RECOVER- -RECTOR. 245 Such are the capital articles of this famous recess, which is the basis of religious peace in Germany.-ROBERTSON. A heath pallet with the flowers stuck uppermost, had been prepared for Waverley in a recess of the cave, and here, covered with such spare plaids as could be mustered, he lay for some time watching the emotions of the other inhabitants of the cavern.-Sir WALTER SCOTT, Waverley. Recover. To gain. If I be she that may do you gladness, For every woe ye shall recover a bliss.-CHAUCER. The forest is not three leagues off: if we recover that, we're sure enough.-SHAKSPEARE, Two Gentlemen of Verona, v. I. He [Sir Walter Scott] was telling the story of a dying man escaping from his nurse and appearing at his club. In relating this he described with his deep and lingering tones, and with gestures and looks suited to each part of the action, the sick man, deadly pale, with vacant eyes, walking into the club room, the silence and consternation of the club, the supposed spectre giving a ghastly salutation, raising a glass to his lips, stiffly turning his head from side to side as if pledging the several members, his departure, and the breathless conference of the club, as they recovered themselves from this strange visit.-ADOLPHUS. Rector. Used by some old writers in its literal sense of 'ruler.' Neptune, the great sea rector.-CHAPMAN. Resigning Jove his right (As rector of the gods) to give the glory of the sight, Dissembling grief as one that knew not ill, Above the usual weakness of her kind. DRAYTON, Barons' Wars, Bk. i. The Rector is going to begin his sermon: he is a very learned man, people say he will be a Bishop one of these days, for he edited a Greek play and was private tutor to Lord Glitter. Now observe him- his voice how monotonous -his manner how cold-his face how composed, yet what are his words? Fly the wrath that is to come! Remember how terrible is the responsibility of life-how strict the account, how suddenly it may be demanded.-LYTTON. Rede. To advise ; advice. The King Saul him axed rede, If that he should go fight or none.-GOWER. So that he work after his wife's rede.-CHAUCER. What means shall she outseek, or what way take? Now less she feared that some fatal rede SPENSER. That warned him of woman's love beware.-Id. This have I brought to you, my sweet lyfe deir, Who never gave to wicked read A yielding and attentive ear; Who never sinners' paths did tread, Nor sat him down in scorner's chair. BACON, Metrical Translation of Psalm i. Walcher, Bishop of Durham, was slain at Gateshead at the instigation of that memorable piece of advice-'Short rede, good rede, slay ye the Bishop.'-History of England, 1080. The eyes of men converse as much as their tongues, with this advantage, that the ocular dialect needs no dictionary but is understood all over the world. When the eyes say one thing and the tongue another, a practised man relies on the language of the eyes. You can read in the eyes of your companion whether your argument hits him, though his tongue will not confess it. There is a look by which a man shows he is going to say a good thing, and a look when he has said it. Vain and forgotten are all the fine offers and offices of hospitality if there is no holiday in the eye.-EMERSON. Reduce. To bring back. REFINE-REGIMENT. Abate the edge of traitors, gracious Lord, 247 SHAKSPEARE, Richard III, v. 4. The most certain way by which the Church may be reduced, if she happen to stagger, slip, or err.-Bp. JEwell. Society for the Suppression of Vice. At present they should nominate themselves 'A Society for Suppressing the Vice of Persons whose Income does not exceed £500 per annum.' The trespass that calls forth all the energies of a suppressor is the sound of a fiddle. That the common people are really enjoying themselves is now beyond all doubt, and away rush the Secretary, President, and Committee to clap the cotillon into the comptor, and reduce the life of the poor to the regular standard of decorous gloom.-SYDNEY SMITH. Refine. To reform. Presently he (Henry II) chooseth a Privy Council of clergy and temporality, and refineth the common law.-FULLER. Perhaps, however, while knowledge of the world constitutes the characteristic excellence of Voltaire, it also contributes to his characteristic defect. Genius may be world-wide, but it should not be world-limited. Voltaire never escapes this 'visible diurnal sphere;' with all his imagination he cannot imagine the enthusiasm which lifts itself above the earth-with all his mastery of language he cannot achieve the highest realms of poetic expression. He is curbed by what he had learned to call in the refined world good sense and good taste. Сах toniana. Regiment. Has now lost its old meaning of 'rule' and government.' Queen of regiment (Juno).-CHAPMAN. His ship of regiment, wheresoever he be, shall sooner rush on a rock than rest in a haven.-Sir P. SIDNEY. Forasmuch as there was an Act made in the regiment of Mary, late Queen Dowager and Regent of this realm.-Scotch Protestations, temp. Charles I. 248 RELIGION-REMEMBER. My Lord Bishop advised him (J. Taylor) the next time the spirit appeared to ask him these questions: Whence are you? Are you a good or bad spirit? Where is your abode? How are you regimented in the other world, and what is the reason you appear in so small a matter?-Life of J. Taylor. I should like to have known the man who first ventured to leave off wearing his pigtail. What a great man he must have been! The pigtail presented every feature of folly which costume can present it was ugly, inconvenient, and ridiculous. It took up time, it spoilt clothes, it rendered assistance necessary. Think of the regiment having their pigtails arranged under the inspection of the prudent captain late at night that his regiment might be early in the field, ready for battle.—Sir A. HELPS. Religion. Once used for religious houses. Proclamation passed within this realin touching the suppression of religion.—(1540.) And would have preferred to enter religion and end his days in a monastery.-FROUDE'S History. The wisdom of America secures to all sects their just rights, gives to each of them their separate pews and bells and steeples, makes them all aldermen in their turn, and quietly extinguishes the faggots which each was preparing for the combustion of the other. Nor is this indifference to religious subjects, but pure civilisation-it is a determination that happiness and peace shall not be violated by the insolence of any human being in the garb and under the sanction of religion.-SYDNEY SMITH. Remember. No longer to remind.' I have thought fit to remember you of my former letters in favour of the said David.-Sir P. SIDNEY. If I had been remembered, I could have given my uncle's grace a flout. SHAKSPEARE, Richard III, ii. 4. Man hath a weary pilgrimage, As through the world he wends, Remit. REMIT-REMORSE. In every stage from youth to age, With heaviness he casts his eye Upon the road before, And still remembers with a sigh The days that are no more.-SOUTHEY. To refer. 249 These be well nigh the words of Lucian; whether the counsel be good, I remytte it to the wise readers.-Sir T. ELIOT, The Governour. We will contract his [Becket's] acts in proportion to our history, remitting the reader to be satisfied in the rest from other authors.-FULLER. Their rents are remitted to them in sugar and rum, the produce of their estates.-SMITH's Wealth of Nations. Death is the most irrevocable punishment, which is in some sense a good; for however necessary it might be to inflict labour and imprisonment for life, it would never be done. Kings and Legislatures would take pity after a great lapse of years; the punishment would be remitted, and its preventive efficacy therefore destroyed.-SYDNEY SMITH. Remorse. This word has passed from the meaning of 'compassion' to the stronger sense of 'contrition.' The abuse of greatness is when its disjoins Remorse from power.-SHAKSPEARE, Julius Cæsar, ii. 1. He was none of these remorseful men, O Eglamore, thou art a gentleman, (Think not I flatter, for I swear I do not,) SHAKSPEARE, Two Gentlemen of Verona, iv. 3. There is yet one evil more that I must take notice of, and that is, the running of metaphors into tedious allegories. This becomes abominable when the lustre of one word leads a writer out of his road, and makes him wander from his subject |