en deficient in the decorum of his manners, and he complained that he
was represented as a drunkard, merely because his _name rhymed_ to
_Cabaret_. Murphy, no doubt, felicitated himself in his literary quarrel
with Dr. _Franklin_, the poet and critical reviewer, by adopting the
singular rhyme of "envy rankling" to his rival's and critic's name.

Superstition has interfered even in the _choice of names_, and this
solemn folly has received the name of a science, called _Onomantia_; of
which the superstitious ancients discovered a hundred foolish mysteries.
They cast up the numeral letters of _names_, and Achilles was therefore
fated to vanquish Hector, from the numeral letters in his name amounting
to a higher number than his rival's. They made many whimsical divisions
and subdivisions of names, to prove them lucky or unlucky. But these
follies are not those that I am now treating on. Some names have been
considered as more auspicious than others. Cicero informs us that when
the Romans raised troops, they were anxious that the _name_ of the first
soldier who enlisted should be one of good augury. When the censors
numbered the citizens, they always began by a fortunate name, such as
_Salvius Valereus_. A person of the name of _Regillianus_ was chosen
emperor, merely from the royal sound of his name, and _Jovian_ was
elected because his name approached nearest to the beloved one of the
philosophic _Julian_. This fanciful superstition was even carried so far
that some were considered as auspicious, and others as unfortunate. The
superstitious belief in _auspicious names_ was so strong, that Caesar,
in his African expedition, gave a command to an obscure and distant
relative of the Scipios, to please the popular prejudice that the
Scipios were invincible in Africa. Suetonius observes that all those of
the family of Caesar who bore the surname of Caius perished by the sword.

The Emperor Severus consoled himself for the licentious life of his
empress Julia, from the fatality attending those of her _name_. This
strange prejudice of lucky and unlucky names prevailed in modern Europe.
The successor of Adrian VI. (as Guicciardini tells us) wished to
preserve his own name on the papal throne; but he gave up the wish when
the conclave of cardinals used the powerful argument that all the popes
who had preserved their own names had died in the first year of their
pontificates. Cardinal Marcel Cervin, who preserved his name when
electe