[F] The proverbial French expression for the thief who rebuked his
reviling comrade at the crucifixion.
[G] Democrite, in an attack upon a heavy diner-out, says,--
"Il creuse son tombeau sans cesse avec ses dents,"--
and thus anticipates Sir Astley Cooper by many years. It is lucky that
these fellows, who took a mean advantage of seniority to get off our
good things before us, have perished, or they might give us trouble. At
least two Frenchmen could claim "the glorious Epicurean paradox" of one
of the seven wise men of Boston, "Give us the luxuries of life, and we
will dispense with its necessaries,"--M. de Voltaire, and M. de
Coulanges, a generation earlier. These "flashing moments" of the wise in
Boston, as in other great places, are often, like heat-lightning,
reflections of a previous flash.