[Boyer, in his _French Dictionary_, explains it: "Le morceau gras
d'une éclanche ou d'un gigot de mouton." Others have derived it
from _popa_, which seems originally to have denoted that part of
the _fat_ of the victim separated from the thigh in sacrificing;
and in process of time, the priest who sacrificed.]
_"History is Philosophy," &c._--What is the exact source of the often
repeated passage,
"History is philosophy teaching by examples?"
I am aware that it is commonly attributed to Bolingbroke, but a
distinguished literary friend tells me that he cannot find it in
Bolingbroke's writings, and suspects that, as is the case with some
other well-known sayings, its paternity is unknown.