152 ON ERRATA RECEPTA. 



Hi]), the thrice-repeated exclamation which precedes the cheer of 

 onset or yictory, is Hietosolyma est perdita ! and should on this 

 supposition be Hep ! It was the cry heard in German cities when 

 the unfortunate Jewish quarter was to he assailed. News has been 

 derived, scarcely in earnest, it is to be imagined, from the initials of 

 the four " airts," N, E, "W, S. Like Abecedarian, or the Abcdarium 

 'Natures of Lord Bacon, Elementa has been said to be composed of 

 L, M, N, the letters whose sounds seem to be heard in the word. 

 The cabinet of Charles IL (1670) was, in no amiable m.ood, branded 

 as the Cabal, from the initials of its five members, Clifford, Ashley, 

 Buckingham, Arlington, and Lauderdale. Cabaler, in French, sig- 

 nifying to intrigue, existed long before, and doubtless suggested the 

 mot. This party-term of 1670 has rendered the Hebrew word for 

 occult science familiar tt) English ears. The absurd expression 

 " Teetotalism," is, I think, connected with the well known little toy, 

 in which the letter T denoted totum, and signified " Take-all." By 

 a process the reverse of that indicated above, the abbreviation IH2, 

 has been, in an age unfamiliar with Greek, resolved into initials, and 

 interpreted accordingly. 



Abbreviated, however, though many of our words are, the English 

 language abhors outward signs of curtailment. We repudiate to the 

 greatest possible extent the apostrophe and the circumflex. We like 

 to have our lines look staid and unbroken. In this respect a page of 

 English resembles a page of Latin. There is a solid, sensible air 

 about them both. A page of French or of Greek will exhibit a suc- 

 cession of elisions duly notified, and the words generally, besides, 

 appear to he in a state of flurry and effervescence with accents and 

 other little diacritical touches — 



" As thick and numberless 

 As the gay motes that people the sunbeam." 



We dot our i's and cross our t's, simply to distinguish them from 

 similar parts of other letters. This is the only weakness in which we 

 indulge. We dismiss even from poetry elisions and contractions which 

 Shakspeare and Dryden considered not at all ungraceful. We tolerate 

 "t'other" for "the other," "on't" for "on it," "'em" for "them," 

 only in Humorous Verse. How compact and unfrivolous the pages 

 of Tennyson look ! Even the unpronounced -ed is left to be discovered 

 by the ear of the reader. Notes of exclamation are suppressed. 



"Doeth" has become "doth;" "do on," "don;" "do ofl;" 



