"THE FIEND DISCRETION." [TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPE(TATOR.") must
cry Peccavi! to Mr. Kenny. There can be no doubt that Sir William Jones wrote "Discretion," and not "Oppression." The genesis of my own blunder was this I had forgotten the words of Sir William Jones's ode, and "Dis- cretion" jarred oddly on my ear, when I read the quotation in Webster. I had no copy of Sir William Jones's works to refer to, and I turned to the ode as printed in the first volume of the " Spirit of the Journals," published in 1794. There I found "Oppression," and this led me astray ; and so far as Mr. Whipple is concerned, I am hoisted by my own petard.
As a mere question of literary taste, I may be permitted, perhaps, to observe that Sir William Jones showed himself a better scholar and politician than a poet, by using so common a word as "discretion," in such a technical sense. When re- published, so soon after its composition as in 1794, it was thought necessary to alter this word ; and at the present day, it is, I fancy, well-nigh unintelligible to the general reader. But I do not for a moment imagine that this justifies the editor of the' Spirit of the Journals" for making the alteration, nor myself for following him.—I am, Sir, &c.,
YOUR REVIEWER.
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