Aranearum telas texere. Lat.-"To weave spiders' webs." Metaphorically taken, to maintain sophistical arguments.

Arbiter elegantiarum. Lat.-"The arbitrator of the elegances, or elegancies, the master of the ceremonies." The person whose judgment decides on matters of taste and form. N.B. The classic term, used by TACITUS, is "elegantiae arbiter."

Arbore dejecta quivis ligna colligit. Lat.-"When the tree is thrown down, any person may gather the wood." It is in the power of the meanest to triumph over fallen greatness.

Arcades ambo:

Et cantare pares, et respondere parati. Lat. VIRGIL."Both Arcadians [natives of a country of ancient Greece, of Arcadia, the Switzerland of Greece; men who were passionately fond of music, and who cultivated it with success]; and both equally skilled in the opening song and in the response." The poet speaks of two contending shepherds. The quotation is applied, however, to disputants of another description, either to intimate that they are closely matched, or that they are playing, as the phrase is, into each other's hands.

ment.

stone.

Arcana imperii. Lat.-"State secrets." The mysteries of govern-
Arcanum. Lat.-"A secret." The grand arcanum, the philosopher's

Arcanum demens detegit ebrietas. Lat.-"Mad drunkenness discloses every secret." All reserve is laid aside in moments of intoxication.

Arcanum neque tu scrutaberis ullius unquam;
Commissumque teges, et vino tortus et ira.

Lat. HORACE."Never inquire into another man's secret; but conceal that which is entrusted to you, though tortured both by wine and by passion to reveal it."

Arcem ex cloaca facere, ex elephanto muscam. Lat. prov. CICERO. "To make a castle, fort, stronghold, out of a common sewer, or an elephant from a fly," that is, To make a mountain of a mole-hill.

Aoxn шov avтog. Gr. HESIOD.-"The beginning is the half of the whole." Of the tendency of this ancient saying the best illustration is to be found in our own saying, "What's well begun is half done." See "Dimidium facti," &c.

Apxiloxov Tartic. Gr.-"Thou tramplest upon, insultest, ARCHILOCHUS, treatest ARCHILOCHUS contumeliously-Thou, thoughtless mortal, presumest to trample upon, insult, ARCHILOCHUS, treat ARCHILOCHUS with contumely [and thou wilt repent of it, wilt rue thine egregious folly]." "ARCHILOCHUS is a famous name in the old world, and must surely have been deserving of it, for good or for evil of uncommon quality, there being scarcely half-a-dozen, amongst all the ancient classics, in whose works we may not trace some instance or record of his universal invention or exquisite skill, of his vigour of genius or bitterness of spirit. Besides writing a man, and his daughter who should have married him, into hanging themselves, he founded a colony, and then lampooned it; struck out a score of new metres, and, if we may judge by the diversity of the numerous but

slender fragments of his poems still existing, was Grand master of Olympic odes, Bacchic hymns, warlike, moral, and consolatory elegies, bird-and-beast fables, love-songs, and libellous epigrams, throughout Greece and all her islands. Touch me who dare'-Apxiλoxov Tareis was his motto: which, nevertheless, he appears to have said once too often; for it is certainly not greatly improbable that the man who is said to have assassinated him, Calondas the Crow, had previously been hitched by him into the gripe of some fierce iambics, or exposed to ridicule in some tale of a fox and a crow." Archipelago."An assemblage of islands." The Eastern Archipelago comprises the largest assemblage of islands on the globe.

Arcum intensio frangit, animum remissio. Lat. PUBLIUS SYRUS. Straining breaks the bow, and relaxation the mind.". Our proverb has it that the bow, which is always bent, must break. This maxim properly adds that the mind will in time lose its powers, unless they are called into due activity.

Arcus nimis intensus rumpitur. Lat. prov.-"A bow too much bent, kept on the stretch, is soon broken." A bow long bent at last waxeth weak. See "Cito rumpes arcum, &c."

Ardentia verba. Lat.-" Glowing words." Expressions of uncommon force and energy. One of our poets has carried the idea still further. He speaks of "thoughts that breathe, and words that burn."

Arena. Lat.

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Sand, grit." The arena of battle," that is, the field of battle, or the battle-field. The clear open space in the centre of the amphitheatre [a place in ancient Rome for the exhibition of public shows of combatants, wild beasts, and naval engagements] was called the arena, because it was covered with sand, or sawdust, to prevent the gladiators [men who fought with swords in the amphitheatre and other places, for the amusement of the Roman people] from slipping, and to absorb the blood. Argent comptant. Fr.-"Ready money." For immediate payment, for cash. N.B. Instead of "argent comptant" we may use comptant' alone, just as some persons speak of "the ready." We may also use argent sec" [literally, dry money], hard cash, in the same sense as "argent comptant," or "comptant."

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Argent reçu le bras rompu. Fr. prov.-"Borrowed money that you cannot repay, but must work out, is well nigh having an arm broken.” To work for a dead horse, or goose.

Argilla quidvis imitaberis uda. Lat. HORACE.-" You may mould the youth into any shape you please, at pleasure, like soft clay." This is one of the numerous apophthegms, which insist on the advantage of early impressions.

Argumentum a particulari ad universale. Lat.-" An argument that attempts to show from a single instance that all other instances are the same, similar, alike." The practice of generalizing from individual in

stances.

Argumentum ad absurdum. Lat.-" An argument to prove the absurdity of anything."

Argumentum ad hominem. Lat.-" An argument to the man." An argument, which derives its strength from its personal application. An appeal to the practices, or professed principles, of one's adversary.

D

Argumentum ad ignorantiam. Lat.-An argument founded on the ignorance of facts, or circumstances, shown by your adversary.

Argumentum ad judicium. Lat.- An argument to the judg ment." An appeal made, according to LOCKE, to proofs drawn from any of the foundations of knowledge.

Argumentum ad verecundiam. Lat.-"An argument to the modesty." An appeal to the decency of your opponent.

Argumentum baculinum. Lat.- "The argument of the staff." Club law. Conviction per force, conviction enforced by drubbing.

Aria di finestra colpo di balestra. Ital. prov.-"The air of a window is as the stroke of a cross-bow."

ApiσTOV μETPOV. Gr.-"A mean, a middle course, is best in everything." This was the saying of CLEOBULUS, one of the seven wise men of Greece. On most occasions in common life it is most prudent to steer a middle course.

Arma tenenti omnia dat, qui justa negat. Lat. LUCAN.-"He who denies what is just grants everything to those who have arms in their hands." A successful combatant will not be content with his naked right, but will insist on something more.

Armati terram exercent, semperque recentes

Convectare juvat praedas et vivere rapto. Lat. VIRGIL."In arms they ravage the earth, and it is ever their delight to collect the recent spoil, and live on plunder."

Armes blanches. Fr.-" Hand-weapons, cold steel."

Arrière-garde. Fr.-The "rear-guard."

Arrière-pensée. Fr.-" Mental reservation, thought kept in reserve, kept to one's self."

Ars est celare artem. Lat.- "The art, the perfection of art, is to conceal art." In every practical science, as in painting or in acting, for instance, the great effort of the artist is to conceal from the spectator the means by which the effect is produced.

Ars est sine arte, cujus principium est mentiri, medium laborare, et finis mendicare. Lat.-This is a most happy definition of the business of alchemy, or the vain search after the philosopher's stone::-"It is an art without art, which has its beginning in falsehood, its middle in toil, and its end in poverty."

'It

Arte perire sua. Lat. OVID.-"To perish, or fall, by their own machinations, to fall into the trap that they had prepared for others." is gratifying to man, and it seems the peculiar dispensation of GOD, that the malignant authors of mischief should themselves be the victims of their own contrivances."

'Here's a

Arts d'agrément. Fr.-"Accomplishments" [in ladies' schools]. Asinum tondes. Lat. prov.-"You are shearing an ass." great cry, and but little wool," as the fellow said when he was shearing his hogs. Asinus asino, sus sui pulcer, et suum cuique pulcrum. Lat. prov.-"To the ass, the sow, and every animal, their own offspring appears the fairest in the whole creation." The crow thinks her own bird fairest. Asperae facetiae, ubi nimis ex vero traxere, acrem sui me

moriam relinquunt. Lat. TACITUS.-"A bitter jest, when the satire comes too near the truth, leaves a sharp sting behind it." This experiment is always dangerous; but particularly when the shaft is levelled against high authorities.

Asperius nihil est humili cum surgit in altum. Lat. CLAUDIAN. "Nothing is more harsh than a low man, when raised to a certain height." Aspettare, e non venire,

Stare in letto, e non dormire,
Servire, e non gradire,

Son tre cose di far morire. Ital. prov.

"To expect one who does not come, to lie in bed and not to sleep, to serve and not to be advanced, are three things enough to kill a man."

Assai ben balla a chi Fortuna suona. Ital. prov.-" He dances well, to whom Fortune pipes."

Assez y a, si trop n' y a. Old Fr. prov.-" There is enough, if there be not too much." Too much of one thing is good for nothing. Enough is as good as a feast.

Assidua stilla saxum excavat. Lat. prov.-"A continual dropping of water hollows out a stone." Compare ÖVID:—

Quid magis est durum saxo? Quid mollius unda ?

Dura tamen molli saxa cavantur aqua.

That is, "What is harder than stone? what softer than water? and yet hard stones, stones hard though they are, are, in process of time, made hollow by the falling of water on them.”

-Assiduo labuntur tempora motu

Non secus ac flumen. Neque enim consistere flumen,
Nec levis hora potest: sed ut unda impellitur unda,
Urgeturque prior venienti, urgetque priorem,

Tempora sic fugiunt pariter, pariterque sequuntur;
Et nova sunt semper. Nam quod fuit ante, relictum est;
Fitque quod haud fuerat: momentaque cuncta novantur.

"With constant motion as the moments glide,
Behold in running life the rolling tide!
For none can stem by art, or stop by power,
The flowing ocean, or the fleeting hour;
But wave by wave pursued arrives on shore,
And each impelled behind impels before:
So time on time revolving we descry,
So minutes follow, and so minutes fly."

Lat. OVID.

Assignat. Fr.-The paper money of France after the Revolution of the last century. "Is there a debt which presses them, issue assignats."

BURKE.

Assistance obligée. Fr.-"Legal relief," to the poor.

Assisto divinis. Lat. HORACE "I stop [in the course of my morning walk] to observe the fortune-tellers in the pursuit of their craft, or, I stop to consult the itinerant diviners" [who kept a kind of shop for the sale of oracles]. The Roman Catholics make use of an expression somewhat similar to the "assisto divinis" of Horace: they say that they

"assist at mass," that is, they "stand by and look on at mass," when they attend the service of the Romish Church. CREECH, from whom better things might have been expected, most absurdly translated the expression, "I go to Church and pray: "thus raising ideas in the mind of the reader to which there was nothing correspondent in the religious services of

Rome.

Assumsit. Lat. Law term.-"He assumed, he took upon him to pay." An action on a verbal promise.

Astra regunt homines, sed regit astra Deus. Lat.- "The stars govern men, but GOD governs the stars.' This forms a proper answer to the self-dubbed professors of judicial astrology.

Ava. Gr. "Dejection, sadness, despondency, melancholy, the exhaustion of all energy [in-working, mental activity], of all vitality of the soul; the exhaustion of the heart." "This feeling is melancholy, despondency, or, in the much more powerful expression of the Greek, it is advμia."

Attaché. Fr.-" One of the higher class of subordinates of an embassy, or representative mission." The plural is attachés.

Au contraire. Fr.-"On the contrary, on the other hand."

Au courant. Fr.-" Aware of, acquainted with, familiar with." "It is his office to keep the King au courant of all that appears in modern literature."

Au désespoir. Fr.-"Driven to despair, in a state of despondency." Au fait. Fr.- 66 Up to the mark." "On these points he is quite au fait." "He is au fait in the whole matter."

Au fond. Fr.-" To the bottom." I know the man au fond." I thoroughly understand his character.

Au jour la journée. Fr.-"From hand to mouth."

Au pied de la lettre. Fr.-"Literally."

Au pis aller. Fr.-"At the worst." Let the worst come to the worst.

Au plus debile la chandelle à la main. Fr. prov.-"He that is worst may still hold the candle."

Au regnard endormi rien ne cheut en la gueule. Old Fr. prov. "When the fox is asleep, nothing falls into his mouth."

Au sérieux. Fr.

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Seriously, in a serious manner."

Au naturel. Fr.-"In its, or their, natural state."

Au reste. Fr.-"In addition to this, besides, moreover."

Au revoir. Fr.-" Good bye, farewell.”

Au royaume des aveugles les borgnes sont rois. Fr. prov "In blindmen's land those who are blessed with one eye are kings." N.B. This French proverb is very often quoted incorrectly, thus, Dans le pays, &c., instead of as above.

Auch weiber wussten zu schweigen. German. "Even the women knew how to be silent, to keep their tongues to themselves." "There is no instance upon record of any Tyrolian being induced to turn traitor for a bribe; and, says BARTHOLDY, 'Auch weiber, &c.'

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Auctor pretiosa facit. Lat. OVID.—" The giver makes the gift more precious.

Aucune institution humaine ne peut subsister, si elle n' est