This phrase is nearly without meaning as it is used. The true phrase, "better end," is used properly to designate a crisis, or the moment of an extremity. When in a gale a vessel has paid out all her cable, her cable has run out to the "better end,"—the end which is secured within the vessel and little used. Robinson Crusoe in describing the terrible storm in Yarmouth Roads says, "We rode with two anchors ahead, and the cables veered out to the better end."

Cockles of the heart.

Latham says the most probable explanation of this phrase lies (1) in the likeness of a heart to a cockleshell,—the base of the former being compared to the hinge of the latter; (2) in the zoölogical name for the cockle and its congeners being Cardium, from καρδια (heart).

[[854]] Castles in the air.

This is a proverbial phrase found throughout English literature, the first instance noted being in Sir Philip Sidney's "Defence of Poesy."

Consistency, thou art a jewel.

This is one of those popular sayings—like "Be good, and you will be happy," or "Virtue is its own reward"—that, like Topsy, "never was born, only jist growed." From the earliest times it has been the popular tendency to call this or that cardinal virtue, or bright and shining excellence, a jewel, by way of emphasis. For example, Iago says,—

"Good name, in man or woman, dear my lord,

Is the immediate jewel of their souls."

Shakespeare elsewhere calls experience a "jewel." Miranda says her modesty is the "jewel" in her dower; and in "All 's Well that ends Well," Diana terms her chastity the "jewel" of her house.—R. A. Wight.