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All the forms of proposing and seconding me prescribed by the regulations of the club had been duly observed; when, by way of ensuring my election, I gave a dinner party to some of the most influential members, a day or two preceding the one which was to decide the question of my admission or rejection.

The dinner was of the best,-admirable in quality-abundant in quantity. I begged my guests to do it justice, and I myself set them the example. They enjoyed themselves, and so did I-I never made a heartier dinner in my life.

Judge then, gentle reader, of my horror and disgust at finding, on the day of election, that these very friends had in consequence of this display of my gastronomic powers black-balled me! and this too, as they themselves avowed, for no other reason in the world than that the club could not afford to dine a man with my appetite for the regulation price of two and three-pence !

ASTROLOGY.

THE ancient sage, who glanc'd above,
And mark'd the worlds that circling move
Upon the boundless sky,

Oft deem'd in them he read the fate,

The joys or horrors that await

Man's present and his future state

His constant destiny!

Silent, indeed, those orbs roll on,
Silent they rove the heav'ns upon,
And silent track their way :-
But as the eye may glance along them,
A mighty tale is read among them—
Deeds of the future day 1

Nor less they bear unto the sense
The truth of God's omnipotence!—
Though silent as to human tone,
To us th' Almighty do they own:—
To us his praises do they tell-
The praises of th' Invisible!

CLASSICAL VARIETIES.

By E. H. BARKER, Esq.

66

I. 'AAY'NATOI-Persons maintained from the Poors' Funds. The following account of the Poor-Laws of the Athenians is from an old Lexicon, published by Bekker in his Anecdota Græca :-'Adúvaror of μέρος τι βεβλαμμένοι τοῦ σώματος, ὡς μηδὲ ἐργάζεσθαι, οἳ καὶ ἐχορη γοῦντο τὰ πρὸς τὸ ζῆν παρὰ τῆς πόλεως, μισθοφορούντων αὐτοῖς τῶν ἐν τοῖς τριῶν μνῶν περιουσίαν κεκτημένων. ἐδοκιμάζοντο δὲ οἱ ἀδύνατοι ὑπὸ τῆς τῶν πεντακοσίων Βουλῆς, καὶ ἐλάμβανον, ὡς μὲν Λυσίας λέγει, ὅβολον ἕνα, ὡς δὲ Φιλόχορος, πέντε, Αριστοτέλης δὲ δύο ἔφη. “ They who were maimed in body, so as to be incapable of work, were provided with the means of subsistence at the expense of the city, the richer class contributing a fixed proportion; the senate of Five Hundred decided on the claims of relief, and those who were entitled to relief, received, as Lysias says, one obolus,- -as Philochorus says, five, and as Aristotle says, two." It appears from the interesting Oration of Lysias περὶ τοῦ ̓Αδυνάτου, that those who could not find employment, as well as those who were unable to work, were entitled to an allowance from the Poors' Funds. See REISKE's Oratores Græci 5, 738. F. A.

II. 'AMIANTO2, amianthus, 'amiant;' undoubtedly that species of asbestus, to which the term is still applied; of a fibrous texture, somewhat resembling flax, and hence it was used by the ancients for making their linum asbestinum, in which they wrapped the bodies of the dead, before they were committed to the funeral pile. In modern times cloth and various other textures have been manufactured from it. The perpetual lamps of the ancients contained, as it has been suggested, wicks of amianthus, constantly supplied with oil. See Agricola and Cleaveland. F. A.

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III. "ANOPAE, carbo, common charcoal," never applied to carbo fossilis, "pit-coal," as has been represented; the proper meaning of carbo in Latin is "a piece of burnt wood." Theodorus, the celebrated Samian architect, according to Diogenes Laertius, strengthened the foundations of the Temple of Ephesus, which were laid on marshy ground, by putting coal, av pakas, underneath, which of course means charred timber, as fossil coal would not have answered the purpose. Charcoal is a great antiseptic, and by charring the timber, its vegetative properties are destroyed, and its durability is insured; piles are for this reason often charred, before they are driven into water. The fossil coal is mentioned by Theophrastus, but not by Pliny, as a mineral, not as fuel,-as Aidávdpak, stone-coal, of which there are many varieties, all consisting, in a great measure, of charcoal and bitumen.

IV. 'AP'PE'NIKON, or 'APZE'NIKON, Orpiment, the yellow sulphuret of arsenic; according to the most approved analysis of it by Klaproth, it consists of 52 parts of arsenic, and 38 of sulphur; the

oavdapákn is realgar, red sulphuret of arsenic, and, according to the same authority, contains 69 parts of arsenic, and 31 of sulphur. Cleaveland states that realgar melted with sulphur produces orpiment; and orpiment, combined with an additional quantity of arsenic, is converted into realgar. F. A.

V. "AZZIO AI′OOZ, Assian, or Flesh-consuming Stone, much used by the ancients in their sepultures from its property of consuming the flesh of bodies, which it is said by Pliny to effect in forty days; it was also supposed to be possessed of petrifying powers. Modern authorities differ about it; Sprengel thinks that soda and alum were its principal ingredients, and indeed Dioscorides and Galen, who state that it is formed from sea-water, confirm the conjecture. F. A.

VI. "AZPAATOE, Bitumen Judaicum, Jews' pitch," named from a Lake in Judæa; it consists principally of bituminous oil and charcoal. Klaproth supposes it to be the principal ingredient in the Grecian fire; the walls of Babylon were of brick cemented with dopaλros. The πισσάσφαλτος was not so hard as άσφαλτος, and of a more pleasant smell. F. A.

VII. "HAEKTPON.-Bochart Hieroz. shows that the ancients applied this name to three very different substances; 1. the crystalline stone, i. e. crystallized quartz; 2. metallic compound of gold and silver ; 3. amber. Most ancient authors consider amber to be an exudation from poplars, and many modern naturalists account for its origin by supposing that it once proceeded from certain trees. Theophrastus and Lucian, however, seem to have held it to be a native fossil. Almost all the writers of antiquity speak of its being produced on the banks of the Po, (Eridanus,) and to account for this mistake it has been supposed that their earlier authors applied the term Eridanus to the Rhine as well as the Po. In a late Number of the Edinburgh Review, 119, 111, a new conjecture is adverted to, namely, that the amber was conveyed by land from the Baltic to the head of the Adriatic Gulf, and hence the fabulous Eridanus with its amber-weeping trees, was identified by the poets with the Po. This conjecture is confirmed by the account of the origin of amber, given by Pliny and Solinus. F. A.

VIII. KYANO2, Cyanus.-This term is applied by the ancients to the gem now known by the name of Lapis Lazuli; 2. the rúaVOS auropuns of Theophrastus is the mountain-blue, or blue carbonate of copper ; 3. the κύανος αὐτοφυὴς ἔχων ἐν ἑαυτῷ χρυσοκόλλαν, seems to be the mountain-green, or the earthy green carbonate of copper: see Agricola and Kidd. It deserves to be mentioned that the apμévior of Dioscorides and Galen, Lapis Armenius, was the same, or nearly the same as the first of these. The rúavos of Homer appears to be the second, or mountain-blue. 4. Aristotle mentions a bird called rúavos. F. A.

ΙΧ. ΚΥΚΛΟΣ and ΚΥΚΛΙΚΟΙ'. What things are done καθολικώς, are said by the Greeks κύκλῳ ποιεῖσθαι, as κύκλῳ διδάσκειν παῖδα, i. e. Kadaλuws, "to teach the whole circle of the sciences," beginning with grammar. So physicians say, kúkλw Jepaπever, when they omit no remedy, proceeding from the smallest to the greatest. So Caius Inst. 1, 2. Circulo servos manumittere in testamento." So the author of the Mipà 'Iλiùç began his poem from the twin-egg of Leda, and brought it down to the destruction of Troy, i. e. treating the his

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tory Kukly, and hence the poem was called Kúrλos by the Grammarians, and is always so called by the Scholiast of Aristophanes. In Themistius Analyt. Post. 1. p. vi. we have: Ei de Aéyerai kai čπŋ rivà κύκλος, ἀλλ ̓ οὐκ ἐᾷ ταῦτα κύκλον ὑπολαβεῖν τὸν γεωμέτρην ὁ τοῦ κύκλου λόγος. Cyclius is so called by Horace de A. P. because he wrote kýkλy rà 'Iλiakà, i. e. from the twin-egg, and because the poem was called Kúkλos. Horace has the same meaning, when he says,

"Nec circa vilem patulumque moraberis orbem."

For by orbem he means kúkλov,—by patulum, that the subject is treated KÚKA, is handled karà mλáros, at large, diffusely,-by vilem, that it is the part of a plebeian mind to discuss common topics κατὰ πλάτος καὶ Taxέws, instead of selecting the main points, and bringing into view the less obvious, but striking peculiarities. Jos. C. SCALIGER'S Opuscula Varia, 1610. 4to. p. 415.

X. ПIA'ПYPOZ, Papyrus.-" Surgit Nilotica silva sine ramis, nemus sine frondibus, aquarum seges, paludum pulchra cæsaries, virgultis mollior, herbis durior, nescio qua vacuitate plena, plenitudine vacua, bibula teneritudine spongeum lignum, cui more pomi robur in cortice est, mollicies in medullis, proceritas lenis, sed ipsa se continens, fœdæ inundationis pulcherrimus fructus." CASSIODORUS.

XI. IINYX, BHMA.-"The Pnyx was part of the surface of a low rocky hill, at the distance of a quarter of a mile to the west of the central rock of the Acropolis (at Athens), and at about half that distance to S. W. of the centre of the Areopagus-Hill. The Pnyx may be best described as an area formed by the segment of a circle, which, as it is .very nearly equal to a semicircle, for the sake of conciseness, we shall assume to be such. The radius of this semicircle varies from about 60 to 80 yards. It is on a sloping ground, which shelves down very gently toward the hollow of the ancient Agora, which was at its foot on the N. E. The chord of this semicircle is the highest part of this slope: the middle of its arc is the lowest; and this last point of the curve is cased by a terras-wall of huge polygonal blocks, and of about 15 feet in depth at the centre: this terras-wall prevents the soil of the slope from lapsing down into the valley of the Agora beneath it. From its being thus consolidated, and, as it were, condensed, (πvкrovμévn), by the upward pressure of these massive stones, the Pnyx derived its name. This massive wall is probably coeval with the birth of oratory at Athens. The chord of this semicircle is formed by a line of rock vertically hewn, so as to present to the spectator, standing in the area, the face of a flat wall. In the middle point of this wall of rock, and projecting from, and applied to it, is a solid rectangular block hewn from the same rock. This is the Bñua, or Rostra, from which the speakers in the assembly of the Pnyx addressed the audience, who occupied the semicircle area before them. The Bñμa looks towards the N. E.; that is, toward the ancient Agora. Steps are hewn on either side of this Rostrum, by which the speaker mounted it; and at its base, on the three sides of it, is a tier of three seats cut from the same rock. This was the place provided for the public assemblies at Athens in its most glorious times. (J. Pollux 8, 132, well describes the Pnyx as, Χωρίον κατεσκευασμένον κατὰ τὴν παλαίαν ἁπλότητα), and nearly such as it was then, is it seen now. The Athenian orator spoke from

a block of bare stone; his audience sat before him on a blank and open field." REV. C. WORDSWORTH's Athens and Attica, 1836, p. 64.

XII. ПРOТо'KOAON, Protocol.-Kλa, schede, "sheets;" hence the first sheet, in binding a book, was called pwrókwλov, in which was the stamp or mark to distinguish the place where the paper was manufactured. So in Martial, oxarоkwλiov means "the last sheet" or " page:"

Spectas ἐσχατοκώλιον, libelle,

Nec summa potes in scheda teneri,

a

where the vulgar reading is ἐσχατοκωλικόν. Κώλον, then, is “α member of a sheet," schedion; from it the chartæ Pergamene were called membranæ, as the Greeks say owμária kai róμoι. Jos. C. ScaLIGER'S Opuscula Varia, 1610. 4to. p. 50. Much matter on this word occurs in the very learned commentary of Salmasius ad Historiæ Augustæ Scriptores, but the book is not at hand, and we can only state our general impression from memory, that he considers the word to be ρwтокóλλα, but still referring to the binding and beginning of a book. The word protocol, thus Classical in its origin, was first introduced into the English language from the Russian tongue, (as we suspect,) by the late Marquis of Londonderry during the diplomatic discussions after the downfal of Buonaparte, in the metaphorical sense of "a first draught" or "minute of proceedings." We remember that Lord Holland, in the House of Lords, when the papers respect. ing the negotiations were laid on the table of their Lordships, expressed his surprise, and indulged his mirth, at the mention of the word protocol as a strange novelty; but his Lordship might have been better reconciled to the word, had he known that from whatever tongue it was fetched, it claimed a Classical origin. We may remark, for the benefit of English lexicographers, that the word Borough. monger was first introduced by Sir Francis Burdett about the year 1812. He was speaking of his first appearance in the House of Commons; his guardians had made a bargain for a seat with the Duke of Newcastle, who liked to do what he willed with his own property in boroughs; and after having spoken of this disgracefully corrupt traffic in boroughs, by way of greater emphasis, called them borough mongers, and thus fixed their title among the friends of free election.

XIII. TEXNIKH.-Crates, Aristophanes, Nicander, Callimachus, Apollonius Rhodius, Chrysippus, and others, divided grammar into three parts:-1. TEXK, which relates to the elements, and to syntax; 2. 'IoTop, which relates to the mythology of the poets, to descriptions by orators and historians, and to places, mountains, and rivers, &c., mentioned by them: 3. 'Idiatrɛp a, which penetrates into the more hidden recesses of wisdom, distinguishing between the spurious and genuine verses of the poets, correcting errors, assigning to their proper authors verses, which have been attributed to those who did not write them, revising and examining the poets, orators, philosophers, &c. and therefore called Kpirik, deriving its name idiarépa, "peculiar," not from its office, in respect to the grammatical art, as in the other two departments, but because this province of the art belongs to the few, and not to the many among philologists, and because it handles, not all and any, but only the noblest writers.

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