...Whatsoever personage a man takes upon himself to perform, he ever mixes his own part with it.
twist - fig. To wrest the form or meaning of, to pervert, to distort
penman - a writer or composer of a book or other writing; an author, a writer.
gist - the substance or pith of a matter, the essence or main part gest
Shan - (A member of) a group of Mongoloid peoples of the Tai family, inhabiting parts of Burma, south China, and Indo-China.
counterfeit - that pretends or is falsely represented to be (what is denoted by the noun); sham, pretended.
ye - and; also, too
reverie* - a state of joy or delight (obs. rare.); a fit of abstracted musing, a 'brown study' or day-dream.
grumble - to utter murmurs expressive of discontent
preach - to talk seriously in the way of persuasion or moralizing
turky = turkey - a stupid, slow, inept, or otherwise worthless person; to say or talk turkey - to talk agreeably or affably, to say pleasant things.
tidings - reports, news, intelligence, information
ante - - before; pro - - before; resurrectionism - the practice of body-snatching.
red mass - a mass (usually one of the Holy Ghost) at which red vestments are worn by the priest.
post - an office or situation to which any one is appointed; position, place.
sans - without; Before the time of Shaks. used almost exclusively with ns. adopted from OF., in collocations already formed in that language, as sans delay.
pard - a panther or leopard (Now only an archaic or poetic name.)
worder - one who puts something into words; one who frames the words or terms of a subject.
blarney - to use flattering speech
doom - to pronounce judgement or sentence against; esp. to condemn to some fate.
wombful - as much as will fill the womb or the stomach
mischief - a cause or source of harm or evil: often applied to a person whose conduct or influence is harmful.
initium (l) - beginning
hairy - having much hair
invisible* - an invisible thing, person, or being
principial* - standing at the beginning, initial (obs. rare.)
lepered* - affected with leprosy; fig. foully infected
brethren* - special pl. of brother brother
puer (l) - child
ens (l) - being, creature
ya - repr. U.S. and dial. pronunc. of you
saviour - one who delivers or rescues from peril; savour (quality in relation to the sense of taste; a specific mode of this quality, as sweetness, bitterness, etc.)
parallel* - to be parallel or equal to; to correspond or be equivalent to; to come up to, equal, match.
brother; butter.
flare - dazzling but irregular light, like that of torches; a sudden outburst of flame.
inside - to be seated or situated on something
ike - colloq. abbrev. of iconoscope (a kind of television camera tube (now little used) in which the target plate that receives the image consists of a mosaic of photoemissive material on an insulating sheet that is backed with a conducting sheet, the video signal being obtained from the variation in the current flowing to or from this latter sheet as the mosaic is scanned with an electron beam).
kindergarten* - a school for the instruction of young children according to a method devised by Friedrich Froebel (1782-1852), for developing the intelligence of children by interesting object-lessons, exercises with toys, games, singing, etc.
off - to go off, make off (illiterate.); Also to off it, to depart
habitant* - resident
under - to cast down, depress
enfant (fr) - child
first mover - a prime source of motion or action; an original cause or spring of activity.
ayr - obs. form of air
plage - the beach or sea-front promenade at a seaside resort; any one of the four principal directions or quarters of the compass (obs.)
Watford - the name of a town on the N.W. edge of the London conurbation, used with allusion to the view attributed to Londoners that north of the metropolis there is nothing of any significance to English national or cultural life.
as to - 'as it regards, so far as it concerns, with respect or reference to'.
vert - to become a convert from one religion to another, esp. to Roman Catholicism.
embrace - to adopt (a doctrine, opinions, religion, etc.); often with the notion 'to accept joyfully'.
pilgrim* - fig. The course of mortal life figured as a journey, or a 'sojourn in the flesh', esp. as a journey to a future state of rest or blessedness.
circumcise - to cut off the foreskin or prepuce of (males); fig. To cut short.
patristic - of or pertaining to the study of the writings of the Fathers of the Church.
mea (l) - my
minimus (l) - smallest
icon* - an image, figure, or representation; a portrait; a picture, cut', or illustration in a book; Eastern Church. A representation of some sacred personage, in painting, bas-relief, or mosaic, itself regarded as sacred, and honoured with a relative worship or adoration.
ickle = icicle - a pendent ice-formation resembling a rod tapering downward to a point, produced by the freezing of successive drops of water falling or trickling from the point of attachment, as from the eaves of a house or other overhanging point.
crouch - to bow or bend humbly or servilely
scatological - of or pertaining to scatology (that branch of science which deals with diagnosis by means of the fæces; filthy literature.); characterized by a preoccupation with obscenity.