“Here is a nice little Latin phrase, and rare too, (one can’t be too recherche or brief in one’s Latin, it’s getting so common —­ ignoratio elenchi.  He has committed an ignoratio elenchi —­ that is to say, he has understood the words of your proposition, but not the idea.  The man was a fool, you see.  Some poor fellow whom you address while choking with that chicken-bone, and who therefore didn’t precisely understand what you were talking about.  Throw the ignoratio elenchi in his teeth, and, at once, you have him annihilated.  If he dares to reply, you can tell him from Lucan (here it is) that speeches are mere anemonae verborum, anemone words.  The anemone, with great brilliancy, has no smell.  Or, if he begins to bluster, you may be down upon him with insomnia Jovis, reveries of Jupiter —­ a phrase which Silius Italicus (see here!) applies to thoughts pompous and inflated.  This will be sure and cut him to the heart.  He can do nothing but roll over and die.  Will you be kind enough to write?

“In Greek we must have some thing pretty —­ from Demosthenes, for example. !<,D@ N,LT8 ¯"4 B"84< :"P,F,J"4

[Anerh o pheugoen kai palin makesetai] There is a tolerably good translation of it in Hudibras

   ’For he that flies may fight again,
    Which he can never do that’s slain.’

In a Blackwood article nothing makes so fine a show as your Greek.  The very letters have an air of profundity about them.  Only observe, madam, the astute look of that Epsilon!  That Phi ought certainly to be a bishop!  Was ever there a smarter fellow than that Omicron?  Just twig that Tau!  In short, there is nothing like Greek for a genuine sensation-paper.  In the present case your application is the most obvious thing in the world.  Rap out the sentence, with a huge oath, and by way of ultimatum at the good-for-nothing dunder-headed villain who couldn’t understand your plain English in relation to the chicken-bone.  He’ll take the hint and be off, you may depend upon it.”

These were all the instructions Mr. B. could afford me upon the topic in question, but I felt they would be entirely sufficient.  I was, at length, able to write a genuine Blackwood article, and determined to do it forthwith.  In taking leave of me, Mr. B. made a proposition for the purchase of the paper when written; but as he could offer me only fifty guineas a sheet, I thought it better to let our society have it, than sacrifice it for so paltry a sum.  Notwithstanding this niggardly spirit, however, the gentleman showed his consideration for me in all other respects, and indeed treated me with the greatest civility.  His parting words made a deep impression upon my heart, and I hope I shall always remember them with gratitude.