"This is monstrous!" said the learned stickler for forms and ceremonies"monstrous!

This proverb is derived from the Greek, and applied to Theramenes, who was at first a mighty stickler for the thirty tyrants' authority: but when they began to abuse it by defending such outrageous practices, no man more violently opposed it than he; and this (says Potter) got him the nick-name of "Jack of both sides," from Cothurnus, which was a kind of shoe that fitted both feet.

This man possessed great forensic acquirements, and was of spotless private character; but, like the majority of lawyers of that daywhen it was no extraordinary thing to hang twenty men in a morning at Newgatehe was a staunch stickler for the gallows as the only effectual reformer and safeguard of the social state.

We are veritable sticklers for old customs; and accordingly at this season of the year, have our room decorated with holly and other characteristic evergreens.