Excerpt from An Essay on the Archaeology of Our Popular Phrases, and Nursery Rhymes, Vol. 1 of 2 It is not meant, by this cursory Essay, to otter a development of all the expressions of the nature here alluded to, but merely of such as have occured to my mind, subsequently to this View of their rise. These have been taken as they have presented themselves to my memory, and have not been selected for the sake of proving my own view of them, to the exclusion of others which might not answer such purpose. And I am convinced there is not one phrase of the above category, which may not be accounted for in the same way those which appear in this Essay have been. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.