The New Orleans bulletin. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1874-1876, 1874-09-27
Apt Quotations.
From the Swiss T'imes.]

There is famous story OF Sheridan tina
in a debate in the House of Commons he
heard member of the opposite side quote
against him some Greek lines rising, he re
Piled at once that, though the lines NIGH
seem conclusive, the honorable gentleman, !
he had completed the passage, would have
shown the House that their real meaning was
Just the contrary. He then proceeded witt
the utmost gravity to repeat what seemed u
be a sentence of Greek, but was IN reality {
string of gibberish, such as he could lnven
on the spur of the moment. The House was
of course, aston:shed at his learning anG
memory, and cheered him loudly, as his oppc
nent, discomtited sat without reply ready
memory is a good substitute for want OF read,
wit, but sometimes it must fail; the man vic
is able to think OF word when he wants 1t Is
more clever than the man who can recall
whole pages at any other time
A happy quotation, however, often shows
real wit, as when the Lord Derby, then Mr.
Stanley, au ,ted against OConnell who had
spoken three times in committee on the same
question, contrary to the rules OF the House
''Thrice the brindled cat has mewed. from
shakespeare; and when Swift. on seeing the
motto ''non rupui sed recepi on medal OF
William ILL. remarked, The receiver is as
bad as the thief" But such examples are
pended on as authentic. Queen Elizabeth s
..He blew with His winds and they We're scat.
tered" in reference to the Armada Slraf-
fords 'sPu. not your trust in princes" when
Charles abandoned him; Edward vi. S saying
when at his coronation the swords OF State
were delivered to him, 'You have forgotten
the sword of the sl1rit;' and many more are,
as the Italians say, ''Si non veri, ben trovatl :
if not true, at least are well invented. Such
are Lord Denman's reference to George H. as
something which
The sembance of a kinsly crown had on;
and the application to the late Lord Brougham
and Vaux of the words "Vaux, ct prHterea
nihil," which may be considered parallel to a
recent college story A great university pro-
posed some ten years ago the discovery of
the Source of the Nile" as the subject of a
prize essay, the compositors to send in their
compositions with notices attached, by which
the successful effort might be identified. One
of these was, eek Milo nihil fit," which in
this case, at least. turned out but too true
The poem was not considered fit" Of
course, the vast majority of English stories of
this kind turn on happy applications of texts
Of Scripture. Many Of these are too irrever-
ent, but some are of historical value, and
some are well worth RENE mbering. The
Apocrypha have been little used in this way,
though the we'll known proverb, .sMagna est
veritas ct prevalent" the motto of the city
of Oxford, comes from them; but the often
quoted injunction, ''Look to the end, y usually
given in its Latin form, ''Respice fnem, from
the seventh chapter of the book of Ec-
clesiastes ..z.
. One of the happiest applications from Scrip
ture was that of the Saturday Rerie,o, of ~
kept silence, yea, even from Good Words, "
to the late Dean Afford, when he had ceased
for a time to contribute to a popular maya
zine; and the texts of sermons preached on
public occasions afford some excellent ex-
amples. Thus, an eloquent dean took for his
text at the reopening of an ancient church
which had been partially destroyed by fire,
the words, "Gather up the fragments that
nothing be lost and country clergyman
having to officiate before one Of the princesses,
is said to have used the mutilated verse, "The
Kings daughter is all glorious, tor the occa-
sion of his discourse. Several places claim
the minister who believed that had David
lived in his parish he might have said, not in
haste, but at leisure, that all men are liars;
and more than one author relates the incident
at family prayers where the old gentleman
adds to the text, He clothed himself with
cursing as it were with a garment, the COM
ment sit is certainly very bad habit" An
Oxford clergyman caused some remark by
commencing a sermon with, est Paul says,
and partly agree with him -