CHAPTEE XXII. 

 OPSOPHAGY (continued).. 



Parasites. 



Oil ! your parasite 

 Is a most gracious thing dropt from above, 

 Not bred 'mongst clods and clodpoUs here on eartk ; 

 I muse the mystery was not more a science, 

 It is so liberally professt. — JBen Jonson. 



Most smiling, smooth, detested parasites. 

 Courteous destroyers, affable wolves, meek bears, 

 You fools of fortune. — SJiakspeare. 



SX^^°Sev Se 01 rjv rmpdaiTOS 

 Xaipf^oav, ireivavTi \apto opviBi ioiKas 

 ^rjarrjs, aXKorpimv ev elScas beiirvocrvvdav. 



Mat. parod. 



THE word parasite is now associated in the mind with 

 objects only vile or mean ; the lowest plants^ the 

 most revolting species of insects^ and the most despi- 

 cable characters possess this name in common ; yet the 

 word originally was so far from conveying a slur, or 

 being a term of reproach, that a Greek gentleman might 

 have been prond to affix it to his card, as a badge of 

 honour and distinction. In correspondence with the re- 

 spectability of the title, the first parasites, like the first 

 Jesuits, were ' time-servers' in a good sense,* and ' all ho- 



* The word time-server, scarce two centuries back, was used in 

 a good sense, says Trench in his charming little work on the use 

 of words, as a man who serves the times, accommodating himself 

 to them, not them to himself. 



