XL GKNEALOGY. 191 



23. Now in this first example of nomenclature, the 

 Master-name, being pure Greek, may easily be accepted 

 by Greek children, remembering that certain also of 

 their own poets, if they did not call the flower a Grace 

 itself, at least thought of it as giving gladness to the 

 Three in their dances.* But for French children the 

 word ' Grace ' has been doubly and trebly corrupted ; 

 first, by entirely false theological scholarship, mistaking 

 the ' Favor ' or Grace done by God to good men, for 

 the ' Misericordia, ' or mercy, shown by Him to bad 

 ones ; and so, in practical life, finally substituting 

 ' Grace ' as a word of extreme and mortal prayer, for 

 ' Merci,' and of late using ' Merci ' in a totally ridiculous 

 and perverted power, for the giving of thanks (or re- 

 fusal of offered good) : while the literally derived word 

 ' Charite ' has become, in the modern mind, a gift, 

 whether from God or man, only to the wretched, never to 

 the happy : and lastly, ' Grace ' in its physical sense has 

 been perverted, by their social vulgarity, into an idea, 

 whether with respect to form or motion, commending it- 

 self rather to the ballet-master than either to the painter 

 or the priest. 



For these reasons, the Master name of this family, for 

 my French pupils, must be simply Rhodiades, ' which 

 will bring, for them, the entire group of names into 

 easily remembered symmetry ; and the English form of 



* " Kdl Osolai TEp~i'<i." 



