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INHERIT-INSINUATION.

Inherit. Not always to receive possession as heir,

but simply to possess or obtain.

He that had wit would think that I had none,

To bury so much gold under a tree,

And never after to inherit it.

SHAKSPEARE, Titus Andronicus, ii. 3.

This, or else nothing will inherit her.

Id., Two Gentlemen of Verona, iii. 2.

When we observe how the same features and style of person and character descend from generation to generation, we can believe that some inherited weakness may account for these peculiarities. Little snapping turtles snap (the great naturalists tell us) before they are out of the egg shell. I am satisfied that much higher up in the scale of life character is distinctly shown at the age of two or three months.-HOLMES.

He that hasteth himself to wax rich, shall ben soon innocent.-GOWER.

Sir Roger. He afterwards fell into an account of the diversions which had passed in his house during the holidays. I love, said he, to rejoice their poor hearts, and to see the whole village merry in my great hall. I allow a double quantity of malt to my small beer, and set it a running for twelve days to every one that calls for it. I have always a piece of cold beef and a mince pie upon the table, and am wonderfully pleased to see my tenants pass away a whole evening in playing their innocent tricks and smutting one another.-ADDISON.

Insinuation. Once, a plea for winning favour: now generally used in a bad sense.

Therefore carrying no other olive branch of intercession than the laying myself at your feet, nor no other insinuation for pardon or attention but the true-vowed sacrifice of unfeigned love. Sir PHILIP SIDNEY to Queen Elizabeth.

Of Mr. Bentham we would always speak with the reverence

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due to an original thinker and to a sincere and ardent friend to the human race. If a few weaknesses were mingled with his eminent virtues, if a few errors insinuated themselves among the very valuable truths which he taught, this is assuredly no time for noticing them.-MACAULAY.

Intend. Properly, to stretch or strain.

If we could open and intend our eye

We all like Moses should espy,

Ev'n in a bush, the radiant Deity.-COWLEY.

It is not our intention to attempt anything like a complete examination of the poetry of Milton; the public has long been agreed upon its merits. We cannot look upon the sportive exercises for which the genius of Milton ungirds itself, without catching a glimpse of the gorgeous and terrible panoply which it is accustomed to wear.-MACAULAY.

Interest. Once equivalent to 'usury.'

He hates our sacred nation, and he rails,
Even there where merchants most do congregate,
On me, my bargains, and my well-won thrift,
Which he calls interest.

SHAKSPEARE, Merchant of Venice, i. 3. But though credit is but a transfer of capital from hand to hand, it is generally and naturally a transfer to hands more competent to employ the capital efficiently in production. If there were no such thing as credit, or if, from general insecurity and want of confidence, it were scantily practised, many persons who possess more or less of capital, but who from their occupation or want of the necessary skill and knowledge cannot personally superintend its employment, would derive no benefit from it. Their funds would either be idle or would be perhaps wasted in unskilful attempts to make them yield a profit. All this capital is now lent at interest and made available for production.-J. S. MILL.

Invent. Occurs in a sense different from its modern

use.

M

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INVITATION-INWARD.

And bade his servant Talus, to invent

Which way he enter might, without endangerment.

SPENSER.

Where, if his footsteps trust their own invention,

He falls without redress.-QUARLES.

A magazine is certainly a delightful invention for a very idle or a very busy man. Magazines resemble those little angels, who according to the pretty Rabbinical tradition are generated every morning by the brook which rolls over the flowers of Paradise, whose life is a song, who warble till sunset, and then sink back without regret into nothingness. Such spirits have nothing to do with the detecting spear of Ithuriel, or the victorious sword of Michael; it is enough for them to please and be forgotten.-MACAULAY.

I wish you could pass a summer here. I might, too, probably return with you, unless you preferred to see France first, to which country I think you would have a strong invitation.— Letter of Swift to Pope.

Saturday, Sunday, and Monday next are the banquets at Cambridge for the instalment of the Duke of Newcastle as Chancellor. The whole world goes to it. He has invited the whole body of nobility and gentry from all parts of England; his cooks have been there these ten days, distilling essences of every living creature, and massacring and confounding all the species that Noah and Moses took such pains to preserve and distinguish.--HORACE WALPOLE.

Inward. An intimate acquaintance.

Sir, I was an inward of his; a shy fellow was the Duke, and I know the cause of his withdrawing.—SHAKSPEARE, Measure for Measure, iii. 2.

-Authorised Version,

All my inward friends abhorred me.Job xix. 19.

Shylock. The character of Shylock is that of a man brooding over one idea, that of its wrongs, with a morose, sullen, inward,

inveterate, inflexible malignity. Shakspeare could not easily divest his characters of their entire humanity; he is honest in his vices. Shylock never, that we can find, loses his elasticity and presence of mind, our sympathies are much oftener with him than his enemies, and the character affords another instance of Shakspeare's power of identifying himself with the thoughts of men, their prejudices and almost instincts.-HAZLITT.

J.

Jangle. To prate, wrangle: now, to sound discordantly.

Gapeth as a rook, abroad go the jaw and mouth
Like a jay jangeling in his cage.-LYDGATE.

A Dog. His mouth upon the ground he wipeth,
And so with feigned cheer he sleepeth,

That what as ever of sheep he strangle,

There is no man thereof to jangle.-SPENSER.

Nothing is to be heard but unquiet janglings, open brawlings, secret opposition; the household takes part, and professes a mutual vexation.-Bishop HALL.

Study ought to be made pleasant. I never yet heard of any enterprising and philosophical German illustrating to young ladies a course of musical lectures by means of a violin that went thud, thud, and a piano that went jingle, jangle.-W. THOMPSON.

Jar. Formerly applied to a dissonant noise, as the ticking of a clock.

I love thee not a jar of the clock behind

What lady she her lord.

SHAKSPEARE, Winter's Tale, i. 2.

For now hath time made me his numb'ring clock,
My thoughts are minutes, and with sighs they jar
Their watches to mine eyes.

SHAKSPEARE, Richard II, v. 5.

How sickness enlarges the dimensions of a man's self to himself! He is his own exclusive object; supreme selfishness is inculcated upon him as his only duty. 'Tis the two Tables of the Law to him. He has nothing to think of but how to get well. What passes out of doors, or within them, so he hear not the jarring of them, affects him not. He has put on the strong armour of sickness, he is wrapped in the callous hide of suffering, he keeps his sympathy, like some curious vintage, under trusty lock and key, for his own use only.-C. LAMB.

Jargon.

Incoherent and unintelligible chatter, as of birds. And so the sounding jargon of the schools.'

The sweete jargon of birds.-CHAUCER.

Shelley. He has become the apologist for would-be mystics and dreamers of foolish dreams. The blinding glitter of his diction, the confusion produced on an unsteady mind by the rapid whirl of his dazzling thoughts, have assisted in the formation of a false school of poetry—a school of sounding words and unintelligible metaphysics-a school of crude and bewildered jargonists. -LYTTON.

Jaunt. An excursion: now generally used in its sense of 'flightiness' or 'giddiness.'

Our Saviour meek and with untroubled mind,

After his airy jaunt through troubles sore,

Hungry and cold betook Him to His rest.-MILTON.

A bag-wig of a jauntee air,

Trick'd up with all a barber's care,

Loaded with powder and perfume,

Hung in a spendthrift's dressing-room.-SMART.

Windsor. You will perceive by my date that I am got into a new scene, and that I am retired hither like an old summer