Michelet a much better authority than M. Collin de Plaucy, who, to judge
from his preface to another work, _Le Dictionnaire Infernal_, slavishly
submits his critical acuteness to the dicta of his Church.

J.B.D.

* * * * *

"FEAST" AND "FAST."

I am not going to take part in the game of _hockey_, started by LORD
BRAYBROOKE, and carried on with so much spirit by several of your
correspondents in No. 28.; but I have a word to say to one of the
hockey-players, C.B., who, _per fas et nefas_, has mixed up "feast and
fast" with the game.

C.B. asks, "Is not the derivation of 'feast' and 'fast' originally the
same? that which is appointed connected with 'fas,' and that from 'fari?'"
I should say no; and let me cite the familiar lines from the beginning of
Ovid's _Fasti_:--{12}

"Ne tamen ignores variorum jura dierum
Non habet officii Lucifer omnis idem.
Ille Nefastus erit per quem tria verba silentur:
Fastus, erit per quem lege licebit agi.
Neu toto perstare die sua jura putâris;
Qui jam Fastus erit, manè Nefastus erat.
Nam simul exta Deo data sunt, licet omnia fari;
Verbaque Honoratus libera Praetor habet."