“ In fact, however, the thing itself is a bore: a patriot is an animal whose principles are as old-fashioned as his clothes; and like himself, they lose in consideration principally by being out of place. In the present state of society, a patriot must be half a note above concert pitch, and therefore, of necessity must spoil the harmony which prevails where interest and servility reduce all instruments to the same key. But what more particularly affects the fortunes of the word is, that persecution can make any thing a patriot. ”

“ A good sort of woman has seldom an opinion of her own, but she has a ready and an infallible instinct in selecting those she adopts from the safe side of the question. A good sort of woman, as she is generally placed above the wants of her species, so she is exempt from its sympathies; and if she rarely sinks into a crime, she never rises to a virtue.
But the most singular use of the word "good" is that which is uniformly taken as conveying an insult: I mean the addressing a person by the appellation of "good man," or "good woman." ”

“ It is the nature of things and the perversity of the human imagination which convert the most innocent arrangements of letters and syllables into offence: and when a word is driven out of good company, with the etymology of which I am unacquainted, I am strongly tempted to exclaim with Bardolf, "By this day, I know not the phrase, but I will maintain the word with my sword to be a soldier-like word, and a word of exceeding good command." ”

“ In general the appellation is applied to men of whom nothing else can be said. Sometimes it is used as an extenuating salvo for public delinquents, as when we are desired to hold a man excused, who has ruined his country, because he is "a good sort of man" in private life: as if it were necessary that a man should starve his children, and beat his wife, in order to be a bad minister. ”

“ Nothing can be clearer, and more intimately felt than the ideas of good and evil, yet "a good man," or rather a "good sort of a man," is a very doubtful character. His description is a mere bundle of negations: he is a minus quantity in morals, a substance without accidents. ”

“ By which we plainly see, that if "the quality" have not abandoned all notion that goodness is a part of greatness, at least their inferiors think so. Yet if any one doubts that the china ware of God's creation do really calumniate themselves by agreeing with the crockery in this notion, he has only to ask himself what would be the consequence of calling a gentleman good man:—"Odds pistols and triggers!" ”

“ In France, Bonhommie conveys an insinuation of folly or dupery not very creditable to the morality of the country; since it implies that simplicity of character has no chance in society—that chi non sa fingere non sa vivere—and that not to deceive others is, like playing a fair game with sharpers, to strip yourself and ruin your children. ”

“ Far from it: "live and let live" is their maxim. Many gentlemen by practice qualify themselves for public speakers; but good private-dinner company is still a desideratum.
Impressed with this truth, Messrs. Clack and Caterer, at a considerable expense, have provided, at their manufactory in Leicester-square, a choice assortment of good diners out of various prices, who, in clean white waistcoats, and at the shortest notice, will attend to enliven any dull gentleman's dull dinner-table. ”

“ Singers may be hired at so much a-head: every body knows, to an odd sixpence, the price of "Non nobis, Domine," "Hail, Star of Brunswick," Glorious Apollo," and "Scots wha ha." Good set speakers for charity dinners may also be obtained, by inquiry at the bar of the tavern. ”

“ Indeed, I would not advise a peaceable man to call even a fish-wife "good woman;" he had better call her a ——— at once. The Athenians, who were a very sensitive if not always a very sensible people, were much alive to verbal distinctions; they would not endure even that a prison should be called by its proper name ”

“ In the present day, a careful observer will discover many words which are in a state of migration, and stand just upon the confines of good and evil, of honour and reproach. Dr. Johnson apologized, and defended himself from the imputation of backbiting, when he called a man, not then present, an "Attorney." ”

“ The French have a dictionary of revolutionary neologisms, and we are daily more and more in want of a book of the same sort. In a short time I hope to be enabled to lay a specimen of such a work before the public by which we may have our tongues, like our hair, "cut in the newest fashion," and speak in words as well starched as our cravats. ”

“ Revolution is sixty-four per cent., a worse word than it was thirty years ago; Reform has wholly fallen into disrepute; and, as things are going, even Religion itself is in danger of losing its character. ”

“ We know that some of the coarsest terms in our language were formerly used in good society, and that many ideas which we are now forced to insinuate by the most roundabout periphrases, were expressed by our ancestors in very plain English. ”

“ The moment, however, that he treads on a carpet, his character becomes very equivocal, and be is only to be known by the company he keeps. He seldom goes into the city without becoming the butt of ridicule, whether he deserves it or no. ”

“ Cheap goods rarely turn out well. Some dinner-giving gentlemen have hired diners out at an inferior price; and what was lately the consequence at a Baronet's in Portland-place?—A Birmingham article of this sort entered the drawing-room with a hackney straw adhering to one stocking, and a pedicular ladder ascending the other. ”

“ Some words have suffered great varieties of fortune, and have figured with very various effect in conversation. "Marechal," for example, which was originally a master of the horse, has risen to be a commander-in-chief, and sunk again into a tipstaff and a blacksmith. ”

“ By John Oxenford 390 Arthur Helps 401 A Night with Anthony Pasquin, in 1851 410 They Deck'd her Brow with Flowers. By J. E. Carpenter 417 Sources and Prospects of Science, Psychologically Considered 418 Curiosities of Arctic Travel 421 A Survey of Danish Literature,from the Earliest Period to the Present Time. ”