The translations are throughout either new or carefully revised, and as literal as is consistent with neatness and point. It would have been easy to make many of them more epigrammatic, but it was thought better to leave this to the reader's own taste.

Authorities are adjoined wherever it has been found possible to discover them, and in a vast many instances they appear for the first time in a Dictionary of Quotations.

Many of the nonsensical commentaries have been dispensed with, as in almost every instance, where the translation is correct, the quotation is more intelligible without them. Our only fear is that we have adopted

too many.

One new, and it is hoped valuable, feature in the present volume, is the marking of the metrical quantities, which has been done in all cases where their absence might lead to mispronunciation. A quotation, however appropriate, would entirely lose its effect with those who are best able to appreciate its force, if blemished by false delivery. It has been thought unnecessary to mark the final e, because, as the classical reader will know, it is never silent.

The publisher claims little merit for himself in what concerns this volume, save the plan and a diligent reading of the proofs; but he thinks it right to avow the assistance of his eldest son, William Simpkin Bohn,

who has been a useful coadjutor throughout, particularly in the Greek portion. The printer, too, richly deserves his meed of praise for watchfulness and scholarship.

It remains only to speak of previous collections of the same character. The first and principal is Macdonnel's, originally published in 1796, and repeatedly reprinted, with gradual improvements, up to a ninth edition in 1826. This is the work of a scholar, and praiseworthy as a first attempt, but much too imperfect to satisfy the wants of the present day. The next was Moore's, which, though as recent as 1831, is little more than an amplification of Macdonnel's, avoiding as much as possible, for copyright considerations, the very words of his translations, but seldom improving them.

The Dictionary of Quotations which passes under the name of Blagdon (we say this advisedly, as the work was posthumous) differs so entirely from the plan of the present, as scarcely to be cited as a precursor. It is arranged under English 'common-places,' which are illustrated by lengthy quotations from a few of the Greek and Latin poets, each accompanied by metrical versions selected chiefly from Pope, Dryden, Francis, and Creech. It is a small volume of limited contents, but executed up to its pretensions.

After thus much had been written, and on the very eve of publication, we are unexpectedly greeted with a small "Manual of Quotations," by Mr. Michelsen, 308

pages, published at 6s. The basis of this work is Macdonnel's, which is incorporated almost verbatim from an early edition, the editor adding some little from other sources. It can in no way interfere with the present volume, and we rather hail it as showing that there must have been an evident want of what we have undertaken to supply.

York Street, Covent Garden,

April 18, 1856.

H. G. B.

1

4

DICTIONARY

OF

LATIN QUOTATIONS, PROVERBS, AND PHRASES.

A bove majori discit arare minor. Prov.-" The young ox learns to plough from the older." See Ne sus, &c. A căpite ad calcem.-" From head to heel." From top to toe. A fonte puro pura defluit aqua. Prov.-" From a clear spring clear water flows." A man is generally estimated by the company he keeps, as his habits are probably similar to those of his companions.

A fortiori.-"From stronger reasoning." With much greater probability. If a pound of gunpowder can blow up a house, a fortiori a hundredweight must be able to do it. A fronte præcipitium, a tergo lupus." A precipice before, a wolf behind." Said of a person between the horns of a dilemma.

A lătĕre." From the side." A legate a latere is a pope's envoy, so called because sent from his side, from among his counsellors.

A mensâ et toro.-"From table and bed," or, as we say, "from bed and board." A sentence of separation of man and wife, issuing from the ecclesiastical courts, on account of acts of adultery which have been substantiated against either party. It is not of so decisive a nature as the divorce A vinculo matrimonii; which see.

A posteriori. See A priori.

A priori; a posteriori.-"From the former; from the lat

B

ter." "Phrases used in logical argument, to denote a reference to its different modes. The schoolmen distinguished them into the propter quod, wherein an effect is proved from the next cause, as, when it is proved that the moon is eclipsed, because the earth is then between the sun and the moon. The second is, the quia, wherein the cause is proved from a remote effect; as, that plants do not breathe, because they are not animals; or, that there is a God, from the works of the creation. The former argument is called demonstration a priori; the latter, demonstration a posteriori."

A re decedunt." They wander from the point."

66

A těněris unguiculis. Čic.-" From your tender little nails." From your very earliest boyhood. See Sed præsta, &c., and Amores de, &c.

A verbis legis non est recedendum. COKE.-"There must be no departure from the words of the law." The judge must not give to a statute a forced interpretation contrary to the reasonable meaning of the words.

A vinculo matrimonii.—“From the bonds of matrimony." See A mensa, &c.

Ab actu ad posse valet illatio.-" From what has happened we may infer what will happen."

SYR.-"As you do to

Ab alio spectes alteri quod feceris. another, expect another to do to you."

Ab amicis honesta petamus. CIC.- "We must ask what is proper from our friends.'

Ab honesto virum bonum nihil deterret. SEN.-"Nothing deters a good man from the performance of his duties." Ab inconvenienti.-" From the inconvenience." The Argumentum ab inconvenienti, is an argument to show that a proposition will be unlikely to meet the expected end, and will therefore be inexpedient.

Ab initio." From the beginning.'

Ab ovo usque ad mala. HOR." From the egg to the apples." From the commencement to the end; eggs being the first, and apples the last, dish served at the Roman entertainments.

Ab Urbe condita, more usually denoted in the Latin writers by the initials A. U. C., signifies, "from the building of the city" of Rome, B. c. 753.