Philopœmen sought to put down all exercise, which made men’s bodies unmeet to take pains, and to become soldiers to fight in defence of their country, that otherwise would have been very able and handsome for the same.—North, Plutarch’s Lives, p. 306.
Both twain of them made haste,
And girding close for handsomeness their garments to their waist,
Bestirred their cunning hands apace.
Golding, Ovid’s Metamorphosis, b. vi.
Harbinger. This word belongs at present to our poetical diction, and to that only; its original significance being nearly or quite forgotten: as is evident from the inaccurate ways in which it has come to be used; as though a ‘harbinger’ were merely one who announced the coming, and not always one who prepared a place and lodging, a ‘harbour,’ for another. He did indeed announce the near approach, but only as an accidental consequence of his office. Our Lord, if we may reverently say it, assumed to Himself precisely the office of a ‘harbinger,’ when He said, ‘I go to prepare a place for you’ (John xiv. 2).
There was a harbinger who had lodged a gentleman in a very ill room; who expostulated with him somewhat rudely; but the harbinger carelessly said, ‘You will take pleasure in it when you are out of it.’—Bacon, Apophthegms.
I’ll be myself the harbinger, and make joyful
The hearing of my wife with your approach.
Shakespeare, Macbeth, act i. sc. 4.