APPLAUSE. Noisy flattery, which we lavish freely on those who amuse and divert us; but with which we rarely recompence a good action. A distemper of public assemblies, especially in capitals.

APRICOT. There are countries where the men to whom they give places are like the apricots; never chosen at their maturity, but always too young or too old.

ARBITRARY POWER. What every one wishes to exercise, but by which no one is willing to be governed.

ARCHIVES. Depositaries of many respectable chimeras and many useful impostures.

ARGUMENT. The scourge of the mind. An abuse of speech.

ARISTOCRAT. A partizan of absolute power. One who despises the rights of the people, and only respects persons, birth, rank, riches, or such as live upon public plunder. In France, this name is more particularly applied to those who regret the destruction of the feudal system, the privileges, the corvees, the monks, and the tythes.

ARITHMETIC. The science of numbers, which enables one to dispense with wit, and take the place of sensibility.

ARMIES. Masses of men which sovereigns send to kill each other, under pretence of procuring glory and happiness for their people. An assemblage of soldiers, who kill without knowing each other, in defence of a man whom they most probably detest.

ARMS. Instruments of the most cruel passions, but which sometimes execute the most noble actions.

ARROGANCE. The master-key of stupidity and folly.

ARTIZAN. The bee of scciety, despised by the drones, who feed on the produce of his industry.

ARTS, Inventions of genius, parfected by taste.

ASTRONOMY. A science, which exhibits the human mind in all its greatness, and teaches man his own littleness.

ATHEIST. A term of reproach, applied by the ignorant or fanatical, to men who are superior to vulgar prejudices, and think it is possible to be good, without being superstitious and intolerant.

ATTACHMENT. A sentiment produced by desire, but weakened by possession. ATTORNEY. A cat who settles differences between mice.

AUGUST. An adjective, which will be used as long as we have princes and courtiers.

AUSTERITY Is, in the virtuous, ostentation; in the vicious, imposture; in the proud, artifice; and serves the ambitious for a cloak.

AUTHOR. An indefinable being, who would govern the whole world, without being able to govern himself; who lives on smoke, and puts himself up for sale every day.

AUTO-DA-FE. An outrage on religica. They do not enlighten men by burning them to death.

AVARICE. There is something in this passion which may be compared to fire, the violence of which increases in proportion to the quantity of combustible matter which is put on it for fuel.

B.

BABBLER. One who is fond of hearing himself talk. A tiresome person who says every thing he thinks; tells you all that he wishes-every thing he knows—and, when he has done that, all that he does not know. BALDERDASH. May be divided into two classes, simple and compound. The

simple is understood by the author, but not by the public. Compound-balderdash is neither understood by the public, nor by Him who writes it.

BANKRUPTCY. The method of gettig rich by rules of art.

BANNER. The cockade of govern

men's.

BARBARIANS. A name given to people who have not the canning to conceal their faults, their vices, or their turpitude, under an agreeable appearance.

BARS. A defence very impotent against the stratagems of love.

BASHFULNESS. A grace which adds value to all other qualifications.

BASTARDY. A destiny which the in justice of men has rendered dishonourable; by which innocence is punished, and which all the virtues united cannot efface.

BASTILES. Strong prisons, which provoke revolutions, but do not stop their course.

BATTLE. A political auto-da-fe. BAYONET. A weapon which renders every thing just; an unanswerable argu

ment.

BEATIFICATION. A solemn act, by which the pope declares to the universe that some particular individual enjoys eternal felicity. The best catholics only believe as much as they think proper.

BELIEF. The opposite of knowledge. BELLS. Instruments of superstition and of liberty; much less useful in burying the dead than in calling up the living; and often more powerful in kindling a conflagration than in stopping one.

BENEFIT. A trophy erected in an ungrateful heart. Of all things in the world, that which grows off the soonest is a benefit.

BIOGRAPHY OF LIVING CHARAC

TERS. A speculation on misfortune; a species of assassination which is not yet punished. A new poison, said Voltaire, has been invented in low literature-the art of outraging both the living and the dead, in alphabetical order.

BIRTH. A title which is worth as much as it has cost.

BISHOPS. Successors, in splendid equipages, to poor fishermen, who wandered about Palestine on foot. Servants of two masters, one of which pays, and the other commands.

BLAMING. A propensity of hasty minds, a habit of weak ones; the passion of wicked

ones.

BLINDNESS. A certain formation of the eye, which prevents you from recognizing an old friend when in distress.

BLOCKHEAD. A kind of pitcher, which any one may take by the handle, and carry where he pleases. A little troublesome being, always moving about, and to be met with every where; who frequently gains his end when men of sense fail. I pity my children for having sense, said a lady, for if they were blockheads, they would make a fortune, like their uncle.

BLOW. The end of a conversation, and the commencement of a duel.

BLUSH. A very equivocal sign of modesty and bashfulness Our blushes are more frequently the result of pride than modesty.

BOARDING-SCHOOL. A place where young ladies learn to dance, to receive and write love-letters, and to ogle the male creatures.

BOASTER. One who is despised by men of sense, but respected by weak men.

BOLT. A thing of great service against the troublesome and impertinent. It fastens our doors; prevents the babbler from coming

in; keeps out the crowd; and leaves us at liberty to be with ourselves.

BON MOT. The expressing, in a new and pointed manner, what every one has in

his mind.

BON TON. A dignified freedom in discourse; a natural politeness in expression; a decency of behaviour; a propriety of deportment, which confounds neither ranks, conditions, qualities, titles, nor persons. It enables us to feel equally what we owe to others, and what we owe to ourselves.

BOOKSELLER. A man who lives on the wit of others; a speculator upon the curiosity, and more frequently on the stu→ ridity of the public. One may say of an ignorant bookseller, that he lives, in the midst of his books, like an eunuch in a seglio.

BOUDOIR. The coquet's gymnastic

quire of their ministers. The thermometer of public misery or prosperity.

BULL. A piece of parchment, to which is affixed a seal of lead, but which is fre quently considered no weightier on that ac

count.

BULLETIN. A report, in which it is customary to magnify the good, and diminish the evil.

BUSINESS. Every thing which serves to fill the purse. To make business, is the business of those who have none.

BUT. A particle very consoling to the self-love of those who are obliged to eulogize some one.

C.

CABAL. A petty method of accomplishing great things. An art, which has been brought to perfection in our days, and which is not disdained either by policy or talent. -(Vide Election-Theatre.

CABINET. A great manufactory of iniquities. The study of kings.

CADUCEUS. The attribute of Mercury. It opens the door of courts to those who choose to carry it.

CALCULATION. The science most generally cultivated, because it is the most lucrative, and can dispense with wit and study.

CALENDAR. A time-piece which youth consults with hope, middle age with anxiety, and old age with alarm.

CAMELEON. A little animal, very common in our days, who assumes all colours, without changing his nature, and to whom, one change is a transition towards another. CAMPAIGNS. The soldier's title to

nobility.

CANAILLE. A term which is very often better adapted to him who uses it, than to those to whom it is applied. A word much in use among titled blockheads, to denote

useful men.

The Marchioness de B-, seeing a commoner come out, who had spoken in favour of the nobility, said, "We must agree that there are still some of the canaille who think well."

CANDIDATE. A man who is on the road to honours, and who does the most base and humble things to-day, in hopes that to-morrow he may give himself airs of tasolence.

CANDOUR. The quality of a sensible and just man, by the effects of which rogues prosper.

CANNON. The only king who exercises universal monarchy.

CAPACITY. A quality almost useless in society, for it is not asked whether the man be fit for the place, but whether the place will suit the man.

CAPITALIST. A speculator useful or dangerous, according as his conscience is more or less elastic.

CAPRICE. A modification of tyranny with which they reproach beauty, but which is practiced with equal success even by ugliness herself.

CARESSES. A method of supplying what one ought to feel, of replying to what we do not believe, and of returning thanks for what we do not want.

CARDS. Little pieces of pasteboard, painted red and black, for the amusement of the idle, and the ruin of families. CARICATURES. Epigrams expressed by pictures.

CARNAL-MAN. One who is so unfortunate as to be made of flesh and blood.

CASTRATO. A martyr to music. CASUIST. A spiritual algebraist, who knows how to calculate and reduce to. equations the follies which a Christian may commit, and the precise extent he may go in iniquity, without risking eternal damnation.

CAUTIOUS MAN. He has more cun

ning than sense, seldom worthy of confis dence, or susceptible of friendship.

CELEBRITY. The advantage of being known to persons who have never seen you; of being insulted in the newspapers; calumniated and denounced in public; and purchasing, by innumerable mortifications, a life of anxiety and uneasiness, in the hopes of being spoken well of after your death.

CELIBACY. A very convenient state for those who are desirous of enjoying the pleasures of matrimony without suffering its pains.

CENSORSHIP (of the Press.) A system by which our thoughts are put under quarantine.

Quelquefois dans Paris, un commis à la phrase

Me dit: à mon bureau venez vous adresser Sans l'agrément du roi vous ne pouvez penser,

Pour avoir de l'esprit allez à la police;

Les filles y vont bien sans qu'aucune en rougisse;

Leur métier vaut le votre, il est cent fols plus doux.

A magistrate's clerk once said to me, at Paris: come and make application at my office, for you cannot think without consent of the king; nor possess wit without permission of the police. The prostitutes blush not to go there for a license to whore, and their trade is more profitable than yours, and a hundred times more agreeable.

CERBERUS. The porter to a minister of state-a school-master-a jealous husband. CEREMONIOUS MAN. One always occupied with others, and always paid with ingratitude.

CHANCE. The god of atheists. A word of great importance to the ignorant, whe