BABIES.

BABIES-in Intellect.

It is well for us that we are born babies in intellect. Could we understand half what mothers say and do to their infants, we should be filled with a conceit of our own importance, which would render us insupportable through life. Happy the boy whose mother is tired of talking nonsense to him, before he is old enough to know the sense of it!-ADN. HARE.

BABY.-God will take Care of

We have read of a beautiful infant, who had been taught by its pious parents to say "God will take care of baby." It was afflicted, and given up to die, just when its parents were recovering from a severe and dangerous illness. But the mother must see her dying child once again, to have one other maternal embrace this side heaven, and one look of love through its bright blue eye, ere it died. Just as the father and mothor succeeded in reaching the apartment of the dying one, it was thought that its spirit had winged its glad flight to the upper world; but the mother's loud and piercing lamentation exposed the general mistake. The dying child opened its blue eyes once more, smiled its last smile, and, in a faint and almost inaudible utterance, said "God will take care of baby," and then died, and attendant angels bore its emancipated spirit away on their broad, strong pinions to the throne of Everlasting Love!-DR. DAVIES.

BABY-CARTS.-Objections to

"Baby-carts, on narrow pavements, are awful bores, especially to a hurried business-man."-Are they? Suppose you and a certain pair of blue eyes, that you would give half your patrimony to win, were joint proprietors of that baby? I shouldn't dare to stand very near you, and call it a nuisance.-PARTON.

BACHELOR.-The Acknowledgment of a

I have no wife nor children, good or bad, to provide for-a mere spectator of other men's fortunes and adventures, and how they play their parts.-Burton. BACKSLIDER.-A Description of the

He is one who has unhappily fallen from the faith and practice of our holy religion; hence we designate him an apostate from the beautiful and the true-a deserter to the great Enemy of God and man.-E. DAVIES.

BACKSLIDER.-The Recovery of a

A backslider ordinarily goeth a great length ere he is recovered.-Fraser.

BACON.-Lord

BALLADS.

Lord Bacon was the greatest genius that England, or perhaps any other country, ever produced.-POPE-SPENCE.

I was infinitely pleased to find among the works of this extraordinary man, a prayer of his own composing, which, for the elevation of thought and greatness of expression, seems rather the devotion of an angel than a man.-ADDISON.

BALAAM.-The Prophet

The prophecies of Balaam, the son of Beor, bring before us the image of the first godless poet-the first who "profaned the God-given strength, and marred the lofty line. Having been, perhaps, at first a true prophet and a genius, he had become a soothsayer, but was surprised and forced into a true prophet again. His words come forth from his lips like honey from the carcase of the lion-"meat from the eater." We figure him always with grey hair and a coarse visage; the brow lofty and broad; the eye small, leering, fierce; the lips large and protruding. Poetry has often flushed that noble brow; but licentiousness has blanched his hair, and many sins and abominations are expressed in his lower face. But look how the Spirit of the Lord now covers him with an unusual and mighty afflatus-how he struggles against it as against a shirt of poison, but in vain-how his eye at length steadies sullenly into vision -and how his lips, after writhing as though scorched, open their wide and slow portals to utter the blessing! He feels himselfeye, brow, soul, all but heart-caught in the power of a mighty one; and he must speak or burn! As it is, the blessing blisters his tongue like a curse, and he has found only in its utterance a milder misery. ***We follow him, as he passes on toward the mountains of the East, with mingled emotions of disgust and admiration, fear and pity-pity, for the sword is already trembling over his head. He shall soon conspire with Midian, and shall perish in the attempt. It is but one lucid peak in his history that we see-all behind and before is darkness. Therefore "eternal silence be his doom!"-G. Gilfillan.

BALLOT.

BALLOT.--Concealment by the

By the ballot corrupt votes are concealed, while virtuous citizens are left in the dark as to the sentiments of each.-CICERO.

BALLOT.-The Evil of the

How few are there who preserve the same delicacy of conduct in secret as when exposed to the view of the world! The truth is the generality of mankind revere fame more than conscience.-PLINY.

BALL-ROOM.-The Allurements of the

It must be confessed that the ball-room possesses most powerful allurements. The decorations, the flowers, the odours, the company glittering with ornaments, the music, the dance, the banquet-all conspire to render the scene one of wondrous enchantment, alike false and true.-DR. DAVIES.

BANISHMENT.-The Bitter Bread of

Myself, a prince by fortune of my birth, Near to the king in blood, and near in love

Till you did make him misinterpret me, Have stoop'd my neck under your injuries, And sigh'd my English breath in foreign clouds,

Eating the bitter bread of banishment. SHAKSPEARE.

BANKRUPT.-The Gain of a

A bankrupt is made by breaking, as a bird is hatched by breaking the shell; for he gains more by giving over his trade, than ever he did by dealing in it.-BP. BUTLER.

BANKRUPT.-An Honest

Mr. Denham had formerly been in business at Bristol, had failed in debt to a number of people, compounded, and went to America; there, by a close application to business as a merchant, he acquired a plentiful fortune in a few years. Returning to England in a ship with me, he invited his old creditors to an entertainment, at which he thanked them for the easy compensation they had favoured him with; and when they expected nothing but the treat, every man, at the first remove, found under his plate an order on a banker for the full amount of the unpaid remainder, with interest.-DR. FRANKLIN.

BANKRUPTCY.-The Source of

The great source of mercantile miscarriage is-the merchant usually starts in a mode of life which should naturally adorn a successful conclusion. He begins with a rural

BANQUET.

retreat, and with expensive relaxations; with those pleasures which should, in the regular course, be reserved as the reward of his toils, and the comfort of his age. He spends his active days in superfluous and unsatisfactory indulgence, and dooms the winter of life to want, to neglect, to a prison, or an almshouse. -DR. KNOX. BANKS.-The History of

They were first known in Italy, where the Lombard Jews kept benches in the marketplace, for the exchange of money and bills. The Italian word banco means bench, from which bank took its origin: and the word bankrupt is supposed to be derived from the French banqueroute, which signifies a breaking or failing business; for when a money-changer became insolvent, his bench was broken, to warn the public that he could no longer continue his business.LOARING.

BANQUET.-An Oriental

The various items of which an Oriental banquet consists-bread, flesh, fish, fowls, melted butter, honey, and fruits, are in many places set on the table at once, in defiance of all taste. They are brought in upon traysone, containing several dishes, being assigned to a group of two, or at most three persons, and the number and quality of the dishes being regulated according to the rank and consideration of the party seated before it. In ordinary cases four or five dishes constitute the portion allotted to a guest; but if he be a person of consequence or to whom the host is desirous of showing more than ordinary marks of attention, other viands are successively brought in, until, if every vacant corner of the tray is occupied,

BANTER.

the bowls are piled one above another.— KITTO.

BANTER.-Advice to

If your companions banter you on your regularity, order, decency, and love of study, banter them in return on their want of these qualities.-CHATHAM.

BANTERING-Characterized.

Bantering is often poverty of wit.-LA BRUYÈRE.

BAPTISM.-Infant

-men

An assembly of sixty-six pastors,who had stood the trial of a grievous persecution, and sound in the faith, -was called by Cyprian, in the year 253 of the Christian Era, to decide, not whether infants should be baptized at all, but whether it should be done immediately, or on the eighth day. If infant baptism had been an innovation, it must have been now of considerable standing. The disputes about Easter show that such an innovation must have formed a remarkable era in the Church. It is impossible to account for the silence of all antiquity, but on the footing that it had once been allowed, and that infant baptism was the practice of the first Churches.MILNER.

BAPTISM.-The Sign of

Baptism is the initiatory sign by which we are admitted into the fellowship of the Church.-CALVIN.

BAPTISM, MARRIAGE, AND DEATH. Here with an infant, joyful sponsors come, Then bear the new-made Christian to his home :

A few short years, and we behold him stand,

To ask a blessing, with his bride in hand : A few, still seeming shorter, and we hear His widow weeping at her husband's bier:Thus as the months succeed, shall infants take

Their names; thus parents shall the child forsake;

Thus brides again and bridegrooms blithe shall kneel,

By love or law their vows to seal.

BARDS.-The Employments of

CRABBE.

Bards were chiefly employed by the ancient Celts to compose and sing verses in praise of great and valorous men. Nor was this their only employment: they were historians also. They dressed in blue, as did the olden priests. Hence their Welsh designation-bardd, which signifies priest, or philosopher.-E. DAVIES,

BASHFULNESS.

BARDS.-Night makes

Night hath made many bards; she is so lovely!

For it is beauty maketh poesie,

As from the dancing eye come tears of light. P. J. BAILEY.

BARGAIN. A Dear

A dear bargain is always disagreeable, particularly as it is a reflection upon the buyer's judgment.—PLINY.

BARGAIN.-Inconveniences respecting a

A wise man will foresee inconveniences before he makes his bargain, and an honest man will stand to his bargain, notwithstanding all his inconveniences.--MARTEN. BARONS.-The Origin of

Baron is a French word, denoting a degree of nobility below that of a viscount. Bracton, an ancient writer, says barons were called Barones quasi robur belli. This signification seems to agree with other nations, where baronia are as much as provincia, so that barons seem also originally to have had the government of territories or provinces. The origin and antiquity of baronies have occasioned laborious enquiries among English antiquaries. The most probable opinion seems to be that they were the same with our present lords of manors, to which the name of Court Baron gives some countenance. Camden refers the origin of barons by writ to Henry III., and barons by letters patent, or creation, to the eleventh of Richard II. There are now no feudal baronies; but the bishops are called by writ, and sit in the House of Lords as barons, by succession. In former times, before there was a lord mayor in London, the burgesses were called barons, as appears by the city seal and their ancient charters. The earls palatine and marches of England had anciently their barons under them; but no barons, save those who held immediately of the king, were peers of the realm. Baronets were first created by James I., the twentysecond of May, 1611.-LOARING.

BASENESS-Exalted.

When baseness is exalted, do not bate
The place its honour for the person's sake.
G. HERBERT.

BASENESS.-Sickening at

And how does noble Chamont?
Never ill, man, until I hear of baseness,
Then I sicken.-BEAUMONT & FLETCHER.

BASHFULNESS-Defined.

The glow of the angel in woman.—MRS. BALFOUR.

BASHFULNESS.

BASHFULNESS-a,
a great Hindrance.

Bashfulness is a great hindrance to a man, both in uttering his sentiments and in understanding what is proposed to him; 'tis therefore good to press forward with discretion, both in discourse and company of the better sort.-LORD BACON.

BASHFULNESS-but a Passage. Bashfulness is but the passage from one season of life to another.-BP. HURD.

BASTILE.-The

'Tis true, the bastile is not an evil to be despised; but strip it of its towers, fill up the fosse, unbarricade the doors, call it simply a confinement, and suppose 'tis some tyrant of a distemper and not of a man which holds you in it, the evil vanishes, and you bear the other half without complaint.-STERNE.

BAT.-The Nature of the

That curious, complex creature, which has something of beast and bird.-LOCKE.

BATH.-Knights of the

In the reign of George I. a permanent change was effected in one of the accompaniments of the coronation, namely, the new arrangement of the Knights of the Bath. In the earlier coronations it had been the practice of the sovereigns to create a number of knights before they started on their procession from the Tower. These knights being made in time of peace were not enrolled in any existing order, and for a long period had no special designation; but, inasmuch as one of the most striking and characteristic parts of their admission was the complete ablution of their persons on the vigil of their knighthood, as an emblem of the cleanliness and purity of their future profession, they were called Knights of "the Bath." The King himself bathed on the occasion with them. They were completely undressed, placed in large baths, and then wrapped in soft blankets. The distinctive name first appears in the time of Henry V. The ceremony had always taken place at Westminster; the bath in the Painted or Prince's Chamber, and the vigils either before the Confessor's Shrine, or, since the Reformation, in Henry VII.'s Chapel. Edward II. was thus knighted, at his father's coronation; and the crowd was so great that two knights were suffocated. Evelyn saw "the bathing of the knights preparatory to the coronation of Charles II. in the Painted Chamber." The badge which they wore was emblematic of the sacredness of their order-three garlands twisted together in

BATTLE.

honour of the Holy Trinity, and supposed to be derived from Arthur, founder of British chivalry. The motto, with a somewhat questionable orthodoxy, was "Tria numina juncta in uno." The badge was altered in the reign of James I., who, by a no less audacious secularization, left out numina, in order to leave the interpretation open for "the junction in one" of the three kingdoms (tria regna) of England, Scotland, and Ireland. The Shamrock was added to the Rose and Thistle after the Union with Ireland, 1802. It occurred to Sir Robert Walpole to re-construct the order, by the limitation of its members to persons of merit, and by the title, thus fitly earned, of "the most honourable." It is said that his main object was to provide himself with the means of resisting the constant applications for the order of the Garter. As such he offered it to Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough, for her grandson. "No," she said, "nothing but the Garter." "Madame," said Walpole, "they who take the Bath will the sooner have the Garter."-DEAN STANLEY.

BATH.-The Luxury of the

There are few outward luxuries compar able to that of the bath; and few so needful alike in sickness and in health. No marvel that the Orientals understood this thoroughly; hence their baths were of amazing extent and magnificence.-GWILT. BATHING.-The Pleasure of

Oh recreation exquisite, to feel The wholesome waters trickle from the head,

Oft as its saturated locks emerge!

To feel them lick the hand and lave the foot!

And when the playful and luxurious limb Is satiated with pastime, and the man Rises refreshed from the voluptuous flood, How rich the pleasure to let Zephyr chill And steal the dew-drops from his panting sides!-HURDIS.

BATTLE.-Awaiting the Signal of Horror itself in that fair sight seem'd fair, And pleasure flew amid sad dread and fear. TASSO. BATTLE.-A Description of a

In their turn

The vanquish'd triumph, and the victors

mourn:

Ours take new courage from despair and night;

Confus'd the fortune is, confus'd the fight: All parts resound with tumults, plaints, and fears,

And grisly Death in sundry shapes appears. VIRGIL,

ears,

Then imitate the action of the tiger;
Stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood,
Disguise fair nature with hard-favour'd rage;
Then lend the eye a terrible aspect;
Let it fly through the portage of the head,
Like the brass cannon; let the brow o'er-
whelm it,

As fearfully as does a galled rock
O'erhang and jutty his confounded base,
Swill'd with the wild and wasteful ocean:
Now set the teeth, and stretch the nostril
wide;

Hold hard the breath, and bend up every spirit

To his full height! On, on, you noble English!-SHAKSPEARE.

BATTLE-FIELD.-The Sight of a

The sight of a battle-field, after the fight, is enough to inspire princes with a love of peace and a horror of war.-NAPOLEON I. BAY-TREE.-The Use of the

Its branches were used for crowning the victors in the ancient games of Greece and Rome, as well as for decorating the brow of the poet.-PROF. BALFOur.

BAZAAR.-The Matrimonial

As in the vegetable market there are posies for the romantic, and potatoes for the practical, the matrimonial bazaar is varied to suit the varying taste. And so it comes to pass that we have one race of women, who break down under family cares, whose dwellings, unless they are so fortunate as to secure as a servant a worthier woman than themselves, become scenes of

BEARING AND FORBEARING.

The two powers which in my opinion constitute a wise man, are those of bearing and forbearing.-EPICTETUS.

BEASTS.-The Advantages of

Beasts have not the high advantages which we possess; but they have some which we have not. They have not our hopes, but then they have not our fears; they are subject like us to death, but it is without being aware of it. Most of them are better able to preserve themselves than we are, and make a less bad use of their passions.-MONTESQUIEU.

BEASTS.-The Creation of

God said

"Let the earth bring forth soul living in her kind,

Cattle, and creeping things, and beasts of the earth,

Each in their kind." The earth obey'd, and straight

Op'ning her fertile womb, teem'd at a birth Innum'rous living creatures, perfect forms, Limb'd and full grown.-MILTON.

BEAUTIFUL.-Anxiety to be

Over-anxiety to be beautiful is to be half ugly. SCRIVEr.

BEAUTIFUL.-An Opinion respecting the

I am of opinion that there is nothing so beautiful but that there is something still more beautiful, of which this is the mere image and expression,-a something which can neither be perceived by the eyes, the ears, nor any of the senses; we compre