"SELEUCUS" "conclude" that Goldsmith's "Poor Beau Tibbs and Kitty his
Wife," should have had "a _silver_ tureen" of expensive construction? It
is evident that "Kitty's" husband, in the "Haunch of Venison," was the
Beau Tibbs of the "Citizen of the World." There can be no doubt that,
however the word be spelled, {407} the meaning is _swingeing_, "huge,
great," which I admit was generally, if not always, in those days
spelled swinging, as in Johnson--"_Swinging_, from _swinge, huge,
great_;" but which ought to be, as it is pronounced, _swingeing_.

_Tureen_ (pp. 246. 307. 340.).--"And instead of soup in a China
terrene." (Knox, Essay 57 _Works_. vol. ii. p. 572.)

S.S.S.


_"A" or "An."--Quem Deus vult perdere._--Allow me to refer your
correspondents "PRISCIAN" and "E.S. JACKSON" (of No. 22.), to the
_Selections from the Gentleman's Magazine_, London, 1814, vol. ii. pp.
333. and 162., for some interesting papers on the subjects of their
respective inquiries.

The paper first referred to, at p. 333., is certainly well worth
perusal, as the writer, "KUSTER," has examined the question with
considerable care, and proves, by many curious instances, that most of
those whom we have been taught to look up to as the greatest authorities
in English writing--Dryden, Swift, Pope, Johnson, and others--seem to
have had no fixed rule on the subject, but to have used "a" or "an"
before the same words with the most reckless inconsistency.

The second paper, at p. 162., gives a more detailed account of the