I would neither solicit nor accept a peerage. I would not go into Parliament. I would take no part whatever in what is called public life, farther than to give my vote at an election against a Whig, or against any one who would give his in favour of the Catholic Question. I would not wear my coat quite so threadbare as I do at present: but I would still keep to my old shoes, as long as they would keep to me. But stop—Cleopatra adopted some wizard's words when she said “Wishers were ever fools!” CHAPTER CCXXII. ETYMOLOGY.—UN TOUR DE MAÎTRE GONIN.—ROMAN DE VAUDEMONT AND THE LETTER C.—SHENSTONE.—THE DOCTOR'S USE OF CHRISTIAN NAMES. _Πρᾶγμα, πρᾶγμα μέγα κεκίνηται, μέγα._ ARISTOPHANES. _Magnus thesaurus latet in nominibus,_ said Strafford, then Lord Deputy Wentworth, when noticing a most unwise scheme which was supposed to proceed from Sir Abraham Dawes, he observes, it appeared most plainly that he had not his name for nothing! In another letter, he says, “I begin to hope I may in time as well understand these customs as Sir Abraham Dawes. Why should I fear it? for I have a name less ominous than his.” _Gonin_, Court de Gebelin says, is a French word or rather name which exists only in these proverbial phrases, _Maître Gonin_,—_un tour de Maître Gonin_; it designates _un Maître passé en ruses et artifices; un homme fin et rusé._ The origin of the word, says he, was altogether unknown. Menage rejects with the utmost contempt the opinion of those who derive it from the Hebrew ץובנ, _Gwunen_ a diviner, an enchanter. It is true that this etymology has been advanced too lightly, and without proofs: Menage however ought to have been less contemptuous, because he could substitute nothing in its place. It is remarkable that neither Menage nor Court de Gebelin should have known that Maistre Gounin was a French conjurer, as well known in his day as Katterfelto and Jonas, or the Sieur Ingleby Emperor of Conjurors in later times. He flourished in the days of Francis the first, before whom he is said to have made a private exhibition of his art in a manner perfectly characteristic of that licentious King and his profligate court. Thus he effected “_par ses inventions, illusions et sorcelleries et enchantements,—car il estoit un homme fort expert et subtil en son art,_ says Brântome; _et son petit-fils, que nous avons veu, n'y entendoit rien au prix de luy._” Grandfather and grandson having been at the head of their worshipful profession, the name past into a proverbial expression, and survived all memory of the men.