> 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