Re: OT: What? the clean-shaven outnumber the bearded?"YerUgly Mug," etc.

Stone Gordonssen scripsit:

> >What was our old adage? "No cross no crown"?
>
> Explicame, por favor?
People seem to be using it in the sense "Don't discuss religion or
politics", which is a most interesting semantic shift.  When William
Penn (later the founder of Pennsylvania) wrote a pamphlet with this
name back in 1668, he meant "If you don't endure the suffering of
life (the Cross) patiently and prayerfully, you will not get your
reward (the Crown) in heaven".  Quite a switch!

But then people always say "more honored in the breach than in the
observance" in the sense of "more often honored", whereas a look at
_Hamlet_ shows that the original sense was "more *fitly* honored".
So it goes.

--
Business before pleasure, if not too bloomering long before.
        --Nicholas van Rijn
                John Cowan <jcowan@...>
                        http://www.ccil.org/~cowan  http://www.reutershealth.com

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