38 



AUTHORS. 



to stand -while that part of the mu- ' 

 sic is performing. Some days after 

 the first exhibition of the same di- 

 vine oratorio, Mr. Handel came to 

 pay his respects to Lord Kinnoul, 

 with whom he was particularly ac- 

 quainted. His Lordship, as was 

 natural, paid him some compliments 

 on the noble entertainment which 

 he had lately given the town. "My 

 Lord," said Handel, "I should be 

 sorry if I only entertained them ; I 

 wish to make them better." These 

 two anecdotes I had from Lord 

 Kinnoul himself. You will agree 

 with me, that the first does great 

 honour to Handel, to music, and to 

 the English nation : the second tends 

 to confirm my theory, and Sir John 

 Hawkins' testimony, that Handel, 

 in spite of all that has been said to 

 the contrary, must have been a 

 pious man. (Dr. Beattie to Rev. 

 Dr. Laing.) 



ETYMOLOGY HOAX. 



This word is now very common 

 in our language. Dr. Johnson has 

 not introduced it into his Dictionary, 

 although it was employed long be- 

 fore his time, but disguised by its 

 orthography. In Richard Head's 

 Art of Wheedling, 12mo, 1634, p. 254 

 it is 'thus used "The mercer cries, 

 Was ever a man so hocus'd ?" So 

 that hoax, or, as it was originally 

 written, hocus, is any species of dex- 

 terous imposition similar to the 

 tricks of the juggler, whose art was 

 termed hocus pocus, which is gene- 

 rally admitted to be a corruption of 

 Hoc est corpus. 



MACniAVEL AND OLD NICK. 



As cunning as Old Nick, and as 

 wicked as Old Nick, were originally 

 meant of our Nicolas Machiavel ; 

 and so came afterwards to be per- 

 verted to the devil. (Dr. Cocchi, 

 Florence.) 



Machiavel has been generally 

 called so wicked from people mis- 

 taking the design of his writings. 



In his "Prince," his design, at bot- 

 tom, was to make a despotic go- 

 vernment odious. "A despotic 

 prince," he says, "to secure himself, 

 must kill such and such people." 

 He must so ; and therefore no wi> o 

 people would suffer such a prince. 

 This is the natural consequence ; 

 and not that Machiavel seriously 

 advises princes to be wicked. (Dr. 

 Cocchi, Florence.) 



ORIGIN OF BUMPER. 



"When the English were good 

 Catholics, they usually drank the 

 Pope's health in a full glass, every 

 day after dinner au bon pere: 

 whence your word bumper. (Dr. 

 Cocchi, Florence.) 



IN HOC SIGNO VINCES. 



When Henry the Fourth of 

 France was reconciled to the church 

 of Rome, it was expected that he 

 should give some remarkable testi- 

 monial of his sincerity in returning 

 to the true faith. He accordingly 

 ordered a cross to be erected at 

 Rome, near the church of Santa 

 Maria Maggiore, with this inscrip- 

 tion, In hoc signo vinces, on the 

 principal part of it. This passed 

 at first as very Catholic, till it was 

 observed that the part in which the 

 inscription is put is shaped in the 

 form of a cannon, and that he had 

 really attributed only to his artil- 

 lery what they had taken to be ad- 

 dressed to heaven. (Ficaroni.) 



FILICAIA'S SONNETS. 

 Filicaia, in his sonnets, makes use 

 of many expressions borrowed from 

 the Psalms, and consequently not 

 generally understood among us. A 

 gentleman of Florence, on reading 

 some of the passages in him, which 

 were literally taken from David, 

 cried out, " O ! are you there again 

 with your barbarisms ]" and thing 

 away "the book, as not worth his 

 reading. (Crudeli of Florence.) 



