"When Dido found Æneas would not come,
She mourned in silence, and was Di-do-dum."
Gerunds in di have the same construction as genitive cases, and depend
both on certain substantives and adjectives, as
Londinensem innatus amor civem urget edendi:
An innate love of eating excites the London citizen.
People are accustomed to utter a great deal of cant about the
intellectual poverty of civic magistrates, and common councilmen in
general; but it must be allowed that those respectable individuals have
often _a great deal in them_.
[Illustration: TURTUR ALDERMANICUS.]
Gerunds in do have the same construction with ablative, and gerunds in
dum with accusative cases, as
Scribendi ratio conjuncta cum loquendo est:
The means of writing are joined with speaking.
Some things are written precisely after the writer's way of speaking. We
once, for example, saw the following notice posted in a gentleman's
preserve.
Whear 'as Gins and Engens are Set on
Thes Grouns for the Destruction Of
Varmint, Any trespussing Will be prossy-
Cuted a-cordin Too Law.
Locus ad agendum amplissimus:
A place very honourable to plead in.
It may be questioned whether Cicero would have said this of the Old
Bailey.
When necessity is signified, the gerund in dum is used without a
preposition, the verb est being added.
Cavendum est ne deprênsus sis:
You must take care you 're not caught out.
[Illustration]
A piece of advice of special importance to schoolboys on many occasions,
such as the following: shirking down town; making devils, or letting off
gunpowder behind the school, or in the yard; conducting a foray or
predatory excursion in gardens and orchards; emulating Jupiter, à la
Salmoneus,-- in his attribute of Cloud-Compelling-- by blowing a cloud,
or to speak in the vernacular, indulging in a cigar; hoisting a frog;
tailing a dog or cat, or in any other way acting contrary to the
precepts of the Animals' Friend Society; learning to construe on the
Hamiltonian system; furtively denuding the birch-rods of their "budding
honours." Cum multis aliis quæ nunc perscribere longum est.