"The 'Agnus' is furious," he writes to Hodgson, in February, 1813, in one of the somewhat ungenerous bursts to which he was too easily provoked.

The purslane, crocus, and periwinkle were thought to inspire love; while the agnus castus and the Saraca Indica (one of the sacred plants of India), a species of the willow, were supposed to drive away all feelings of love.

I have seen it stated ingeniously that it was of his own coinagefrom agnus, a lambbut the derivation is ad gnoscere, to acknowledge, to recognise, and the word is to be found in other placesin "Othello," for example (Act I., Scene 3, line 232):

Then, at the peals of the organ the singers and the worshippers struck up the Agnus Dei; the boys' procession began; behind them came the girls.

talisman, amulet, periapt^, telesm^, phylactery, philter; fetich, fetish; agnus Dei [Lat.], lamb of God; furcula^, madstone^; mascot, mascotte^; merrythought^; Om, Aum^; scarab, scarabaeus^; sudarium^, triskelion, veronica, wishbone; swastika, fylfot^, gammadion^. wand, caduceus, rod, divining rod, lamp of Aladdin^; wishing-cap, Fortunatus's cap. 994.

relics, rosary, beads, reliquary, host, cross, rood, crucifix, pax [Lat.], pyx, agnus Dei [Lat.], censer, thurible, patera^; eileton^, Holy Grail; prayer machine, prayer wheel; Sangraal^, urceus^. ritualism, ceremonialism; sabbatism^, sabbatarianism^; ritualist, sabbatarian^. holyday, feast, fast.

It has been suggested that Lamb favoured this old word also on account of its superficial association with agnus, a lamb.

VITEX AGNUS-CASTUS.Chaste Tree, Hemp Tree, and Monk's Pepper-tree.

Loropetalum chinense* Magnolia grandiflora* Nesaea salicifolia* Passiflora caerulea* Rubus nutkanus Sophora japonica* Spiraea Douglasii Lindleyana Vitex Agnus-castus SEPTEMBER.

The most celebrated and precious charm, however, (for the above are mostly against every-day occurrences) was the Agnus Dei, which was a "preservative against all manner of evil, a perfect catholicon; and blessed indeed was the individual who possessed a treasure so valuable."

Sir Thomas, after having been so hard pressed as to send the Agnus Dei he wore to his father as a signal for help, afterwards with Sir Marmaduke Constable defeated the Earl of Crawford, whose division was opposed to him.

Upon their breasts hung a piece of lead with this inscription: 'Agnus Dei qui tollis peccata mundi dona nobis pacem.'

Beneath the circles, all the quire was graced With chaplets green on their fair foreheads placed: 170 Of laurel some, of woodbine many more; And wreaths of Agnus castus others bore; These last, who with those virgin crowns were dress'd, Appear'd in higher honour than the rest.

A crown of ruddy gold enclosed her brow, Plain without pomp, and rich without a show: A branch of Agnus castus in her hand

And, for the spotless name of maid she bears, 510 That Agnus castus in her hand appears; And all her train, with leafy chaplets crown'd, Were for unblamed virginity renown'd; But those the chief and highest in command Who bear those holy branches in their hand: The knights adorn'd with laurel crowns are they, Whom death nor danger ever could dismay,

[Footnote 75: 'Agnus castus:' a flower representing chastity.]

Of this odd sort of words, I quote the following examples from Churchill; taking the liberty to insert the hyphen, which he omits: "Ave-Maries, Te-Deums, camera-obscuras, agnus-castuses, habeas-corpuses, scire-faciases, hiccius-docciuses, hocus-pocuses, ignis-fatuuses, chef-d'oeuvres, congé-d'élires, flower-de-luces, louis-d'-ores, tête-à-têtes.

BURRELL, AGNUS, ed.

He generally stands, "clad in his raiment of camel's hair, having a girdle round his loins," and in his hand a reed cross, round which is bound a scroll with the words "Ecce Agnus Dei" ("Behold the Lamb of God"), while with his finger he points up to the enthroned group above him, expressing the text from St. Luke (c. ii.), "And thou, CHILD shalt be called the Prophet of the Highest," as in Francia's picture in our National Gallery.

Sometimes he bears a lamb in his arms, the Ecce Agnus Dei in form instead of words.

" The first is, I think, the meaning when the cross is enwreathed with the Ecce Agnus Dei; the latter, when it is a simple cross.

St. John the Baptist, not as a child, and the contemporary of our Saviour, but in likeness of an Arcadian shepherd, kneels with his cross and his lambthe Ecce Agnus Dei, expressed, not in words, but in form.

Rhodias superbi feminas prement galli Sonantque turres plausibus columbarum, Gemit hinc palumbus, inde cereus turtur Avidi sequuntur villicae sinum porci: Matremque plenam mollis agnus exspectat.

AGNUS DEI, the figure of a lamb bearing a cross as a symbol of Christ, or a medal with this device; also a prayer in the Mass beginning with the words, "Lamb of God.

490 Vitex Agnus Castus Chaste Tree c.m. 491 - v. latifolia Broad-leaved ditto c.m. TETRADYNAMIA SILICULOSA.