamion(see below) would never have ascribed to his bride, nor Shakespeare to the swift-footed Achilles (Troilus and Cressida, act iv. sc. 5), or to the youthful Romeo.

The chief and mostportlyperson of them all was one Hasdrubal [Insignistamen inter ceteros Hasdrubal erat].—Holland,Livy, p. 7.He [Romeo] bears him like aportlygentleman.Shakespeare,Romeo and Juliet, act i. sc. 5.Rudely thou wrongest my deare hart’s desire,In finding fault with her tooportlypride;For in those lofty lookes is close implideScorn of base things and ’sdeigne of foule dishonor,Such pride is praise; suchportlinesseis honor.Spenser,Sonnet 5.

The chief and mostportlyperson of them all was one Hasdrubal [Insignistamen inter ceteros Hasdrubal erat].—Holland,Livy, p. 7.

He [Romeo] bears him like aportlygentleman.

Shakespeare,Romeo and Juliet, act i. sc. 5.

Rudely thou wrongest my deare hart’s desire,In finding fault with her tooportlypride;For in those lofty lookes is close implideScorn of base things and ’sdeigne of foule dishonor,Such pride is praise; suchportlinesseis honor.

Rudely thou wrongest my deare hart’s desire,

In finding fault with her tooportlypride;

For in those lofty lookes is close implide

Scorn of base things and ’sdeigne of foule dishonor,

Such pride is praise; suchportlinesseis honor.

Spenser,Sonnet 5.

Pragmatical.This is always employed at the present in an ill sense; the ‘pragmatical’ man is not merely busy, but over-busy, officious, meddling; nay, more than this, with an assumption of bustling self-importance. The word’s etymology does not require this ill sense, which is merely superinduced upon it, and from which it was not indeed always, but often free in its earlier use.

It may appear at the first a new and unwonted argument, to teach men how to raise and make their fortune; but the handling thereof concerneth learning greatly both in honour and in substance. In honour, becausepragmaticalmen may not go away with an opinion that learning is like a lark, that can mount and sing and please herself, and nothing else; but may know that she holdeth as well of the hawk, that can soar aloft, and also descend and strike upon the prey.—LordBacon,Advancement of Learning, b. ii.We cannot always be contemplative orpragmaticalabroad; but have need of some delightful intermissions wherein the enlarged soul may leave off her severe schooling.—Milton,Tetrachordon.

We cannot always be contemplative orpragmaticalabroad; but have need of some delightful intermissions wherein the enlarged soul may leave off her severe schooling.—Milton,Tetrachordon.

A word nearly or quite unserviceable now, being merely an ungraceful and slipshod synonym for absurd. But restore and confine it to its old use and to one peculiar branch of absurdity, the reversing of the true order and method of things, the putting of the last first, and the first last, and of what excellent service it would be capable!

It is apreposterousorder to teach first, and to learn after.—The Translators[of the Bible, 1611]to the Reader.King Asa justly received little benefit by them [physicians], because of his preposterous addressing himself to them before he went to God (2 Chron.xvi. 12).—Fuller,Worthies of England, c. ix.To reason thus, I am of the elect, I therefore have saving faith, and the rest of the sanctifying qualities, therefore that which I do is good: thus I say to reason is verypreposterous. We must go a quite contrary course, and thus reason: my life is good ... I therefore have the gifts of sanctification, and therefore am of God’s elect.—Hales,Sermon on St. Peter’s Fall.Some indeedpreposterouslymisplace these, and make us partake of the benefit of Christ’s priestly office in the forgivenessof our sins and our reconcilement to God, before we are brought under the sceptre of his kingly office by our obedience.—South,Sermons, 1744, vol. xi. p. 3.

It is apreposterousorder to teach first, and to learn after.—The Translators[of the Bible, 1611]to the Reader.

King Asa justly received little benefit by them [physicians], because of his preposterous addressing himself to them before he went to God (2 Chron.xvi. 12).—Fuller,Worthies of England, c. ix.

To reason thus, I am of the elect, I therefore have saving faith, and the rest of the sanctifying qualities, therefore that which I do is good: thus I say to reason is verypreposterous. We must go a quite contrary course, and thus reason: my life is good ... I therefore have the gifts of sanctification, and therefore am of God’s elect.—Hales,Sermon on St. Peter’s Fall.

Some indeedpreposterouslymisplace these, and make us partake of the benefit of Christ’s priestly office in the forgivenessof our sins and our reconcilement to God, before we are brought under the sceptre of his kingly office by our obedience.—South,Sermons, 1744, vol. xi. p. 3.

To charge one with ‘pretending’ anything is now a much more serious charge than it was once. Indeed it was not necessarily, and only by accident, a charge at all. That was ‘pretended’ which one stretched out before himself and in face of others: but whether it was the thing it affirmed itself to be, or, as at present, only a deceitful resemblance of this, the word did not decide. While it was thus with ‘to pretend,’ there was as yet no distinction recognized between ‘pretence’ and ‘pretension;’ they both signified the act of ‘pretending,’ or the thing ‘pretended;’ but whether truly or falsely it was left to the context, or to the judgment of the reader, to decide. ‘Pretence’ has since followed the fortunes of ‘pretend,’ and has fallen with it; while ‘pretension’ has disengaged itself from being a merely useless synonym of ‘pretence,’ and, retaining its relation to the earlier uses of the verb, now signifies a claim put forward which may or may not be valid, the word leaving this for other considerations to determine. Louis Napoleon assumed the dictatorship under the ‘pretence’ of resisting anarchy; the House of Orleans had ‘pretensions’ to the throne of France. But these distinctions are quite modern.

Being preferred by King James to the bishopric of Chichester, andpretendinghis own imperfectness and insufficiency to undergo such a charge, he caused to be engraven about the seal of his bishopric, those words of St. Paul, Etad hæc quis idoneus?—Isaacson,Life and Death of Lancelot Andrewes.[The Sabbath] is rather hominis gratiâ quam Dei; and though God’s honour is mainlypretendedin it, yet it is man’s happiness that is really intended by it, even of God Himself.—H. More,Grand Mystery of Godliness, b. viii. c. 13.I come no enemy, but to set freeFrom out this dark and dismal house of painBoth him and thee, and all the heavenly hostOf Spirits, that, in our justpretencesarmed,Fell with us from on high.Milton,Paradise Lost, ii. 822; cf. vi. 421.This is the tree whose leaves were intended for the healing of the nations, not for apretenceand palliation for sin.—H. More,Grand Mystery of Godliness, b. viii. c. 1.He [the Earl of Pembroke] was exceedingly beloved in the Court, because he never desired to get that for himself which others laboured for; but was still ready to promote thepretencesof worthy men.—Clarendon,History of the Rebellion, b. i. c. 121.It is either secret pride, or base faintness of heart, or dull sloth, or some other thing, and not true modesty in us if being excellently gifted for some weighty employment in every other man’s judgment, we yet withdraw ourselves from it withpretensionsof unsufficiency.—Sanderson,Sermons, 1671, p. 208.

[The Sabbath] is rather hominis gratiâ quam Dei; and though God’s honour is mainlypretendedin it, yet it is man’s happiness that is really intended by it, even of God Himself.—H. More,Grand Mystery of Godliness, b. viii. c. 13.

I come no enemy, but to set freeFrom out this dark and dismal house of painBoth him and thee, and all the heavenly hostOf Spirits, that, in our justpretencesarmed,Fell with us from on high.

I come no enemy, but to set free

From out this dark and dismal house of pain

Both him and thee, and all the heavenly host

Of Spirits, that, in our justpretencesarmed,

Fell with us from on high.

Milton,Paradise Lost, ii. 822; cf. vi. 421.

This is the tree whose leaves were intended for the healing of the nations, not for apretenceand palliation for sin.—H. More,Grand Mystery of Godliness, b. viii. c. 1.

He [the Earl of Pembroke] was exceedingly beloved in the Court, because he never desired to get that for himself which others laboured for; but was still ready to promote thepretencesof worthy men.—Clarendon,History of the Rebellion, b. i. c. 121.

It is either secret pride, or base faintness of heart, or dull sloth, or some other thing, and not true modesty in us if being excellently gifted for some weighty employment in every other man’s judgment, we yet withdraw ourselves from it withpretensionsof unsufficiency.—Sanderson,Sermons, 1671, p. 208.

This verb, often now very loosely used, had once a very definite meaning of its own. ‘To prevaricate’ is to betray the cause which one affects to sustain, the prevaricator is the feint pleader, as he used to be called, and, so far as I know, the words are always so used by our early writers. We have inherited the word from the Latin law-courts, which borrowed it from the life. The ‘prævaricator’ being one who halted ontwo unequal legs, the name was transferred to him who, affecting to prosecute a charge, was in secret collusion with the opposite party, and so managed the cause as to ensure his escape. Observe in the two following passages the accuracy of use which so habitually distinguishes our writers of the seventeenth century as compared with too many of the nineteenth.

I proceed now to do the same service for the divines of England; whom you question first in point of learning and sufficiency, and then in point of conscience and honesty, asprevaricatingin the religion which they profess, and inclining to Popery.—Chillingworth,Religion of Protestants, Preface, p. 11.If we be not all enemies to God in this kind [in a direct opposition], yet in adhering to the enemy we are enemies; in ourprevarications, and easy betrayings and surrendering of ourselves to the enemy of his kingdom, Satan, we are his enemies.—Donne,On the Nativity. Sermon 7.

If we be not all enemies to God in this kind [in a direct opposition], yet in adhering to the enemy we are enemies; in ourprevarications, and easy betrayings and surrendering of ourselves to the enemy of his kingdom, Satan, we are his enemies.—Donne,On the Nativity. Sermon 7.

One may reach a point before another to help or to hinder him there; may anticipate his arrival either with the purpose of keeping itforhim, or keeping itagainsthim. ‘To prevent’ has slipped by very gradual degrees, which it would not be difficult to trace, from the sense of keepingforto that of keepingagainst, from the sense of arriving first with the intention of helping, to that of arriving first with the intention of hindering, and then generally from helping to hindering.

So it is, that if Titus had notpreventedthe whole multitude of people which came to see him, and if he had not got him away betimes, before the games were ended, he had hardly escaped from being stifled amongst them.—North,Plutarch’s Lives, p. 321.Gentlemen that were brought low, not by their vices, but by misfortune, poveri vergognosi as the Tuscan calls them, bashful, and could not crave though they perished, hepreventedtheir modesty, and would heartily thank those that discovered their commiserable condition to him.—Hacket,Life of Archbishop Williams, part i. p. 201.That poor man had waited thirty and eight years [at the pool of Bethesda], and still waspreventedby some other.—BishopTaylor,Life of Christ, part iii. § 13.There he beheld how humbly diligentNew Adulation was to be at hand;How ready Falsehood stept; how nimbly wentBase pick-thank Flattery, andpreventscommand.Daniel,Civil Wars, b. ii. st. 56.Half way he metHis daring foe, at thispreventionmoreIncensed.Milton,Paradise Lost, vi. 129.

Gentlemen that were brought low, not by their vices, but by misfortune, poveri vergognosi as the Tuscan calls them, bashful, and could not crave though they perished, hepreventedtheir modesty, and would heartily thank those that discovered their commiserable condition to him.—Hacket,Life of Archbishop Williams, part i. p. 201.

That poor man had waited thirty and eight years [at the pool of Bethesda], and still waspreventedby some other.—BishopTaylor,Life of Christ, part iii. § 13.

There he beheld how humbly diligentNew Adulation was to be at hand;How ready Falsehood stept; how nimbly wentBase pick-thank Flattery, andpreventscommand.

There he beheld how humbly diligent

New Adulation was to be at hand;

How ready Falsehood stept; how nimbly went

Base pick-thank Flattery, andpreventscommand.

Daniel,Civil Wars, b. ii. st. 56.

Half way he metHis daring foe, at thispreventionmoreIncensed.

Half way he met

His daring foe, at thispreventionmore

Incensed.

Milton,Paradise Lost, vi. 129.

Probable.Already in the best classical Latin ‘probabilis’ had passed over into the secondary meaning of ‘probatus;’ thus ‘probabilis orator’ (Cicero) is an approved orator. ‘Probable’ is often so used by our scholarly writers of the seventeenth century; though we now use it only in its original sense of ‘likely.’ On the distinction between ‘probable’ and ‘likely,’ ‘probability’ and ‘likelihood,’ see Garden,Dictionary of Philosophical Terms.

The Lord Bacon would have rewards given to those men who in the quest of natural experiments makeprobablemistakes. An ingenious miss is of more credit than a bungling casual hit.—Fuller,Mixt Contemplations, i. 26.S. Ambrose, who was a goodprobabledoctor, and one as fit to be relied on as any man else, hath these words.—BishopTaylor,Doctrine and Practice of Repentance, Preface.

S. Ambrose, who was a goodprobabledoctor, and one as fit to be relied on as any man else, hath these words.—BishopTaylor,Doctrine and Practice of Repentance, Preface.

Probation.This is strictly speaking = δοκιμή, the process of proving; as ‘proof’ is = δοκίμιον or δοκιμεῖον, that by which this proving is carried out; thus toil is the δοκίμιον of soldiers (Herodian); and we now very properly keep the words apart according to this rule; but formerly this was not so.

He, sir, was lappedIn a most curious mantle, wrought by the handOf his queen-mother, which for moreprobationI can with ease produce.Shakespeare,Cymbeline, act v. sc. 5.Also Philip the Evangelist had three daughters. Neither can it help to say that these children were born before his election; for this is but a simple saying, and noprobation.—Frith,Works, 1572, p. 325.

He, sir, was lappedIn a most curious mantle, wrought by the handOf his queen-mother, which for moreprobationI can with ease produce.

He, sir, was lapped

In a most curious mantle, wrought by the hand

Of his queen-mother, which for moreprobation

I can with ease produce.

Shakespeare,Cymbeline, act v. sc. 5.

Also Philip the Evangelist had three daughters. Neither can it help to say that these children were born before his election; for this is but a simple saying, and noprobation.—Frith,Works, 1572, p. 325.

Prodigious.This notes little now but magnitude. Truer to its etymology once (from ‘prodigium’ = prōd + agium from ajo, see Brugmann, § 509), it signified the ominous or ominously prophetic.

Blood shall put out your torches, and insteadOf gaudy flowers about your wanton necks,An axe shall hang, like aprodigiousmeteor,Ready to crop your loves’ sweets.BeaumontandFletcher,Philaster, act v. sc. 1.Without this comely ornament of hair, their [women’s] most glorious beauty appears as deformed, as the sun would beprodigiouswithout beams.—Fuller,The Profane State, b. v. c. 5.I began to reflect on the whole life of thisprodigiousman.—Cowley,On the Government of Oliver Cromwell.

Blood shall put out your torches, and insteadOf gaudy flowers about your wanton necks,An axe shall hang, like aprodigiousmeteor,Ready to crop your loves’ sweets.

Blood shall put out your torches, and instead

Of gaudy flowers about your wanton necks,

An axe shall hang, like aprodigiousmeteor,

Ready to crop your loves’ sweets.

BeaumontandFletcher,Philaster, act v. sc. 1.

Without this comely ornament of hair, their [women’s] most glorious beauty appears as deformed, as the sun would beprodigiouswithout beams.—Fuller,The Profane State, b. v. c. 5.

I began to reflect on the whole life of thisprodigiousman.—Cowley,On the Government of Oliver Cromwell.

‘To promote,’ that is, to further or set forward, a ‘promoter,’ a furtherer, are now words of harmless, often of quite an honourable, signification. They were onceterms of extremest scorn; a ‘promoter’ being a common informer, and so called because he ‘promoted’ charges and accusations against men (promotor litium: Skinner).

There lack men topromotethe king’s officers when they do amiss, and topromoteall offenders.—Latimer,Last Sermon before Edward VI.Thou, Linus, that lov’st still to bepromoting,Because I sport about King Henry’s marriage,Think’st this will prove a matter worth the carriage.SirJ. Harington,Epigrams, ii. 98.Aristogiton the sycophant, or falsepromoter, was condemned to death for troubling men with wrongful imputations.—Holland,Plutarch’s Morals, p. 421.His eyes bepromoters, some trespass to spy.Tusser,Of an envious and haughty Neighbour.Promotersbe those which in popular and penal actions do defer the names or complain of offenders, having part of the profit for their reward.—Cowell,The Interpreter, s. v.Covetousness andpromotionand such like are that right hand and right eye which must be cut off and plucked out, that the whole man perish not.—Tyndale,Exposition of the Sixth Chap. of Matthew.

There lack men topromotethe king’s officers when they do amiss, and topromoteall offenders.—Latimer,Last Sermon before Edward VI.

Thou, Linus, that lov’st still to bepromoting,Because I sport about King Henry’s marriage,Think’st this will prove a matter worth the carriage.

Thou, Linus, that lov’st still to bepromoting,

Because I sport about King Henry’s marriage,

Think’st this will prove a matter worth the carriage.

SirJ. Harington,Epigrams, ii. 98.

Aristogiton the sycophant, or falsepromoter, was condemned to death for troubling men with wrongful imputations.—Holland,Plutarch’s Morals, p. 421.

His eyes bepromoters, some trespass to spy.

Tusser,Of an envious and haughty Neighbour.

Promotersbe those which in popular and penal actions do defer the names or complain of offenders, having part of the profit for their reward.—Cowell,The Interpreter, s. v.

Covetousness andpromotionand such like are that right hand and right eye which must be cut off and plucked out, that the whole man perish not.—Tyndale,Exposition of the Sixth Chap. of Matthew.

Propriety.All ‘propriety’ is now mental or moral; where material things are concerned, we employ ‘property,’ at the first no more than a different spelling or slightly different form of the same word.

But some man haply will say, That where privateproprietyis in place, public community is turned out of doors.Holland,Plutarch’s Morals, p. 680.He [the good servant] provides good bounds and sufficient fences betwixt his own and his master’s estate (Jacob,Gen.xxx. 36, set his flock three days’ journey from Laban’s), that no quarrel may arise about theirpropriety, nor suspicionthat his remnant hath eaten up his master’s whole cloth.—Fuller,The Holy State, b. i. c. 8.Hail, wedded love, mysterious law, true sourceOf human offspring, soleproprietyIn Paradise of all things common else.Milton,Paradise Lost, iv. 751.Aproprietyis nothing else butjus ad rem, when a man doth claim such a thing as his own, and has a power to use it and dispose of it in a lawful way for his own benefit and advantage.—Strong,Of the Two Covenants, b. iii. c. 1.

But some man haply will say, That where privateproprietyis in place, public community is turned out of doors.Holland,Plutarch’s Morals, p. 680.

He [the good servant] provides good bounds and sufficient fences betwixt his own and his master’s estate (Jacob,Gen.xxx. 36, set his flock three days’ journey from Laban’s), that no quarrel may arise about theirpropriety, nor suspicionthat his remnant hath eaten up his master’s whole cloth.—Fuller,The Holy State, b. i. c. 8.

Hail, wedded love, mysterious law, true sourceOf human offspring, soleproprietyIn Paradise of all things common else.

Hail, wedded love, mysterious law, true source

Of human offspring, solepropriety

In Paradise of all things common else.

Milton,Paradise Lost, iv. 751.

Aproprietyis nothing else butjus ad rem, when a man doth claim such a thing as his own, and has a power to use it and dispose of it in a lawful way for his own benefit and advantage.—Strong,Of the Two Covenants, b. iii. c. 1.

‘To prose’ is now to talk or to write heavily, tediously, without spirit and without animation; but ‘to prose’ was once the antithesis of to versify, and a ‘proser’ of a writer in metre. In the tacit assumption that vigour, animation, rapid movement, with all the precipitation of the spirit, belong to verse rather than to prose, lies the explanation of the changed uses of the words.

It was found that whether ought was imposed me by them that had the overlooking, or betaken to of mine own choice in English or other tongue,prosingor versing, but chiefly this latter, the style, by certain vital signs it had, was likely to live.—Milton,Reason of Church Government, b. ii.And surely Nash, though he aproserwere,A branch of laurel yet deserves to bear.Drayton,On Poets and Poesy.

And surely Nash, though he aproserwere,A branch of laurel yet deserves to bear.

And surely Nash, though he aproserwere,

A branch of laurel yet deserves to bear.

Drayton,On Poets and Poesy.

Prune.At present we only ‘prune’ trees; but our earlier authors use the word where we should use ‘preen,’ which indeed is but another form of the word. With us only birds ‘preen’ their feathers, while women, as in the example which follows, might ‘prune’ themselves of old.

A husband that loveth to trim and pamper his body, causeth his wife by that means to study nothing else but the tricking andpruningof herself.—Holland,Plutarch’s Morals, p. 318.

Publican.Formerly one who gathered the taxes, and paid them into thepublicumor treasury; but now—though, as Johnson assures us, ‘in low language’—a man that keeps a house of public entertainment.

The late king’s extortingpublicans(whereof Ranolf Flambard, Bishop of Durham, the principal) were closely imprisoned.—Fuller,Church History, ii. 3, 13.They would not suffer him to take that money out of the treasury which was pressed and ready for him, but assigned and ordained certain moneys from thepublicansand farmers of the city’s customs and revenues to furnish him.—Holland,Plutarch, p. 435.

The late king’s extortingpublicans(whereof Ranolf Flambard, Bishop of Durham, the principal) were closely imprisoned.—Fuller,Church History, ii. 3, 13.

They would not suffer him to take that money out of the treasury which was pressed and ready for him, but assigned and ordained certain moneys from thepublicansand farmers of the city’s customs and revenues to furnish him.—Holland,Plutarch, p. 435.

Pulpit.We distinguish now between the ‘pulpit’ and the rostrum; our ancestors did not so.

I will myself into thepulpitfirst,And show the reason of our Cæsar’s death.Shakespeare,Julius Cæsar, act iii. sc. 1.He [Cicero] said that those orators who used to strain their voices and cry aloud in thepulpitwere privy to their own weakness and insufficience otherwise.—Holland,Plutarch’s Morals, p. 439.

I will myself into thepulpitfirst,And show the reason of our Cæsar’s death.

I will myself into thepulpitfirst,

And show the reason of our Cæsar’s death.

Shakespeare,Julius Cæsar, act iii. sc. 1.

He [Cicero] said that those orators who used to strain their voices and cry aloud in thepulpitwere privy to their own weakness and insufficience otherwise.—Holland,Plutarch’s Morals, p. 439.

‘This word is now confined to the meagre denoting of accuracy in respect to time—fidelity to the precise moment of an appointment. But originally it was just as often and just as reasonably applied to space as to time. Nor only was it applied to time and space, but it had a large and very elegant figurative use’ (DeQuincey,Note Book). Thus a ‘punctual’ narration was a narration which entered into minuterpointsof detail.

The stars that seem to roll... merely to officiate lightRound this opacous earth, thispunctualspot.Milton,Paradise Lost, viii. 19-23.Truly I thought I could not be toopunctualin describing the animal life, it being so serviceable for our better understanding the divine.—H. More,Grand Mystery of Godliness, Preface, p. x.All curious solicitude about riches smells of avarice; even the very disposing of it with a toopunctualand artificial liberality is not worth a painful solicitude.—Cotton,Montaigne’s Essays, b. iii. c. 9.Every one is to give a reason of his faith; but priests or ministers morepunctuallythan any.—H. More,Grand Mystery of Godliness, b. x. c. 12.

The stars that seem to roll... merely to officiate lightRound this opacous earth, thispunctualspot.

The stars that seem to roll

... merely to officiate light

Round this opacous earth, thispunctualspot.

Milton,Paradise Lost, viii. 19-23.

Truly I thought I could not be toopunctualin describing the animal life, it being so serviceable for our better understanding the divine.—H. More,Grand Mystery of Godliness, Preface, p. x.

All curious solicitude about riches smells of avarice; even the very disposing of it with a toopunctualand artificial liberality is not worth a painful solicitude.—Cotton,Montaigne’s Essays, b. iii. c. 9.

Every one is to give a reason of his faith; but priests or ministers morepunctuallythan any.—H. More,Grand Mystery of Godliness, b. x. c. 12.

Puny.The present use of ‘puny,’ as that which is at once weak and small, is only secondary and inferential. ‘Puny’ or ‘puisne’ (puis né) is born after another, therefore younger; and only by inference smaller and weaker.

It were a sign of ignorant arrogancy, ifpuniesor freshmen should reject the axioms and principles of Aristotle, usual in the schools, because they have some reasons against them which themselves cannot answer.—Jackson,The Eternal Truth of Scriptures, c. i.[The worthy soldier] had rather others should make a ladder of his dead corpse to scale a city by it, than a bridge of him whilst alive for hispuniesto give him the go-by, and pass over him to preferment.—Fuller,Holy State, b. iv. c. 17.He is dead and buried, and by this time nopunyamong the mighty nations of the dead; for though he left thisworld not very many days past, yet every hour, you know, addeth largely unto that dark society.—SirT. Browne,Letter to a Friend, p. 1.

[The worthy soldier] had rather others should make a ladder of his dead corpse to scale a city by it, than a bridge of him whilst alive for hispuniesto give him the go-by, and pass over him to preferment.—Fuller,Holy State, b. iv. c. 17.

He is dead and buried, and by this time nopunyamong the mighty nations of the dead; for though he left thisworld not very many days past, yet every hour, you know, addeth largely unto that dark society.—SirT. Browne,Letter to a Friend, p. 1.

Purchase.Now always to acquire in exchange for money, to buy; but much oftener in our old writers simply to acquire, being properly to hunt, ‘pourchasser;’ and then to take in hunting; then to acquire; and then, as the commonest way of acquiring is by giving money in exchange, to buy. The word occurs six times in our Version of the New Testament,Actsi. 18; viii. 10; xx. 28;Ephes.i. 14;1 Tim.iii. 13;1 Pet.ii. 9, margin; in none of these is the notion of buying involved. AtActsi. 18, this is especially noteworthy. It is there said: ‘This manpurchaseda field with the reward of iniquity.’ There will always remain certain difficulties in reconciling the different records of the death of Judas; but if St. Peter had here affirmed that Judas hadboughtthis field of blood, these difficulties would be seriously increased, for the chief priests were the actual buyers (Matt.xxvii. 7). He affirms no such thing, neither did our Translators understand him to do so, but simply that Judas made that ominous potter’s field his own (ἐκτήσατο). The Revised Version has ‘obtained.’

And therefore true consideration of estate can hardly find what to reject, in matter of territory, in any empire, except it be some glorious acquists obtained sometime in the bravery of wars, which cannot be kept without excessive charge and trouble, of which kind were thepurchasesof King Henry VIII., that of Tournay, and that of Bologne.—Bacon,History of King Henry VII.Thepurchasesof our own industry are joined commonly with labour and strife.—Id.,Colours of Good and Evil, 9.Meditation considers anything that may best make us to avoid the place and to quit a vicious habit, or master and rectify an untoward inclination, orpurchasea virtue or exercise one.—BishopTaylor,Life of Christ, part i. § 5.[Men] will repent, but not restore; they will sayNollem factum, they wish they had never done it; but since it is done, you must give them leave to rejoice in theirpurchase.—Id.,Sermon preached to the University of Dublin.As it is a happiness for us topurchasefriends, so is it misery to lose them.—Reynolds,God’s Revenge against Murther, b. v. hist. 21.

Thepurchasesof our own industry are joined commonly with labour and strife.—Id.,Colours of Good and Evil, 9.

Meditation considers anything that may best make us to avoid the place and to quit a vicious habit, or master and rectify an untoward inclination, orpurchasea virtue or exercise one.—BishopTaylor,Life of Christ, part i. § 5.

[Men] will repent, but not restore; they will sayNollem factum, they wish they had never done it; but since it is done, you must give them leave to rejoice in theirpurchase.—Id.,Sermon preached to the University of Dublin.

As it is a happiness for us topurchasefriends, so is it misery to lose them.—Reynolds,God’s Revenge against Murther, b. v. hist. 21.

Pursuer.‘Pursue’ and ‘pursuer’ are older words in the language than ‘persecute’ and ‘persecutor’—earlier adoptions of ‘persequor’ and ‘persecutor,’ through Old French and not immediately from the Latin. Besides the meaning which they still retain, they once also covered the meanings which these later words have, since their introduction, appropriated as exclusively their own. In Scotch law the prosecutor is the ‘pursuer,’ ὁ διώκων.

That first was a blaspheme andpursuere.—1 Tim.i. 13.Wiclif.If God leave them in this hardness of heart, they may prove as desperate opposites andpursuersof all grace, of Christ and Christians, as the most horrible open swine, as we see in Saul and Julian.—Rogers,Naaman the Syrian, p. 106.

That first was a blaspheme andpursuere.—1 Tim.i. 13.Wiclif.

If God leave them in this hardness of heart, they may prove as desperate opposites andpursuersof all grace, of Christ and Christians, as the most horrible open swine, as we see in Saul and Julian.—Rogers,Naaman the Syrian, p. 106.

In ‘quaint,’ which is the Middle English ‘quaynt,’ ‘queynt,’ ‘coint,’ Old French ‘cointe,’ the same word as the Latin ‘cognitum,’ there lies always now the notion of a certain curiosity and oddness, however these may be subordinated to ends of beauty and grace, and indeedmay themselves be made to contribute to these ends: pretty after some bygone standard of prettiness; but all this is of late introduction into the word, which had once simply the meaning of neat, graceful, skilful, subtle, knowing.

O britel joye, O sweete venymqueynte,O monstre that so subtily canst peynteThyn giftes, under hiew of stedfastnesse,That thou desceyuest bothe more and lesse.Chaucer,The Marchaundes Tale(Morris, ii. p. 343).I grant, my Lord, the damsel is as fairAs simple Suffolk’s homely towns can yield,But in the court bequainterdames than she.Greene,Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay, sc. 1.But you, my lord, were glad to be employed,To show howquaintan orator you are.Shakespeare,2 Henry VI., act iii. sc. 2.Whom evere I schal kisse, he it is; holde ye him, and lede ye warli, orqueyntly.—Markxiv. 44.Wiclif(earlier version).A ladder quaintly made of cords.Shakespeare,Two Gentlemen of Verona, act iii. sc. 1.

O britel joye, O sweete venymqueynte,O monstre that so subtily canst peynteThyn giftes, under hiew of stedfastnesse,That thou desceyuest bothe more and lesse.

O britel joye, O sweete venymqueynte,

O monstre that so subtily canst peynte

Thyn giftes, under hiew of stedfastnesse,

That thou desceyuest bothe more and lesse.

Chaucer,The Marchaundes Tale(Morris, ii. p. 343).

I grant, my Lord, the damsel is as fairAs simple Suffolk’s homely towns can yield,But in the court bequainterdames than she.

I grant, my Lord, the damsel is as fair

As simple Suffolk’s homely towns can yield,

But in the court bequainterdames than she.

Greene,Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay, sc. 1.

But you, my lord, were glad to be employed,To show howquaintan orator you are.

But you, my lord, were glad to be employed,

To show howquaintan orator you are.

Shakespeare,2 Henry VI., act iii. sc. 2.

Whom evere I schal kisse, he it is; holde ye him, and lede ye warli, orqueyntly.—Markxiv. 44.Wiclif(earlier version).

A ladder quaintly made of cords.

Shakespeare,Two Gentlemen of Verona, act iii. sc. 1.

Querulous.Not formerly, as now, addicted to the making of complaints, but quarrelsome.

There inhabit these regions a kind of people, rude, warlike, ready to fight,querulous, and mischievous.—Holland,Camden’s Scotland, p. 39.Notquerulous, or clamorous in his discourse; ‘He shall notstrivenor cry, neither shall any hear his voice in the streets;’ but meek and quiet.—Fuller,A Pisgah Sight of Palestine, b. iii. c. 6.

There inhabit these regions a kind of people, rude, warlike, ready to fight,querulous, and mischievous.—Holland,Camden’s Scotland, p. 39.

Notquerulous, or clamorous in his discourse; ‘He shall notstrivenor cry, neither shall any hear his voice in the streets;’ but meek and quiet.—Fuller,A Pisgah Sight of Palestine, b. iii. c. 6.

Race.Formerly ‘race,’ the Old French ‘raïs,’ the same word as the Latin ‘radicem,’ was used in the sense of a root.

Araceof ginger.—Shakespeare,Winter’s Tale, act iv. sc. 3.

Raisin.It is conveniently agreed now that ‘raisin’ shall be employed only of thedriedgrape, but this does not lie in ‘racemus,’ of which ‘raisin’ is the French equivalent, nor yet in its earlier uses; indeed, ‘raisinsof the sun’ (Sir J. Harington) was a phrase commonly employed when the dried fruit was intended.

Nether in the vyneyerd thou schalt gaderereysynsand greynes fallynge doun, but thou schalt leeve to be gaderid of pore men and pilgryms.—Lev.xix. 10.Wiclif.

The lean unseasonable members of the herd of deer were formerly so called; then the common people, theplebsas distinguished from thepopulus; it is only in comparatively modern English that the word is one of moral contempt. [In Anglo-French the word ‘rascaille’ was used in the sense of a rabble; for references and etymology see Mayhew-Skeat,Dict. of Middle English.]

And he smoot of the puple seventi men, and fifti thousandis of theraskeyl[Et percussit de populo septuaginta viros et quinquaginta milliaplebis(Vulg.)].—1 Kin.vi. 19.Wiclif.The common priests be not so obedient unto their ordinaryes that they will pay money except they know why. Now it is not expedient that everyrascalshould know the secretes of the very true cause, for many considerations.—Tyndale,The Practice of Popishe Prelates.Now shall I tel you which ben bestes of chace;And ye shall, my dere sones, other bestes all,Whereso ye hem finde,rascallhem call.Juliana Berners,The Book of St. Albans.As one should in reproach say to a poor man, Thouraskallknave, whereraskallis properly the hunter’s term given toyoung deer, lean and out of season, and not to people.—Puttenham,Art of English Poesy, 1811, p. 150.Both sorts of seasoned deer,Here walk the stately red, the freckled fallow there;The bucks and lusty stags among therascalsstrewed,As sometimes gallant spirits amongst the multitude.Drayton,Polyolbion, song 13.The report which these roving hunters had made to their countrymen of that pleasant land, did invite the chief heads of their clans, with their severalrascalities, to flock into Europe, like beggars dismissed out of prison, invited to a solemn banquet.—Jackson,A Treatise on the Divine Essence, b. vi. c. 25, § 6.

And he smoot of the puple seventi men, and fifti thousandis of theraskeyl[Et percussit de populo septuaginta viros et quinquaginta milliaplebis(Vulg.)].—1 Kin.vi. 19.Wiclif.

The common priests be not so obedient unto their ordinaryes that they will pay money except they know why. Now it is not expedient that everyrascalshould know the secretes of the very true cause, for many considerations.—Tyndale,The Practice of Popishe Prelates.

Now shall I tel you which ben bestes of chace;And ye shall, my dere sones, other bestes all,Whereso ye hem finde,rascallhem call.

Now shall I tel you which ben bestes of chace;

And ye shall, my dere sones, other bestes all,

Whereso ye hem finde,rascallhem call.

Juliana Berners,The Book of St. Albans.

As one should in reproach say to a poor man, Thouraskallknave, whereraskallis properly the hunter’s term given toyoung deer, lean and out of season, and not to people.—Puttenham,Art of English Poesy, 1811, p. 150.

Both sorts of seasoned deer,Here walk the stately red, the freckled fallow there;The bucks and lusty stags among therascalsstrewed,As sometimes gallant spirits amongst the multitude.

Both sorts of seasoned deer,

Here walk the stately red, the freckled fallow there;

The bucks and lusty stags among therascalsstrewed,

As sometimes gallant spirits amongst the multitude.

Drayton,Polyolbion, song 13.

The report which these roving hunters had made to their countrymen of that pleasant land, did invite the chief heads of their clans, with their severalrascalities, to flock into Europe, like beggars dismissed out of prison, invited to a solemn banquet.—Jackson,A Treatise on the Divine Essence, b. vi. c. 25, § 6.

Rather.This survives for us now only as an adverb, but meets us often in Middle English as an adjective, as the comparative of ‘rathe,’ quick, swift, early.

This is he that Y seide of, aftir me is comun a man, which was maad bifor me; for he wasratherthan Y [quiapriorme erat, Vulg.].—Johni. 30.Wiclif.If the world hatith you, wite ye that it hadde me in hateratherthan you [meprioremvobis odio habuit, Vulg.].—Johnxv. 18.Wiclif.The Sarazines maden another cytie more far from the see, and clepeden it the newe Damyete, so that now no man dwellethe at theratheretown of Damyete.—SirJohn Mandeville,Voyage and Travaile, p. 46, Halliwell’s edition.Whatsoever thou or such other say, I say that the pilgrimage that now is used is to them that do it, a praisable and a good mean to come theratherto grace.—Foxe,Book of Martyrs; Examination of William Thorpe.Theratherlambs been starved with cold.Spenser,The Shepherd’s Calendar, February.

This is he that Y seide of, aftir me is comun a man, which was maad bifor me; for he wasratherthan Y [quiapriorme erat, Vulg.].—Johni. 30.Wiclif.

If the world hatith you, wite ye that it hadde me in hateratherthan you [meprioremvobis odio habuit, Vulg.].—Johnxv. 18.Wiclif.

The Sarazines maden another cytie more far from the see, and clepeden it the newe Damyete, so that now no man dwellethe at theratheretown of Damyete.—SirJohn Mandeville,Voyage and Travaile, p. 46, Halliwell’s edition.

Whatsoever thou or such other say, I say that the pilgrimage that now is used is to them that do it, a praisable and a good mean to come theratherto grace.—Foxe,Book of Martyrs; Examination of William Thorpe.

Theratherlambs been starved with cold.

Spenser,The Shepherd’s Calendar, February.

Receipt.At this present the act of receiving, or acknowledgment of having received; but not seldom once the place for receiving, or receptacle.

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