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Arm-chair. I love it-I love it, and who shall dare
To chide me for loving that old ARM-CHAIR!

ELIZA COOK, The Old Arm- Chair.

A-roving. So we'll go no more A-ROVING
So late into the night.-BYRON, So we'll go.
Art.-ART may err, but Nature cannot miss.

DRYDEN, The Cock and Fox.

ART is long, and time is fleeting,
And our hearts though stout and brave,
Still, like muffled drums, are beating
Funeral marches to the grave.

LONGFELLOW, A Psalm of Life.

Artful Dodger.-A sobriquet of one of the characters in Dickens's "Oliver Twist." He is a young thief, and an adept in villainy. Ashes.—ASHES to ASHES.-Common Prayer.

ASHES to ASHES, dust to dust;
He is gone who seem'd so great.-
Gone; but nothing can bereave him
Of the force he made his own,
Being here, and we believe him
Something far advanced in State,
And that he wears a truer crown

Than any wreath that man can weave him.
Speak no more of his renown,

Lay your earthly fancies down,

And in the vast cathedral leave him,
God accept him, Christ receive him.

TENNYSON, Ode on the Duke of Wellington. Asmodeus. [Heb. Ashmedai, the destroyer.] In the Jewish demonology, an evil spirit, the demon of vanity, or dress, called in the Talmud "king of the devils," whence some assume him to be identical with Beelzebub, and others with Azrael. In modern times, he has been jocularly spoken of as the destroying demon of matrimonial happiness.

Could the reader take an ASMODEUS' flight, and, waving open all roofs and privacies, look down from the roof of Notre Dame, what a Paris were it!-CARLYLE.

Aspect.

With grave
ASPECT he rose, and in his rising seemed
A pillar of state; deep on his front engraven
Deliberation sat, and public care;

And princely counsel in his face yet shone,
Majestic though in ruin. Sage he stood,

With Atlantean shoulders, fit to bear

The weight of mightiest monarchies; his look

Drew audience and attention still as night

Or summer's noontide air.-MILTON, Paradise Lost.

.

Ass.—Egregiously an ASS.—SHAKESPERE, Othello.

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O that he were here to write me down, an ASS!

Ibid., Much Ado.

Assurance. I'll make ASSURANCE double sure,
And take a bond of Fate.-Ibid., Macbeth.
Assyrian. The ASSYRIAN came down like the wolf on the fold,
And his cohorts were gleaming in purple and gold.
BYRON, Destruction of Sennacherib.

Astronomer.-An undevout ASTRONOMER is mad.

YOUNG, Night Thoughts.

Atheist.-An ATHEIST's laugh's a poor exchange
For Deity offended!-BURNS, To a Young Friend.
By night an ATHEIST half believes a God.

YOUNG, Night Thoughts.

Athens.-ATHENS, the eye of Greece, mother of arts
And eloquence.-MILTON, Paradise Regained.

Atticus.-Who but must laugh, if such a man there be?

Who would not weep, if ATTICUS were he ?-POPE, To Arbuthnot.

Auburn.-Sweet AUBURN! loveliest village of the plain.

GOLDSMITH, The Deserted Village.

Audience. Still govern thou my song,
Urania, and fit AUDIENCE find, though few.

MILTON, Paradise Lost.

Augean Stable.-Corruption or pollution of long standing. Augeas, King of Elis, had a stable large enough to contain three thousand oxen, which had not been cleaned for many years. He hired Hercules to clean it out in one day, which he accomplished by turning the river Alpheus through it.

Author.-An AUTHOR! 'Tis a venerable name!

How few deserve it, and what numbers claim!
Unblest with sense above their peers refin'd,
Who shall stand up, dictators to mankind?
Nay, who dare shine, if not in virtue's cause?
That sole proprietor of just applause.

YOUNG, Night Thoughts.

Most AUTHORS steal their works, or buy;
Garth did not write his own Dispensary.

POPE, Essay on Criticism.

Choose an AUTHOR as you choose a friend.

Awake.-AWAKE, arise, or be for ever fallen!

Earl of ROSCOMMON.

MILTON, Paradise Lost.

Axe. When I see a merchant over-polite to his customers, begging them to taste a little brandy, and throwing half his goods on the counter, thinks I, that man has an AXE to grind.-C. MINER, Who'll turn Grindstones?

No hammers fell, no ponderous AXES rung;
Like some tall palm the mystic fabric sprung.
Majestic silence!-HEBER'S Palestine.

No man saw the building of the New Jerusalem, the workmen crowded together, the unfinished walls and unpaved streets; no man heard the clink of trowel and PICK-AXE; it descended OUT OF HEAVEN FROM GOD.-Ecce Homo, last sentence.

B.

Babe.--Oh! when a Mother meets on high
The BABE she lost in infancy,
Hath she not then, for pains and fears,
The day of woe, the watchful night,
For all her sorrow, all her tears,

An over-payment of delight?-SOUTHEY, Curse of Kehama.

Back.--BACK and side go bare, go bare,

Both foot and hand go cold;

But, belly, God send thee good ale enough,

Whether it be new or old.-STILL, Gammer Gurton.

Bacon.-If parts allure thee, think how BACON shin'd,
The wisest, brightest, meanest of mankind!
Or, ravish'd with the whistling of a name,
See Cromwell, damn'd to everlasting fame!

POPE, Essay on Man.

Baited. His hook he BAITED with a dragon's tail,
And sat upon a rock, and bobbed for whale.

WILLIAM KING.

Ballad-mongers.—I had rather be a kitten and cry mew,
Than one of these same metre BALLAD-MONGERS.

SHAKESPERE, Henry IV.

Ballads.-BALLADS are the gipsy children of song, born under green hedge-rows, in the leafy lanes and by-paths of literature, in the genial summer-time.-LONGFELLOW.

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I knew a very wise man that believed that, if a man were permitted to make all the BALLADS, he need not care who should make the laws of a nation.

FLETCHER OF SALTOUN, Letter to Montrose.

Ballads. And tell prose writers, stories are so stale,
That penny BALLADS have a better sale.

BRETON, Pasquil, 1600.

Ballot-box.-A weapon that comes down as still

As snow-flakes fall upon the sod;
But executes a freeman's will,
As lightning does the will of God;

And from its force, nor doors nor locks

Can shield you;-'tis the BALLOT-BOX.—J. PIERPONT. Bank. I know a BANK whereon the wild thyme blows, Where oxlips and the nodding violet grows.

SHAKESPERE, Midsummer Night's Dream.

Barbarians.-There were his young BARBARIANS all at play,
There was their Dacian mother, -he, their sire,

Butcher'd to make a Roman holiday.-BYRON, Childe Harold. Barebones Parliament.-A nickname conferred upon the PARLIAMENT convened by Cromwell, July 4, 1653. It was composed of 139 persons, who resigned their authority Dec. 12, 1653; and it was so called from a leather-seller named Praise-God BAREBONE, who was one of the principal members.

Scotland, a jocular name for
Sir John is the subject of a
In a whimsical English tract

Barleycorn, Sir John.-In England and ale or beer, which is made of barley. famous old ballad of the same name. of ancient date, entitled "The Arraigning and Indicting of SIR JOHN BARLEYCORN, Knt.," he is described as of "noble blood, well beloved in England, a great supporter of the crown, and a maintainer of both rich and poor.'

Inspiring bold JOHN BARLEYCORN,
What dangers thou canst make us scorn!
Wi' tippenny we fear nae evil;

Wi' usquebae we'll face the devil!-BURNS.

JOHN BARLEYCORN has given his very heart to this liquor [the "Archdeacon "]: it is a superior kind of ale, the Prince of Ales, with a richer flavour and a mightier spirit than you can find elsewhere in this weary world.-HAWTHORNE.

Barren.-I pity the man who can travel from Dan to Beersheba, and cry, 'Tis all BARREN.-STERNE, Sentimental Journey.

Bashfulness.-BASHFULNESS is an ornament to youth, but a reproach to old age.-ARISTOTLE.

Bastion. And topples round the dreary west

A looming BASTION fringed with fire.

TENNYSON, In Memoriam.

BYRON, Childe Harold.

Battle.-BATTLE's magnificently stern array.

The next dreadful thing to a BATTLE lost is a battle won.
WELLINGTON.

Battle of the Books.-The subject of a satirical composition by Swift, entitled the "Battle between the Ancient and Modern Books in St. James's Library," alluding to the controversy regarding the respective merits of ancient and modern learning.

Battles. Sooth'd with the sound, the king grew vain;

Fought all his BATTLES o'er again;

And thrice he routed all his foes; and thrice he slew the slain.

Beard.

And dar'st thou then

TO BEARD the lion in his den,

DRYDEN, Alexander's Feast.

The Douglas in his hall ?-SCOTT, Marmion.

Beaten. Some have been BEATEN till they know
What wood a cudgel's of by th' blow!

Some kick'd until they can feel whether

A shoe be Spanish or neat's leather.-BUTLER, Hudibras. Beauty.-A thing of BEAUTY is a joy for ever:

Its loveliness increases; it will never

Pass into nothingness; but still will keep

A bower quiet for us, and a sleep

Full of sweet dreams and health, and quiet breathing.

BEAUTY, blemish'd once, for ever's lost.

KEATS, Endymion.

SHAKESPERE, P. Pilgrim.

BEAUTY is truth, truth beauty,-that is all
Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.

KEATS, On a Grecian Urn.

BEAUTY is valuable or worthless according as you invest the property to the best advantage.--LYTTON, Lady of Lyons.

BEAUTY stands

In the admiration only of weak minds

Led captive.-MILTON, Paradise Regained.

Could I come near your BEAUTY with my nails,
I'd set my ten commandments in your face.

SHAKESPERE, Henry VI.

Fair tresses man's imperial race ensnare,
And BEAUTY draws us with a single hair.

POPE, Rape of the Lock.

Her BEAUTY hangs upon the cheek of night

Like a rich jewel in an Ethiop's ear.--SHAKESPERE, Romeo.

She walks in BEAUTY, like the night

Of cloudless climes and starry skies;
And all that's best of dark and bright
Meet in her aspect and her eyes;
Thus mellow'd to that tender light
Which Heaven to gaudy day denies.

BYRON, Hebrew Melodies.

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