Urbi pater est, urbique maritus. --Gram. Eton.
He is the father of the city, and the husband of the city.
He must have been a pretty fellow, whoever he was.
An adjective of the neuter gender, put without a substantive, sometimes
requires a genitive case, as
Paululùm honestatis sartori sufficit:
A very little honesty is enough for a tailor.
A genitive case is sometimes placed alone; the preceding substantive
being understood by the figure ellipsis, as
Ubi ad magistri veneris, cave verbum de porco:
When you are come to the master's (house), not a word about the pig.
The word pig is a very general term, and is used to signify not only the
animal so called, and such of the human race as resemble him in habits,
appearance, or feelings; but also to denote a variety of little things,
which it is sometimes necessary to keep secret. A pedagogue now and then
discovers a _pig-tail_ appended to his coat collar-- this, or rather the
way in which it got there, is one of the little _pigs_ in question.
Robbing the larder or the garden is another; so is insinuating
horse-hairs into the cane, or putting cobbler's wax on the seat of
learning -- we mean the master's stool. A sort of _pig_ (or rather a
_rat_) is sometimes _smelt_ by the master on taking his nightly walk
though the dormitories, when roast fowl, mince pies, bread and cheese,
shrub, punch, &c. have been slyly smuggled into those places of repose.
Shirking down town is always a _pig_, and the consequences thereof, in
case of discovery, a great _bore_.
Considering that a secret is a _pig_, it is singular that betraying one
should be called letting the _cat_ out of the bag.
[Plate:
SMELLING A PIG.]