The morning star and Catholic messenger., 1878-12-29

Walpole, that he held certain professed
patriots of his day in low esteem, and that
slluding to them, he said, "Ail those mer
have their price," This is quite a differ
ent thing from the cynical and demoral
lsing sentiment attributed to him in the
| much abused and almost universal misGuo-
| tatlon referred to.
On the other hand, some Of the popular
forms of what purport to be quotations
| from we'll known authors exhibit improve
ments in expressiveuess and epigrammatic
force. There are very few people un-
familiar with the phrase applied to office
holders, Sew die. and none resign
This is attributed to Jefferson, but ia some.
what better than the way he put it. What
he said about eff, ,al vacancies was this :
'Those bv death are few; by resignation
| none.' Here the popular form is a mani
fest improvement; yet who can name the
| person who was the author of the quotation
as it now stands 7 Additional vigor has
been given in the same way to a saying of
Josiah Quincy, who, in opposing the
that if the bill should pass, it would work
| q virtual dissolution of the Union, and
that it would be the duty of some of the
free States to definitely prepare for a sepa-
| ration, 'amicably, if they can violently,
II they must" The popular torn of this,
derived from Henry Clay's misqaotation OF
it, is: "Peaceably, if we eau forcibly, if
we must"-a much more muscular diction.
Uoder the same process, a wider popular
use and understanding has been given to
the first line of Walter Scott's couplet:
esD Oh he sleep that k"GTs mot breaking
Almost uniformly this is repeated "Sleep
the sleep that knows Io waking"
Some corrupted quotations of another
class are simply unchallenged errors with
out material harm, except that the purity
of the original is lost. or this description
is Bishop Berkeley's line, ''Westward the
course Of empire takes its way" which is
most frequently repeated ia fern for
which Mr.. Bancroft, the historian, is said
to be accountable, viz, "Westward the
star of empire takes its way" In the
same category we may place the phrase.
"Beanty unadorned is adorned the most"
which is short and easy way of referring
to what Thompson put in this form:
.ioveliness
Ee,ds not tho foreign aid of ornament,
But is when unadorned, adorned the most
In this instance the popular form, as we
the frequent expression, "Where there's
will there's way" while very terse aud
strong, loses something of the wider mean
ing of what appears to be the original in
George Crabbe's line, "Be there will, and
acisdom finds a way" There are come
changes Of qnototion, too, about which
little need be said, except that they are
changes. Thus, Matthew Prior's line,
''Fine by degrees, and beautifully less"-
usually comes to us as "SmGH by degrees" )"
etc.,, Shakspeare's, "The man that hath |
no music in himself" very often appears
as "The man that hath no music in HIS |
s0uL," and his maxim that "The better part |
Of valour is discretion" appears five times
in six in the inverted form in which later
writer's have miequoted it.
But there is great deal of quoting done |
almost unconsciously by the use of phrases |
hat have gone i1to the body of our every
Day language, the phrases being used with
as to their origin. Some of these are from
Shakespeare, and more from the English
Bible. AL of the following familiar
phrases are from Shakespeare "Fsst and
oose !" ""l know trick worth two of that"
'Poor, but honest;" "The short and the
ong of it," "That was laid on with
rowel;" "Some of US will smart for it )"
Masters, spread yourselves F" "My cake
9 dough GAS good luck would have it,"
These are used in scores of ways, without
he slightest thought of where they come
rom. From the Bible we get "Escaped
With the skin of my teeth; " '.The root of
he matter )" .'The pen OF ready writer;'
made :" Merchant princes"
in Isaiah, however, it is "whose merchants
re princes"); ga feast OF fat things; ;"
The burden and heat OF the day )"
Absent in body but present In spirit :
nd even "Spreading himself like green ,,
ay tree" There are many other phrases =
nconsciously quoted from those great r,
ources of expressive and vigorous English, :
ut it would carry Us too far to follow them =
lrther at this time. So we may close this :
ith reference to one very frequently :
isquoted passage from Genesis; ''In the .
Veat of thy face shalt thou eat bread" ""
ow many times, too, We find this repeated,
9TH in cOnVeraatiOn and in nrint in other
ords than those of the English translation 7
-"the sweat of thy brow" being nearly =
wavs used instead of "the sweat of thy !;
ce."
ARTIFICIAL FLOWEBS