United States or Kiribati ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
"Perhaps you might sometimes," said the doctor, "be of these sentiments; but you remember your own Virgil Varium et mutabile semper faemina." "Nay, Amelia," said Mrs. Atkinson, "you are now concerned as well as I am; for he hath now abused the whole sex, and quoted the severest thing that ever was said against us, though I allow it is one of the finest."
"You tell me what would be incredible of a nation which did not deserve the character that Virgil gives of a woman, varium et mutabile semper.
They remind you of Professor Anderson and his Inexhaustible Bottle. Like Paddy Byrne's barometer, they are "stuck fast at Changeable." They are always on the move. Like Virgil's lady, they are varium et mutabile. Like Shakespeare's gentlemen, they are Deceivers ever, One foot on shore and one foot on sea, To one thing constant never.
"Varium et mutabile semper faemina!" reflected Rosa, who knew that much Latin and attracted by the waving of the bright grasses beneath the waves of the rivulet they were crossing, she stopped to lean over the railing and poke them aside from the stones with a chincapin switch she had picked up a little way back. Mabel did not look around; apparently did not observe that she walked on alone.
Blount took an opportunity to whisper into Raleigh's ear, "This storm came like a levanter in the Mediterranean." "VARIUM ET MUTABILE," answered Raleigh, in a similar tone. "Nay, I know nought of your Latin," said Blount; "but I thank God Tressilian took not the sea during that hurricane. He could scarce have missed shipwreck, knowing as he does so little how to trim his sails to a court gale."
Sect. 9. 4. Let our opposites say to us, once for all, upon what precept of the law of nature do they ground the ceremonies; for I have before opened up all sorts of things which the law of nature requireth of man as he is ens; and as he is animal belongeth not to our purpose. As for that which it requireth of him as he is a creature endued with reason, there is one part of it that concerneth ourselves, viz., that we should live honestly, and secundum modum rationis, that we should observe order and decency in all our actions. This order and decency do not respect our holy duties to God, nor comprehend any sacred ceremony in his worship; but they look to usward, and are referred only to such beseeming qualities as are congruous and convenient to a reasonable nature in all its actions. Yea, even generally, we may say with Scalliger, Ordinem dico sine quo natura constare non potest. Nihil enim absque ordine vel med tata est vel effecit illa. Another part of that which nature requireth of man, as he is a creature endued with reason, concerneth (as we showed) our neighbours, whom it teacheth us not to harm nor offend, &c. And if our opposites would reckon with us here, their ceremonies will appear repugnant to nature, because of the detriment and offence which they offer unto us, whereof we have spoken in our argument of scandal. But there was a third part, concerning God and his worship; and here must our opposites seek a warrant for the ceremonies. Now, albeit nature (as was said) teaches all men that there is an eternal and mighty God, who should be worshipped and honoured by them, yet it descendeth not unto such particular precepts as can have any show of making aught for significant ceremonies. Omnibus enim innatum est et in animo quasi insculptum, esse deos; but yet quales sint, saith Cicero, varium est. And as nature hath not taught men to know the nature and attributes of the Godhead, together with the sacred Trinity of persons in the same; so neither hath it taught what sort or manner of worship should be given unto God. Lex naturalis rerum communium est, and doth only inform us with those common notions called κοιναὶ εννοιαὶ. Concerning the worship of God, it speaks only de genere, not de specie: wherefore there can be no inference from that worship which the law of nature requireth, either of any distinct kind of worship or of any ceremony in that kind, no more than it followeth, Si est animal, est Asinus; for
"Perhaps you might sometimes," said the doctor, "be of these sentiments; but you remember your own Virgil Varium et mutabile semper faemina." "Nay, Amelia," said Mrs. Atkinson, "you are now concerned as well as I am; for he hath now abused the whole sex, and quoted the severest thing that ever was said against us, though I allow it is one of the finest."
I am compensated, however, by the possession of the first volume of the "Noces de Picciola," or "Cari-catures," as they are called. On the title-page Bobtail is made to say: "If Carry were to marry one of us, I'd give thee any odds she would be safe, O Rag, to love the other " "Varium et mutabile semper femina," he adds, and his story illustrates the truth of the poet's words.
She had already forgotten her vows to her Sichaeus, and varium et nutabile semper femina is the sharpest satire in the fewest words that ever was made on womankind; for both the adjectives are neuter, and animal must be understood to make them grammar. Virgil does well to put those words into the mouth of Mercury.
Let me consider your letter not written, and continue on the same terms as we were before. Perhaps, as George knows Virgil, you might find your own schoolboy recollections of that poet useful here, and add, /Varium et mutabile semper femina/; hackneyed, but true." "My dear Chillingly, your suggestion is capital. How the deuce at your age have you contrived to know the world so well?"
Word Of The Day