modify the regulations which gave offence, or to enforce a more punctual observation of them."-HALLAM. Constitutional History of England.

Esteem-Deem.

Of the erroneous employment of "esteem" instead of "deem,"-" consider,".

regard," numerous instances are to be found in some of our ablest writers. Examples:

"The latter pronunciation, though a gross deviation from orthography, will still be esteemed the more elegant."WALKER. Preface to Dictionary.

"The question would hardly have been esteemed dubious, if the bishops had been at all times sufficiently studious to maintain a character of political independence.”—HALLAM. Constitutional History of England.

The following are from Sir Walter Scott, in whose writings this inaccuracy is of frequent

Occurrence :

"The nobles and clergy might esteem themselves fortunate, if they could maintain an effectual defence."-Life of Napoleon. "The apprehension neither altered his firmness upon points to which he esteemed his conscience was party, nor changed the general quiet placidity of his temper."-Ibid.

Through most parts of France the king was esteemed the enemy whom the people had most to dread."-Ibid.

"Such being the case, he would esteem himself but little indebted to any one who should blot the harbour of refuge out of the chart."—Ibid.

"The true Sans-Culottes were disposed to esteem a taste, which could not generally exist without a previous superior education, as something aristocratic."-Ibid.

"Buonaparte took for granted his good-will towards his brother-in-law, the Emperor of Austria, and esteemed it a crime deserving atonement.”—Ibid.

"We have elsewhere said that Buonaparte at this time was esteemed a steady republican."-Ibid.

"The hopes of a complete and final victory over their natural rival and enemy, as the two nations are but over apt to esteem each other, presented a flattering prospect."-Ibid.

"Buonaparte esteemed himself strong enough to obtain a decisive victory without resorting to any such obnoxious violence."—Ibid.

It is surprising to what an extent certain phrases, to the exclusion of more accurate modes of speech, take possession of some writers, and drop, as it were, mechanically from them. Sir Walter's use of "esteem" is an instance; and such is his partiality for that word, that he generally discards, or seems to ignore, the verbs "deem,” “consider," "regard," "hold," "look upon." Such locutions as "to esteem one's-self happy" are merely nonsensical; but "to esteem a thing a crime,"—" to esteem a man an enemy,' -border on the ludicrous.

Lay-Lie.

A flagrant example of this species of blunder is the use of lay instead of lie. "Lie" makes "lay" in the imperfect tense, and this, to a certain extent, may account for the error. It is customary to say "the ship lays at anchor,"

instead of "lies at anchor;" but the only case in which lay can be correctly used in this sense, is when we say "the ship lay at anchor,"-" lay off and on." In these phrases, however, the word lay is no part of the verb lay: it is the imperfect tense of the verb lie. Lay is an active verb; it makes laid in the imperfect tense; and "lays or "laying" cannot be said of a ship or anything else, unless when followed by the objective case-by something that is laid. For instance, we say that a hen lays an egg; that a mason lays a stone upon the mortar. In the same way, if the word be applied to a ship, we must add what the ship lays, or is laying, as "the ship lays her anchor in the sand;" she is "laying her cargo on the wharf."

This confounding of lay and lie, more worthy of the days of barbarism and Babel-building, than of the nineteenth century, originated, no doubt, with that uncompromising specimen of humanity, the British tar. His own irregular movements, and those of his skipper, leave him but little leisure to attend to the movements of the irregular verbs. He finds that lay (the imperfect tense of the neuter verb lie) is applied to a ship in one instance, and, with characteristic straightforwardness, he makes his verb, "lay," "lays," "laying." From constant repetition the expression has become familiar to his superiors in the service, and it is now used by our naval

chroniclers, annalists, and historians, as a neuter verb, instead of "lie," "lies," "lying."

Of all others.

Add to these the anomaly involved in the expression "of all others," which is becoming very common in our day, but which, like most of the blunders that I have had to notice, arises from the circumstance that the writer is thinking of one mode of expression, while he is committing another to paper. Southey :

Here is an example from

“The place to which she was going was the very spot which, of all others in this wide world, she had wished most to see." -The Doctor.

This expression is objectionable not only because it may be omitted altogether, without impairing the meaning, but also because it involves a contradiction. How, in the name of common sense, can one thing be another thing? One thing may be above, beyond other things, or more than other things; but it cannot be of other things. How, for instance, can the spot which Southey's woman wished to see, be one of other spots? What Southey had in his mind was, that the person wished to see the spot in question: more than all other spots. But instead of using other to express "difference," "exclusion," as it commonly does, he employs it to express ❝iden

tity. To make the sentence correct, the words, "of all others," should have been omitted, or the word for which "others" stands, should have been used in its stead, thus :

"The place to which she was going was the very spot which, of all spots in this wide world, she had wished most to see."

Here are some further examples :

"The study of nature in her animal and vegetable kingdoms, although of all others the most obvious and simple, seems to be one of the last which attracted the attention of mankind."RoscoE. Life of Leo X.

"A stain of all others the most readily made and the most difficult to expunge."—Ibid.

"They were of a country which, of all others in Europe, has been most familiar with war."-SIR WALTER SCOTT. Life of Napoleon.

"But half his heart was in his profession, which, of all others, would require the whole."— GILFILLAN. Literary Portraits.

"Astronomy, that star-eyed science,' which, of all others, most denotes the grandeur of our destiny."-Ibid.

The writer most addicted to this fault is Sir A. Alison, from whom I shall have occasion to quote several examples of it in the chapter on "Mannerism."

Among the many curious things that have been given to the world by the author of "Curiosities of Literature," those of his own unconscious making are not the least amusing. Of these I have already cited a few samples; and