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ADVENTURER-ADVISE.

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and I do not see how any haberdasher in Cheapside is more concerned in the present quarrel of the Cantons than he was in that of the Hague.-ADDISON.

Adventurer.

A trader to foreign parts. The Hudson's Bay Company, which obtained its charter in the time of Charles II, is still called a 'Company of Adventurers.' The word has now a far less creditable

sense.

Only these passed a law at the suit of the Merchant Adventurers of England against the Merchant Adventurers of London for monopolyzing and exacting upon the trade.-BACON.

In close connection with the most remarkable passage of Lord Camden's life [libel case] was the conduct and in general the history of Wilkes. We are thus led to speak somewhat of that unprincipled adventurer not certainly as having any place among the statesmen of the age but as accidentally connected with their history.-BROUGHAM.

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Now she [Jane Shore] is lean, old, and withered, and yet, being even such whoso will advise her visage might guess and devise which parts, how fill'd, would make it a fair face.Sir T. MORE.

Let his travel appear rather in his discourse than in his apparel or gesture; and in his discourse let him be rather advised in his answers than forward to tell stories.-BACON.

Advise if this be worth

Attempting, or to sit in darkness here
Hatching vain Empires.-MILTON.

I advise people always to go to a place which has some local advantage such as the sea, a forest, river, or lake. These advantages neither time nor fashion nor change can take away. But if you go for the sake of a good neighbourhood, you will soon find it changed to a bad neighbourhood from removals, quarrels, bankruptcies or sickness.-C. NOOTH,

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AFFECTATION-AGONY.

Affectation. Formerly used in a good sense, for affection.

There are or should be bonds of affectation, bonds of mutual respects and reciprocal duties betwixt man and wife, and these must hold firm notwithstanding any local separation.-Bishop HALL, Cases of Conscience.

Affectation is an awkward and forced imitation of what should be genuine and easy, wanting the beauty which accompanies what is natural.-LOCKE.

What then is the charm, the irresistible charm, of Walpole's writings? His style is one of those peculiar styles by which everybody is attracted and which nobody can safely venture to imitate; he is a mannerist whose manner has become perfectly easy to him, his affectation is so habitual and universal that it can hardly be called affectation. The affectation is the essence of the man.-MACAULAY.

Affront. To confront. The meaning has now passed into one of insult.

Unless another,

As like Hermione as is her picture,

Affront his eye.-SHAKSPEARE, Winter's Tale, v. I.

Your husband [Perkin Warbeck] marched to Taunton, and was there affronted with King Henry's Chamberlain.-FORD.

He not only shews them the private letter of their Duchess, but gives it them to carry home wherewith to affront her; which they did, she denying it stoutly.-MILTON.

That entertainment and pleasantry called wit, which strikes so lively on the fancy and therefore is so acceptable to all people. The mind without looking any further rests satisfied with the agreeableness of the picture and the gaiety of the fancy, and it is a kind of affront to go about to examine it by the severe rules of truth and reason.-LOCKE.

Agony. Formerly, a conflict or struggle: now, always attended with pain.

Two of the most precious things which God hath afforded us here for the agony and exercise of our sense and spirit are a

AGREEABLE-AIRS.

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thirst and inhiation after the next life and a frequency of prayer and meditation in this.-DONNE.

When a man looks back with a steady faith on the life and sufferings of his Deliverer, when His agonies occur to him, how will he bitterly reflect that he has often forgot them for the applause of the world, for a heap of fleeting past pleasures, which are at present aching sorrows.-STEELE.

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In large lakes and rivers fresh running, there is the yellow swan famous and agreeable to them.-LYDGATE.

Compared with the labour of reading these volumes all other labour is an agreeable recreation. There was, it is said, a criminal in Italy who was suffered to make his choice between Guicciadini and the galleys. He chose the History. But the war of Pisa was too much for him; he changed his mind and went to the oar.-MACAULAY, Life of Burleigh.

Aim. To guess.

The substantive occurs in the

same sense, but in both the meaning has been lost.

That my discovery be not aimed at.

SHAKSPEARE, Two Gentlemen of Verona, iii. 1.

Yet still went on, which way he could not aim.

FAIRFAX, Tasso, vii. 23.

I profess myself, Sir, an upright and honest member of the British Parliament, and I am not ashamed to profess myself an enemy to all change, and all innovations. I am satisfied with things as they are, and it will be my pride and pleasure to hand down this country to my children as I received it from those who preceded me. Nobody complains of disorder in that shape in which it is the aim of your measure to propose a remedy. The business is one of the greatest importance; there is need of the greatest caution and circumspection. Sir, it is impossible to foresee all consequences. The example of a neighbouring nation should fill us with alarm.-SYDNEY SMITH, Noodle's Oration.

Airs. Manners. Now used with a sense of affectation.

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The charity children to the number of fifty are to appear with their humble airs at the parish Church of St. Bride's on Sunday next. SPECTATOR.

A page in a great author humbles me to the dust, and the conversation of those that are not superior to myself reminds me of what will be thought of myself. And I should dread letters being published some time or other in which they should relate our interviews, and we should appear like those puny, conceited writings in Shenstone and Hughes' correspondence who give themselves airs from being in possession of the soil of Parnassus for the time being-HORACE Walpole.

Allow. To approve: now, to permit. Allowance occurs in the sense of reputation.

That which I do, I allow not.-Authorised Version, Romans vii. 15.

And as upon a hill's steep top the south wind pours a cloud To shepherds thankless, but by thieves that love the night allow'd.--CHAPMAN, Iliad.

His bark is stoutly timber'd, and his pilot
Of very expert and approved allowance.

SHAKSPEARE, Othello, ii. 1.

In works of a serious nature upon the affairs of real life, as political discourses and orations, figurative style should hardly ever go beyond this. But strict and close metaphor or simile may be allowed, provided it be most sparingly used, and that it never deviates from the subject matter so as to make that disappear in the ornament.-BROUGHAM,

Amaze. Formerly, to confound or stupefy.

Bear with me, cousin, for I was amazed
Under the tide but now I breathe again

Aloft the flood.-SHAKSPEARE, King John, iv. 2.

I hope I have written nothing in this letter that will displease your Majesty. If I have, I humbly beg of you to consider it as coming from a woman amazed with grief.-Letter of Lady Russell to King Charles.

More abilities of body and mind than can be supposed in a sick, amazed, timorous and weak person.-J. TAYLOR.

AMIABLE-AMISS.

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He [Addison] never raises merriment or wonder by the violation of truth; his figures neither divert by distortion, nor amaze by aggravation. All the enchantment of fancy and all the cogency of argument are employed to recommend to the reader his real interest, the care of pleasing the Author of his Being. Truth is shewn sometimes as the phantom of a vision, sometimes appears half veiled in an allegory, sometimes attracts regard in the robes of fancy. She wears a thousand dresses, and in all is pleasing. Dr. JOHNSON.

Amiable. Lovely.

How amiable are Thy dwellings, O Lord of Hosts!-Prayer Book, Psalm lxxxiv. 1.

That day when for great Hector's sake to amiable Troy
I came to lead the Trojan bands.-CHAPMAN, Iliad.

Groves whose fruit, burnish'd with golden rind,

Hung amiable.-MILTON.

My poor mother is dead; I thank God her death was as easy as her life was innocent. There is yet upon her countenance such an expression of tranquillity, nay, almost of pleasure, that it is even amiable to behold it.-Letter of Pope.

At Athens the laws did not constantly interfere with the tastes of the people. The Athenians are acknowledged even by their enemies to have been distinguished in private life by their courteous and amiable behaviour. Freedom produced excellence; thus were created those models of poetry, of oratory, and of the arts, which scarcely fell short of the standard of ideal excellence.-MACAULAY.

Amiss. A fault or misfortune.

Then, gentle cheater, urge not my amiss,
Lest guilty of my faults thy sweet self be.

SHAKSPEARE, Sonnet cli. Daring not presume into your Lordship's presence either to excuse myself, or to crave pardon for my amisse.-Letter to Lord Burghley (1591).

When popular discontents have been very prevalent, it may well be affirmed and supported that there has been generally something amiss in the constitution or the conduct of Government. The people have no interest in disorder.-BURKE.

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