Kissing goes by favour.-This proverb is a reflection upon partiality, where particular marks of kindness and bounty are bestowed on persons who are favourites, whether they deserve it, or not; while persons more meritorious are neglected. But thus it will be, where persons are led more by humour than by judgment.

"To have respect of persons is not good." Prov. xxviii. 21.

A shoemaker must not go beyond his last.-The moral instruction of this proverb is, that persons, though skilful in their own art, ought not to meddle with things beyond it, nor presume to correct what they do not understand. It is a translation of the Latin, Ne sutor ultra crepidam, which took its rise from a story of the celebrated painter, Apelles, who, having drawn a famous piece, and exposed it to public view, a cobbler passed by, and found fault with it, because he made too few latchets to the galoshes. Apelles amended it accordingly, and set it out again. The next day, the cobbler visiting him, found fault with the whole leg; upon which Apelles came out, and said—" Cobbler, go home, and keep to your last."

6

6.66

Every fool will be meddling." Prov. xx. 3.

If you trust before you try,-You may repent before you die.This proverbial distich presents a good lesson of caution and circumspection, not to choose a friend rashly, or make persons our confidants, by entrusting them with our secrets and private concerns, before we have proved their integrity. It is also a good caution against making a purchase upon the representations of others, without ascertaining whethe the things are equal in value to that which is given for them.

"Take ye heed every one of his neighbour, and trust ye not in any brother." Jer. ix. 4.

The younger brother the better gentleman.-This proverb is designed to correct the notion, that wealth makes the gentleman, it being the custom in England for the elder brother to inherit the whole patrimony. It not unfrequently happens, that the elder brother, depending upon his estate, gives himself up to indolence and extravagance, while the younger, having no inheritance to depend on, raises himself by application and industry to a conspicuous pitch of honour and independence, and so become the better gentleman.'

ART. XVI.

The Song of the Patriot, Sonnets, and Songs, by Robert Millhouse. 18mo. pp. 80. London. Hunter. 1826. EVER since the appearance of Robert Burns, reviewers have deemed it their duty to encourage, by all the means in their power, the efforts of those who may, without offence, be called the poets of humble life. One is surprised to find in men of manual occupations a beauty of allusion and a felicity of diction greatly beyond the usual routine of their station, and the impulse arising from this feeling leads one frequently to extravagant praise, and unbounded admiration. So far as the reader is concerned, it is of little consequence whether his judgment be accurate or erroneous, but, to the writer the opinions of others are of the most serious importance. For if they be of a flattering description, it is ten to one that he does not become disgusted with his trade, and that he does not throw himself en

tirely upon that more agreable resource which has gained him so much fame, and, most probably, very little profit. Some twenty or thirty subscribers are quite sufficient to turn any poor poet's head, but are very far from the number who can ensure him any thing like a sufficient remuneration for his labours-if remuneration be his object. His case is still

worse, where expectations of a pecuniary return form his principal hope of subsistence, as in the instance before us, and we should take shame to ourselves if, from any morbid sensibility, we were led to foster that hope, feeling, in our own minds, that it must necessarily lead only to disappointment.

It would be unjust to deny that in the Patriot's Song, and in the sonnets and songs by which it is followed, there is a happiness of expression, and a flow of verse, which we were not prepared to expect from a poor weaver. But it would be cruel, and still more unjust, towards the author, if we endeavoured to confirm the favourable criticisms which the indulgent spirit of other reviewers has permitted them to pronounce upon his productions. We cannot promise him immortality as some of our contemporaries have done; we cannot flatter him with the hope that he will be raised from his laborious trade to independence by the inspirations of his muse. If, indeed, he derives gratification from the manufacture of verses, at the same time that he is employed in the usual routine of his business, it would be the extreme of barbarity to deprive him of so innocent a recreation. But if he looks forward to any other result, than that of the pleasure which he may receive from the employment of his imagination, we apprehend that he is to be classed amongst those who are fond of " building castles in Spain." That we may not be accused of rashly hazarding an opinion, we shall place before the reader three or four stanzas, taken from the commencement of The Song of the Patriot.'

'Yet, yet again, thou solitary lyre,

Again I touch thy long neglected strings;

Nor shall thy notes o'er homely themes aspire
To treat of dark abstruse imaginings:
O! may the gentle sweep of fairy wings

Brush o'er thee, and inspire a kindly mood

To sing of dear, of captivating things.

Companion sweet! thou hadst been better woo'd,

But that thou'rt luckless fall'n to one of accents rude.

'Since that relentless Time brooks no control,
But calmly winds his unresisted stream;
Smiling, in scorn, to see our seasons roll

In idle projects and a waking dream :
Oh! it were wisdom to arrest the beam
Of manhood's sun, ere evening damps arise,
And from Oblivion's idiot clutch redeem
A few short hours for noble enterprise:

'Tis all that we can do,-no more can do the wise.
'And yet 'tis difficult for little men
To raise their feeble pigmy heads so high,
As to attract the glance of passing ken
Where giant shoulders intercept the sky

And ah! 'tis difficult for such as I,

To wake fit strains where mighty minstrels sing;
Perhaps, even this, shall but be born and die;

Not fated to enjoy a second spring,

But, like some hawk-struck bird, expire on new-fledg'd wing.

Away Despair! some monitor, unseen,

Calls for the song,—the call shall be obey'd;

For 'tis that silent monitor, I ween,

Which led my youth to many a green-wood shade;
Show'd me the spring, in thousand blooms array'd,
And bade me look towards heaven's immensity:
This is a power that schoolmen never made,
That comes all unsolicited and free,

To fire the youthful bard-lo! this is Poesy !'-pp. 3—5.

ART. XVII. Etymons of English Words. By the late John Thomson, M. R. I. and A. S., &c. 4to. 188. Edinburgh: Oliver and Boyd. London: Longman and Co. 1826.

THE plan of this work, we are told, 'is studiously concise: being intended rather as an index than a glossary.' Nevertheless, the author has contrived to embrace in it the etymons of a very considerable number of words, the derivations of which are, in general little known, except to the learned. We are not among those who are disposed to depreciate studies of this nature, which, besides that they have in them a great deal more of fascination than the uninitiated can imagine, enable us also to express our ideas in language exactly suited to their meaning, and to avoid those tautologies which are the surest indications of an uneducated speaker or writer.

The labour attending the compilation of such a work as that before us is incredible-the reward not even fame, much less pecuniary compensation, for no bookseller could afford to pay such an etymologist as the late Mr. Thomson for the ten thousandth part of the industry and acquirements which he bestowed on this work. We are glad to observe that the index of Vereleus, which contains nearly all the Gothic roots employed in English, has also been prepared for publication; it will form an excellent accompaniment to the present volume, for those who wish to inquire deeply into the subject.

Mr. Thomson considered the English language as derived from the Gothic and Celtic, chiefly through the Anglo-Saxon and French dialects. In tracing the origin of its words, one may form some idea of the difficulty of his task, when it is known that the Welsh, the Irish, and the Gallic Celts, were remarkable for their variable pronunciation and mutation of letters. 'The Latin verbum, as our author states, was with them (the Gallic Celts) berf, werv, which the Welsh converted into gwerv, geirb, and gair; while barba, the beard, was barf, varef, barv, paru, warf; the Gascons were Vascons, Wassones, Bascons, and Biscayans.' We may observe that our French neighbours have not at all degenerated in this faculty of transmuting words and names in the most surprizing manner. It was but a day or two ago that in one of their best reviews (Revue En

cyclopedique) we found the name of Sir Andrew Halliday, author of the Annals of the House of Hanover, changed by a stroke of the pen into Mr. Andrew Holliday-thus turning the worthy knight into a festival, and, at the same time, divesting him of his title. A still greater liberty was taken by a certain Fanny Seymour, in the same review, with Mr. Milman's Fazio, which she, or at least her printer, converted, ludicrously enough, into Foxio!

We shall enable the reader to judge of the extent of Mr. Thomson's labours, by selecting two or three of his illustrations.

'Chess, s. an intricate game; Sans. and Hind. chaturanga, the four bodies; A. and P. shatranj; G. skack; Swed. skak, schak; T. schach ; B. skaak; It. scacco; F. echecs. In Europe it seems to have been confounded with A. shekh; P. shah; Sp. xeque, a king, a chief, because the issue of the game depends on a piece so called in the east. The expression check to the king, in this sense, is tautology, as shekh alone sufficiently intimates that he is in jeopardy; and, if he cannot be rescued, A. shekh mat, the king dead; P. shah mat, the king confounded, terminates the contest. Sans, and Hind. chuok is a square or check, from chuo, four; chuok pourna, to make squares. As four with them is used like our decimal, it would seem that this game may have originated in numerical calculations on the Abacus, which, according to the Lord Chancellor's arms and the brewers' signs, contained similar squares, connected evidently with our words exchequer and check in most of their significations.'

The letters A, P, G, T, B, It, F, in this explanation, are abbreviations for Arabic, Persian, Gothic, Teutonic, Belgic, Italian, and French. The author has been at a good deal of pains to give the probable derivations of the favourite word cockney.

'Cockney, s. a citizen of Londou; G. kauptona, an emporium; T. kautney, kotheney, an exchange; Arm. couchine; L. cocio, cocionis, a merchant. The nobility and their vassals, despising the citizens for their ignorance of country life, may have connected the word cockney with gawken, a coxcomb, a jack sprat, as baudet was applied to a Parisian by the gentry of France; but cockagney may have denoted the good fare of the city."

All these derivations seem too elaborate except the latter one; we protest particularly against the Armoric root couchine, though we admit the force of the Latin Cocio. But we toss them all overboard for cockagney, which comes immediately from cockaign, signifying abundance, jollity, pleasure, joy; though our author rather maliciously suggests also that it may have proceeded from the old English word to cogge, which means that sort of flattery so prodigally bestowed on customers from behind a counter. Turning over a few pages we light on that oft-abused thing called a dandy. 'Dandy, s. a beau, an elegant accomplished man, a pink of fashion; G. dugandi; Swed. dogande, dande; Scot. dandie, from G. duga; T. taugen, to avail, to excel.'

Had it not been unfashionable to bet, at least upon a small scale, we would wager a pint of old port that not one man in a thousand knows what sack-the celebrated beverage of Sir John Falstaff-really was. Mr. Thomson certainly supplies the proper derivation of the word and of the wine too.

A sweet wine now called Canary, but formerly produced at Xeque in Morocco. A sweet wine was formerly made in England from a raisin or dried grape, called seco in Spain, and thence named sack.'

If the reader will take the trouble of going to Spain he will find there, particularly at Port St. Mary's, near Cadiz, the seco in its glory. We recommend him to "The Three Kings," where also he may dine on the most delicious fish in the world, taken just fresh from the neighbouring bay.

ART. XVIII. Biographical Sketches of British Characters, recently deceased: commencing with the accession of George the Fourth: with a list of their engraved Portraits. By William Miller. 2 Vols., 4to. 31. 38. London. Colburn. 1826.

If it be true that only a few copies of this work have been printed, the public have scarcely any right to complain of the expensive manner in which it has been got up. It must have been intended exclusively for the limited number of persons who are smitten, like our author, with the love of collecting and illustrating engraved portraits, and we presume that it is perfectly well calculated to accomplish every object which that idle and opulent tribe may have in view. It sets forth the dates of the birth and decease of two hundred and thirty persons, whose claims to Mr. Miller's attention have arisen from the mere circumstance that at one time or another their portraits have been engraved. It is obvious that this title to distinction is, in a great measure, accidental; in some few cases it springs out of the possession of superior talents, but, in the great majority of cases, it proceeds from the vanity of the individuals, or the flattering estimation of their friends. Accordingly, we find in this collection a copious medley of biographical subjects, not one out of twenty of whom have, during their lives, performed a single action that deserves to be rembered. It must, indeed, be admitted that merit was not our author's standard; he had scarcely any discretion in his choice, as it was his business to follow the engraver, and tell all he knew, or could learn, of the portrait under his consideration. Looking at his task in this light, we must allow that it is executed, generally speaking, in a pleasant manner. His 'scraps,' as he modestly and properly calls them, contain almost as much as a lounger looking over a portfolio collection of portraits would feel any disposition to know about the originals.

We might have wished that Mr. Miller, who, as he has retired from the labyrinths of trade, might safely assume a tone of independence,had been less uniformly a courtier in his remarks upon public characters. He talks a great deal about loyalty and patriotism, which he imagines only can be found in a high church tory. But this we suppose was his language when in business-and he must be consistent. It is ludicrous enough to hear such a person attempt to give a character of Lord Erskine!