Dean Ramsay tells a story of an encounter between rival wits, on one occasion; where the unexpected' certainly brought off the defendant as winner. Young Scotland is excusing himself to his meenister for absence from kirk, by alleging a dislike, that he has, to long sermons; Deed 6 man, ye may land yourself where ye'll never be troubled wi sermons lang or short!' 'Weel, perhaps so, Doctor, but it'll no be for want o' meenisters!' Scant-o'-grace thinks a' preaching' lang. To take rather another class, it must be confessed that now a day Telegrams are some times responsible for ambiguous sayings, as that M. P., so soon unseated, is said to have found to his cost. He telegraphed to his agent, I'll come down 5 p.m. His agent at once distributed £5 per man! with results, on a Petition, that may easily be imagined. Among Ambiguous sayings, I am inclined to think that Riddles, and certainly Enigmas, have also a right to be included. Take perhaps the oldest. "Out of the Eater came forth meat, and out of the Strong came forth sweetness." Judges xiv, 14. How apposite is the basely gained but well put answer of the Philistines! "What is sweeter than honey? And what is stronger than a lion ?" Again, let me commemorate that classical enigma of great antiquity, which is reported to have procured the Theban Sphinx many a dinner ? 'What is that animal which in the morning goes on four legs, on two legs at noon, and on three in the evening?' It was really very well contrived. How annoyed she must have felt at the arrival of Oedipus ! The following lines partake somewhat of the same character; and, without the key, are sufficiently puzzling. She walked on earth, she talked on earth, Reproving man for sin; She's not on earth, she's not in heaven, Dean Swift on the Vowels, and Lord Byron on the letter H, are too well known to bear quoting; but four others shall be mentioned. The highest gift of Heaven to man, When all its wondrous works we scan: The lover's gift, the poet's song, Which art makes short, and nature long! Two of these are by Canning and Cowper respectively, and both refer, in different ways, to the same thing. A noun there is, of plural number, And sweet, what bitter was before! I am just two and two, I am warm, I am cold, I am often sold dear, good for nothing when bought. Cut off my head, the singular I act, Thus far I have written of Ambiguous sayings. A more serious consideration is the vastly increasing misuse that is now being made of perfectly plain declarations, which are often twisted into meanings which their originators never dreamed of. A book might be filled with wrested texts' out of scripture. Many modern expressions are no less woefully misrepresented. "O Liberty! cried poor Madame Roland" What crimes have been committed in thy name!" How often 'Licence they mean, when liberty they cry '-Milton. What has been the working out of that once famous French manifesto, Liberté, Egualité, Fraternité? A very fine sounding expression, but what did it come to under the Empire? Infanterie, Cavalerie, Artillerie! And, of late under the Commune ? Liberty-to do evil! Equality-in misery! Fraternity-Such as that of Cain with his brother! Lastly, let the letters of the alphabet have their innings. It has often been an exercise to the male mind what it is that the ladies talk of after dinner? one of themselves has lately revealed it. One of themselves has lately revealed it. It is the 3 Ds! Domestics, Diseases, and not least, Dress! It would be cruelty to quote at length the 3 Rs of the facetious Alderman. The 3 Ks are less known; would they were as widely promulgated. King, Country, Constitution! That old Jacobite toast has now been long happily forgotten. The King! (over the water)!' Put into a rhyming form it used to run in this fashion. L God bless the King! God bless the Faith's Defender; God bless us all, is quite another thing!-Dr. Byron. Let us trust that King Mob, who is now 'that Pretender,' spite of all ominous signs, may be no more successful than the exiled Stuarts were. are not to be desired, 'Many Masters' There is no tyranny like the tyranny of a Democracy.—Aristotle. King Mob is a cruel and many headed monster. They are words of highest wisdom and chiefest authority, "My Son fear thou the LORD and the King, And meddle not with them that are given to change!" Prov. xxiv, 22. PERNICIOUS PROVERBS. All proverbs are not pious proverbs,' says good Matthew Henry. All hoods make not monks.-Shakespear. Votes should be weighed as well as counted, and sayings sifted before they are accepted. Proverbs there are, which both in principle and expression are positively bad. My object in the present chapter is to warn against such, selecting some few by way of example. And it is the more necessary for, as some rustics used to think a thing must be true that is written in a book, 'A book's a book altho' there's nothing in't!' so there are good people who give in at once on being plied with a proverb. It is with no small satisfaction, therefore, that I see the Daily Jupiter from time to time laying hold of a fallacy of this kind, very much in the manner that an experienced terrier snaps up a rat, and scrunching it up with no less speedy certainty. To take an instance, how many impertinences, as every one who has anything to give knows but too well,—are daily prefaced with that plea, "There is no harm is asking' Which, as the Times remarks, is foolish of excuses. There is always about the most harm in what is weak, or unreasonable, or certain to be unsuccessful!' Though a question may not be indiscreet, an answer would be.Sir S. Northcote, 1874. Again, there are other cases in which proverbs are unfairly put, and the truth so distorted, as to produce a |