The Portland daily press., 1873-01-24
TERMS 500 PER ANNUM In ADVANCE

sumptuous tombs. The prince of Latin or,.
! tors descends to lis in the modern Italia,
''cicerone.' We hear of Gerrymanderno !,
district, Rareyfying horse, Dunning debt
or, out-heroding Herod. Such words carry
Their . origin in sight. But when we hear of i.
Mas'e M%andiln' speech, we get at first no hint Of
m;nyy o;ny Magdalen. A ''duuce' would never re-
nor ra u us Us. OF the subtle Doctor Duns Scotus.
darius p''Rder' of the Trojan general Pan.
| about ~ pasquinade'' tells us nothing
dug up tbraa niiated nted statue of the gladiator
the snapnjsb cohnd years ago in Rome and
posite. "squlno, who lived op.
err ~, .LEAENT IN OUR LAM
10 return to our own lanpua,o -,
| ampies VIII be required to shoe ho out lew ex-
IL, IL mas asslmllated this mythologicai largely
The gods OF Olympus have presided element- n-
growth, and still in such common terna It's
lovial, MARTIAL ''saturnins,' sme,os, as
rlH. Inc last-named deity served the alcba-
mists under the guise of quicksilver. aSi w;.,-
| his Greek name has furnished our theoioomana
with their 'hermeneutics." Bacchus does
duty in our Christian civilization a, a svno'
nym for the pleasures of dissipation. inst as
much as he did among the people who ner,
sonified the vice and then worshipped IL and
has as large following of "bacchanalians. ),
The goddess who presided over harvests still
maidens s'yestals," and the ''mosaic'' pins
they wear commemorate all the muses. to-
gether. Hymen and Cupid are almost as IA
miliar per.onages in our literature as the
events they inspire. Vulcan is still at bis
forge in our volcanoes" and we have 80 far
unde6ed his godship as to set him to work
"vulcanizing" rubber. Wehave been taught
to sing 'Great Pan is dead" but he can be
only constructively defunct, for an epiphany
Oh him occurs in every ''panic." Pallas Is
coinmemorated in "palladium." Even the
two great systems by which sayaps have at
eenpted 10 map out the original cosmogcny,
are put forth christened in the name OF two
pagan gods, as the PIutonian and tbe Ner-
tunian theories w." '"' -'eF
~ Ine uemigods are as much at home in our
CHRISTIAN hteratere as the gods. Curiouslv
nuusn' Houerh conditions seem oftentimes
10 De more expressly prepared for these i'm
personations than the melodrama in yh;oh
they played their role before. They affiliate
with Christian culture wonderfnllv Tbsrs
are more 'chimeras" inmodern tbongbt tha,'
in ancient myth. The tasks of the present
day are more "Herculean" than in the time
OF Eurystheus. The modern atlas receives a
more universal homage than its giant proto-
type ever dared to claim. The civilization of
our age is equipped with more hands than
Brsreus and more eyes than Argus; and in
Its facility OF adaptation is more ''protean''
than Proteus himself. And we have stil
other and equally valuable importations from
the cloud-land of classic myth. Those fabu-
lous monsters which peopled the fancy If not
the forests and waters of ancient Greece, are
at home with us also. Part human. part
Destial, part divine, they stand among the
enigmas of the past, and doubtless embodied
tina tears, the faucies, the hopes or the doubts
OF the early generations. We adopt them,
and they serve the new regime as willingly as
the old. They go not grumbling to their task
like Caliban, but spring to it with q cordial
alacrity like the genie Of Aladdin. 1t would
be difficult to compute the usefulness of these
ignes tdtue of ancient poetry, dutifully sub
missive as they are to the demands of our ma
'sphinS," .'harpv.'' "sSbii,'' ahippegria,n
''dragon," phoenix 'centaur," asyiph,o
''fate," ''faun, !" "nymph"-the simple men
ton OF these few will show how largely mod
ern language is indebted to the grotesque side
Of ancient religion for the convenient terms
in which to express some of its ideas.
VERBAL ACCIDENTS.
The accidents in language can be illustrat-
ed also BY observing the many instances In
which name seems to be present and is not
The constellation Charles's Vain, for exam
pie, Is not so entitled in behalf ofany Charles,
royal, pebeian or mythical, but is simply
corruption of ''the churrs wain." Satan
may possibly bave much to do with making
"lucifer matches, but il is not his name.
however, which is attached to the PATENT
The "muscovy duck" has no relation to Mos
COW, but is blunder for s'musk duck" The
turkey" was misnamed for the country
from which it did not come. The emblem of
constancy, rosemary" is fragrant with
memories not of Mary, but of sea. '.John
Dory' is highly satisfactory fish and of
splended hue, but of such extravagant fins
withal that the savans have given him the
ineffable title neutrality-suspicious.: "John
Dory" has certainly the advantage in point of
euphony, and looks as If it were another bor-
rowing from the useful John--but instead is
corruption ofjauns doree, golden yellow.
''Demijohn' is another word which has an
abusive sound, as though the typical John
was so addicted to the containing raw spirits
that the name had come to be a synonym for
the original package; but demijohn is our
modified pronunciation of the French dame
| jeanne, which is itself corruption of Dana
! CHAN, Persian town famous for It's gase
| ware. Among our birds are several which
| bear personal names. Besides those which
| have already been mentioned may be noticed
| the "magpie'' and the s1robin.' The ''cana-
| ry" bears the name of its original home. But
| the familiar ''bob-'o 'o-link' is a song name;
and Bryant has only written out in full the
title by which this loquacious little spirit Is
forever nicknaming himself, and which he
should be allowed to wear sumn,d cum idude:
aIerrily swinging on brier and weed
Near to the nest of his little dame
Over the mountain-side mead,
Robert Of Lincoln Is telling his name.
| The s'whip-poor-wilr' bears another song
| name, and among insects, the s'katydid"; and
Morris and Holmes have tried to translate