AUDACITY- -AUSTERE.

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almost six thousand years old, and in all this time there was not any man died in his own person, videlicet a love cause.SHAKSPEARE, As You Like It, iv. 1.

G. D. like a dove on the asp's nest takes up his unconscious abode [in Clifford's Inn] amid an incongruous assembly of attorneys, attorney's clerks, apparitors, promoters, vermin of the law, among whom he sits 'in calm and sinless peace.' The fangs of the law pierce him not, the winds of litigation blow over his humble chambers, none think of offering violence or injustice to him: you would as soon strike an abstract idea.-C. LAMB.

Audacity. Now generally used only in the sense of shamelessness.

Great effects come by industry and perseverance, for audacity doth almost bind and mate the weaker sort of men.-BACON.

As when the wolf has torn a bullock's hide,
At unawares, or ranched a shepherd's side:
Conscious of his audacious deed he flies,

And claps his quivʼring tail between his thighs.

DRYDEN'S Virgil.

The form and hue of his eyes were wonderfully calculated for showing great varieties of emotion. Their mournful aspect was extremely earnest and affecting, and when he told some dismal and mysterious story, they had a doubtful, melancholy, exploring look which appealed irresistibly to the hearer's imagination. Occasionally when he spoke of something very audacious or eccentric they would dilate and light up with a tragic-comic, hare-brained expression, quite peculiar to himself. Never did a man go through all the gradations of laughter with such complete enjoyment and a countenance so radiant.-J.L. ADOLPHUS, on Sir Walter Scott.

Austere.

in character.

Once 'sour' in taste as well as severe'

Austere wines diluted with water cool more than water alone, and at the same time do not relax.-BACON.

I fed on scarlet hips and stony haws,

Or blushing crabs, or berries that emboss

The brambles black as jet, or sloes austere.-Cowper.

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AUTHENTIC-AWFUL.

The sweetness of the ripened fruit is not the less delicious for the austerity of its tender state.-HORSLEY.

Almost all the distinguished writers who have treated of History are advocates. Mr. Hallam and Sir James Mackintosh alone are entitled to be called judges, but the extreme austerity of Mr. Hallam takes away something of the pleasure of reading his learned, eloquent, and judicious writings. He is a judge, but a hanging judge; his black cap is in constant requisition.— MACAULAY.

Authentic. Formerly, authoritative now, genuine, original.

Then Nestor cut the gears

With his new-drawn authentic sword.-CHAPMAN.

There is as much difference between the present and former times as there is between a copy and an original: that indeed may be fair, but this only is authentick.-SOUTH, Sermon vii. 14.

Avoid. To go out of; to quit: now, to shun.

Whereupon six of us only stayed and the rest avoided the room.-CHAUCER.

David avoided out of his presence twice.-Authorised Version, I Samuel xviii. II.

To this day the advocates of Charles the First take care to say as little as they can about his visit to the House of Commons, and when they cannot avoid mentioning it, attribute to infatuation an act which on any other supposition they must admit to have been a frightful crime.-MACAULAY.

Awful. Once, sensible of fear, as well as causing it.
Know then that some of us are gentlemen,
Such as the fury of unlawful youth

Thrusts from the company of awful men.

SHAKSPEARE, Two Gentlemen of Verona, iv. 1.

He [the invalid] is flattered by the general notion that inquiries are making after him, but he cares not to know the name of the inquirer. In the general stillness and awful hush of the house, he lies in state and feels his sovereignty. Compare

BAFFLE-BALLAD.

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the silent tread and quiet ministry, almost by the eye only, with which he is served, with the careless demeanour, the unceremonious goings in and out with which he is served when he is getting a little better (slapping of doors or leaving them open) -how convalescence shrinks a man back to his pristine nature. C. LAMB.

B.

Baffle. Used in the time of Spenser for the degradation' of a recreant knight: modern meaning 'to defeat.'

And after all for greater misery,

He by the heels him hung upon a tree,
And baffled so, that all who passed by

The picture of his punishment might see.—SPENSER.

I will be proud, I will read politic matters, I will baffle Sir Toby.-SHAKSPEARE, Twelfth Night, ii. 5.

Is it just or seemly by such comparisons to disparage his favour, by such pretences to baffle with his goodness ?—BARROW.

Under the influence of sublime feelings men have sprung up from the dust to shiver the oldest dominions, to toss to the ground the highest despots, to astonish ages to come with the immensity and power and grandeur of human feelings. In all desperate situations, when prudence is mute, when reason is baffled, when all ordinary resources of discretion are dried up, there is no safety but in heroic passions, no hope but in sublime men.-SYDNEY SMITH.

Ballad. Once a solemn and sacred as well as a trivial song.

Solomon's Song was once called 'The Ballad of Ballads.'Dr. WATTS.

Thither no more the peasant shall repair,

To sweet oblivion of his daily care;

No more the farmer's news, the barber's tale,
No more the woodman's ballad shall prevail.

GOLDSMITH, Deserted Village.

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BANQUET-BARELY.

The mendicants of London were so many of her sights-her lions-I can no more spare them than I could the Cries of London. No corner of a street is complete without them, they are as indispensable as a Ballad singer, and in their picturesque attire as ornamental as the signs of Old London. They were standing morals, emblems, mementos, dial-mottos, the spital sermons, the books for children, the salutary pauses to the high and rushing tide of greasy citizency.-C. LAMB.

Banquet. Formerly, a final course of sweetmeats, or dessert, for which the guests usually adjourned to a separate room or an arbour.

Four long tables, furnished all with varieties, the first and second course being three score dishes, and after that always a banquet.-J. Taylor.

Your Citizen

He is a most fierce devourer, Sir, of plums;

Six will destroy as many as might make

A banquet for an army.-The Wits.

For banqueting stuff as suckets, jellys, sirrups,

I will bring in myself.-MIDDLETON, Witch, i. 9.

The strong man may batten on him, and the weakling ́refuseth not his mild juices, unlike to mankind's mixed characters, a bundle of vices and virtues inexplicably intertwisted. He is good throughout; no part of him is better or worse than another; he helpeth as far as his little means will allow. All around he is the least envious of banquets, he is all neighbours' fare.-C. LAMB, on Roast Pig.

Barely. Once, merely now, scarcely.

The gravity of his conversation is always enlivened with his tact and humour, and the gaiety of it is tempered with something that is instructive as well as barely agreeable.— ADDISON.

The study of morality I have above mentioned as that that becomes a gentleman; not barely as a man, but in order to his business as a gentleman.-LOCKE, Thoughts concerning Reading.

One method his Lordship takes in handling this question [Catholic claims] is, by pointing out dangers that are barely possible, and then treating of them as if they deserved the active and present attention of serious men. His Lordship appears to be in a fog, and as daylight breaks in upon him, he will be rather disposed to disown his panic. The noise he hears is not roaring, the teeth and the mane are all imaginary, there is nothing but ears. SYDNEY SMITH.

Battle.

Formerly an army, or main body of forces.

It is a view of delight to stand or walk upon the shore side, and to see a ship tossed with tempest upon the sea; or to be in a fortified tower and to see two battles join upon a plain.BACON, Essays.

Hampden, with his head drooping and his hands leaning on his horse's neck, moved feebly out of the battle. The mansion which had been occupied by his father-in-law, and from which in his youth he had carried home his bride, was in sight. There still remains an affecting tradition that he looked for a moment at that beloved house and made an effort to go thither to die. But the enemy lay in that direction-he turned his horse towards Thame.-MACAULAY.

Beast. Old meaning, every living creature.

So is this great and wide sea, wherein are things creeping innumerable, both small and great beasts.—Authorised Version, Psalm civ. 25.

We have doubts whether one atom of useful influence is added to men in important situations by any colour, quantity, or configuration of cloth and hair. The true progress of refinement we conceive to be to discard all the mountebank drapery of barbarous ages; one row of gold and fur falls off after another from the robe of power, and is pick'd up and worn by the parish beadle and the exhibitor of wild beasts.-SYDNEY SMITH.

Beat. Used by Chaucer of kindling sacrificial fires.

An ye be Venus the Goddess of love,

Your vertu is ful grete in Heaven above,