Page:The New Monthly Magazine - Volume 007.djvu/201

 cataracts—embosomed in chesnut-groves, or sheltered by the tall black firs of the mountain. The building itself is a large low square mass composed of rude half-hewn timbers mortised together, the roof covered with timber or slate, with large pieces of rock and stone laid on the top to keep the roof fast. The interior is fitted up with shelves and dairy utensils—wooden-bowls, churns, ladles, &c. hang round with cleanliness and convenience. The milk, butter, laitage and cheese are worthy of the Alps—of a delicacy and richness which lowland pastures never equal. After making a hearty repast at the châlet on the Wengern Alp, we descended to Grindelwald, where we arrived towards evening, and saw the snows of the Eiger and the Wetterhorn, tinted and emblasoned by all the purple and roseate hues of a splendid setting sun.

—There are very few appellatives which were originally used in a bad signification: and none, perhaps, at the epoch of their formation were considered as indecent. It is the nature of things and the perversity of the human imagination which convert the most innocent arrangements of letters and syllables into offence: and when a word is driven out of good company, with the etymology of which I am unacquainted, I am strongly tempted to exclaim with Bardolf, "By this day, I know not the phrase, but I will maintain the word with my sword to be a soldier-like word, and a word of exceeding good command."

We know that some of the coarsest terms in our language were formerly used in good society, and that many ideas which we are now forced to insinuate by the most roundabout periphrases, were expressed by our ancestors in very plain English. Etymology teaches us that "Villain" meant originally a country fellow; and Knave, Harlot, and Varlet were simply designations of serving-men.

So likewise "Tyrant" and "Despot" originally implied no bad quality in the person that bore them, and indicated merely the sort of authority they exercised. But as serving-men were, in rerum natura, prone to indulge in little peccadilloes, and despots and tyrants to amuse themselves with great ones, the influence of things determined the associations of ideas; and neither of the parties felt particularly flattered by hearing themselves addressed in terms which raked up by their very sound all the evil doings of their predecessors.

Some words have suffered great varieties of fortune, and have figured with very various effect in conversation. "Marechal," for example, which was originally a master of the horse, has risen to be a commander-in-chief, and sunk again into a tipstaff and a blacksmith. So its