a Tub,"
ridicules Inigo Jones's love of two words he often used:--

----If it _conduce_
To the design, whate'er is _feasible_,
I can express.

[25] The term _pluck_, once only known to the prize-ring, has now
got into use in general conversation, and also into literature, as a
term indicative of ready courage.

[26] Such terms as "_patent_ to the public"--"_normal_
condition"--"_crass_ behaviour," are the inventions of the last few
years.

[27] Shakspeare has a powerfully-composed line in the speech of the
Duke of Burgundy, (_Henry V._ Act v. Sc. 2), when, describing the
fields overgrown with weeds, he exclaims--

----The coulter rusts,
That should _deracinate_ such _savagery_.

[28] The "Quarterly Review" recently marked the word _liberalise_ in
italics as a strange word, undoubtedly not aware of its origin. It
has been lately used by Mr. Dugald Stewart, "to _liberalise_ the
views."--Dissert. 2nd part, p. 138.

THE PHILOSOPHY OF PROVERBS.

In antique furniture we sometimes discover a convenience which long
disuse had made us unacquainted with, and are surprised by the aptness
which we did not suspect was concealed in its solid forms. We have found
the labour of the workmen to have been as admirable as the material
itself, which is still resisting the mouldering touch of time among
those modern inventions, elegant and unsubstantial, which, often put
together with unseasoned wood, are apt to warp and fly into pieces when
brought into use. We have found how strength consists in the selection
of materials, and that, whenever the substitute is not better than the
original, we are losing something in that test of experience, which all
things derive from duration.

Be this as it may! I shall not unreasonably await for the artists of our
novelties to retrograde into massive greatness, although I cannot avoid
reminding them how often they revive the forgotten things of past times!
It is well known that many of our novelties were in use by our
ancestors! In the history of the human mind there is, indeed, a sort of
antique furniture which I collect, not merely for their antiquity, but
for the sound condition in which I still find them, and the compactness
which they still show. Centuries have not worm-eaten their solidity! and
the utility and delightfulness which they still afford make them look as
fr