An adjective of the neuter gender, put without a substantive, sometimes requires a genitive case, as
Paululùm honestatis sartori sufficit:
A very little honesty is enough for a tailor.
A genitive case is sometimes placed alone; the preceding substantive being understood by the figure ellipsis, as
Ubi ad magistri veneris, cave verbum de porco:
When you are come to the master’s (house), not a word about the pig.
The word pig is a very general term, and is used to signify not only the animal so called, and such of the human race as resemble him in habits, appearance, or feelings; but also to denote a variety of little things, which it is sometimes necessary to keep secret. A pedagogue now and then discovers a pig-tail appended to his coat collar—this, or rather the way in which it got there, is one of the little pigs in question. Robbing the larder or the garden is another; so is insinuating horse-hairs into the cane, or putting cobbler’s wax on the seat of learning —we mean the master’s stool. A sort of pig (or rather a rat) is sometimes smelt by the master on taking his nightly walk though the dormitories, when roast fowl, mince pies, bread and cheese, shrub, punch, &c. have been slyly smuggled into those places of repose. Shirking down town is always a pig, and the consequences thereof, in case of discovery, a great bore.
Considering that a secret is a pig, it is singular that betraying one should be called letting the cat out of the bag.
