of undigested matter]; a mazy labyrinth of valuable matter without system or arrangement.

Basis virtutum constantia. Lat.-"Steadiness is the foundation of all virtues."

Bassa. A Turkish title of honor bestowed on governors of provinces and privy-councillors of the Grand Signor, the Sultan, or Sultaun, the sovereign of the Turkish empire, the acknowledged head of the Mohammedan religion.

Bastardus nullius est filius, aut filius populi. Lat. Law maxim. -“A bastard is the son of no man, or the son of the people." A bastard being born out of marriage, his father is not known by the law. He is, therefore, in law as no man's issue, it being regarded as uncertain from whom he is descended.

Baste pour cela. Fr.-"Well and good; well, so be it; mum for

that."

Bastille. Fr.-The name of the castle, fort, citadel, stronghold, fortress, in which state-prisoners used to be confined at Paris, something like the Tower of London.

Bathos. Gr.in Roman letters.-"Profundity, depth." "Philosophy, that sounds all depths, has seldom approached a deeper bathos than the lines we have just quoted."

Batta. Hindostanee.—“Deficiency; discount; allowance." Also, allowance to troops in the field. "In the garrison, troops are allowed half-batta."

Battue. Fr.-"Slaughtering game on a large, gigantic scale." "The preserving of hares and pheasants in large numbers for battues is particularly injurious both to agriculture and to rural morality."

Bavarde. Fr.—A “chatterbox, silly woman, who talks at random, without discretion."

Beati possessores! Lat.-"Happy, lucky, fortunate, blessed, are the possessors, they who are in actual possession [of any thing, right, property, privilege, as possession is nine-tenths of the law]." "Henry VIII. silenced the professors of the Canon Law at the Universities, forbade the granting of degrees in it, and nominated a commission for its reform. But beati possessores! is a maxim of the law. Its masters of the science of defense have always been excellent in their own behalf."

66

Beau désordre. Fr. BOILEAU.-"Beautiful disorder," that sort of lawless disorder in verse-composition which has received the name of dithyrambic," that is to say, "pertaining to, or resembling, hymns sung in honor of BACCHUS [see "Bacchantes"]: wildly enthusiastic, inflated, exaggerated."

Beau idéal. Fr.-The "very pink, or flower; true realization." "The beau idéal of a statesman."

Beau monde. Fr.-The "fashionable world, world of fashion." Beauté et folie vont souvent de compagnie. Fr. prov.-"Beauty and folly often join company.' Fair and sluttish [foolish], black and proud, long and lazy, short and loud.

Bed of justice. This expression is a pure barbarism, into which we have been misled by the French, whose ancient language [the Gaulish, oṛ

D

Celtic] being lost to them, the sense of this expression, "un lit de justice,” among others, is now out of memory; hence that barbarous pleonasm [redundancy, the use of more words to express ideas than are necessary], tenir une lit de justice [as if the lit here were derived from lectus, a bed, instead of loi, loit, lit, law]: to hold a law of justice, or a court of justice, that is, a court leet: not a bed of justice, unless for her taking a nap on it. The ambiguity of the derivation is evident: the deception took its rise from the double construction of the Greek verb 2ɛyw, and the Latin word lectus; heyw, I say, gives origin to lego, I read, legere; whence we have lex, law, because the law is accustomed to be read and studied: the supines of lego are lectum, lectu, and the participle passive lectus: but lectus also signifies a bed, from λɛyw, I lie down, whence we have 2ɛxos, lectus, a bed, or couch: hence the barbarous pleonasm, and hideous ambiguity, are sufficiently manifest and plain.

Bedouins.-Arabs, who constantly live in tents. They wander over the whole of Turkey, Persia, Arabia, Egypt, and Syria. They recognize no government but that of their own sheikh or superior. See "Sheikh." Beef-eaters.-Can any word have degenerated more from the original idea than this now before us? the Queen's beef-eaters! and why not her mutton-eaters too? did our kings at first appoint them only to eat beef at their public entertainments merely for the diversion and amusement of their queens and their courtiers? History informs us that when the jealousies between the houses of York and Lancaster had scarcely subsided at the union of the two Roses under HENRY THE SEVENTH, that suspicious monarch instituted this company of beef-eaters, as his own body-guard, to attend him both abroad and at board, like the ancient dapifers [which see], that is, to go with him abroad, whenever he went from the palace; and to deck his table, and adorn his board, whenever he stayed at home: and even to this day, in their warrants, they are called table-deckers, that is, they were to place all the vessels belonging to the king's board, or were to be his buffetiers [degenerated into beef-eaters], the French term for “side-board attendants, attendants at the side-board."

Begum. A Hindoo lady, princess, woman of high rank.

Bel paese. Ital.—A “beautiful country, sunny land or clime.” Bella femina, che ride, vuol dir borsa, che piange. Ital. prov. -"The smiles of a pretty woman are the tears of the purse." The latter must be drained to insure the continuance of the former.

Bella gerant alii: tu, felix Austria, nube:

Nam quae Mars aliis, dat tibi regna Venus. Lat.

"Let others, other nations, peoples, wage wars: do thou, O happy Austria, wed, think mainly of wedlock, be it thy care to form matrimonial alliances: for, inasmuch as, the kingdoms which MARS gives to others VENUS gives to thee."

66

'Archdeacon Coxe, in the preface to his 'Memoirs of the House of Austria,' compares that House to the Danube of its native mountains, ‘at first an inconsiderable rill, obscurely wandering amidst rocks and precipices. then swelling its volume by the accumulation of tributary streams, carrying plenty and fertility to numerous nations, and finally pouring its mighty waters by a hundred mouths into the Euxine Sea.' The peculiar policy to

which it is principally indebted for its aggrandizement is indicated in the well-known lines

'Bella gerant alii: tu, felix Austria, nube:

Nam quae Mars aliis, dat tibi regna Venus.'

"But it is beside our purpose to state by what alliances, conquests, or treaties the descendants of Rhodolph of Hapsburg contrived to mount the throne of the Caesars, and became possessed of two ancient independent kingdoms, besides archduchies, principalities, countships, and lordships without end. It is enough that the present emperor rules over more than thirty-five millions of subjects of all degrees of civilization and all modes of faith."

Bella, horrida bella. Lat. VIRGIL.-"Wars, horrid wars."

Bella matribus detestata. Lat. HORACE.-"Wars detested by mothers," by orphans, widows, &c., by all, in short, but ambitious ministers, commissaries, contractors, &c..

66

Whose chief delight is blood, and bloody deeds.”

Belle. Fr.-A "handsome, stylish, fashionably dressed lady." The plural is belles. N.B. "The word 'belle,' (says LEMON,) has unluckily given our countrymen an opportunity of inventing one of the most nonsensical hieroglyphics that has ever yet appeared: the French have very properly applied their words 'belle sauvage' to a beautiful wild African woman, and have as properly represented her as having been found in an African wood [if ever found]: but when an English painter would represent this incident, he draws us a beautiful black woman standing near a bell! and to this day there is a noted inn, called the bell savage inn, on Ludgate Hill, which formerly bore that enigmatical sign; but of late the savage has disappeared; and nothing now remains but a large gilded bell in the yard, to amuse us with that significant emblem of beauty: such poor conceits are fit only for a book of heraldry, or a new edition of 'QUARLES'S EMBLEMS.'

Belle parole non pascon i gatti. Ital. prov.-" Fine words don't feed cats." Good words fill not a sack.

Belles conversations à la dérobée. Fr.-" Pleasant, interesting, agreeable, conversations by stealth, stealthily, on the sly.”

Belles-lettres. Fr.-"Polite literature, learning."

Bellum internecinum. Lat.-"A war of extermination, of mutual destruction." A war to be continued until one or other of the contending parties be ruined or exterminated.

Bellum lethale. Lat.-"A deadly war.' The meaning is nearly similar to that of the preceding phrase.

-

"War

Bellum nec timendum, nec provocandum. Lat. PLINY.is neither to be timidly shunned, nor is it to be unjustly provoked." Bellum, pax rursum. Lat. TERENCE and HORACE.-"War, and again peace." Alternate warfare and reconciliation: applied by the authors to the contests between lovers.

Bellum plus quam civile. Lat.-"A war rather more, something more, than a merely civil one."

Bellum punitivum. Lat.-"A penal war, a war having for its object pain and punishment."

Bem sabe o gato cujas barbas lambe. Port. prov.-"The cat well knows whose lips she licks."

Ben' ti voglio. Ital.—“I wish thee well." "I wonder whether any one has ever adopted for a seal the beautiful head of Cardinal Bentivoglio, with the name for a motto, ‘Ben' ti voglio;' the conceit seems too obvious to have escaped notice."

Ben trovato. Ital.—“Well feigned, or invented." "When we are willing to be deceived, there is but small difference between the vero and the ben trovato."

Ben vengas, si vengas solo. Span. prov.-"Thou comest well, if thou comest alone." Spoken of a misfortune.

Bene colligitur haec pueris et mulierculis et servis et servorum simillimis liberis esse grata: gravi vero homini et ea quae fiunt judicio certo ponderanti probari posse nullo modo. Lat. CICERO."It is rightly inferred that these things [frivolities] are pleasing to children, women, and slaves, and even to such freemen as greatly resemble slaves: but can by no means be approved by a man of figure, consideration, and character, and who forms a right judgment, estimate, of things."

Bene est cui Deus obtulit parca, quod satis est, manu. Lat. HORACE. "Happy is the man, on whom the Deity has bestowed with a sparing hand what is sufficient for his wants."

"Oh! happy he whom Heaven hath fed

With frugal, but sufficient, bread.”

See "Auream quisquis, &c.," and "Aurea mediocritas."

Bene est tentare. Lat.-"It is well, as well, to try," any thing that may turn out advantageously, to one's advantage.

Bene exeat. Lat.-"He may depart, take his departure, let him depart, creditably, without any fault attaching to him." "He brought a bene exeat from his last bishop."

Bene facit, qui ex aliorum erroribus sibi exemplum sumat. Lat. PUBLIUS SYRUS.-"Wisely does he act, who, from the errors, mistakes, of others, derives an instructive example for his own peculiar benefit, advantage."

Bene nummatum decorat Suadela, Venusque. Lat. HORACE. "The goddesses of Beauty and Persuasion favor the suit of the rich man: Persuasion and Venus adorn the well-moneyed man." The rich man easily finds flatterers, to style him an eloquent and persuasive speaker, and a pleasing and agreeable companion:

"The goddess of Persuasion forms his train,

And Venus decks the well-bemoneyed swain.”

Bene qui latuit, bene vixit. Lat. OVID.-"Well has he lived, who has passed all his days in the bosom of obscurity :

"He lives not ill, who lives and dies unknown." Compare EPICURUS [the Athenian philosopher], Aadɛ Biwoɑs, “Pass thy days in a state of [comparative] obscurity."

Lat. PLAUTUS.

Bene si amico feceris, ne pigeat fecisse, Ut potius pudeat, si non feceris. you have acted kindly to your friend, do not regret that you have done so, as you should rather be ashamed of having acted otherwise."

"If

Beneficia dare qui nescit, injuste petit. Lat. prov.-"He who knows not how to confer a kindness, must ask for one unjustly."

Beneficia usque eo laeta sunt, dum videntur exsolvi posse; ubi multum antevenere, pro gratia odium redditur. Lat. TACITUS. -"Benefits are so far acceptable, as the receiver thinks he may make an adequate return; but, once exceeding that, hatred is returned instead of thanks." A man hates to be indebted for a favor which he knows he cannot repay.

Bénéficiaire. Fr.-"One who has a benefit at a theater."

Beneficium accipere libertatem vendere est. Lat. LABERIUS. —“To receive a benefit is to sell your liberty." This is a phrase very often used; it is, however, but partially and circumstantially just. The sense of obligation is, however, not rarely a painful tie on the feeling mind.

Benigno numine. Lat.-"By the favor of Providence."

Benignus etiam dandi causam cogitat. Lat. prov.-"Even the benevolent man reflects on the cause of giving." There is but little merit in inconsiderate bounty.

Bête. Fr.-A "silly, foolish, stupid creature, a dolt, blockhead." Bête noire. Fr.-Literally, "black beast," but often used to signify a person who is one's aversion. "He was long their idol, but is now their bête noire." N.B. "Bêtes noires" means black game, or wild beasts of a dark color.

Bêtise. Fr.-A "piece of nonsense, nonsense."

Bey.-A Turkish title of nobility.

Bibliomania. From the Greek.—“A rage for possessing books, book-madness."

Bibliomaniacs. From the Greek.-"Persons who are book-mad, mad for the possession of books."

Bien-aimé. Fr.-The "Beloved, well-loved." An epithet applied at one period of his life to LEWIS THE FIFTEENTH of France.

Bien attaqué, bien défendu. Fr. prov.-"Set a thief to catch a thief; they are well matched.”

Bien perdu, bien connu. Fr. prov.-"Once lost, then prized." The worth of a thing is best known by the want. Compare SHAKSPEARE:— "That which we have we prize not to the worth While we enjoy it; but being lacked and lost, Why then we rack the value; then we find The virtue that possession would not give us."

Bien vengas, mal, si vienes solo. Span. prov.—“Welcome, mischief, if thou comest alone."

Biendar sin cuyo freno el hombre se queda a solas con su naturaleza. Sp. SOLIS.-[The curb of moral and religious discipline] "those reins, without whose restraint man is left all alone with his nature."' Bienséances. Fr.-The “decencies, proprieties, of life.”

Bigarrer ses ouvrages de citations. Fr.-"To belard, interlard, one's work with quotations."

Billet-doux. Fr.-A "love-letter."

Billet d'état. Fr.-"Government paper, bank-notes."

Bis dat, qui cito dat. Lat. prov.-"He gives twice who gives soon." He who gives at once, and without any fuss, in a great measure