Some Account of the Proceedings. . 161 XII. A LAY SERMON ON THE TEXT "THOU 181 I. ON MOTTOES. (1887.) Motto, vale ogni spezie di detto breve, arguto, o piacevol pungente, o proverbiale, o simile. ALBERTI, Dizionario It was a happy custom of the old Essayists to crown contribution with a Latin Motto, accompanied by a tra tion, often from the pen of a well-known writer, who s times indulged in considerable amplification. For exa the Spectator, No. ccxxi., furnishes a good example of practice : Ab ovo Usque ad mala.-Horace, Sat. 3. The practice of appending a motto to a compositi like the giving out of a text before the sermon. It pre the mind for what is to follow, and serves as a peg i memory to hang the subject on, unless, indeed, the h happen to belong to that class of persons describe Archbishop Whately, who fortify themselves against a re sermon "by a respectful kind of apathy." In his charming essay in the Spectator above referre Addison justifies his use of the motto, and he prefers to borrow from the Latin poets rather than from the prose writers, "as the former generally give a finer turn to a thought than the latter, and by couching it in few words and in harmonious numbers make it more portable to the memory." Then, after modestly stating that by means of the motto the reader "is sure to meet with at least one good line in every paper," he goes on to say that as a good face is a letter of recommendation, prepossessing the beholder in favour of the owner, a handsome motto has the same effect, giving a supernumerary beauty to the essay. As for the unlearned readers who cannot relish the motto, they may be told that "if they do not understand the sign that is hung outside, they know very well by it that they may meet with entertainment in the house." The looking over the mottoes in the old essayists is a cheap way of rubbing up one's classics; although it recalls. to mind the opinion of the man who sat down to read Johnson's Dictionary through. He found it very amusing, but somewhat desultory. The great lexicographer saw a community of mind in quotations, and he regarded a classical motto as the parole of literary men all over the world. The elder Disraeli states, on the authority of Bayle, that there is not less invention in a just and happy application of a thought found in a book than in being the first author of that thought; and speaking on his own account, he remarks that "those who never quote are never quoted," seeing that "the wisdom of the wise and the experience of ages may be preserved by quotation." Indeed, a well-read writer with good taste is one who has the command of the wit of other men." But "the art of quotation requires more delicacy in the practice 66 |