NIMROD'S NORTHERN TOUR. 15 



shoving-, them along, when he is going, fast enough for any thing, and is, 

 I beheve, an old and favoured servant of the Bull and Mouth vard. 



A pleasant companion is said to shorten the road, and as I was booked 

 to Newcastle, nothing could have been more desirable on so long a 

 journey. In fact, when I get upon a coach, I always endeavour to find 

 the '' comes jucundus," which the facetious Publius Syrus says, is as 

 good as a coach itself*. On this occasion, however, he was not to be 

 found, so Penny and myself had it all to ourselves. Of course we got 

 upon the Basingstoke road, on which we had both been at work, and of 

 course Jack Peer and the Nimrod coach were not omitted in our dis- 

 course. Here, hovv'ever, Horace's excellent advice, not only of *' Quid 

 de quoque viro," but also of ^' et an dicasj' would have been useful to 

 my brother whip, for nearly every word he uttered respecting Peer's 

 reason for quitting the Southampton Telegraph — as likewise of the in- 

 ducements held out to him to return to it, was false. But I do not 

 blame Penny for all the lies he told me on this subject, for they were 

 the lies of others, at second hand, he having swallowed all he had heard ; 

 and I think it is Doctor Watts, in his Logic, who makes the nice distinction 

 between telling a man he is telling an untruth, and unceremoniously 

 telling him he lies. The one only conveys to him the naked idea of his 

 error, which the Doctor terms the '' primary idea ;" but the word lie 

 carries a secondary idea ; for it implies both the falsehood of the speech, 

 and the reproach and censure of the speaker. However, I affected to 

 believe all I heard, and though we parted without being further known 

 to each other, I tipp'd Penny an extra shilling for old acquaintance sake. 



* " Comes jucundus in via pro vehiculo est." A pleasant companion is as good 

 as a coacht 



