nts called their children what they
_wished_ them to be, in the hope that they would grow to the standard
thus imposed. And it is no doubt, true, that names thus bestowed had
much influence in the development of character--on the same principle,
upon which the boards, to which Indian women lash their infants soon
after birth, have much to do with the erect carriage of the mature
savage. Such an appellation is a perpetual memento of parental
counsels--a substitute for barren precept--an endless exhortation to
Grace, Charity, or Prudence.

I do not mean, that calling a boy Cicero will certainly make him an
orator, or that all Jeremiahs are necessarily prophets; nor is it
improbable, that the same peculiarities in the parents, which dictate
these expressive names, may direct the characters of the children, by
controlling their education; but it is unquestionable, that the
characteristics, and even the fortunes of the man, are frequently
daguerreotyped by a name given in infancy. There is not a little wisdom
in the advice of Sterne to godfathers--not "to Nicodemus a man into
nothing."--"Harsh names," says D'Israeli, the elder, "will have, in
spite of all our philosophy, a painful and ludicrous effect on our ears
and our associations; it is vexatious, that the softness of delicious
vowels, or the ruggedness of inexorable consonants, should at all be
connected with a man's happiness, or even have an influence on his
fortune."

"That which we call a rose,
By any other name would smell as sweet;"

but this does not touch the question, whether, if it had not smelt as
sweet we would not have given it some other name. The celebrated
demagogue, Wilkes, is reported to have said, that, "without knowing the
comparative merits of the two poets, we would have no hesitation in
preferring John Dryden to Elkanah Settle, _from the names only_." And
the reason of this truth is to be found in the fact, that our
impressions of both men and things depend upon associations, often
beyond our penetration to detect--associations with which _sound_,
depending on hidden laws, has quite as much to do, as _sense_.

Among those who have carried the custom of picturesque or expressive
naming, to an extent bordering on the ridiculous, were the hard-headed
champions of the true church-militant, the English puritans--as Hume,
the bigoted old Tory, rather ill-naturedly testifies! And the puritans
of _New_ England--whatever advancing in