life, have performed anything great or honourable; but when he found
that honest _John Cuts_ displayed a hospitality which had nothing
monosyllabic in it, he groaned only at the utterance of the _name_ of
his host.

There are _names_, indeed, which in the social circle will in spite of
all due gravity awaken a harmless smile, and Shenstone solemnly thanked
God that his name was not liable to a pun. There are some names which
excite horror, such as Mr. Stabback; others contempt, as Mr. Twopenny;
and others of vulgar or absurd signification, subject too often to the
insolence of domestic witlings, which occasions irritation even in the
minds of worthy, but suffering, men.

There is an association of pleasing ideas with certain _names_,--and in
the literary world they produce a fine effect. _Bloomfield_ is a name
apt and fortunate for a rustic bard; as _Florian_ seems to describe his
sweet and flowery style. Dr. Parr derived his first acquaintance with
the late Mr. _Homer_ from the aptness of his name, associating with his
pursuits. Our writers of romances and novels are initiated into all the
arcana of _names_, which cost them many painful inventions. It is
recorded of one of the old Spanish writers of romance, that he was for
many days at a loss to coin a fit name for one of his giants; he wished
to hammer out one equal in magnitude to the person he conceived in
imagination; and in the haughty and lofty name of _Traquitantos_, he
thought he had succeeded. Richardson, the great father of our novelists,
appears to have considered the _name_ of Sir _Charles Grandison_ as
_perfect_ as his character, for his heroine writes, "You know his _noble
name_, my Lucy." He felt the same for his _Clementina_, for Miss Byron
writes, "Ah, Lucy, what a _pretty name_ is _Clementina_!" We experience
a certain tenderness for _names_, and persons of refined imaginations
are fond to give affectionate or lively epithets to things and persons
they love. Petrarch would call one friend _Lellus_, and another
_Socrates_, as descriptive of their character.

In our own country, formerly, the ladies appear to have been equally
sensible to poetical or elegant _names_, such as _Alicia, Celicia,
Diana, Helena_, &c. Spenser, the poet, gave to his two sons two _names_
of this kind; he called one _Silvanus_, from the woody Kilcolman, his
estate; and the other _Peregrine_, from his having been born in a
strange place, and his mother then travelling. The f