Summary

Various,  Notes and Queries, No. 209, October 29 1853

“ In maturer age, and after the study of the history of the customs of mankind, symbols and emblems seemed to me an universal language, which delicately delineated the violent passions of our kind, and transmitted from generation to generation national predilections and pious emotions towards the God of Creation. That mythology should so generally be interpreted Theism, and that forms or ceremonials of worship should be held to limit and define belief in creed, may, in my apprehension, be partly traceable to the school-book Lamprière's Classical Dictionary. ”
Source: Gutenberg

Various,  Notes and Queries, No. 209, October 29 1853

“ The poor young fellow, after all, is no villain; he has no kind of connexion with the horrid rascal Sir Emerson Tennent alludes to—with the blackguard. That he is a boaster, a talker, an idiot, a nincompoop; that he scatters "words, words, words," as Polonius did of old; that he is bombastic, wordy, prosy, nonsensical, and a fool, no one will deny. But he is no rogue, though he utters rogueries and drolleries. No one is justified in slandering him.
The blackguard is a dirty fellow in every sense of the word—a gredin (a cur) , the true translation, by-the-bye, of the word blackguard.
”
Source: Gutenberg

Various,  Notes and Queries, No. 209, October 29 1853

“ The word blagueur implies nothing so contemptuous or offensive as the word blackguard does. The emptiness of the person to whom it applies is very harmless. Its etymon blague (bladder, tobacco-bag) , the pouch, which smoking voluptuaries use to deposit their tobacco, is perfectly symbolic of the inane, bombastic, windy, and long-winded speeches and sayings of the blagueur. Every French commercial traveller, buss-tooter, and Parisian jarvy is one. ”
Source: Gutenberg

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