AMBIGUOUS SENTENCES.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1855, 19 February 1889, Page 4

AMBIGUOUS SENTENCES.

It is said that when Jacob Beehme, the famous philosopher, was on his deathbed some of his pupils came to him to have an obscure passage in his writings explained before he died. After puzzling over it a while ho said : “My dear children, when I wrote this I understood its meaning, and no doubt the omniscient God did. He may still remember it, but I have forgotten.” , Edopstock, the German poet, was once visited by some students from Gottingen to have the meaning of one of bis stanzas explained. After reading the stanzas he replied; “I cannot recollect what I meant when I wrote it, but I remember that it was the finest thing I ever wrote, and you cannot do better than devote your lives to the discovery of its meaning.” A comical sentence appeared in the programme of a concert given by M. Gounod, of London. The eighth song was printed, “ ‘ She wandered ; down the mountain side ’ accompanied by the composer.” A lady in advertising herself as a teacher, referred to the “ reputation Of teaching she bears.” Instances of “ neglecting the antecedent ” are amusing. In an old geography we are told that Albane is “ a town of three hundred houses and twelve hundred inhabitants, all with their gable ends towards the street.” . A furrier once announced that he prepared to “ make up capes, circulars, &c., for ladies out of their Own skins.” A match vendor of London used the following street cry ; “ Buy a penny worth of matches from a poor old man made of foreign wood.” Some years ago a member of the noted Savage'Club, of London, was standing on the steps of the Clubhouse. A man stopped and asked, “ Does a gentleman belong to your club with one eye named Walker ? ” “I don’t know,” was the reply, “ What was the name of the other eye ? ” The father did not speak with clearness when he exhibited a fiddle made hy his son, and said: “He made it out of his head and has wood enough left to make another one.” We occasionally read in the papers about “terracotta ladies’ gloves,” “octagonal men’s cassimere pantaloons,” or “ woollen children’s mitts,” &c. Or that a “ snake was killed by a boy 12ft long,” or a thrifty housewife “ washes and irons herself every week,” or that a man wants “ a boy to drive a horse who lives with his parents.”