III. THE DABCHICKS. I 8 I 



atmosphere of th^ common cafes and gambling- 

 houses of European festivity, infecting every 

 ' condition of what they call ' ^sthesis/ left in 

 the bodies of men, until they cannot be happy 

 with the pines and pansies of the Alps, until 

 they have mixed tobacco smoke with the scent 

 of them ; and the whole concluding in the 

 endurance — or even enjoyment — of the most 

 sc^ualid conditions of filth in our capital cities, 

 that have ever been yet recorded, among the 

 disgraces of mankind. 



135. But, thirdly, Johnson's central quota- 

 tion is again from ' Measure for Measure ' : — 



" He spoke scurvy and pyovokiiig terms against 

 your honour." 



The debates in the English House of Com- 

 mons, for the last half-century, having consisted 

 virtually of nothing else ! 



I next take the word ' lout,' of which Johnson 

 gives two derivations for our choice : it is 

 either the past participle of * to lower, or make 

 low ; ' a lowed person, (as our House of 

 Lords under the direction of railway com- 

 panies and public-house keepers) ; or else — 

 and more strictly I believe in etymology — a 

 form of the Gcrnian 'leute,' 'common people.' 



