[Brand quotes Vallancey and Leo Modena for the use of the
marriage ring among the Jews (_Popular Antiq._, vol. ii. p.
103. edit. 1849). Wheatly, however, has given the most
detailed account of its origin:--"The reason," he says, "why a
ring was pitched upon for the pledge rather than anything else
was, because anciently the ring was a _seal_, by which all
orders were signed, and things of value secured (Gen. xxxviii.
18., Esther iii. 10. 12., 1 Maccab. vi. 15.); and therefore
the delivery of it was a sign that the person to whom {333} it was
given was admitted into the highest friendship and trust (Gen.
xli. 42.). For which reason it was adopted as a ceremony in
marriage to denote that the wife, in consideration of her
being espoused to the man, was admitted as a sharer in her
husband's counsels, and a joint-partner in his honour and
estate: and therefore we find that not only the _ring_, but
the _keys_ also were in former times delivered to her at the
marriage. That the ring was in use among the old Romans, we
have several undoubted testimonies (Juvenal, _Sat._ vi. ver.
26, 27.; Plin. _Hist. Nat._, lib. iii. c. i.; Tertull.
_Apol._, c. vi. p. 7. A.). Pliny, indeed, tells us, that in
his time the Romans used an iron ring without any jewel; but
Tertullian hints, that in the former ages it was a ring of
gold."--_Rational Illustration of the Common Prayer_, p. 390.
edit. 1759.]
_Amusive._--Is this word peculiar to Thomson, or is it made use of by
other poets? Its meaning does not appear to be very definite. In the
_Spring_ it is applied to the rooks, with their "ceaseless caws
amusive;" in the _Summer_ to the thistledown, which "amusive floats;"
and in the _Autumn_, the theory of the supposed cause of mountain
springs is called an "amusive dream." Thomson seems to have been partial
to these kind of adjectives, "effusive," "diffusive," "prelusive," &c.